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Archive for August, 2008

The Difference a Decrease Makes

August 21, 2008 at 11:09 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged decrease, doubledecrease, sock, socks

I’m working on a new sock pattern, and used a stitch pattern from one of the new Harmony Guides. The book calls for a double decrease worked by slipping one stitch, then knitting two together, and then passing the slipped stitch over. It gets the job done, but I just wasn’t happy with the look. So I did some poking around and found a different double decrease in an old Knitty article.

The original increase was flat, but looked sloppy with that long loop. The new decrease creates a high ridge line that pulls the look together wonderfully. To work this decrease, I slipped two stitches at the same time, knitwise. Then I knit the next stitch, and passed the two stitches two slipped stitches over the one I had just knit.

You can see that the first two “scales” were done with the old decrease, and the rest with the new and improved method. I probably should have ripped it back and done the entire sock in the new method, but I wanted to be able to show the difference in decreases.

And the sock?

Gorgeous. Pattern forthcoming. Any ideas for a name?

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Knotions Magazine

August 5, 2008 at 2:53 am · Filed under Uncategorized

The first issue of Knotions just went live, and I am so excited! Knotions’s tag line is “Knit Smarter”, which is my constant goal with my knitting. The patterns are gorgeous, and I can’t wait to dive into them.

But to be honest what I am really excited about is my pattern, the Child’s Saddle Yoked Sweater. I am so proud of my very first published pattern. Jody has been great about “refining” some of my bad ideas to make a great pattern.

You can see all the details at knotions and on Ravelry. I hope you enjoy!

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All Around the Mulberry Bush

August 2, 2008 at 8:04 pm · Filed under Finished Objects, Uncategorized ·Tagged baby, monkey, monkeychasedtheweasel, pattern, sweater

A few months ago Grumperina did some fabulous tutorials on spiral knitting. Her socks inspired me to play around with some stash yarn and make a baby sweater. I used one ball of Swish DK in Moss and three in Nutmeg. The effect isn’t nearly as bold as the original socks, but with more colors you could easily make this sweater as bright as you like!

The key to spiral knitting is that you use all four balls of yarn at once, and each color builds on the next, so that there is never a “jog” in the knitting at the end of the round. As I worked this sweater I couldn’t help but imagine my yarns chasing each other round and round, but never catching up until the very end, and so of course the classic nursery rhyme “popped” into my head!

Monkey Chased the Weasel is worked from the top down, primarily in the round. The hems are worked in garter stitch, and the end result is that this entire sweater is constructed using only the knit stitch (and a few decreases). No purling required!

Any DK weight yarn can be used, in two-four colors. Using more colors does not increase the difficulty at all, so have fun with color! You will need between 100 and 200 yds of each color, depending on the size you choose.