Needles & Hooks

Last night I played with the Weavette loom I bought at Stitches. Without too much work, I made 3 little squares with some scrap yarn.

It’s satisfying to “finish” something so quickly. But I have to join a bunch together before I really have a finished product. I have some ideas for joining squares together while weaving a new one, so I’ll give that a try tonight. It only takes about 2 yards to make a square on this tiny loom, so I can blast through my stash of random small balls in short order. Maybe there’s a charity for Barbie afghans?

After a little time with the loom, I worked on the hat I’m designing to go with the Whirlygig Scarf. I’m hoping to finish it tonight. I’ve got a few episodes of Project Runway on my Tivo to help me along. They’re designing, I’m designing, it’s all good.

Here’s what it looks like now:

MAILBAG
Nancy suggests that the Tess Microfiber Ribbon yarn might make nice cables. I was intending to try those when I decide to play with it again.

Janice wanted to know how the Ribbon yarn stands up to being frogged and re-knit. It frogged easily. And looks pretty good. I haven’t tried re-knitting yet, but I can’t imagine it won’t hold up.

Maryann wanted to know how I liked the yarns I used to make my Clapotis projects. Between the Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb and the Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, I think I preferred the Shepherd Worsted. The L&L has a fuzzy look to it now (with very few wearings) and while it is soft, so was the Shepherd. I don’t think the silk content in the L&L gives it enough sheen to make a difference. However, after seeing the Brooks Farm Four Play knit up at Stitches, I think I’d give that a try for another one.

On Saturday, I took “Engineering with Entrelac”, taught by Joan Schrouder. It was my first attempt at it, but I picked it up really quickly. More than just an introduction to Entrelac, the class was geared towards showing how you can use the natural shape of the squares to accomplish a number of things in a garment. For one thing, it lends itself naturally to knitting in the round, so with a little thought, a pattern doesn’t have to be made in pieces and seamed.

She also showed us how we can design garments from scratch using a few calculations with our gauge and how to best attempt using up small amounts of yarn with the technique. She also included instructions on knitting backwards, which I attempted for a few rows. I’d need to play around with technique a little, but I don’t mind turning my work a lot, so maybe I won’t.

In class, we started a little 3-square diameter tube. After the first round with an 8×16 footprint (the cream), we decreased to a 6×12 footprint and continued. I’m generally happy with my first attempt. There’s some holes at the joins that I think could be corrected with tighter stitches. And I was knitting fast and dirty, so it’s a little sloppy overall. Here it is (note: it’s sitting on a 20oz Pepsi bottle, so you can see how small it is):

There were two striking garments that she showed us.

One was a sweater she made in two different types of yarns in the same variegated colorway. The look of the garment was a uniform color, but the two different yarns created interest with the different textures.

The other was a hat that came from a Meg Swanson pattern in an old newsletter. It was several rows of entrelac in the round, and the crown was 8 squares joined together in a slightly different way. I want that pattern! Because it would look stunning with the Danica scarf from Knitty.