Knitting – Page 2 – Hopefully Creative

Doggie DPN Roll

Finally a place to store my double pointed knitting needles.

So, at some point in the distant past, I got hold of some DPNs, double pointed knitting needles. DPNs are needles that are used for knitting small things, or things in the round, or i-cord. I used them for the dragon, for example. As I am wont to do, this meant the start of a DPN collection. I never set about to find storage for them though, and that was a problem. They’ve been left in plastic bags, pen-things, stabbed into a cardboard box and I’ve found them in all kinds of places. But no more!

I set out to create a storage for them that was similar to my interchangeable knitting needle storage. Found some fabric in the hoard that had cute dogs on it, some semi-coordinating fabric for the needle pockets and got to work. I first had to sort all the DPNs into size and length to figure out how many and how big the pockets would be. I ended up with 19 different needle size/shape/length combinations from <2.0 mm to 9.0 mm in diameter.

Full view of DPN holder with plastic covers, green dotted needle pockets and dogs in the background

Since the doggy fabric was a specific width, the case would be a maximum of that wide. The height was determined by the longest DPNs I had, so it turned out around 37 cm. I cut out the front and back from the doggies and some batting for the middle. Then cut a long strip of coordinating dotty fabric to into the pockets. Sewed down one end and just started putting the DPNs in and sewed the pocket down so they fit somewhat snuggly.

The interchangeable needle storage has a plastic flap over the top to stop the needles falling out. This works really well, so I decided to implement it in the Doggy case too. Since there is such variation in length, and I didn’t think to split first by length then by width, there are actually two plastic covers, one for the shortish needles and one for the longer ones. To combat the ones on the end falling out, so I made a tiny flap on the side too. I sewed down all the flaps, and bound the edges of the whole thing. Made some spaghetti straps from a coordinating fabric, wrote the sizes with a textile marker and called it a day.

I love this thing and it has already brought so much joy!

Cowltopus

Joining a mystery knit along to make an octopus inspired “cowl”.

For the first time ever, I participated in a Mystery Knit-a-long (MKAL) last month. A KAL is a project where you get some part of the instructions and should complete those in a set time period. Mystery just means that you haven’t got a clue what the end result is going to be.

Sometime in September, I saw the announcement for the Cowltopus MKAL by Laura Nelkin, an MKAL that was to take place in October. It was on sale and it seemed like a fun idea, and I really like octopuses, so what could go wrong? Well, I forgot about it until about two days after the first clue came out and I hadn’t done any of the prep work. The prep included finding the right yarn and swatching it. I found the yarn I wanted to use, but it still needed to be dyed.

Glas octopus with yellow, retrieved https://www.oceanactionhub.org/octopus-species/

Glass octopus with orange and brown, retrieved https://octolab.tv/species/glass-octopus/

The pattern calls for DK weight yarn around 225 m/100 grams. There should be a main colour and a contrast colour, and both can be composed of mini skeins or just a single colour skein. There should be contrast between the MC and CC and gradients are encouraged. So I looked on the internet for different kinds of octopuses and settled on the quite elusive Glass Octopus Vitreledonella richardi. To match the inspiration, my MC was one full skein of Ultra DK in light blue. For the contrast, I chose to split a skein of Ultra DK into four section and dye them in a gradient from yellow to chestnut/brown.

Two skeins of yarn, left Contrast yarn from yellow outside to brown inside, right Main yarn in light blue

All skeins of yarn for the cowltopus. From left to right, yellow mini skein, orange mini skein, blue full skein, dark orange mini skein, brown mini skein

Once the yarn had dried, the gauge swatch got going. The swatch indicated that I had to size up my needles a little because I couldn’t get gauge otherwise. The first clue had come out on October 3rd, and was supposed to be done by the time clue 2 would be released a week later. I managed to get my yarn dyed and swatch ready by the 7th. On the 13th, I finished clue 1, to get right back on with clue 2.

Hood with yellow - orange gradient, end of clue 1 — Clue 1

Clue 2 went really smoothly and was actually finished on time, done by the 14th. This wasn’t super challenging yet, so I sailed right through it. The only new things were magic knots and needing to pay attention to the stitches. The third clue was where it got interesting. There were two options, brioche knit or ribbing. So I decided to learn something new and got going on the brioche. It wasn’t as scary as I was worried about. The instructions and video companion were very helpful and it all went according to plan.

Hood with yellow - orange - dark orange gradient, with brioche edge, end of clue 3 — Clue 3

Clue 4 was the last clue and where we were finishing the cowl – that turned out to be a hood. It was more brioche but now with waves in it. Actually quite fun to knit! The pattern is designed in a way that you shouldn’t run out of yarn unless you choose to ignore the instructions – my bad. I was supposed to start the end with 4 grams remaining, but I had 3.6 grams of yarn left. In the end, I had to tie in 15 cm of leftover yarn from the dying process to get the last few stitches finished.

Finished cowltopus with knitted octopus — Clue 4

Finished cowltopus, end of clue 4 — Clue 4

I enjoyed learning new things and not knowing exactly what was going to happen throughout the KAL. I’m not discounting doing one again even though the resulting hood isn’t totally my style. I’m very happy that one of my colours was solid, because the finished hoods from other knitters are overwhelmingly busy. I’ve not found much reason to wear it yet, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. Sometimes having a fun process is more important than having a good result.

Batwing Knit

A vintage knitting machine pattern in some muted fall colours.

The booklet that came with my knitting machine also had a pattern for a striped ladies pullover with V-neck, DP 2219. This seemed like a fun thing to do with the knitting machine that wasn’t a rectangle of some sort, so I set out on a quest to complete the pullover. This started with dyeing yarn. I chose upcycled quarter round yarn, a sock weight with 425 m/100 g and tried to dye it in the colour scheme of a picture I found on the internet.

It didn’t turn out the way I hoped, although I’m not sure exactly what I was hoping for. However, once I started knitting it up, I knew it didn’t really fall within the colours I would love to wear. Still determined to see if the pattern would work, I continued. I made one major change, by decreasing the depth of the v-neck, but apart from that followed the instructions. I finished knitting the front and back, and blocked them. Then I lost motivation and it sat in a bag for a while until I met up with a friend. These colours suit her much better, and I knew I needed some sort of external motivation if I were to ever finish it, so I asked if she might be interested. She was.

Batwing knitting machine sweater on a dress form, front

Batwing knitting machine sweater on a dress form, v-neck detail

So I knit the neckband and after some cursing and annoyance managed to get that installed in a way I liked. It’s probably not the way the pattern intended, but it’s on there now, so it’ll do! The sleeves and bottom still rolled quite badly, so I decided that it needed cuffs. I first knit some in a mock rib on the knitting machine and had them attached before deciding that the join was too awful. So I ripped it all back, cast on ribbing and knit it by hand, both around the cuffs and the bottom.

Batwing knitting machine sweater laid on the floor, front up

Batwing knitting machine sweater laid out on the floor

I think I probably asked before summer whether my friend was interested (providing no guarantees on when it would be completed) and it still took me until September to get it finished, but it is done! She enjoys it, I’m happy to have made something out of the yarn that I wouldn’t use for myself, I liked testing the pattern and doing something different on the machine. A bit delayed, but still a win in the end!

Tea Cup Scarf

Loopy scarf that pretends to be a teacup.

One of my friends had a birthday in August and I decided to use this as an opportunity for gift giving and reducing my yarn stash. I still had more of that pink stuff laying around that would suit someone who likes pink a lot better. Inspiration was easily found since Pinterest had thrown up a ‘tea cup scarf‘ at some point, and I knew she liked tea.

Rolled up pink and brown scarf that vaguely resembles a teacup

Skein of brown variegated yarn with a label reading Arequipa Singles and other details.

So I set out to dye some Arequipa singles yarn in ‘tea brown’ (some combination of ‘brown’ and ‘chestnut’), and after it dried, just started knitting on the knitting machine. I cast on 60 stitches on gauge 5 and just zoomed my way through almost the entire ball. I held back a few meters of brown for finishing, then attached the pink yarn and knit until that also ran out. With the last sections, I knit a ‘handle’ for the cup. Then everything got blocked on the hoard room floor, taking up the entire length. This seemed a little.. much.

Pink and brown knitted scarf with a loop on a mannequin

Pink and brown knitted scarf with a loop and a knit tea-bag on a mannequin

To remedy that problem, I made the scarf double layered by bringing the brown end up to the start of the brown and knitting down the sides and doing the same thing with the pink. I also added the handle when I was sewing down the pink sides. To complete the teacup look, I knit a small pouch (to hold some stitch markers) and attached a little tea-bag-label with an embroidered cup. I think it turned out pretty cool and it was a fun way to deal with some more of the pink, while making sure it went to a better home than mine!

Portia Shawl

Three triangles together for a geometric scarf.

When trawling Ravelry for more patterns to diminish my stash of yarn, I found this interesting shaped shawl: Portia Shawl by Corrie Purdum. It’s basically three triangles together to form three quarters of square. The claim is that because of those points at the front, it stays over the shoulders well. With the summer happening, I haven’t been able to fully test this, but I expect it to be true.

Portia Shawl in gray and green on a mannequin

For the yarn, I chose Krypton sock yarn (100% merino), dyed unsaturated black with dark green in March of 2023. I actually have another ball of this, and this shawl didn’t finish a full ball, so if anyone has suggestions for a project that uses 100 g + a little bit extra, let me know!

Portia Shawl in gray and green being blocked on light blue blocking mats

Detail of eyelet pattern of Portia Shawl in gray and green

The pattern is straight forward and once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly easy to memorize. For fun, I added one extra repeat in the big central diamond shape. The pattern indicates that this scarf needs to be blocked to within an inch of its life. I didn’t manage to stretch it as far as I should’ve. I’m unsure how anyone would manage. I did enjoy playing with my new blocking wires, it does make it easier when you have a meter wire instead of 30-40 cm.

I made a choice with the blocking that the back edge would be blocked to little points, while the ‘sides’ would be blocked straight. This results in different kinds of edges which I think is interesting. I also like that the green randomly appears every now and again. I’m now just waiting for fall for some better shawl wearing times!

Dye Fun!

Some more dye experiments – olive does weird things..

I recently got to spend a lovely afternoon with a colleague, playing with dye and bleach and trying some new things.

Detail of one skein of alpaca yarn dyed brilliant blue and periwinkle with gunmetal speckles on a black shale background

We mostly used Alpaca 4 ply yarn, and dye in three shades of blue (brilliant, royal and sky), periwinkle and gunmetal grey.

One skein of alpaca yarn dyed brilliant blue and periwinkle with gunmetal speckles

Turns out that if you put too much blue in, the variation gets lost. To get some variation back, we put some bleach over it, but it didn’t do all that much. Maybe my bleach was too old or it just doesn’t work. We decided to tried again with only brilliant blue, the periwinkle and some gunmetal speckles. A much more defined result.

One ball of alpaca yarn dyed brilliant blue and periwinkle with gunmetal speckles

One ball of upcycled quarter round dyed brilliant blue and periwinkle with gunmetal speckles

As a contrast to the blues with periwinkle, we also did a silver grey one. It’s always amazing to see how you end up with clear water after dumping in a bunch of dye.

One hank of alpaca yarn dyed silver gray hanging

One skein of alpaca yarn dyed silver gray

For some variety, we dumped some dye labeled ‘olive’ in the pan, and added two skeins of kid silk, and one alpaca 4ply. The yarn turned entirely green first before becoming orange-ish? It was as if it entirely split; super interesting to watch and I should’ve time-lapsed it, somehow.

Two hanks of kid silk lace yarn and one hank of alpaca yarn dyed olive hanging

Two hanks of kid silk lace yarn dyed olive hanging

One of the blue ones and the olive yarn stayed in my house while the rest went home with my colleague. It was a good afternoon and I do really love experimenting!

Newsboy Cap & Beret

Two green wooly hats, with brim and without.

I have so much dyed yarn and not enough projects, so I cast on for a quick and easy hat to reduce the stash by one ball of yarn. The yarn was Donegal DK yarn, dyed with dark greens in December of 2023. I chose the Knitted Newsboy Cap by Nicola Robinsonova as the pattern.

I first cast on for a hat on 4.5 mm needles, and was on gauge following the instructions. The pattern is very easy and I managed to finish it fairly quickly, however, when I put it on my head it was more a beret than a newsboy cap. A bit too tight for my liking. I did continue to knit the brim to see how it would work together. I own some plastic brim inserts so I modified the brim pattern a little bit by knitting short rows to mimic the insert’s shape better. I pinned it together and it was just too tight.

Two differently sized newsboy caps on a ruler background

Newsboy Cap in dark green with blue buttons

Luckily, the pattern also listed a more slouchy version using 5.5 mm needles and after weighing my leftover yarn, I hoped I would have enough. So I crossed my fingers and cast on. Who knew that 1 extra mm of diameter would make such a difference! This new version is a perfect amount of slouch and makes a lovely hat. To add a safety/fun touch, I also knit a band with reflective yarn that’s attached with two very cute blue buttons. When I cycle in the dark, I should light up!

Leftover yarn from the knitted newsboy cap

Newsboy cap in dark green with detail of blue button

There is less than a meter of this yarn left, and my bucket of dyed yarn has reduced in size a little bit. My stash of hats has increased by two: one green beret and one green slouchy brimmed hat. Best way to ‘mess up’ a project is to end up with two great end products!

Experimental Pinks

Experimenting with colours and knitting machine settings.

At some point, I did some experimenting with dyeing yarn with some red sprinkles. I wasn’t a fan of the end result because it was very pink, and pink is the nemesis colour. So I decided to still use it but gift the resulting thing to a friend and get it out of my house. It was also a great opportunity to try out different things with my knitting machine.

I cast on almost the full bed of my knitting machine, since there are some broken bits not all needles can be used. Then started knitting as normal, decreasing one stitch on one side every four rows. The first thing I tried was gauge stripes (one of the examples in my instruction manual), by knitting rows with the largest gauge (10) and decreasing one step in the gauge every four rows until gauge two. Next, I changed the gauge every three rows, when that was finished every two rows and I even ended up doing 1 row per gauge change. It’s a fun progression to see.

Some simple flat rows came after before continuing with a different example in the instruction manual where two rows are knitted on a small gauge that makes tight stitches and then two rows knitting on a high gauge with looser stitches. The book also had a pattern with putting stitches on hold that looked quite interesting, like a hole with two lines of yarn through it. Because this was quite a lot of work per stitch, I only did a few rows of this.

I tried a section where I decreased every fourth stitch and then put those needles that no longer have a stitch out of work. When knitting, this creates a slightly larger hole between the stitches still in work and the non-knit needle. I like this one. To go back to normal, you add a stitch back to the needles that were out of work and put them back in work. The last one was a cable inspired pattern, I think. It didn’t work as nicely on the knit side of the scarf, so I’m not sure I’ll use it again.

Once all of the knitting on the main piece was concluded, before Christmas, the scarf disappeared into a bag to be forgotten. Until the start of April, when I decided that it was probably time to finish the thing. I wanted to add an anti-roll edge so I did the same thing as in my previous pirate’s cove scarf. It took most of the day, but I did manage to finish it. It’s been wet blocked to hopefully keep the shape.

It has since found its new owner and although I doubt it’ll be worn soon (summer and all that), I hope that it’ll be a useful addition to my friends wardrobe!

Roxy Blues!

All the blues in this sweater

Browsing Ravelry a while ago, I found a pattern that I really liked, called
Roxy Sweater by Lucienne Tricote. I even added it to my Queue on Ravelry, not an often used feature for me. To make it a reality, I needed a yarn that wasn’t too stripy, but I also didn’t want a solid colour sweater. So I decided to use multiple dyes to create a variation of shades of blue. The most accurate colour is in the final image of the post.

So I dyed some Gold Sport 300 yarn by putting four skeins into my chafing dish and adding different shades of blue over the top. I chose the Jacquard dyes 621-626, Sky Blue, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Blue, Turquoise, Royal Blue and Navy Blue. Then I added a little 637 Gun Metal. The gun metal didn’t do much apart from somehow producing a few green spots? I decided not too care too much about that.

For the body, I cast on in twisted German cast on on size 3.75 needles, but this seemed tight. I knit the rib section and up to the row of eyelets. Then started the sleeves by casting on the stitches on size 4.5 needles (I think), this felt a lot better, much stretchier. Once the sleeves were done, I continued with the body until the point where the sleeves were supposed to be connected to the body. This was the single most boring knit I’ve ever done. I was so frustrated with the absolutely endless stockinette that I almost wanted to chuck it into a corner for a century. I did, however, persevere!

Once I had the body and sleeves at the right length, I decided that I hated the body cast on too much, so I cut it out. It was replaced by a much stretchier cast off. The body and sleeves were attached together and that marked the start for more interesting knitting, with the raglan sleeve decreases, the eyelet section and the garter stitch bit. I had to redo the neck section four times, too tight, too low, too stretchy, etc. I’m happy with what I ended up with though. The finished product is a little shorter than the pattern calls for, because I wanted to wear it with my dark dungarees. This is now my favourite outfit even if I will try to avoid endless stockinette handknitting with yarn this thin for a good long while.

Anna Crop Top

All the greens in a little crop sweater

I was looking through Ravelry again, as I sometimes do, and found a crop top sweater that looked really cool. It was the Anna Crop Top from Wiam’s Crafts and I decided that I needed one. So I grabbed some of my Ultra Aran and put it in the chafing dish. The sprinkle effect was created by putting 5 dye colours and citric acid in a little salt shaker and just shaking it all over the yarn. The colours were Jacquard Acid Dyes Spruce, Kelly Green, Chartreuse, Teal, and Emerald. In total, I dyed 4 skeins for the project.

When I started knitting this thing, I was extremely afraid that I’d run out of yarn. So I cast on two sleeves at the same time and hoped that it would work out. I did make a fair amount of changes to the pattern that led to both extra yarn used and less yarn used. In the sleeves, I started them with fewer stitches and decided to do gradual increases. But in the body, I added extra stitches to the bottom because it was very short.

When I knit the right amount of sleeve on both sides, I cast on the total number of stitches that I wanted to end with (a few more than per the pattern). Then some short rows to get the shaping effect. I tried doing the pattern instructions first, but it just turned into a lumpy mess so I gave up. One skein was enough for the full sleeve plus the start of the body. Then I attached another skein to one of the sleeve-body things and continued knitting the rest of the body, front and back. I didn’t want to join it in the middle but on one side, and used Russian Grafting to put it all together.

The join is nearly invisible on the knit side, but there is a little interest on the purl side, which is the side that is showing. Still, you don’t see if from any distance. I’ve not really worn it out yet. I tried it with a pair of dungarees that I recently made and am in the process of writing up, but it was still a little too short and I was worried about the cold. It might be more of a spring/summer thing than a winter thing.

Tag: Knitting