Friday, February 11, 2005

Even though I’m a dirty rotten cheater and have been playing with my FixIT project, I’ve been knitting my Cordovan Ribby on the #66. I’ve finished the Back, the Sleeves, and most of the Right Front.

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Because I’m in a Finish-As-You-Go kind of mood lately, I’ve taken ye olde Steam Iron and blocked out the pieces.

STEAM IRON? Yes! I first read about doing this in the back of one of my Rowan Mags – right before the lists of worldwide yarn shops there is a paragraph in the middle of the page that says to *press* your knitting.

At first, I thought this was crazy – that it would flatten the stitches beyond belief and make everything as flat as a pancake with no remaining texture.

DUEfuss… That’s acrylic yarn that does that – not wool.

Rowan says to press (using the correct temps for your fiber, but of course) using a damp pressing cloth, which would create steam. I have done that, AND I’ve done what you see above. Here I am using my left hand to *open* up the tightness of the 2×2 ribbed sleeve and *floating* the steam over the surface. The actual iron DOES NOT touch the piece – just the steam which makes the stitches relax and behave.

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Here you see an un-pressed sleeve sitting atop the pressed sleeve from above. I’ve used the magic of Photoshop to lighten the color of the top sleeve because the yarn color is too dark to see as is and I outlined it with a little Ogerific Green~!

Really a difference! AND, the ribbing because it is, well, ribbing, just wants to keep its hills and valleys so, in wool, remains slightly textured, but looser fitting…

… to be continued – read the Ribby Notes here.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

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all good fun fur goes to heaven and pouts…

Off with Its Thread Part III:

Even though the Midwestern Weather this time of year is enough to drive one either to sleep or drink, for me, it is the best excuse I’ve ever had to just KNIT ALL THE TIME… Why bother trippin’ over the grey skies and dreary temps when one can just FixIT?
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hosted by the fabulous Alison

The Girl With the Pearl Earring” was such a dramatically slow flick, I was able to completely un-ravel my old project in record time while *watching* it. After I wound the yarn with my ball winder (like this), I skeined it with my swift (like this), then washed it. Here’s what I ended up with.

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Hmmm… What’s that I spy on the Left? Although I ADORE this Noro Cash Iroha yarn, it is rather subdued by itself. This subtlety is what drove me to submit it to the tragedy of the Fun Fur collar on the original piece. I used GGH Fee – the funniest of all – not only is it furry, it has little sparkles throughout. I love it so, I could not bear to give it the heave ho and it is now living, for the time being, as a postElizabeathan collar on my Hat Mannequinn…

Back to that pile of yarn – the texture of the Iroha is really smoothe and shiny, in a rustic kind of way. I know, this doesn’t make total sense, but the yarn has a 40% silk content and even though the twist of the yarn is simple, the silk gives it glow. I wanted to contrast the subdued but shiny color with something dramatic and VOILA! the lovely pink yarn joined the mix.

It is lightweight Reynolds Candide in color # 153 – I used it doubled for a sweet little band along the front of a sweet little cardi…

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This cardi is a modifed version of the Sitcom Chic Cardi. I changed the gauge and made it in pieces. I also scooped the neckline more because I didn’t have enough yarn to make the original pattern. The Candide is a basic wool spun yarn – it has a flat, no luster appearance and adds a *felted* texture to the smoothness of the Iroha. Yum – M

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

While it drips and drizzles in the drabby day sky,
I am BRIGHTENED by my other little fixUp project.

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the Shell that wanted to be a Cardi

After stitching and cutting open the front of the shell and finishing the neck edge with a mock turtleneck, I was ready to make a band for the zipper. (ZIPPER! Does any garment going through the works ESCAPE Zippering this season? Apparently NOT… teeheeheee!)

Using a size C crochet hook and some beautiful Electric Blue yarn

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I picked up stitches to make the band.

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Here’s a close-up of the hook going into the front behind the stitching. Because this is such bulky yarn, I am only allowing 2 rows for the band facing. (The Band Facing is the part that will fold over and be on the wrong side of the garment after the band is knitted.) If it was a smaller gauge yarn, I would make the facing 3-4 stitches wide.

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After all the stitches are picked up, I knit a few rows then bound off the band. Then I used regular sewing thread to tack the Band Facing down. Because this yarn is rather fuzzy, the fiber itself will *grab* its other fuzzy neighbor fibers and they’ll *handshake* together forming a solid join…

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read the Shell Notes HERE