Spring knitting

The local stitch and bitch held another knit exchange yesterday evening. The theme was spring colours and cables, and as usual there were some neat projects. I got a pretty felted clutch, which I'll photograph later.

For my contribution, it was a bit of a challenge to find non-garment, gender-neutral item to make.

The pattern is my own, which is basically a 13in x 13in square for the front and two rectangles for the back: one was 13in x 8in and the other 13in x 6in, each finished with a 2 stitch i-cord bind off. The back pieces overlap to make an opening for a 12in x 12in pillow form.

I used 100g of Araucania Nature Wool from Piper's Quilts knit on US 6 (4.2mm) needles. The stitches used are Moss stitch, Wheat Ear Rib from Barbara Walker's treasuries and Celtic Vine from Encyclopedia of Knitting. While knitting, I noticed that Wheat Ear rib has an interesting reverse side.

A few notes about Nature Wool: the manufacturer's suggested gauge of 4.5 stitches per inch is too loose for this yarn in most applications, washing caused a lot of colour bleeding and it pills considerably with friction. On the other hand, the variegated colours are beautiful and managed not to pool, and the final fabric is fairly soft.

Waiting room knitting

It's time for another project spectrum photo, so this is a good time to show the waiting room mittens. I used a basic mitten pattern and leftover yarn.

Basic wool mittens
Originally uploaded by thraceknits.

Coronet and more

I'm too tired right now to make up a witty (or witless) title. I finished C's hat last week. It's been washed, dried and shaved: this wool fuzzes somewhat with handling and pills after washing, but looks great (at least for now) once the loose bits get removed.

And here's the top.

Pattern

Coronet by Alexandra Virgiel from Knitty winter 2003.

Materials

Two skeins (approximately 77 grams) of Mission Falls 1824 wool in denim on US 7 (4.5 mm) needles at a gauge of about 5 stitches per inch after washing and drying.

Mods

I made the band using a horseshoe cable (same number of rows as the original) and worked a slipped stitch selvedge at each edge of the cable band. The hat was also knit up as a beanie, so I picked up stitches (84 stitches) for the hat body with the right side of the cable band facing out. I used C's most worn knit hat as a guide for diameter (10 inches, 25.4 cm) and depth (8.75 inches, 22.22 cm unstretched).

As you can see from the photo, C is on crutches. There was a snowboarding injury on Saturday involving his board edge and a rocky slope resulting in a fractured kneecap. It's funny, but I figured that I would get the first serious snowboarding injury around here. We spent a total of 10 hours (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest) getting him medical care; enough time for me to finish one mitten minus the thumb and start it's mate (I always have knitting when we go play outside, in case I need a break). I'll post photos later.

In other knitting news, I took the Kilim-style hot pad knitting class at Black Sheep weekend before last, and why not? I've done very little colour work and figured I could benefit from some advanced expertise. The tips I picked up will apply to stranded colour knitting as well.



The hot pad (main colour is Harrisville New England Highland, contrasting colour and backing is Cascade 220) we started as a sampler for a kilim-style mosaic knitted rug turned out fine, although it puckers a little at the sides. I'll have to carry the yarn more loosely next time. Since I did end up buying the rug pattern, I guess I'll have to practice.

The beginnings of a coronet

This hat has been featured twice before on this blog.



C asked me to make him something knitted, and I need an easier project to do when my brain turns to jelly at the end of the day. A couple of skeins of soft superwash wool that I bought last year in Saratoga Springs fit the bill nicely.