. brightmeadowknits: 2019

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Fairisle Shawl in a Cake

I've been dreaming of knitwear designs.  Lately I have been thinking of using the long color changes of hand-painted yarns in fairisle patterns.  Random color changes should result in unexpected color combinations.  To get started, I knitted some shawls using Lion Brand "Shawl in a Cake" yarn I found on sale at JoAnn Fabrics. 

The yarn is lofty.  Using it in fairisle will produce a double-thickness fabric, which should be very warm, but also light. 

To test my theory I knitted two garments.  To keep it simple I decided to use a simple shawl pattern.  Just start with a few stitches, increase across the width of the bed, and then put stitches in hold to decrease, Take the stitches out of hold one row at a time, then decrease back down to the few stitches. I had knitted a similar shawl before in undyed wool, in stockinette. 

I wanted the color play, which mean I needed fairly wide spots of solid color.  But I also wanted short floats.  So I picked a "fake cable" card from my stash which alternated 1x1 sections with the cable design,  and  punched a second card card to match it.  I started with the #1 card (1x1) then switched to the cable as the shawl got wider.
Since my new shawl is a fairisle, the stitch gauge is different.  The stitches are taller and skinnier, as fairisle usually is compared to stockinette.  As I knitted, adding a twisted and knotted fringe,  I noticed that it was taking a long time for the garment to get wide, and a short time for it to get long.  I knew I would be unsuccessful to unravel all the twisted fringe, so I would need to complete the garment according an improvisation.. After I got to the point where I had put all the stiches in hold, I could tell I was not going to have enough yarn in the two cakes to complete the shawl according to the original pattern.   I decided to stop, and add a border of crochet stitches on the right side of the fabric. I did a crochet cast-on between the needles and the bed.  Being a firmer stitch pattern than the fairisle, the crochet stitches gathered in the edge and made it into a graceful curve! You can see how I have to loop the long end around twice, but I think the color changes are very successful.  This color was the Calming Desert colorway.






For my second attempt, I used two cakes of "Sun Salutations" colorway. I increased two stitches on every other row, instead of one, to make the shawl more squarish than longish.  I also decided to dispense with the knotted, twisted fringe in favor of an edging that I added after the basic shawl was completed.  The two balls had opposing colors for most of the shawl, but serendipitously, the same color met at approximately the center of the shawl. 














Monday, March 25, 2019

New hat pattern available in Ravelry

I have finally published my first pattern in Ravelry!  It is the hat pattern I used for the beginning machine knitting class I recently taught at Crafty Lady Trio on Hall Road in Macomb, Michigan. 
Paton's Classic Wool (red), Generic Acrylic (white), Plymouth Encore Worsted (Mushroom)


Plymouth Encore Worsted
Generic Acrylic Yarn
I made a change to the pattern after I developed it for the class. The change clarified how to ensure that the crown of the hat will be knitted as desired;  in reverse stockinette, as shown in the photo with the mushroom-y tan color that I knitted using Plymouth Encore Worsted Colorspun, or in stockinette, as shown in the white hat knitted with a generic acrylic worsted.  The trick is the direction of the last row knitted before hanging the lining on the same needles with the outer fabric and knitting them together, before starting the crown, and the direction of the subsequent bindoff.  Paying attention to the direction of the carriage means that you do not have to cut the yarn to proceed to the knitting of the crown. 

The hat is knitted on a bulky 9.0 mm machine, (I used a Brother KH-260) using a worsted-weight yarn.  It is double-thickness around the body of the hat, over the ears, and very warm.  It does not require any automated patterning.  I originally designed that hat using multiple cables around the head, but needed to reduce the number of cables, because I wanted the students in the class to be able to complete the manual patterning during the time allotted for class.  If you like, it would be an easy matter to increase the number of cables by spacing them in between the ones listed in the pattern.  Make it your own!

My next step:  Update this blog to allow links to Ravelry for purchase.  Coming soon!  For now, just hop on over to Ravelry and look for Brenda Fish Designs in the pattern section.