Blog

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

New Shawl, Free Pattern in Parts

Iris Rose

This week has been a finish before you are allowed to start anything else week. I made a deal with myself to get the stack of WIP’s finished even though I was dying to start something new. You all know how that goes, I am sure.

I did break that pact with myself (what can I say, I am weak, just weak!) and started a new shawl. I will post the pattern is parts starting below with the first section and continuing over the next few weeks. I had a cake of gradient yarn that was crying very loudly to be used and here is the beginning of what I hope will be something lovely.

I did manage to get caught up on the WIP’s; all are done except one and that one is close to finished. Anyhow, here is the beginning part to the shawl, a triangular one with a wider than normal spine.


Materials: 380m or 435 yds of sock weight gradient yarn. If you don’t have a gradient, go ahead and use any sock weight yarn that appeals to you. I was panting to use up this cake that I had in front of me since I bought it.  Like this one only a different colour as you can see above.

Tools: 4mm or US 6 circular needle, 60cm or 24” or longer, 4 stitch markers.

Note: you will start every row, once the garter tab is done, with slip one with the yarn in front and carry the yarn over to knit the next stitch. There will be a 4 stitch garter border on each side. The slipped stitch is knitted together with the yarn over on the return row to make a pretty braid look edge. If you want, you can simply knit 4 at the beginning and end of each row.

Start the shawl with a garter tab, that is cast on 4 stitches and knit 1 row. You will make the slip, yarn over only on one side for this part.
Row 2: Slip 1, yarn over and knit 3.
Row 3: Knit 4 (slipped stitch and yarn over knit together make the last stitch).
Repeat these two rows 4 more times, work Row 1 once more.
Pick up and knit 5 stitches along the side of the rows without the slipped stitches. Pick up and knit 4 stitches along the beginning edge.  Your garter tab is done.

 

Start the main part of the shawl from here.
Row 1: Slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, YO, K3, place marker, P5, place marker, K4, don’t forget to work the last stitch together with the yarn over.
Row 2: Slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, YO, K3, slip marker, YO, place marker, K5, place marker, YO, slip marker, K4.
Row 3: Slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, YO, K3, slip marker, P1, slip marker, P5, slip marker, P1, slip marker, K4.
Row 4: Slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, YO, K3, slip marker, YO, K1, YO, slip marker, K5, slip marker, YO, K1, YO, slip marker, K4.
Row 5: Slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, YO, K3, slip marker, P3, slip marker, P5, slip marker, P3, slip marker, K4.

Continue increasing by repeating Rows 4 and 5 with the number of stitches between the first and second markers growing by 2 on each side of the centre spine on each right side row.
Work in this pattern until you have 65 stitches between the first and second then third and fourth markers in each side on the five stitch spine.

If you have questions, you can contact me here or on Ravelry as Bluechicken.

Next week we will start on the first lace pattern section. Until then, have fun with this very easy shawl and have a happy week!

Knitting

Swonchos and the Nation’s Capital

Iris Rose

I hope that you all enjoyed the biscotti recipe that I posted last week and are already imagining some great combinations for next time that you make them. I confess that I put mine in the freezer so that I wouldn’t have to buy bigger pants. I do love cookies.

DH and I went to our nation’s capital this weekend for a music festival. I have never been that far east in our country so was quite excited to see all of the sights. I particularly wanted to see where our government meets, and all of the big decisions are made or at least argued about. I feel very lucky to live in Canada, in my opinion one of the best countries in the world, at this time, to be a citizen of.

  

Needless to say, I did not get much done in the way of crocheting or knitting this week. I have been working on some little popover swonchos for the small folk. I found a photo of what I wanted to create and experimented from there. Both are made with dk weight yarn on a midgauge machine with hand knit or crocheted finishing and still need a bit of blocking.

This little peach one was my first attempt and, although I thought that it was too long at the time I knit it up on the machine, I am now really liking the almost finished piece. I am on the last cuff and need to complete the bottom crocheted edging with a row of crab stitch to match the collar trim. I think that I will stitch the collar up a little too so that it holds it shape a little better. No button band on the shoulder of this one as the neck is a little wider, maybe too wide. I worked six rows of two by two ribbing by hand to bring the neck in and still leave some stretch before grafting the collar on. It was a little more work than I needed to do but I didn’t leave the shoulder open for a placket so there you are.

The green one (teal?) is the second one that I made. I knit the body on a midgauge machine and hand knit the edging, cuffs and collar. I created a shoulder placket to make it easier to get on as the neck is smaller than the peach one.  I just need to finish sewing up the last seam, add the shoulder buttons and we are done. All in all I am quite happy with the almost finished swonchos.  I think I feel a new pattern coming on.

My yoke sweater is in time out as I just can’t get inspired to work on it. I really want to start something new again, that chronic problem that I and, I am sure, millions of others have.

I’ve got other ideas cooking that I will share with you next week so until then, have a wonderful week full of yarny delight!

Baking

Irresistable Biscotti

Iris Rose

Okay, here we go. Break out your apron and get your cookie mojo on. I am sharing my favourite cookie recipe, Awesome Biscotti. Even if you do not like the dry and not really flavourful ordinary biscotti, you are going to love these. Just remember to have the coffee or tea ready as soon as they are cool enough to eat.

What you will put together to make this delightfulness:
2 Tbsp butter (soft)
¾ C sugar
2 eggs
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 C of addins: nuts (chopped or broken but not too small), dried fruit (cut up if large), chocolate chips of any sort

     

Dried cherries and chocolate chips       Broken pecans and dried blueberries


Got them all together? Here is how to make these ingredients into heaven on a plate.

Start by greasing a cookie sheet or lining it with parchment paper and getting your oven heating to 350F before your hands get mucky. If your cookie sheet has high sides you might want to bake the dough on the back for easy removal as you will need to slide the whole piece of dough off to cool later.

Beat the butter and cream in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and add the vanilla and milk, stirring to mix well. Mix the flour and baking powder and add them to the wet ingredients with a few strokes. Toss in the addins and mix gently to combine it all. You may need to use your hands after stirring to complete the mixing. Do not over handle the dough so that it stays nice and tender.

Press the dough into a rough ball and place it on the cookie sheet. Use your hands (and a little flour if the dough is sticky) to form a flat long loaf in the centre of the cookie sheet. If you decide to make two different kinds as I did, you can use two sheets or crowd them onto one (I hate dishes).


Pop the cookie sheet with the dough loaf into the oven and bake it for about 20 minutes until it is slightly puffed and cracked, lightly browned and firm. Remove it from the oven and set the sheet on a rack to cool. Wait 10 minutes and slide it off the sheet and onto the rack. Do this gently so that the loaf does not break. If you are using a sheet with high sides, as I said before, you may want to bake the loaf on the back of the sheet for easy removal.


Wait 10 minutes and slide the cooked loaf of dough onto the rack to cool a little more. Keep the cookie sheet handy as these have to go back into the oven to cook again. After another 10 minutes use a sharp serrated knife and cut the loaf crosswise into ¾ to 1 inch slices. Turn the oven back on to 325F.


Place each slice cut side up on the cookie sheet. If an occasional one breaks, push it back together the rebake. Bake the cookie slices for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven, turn each one over to expose the bottom cut edge and bake again for 15 minutes. The cookies should be dry on the surface and firm. Remove them from the oven and off the sheet after 10 minutes to cool them completely on a rack.


Is the coffee or tea ready? Have a great week and don’t blame me for the weight gain.

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

Cardigan Yoke Do Over

Iris Rose

Well, this was some busy week, wasn’t it? I was sure it was Friday yesterday but no dice, I still had to slog through Thursday and am anxiously awaiting the real appearance of the last work day of the week.

I am working on finishing up the significant heap of almost done projects. I always think that it is a good idea to knit or crochet production style. That is, make everything to the point of finishing (all of the pieces) and then finish them all at once. I don’t know why I keep falling for the same old trick that my brain plays on me, but I do. Maybe I just like to start new things and, like almost everyone else, get bored before I finish.

One of the projects I was working on finishing is a fairisle yoke cardigan. I had machine knit the basic pieces and joined them to hand knit a yoke. I should have done a little more swatching and actually followed a pattern but, as I like a challenge, I decided to wing it. It turned out to be a major fail in fit and looks. Let that be a lesson to me, figure out what you need to do before you actually do it.


In any case, I did like the basic idea and decided, after the cardigan spent a few weeks in the time out for bad projects pile, to try to rescue the work. I needed to do two things. I needed to upsize the needle that I used as the yoke gathered the bottom pieces in a little even though the colour work was not puckered. I also needed to make the yoke about twice as long. In my rush to be finished, I decreased too often and cast off too soon resulting in a yoke that pulled the sweater up painfully under my arms and strangled me at the neck edge.

    
I used a circular needle one size up from the original and picked up all of the stitches around the top of the plain pieces. I crossed my fingers and clipped the yarn of first row of the yoke at each end of the work and pulled. The yoke separated from the bottom and I was ready to start again. I actually did a little math this time and, even though I am still winging the pattern, I think that it will work out. I am really happy with the look and anxious to get this one finished. I will still need to add some ribbing at the bottom and sleeves.

  
In an attempt to decrease my ever increasing stash, I am using up an assortment of colours of the same yarn. I bought the yarn on ebay one ball at a time and didn’t end up with enough to make a whole cardi in the same colour, but I think that this will work to make a very pretty sweater. I am going to leave out the red and just go with black and light grey this time.  I am aiming for next week but don’t hold your breath.

Cooking will be up next week; I will share my awesome biscotti recipe. Even if you don’t like dry cookies, you are gonna love these. Have a great week and Happy Canada Day!

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

Now a Jacket Not a Vest

Iris Rose

You are likely as tired of my vest rehab as I am at this point. However, great news, I am done!

I wrote about the second syndrome and found that, once I have finished slogging through the first sleeve and it fit, I was highly, and I mean highly, motivated to finish. I knit that thing up in an evening.

All that was left then was a light block and to sew it all together. I decided on the “wrong” side of the garter rib for the right side of the sleeves. I just found that the vertical ribs and all garter stitch added a wow factor to the finished jacket (no longer a vest!) that really appealed to me.  After mattress stitching the sleeve seams, I pinned the sleeve cap in to place with safety pins and got to stitching. I used plain sewing thread as the fabric of the vest is tightly woven and using matching yarn would be struggle to sew with.

The original vest had a tape trim on the armholes. I did not want to start a major reconstruction so I opted to leave it in place and sew my sleeve under the edge of the trim in a flat seam. By that I mean that I laid the vest armhole over the sleeve cap, finished right side lapped over finished right side instead of creating a regular seam. This way the tape trim is overlaying the right side of the knitting. I am probably not explaining myself very well but hopefully the photos will help you out with understanding how the seams were made.  A little hand sewing with very small stitches and, voila, done!

    

I am very happy with the finished jacket and look forward to wearing it on a cool evening.

I am working on another clothing rescue for next week. This time I am deconstructing a yoked cardigan that I made but hated the fit and look of. The yarn is too nice to toss and the basic sweater is fine, just that darned yoke!

Have an exceptionally crafty week with happy needles and hooks!