Tag: lace cardigan

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

Pattern Buying

Iris Rose

What it is about patterns that turn us into collectors? Is it the beautiful photos of lovely yarn made into something that best shows off the reason why we couldn’t resist buying the yarn to begin with? Is it maybe that we just like to consider the possibilities of new projects or do we like to connect with other crafters by participating in their work?

I look at patterns almost daily and use them as a source to know what finished projects are trending in order to keep my own work relevant. A number of years ago I would download and print whatever caught my fancy until I had an enormous pile of patterns that I knew I would never make. Talk about a tree waster! I have wised up a little since and just download those that I know I will make and have the stash to use for the item. I still have a big digital library but am gradually going through and ruthlessly deleting.

Having said all that, I still lust after the new and beautiful and do treat myself to the maybe someday stuff once in a while.

One of my favourite places to find patterns is garnstudio.com. This is the Drops website and, although the patterns are translated from another language, there is a large selection of patterns for all types of knitting and crocheting. My only caution is that you read through the pattern completely and make sure that you understand it all before you start. This will save you some heartache later, experience talking here.

There is, of course, Ravelry too, a great place to buy and store all the lovelies. When I need some inspiration, browsing here almost always gets me started. Most of what I buy are toy patterns with the occasional, I can’t live without, shawl thrown in.

Have fun looking for that special, I have to make it, pattern and I hope that you have or can find the perfect yarn to go with it.
See you next week and I wish you a fun week filled with pleasant company.

Knitting, Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

To Err Is Human

Iris Rose

I didn’t get my ordered yarn in time to finish my Twister cardigan. I should be able to pick it up tomorrow and, hopefully, get to work on it this weekend.

I am working a craft sale tomorrow with the Springbank Creative Arts Club at Amica Aspen, 10 Aspenshire Drive SW, Calgary. If you are in the neighbourhood, please drop in a say hi. There is no admission fee and parking is free!

Maybe I need to reassess my completion date for the cardigan. I just may need an extra day or two.

Do you ever make mistakes in your crafting? Dumb question, I know, we all do. I am talking about those real doozies that make you want to cry but are so obvious that you have to laugh first.

I machine knit a basic black cardigan this week, an item that my wardrobe is lacking. I finished all of the pieces, carefully blocked them and laid them out to sew together. I thread my needle and, what, what is wrong with this picture? I forgot to reset the stitch size on the second front piece after knitting the ribbing! Good thing is I have a bunch of the yarn left. Bad thing is that the yarn is acrylic and, after a light steam blocking, this piece can’t be frogged.

I sat down yesterday and knit the correct size.

I published a blog on my old website about fixing a mistake in a lace sweater that I hand knitted. I made the back longer than the front with one too many repeats of the lace. I managed to save it after carefully picking up the stitches and unraveling the extra repeats then grafting it back together to finish it to the right size.

I think that there is some good information in this post and I hope that you will scroll back through time and have another look at it.

I knit myself a really lovely cardigan in a beautiful yarn. I joined the shoulders with a three needle bind off, knit the band around the front and neck and sewed in the sleeves. I pinned the sides together for seaming and, much to my great distress and using every curse word that I know, I found that I had repeated the first lace pattern at the beginning (bottom) of the back piece twice and only once on the fronts. I got ready to toss it into the garbage or at least a corner to gather dust but I just liked it too much to not try to repair it.

I have removed the bottom of a sweater before and reknit it down to increase the length but only in stocking stitch and never with this pretty a yarn.

I gathered my courage and here’s what I did. I left the sweater sewn as far as I had gone because who wants to undo hand sewn sweater seams. That almost never works out for me.
I used a contrast colour in a pale yellow so that I could still see it but not have any bright or dark fibres left when I removed it and, picking up one side of every stitch, threaded a life line through my knit stitches two rows above the last lace repeat that I wanted to keep. I then place two life lines one row apart on the two rows below the first row of garter stitch that bordered the lace pattern.


Next, I took a very deep breath and cut between the life lines. Yes, I cut the bottom of the back off. Working on the bottom piece, I picked out all of the little bits from cutting and, carefully ripped back to a couple of rows above my life line. I picked up the stitches with a circular needle, made sure that my count was correct and unknit back to the last knit row that ended the one lace repeat that I should have stopped at the first time around. I used a contrast waste yarn and worked two rows in stocking stitch then cast off to hold all of the stitches securely.


Putting that piece aside, I then used my circular needle and picked up one side of the bottom loop of each stitch between the two life lines on the top piece of the back. I used two life lines here as I wasn’t sure how the loops would hold when I picked up the bottom of each stitch. I then ripped back to the needle, used waste yarn and worked the same two rows of stocking stitch and cast off.


Now, to put the two pieces back together, I worked from the wrong side with a really long length of yarn (because I didn’t want to have to try to join in the middle) and grafted the loops from the bottom to the loops from the top piece. I checked to make sure that all of the stitches were included and ripped out the waste yarn from both pieces.
Success! My lovely sweater knit with the lovely yarn was now repaired and the fronts matched the back.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope that you have a great week filled with yarny goodness. Drop in to the sale if you can.

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

On Vacation So Don’t Expect Much!

Iris Rose

Okay, I am on vacation so can’t promise you much but here goes. Two weeks in Aruba, are you jealous yet? We have only been here two days and already I feel like mush, good mush but mush none the less.


I finished up the craft sale season and am ready to move on to pattern writing. Look ahead to January for that. I think that I am over my pattern writing block and ready to move forward now. I have a few machine patterns and a couple of hand knit as well as crochet patterns to publish for you.

I had some fun with my LK 150 machine in creating an easy poncho that will translate well to hand knitting too and, as a bonus for those of you that are multicraftual, the edging is crocheted. Look forward to that pattern before the end of the month.

In the meantime, have a great week ahead and I should have a real post for you next week. By the way, I have reached a milestone in my blog life. Last post was number 100 and now I am on to the next century of posts.

Happy crafting and remember to be kind to everyone you meet whether you believe they deserve it or not.

Knitting

Shawl Part 3, Easy Peasy

Iris Rose

Wow, August! Why does the summer go by so fast and the winter so slowly? I guess that there is so much more activity in our part of the world when the air is warm than there is when it is cold. There must be at least five festivals every weekend (or so it seems) and it is nice just to relax outside.  I baked this banana cream pie last night for DH’s birthday today.  You might want to have a slice before you listen to my complaining.

Banana Cream Pie

I still find time to craft amidst all of the activity and have been working on a few new patterns. I have kind of been taking a break from publishing. While I don’t mind constructive criticism and am always, always happy to help, sometimes the negative remarks sting, especially on the free stuff which is way more popular than the paid. I guess that is an unfortunate part of the internet culture, where it is okay to be rude and nasty and hide behind the anonymity.

Okay then, my rant is over and I hope that I didn’t offend anyone. I really do appreciate your support.

 

On to the subject of this blog post, Part 3 of my Shawl in Parts pattern. I am going to change the name when it is done but am waiting to see how pretty it is before I decide on the best name for this lovely shawl. Carry on and have fun!

Shawl Part 3:

You will be working the borders and the centre five stitch spine throughout this part in the same way that you did for Parts 1 and 2. You are going to notice that the stitch used in this part, double moss, tends to pull the work in from the relaxed lace stitch. Remember the miracle of blocking and don’t worry; your shawl will be lovely when finished and blocked.

Row 1: Work your border stitches as before, slip marker, YO, (K1, P1) across to last stitch, K1, YO, slip marker, K5, slip marker, YO, (K1, P1) to last stitch, K1, YO, slip marker and work the border as before.

Row 2: Work your border stitches as before, slip marker, P1, (P1, K1) across to last stitch, P2, slip marker, P5, slip marker, P1, (P1, K1) to last stitch, P2, slip marker and work the border as before.

Work Rows 1 and 2 until you have 115 stitches between the border markers and the centre markers on each side.

That was easy, wasn’t it? Next week we are back to a bit of lace and then we will be on to the final border which I am still conflicted about. I am sure that I will have my inner argument settled and the shawl ready by then.  Have a happy week!

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!