Tag Archives: Fair Isle knitting

Love is the Law Cap

Knitting, My original hand knitting patterns, Original Patterns, Pattern from Ravelry, , , , , , , ,

In 2013 Minnesotans voted against the ban for same-sex marriage. Then, Minnesota was the first state in which the citizens voted to give same-sex couples the right to marry. . . the campaign was called “Love is the Law” Then the US Supreme court ruled marriage is a right for ALL couples!

so to honor all those new couples getting married I designed a A new hat pattern and I’m calling in it, “Love is the Law Cap”.

The cable pattern around the brim of the hat looks like intersecting wedding rings.  These hats are uni-sex and perfect for any couple you know getting married!

Find the pattern on my Ravelry page!

It’s a race! Cold weather vs. finished pullover.

Knitting, On My Needles, , , , , ,

I love the local library! I found a gem of a book titled,”Latvian Dreams, Knitting from Weaving Patterns” by Joyce Williams. It was full of charts with geometric designs. The sweater patterns in the book were fashioned after the gansey, very little shaping, with the focus on the two color patterns. The sweater is knit in a traditional style of knitting in the round and using steeks at armholes and collar.

I decided to try the “High Park Pullover”. In the book it is shown in blue and white – but I think (and am hoping) that I have enough fine weight alpaca to knit this (with long sleeves). Years ago I bought tons of alpaca yarn from Richness Alpaca. I’ve been looking for a project to use it all up and I have found it!

I am racing the snow – my goal is to be wearing this sweater the first time I shovel!

High Park Pullover
15 more rows and I am at the collar!

The first inch of rows were the hardest. Now that I have figured out the repeats I don’t have to look at every stitch on the chart while knitting. I’ve had to frog a few rows but luckily not too often.

Bottom of sweater
Bottom of alpaca hand knit sweater

The book has a fun approach to the sweater patterns. Charts show the geometric patterns in the shape of the sweaters. Gauges for different weight yarns are listed and depending on which yarn you use you adjust the pattern by number of repeats. For my sweater I added 20 stitches to the charted pattern in order to get the correct size – One 10st repeat for the front and one for the back.

Alpaca sweater, center stitches

I can’t wait to get to the sleeve – see how clever the design is where the sleeves meets the body of the sweater! I’ll have to walk around waving my arms in the air to show it off.

Photo of underarm for High Park pullover

I can get one round done in about 20 minutes. The sweater is charted at 270 rows. . .  (not including the sleeves, I haven’t looked at those yet) I don’t want to do the math! I’m planning on working both sleeves at the same time because I’ll have to tweak the pattern and also because I’m not sure how far my different colors of yarn will stretch. Knitting both sleeves at the same time will help me use up the yarn and make sure the sleeves look the same. The sleeves are worked from the top down, picking up sts at the armholes and working down to the cuffs, and that’s a lot of fabric on my lap. Doing both sleeves at the same time prevents sleeve slap (that happens while turning the sweater to knit the second sleeve and the one that is done swings around and slaps you).

I’ll post pics of me in it – shovelling.

New!! Knit cap becomes dish warmer!

Knitting, , , ,
"Hat warmer!"
Norwegian hand knit cap, becomes dish warmer

This picture is a bit old. . . it was taken Thanksgiving 2010. We cooked greens for our family get together and needed a way to keep them warm on the car ride to my brother’s house. Aha! Grab that old cap I knit about 10 years ago. It worked perfectly!

2/2 ribbed brim turned down
It actually made the perfect dish warmer!

Turn down the brim and it fit.

Greens arrived still hot!

Fun with Fair Isle Color Knitting

Fullled knitting, Knitting, On My Needles, Original Patterns, , , , , ,
Hand knit coasters
Knit and fulled Coasters

I have a great collection of mitten and sock pattern books that I love to page through and look at the designs. Sometimes I crave a small knitting project in color work but I don’t want to spend the time it takes to knit a pair of mittens or socks. . . so I came up with a great idea.

Fulled coasters in Fair Isle knitting!!

hand knit fair isle coaster
Knit and Fulled Coaster #7

Thinking that the fulling would prevent the dreaded stockinette roll I was sadly mistaken. Taking a different approach, I knit the second one starting with 3 stitches, increasing each side to approx 30 stitches wide, then decreasing each side down to three stitches. I ended up with a square coaster that didn’t roll. For some reason working the color pattern on the diagonal resulted in flat coasters! COOL!

Hand knit fair isle coaster

I had odd amounts of 100% wool yarn from Gale Woods Farm that worked out great; the worsted weight worked up really fast, the wool fulled easily and I could use up my odd amounts. I knit these on size 9 needles and fulled them in the washing machine.

It was a little tricky changing the orientation of the designs. If the design was set in a diamond already it was easy to knit the Fair Isle and work the increases and decreases without worry. But a few of these I had to rechart to keep my place while knitting and shaping.

It was also a fun way to see how the pattern looks when different colors became the foreground or background.

Fair Isle knit and fulled coaster

Fair Isle knit and fulled coaster
These coasters are the same design but the colors are reversed.

Fair Isle knit and fulled coaster

I’m going to remember this. Next time I knit a big project using color work, I will first knit a few coasters while experimenting with the color.

Fair Isle knit and fulled

Look what I found in my closet!

Knitting, My original hand knitting patterns, Original Patterns, , , ,

I was rooting around in my yarn boxes the other day and found this sweater that I knit TEN years ago! The poor thing needed one sleeve sewn in and the collar knit. Lucikly there was a partial skein of each of the yarns left in the box with the sweater so I could knit the collar.
I must have been planning for the future when designing this because it fits me now. This would look so great on the slopes . . . if only I were a skier!

Peasant birds sweater

I have a book of charts titled “Charted Peasant Designs from Saxon Transylvania” and spend many an hour looking through the charts in awe. These birds always attracted me and now I find I’ve knit them into a sweater! I totally forgot about this sweater. . . hard to believe.
Peasant bird sweater 2

The sweater is knit in the round and armholes are steeked. The yarn is Plymouth Galway.
Front of sweater on the body formsweater front shown laing flat

I also love that curly cue “S” design. The shoulders have two stripes of this “S”design on the front and the back.
Peasant birds top of sweater
It also runs up the sides of the body and the sides of the sleeves. I knit the sleeves in the round and worked the increases on each side of the stripe. Makes a good looking sleeve!
Sleeve underarm

Another pair of noteworthy mitts (fingerless that is)

Knitting, My original hand knitting patterns, Original Patterns, , , , , , , ,

A lovely guitar playing friend of mine ordered a pair of my mitts. . . I’ve made quite a few pair of these and always in wool. However, my friend is allergic to wool. So I just jumped in and decided to knit them in cotton. I knit these fingerless mitts in Comfy Sport from Knit Picks – colors are Cypress and October.

I wasn’t sure how they would work up in cotton and I must say they are really soft and worked up quickly. Cotton sure doesn’t have the memory of cotton though. . . I’m afraid the ribbed cuffs might splay out on her. I did wash and dry these once and the blocked out nicely.

Hand knit fingerless Mitts
Cotton knit fingerless mitts

You can find this pattern in Ravelry

or at my Etsy Store

Sean in his Vest

Knitting, Original Patterns, , , ,

I knit this vest for my father-in-law and love how it turned out.

I knit it in Peace Fleece, the background color is called Father’s Grey.

I’m still in the process of editing the pattern but hopefully it will available for sale soon.

Hand knit man's vest
Proud wearer of Sean's Vest

He seems as pleased with it as I am.

I wanted something with color but not too much color.

I wanted a “manly” vest and I really like the stripes alongside the button/neck ribbing.

Hand knit Man's Vest
Close up of Sean's Vest

I steeked the front band, armholes and neck while knitting.

This yarn worked up wonderfully and sewing the steeks back went easily.

Hand knit man's vest
What a great model!

What a great model heh?!

Peace Fleece Vest for Sean

Knitting, Original Patterns,

Oooh I love how this vest turned out. I orderd some Peace Fleece this fall (the grey background is called “Father’s Gray”) with the intentions of making a vest for my father-inlaw. I wanted something a bit sophisticated but also a color pattern. I am very pleased with my results!! The pattern for this vest is in progress and hopefully I’ll have it done soon.

It worked up very quickly since it is knit in the round with steeked front and armholes. The ribbing edges were done last.

These photos aren’t the best  – can’t wait to photograph it on Sean!!

Sean's Vest Front view
Fair Isle hand knit vest

The buttons are from a jacket that I had ages ago. . .when the jacket was worn thin and I retired it to the trash, I saved these nice metal buttons.

Sean's vest back view
Hand knit fair isle vest

Look for the pattern in the near future!

Fingerless Mitt knitting pattern for Musicians!

Knitting, My original hand knitting patterns, , , , , ,

I often play the fiddle in colder conditions than I would like and have been craving an “appropriate” pair of fingerless mitts.

Now I have three to choose from!

I am really excited about this pattern! Notice how the foreground/background colors change from one mitt to the next?

One has a blue treble clef on beige background, the other has a beige treble clef on a blue background.

Noteworhty Fingerless Mitts for me!

Fingerless Mitts
Fingerless Mitts

Fiber: Le Fibre NobiliTajmahal, 70% superfine merino, 22% silk, 8% cashmere; 170m[50g]1 3/4  oz: 2 skeins blue, 1 skein ecru
Needles:US 3 & 4 dpns or circulars   7 1/2″ circumference, 9″ long

Fingerless Mitts
Fingerless Mitts

Fiber: Kimmet Croft Fibers, Fairy Hair, 40% Angora/60% Merino, 2 ply-laceweight, 2oz/375 yards, 1 skein each color
Needles: US 1 & 2 dpns or circulars
Size: 6 1/2″ circumference, 8″ long

Fingerless mitts
Fingerless mitts

Fiber:Louet Gems, 100% Merino, fine-sport weight, 100g/225 yards, 1 skein each color
Needles:US 2 & 3 dpns or circulars
Size: 7″ circumference, 9 1/2″ long

The treble clef pattern is charted only and the pattern is available in Pdf form from my Etsy store

or Ravelry

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.