New Knitted Item

Hi Everyone

I'm sharing a new knitted item today (almost complete) - its a scarf/mini shawl.

                           

The pattern is called '504 King West', named after a tram route in Toronto, Canada. The pattern was created as an easy pattern, suitable for travelling to work in the city for a Knitalong campaign. It's a great pattern and very easy to learn.

I've chosen to use four colours from Blacker Yarns - Westcountry Tweed. The colours are Grey,Turquoise 466,Mustard and Turquoise 408. The two Turquoise colours are in fact rather different and the darker of the two, I would call Teal. There's quite a contrast between the two colours.

I started the knit on Sat. and thought I may get it finished last night but I've a few more rows to go, hopefully I will finish today. I'm not a quick knitter, so it's obviously an easy, fast knit.

My knit was partially inspired by the Blacker Yarn Knitalong for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, taking place in March (10/11th). So, hopefully - I will be wearing my scarf to the event. Check out the details here.

I've chosen a different colour pattern (to the original) and used lots of stripes as well as small blocks of colour. The yarn is not a soft knit, I'm hoping after blocking, the scarf will soften a little. My original plan had been to include a section of Brioch stitches. However, after managing to work out how to work the Brioch stitches ( several You Tube videos, several times) the section was much too thick and didn't work at all. It all came out ! I will save that technique for next time !

I'm happy with the way the colour pattern has worked and I'm looking forward to finishing the final section of the scarf today. I'm hoping I can share the finished item over the next few days.

Thanks for calling in today.

Art Yarn

Hi Everyone

Great news from yesterday, I developed the Art Yarn I talked about in my blog (read back for more on this). The project is still in experimental stage but it is going well. I've spun an amount of yarn with a Drop Spindle and plyed it. In fact, I've 'over plyed' to give lots of texture and a certain stability to the strands of yarn.

                                

 The idea was to colour the yarn and wind the finished yarn around a core to give a thicker strand - suitable for my necklace. I've not identified my core yet. I may use a woven coloured cord or possibly a thick hemp ? Will try both.

So far, I've hand painted the yarn. Surprise, surprise - I've gone for my favourite colours again ! I particularly wanted to test out a new Navy dye. I love it and it worked reasonably well.

                     

I did loose a little of the orange/ yellow vibrancy but overal, I'm very pleased with the results. 

Today, I'm hoping to test out a few more ideas for the final design. I'm quite impressed with how the little skein looks - simply worn as a necklace as it is ! The 'over ply' gives an impression of curly locks of wool and the colours are lovely. However, I'm also keen to test out some beading ideas to embellish the piece. In addition, I do see some kind of clasp which will define the item as a necklace rather than a skein of yarn.

Thanks for calling in today. Have a great weekend. 

Yarn Jewellery

Hi Everyone

I'm experimenting with some yarn jewellery ideas today. I would like to come up with a version of a yarn necklace made from wool roving. The project will form one of my Making Workshops in a few weeks time. This will be an ambitious project ! We will aim to use a drop spindle to hand spin some art yarn which will be made into a necklace. I hope we can develop some great textures with the wool roving and for a beginner spinner the art yarn approach offers lots of possibilities. The idea at the moment, is then to hand paint the yarn, which will offer more opportunities for making. We could also add silk threads and beads for a dramatic statement necklace - that's the plan !

There's a way to go ....... but one of my lovely arty friends sent me a great project using leftover yarn which has given me a good start to the project. A bit of research on Pintrest also came up with a few extra inspiration ideas. You can check out all the detail of these Pins in the photo story from my Board 'Art Yarn' on Pinterest.

                               

As with most art based work, colour and texture is so important. I think our Making Group could work together on this one. If we share the yarn produced, a variety of textures and colours will be available and we can come up with something very special. 

I'll share my results over the next few episodes.

Thanks for calling in today.

Shawl News

Hi Everyone 

I'm sharing the results of a little pattern research. I've been looking for a shawl pattern this week - it's for some of my new hand spun yarn. There's probabaly not enough of the prepared skein (top image) to complete either of the patterns (see below). I'm keen to develop more yarn, specifically for the shawl. I'm not sure about colours ?

                           

The yarn I've produced is something like a double knit, it's a lovely soft wool from Blue Faced Leicester sheep. The pattern examples are both by Stephen West and I'm drawn to the left shawl because of the colours - too many for me on this occasion in the example. I'm looking for possibly a bright green with two other colours ? - not sure which, at the moment ? 

I'm yet to knit up my own spun yarn and am anxious to just get going, I'm begining to 'build a wall' and am telling myself it's not very good ! - I don't need these thoughts in my head so later I will cast on and get going. As a teacher, I'm forever dismissing such ideas from my students and am disappointed in myself !!

My plan is an experiment but I'm going to spin and dye more yarn as the need arises. I will probably need 3/4 batches. Not sure this is an efficient move but it feels right for me at the moment. I need to keep thinking about colours for the rest of the day. Such a lovely problem to have !

Thanks for calling in today.

The Arm Warmers Story

Hi Everyone

Today, I'm featuring the story of The Arm Warmers. This project has been running fo some time - way back in October, I made some hand warmers/Mits in a knitting workshop. I loved the workshop experience and learned lots of new techniques (to me). However, the completed Mits, didn't quite work for me.

                            

The pattern gave quite a bulky thumb gusset and I decided after much consideration that the thumb part didn't sit well on my hand. I re worked the thumb several times and was still not totally convinced I liked the finished design. Then, last Friday (at my knit group) a friend was wearing a lovely set of arm warmers in a beautiful Fairisle pattern. I tried the arm warmers and could have taken them home with me. I loved the idea immediately. As a result, the re working of the Mits stopped and I started the arm warmers instead.

Ive retained the lovely surface pattern of the Mits and adapted the pattern to accommodate the increased width of my arms. I also liked the sideways knitting technique of the pattern and wanted to keep this element, I needed to adapt the pattern to increase the length in order to fit my arm but this was not a problem.

I've completed the first arm warmer - needs 'finishing' but I'm thrilled with the result. 

                               

The moral of this story is 'never be satisfied with knitting unless you love it' !

Thanks for calling in today.