Knitting Recap 2018

Good thing I take photos of my work (most of the time) and good thing the photos are dated in the program.  Some of these patterns are on Ravelry, some from purchases at markets or shops and some from my collection.  

Royal Jacket (Elizabeth Knits) 

Home made Blocking board

Lola Headwrap  Oct 2018

Quilted Princess (Elizabeth Knits) Oct. 2018

crochet- cat pod

Hand warmers  misc. patterns 

All over Lace   Lanaknits

quilted princess (Jan 2018) Elizabeth Knits

Love Heart crochet (Elizabeth Knits)

Pussy Hats April 2018

Hansel  by Gudrun Johnston  June 2018

My Market Bags

Silverleaf  Isager Strik Alpaca Aug 2018

Entrelac Cowl- noro silk garden Nov 2018

Mackinac Beanie by Heather Anderson

Looped on YouTube Nov 2018

High Sierra Shawl  Room Hill (Nov 2018)

my design  

C2C  dec 2018

Crochet simple gloves by Bronislava  (Dec 2018)

Strip Quilt for Butte Dec 2018

Men and Women's Cable Gloves #617 (Dec 2018)

Slalom from Guys Knit  Nathan Taylor (Nov 2018)

Sharing a Wool Week Adventure

Paula is courageous and adventurous. She shared the experience of traveling (alone) to Wool Week on the Shetland Islands at a meeting of the Sonoma Community Center Fiber Arts group.   She described the wonder of the landscapes, the creativity and resilience of the townspeople, the food, the fibers and the wonderful instructors.    It was a great presentation and I would guess that she inspired most to take a crafting trip.  

Here she is with her Sonoma County Fair Award winning blanket.   All natural wool (no dyes), knit in the round and then Steeked.   I think Paula had over 700 + stitches on the needle as she knit the border.    A true labor of love and respect for the craft.

This is a Shetland Style Shawl, knit by Suzzane.

Absolutely stunning.

Ladies, Thank you for sharing.

A Little Swing Jacket

There are so many designs running around inside my head....

 and I love to knit them, but to get it written down is a chore.   I've created formulas, read about writing patterns, taken classes on the subject,  written patterns and had them tech edited before,  but it just seems that I need to be in the right frame of mind for all of it to click.    It takes time: constructing it, engineering the process, figuring out the math and then editing the work.    

I designed and knit this pattern years ago, but never finished writing it all out...

So last week I picked the draft up and started knitting and writing again.  Today the pattern is complete and was just posted on Ravelry (ElizSCKnits) and Love Knitting....

Pattern on Ravelry  Elizscknits

This is knit top down and in the round.  No seams and very little weaving in of yarn tails. 

Sleeve stitches on a stitch holder or yarn

Dividing the sections of the yoke

Knitting the body and adding the swing

 

 

 After knitting the body and seed stitch hem, it's time to knit the sleeves in the round using two circular needles.   Here I have transfered the sleeve stitches from the holder to a circular a needle and picked up three (3) stitches at the underarm.    The Sleeve will be knit in the round.

Underarm stitches

Catching up: A collection of Seamlessly Simple Knit Sweaters

The ballet slippers are done in a duplicate stitch.   

Lake Louse 2015

Flash back to Lake Louise, Canada

At the end of my Vogue Knitting Cruise to Alaska, I met with friends and rode the Rocky Mountaineer to Banff.   The ride was incredible, beautiful valleys, majestic mountains and a river ran through it all.    Beyond a doubt the most inpactful location was Lake Louise..such a special feeling, the colors and icy water,  sounds of running water and wind flowing through the trees.   I definitely plan on returning to this lovely place. 

Zippers in sweaters.

Installing zippers in Children's sweaters is not as hard as it may seem and the sweaters look fantastic.  

What you need:

1.  Separating zipper,  I like the bright heavy plastic ones.  Measure the front band of your cardigan and make sure the zipper you purchase to not longer then your measurement.   (13" band buy a 12" zipper).

2. Thread - best to have a color matching your sweater yarn.

3. Straight pins- the longer quilt pins are very good for this job.

4. Grosgrain ribbon, for the finishing on the inside of the zipper.  Double the length of your zipper plus 5 " for length of ribbon needed.   This can be a decorative ribbon, but make sure that it is not wider the 1".  I'll show you how to add this in a future post.


Step 1
A. With a closed zipper, pin the zipper to the band.  The edge of the band should be a scant distance from the teeth of the zipper.  You do not want the zipper to catch.  
Test it by running the zipper up and down, it should do so easily.

B. You can now hand baste (a long running stitch) the zipper and band together so that the pins can be removed.

Step 2

A. Match the left and right band up so that the zipper will be centered up and down.  

notice the zipper teeth are showing and that's OK
You want the space for the zipper to pass through easily

.

In my blue sample I have decided to overlap the bands, so I will be pinning the second zipper inside further into where the band and sweater meet.  

Step 3
A. open the zipper.

B. fold the top and bottom of the zipper to the inside.

C.  hand stitch the zipper to each band. The hand stitches are made in the middle of the zipper band not close to the teeth.

The back stitch is a great secure stitch to use.
Backstitch guide link






D. notice the slip stitches around the folded end of zipper (above) and that when the seam is sewn, the edges of the band are not sewn close to the teeth of the zipper.   I pinned the edge over on this completely sewn band.   The zipper head must have room to move up and down.

Center seamed zipper

Finished sweater.
 That's a cross stitch ballet slipper... directions to follow. in a future post..

FINISHING-  Adding the grosgrain ribbon and finishing the sweater........ To Be Continued