from yesterday's TTC knitalong: most elegant pirate. Yaaaaar matey, we be needin' more Yaaaaarrrrrn!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
shel
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: my girl shel. she came in, sat down and knitted like the store wasn't overrun with bodies. how's the motorcycle?
chicken w sophie
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: playinf a game of photographic chicken with sophie.
best scarf
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: sarah wins best scarf. she says it isn't very warm, but it looks real pretty.
best hug
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: laura wins the best hug award. only hug, but one of the best spontaneous hugs i've ever received. i know sophie has first dibs, but if she wants to share i'd like to adopt laura.
best elvis
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: best elvis. that includes the elvis impersonator i dated a few years ago ;-)
best accident
from yesterday's TTC knitalong: Erin had the best knitting accident i've seen in a long time.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Scarf Basics for Beginners
Scarf Basics for Beginners
• If you knit 1 row & purl the next row (stocking stitch) the scarf will ALWAYS curl at the edges.
• When you are ready to change balls of yarn, switch at the beginning of the row. Tie a loose knot leaving about 5 inches of tail – you will weave in the ends later.
• the average width for a winter scarf is 6”, for a skinny scarf is 4”
How many stitches should I cast on?
Needle Size | Sts Req: 6" | Yarn Req: 6" | Sts Req: 4" | Yarn Req: 4" |
5.5mm to 6.5mm | 24 sts | 250m | 16 sts | 125m |
6.5mm to 7mm | 20sts | 230m | 14sts | 130m |
8mm | 18 sts | 215m | 12sts | 105m |
9mm to 10mm | 14sts | 200m | 10 sts | 100m |
12mm to 15mm | 12sts | 160m | 8sts | 80m |
20mm | 8sts | 120m | 5sts | 60m |
Absolute Beginner Scarf
• This stitch is a little bit tighter than normal, you might want to go up 1mm needle size from what is suggested on the yarn band.
• Knit every row ( this is called garter stitch)
Beginner Rib Scarf
• Knit 1 row, Purl 1 row, Knit 1 row, Purl 1 row.
• Purl 1 row, Knit 1 row, Purl 1 row, Knit 1 row.
• Alternate the last 2 groups of stitches
Two by Two (2x2) Rib Scarf
• This stitch is a little bit looser than normal, you might want to go down 1mm needle size from what is suggested on the yarn band.
• Cast on a number divisble by 4
• All rows: *Knit 2 stitches, Purl 2 stiches; repeat instructions from * to end of row.
• When you change back & forth between Knit & purl stitches be sure to bring the yarn foreward & backwards BETWEEN the needles. Otherwise, you’ll make an extra stitch.
Mistake Rib Scarf
• This stitch is a little bit tighter than normal, go up a half mm needle size from what is suggested on the yarn band.
• Cast on a multiple of 4 sts, then add 3sts
• *Knit 2 sts, Purl 2 sts; repeat from * to end, Knit 2 sts, Purl 1 st. repeat for all rows
Easy Fancy Scarf
• This stitch is very artsy and looks best with thick, textured yarns or ribbon yarns.
• This stitch looks best knit loose on larger needles than suggested by the yanrn band. Go up 1mm for regular yarns, go up 2mm for textured yarns or a lacier effect.
• Cast on an Odd number of stitches (3, 5, 7, 9, 11 … )
• *Knit 1 st, Purl 1 st; repeat from * to end. Repeat for all rows
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.Thursday, October 19, 2006
romantic housecoat 2
romantic housecoat 2, originally uploaded by myhighfiber."Rhet! Rhet! Whatever shall I do? Wherever shall i go?"
The edging is reminiscent of the gingerbread decoration on the Queen Anne style houses in the University district of Toronto.
romantic housecoat
romantic housecoat, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.More old-world delapidation. don't they have modern amenities in England (aka. the UK, aka. Great Brittain)? poor them, they're suffering, are a 2nd and a half world contry? maybe we should send them aid, sub-zero fridges and jenn-air gas ranges to alleviate the suffering. did they wear housecoats in ye-oldee pioneer peasant days? Sigh, melodrama, back of the hand on the forehead: "Heathcliff, please don't leave me! Your sexy moodiness is a foil to the tumultous weather of the Cornish moores!"
romantic sweater
romantic sweater, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.close-up of the sweater, esp. for michelle (upcoming project? how do you feel about knitting with dental floss?)
romantic lacrosse
romantic lacrosse, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.the more i looked at this book (Romantic Style by Jennie Atkinson) & thought about it the more inspired i was. not that i'm inspired to design lace, but it lights a fire in the imagination. and hell, it's nice to rest the eye-balls on different looking things. love the old world decay in the hallway. really, i do. i like to look at pictures of things i never want to experience live. the peeling wallpaper is eerie. Beautiful vintage sweater, beautifu lace work, style is impeccable. is that a lacrosse racket she's holding? shouldn't that be a badminton racket? the art direction is beautiful, but the more i look at it this scene is shaping up like a horror movie (a scary ghost flick from japan). did she kill someone with the lacrosse racket? did she stash the bodies in the basement? delapidated-chic.
cash
cash, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.it's winter, time to get back into sweater mode. not really inspired though. feeling overwhelmed by all the stylin' patterns around. and not really into colour right now. i think i've internalized the fall fashion shows and i'm dismissing colour from ym wardrobe, warming up to neutrals, urban camouflage. what i crave right now is a dark jungle green shawl collared sweater jacket ... kinda like a jungle green version of the crappy black one i got at the gap last year. maybe i should just trot down to the gap or old navy or H&M (insert generic chain store here) to scratch that itch. will meditate on that ... so anyway, i've cast on an hourglass sweater from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". starting a sweater class next week, need something on the needles to demonstrate. and i've made one already but i made the wrong size, it's too big, and the wrong colour for my complexion (i just HAD to have a purple sweater, didn't I?) but i know i'll like it. so i'm using cash iroha . the sweater needs a little something to carry it since it is so simple. i was thinking about using the Black Berroco Boho, knowing it would make a great slinky sweater that i'd wear forever ... but i lost my momentum. you can make a sweater from the boho if you like.
ya know why it's called "cash iroha"? 'cause if you buy it it'll cost a lot of cash! ha-haa!
engineering
hat, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.the cable that kicked my ass. last night while chasing a lily chin reversible cable scarf pattern (she showed it to us last fall knit in her grey mohair but i don't remember where it was published. maybe it wasn't) i stumbled across the engineering solution i was looking for. need graph paper. i like doing math in bed.
on the bus yesterday i was thinking about designing a really simple long sleeved t-shit style pullover in Cascade fixation. deliberationg over the neckline. i don't like crew. boat neck? scoop neck? a rounded v-neck?mitt
mitt, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.men's mitts diverted me from my scarf. making pattern for mittens diverted me. well, a detour, it's not like the scarf is fascinating. don't give up any momentum on the simple knits.
making up designs isn't very hard. making sure they work is really, really hard. well, not hard (except for that fargin' cabled thing i've been butchering), just lots of work. i like riffing on an old idea though, refining the wheel. reminds me of the Purists, Ozanfant & Jenneret (later known as the architect Le Corbusier). They used to paint every-day objects, because they felt the forms had been refined to their purest form over time based on their utility. there were a lot of still lives of bottles & pitchers. here, i found the article we read in class. you can put the art historian in a knitting store, but you can't take the academic out of the knitter ... ? whatever.luna middle
luna middle, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.this is my luna scarf (actually, it's called a Classic Scarf, pattern via Andrea Tung of Fable Baby Aplaca). i haven't really worked on it in the last week. it is going very fast, all continental all the time does fly!
ramona
ramona, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.has this really been sitting in memory for 3 weeks? i guess sooo ... sorry ramona! ramona in ACTION at stitch n bitch.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
link action
I'm sorry, i have no pictures today.not very stimulating, i know, but the camera battery is charging.
mostly comfort knitting going on in da house. comfort knitting is like confort food. easy, unchallenging, comfortable, instant gratification. i've been making mitts. mitts & mitts & mitts. i'm making a little pattern for the store, but i'm just sorta into mitts. chefs say that you don't really know a recipe until you've made it a thousand times. i think that applies to knitting patterns too. i REALLY understand mitts. hee-hee!
i'm also making a scarf, a tube scarf in a gorgeous italian yarn (Lana Grossa 'Luna', colour #3). this is what the ball looks like. and i've got the big UFOs at home. blush.
yesterday was DIY day on DNTO, they talked about crafts. i was a bit busy in the store but they podcast. we can all listen, it'll be like a big love-in, like crafts-across-canada.
heads up about a new zine, crochet insider. good articles.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
monkeys
monkeys, originally uploaded by myhighfiber.how cute is that? from the new issue of Crochet Today. i've been working hard, sorry for the cyber absence! deborah decided she is finally going to use the Fleece Artist kid silk she's been lusting over (after she carried the skein around at the bottom of her bag for 2 weeks i suggested she cut off a small bit and obsess over something lighter). she wants to make cabled arm warmers. hee-hee, snicker ... she has a blackberry so e-mailing her is fun. just to be a sass i innundated her with links to free armwarmer patterns. i don't know how people ever recognize me without the flying monkeys.
this blog posting has been brought to you by a few of my favourite armwarmer patterns:
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