More Colours in Twill

The last few towels flew off the loom, and I pretty much flew by the seat of my pants in deciding what colour combinations to use.

For the fifth towel, I went with one in kelly green and magenta, which is definitely one of my favourites of the whole bunch.  It's really bright and I like how the colours work together.

With the sixth towel, I realized that I was running out of towels to weave, and I wanted to get back to orange, since I had really liked the previous orange one a lot.  Since I had done it with magenta already (and didn't want to do anything too tonally similar like the dark red) I matched it up with the dark purple.  I like this one a lot too.

The other light colour I'd only used once was yellow, and while I toyed with using it against the kelly green or against the orange, I was afraid that they just wouldn't have enough contrast to be visually interesting.  I went with magenta instead, since both of my previous magenta towels turned out so pretty.  In the end, I think it's a bit too similar to the yellow/red combo (until you see them next to each other they look pretty close) but je ne regrette rien.

I had to get them off the loom quickly because I have a time-sensitive project to weave - Handwoven magazine is taking submissions for designs for a new e-book and I wanted to weave up a sample to submit it - but once that is all done, I will hem and wash and iron these towels and show them off as a set.

Can't Stop Won't Stop

After doing the last colourful set of towels, I really wanted to do another set in some different colours, and keep playing with the concept.  I thought it would be fun to do a set in Mardi Gras colours (purple, green, and gold) so chose a couple of shades of each and used a weaving program on the computer to come up with a point twill stripe design that I liked.  In the end, I also added a deep red to help balance out the darks and lights in the design.

Once I had the green summer and winter towels off the loom, I couldn't wait to get started on this warp, since it's so colourful and fun (and the weaving is comparatively mindless.)

My initial plan was to do seven towels in total, with each of the first three towels in one of the three colour groups.  I started with one in Kelly Green and Pistachio.  You can see it at the bottom of the photo.  The two colours are both relatively light, and there wasn't a lot of contrast between the stripes.  It made an overall wash of green over the colours of the whole warp, which I didn't hate, but it wasn't what I was imagining.  I decided to nix my initial plan to follow up with a purple/magenta striped towel and an orange/yellow towel.  I wanted more contrast between the stripes to make the towels more visually interesting.

With that in mind, I did the second towel in orange and magenta stripes.  This one had a lot of visual pop and I was really happy with how it turned out.  The colours have a good amount of contrast and they give the warp colours a lot of variation.  I like how the twill diamonds alternate between columns when the weft stripes alternate between dark/light.  In the green towel, they only show up distinctly in the dark warp stripes, since the greens are both so light.

For the third towel, I stayed with high contrast and did a towel with stripes in Pistachio green and a deep Purple.  Again, I think the contrast makes it much better and I like the green better here.

I went with yellow and deep red stripes for the fourth towel.  It is only subtly different than the previous one, but definitely still pleasing to the eye.

That passes the halfway point for the towels, since there should be a total of seven.  I have a couple of colour combinations planned for the last ones, but to be honest, I'm actually reconsidering doing the yellow/orange combo... and even the purple/magenta...  what do you think?

More of the Green Towels

I finished weaving the green towels a while ago, and now they are all folded up, sitting and waiting for me to hem and wash them.  In the meantime, I thought I might as well share a few more photos that will show each of them in progress, on the loom.

I wanted to change things up with the second towel, so I did this variation in an X patterning.  I like the way the Xs make a lattice to connect the pattern into a more unified design than the little unconnected Os.  If you refer back to my earlier post, you might be able to see the difference in the overall lattice.

For the third towel, I went back to the Os (even without the lattice that connects the design I prefer their roundness to the thornier Xs) but with yet another variation on the design.  This one made lots of little squares and some cool equal-armed crosses.  I really liked the way this one looked, as I was weaving it, and I was almost sorry to come to the end of it.  I think the negative space is interesting, and I look forward to seeing the reverse side, too.

With the fourth towel I finally did some dukagang.  For some reason I always think I won't weave this structure for the sets I make (probably because it is so different from the others and I worry that it will stand out too much) but then I change my mind and do it.  It always ends up my favourite, in the end.  It has a very different look than the others, with a more vertical direction to the whole design, but I felt like it really worked with the sort of medallion shape that this tie-up variation has in it.

Having finished those four, I pulled out the purple pattern weft and started one for myself.  I used the same tie-up variation that I used for the dukagang, but this time using the Os.  I'm not sure I love the purple as much as I thought I would - the green background gets a bit muddied by using this colour for a pattern weft.  It might actually have been better in dukagang, as well, since the colours would be more isolated.  Live and learn.

One of these days I will get around to washing and ironing them and then you can see what a difference finishing makes!

It's Time to Light the Lights

Two more scarves for the kids:

I was looking at an example of the clasped weft technique in one of my old weaving magazines, a while ago, and had an epiphany, that I could use it to make a cool zig-zag scarf.  It didn't take long to get from there to the idea of a Kermit the Frog scarf, emulating the little green pointy collar he has around his neck.  The technique worked perfectly and was so easy!  Maybe I'll use it again sometime to do something more harlequin-y.

Having done a Kermie scarf, I thought the pink and purple one I followed up with might suit Miss Piggy, since it made me think of her purple opera gloves.  I chose a bunch of colours for evenly spaced stripes in the warp and then did a two-colour stripe for the weft.  It's nicer than this, in person, I just couldn't get the colours right in the photo.

More to come!

The Season for Scarves

So it's that time of year again, where I occupy my weaving loom (Miss Bennet) with a whole series of quick and fun and colourful scarves for donation.  This year I inadvertently started out with a bit of a Disney theme, since my first inspiration was to weave a scarf for all the little girls who want to be Elsa, from Frozen.  I just picked a handful of representative colours and did the warp randomly, and the weft in little stripes of two colours.

Then my next thought was of a recent favourite Disney lady of mine, Merida, from Brave.  I did a tartan-ish design (she's Scottish, so duh) and used the colours of her dress and hair to weave it.  I really love how it turned out, particularly since I was lazy about it and just used two of the colours for weft, when there were so many more in the warp.

My third inspiration was Maleficent, from the recent movie version with Angelina Jolie.  I used a bunch of darker colours in the warp (and again two in stripes in the weft) but this time did an inlay technique with a couple of shades of green (like green misty magic.)  Well, the two shades of green turned out to be a bit too close, since they look pretty much like the same yarn, and the mist might look more like PacMan, but I still think it's really cool how it turned out.

I have another scarf on the loom right now, but am always looking for inspiration, if you have any ideas...

Ariel Socks

Even though I put a great deal of effort into knitting up my whole variegated sock yarn stash, last year, there are still times when seeing a particularly beautiful skein makes me weak in the knees.  When I saw this yarn at the Loopy Ewe, a fuzzy warm BFL called Willow, from Huckleberry Knits, I noticed not only the amazing colours but that the colourway was named Little Mermaid.  How could I resist that?

I started out using a 2.25 mm birch circular, on the first sock, but somewhere around the heel of that sock, the needle tip broke off (ugh) so I transferred everything to a 2.25 mm steel circular.  Being as the needles were the same measurement, I never imagined that the two socks would turn out so different!  You can clearly see the different ways the colours stack on each foot, and somehow it even looks like there's a limey green in the right foot (there isn't.)  It turns out that my stitches are a wee bit snugger and tidier on a steel circular.  This may change everything.

I have another variegated sock yarn on the needles right now, and it's doing something even crazier, but that will be a topic for another day.

Jollyoly Hat

A couple of weeks ago, my HLM realized it's autumn.  Soon after, he realized that his Opie Hat has gone missing, and requested another one.  I told him that I'd get around to knitting him one, soon, and then, as I was motoring through the mall on the way to an appointment, I came upon a little craft store that had some yarn in the window.  I popped in and grabbed a ball of some nice-ish acrylic to make his Opie Hat.  Then I spotted a ball of lovely soft silvery nylon/acrylic sportweight and fell in love with it.

I decided it needed to be a hat, and once I got home I started scrolling through the patterns on Ravelry to find something great.  I found the Jollyoly hat and thought that it would marry up well with this particular yarn, so I started it as soon as I was done the Opie Hat.

I got gauge right away and began to knit, only to discover after a few inches that it seemed a bit tight.  Now, if you look at the original pattern photos, they show a loose, slouchy, chic hat.  I scrolled through some of the finished projects and found a lot of snug toques.  Not exactly what I wanted.  So I improvised.  I ripped it all back to naught and cast on again, this time for one size bigger, using a size bigger needles, as well.  This time, the hat seemed loose enough for the fit I wanted.  I added an extra repeat of the design, as well, to add some length, and was mostly happy with how it fit.  Then I added the pom pom (made from a bunch of leftover madtosh tosh merino light, a pretty posh pom pom for an acrylic hat) and the weight of it helps the hat to hang just right.

Ready for autumn.

Fair Isle Hood

Throughout my years of making things, people have sometimes called me an artist, and I balk at the term, as I've usually considered myself a crafter, not an artist.  It is something that has dogged me, actually - the dividing line between art and craft - and there are only a couple of times that I've made something that I might actually consider art.

This is one of those times.

I had an idea spark in my mind one day, and the more I thought about it, the more I was amused and entertained by that idea.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought of little details (fair isle, buttons, short row shaping) that would make it perfect.  And the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to make it.

It's wool, it's not really practical, and the button is purely decorative, since it doesn't even have a buttonhole under there, so it's not really a useful object in the end (is that what makes it art?)  But it's awesome and I love it.

The 80s Want Their Socks Back

I do love to have a stockingette sock on the go, ready to grab in an instant when a project is needed on the fly, or just around when I need some simple meat & potatoes knitting.  One of the simplest ways to jazz up a simple stockingette sock is to pick a couple of cool colours and make a little stripe.  My personal go-to stripe has been a 3:1 ratio, for a few years (that is, three rows of background colour to one row of accent colour.)  I find that this ratio will use the two colours up pretty evenly, if the accent colour is also used for toe and heel and cuff.  This time, I decided to keep that ratio but double everything, so I was doing six rows of background to two rows of accent.  That way the accent stripes were a little bolder, as if these socks weren't bold enough.

The yarn is from Knit Picks Neon Stroll collection (now nearly sold out, but hopefully they'll bring some back, soon.)  The green is the one that caught my eye, a true neon green that took me back 30 years or so, to the days of multicoloured rubber bangles and layered ripped sweatshirts, worn off the shoulder.  I thought the purple would be the best colour to accent that green and voila!  The brightest socks ever.

Violets on Television

Lately, I've been feeling a real addiction to knitting socks.  Nothing complicated, either; no lace or cables or any funny business.  Just a simple toe-up stockingette tube with an afterthought heel, in self-striping yarn.

I'm not sure if it's because it's so meditative, or because sometimes life is too complicated to think about anything but stockingette, or just because I need a dose of colour after the aforementioned neverending winter (which I'm sure anyone in the northern hemisphere is mighty tired of by now.)  There is just something perfect about the simplicity of a sock like this.

Immediately after finishing the pink ones, I pulled out my next set of Felici yarns and began these.  I mourned the yarn all over again, since it's such a pleasure to knit that I had a hard time putting them down.  I love all the shades of purple of these ones, and finished them in about a week.

These colours are a bit more calm than the last pair, and nowhere near the riot of colour of my final Felici pair, now in (peaceful and meditative) production.

Something New

I've been crafting quite a bit in the last while, though you see no evidence of it around here.  I've gotten really lax with taking photos (or making my HLM take some for me.)  There are some real oldies that still haven't ever been posted.

I made a pretty exciting purchase yesterday, though, and I wanted to brag - I finally caught up with (practically) everyone I know and upgraded my old phone to a fancy new iPhone!

This means I finally got to dig out the cross-stitch iPhone case I bought last year (when I originally planned to upgrade) and do up something fancy to decorate my new toy.  I chose a relatively simple Norwegian-style snowflake, and updated it with some contemporary colours.  It's awfully pretty and springtimey, I think, and I'm quite pleased.

I have a feeling the photos around here are about to get a lot nicer.

A New Bag

The old purse I was using was a felted bag that I'd made yonks ago.  The handle started to give out, and then, despite some attempts to maintain it, it finally had to be put to rest some months ago.  I didn't have a new bag at the ready, so I just dug out this old fabric one I had, with a tattoo-print fabric and some plastic handles.  It served my purposes for a while, but ultimately was also an old bag and started to show some wear and tear.  In the last week, the zipper finally broke (on top of various other wear spots and rips in fabric, etc., so I decided it was finally time to stop procrastinating and make something new.

Fortunately I had a pattern and some fabric & notions already for a purse I'd been planning last spring, so I just took my weaving loom down from my crafting table to make room for a sewing project, and threw this baby together in the last 24 hours, natch.

A lovely batik with rainbow colours and a neutral background are paired with a coordinating purple batik handle and lining, matching purple buttons for a bit of embellishment, and a bright blue zipper just to throw everything a bit off kilter.  There are pockets inside there, too, for my phone, my keys, my coffee cup cozy.  It's got a pretty nice shape but is still not quite perfect.  A gusset would be nice, for example, and the outer fabric is a smidge too large for the lining, imho.  I will probably continue to make more purses in pursuit of just the right one to suit me for the next couple of years.  If I ever get around to it.

Galactica

For the first FO of 2014, I have a scarf, but not just any scarf.  This is the sort of scarf that only a crazy person would begin, since it is done in fingering weight yarn on 2.75mm needles.  I also had to learn a new technique (Brioche stitch) to knit it, but once I saw the design up on the Purl Bee, I just had to do it.

The first question, then, was what yarn to use to knit it.  I'm a huge fan of Madelinetosh and when I saw the Spectrum colourway of their Tosh Merino Light, I fell in love.  My skeins are a bit darker than the samples on the website, but there is still an undertone of deep purpley blue with all of the colours of the rainbow within.  I like the way that, at a distance, it appears to be more of a semisolid, but up close it is so complex and beautiful.

Brioche stitch turns out to be pretty simple and also fun to do, which made it easy to dedicate a lot of knitting time to this project.  I also wanted to get it done quickly, to make sure I got some good use out of it this winter (I'm sure that won't be a problem, given the weather lately) so I watched a ton of Battlestar Galactica while I knit row after row, inch after inch, of Brioche.  It seemed like it took forever, but according to the Ravelry page, it was actually only about 35 days.  I guess that just proves how hard it is to be monogamous to any one project.  Thank goodness I have a bunch more to work on, now.

Iris Socks

There were a few great things about participating in Camp Loopy this year - one was having a chance to make a few lovely projects, another was having the chance to buy fabulous yarn at a discount to make them.  One of the final treats is that successful participants in Camp Loopy got a free skein of fingering weight yarn at the end of Camp!  There were a few colourways to choose from, and the one I chose was called Meadow Wildflowers, a lovely blend of grassy greens and gorgeous purples.  The base yarn for the free skeins is Lorna's Laces Solemate, which I've knit with before and really like.  There's a beautiful sheen to it and a really soft touch, along with a drapiness that reminds me of bamboo blends.

I didn't fuss about with this yarn at all, but just did my simple toe-up stockingette sock, to let the colours shine.  I'm so happy with these beautiful comfortable socks!

Lilac Canuck

The second of the knitalongs was of course the first one I finished, since it's just a quick little hat.  I love the lilac colour so much, and think it really works with these cables.

The skein of Green Label Aran had plenty of yarn in it to do a third repeat of the cables before closing the top, which makes the hat just a bit longer - long enough to cover my ears in the cold, which was the idea.  I probably could have made it with a bit of a looser gauge, so it wouldn't be so snug around my big ol' head.  It's ok as is, but I feel like a bit more give would be more comfy and give more of a slouchy fit when I don't pull it all the way down.

Either way, I'm happy to have a bright spot of colour to cheer me up on those cold winter walks to work.

Winter Knitalongs

While many knitters are probably tearing their hair out trying to finish all their knitted gifts for the holidays, I'm not one of them.  There are a few reasons for this, including my general assertion that the holidays should not be about gifts so much as about spending time with loved ones, and the fact that I don't knit a lot of things for other people, being quite unabashedly selfish about how I spend my limited knitting time.

The end result, of course, is that I have time right now to join some knitalongs.

The first one I decided to indulge in is one at Hazel Knits (ravelry link) - this one is a Mystery Sock knit, with the option of knitting other patterns by the same designer if you don't want to knit the mystery sock.  I was excited about the mystery, so I started that sock cuff, but decided I didn't love it by the second clue.  I ripped them out and picked another pattern by the designer (called Lambda socks) and began that one instead.  This is the toe of the second sock - it's a really quick knit and the socks are quite lovely, too.  I'm using Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in an old club colourway called Twilight.  It's a very dark teal, nearly black, and very difficult to photograph!

Once I was doing one knitalong, it seemed easier, somehow, to fall into a second one.  This one is over at Tanis Fiber Arts, and is simply a chance to knit some accessories from TFA yarns.   I could always use another hat to brighten up my winter doldrums, so I decided to do Tanis' Cabled Canuck pattern.  Ever since I knit my Colour Affection shawl, I've had a hankering to knit something else with the Lilac colourway, so I used this chance to do it.  The pattern calls for two repeats of the cables before closing the hat at the top, but I think I'll try to squeak three out of this skein.  That will make the hat longer, to cover my ears (the project photos make it look a bit short for that) and also give me a chance to fold the ribbing up to double it up over my ears.  Get the feeling that I'm planning for some cold weather?

There's still time to join either or both of these knitalongs, if you're feeling inspired...

Kismet

I've been meaning for ages to knit myself a little sleeve for coffee to-go cups, since I keep burning my hands trying to carry my cup of Timmie's to work.  I hate the paper waste from getting a second cup to insulate, so I never do, but I also hate burning myself.  Every time I get a coffee, I think "oh yeah, I should knit one of those when I get home" but I never remember.

It just so happens that I've been spending a lot of money at The Loopy Ewe this summer (and have been ordering yarn from there for a friend, as well, to save on shipping.)  They have just started up a new customer reward program this year, and with the amount we have spent, I got (among other things) a little teeny ball of yarn and a little pattern for a coffee cup sleeve.  Perfect.

I knit it up in an hour or so, over (yet another episode of) Doctor Who.  It works like a charm.

Pretty Petals

Last week, I showed you a little teaser of the back of a cotton t-shirt I'm knitting.  On Friday night, I finished that piece and cast on for the front.

I wanted to knit the back first, to figure out exactly what I was doing, since the original design calls for both the front and back to be knitted in five separate pieces and seamed together.  While I don't mind a nice evening of mattress stitch, that seemed like a crazy amount of extra work when they could easily be knit in one piece for back and one for front.  However, doing so also means doing a lot of configuring and a lot of what knitters dread most: shaping that happens "at the same time..."

I had to put the shaping for all of the pieces together in one monster piece, and I thought it would be easier to do that on the plain stockingette of the back.  Having figured all that out, it's easy now to concentrate on enjoying the pretty flower pattern on the front of the t-shirt, bobbles and all.

Let's Recap: Anthro 101

I'm sure it's no surprise to hear that I'm waaay behind in showing things off on this blog.  Even I was surprised to see how long this one has been waiting, however.  It's over a year since I was finishing up this cardigan and wanted to show it off.  How time flies.

I won't go into great detail, here.  That old post gives all the deets on the cardi: where the inspiration came from, the yarns I used, etc.  I ended up scrapping the crocheted belt, in the end.  I just didn't feel like it did the cardigan justice.  Other than that, I think I did a pretty good job of replicating the original Anthropologie cardigan.  There are some great textures in this one, between all of the different yarns, as well as some great colours.

Another triumph for Elizabeth Zimmermann's set-in sleeve and another cute cardi for me.

Blast from the Past

I have a big stash of knitting yarns, it's true.  Enough for several sweaters and shawls and innumerable socks.  Most of the time, I've bought the yarn with a specific project in mind.  Of course, when I bought it, I was chomping at the bit to get started on that particular project.  All too often, I get distracted by one thing or another, and it is shelved while I get excited about something else.  In some cases, the yarn has been sitting in there for ages, just waiting for me to be inspired to pick it up again.

This particular project has been in my Ravelry queue for four years.  It's a summer project - a little cotton t-shirt - so every summer I intend to make it, and then the summer sneaks on by and I put it back down the queue for next summer.  Well, a couple of days ago, having finished the afghan, the shawl, the hats, I realized how few projects I had on the needles right now.  And I can't start my next Camp Loopy project until August 1st, so...  I felt inspired to cast this one on, and didn't hesitate.

Perhaps it looks a bit odd right now for a t-shirt, but all will be revealed soon enough.  (I hope.)