Friday, April 8, 2005

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Sarah writes: “since the weather for wool is winding down, I was wondering what your thoughts were on making the cardi in a cotton or cotton blend? I don’t have any experience knitting with cotton and have
no idea how a substitution like this might work…”

Oh, YEAH! Cotton and the Ribby are old friends! The original Bulky Gauge Ribby ribbycardiesm.jpg was made out of a now discontinued yarn by Adriafil called *NAVY* which was 60%Cotton/40%Microfiber. This was made in 2002 and has held up VERY well. In fact, I’m wearing it to work this morning…

And because the sun is shining and the forsythia are blooming (!), another Cotton/Microfiber Ribby is on the make – VIVA Spring!

I looked high and low for a cotton blend I wanted to use for this outing. My favorite Cot/M yarn, All Seasons, was too chubby. Enter GGH *Samoa* which has the goodness of the blending, the matte finish I love so much and really wonderful colors. Problem – can’t find Samoa anywhere…

Enter Supercrafty.com, a USA source, which I found through valiant search engineering and VOILA! Samoa galore! Voila! On the ChicKnits Springtime Needles we have:

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YUM! Since my other Spring sweater is the center part of b.Lime,
I thought I’d make this the Rind!

Kim writes: “I just started my Ribby Cardi last night and I was wondering if it would be a bad idea to make the back fully ribbed, but make the front with the flat pannel.”

No Probs, Kim! You can mix and match your ribbing to your hearts content. (Just remember that ribbed portions will be more fitted and clingy and the plain portions expanded.)

My Cot/M Ribby is going to have a 3×1 ribbed center panels with plain sides on both the sleeves and body pieces. I am also going to put a button band on this one instead of a zipper to reduce bulk and make a more *air conditioned* garment. I’ll keep track of the mods HERE

Cotton Ribby Cardi
Design: ChicKnits
Color: #42 Soft Kelly Green
Gauge: 19sts/24 rows over 4″
Needles: #5 & #6
Yarn: ggh *Samoa*
from
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This Just In: Woot! SuperCrafty writes and says if you purchase at least a bag (10 balls) of Samoa from them and mention “ChicKnits” when you pay, SuperCrafty will give you free shipping on it and any other items you buy with that purchase…

Thursday, April 7, 2005

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first flowers spied on my street

Just because the weather in APril in Chicago is so confused that one can’t tell up from down doesn’t mean my little knitting brain should spiral around like a top. Yet it happens. Over and over.

I take a straightforward pattern and make it HARD! I can’t look at a picture or read directions without having to TINKER. And tinkering can get you into trouble…

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Here is the Martha cardi from Rowan #37. On the left you see tinkering: a moss stitch border. It is clunky and too wide. On the right, is the way the pattern intended it to appear – unobtrusive and simple, letting the checkerboard pattern sing it’s solo…

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The Little Bad Muse has decided that I MUST tinker some more! To banish the nasty moss stitch edging, I will reverse engineer the edge. I take a needle several sizes smaller than the body needle and thread it through a row of stitches right where I want the new border to begin.

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Now I find a stitch a row above the stitch I want to keep and snip it. This point should be a couple of inches from the nearest edge because you will use the *tail* formed to attach your new thread. Then, I un-ravel the yarn in both directions.

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After all the stitches are unraveled in both directions, I am left with *live stitches* all ready to be knit into the new border of my chosing.

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Here lies the detached moss stitch border, crying out for more tinkering! If I had a similar gauge project going on I could GRAFT this sucker right on another edge. See directions HERE

OMG! Stop Me before I TINK again…

Martha Knitalong hosted by the fabulous Rose