Combination Knitting & Noro Scarf

It seems a while ago but our last knit guild meeting was an interesting one with a presentation made by knit author Annie Modesitt.

She was a comical and interesting speaker. She was self-taught and developed a knit style where the purl stitch is created using an under-pull style called “Combination knitting”. Ms. Modesitt had our whole guild group creating knit fabric using this unique stitch. Many of our members found it a bit difficult to switch to this unique purl style, but I think I will try a knit project using this purl stitch before I give it up.

You can see my knit sample results at the left. We were asked to knit the bottom in our usual style then try the “Combination knit style” above it. I did find that my knit fabric is a bit tighter. We also learned a method for creating cables without a cable needle. The saying goes, “make a might X, then pinch, slip, poke.” I could have used the method when I knit a cabled hat earlier this year.

I am also working on a Noro single rib scarf. I was thrilled by the beautiful stripe Noro scarf , which Jared knit on his Brooklyntweed blog.

You can also see a bunch other beautiful scarves by searching for Noro scarf on Flicker.

I have been admiring the Noro Silk Garden yarn for sometime. My daughter was with me during one of my visits to my local yarn shop. She suggested we get it for my up and coming birthday. Well, how could I resist! We brought it home and she hid it until my birthday. Shortly after it was unwrapped I had it cast on. It is a great project for non-technical knitting like car rides and sitting and chatting. This picture shows it half way. After my trip to visit my parents over Easter I’ve got a quarter left to go now.

Blue Koolhaas

It's 5 AM in my house. My daughter is sick with Steppe throat. I can’t sleep, since I’m wondering if the twinges of pain below my ears are caused by her spreading infection. So, I decided to take my mind off of it and catch up on some blogs.

The second hat I knit for our Guild’s hat contest was the Koolhaas by Brooklyntweed . The original directions for this wonderful creation appeared in the 2007 Holiday issue from Interweave Knits. I loved almost every pattern from this past Holiday issue. I made the December Lights Tam from the from the front cover and Jared’s Koolhass hat. I’m seriously considering the cable gloves and my daughter would like me to knit the messenger bag so she can do the needle felting on the front flap. I could go on-and-on, but, in any case. . . .
Nice issue and nice hat! . . .
I had a few question from guild members about the pattern I used for the hat so here are some details.

One of the rules for our contest was that the yarn should be machine wash and dryable (acrylic). After the contest, all the hat entries were to be donated to the Seven Hills at Groton nursing home. Being acrylics makes it easier for the foundation to care for the hats after being used.
My daughter and I really liked the Koolhaas hat pattern. So, I decided to give it a try. The original pattern calls for the Yak yarn made by Shokay, which doesn’t quite fit into the acrylic category. So, JoAnn Fabric came into play again with Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Yarn.

This yarn weight is a bit thicker than called for so I had to make some adjustment to the stitch count. The pattern diamond pattern is based on a 8-stitch repeat so I adjusted down from 104 stitches to 96 in the round using a size 7 US needle.

I was on a road trip in with my brother when I started testing this pattern. The printed pattern in the magazine relies on symbols to chart the actual stich-work used in the 8-by-8-stitch repeat. I’m pretty good with patterns but it took me awhile to figure this one out. (It could be that I was chatting with my brother the whole way.) I would definitely recommend a practice swatch before beginning, though. Once I understood when to hold the single crossover cable stitch in front or when to hold it in back I was able to knit without checking the pattern.

I did find the decrease instructions for the top of the hat confusing. It might have been that the pattern doesn’t translate well since I decreased the stitch count of the round. Now that I’m not tight for time I hope to repeat the hat for my daughter.

Morning Glories!

Our knitting guild the Nashoba Valley Knitting Guild had its’ hat contest last night and my Morning Glories hat won one of the prizes, the one for most beautiful. Yahoo!!! Here is my daughter modeling it. Excuse me if I say that I’m rather proud since I’ve never won anything before, not even a free scratch ticket. Our Guild even offered the winners prizes. How Cool ! I got a cute measuring tape, a fun knitting bag, a craft necklace, and a gift certificate to, The World of Stitches, a local crafts shop.

I was rather worried since after washing and drying it was not very shapely. I hadn’t knit with multi-stranded colors in awhile. I was rather rusty in the beginning. I was forcing the stranding at the back to be looser than I should have so the bottom was more floppy than I would have like. I was actually going to rip it out and my daughter convinced me to keep it. So I pressed it and wet it and dyed it with a cord and towel. Then it was much better. . .

I bought the yarn on sale in September at Jo-Ann Fabrics. When I bought the yarn I was thinking I might use it for making a hat for the contest. I had been on the prowl for something to use and at $1.97 who could resist. I got one of each color. I bought the yarn thinking of stripes or something colorful. When I took the library hat book home I was immediately inspired by the Morning Glories pattern. Now the saga begins . . .

I had the most of the colors that I needed for the pattern except green. So, coming from a crafty family, I chose to dye the white yarn green. (My mother is a rug hooker extraordinaire and dyes a lot.) Alas, I had only one white that I ball that I needed for the background! Back to Jo-Ann’s for more, what no more! . . . I had to go up to Tewksbury for more. I got it and dyed it!

So in my usual distracted fashion. I finished the hat and got around to the flowers but didn’t sew them together. Yup, Thanksgiving came and went, then Christmas. In between I cleaned up the house for company. The end of January is coming up and “Uh, Oh” I better finish the hat for the contest. After much searching I found the hat part with a bag of unfinished projects but no flowers. I spent one Saturday searching through several boxes of yarn. I finally turned the boxes over and found the flowers hiding in the bottom. Well the pieces are together and I’m happy with the results. All the members who knitted hats did a great job. Take a look at the tableful of hat contest entries. I sure hope all the lucky people at Seven Hills will enjoy them!

Project Details: Morning Glories hat found in the book
Knit Hats! by Gwen Steege

It’s one of the books our Guild has in its collection of lending books.

Yarn: Bellezza Collection Stellina
white, blue, orange, pink, lavender, green (home-dyed)

Needles: 6 US double pointed

Thoughts/Modifications: It was fun. I giggled as I made the flowers. I didn’t totally follow the flower directions though. Since the directions were well written I’m sure the directions would have made fine flowers except it called for knitting them flat. I already knit the hat in the round so why bother with stitching up a seam when I can just knit them in the round.

Finished my Alligator scarf

Hurray! I’ve finished the Alligator scarf. I have so many projects going it is nice to accomplish one.

I enjoyed knitting this scarf because it was fun to create forms such as the bumps just by increase and decrease stitches.
The yarn is Merino but it not as soft as other Merino brands that I have knit with. I found a few bits of grass within the twists of yarn. The kit definitely has enough yarn. I have about ½ skein remaining. If knitted for an adult I would recommend adding a few extra rows of middle bumps to add enough length to be able to tie.

As you can see it is a scarf fit for a child. I’m sure a young boy would really like it. On me it drapes around my neck but is hard to knot. My friends all have said how great the color is. The sage green color really makes it look like an alligator. When choosing the pattern on the
Morehouse web site there are 14 colors. I’m thinking in the future I might enjoy a scarf of one on the other colors such as gold or purple.

All in All I would knit this Alligator again and have even looked into some of the other fun scarf patterns that Morehouse offers. There is a funny one, which looks like a bunch of foxes linked together. Well, it’s a thought that I’ll consider during the summer. I’ve got too many other projects to finish.

I did finish one more hat which will I’ll show off after our Guild’s hat contest in two weeks.

Happy New Year!

I resolve to be a more consistant blogger. I resolve to knit more. I resolve to pull out my knitting machine and “blaze” away . . . maybe loose weight . . . clean out the closets . . . organize my stash . . . All right; nice dreams! . . . I’ll start here.

We did have a nice holiday season that came and went.

I finished my December Lights Tam in time to wear it for the holiday. It’s cheery red-green combination helped brighten the season. Almost every time I wear it I get compliments. I’ll post my summary soon.

I started and tried to finish a Nordic design pair of mittens for my daughter. They turned out to be way too big so I had to rip them out. I’ve told a few people but was trying to keep it a secret from my daughter for a present. Well she found out by snooping through my knitting bag. So I guess I can talk about it out in the open.

I found a design of mitten with a reindeer motif that I liked. Since my daughter is madly in love with her dog, I thought it would be cute to replace the reindeer with a black lab silohette. I could not find the right silohette that I wanted so I used my Photoshop skills to recreate a new image. I took the legs from one image, the tail from another and the head from a third. I liked how the designed graphed using 35 stiches across but now that I am using less stiches total for my mitten the image is rendered using 25 stiches. With fewer stiches the dog image looses detail. The legs used to be two stiches wide and now they are only one. I’m sort of stuck at this point. I might just continue to knit the less charming dog or try to re-design it.

Any way, I’m putting it aside to work on a hat for the NVKG knit hat contest. Sorry, I won’t post any of those pictures until after the contest since the knit hat owners need to be secret until after the contest.