Monday, March 17, 2008

Meander Scarf

The image of melting ice and snow meandering down the mountains, filling the rivers and winding away to the sea, was my inspiration for the rivulets of cool blues and greens looping across this scarf. The colors and spiraling pattern will have you thinking about Spring, but its two cozy layers will keep you nice and warm during those last cold-snaps!
I wanted to create a stitch pattern that was rich and organic in appearance, but geometric enough to lend itself well to knit stitches. The Greek Key design fit the bill, being a squared spiral, and is a perfect motif to use with Double Knitting. Double Knitting is an extremely versatile technique that creates a reversible, double-thick fabric, ideal for flat pieces such as scarves.
The double-knitting technique is explained in the pattern, but a brief tutorial can also be found HERE
Meander Scarf

Pattern available for purchase! $5.00


FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Length: 72 inches
Width: 5 inches

MATERIALS
[MC] Cascade 220 Heathers [%100 Peruvian Wool; 220yd per 100g skein]; Lake Chelan (sea green), color# 9451, 1 skein
[CC] Cascade 220 Heathers; [%100 Peruvian Wool; 220yd per 100g skein]; Mallard (blue) ; color# 2448, 1 skein
NEEDLES
1 set US #7/4.5 mm straight needles

GAUGE
20 sts/28 rows = 4” in stockinette stitch using one color
17 sts/18 rows = 4” in pattern (Double-Sided stockinette stitch using Meander Chart)

joescarf
meander 5

meander scarf 2
Meander close-up

Also on Ravelry!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Sources for Help with Rogue Grafting

First of all, for Beth:
PumpkinKnits wrote a cheat sheet for grafting the Rogue hood! It's linked on the right hand side on her blog.
Also, Wise Hilda wrote a basic explanation of grafting ribs or cables as well.

More FOs, WIPs and Orchids, coming up next!

Monday, March 03, 2008

Little Red Riding Rogue

OMG IT'S DONE!
DONE! Over two years in the making, and the sweater is finally done!
I've been working on this sweater for over 2 years. I knit it, then procrastinated the seaming, and then it sat on the bookcase in the hopes that it would install its own zipper for probably about a year.
Being too big didn't help its case any either, but a good spray-down and a careful run through the dryer took care of the extra long sleeves and some of the extra fabric.
So here she is, my FINALLY FINISHED OBJECT

rogue 008

This is my cardiganization of Girl From Auntie's Rogue Pullover, minus the pockets. There's info on the pattern site about converting it to a cardigan, and links to other bloggers who have written out the modifications. I also added an i-cord edging to create a zipper..placket? I don't know what else you'd call that. I kinda wish I'd still added pockets, but whatever. It could also use some short rows at the back of the neck, IMHO.

Yarn: 6.3 skeins of Plymouth Galway Highland Heather in rust
Size: 38" this pattern runs BIG. I wish I'd made the smaller size, and I definitely wish I'd adjusted the size of the sleeves and the depth of the armholes. They're huge! The circumference of the sleeves is VERY large at the top, and the armholes come down to the bottom of my chest, and I don't find that very flattering, and neither is the 7 or so inches of positive ease, but the darn thing IS warm and comfy ;) The sleeves were also very long before I threw the thing in the dryer.
I didn't realize the original design included a lot of positive ease anyway, and wanted something I could wear a bit like a jacket, but it's much bigger than how I usually like my sweaters.

I sewed the zipper by hand, as my seamstress friends were too intimidated by knitwear to help me :P But I think I will have one of them go over the stitches to reinforce them (I'm not the best at hand-sewing either).

I very fun and fairly quick knit, but it does have some fiddly grafting on top (which was kinda fun, once you get the hang of it). Very well written pattern!

rogue 012
rogue 011
rogue 006
rogue 002

On Ravelry too! I'm RedThread!

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Diagonal Scarf


puffyscarf2, originally uploaded by RedQueen715.

Oh Noes! I ran out RIGHT at the end! This was frustrating, however, the scarf was only about 4.5' long, and quite wide, so I decided it wouldn't be such a big deal to frog it and start over, especialy since the whole thing only took a few hours.
I made the 2nd scarf with smaller triangles (17 stitches), and this made it narrower and longer.

It's done in 2 balls of Karabella Puffy, which is a gorgeous almost-boucle super-bulky merino. I used a size 13 needle. It LOVES to be garter stich, but that's boring, so I compromised and did a garter stitch Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf . This pattern is so fast and fun! More details about the construction over on Ravelry. I really want to buy a few balls in Mustard and make one for myself! The finished scarf is about 5.5 feet long, and 6 inches wide. I'm not sure how to block it, because I think soaking it might "deflate" the fluffy merino. I'll probably steam it, but on something this thick I can't image that that would have any effect on it. Suggestions appreciated!



DiagonalScarf