scarf

A wippy shawl

Posted on July 2, 2015 by bekswhoknits

To celebrate the arrival of KnitPicks in Australia I bought some yarn (gun to my head, hand over your bank details!).
I ordered some bare yarn for dyeing, and picked up my promotional free ball of Chroma fingering in the Carnival colourway.

I love the gradual colour changes and I wanted a shawl pattern that would show them off, but I could pick up and put down.

So I set to work and started designing.

After a few false starts this is where I’m up to at the moment. It will definitely require blocking! It was a monster to photograph and I had to enlist some human blocking pins to best show off the pattern.

You may be wondering why I’m choosing to share an unfinished pattern. Well in my inbox this morning I got an email to say for the month of July there is 30% off Chroma!!! So I’m making the pattern available now if you’re umming and ahhing about buying some chroma, you can ssee some of its potential!

So here is the pattern for my wippy shawl (working title!)

CO – 4 Stitches
Row 1: K3 (Place marker) YO K1
Row 2: KF&B Purl to marker K3
Row 3: K3 Knit to last stitch YO K1

Then you repeat row 2 & 3.
When it looks like you’re running out of yarn, make that difficult decision about when to start playing yarn chicken and bind off.
Note that I haven’t got to this point yet, but that is how I’m planning it!
There *may* be some weighing and maths involved, but the smart money is on me playing yarn chicken.

I may block the edging so its stretched into points. I also think perhaps the yarn overs at the end would be nice with beads.

Endless possibilities and ideas.

FO#6 leftover wurm cowl

Posted on March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 by bekswhoknits

This was a stash buster. I had some terrible acrylic which I made socks out of but still had stacks left. All acrylics aren’t made equal. This one was squeaky and my skin crawl.

So you may be wondering why I wanted to make a cowl rather than burn it in effigy. Well I don’t know, but I wanted to try and use up some mohair at the same time.

So I cast on I don’t know how many stitches on a 80cm needle and started knitting.
Every few rounds I’d purl.
And then knit again. Kind of replicating the oh-so-popular wurm hat but with reckless abandon.

When I ran out of pink, I changed to grey using up all of this particular yarn so I never have to buy it again. The mohair was gifted and I don’t know what else to do with it, but it combines with other yarns quite nicely.
It softens the acrylic and makes it bearable.

Now I need to decide whether or not I want to block it.

Arm knitting (or keeping yourself out of trouble for an hour)

Posted on March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by bekswhoknits

And now for something completely different. (But not really. More like a variation on a well blogged theme.)

I was surfing through tumblr the other day (follow me if you like endless reblogs of things I like) and I found the video below of arm knitting.

The concept intrigued me so I decided to try it for myself.

The results were pretty satisfactory.

First I tried using 3 different 8 ply yarns. That looked terrible. Absolutely hideous.
So I finished that off and filed it under ‘big mistake’.

So I found some super bulky 12 ply from my stash and started again.
This time it was a success.

The process is really quite strange for someone used knitting with needles. It was a lot of fun though.
I’d definitely recommend trying it at least once.

It does require an uninterrupted block of time. At least one of your arms will be covered in yarn at any one time!
Even if you’ve never knitted before the instructions are very simple and gratifying.

Finished object #1

Posted on January 18, 2013January 17, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I seem to be attracted to scarfs at the moment. It’s the middle of summer! Well I work in an office and wear tights and scarfs all year, so maybe it does make sense.

This charming fellow (as modeled by the newest member of the family) was a super quick knit.
In fact it was started and finished on New Year’s Day.

The yarn is leftovers from my cardigan. The pattern is quick but pretty.
I really love the design. I’ve always been a fan of bows, and the way this sits is really cute.

If I was to make it again I would shape the end a bit differently. It came out a bit pointy. This could be the pattern, but it also could be my inability to read patterns sometimes.

See. Cute!