Sunday, May 30, 2010

Seventh 2010 One Done

A Darker Shade of Pale....

The unblocked final product


Stretched for blocking.


And the final product (with a yardstick to indicate size).


Here are some details.




I hope you can see the tufty edging, which is one of the yarns Angelique sent me. It is a beigy-white yarn with lovely brown tufts spun in every so often. (Picture in this blog entry.) It worked perfectly.

I also finished the scarf, Instead of a fuzzy edging, I just crocheted around the edge with both yarns held together.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Diversion

I'm still trying to finish this scarf that I started on my trip, so I can get back to the shawl.

The scarf is in two-color brioche stitch.  Here is one side and detail:



This first side is done with a magic ball of various reddish-purples shading to blue-purples.

Here is the other side and a detail.



This side is done all with the same dark blue slightly shiny yarn, with one little strand of green in it.

I still need to figure out what to use as an edging.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as the saying goes, here is where we left our hero:


And here is our hero's close-up:


I can't wait to get back to the show!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

I Got Nothing

I've been traveling, and I'm not on my own computer. This means I can't even choose some pictures of older works and post them with some design commentary.

I did knit a hat and a completely unrelated scarf, but I ran into two people having an absolutely miserable day, and gifted them before I could get pictures.

So this post is simply to tell you I'll be home in a day or two, and hope to post then.

In the meantime, happy knitting, and my lesson learned is that a blue fuzzy border can absolutely transform a scarf with a little bit of blue in the yarns.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Log Cabin Triangles

Okay, time to fulfill my promise. Here is how to do log cabin-style triangles.
This is the middle, as previously shown.
 



Here is a marked-up version.


All in garter stitch.

The center triangle: cast on 21, and then decrease one stitch at the beginning of each row (decreasing one stitch on each side for each ridge), until down to 3 stitches, and then knit through all 3 and bind off. This makes a triangle with 45 degrees angles at the bottom, and a 90 degree angle at the top.

Section A: Pick up along one side of the triangle, picking up 7 stitches for each 5 ridges. Knit back and forth, increasing one stitch in each ridge on the side towards the bottom (hypotenuse) of the triangle. (I increased one on the right side, then just knit back for each ridge.)

(I'm traveling, so I don't have this in front of me, but I'm guessing I did ten ridges? it doesn't really matter, pick whatever looks good to you.)

Section B: Pick up along the side of section A, picking up one stitch for each ridge, and then down the side of the triangle, picking up 7 stitches for each 5 ridges. Knit the same way as A, increasing one stitch in each ridge on the hypotenuse side.

Section C: Pick up one stitch for each ridge along the side of Section B, pick up along the bottom of the triangle, stitch for stitch, and then pick up one stitch for each ridge along the side of Section A. Increase one stitch on both sides for each ridge.

This creates a piece with the same angles, 45 -45- 90. You could keep going like this, around and around, and then make another piece the same way, and put them together along the hypotenuse to make a square.

That isn't what I did. Here is how mine now looks.


And here's a closer look. You can see that I made one more layer around the middle before turning it into the top middle of what will be a triangular shawl.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Sixth 2010 One Done

Found the yarn, finally finished.


As usual, that's a yardstick along the top.

This one was quick and fun to do, and it turned out well. Not an absolutely take-your-breath-away creation, but pleasant to look at. I was happy with how the edging turned out, with the green and the Noro working itself around to meet up fairly naturally, color-wise.

Here are some details.





I am already underway on the all-white one. Can I resist the temptation to add color?

Can I?

Monday, May 10, 2010

Minor Complication

Here is how far I am.


Looks pretty nice. I had to add a small 5-stitch border along the bottom and right side to even it out, before adding the edging. The edging is 12 stitches wide, one ridge in green, and one ridge in a Noro that complements the colors.

Here is a closer look.


And do you see the issue? That's all the green I have left. Maybe I should have made the edging just 10 stitches wide.

I hope I can find a little more. If not, well, the much more varied edging will become a design feature.

While waiting for time to look for yarn, I started the next one, all in whites and beiges.


This will start with a 'log-cabin' triangle. More about this anon.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Still Boxing

Current progress:


One more block to go, and then on to the edging.

Here are some close looks, to show a little more clearly how different each of the squarse are, in color and texture.


This is going quickly, but my mind is already on to the next one. I'm thinking the new one will be all shades of beige and white, triangular, but I'm not sure what to put in the middle top as a sort of theme piece.

I like it when I have something to look forward to.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Ring Cycle

I wrote about how I use ring markers. Here are more details.

First of all, I put tails on them.


Here's how to add the tails. Cut a short length of yarn, fold it in half, and put the folded half through the hole of the ring.


Now you have two choices. You can pull the loose ends through the yarn loop.


Pull and tighten.

Or else, you can fold the loop down on the tail.


Now take the ring and pull up away from the tails, which will tighten it..


Either way, you end up with a nice tail.


Here's how it looks on the needle.


This way, the loop never jumps off your needle.

You can use the tail for counting rows. For example, when I am making right angles in stockinette stitch and have to decrease on two out of every three rows, I use the tail to help me count, weaving it in front on two rows, and then behind on the third. That way, when I put the piece down, I always know where I am on the decreasing.

The tail can be used similarly for counting for cable turns, or for counting to make two sides equal. When I am making zig-zags, or segments with several angles, I use red rings for increase points and blue rings for decrease points, so I always remember what to do.

In the meantime, here is my current progress. I thought I was going to make this three squares tall, but two seems large enough.


It's going quickly. The green has been surprising -- even though I am knitting with two ends, they have turned out to be in sync, so it looks like one yarn. The long color change also makes each segment look different. However, now that I have several segments, I like the effect.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

First Segment

Here is my colorway, chosen because it had a large skein of one color (the green in the upper left).


The green will be the background color. It's variegated in shade, to add some complexity.

I decided to make the front squares in oranges, so they will pop out visually. That means the back blocks will be purple/blues. Each orange and purple/blue section will use two yarns, just to mix them up.

There are some other greens in the colorway, but I'm not sure I'll end up using them. Maybe they will show up in the edging? We'll have to wait and see.

Here is the beginning.


Yes, it's a simple, standard modular block.


On size 10 needles, I cast on 20, placed a marker (A), then cast on 21. Then I knit back. (This will all be in garter, to keep the proportions.) Then each time I got to A on the front side, I decreased on either side (in my case, slip the stitch before the marker, let the marker hang, put the stitch back on the left needle, put the marker on the right needle, then do a double decrease and continue. Then I knit back without shaping.

I did this for 7 ridges in orange, changed to the background green for 3 ridges, and then finished in the purple/blue until all the stiches were gone.

Here is the rest of the first segment.


Here is how I did it.

(NOTE: I changed how I did the outer green a bit on subsequent segments because I found a better way to do it. I'm explaining the 'better way' here, so pay no attention to the fact that some of the green ridges look like they go the wrong way from my description.)


(These numbers are in grey) I picked up 20 stitches along the top, placed a marker, picked up 21 more stitches down the side. This time on each front side at A, I increased one stitch just in front of the marker, and increased another one after the stitch following the marker. (This keeps the same center stitch, with the marker always in front of it.) I knitted 7 ridges in orange.

(These numbers are in yellow.) Then I cut the orange, and on the next row I knit the first 10 stitches in green, and the rest until the marker in blue. I turned the corner and continued to knit until I was 10 stitches from the edge, and then I turned and knit back, keeping the colors the same and leaving those final 10 stitches unknit. I still increased at A on the right side. I knit 8 ridges like this.

(These numbers are in light blue.) I cut the blue, but not the green, and then cast on 5 stitches in the green, and then knit back, knitting the fifth stitch together with one on the needle, turned and knit the 5 stitches back. I continued in this way, eating up one of the previous stitches each time, until I got to the marker. I then cast on another 5 stitches, and followed the same pattern of knitting two together at the fifth stitch, turned and knit back. (The part after the marker is the green section going down the left edge of the piece.)

When I got to the edge of the blue, I knit down the side of the blue section, picking up 8 stitches along the edge of the blue, and then knitting that 8th stitch together with one of the bottom orange ones, then I turned and knit back. There were now 13 stitches on the needle, from the original 5 and the 8 newly picked up ones. I continued in the same way on these 13 stitches for 10 ridges, which ended the orange stitches to eat up, and then cast off.

Ta-daaa!