Slauntering towards a Swatch

 WIPs  Comments Off on Slauntering towards a Swatch
Aug 262013
 

At my house, we have a  word we like to use when someone is lazily, casually moving towards an objective: Slaunter.  As in, “I saw you slauntering around by the coffee shop this morning,” or “Could you please pick up the pace from a slaunter to a stride; we’re late.” It’s meant to suggest relaxed and unconcerned action; maybe a little bit indolent, but typically in a good way. Weekend mornings are perfect for slauntering; we’re achieving things, but in a relaxed and non-stressful way.

Slaunter is a little bit saunter, mixed in with a dose of slouch. It’s imperfect, comfortable and forgiving. The concept of slauntering is all over my next bit of knitwear, from a mistake-rib beginning, to an easy, relaxed result. I’m loving the concept so much that I’m exploring some accessories, like a split-brim hat:

Slaunter swatch | The Knitting Vortex

(Some color, huh? That’s tosh dk in Iris; I popped into the LYS near my daughter’s orthodontist the other day just to pass some time, and they had three cubbies’ worth of colors and bases. Can you say “impulse purchase”?)

 

Wisterious

 New Release, Patterns, Sweaters  Comments Off on Wisterious
Aug 132013
 

The pretty lace pattern and slightly boxy fit of this tee make a sweet yet modern sweater. Worked seamlessly from the top down, Wisterious has a simple dolman shape with special details including ribbed trim with invisible tubular edges, shaped sleeve ribbing, and a feminine I-cord finish with petite buttons and button loops. Over a matching or contrast tank, Wisterious is both girly and casual.

Construction: Cast on at the shoulders, Wisterious is worked separately for the front and back with dolman shaping for the sleeves, then joined at the underarm and worked in the round to the hem. A wide band of ribbing pulls in the body, ending neatly with an invisible tubular edge, and matching the sleeve hems which are picked up from the body and shaped with short rows to eliminate bulk under the arms. The final embellishment is an I-cord finish across the neckline and shoulders, which are closed with petite buttons and button loops worked into the I-cord.

Techniques & Skills Used: longtail CO, knit/purl, lace, short rows, applied I-cord, grafting; Wisterious is a fully written pattern, with both charts and written instructions for the lace; there is also a video tutorial for the applied I-cord.

Size: 33.5 (38.5, 43, 48, 53)” bust; shown in second size worn with 3.5” ease. Wisterious is meant to be worn with several inches of positive ease for a drapey and slightly boxy tee shirt look; if you prefer a more fitted result, be careful not to size down so far that the lace becomes distorted across the bust.

Yarn: Sliver Moon Farm Superwash Merino Fingering 8 oz (100% Merino; 1120 yards/1024m/230g), shown in Electric Blue; 1 (1, 1, 1, 2) skeins, or approximately 625 (775, 900, 1100, 1275) yards of fingering weight yarn.

Other Materials: US 5 (3.75mm) 32” circular needle or size to match gauge; US 3 (3.25mm) 32” circular needle for hem, cuffs and I-cord; 2 additional US 3 (3.25mm) circular needles any length for tubular bind off; Stitch holder; Stitch markers 4 (6, 6, 8, 8) plus 2 removeable; Yarn needle; 3/8” buttons 4 (6, 6, 8, 8); Matching sewing thread and needle.

Gauge: 20 st and 32 rows/4” in Wisteria Lace pattern and 28 st and 40 rows/4” in K1P1 Rib, after blocking.

See it on Ravelry or on Payhip, to read more or purchase the pattern.       

Ripping Lace

 WIPs  2 Responses »
Aug 072013
 

Those are two words a knitter doesn’t ever want to hear – ripping lace. And yet I was not only hearing it, but doing it.

This is the summer of lace for me, specifically lace sweaters; the last of which is almost ready for release. But getting there involved a nerve-wracking interlude of ripping back the lace pattern. I kept trying on this tee shirt (with the shoulders pinned together, since they were to be finished later), and thinking, hmmm, it’s not long enough, just another 8 row repeat before the ribbing. Somehow I got off track; it was originally meant to be cropped and boxy, over a wide ribbed hem, but then with the short sleeves I thought that would be too square shaped. Then I thought about those generic length end-at-the-bottom-of-the-pants-waistband tops which are kind of boring, so I just kept adding on and adding on. And you know when you suspect you’ve done something that’s not really working out, but you think, oh, it’ll be fine, and keep going? Yeah, me too. So I had a couple inches of K1P1 rib before I finally admitted that it was neither tee shirt nor tunic, and just wrongly proportioned.

ribbing gone wrong

Sad enough to have to tear out all that time consuming ribbing; I had also to go back 16 rounds of lace pattern. No, I did not have a lifeline (and I do often put those in if I’m not sure I’ll like the next part of something. This time I went on blithely). Running a lifeline after the fact in lace is something I’ve found to be frustrating and inaccurate, so I ripped back fiercely to the last pattern round of what would be the last rep, then gingerly undid that as well. Then ever so carefully, with a tiny size 1, I went back stitch by stitch on the next rest round (thank goodness for rest rounds! only had to worry about recovering YOs and separating the decreases). Then reworked the pattern round with the correct needle, fixing up any little problems and adding stitch markers, and IT WORKED!

back OTN!

The knitting goddess was with me this time – a huge relief. And I discovered that gold glitter polish looks great with wisteria blue.

gold glitter accents

Next time, some more of the details of this last lace project; then the pattern itself!

Phi

 Featured, New Release, Patterns, Wraps  Comments Off on Phi
Aug 022013
 

The Golden Ratio, or Phi, represents harmony in nature, art and mathematics, and embodies the human perception of beauty. This asymmetric shawl harmoniously blends two colors to the Golden Mean, and then back again, using the Fibonacci sequence to determine the width of the stripes and their relation one to the next . . . All knitting, always pleasing, with a graphic , and harmonious result.

Techniques & Skills Used: increasing/decreasing, knit; Phi includes instructions in written and quick table format, and a link to my video tutorial for carrying the unused color along the garter edge.

Size: 90” length and 16” depth.

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Finito (100% merino; 200 yards/183m/50g; 2 skeins MC and 2 skeins CC, or about 370 and 300 yards respectively of fingering weight yarn. Sample shown in Plomo (MC) and Mostaza (CC). The yardage requirements ratio of MC to CC is approximately 1.25 : 1 – make sure you have about 80% as much CC as MC to complete the sequence.

Other Materials: US 5 (3.75mm) 32” circular needle, or size to match gauge; Yarn needle.

Gauge: 21 st and 42 rows/4″ in garter stitch, after gentle blocking. Gauge is not critical for this project, however a different gauge may result in a smaller or larger finished shawl, and different yardage requirements.

See it on Ravelry or on Payhip, to read more or purchase the pattern.