Knitting With Two Colors

Jan 152012
 

Thanks for the Bellybutton Cast On tutorial! It did allow me to start my Island Girl Leaves of Grass, which I’m using Loft for in the Fauna colorway. I’m on chart B now after a false start that left me with five petals instead of four. Don’t ask.

I have been using Knit Companion with this and other projects. You asked me to get back to you on how it is working. After taking the time to look at tutorials, I’m happy to say I’m sold!

One look at a chart and my eyes glaze over. Though I understand the legends and how to use one, my brain works better with written directions.  I’ve tried various methods to keep track, from low tech approaches  such as sticky notes moved row per row to higher tech methods such as Goodreader on my Ipad. Knit Companion has them all beat hands down, and finally I’m convinced that even an impatient dimwit like me can knit anything as long as I’m armed with a slew of stitchmarkers and a well set up project on my Ipad. There are plenty of video tutorials guiding you through setting up a project, which for complicated patterns, might take all of five minutes. Once set up, you can power through seamlessly from chart to chart, with a space at the bottom which can be hidden when you don’t need it, giving you notes on whatever chart you are working on.

Photo courtesy Kate Davies

I’ve spent some time setting up Rams and Yowes, by Kate Davies. I’m planning on doing this for my Owl project this term at HPHC. As the Owl is supposed to be something that “..reflects beauty, elegance, and most importantly, learning to persevere and that you are way more capable than you thought in some way.”, I thought Rams and Yowes would be perfect.

Though I’ve done colorwork before, it has left something to be desired. I knit two handed when doing it, and the tension of the yarn in my left hand isn’t always that even, and even after blocking, I’m not always pleased with the results. Along with that challenge, this blanket is knit in the round, and steeked – more new territory!

I found what appears to be the only US supplier of Jamieson & Smith Natural Shetland in Maryland – Yarns International. I contacted them on Thursday, and my yarn arrived on Saturday! The pattern calls for all 9 colors of Shetland Supreme. The designer says that it is probably the most perfect yarn for colorwork as the shetland blooms nicely while blocking to help with any irregularities in tension that can pop up with colorwork. The yarn is scrumptious looking, and completely dye free. All colors are made by hand sorting of fleece according to color in the wool store. How cool is that? I’ll be swatching today and getting my proposal together. I can’t wait to get going on this!

Fortunately for me, Knitting With Two Colors arrived just in time! It’s put out by Meg Swansen and Amy Detjen at Schoolhouse Press. It even came signed by both authors! It includes helpful tips such as steeking, dealing with tension issues in colorwork, and even walks you through how to design your own colorwork sweater using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage system. You can be sure it will be within reach while working on Rams and Yowes!

All of this has been keeping me busy this weekend, and I’m looking forward to hearing all about Vogue Knitting Live! How was it?

~Purled

Freak Halloween Snow Storm, Dreaded Finishing and Hearing Voices in My Head

Nov 032011
 

Let’s see — during the Freak Snow Storm of 2011, I was up in the mountains with my dogs.  It was a warm day when I left NYC, so I actually doubled back to pack a heavier jacket. It was cold — and it started snowing around noon on Saturday, and it did not stop for many many hours. At least one of us thought snow was for the birds as he waded through the deep snow. It was pretty strange…..”I’m thinking of a white…Halloween”? That doesn’t quite sound right, does it?

While I waited for the weather to settle, I worked to finish up a sweater that I have been working on since June.

The knitting was done in July. It was relatively straight forward — in yarn that slithered through my fingers, the main color in an eye popping orange with just enough variegation that held my interest, and with color work and Latvian braids that was challenging but fun.

 

 

It’s Oranje by Ann Weaver, published in the 2011 Winter Knitty. I knew I had to knit it as soon as I saw it.

The design was for a fitted sweater, with tiny buttons down the front. I, of course, decided that I needed to wear this like a jacket, which meant longer sleeves, zipper (I mean, I can’t fiddle with all those buttons EVERY DAY), a little pocket. And since all the edges were finished with a Latvian braid, I was, of course, going to have braids at the zippers. Of Course. And at the edge of my pocket. Of course.  I had grand plans.

The yarn choice was easy as well. The design was written for Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, which JUST happens to be one of my favorites. And as Dutch Olympic Speed skaters inspired the design, the color choice was simple — I kept the original main color (Orange Assassin Bug), but changed one of the contrasts from black to navy (Karner’s Blue). I mean, those are the colors of the Dutch speed skater uniforms.  Total slam-dunk.

Steeking the said slithering yarn meant my sewing machine needed to rear its head from the darkest depth of my closet.  After struggling with the automatic threader (and in fact taking a lesson in operating my very fancy sewing machine) I finally steeked and thought…”I’m almost done!!!

The sweater has knitted striped facing on all edges. The steeked stitches had to be hidden, so the front opening needed a facing. Because I needed that to be as flexible as possible, I decided to tack down live stitches. That was the easy part.

Some smartypants (that would be me) had decided to put in a zipper!!!!! The planning part was simple — I was just going to somehow figure out a way to machine sew the zipper onto the sweater. Riiiiiight. I thought I would be able to put the zipper on my sweater using the cool article I saw in TECHknitting, but at the end of the day, I sewed the zipper in by hand.

My sewing skills have much to be desired. No ladylike tiny stitches. I heard Mother yelling at me in my head — “the stitches are not even!”I thought the sewing would take forever. It almost did take forever.

I think the eyes on sewing needles have become smaller. No wonder there’s an automatic threader on my sewing machine! My eyes were about to pop out of my head (I swear I don’t need reading glasses). And, after hunching over my work for hours, I thought I had a permanently kink.

But I finished. And I present you — My Oranje!

 

While I was crying over my sewing and waiting for the snow to stop, I started knitting on another sweater to keep my sanity. Here’s a peek. It is from Brooklyn Tweed’s Fall 2011 collection. Speaking of Brooklyn Tweed….Have you seen the new yarn and the look book!?

 

~ Twisted.

 

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