#ravelry.com

[professorpski]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/yarn-crafting-projects/

Crochet data comes to Ravelry.com. They do make the mistake of thinking every completion is posted to Ravelry or that every project is a Raveler makes is posted. Much of my stuff isn’t.

[professorpski]

Textured Knits by Connie Chang Chinchio

The idea of textured knits may seem kind of obvious. People have been knitting textures ever since someone alternated knit and pearl stitches. But there are better and worse ways to think about the use of texture, just as there are in the use of color.

The Dress Doctors always wanted emphasis in a garment to draw up towards the face. What better way to make people notice you and what you are saying? This works clearly enough with necklines and collars, and with patterned and colored yokes. Yet many knitted patterns put all the interesting details of color and texture around the hipline. I suspect this is a matter of simplicity in creating different sizes by allowing the designer to skip any complicated explanations about how to cope with the shaping for the armhole. Vintage knitting directions are far more demanding and often command: follow in the stitch pattern so far as you can to the garment edge. 

Chinchio opts for bringing the detail up towards the face as you see here on book cover featuring the caramel Intagliata Henley. The pale blue Lustro Cardigan takes a similar approach by having the textured knitting at the shoulder area. While the burgundy Professora Cardigan and the taupe Raindrop Cardigan use the idea of texture running up the front opening the the cardigan (the raindrop refers to the decorative back of the cardigan, an effort which I never see the point of--unless you want to make a good impression while turning on your heel and stalking away?)

I especially like the sophisticated Anna Maria Cardigan with the pattern making its way up and along the V-neckline. I also appreciated the Tricia Wrap in in blue which skips the uniformity which many wraps demand in favor of a more interesting movement of the texture along the wrap.

You can see the rest of the patterns on Ravelry.com here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/textured-stitches-knitted-sweaters--accessories-with-smart-details/patterns

Ravelry is a website that takes an easy registration to use. It was published in 2012, but with the web, you can still find copies online.

[professorpski]

It’s Fall! Breakout the Sweaters! Hepburn Pullover for Autumn

One of the problems with starting projects is finished them after the season is over. So there was the faux-fur lined coat I managed to get done in August, and this sweater which I finished in May. So I have been looking forward to breaking it out for the cool autumn weather.

This is the Hepburn Pullover by Jennifer Wood. The cables reminded me of tree roots, so I decided to opt for fall colors. It is knitted top-down with small cables and shaped with short rows (which means the pattern acknowledges that your shoulders and neck take up space). After some knitters got confused about the short rows, which includes a new knitter like me, Wood was kind enough to draw us a picture and post it on Ravelry.com which is an online community and marketplace. The pink image is from Interweave which first published the pattern in Interweave Knits in 2012 and still sells the pattern. By reading the comments by other makers who had problems with rolling up, I decided to add some ribbing to the bottom edge.

I dyed the yarn for the yoke and found the harmonizing color in Shepherd’s Wool Yarn a Merino wool spun up in Michigan at the Michigan Fiber Festival.

For Ravelry.com, you do a simple registration and get access to the many useful comments posted by others. These comments will help you pick patterns and plan for making as well.

WoodHouseKnits.com offers other yoked, cabled, and lace knitting patterns by Jennifer Wood.

For the local yarn stores that carry Shepherd’s Wool Yarn,  go here: https://www.stonehedgefibermill.com/yarn-shops/#IN

[professorpski]

Interweave Knits, Winter 2021

The cover of this issue is the elaborate Adeline’s Cardigan by Linda Marveng which includes cables running both vertically and along the rectangular peplum. Having read my share of Ravelry.com project notes, I know someone will simply drop the peplum in favor of the short fitted jacket that comes above it. An intermediate project, it’s made of Manos del Uruguay in Alegria Grande.

While there is another sweater in this issue, the focus is on stoles and shawls including the voluminous one here in grey: Mary Shelley’s Shawl by Renate Kamm made of Sugar Bush Yarns Itty Bitty and Drizzle held together creating a halo of mohair as well as merino, silk, nylon, and a touch of cashmere. Which is only 2 out of 4 on the difficulty level.

The green shawl by Lana Jois is more difficult, 3 out of 4, and features an intricate eyelet and cable pattern done up in the Yarn Collective’s Bloomsbury DK. This semi-circular shawl is named Christabel’s Shawl. Lucy Wesnera’s Wrap by Susanna Ic is also 3 out of 4 on the difficulty scale and made from Madelinetosh Tosh Sock yarn.

In addition, there are patterns for three mitts, a swoncho (a sweater with sleeves that start below your elbow; being pretty fond of using my entire arm, I think it is not for me), another shawl, wrap, and a cape. 

Find it at your local newsstand, bookstore, or online here: https://www.interweave.com/interweave-knits-magazine/

[professorpski]

Old Shale Scarf in Good Morning, Sunshine

I have managed to finish my first lace scarf in time for spring. The stitch pattern is an old Shetland one according to Barbara Walker, author of several treasuries of knitting stitches. You can find several free versions of old shale scarves on Ravelry.com (also called feather and fan stitch).

If you notice the Ravelry versions look different than mine, that is because I did not know what I was doing. I found out a ways in that I was doing all of my yarn-overs backwards. It was so hard to pick up the yarn-overs on the next row that I watched a video to see if there was a trick to doing it, and realized that I had been making them backwards. Ah. I see. Oops. By doing them backwards, I made the lace holes far smaller than they were supposed to be.  

Knitting tip: when you are doing knit stitch, your yarn-over begins at the front goes over the right-hand needle and falls down the back. Thank you, Garn Studio, for your silent movies.

It’s still a pretty scarf and perfect with both my heavy and my light spring coats, and I figure other patterns with yarn overs will seem pretty easy in comparison. Stay tuned for a hat made in a harmonizing shade of hand-spun yarn.

The yarn is Knit-Picks’ bare worsted Wool of the Andes: https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/bare-wool-of-the-andes-worsted-yarn/c/5420101

Dyed by yours truly with food coloring dyes which I learned from Gail Callahan’s book: https://www.knitpicks.com/hand-dyeing-yarn-and-fleece/p/31330

Join Ravelry.com and you can access all the free patterns, but it is a marketplace as well for patterns, yarns, you name it. 

And here is Garn Studio: https://www.garnstudio.com/home.php?cid=17

[professorpski]

Amigurumi Turkey pattern by The Enchanted Ladybug

This sweet little crocheted amigurumi turkey adds such a sweet touch to Thanksgiving decorations!

There isn’t a lot of fashion that is specifically for Thanksgiving, unless you recall some Pilgrim hat you wore in a grade school play, so here instead is a tiny turkey, one of several offered up gratis on Ravelry.com. The basic crochet stitch lends itself to circular structures which is why the world is full of tiny crocheted creature patterns like this one from enchanted-ladybug.com.

If you have any interest in knitting or crochet, take a look at Ravelry.com. It calls itself “a knit and crochet community,” which makes it a place to see how others have coped with pattern problems, altered patterns to suit themselves, as well as a marketplace. It also allows you to keep a running library of your patterns, even if your yarns, which means you can search through them. Very handy.

It’s https://www.ravelry.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

[professorpski]

The Scarf That Took Over the Planet: Swaying Cables

It’s fall, so time to think of scarves and sweaters and other woolly items. I give you Swaying Cables Scarf by Talitha Kuomi. This was my first attempt at cables, and not really the best choice. Especially since a lady recommended to me some small wooden cable needle holders which could not possible hold the 12 stitches that made up the cable. I turned to a circular needle to put them on instead. Take my advice and start with a nice 2 stitch or 3 stitch cable. It wasn’t supposed to be 70″ long but somehow I managed to make it around 9 feet. Nope, I did not make a swatch before I got started.

Despite mistakes on my part, the scarf turned out wonderfully and the swaying of the cable is a charming feature which looks good from both sides. The friend who got this as a gift loves it and wraps it around his neck three times and sits in cafes feeling it gives him a certain cachet. Because it is a worsted yarn, the extra length is not oppressive. In a bulky, such a length would probably be overwhelming.

This is Wool of the Andes Worsted which I kettle-dyed with Jacquard Acid Dyes, red dye with black dye dropped into the kettle after the red, and dubbed Cherry Bomb. My dyeing guru is Gail Callahan whose book I rely on. This was only the second time I kettle dyed, so if you are interested, don’t be afraid to try it. You can always start with the food coloring dyes.

Go the Knitpicks for bare yarn, dye, and the book: go here https://www.knitpicks.com/

For the pattern, you can find it on https://www.ravelry.com (you must sign up to get into Ravelry, but it is free and very useful; it serves as a marketplace for patterns and goods as well as a place to keep track of your own library of patterns) or here at Interweave: https://www.interweave.com/store/swaying-cables-scarf-pattern

[designmiss]

Gimli Helmet and Beard https://www.design-miss.com/gimli-helmet-and-beard/ Desiderate un cappello elmetto con la barba in lana? Segnaliamo dalla pagina Facebook di The Crochet Crowd e da ravelry.com l’elmetto da Nano, oppure quello da vichingo.