Knitivity Gallery

Finished March 26, 2005

This is the infamous Manos-and-Cascade220 sweater I've been working on for almost a year and half or more. I swore I would finish it before the weather turned against me, but I just barely missed it. I still have to put the buttons into the collar placket, but my needle is too fat for the holes in the buttons, so I have to buy a different needle for that task. Otherwise, it's done and ready for the next cool snap.

I've included front and back shots, plus close-ups of front and back.

Next time I set off on such an adventurous project I will lay it out first. This one was totally done off the cuff, without much forethought beyond the next row or two. Not a smart way to build a sweater, I suppose, but it looks okay. It's just waaaayyyyyy too heavy and warm for the New Orleans climate!

This was made for an e-friend and his wife who just recently adopted a baby boy.

The pattern (if you can call it that) is just for corners. I learned how to make mitered corners in garter stitch in one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's books (I can't recall which one); isn't it so clever? I started by casting on 80 stitchs in the variegated purples, creating a corner as I went. Then I joined in the solid plum at the corner and filled in the other half of the quadrant. I worked four corners and joined the end to the start so there are no seams, and I tucked the 4 center stitches into 1 to close the center hole. Very cool -- a seamless blanket without easy clues to where it started or stopped.

The edging is just 3 rounds of single crochet just to neaten the outside edge a bit.

Done in simple Red Heart yarns.

Made of Aran style wool and Cascade 220 in wonderful colors, I started this on the machine. Here I have done the cuff and part of the leg part of the stocking.

Here's a farther shot of the same stage. You can see some of the colors going into the stocking.

Here I have completed down the top of the foot, turned the toe, knit the sole, and the turned the heel. You'll see two colors of waste yarn on the needlebed because those parts of the heel will join matching parts of the leg before sewing up the back seam. Using different colors of waste yarn helps me keep the sections aligned.

Here is the stocking all off the machine, laid out on the floor. You are seeing (from the top), the leg, the top of the foot, the toe, the sole, then the heel.

It looks horribly un-natural in this position, but the side seams of the foot will begin at the toe, bringing the heel backward to match up to the bottom of the leg. I used an invisible method of joining heel to leg, so you can't see where the join is.

I could have sworn I took pictures after sewing, before felting, but I guess not. Anyway, here it the first after-felting shot. The ridges came up nicely -- visible but subtle. After waiting for the damned flash function to work, clicking-clicking-clicking to no avail, but the time it DID work, Mr. Deefer had to come and investigate! Grrrrrr

Here's another shot, a little closer....

And here is a close-up of the fuzzy top, made from a glorious mix of hand-spun yarns rescued from PCatKnitter's recent yard sale (the one where I got so many delicious yarns!).

Once it is fully dry and shaped I'll run a hanging cord under the cuff and ship it off.

A felted project for a co-worker. After two cycles in the wash, the tops were still not shrinking, so I had to toss them in for a third cycle. But they finally look okay. (Mind you, they are drying upside down, with soda pop cans inside them to help retain the form.

The boss's sweater, knit on the Bond with Bartlett yarns, using the intarsia keyplate. This is what it looked like originally. The shoulders came out a bit too wide, but overall I am pleased and I know how to minimize the 'flying wings' effect on future sweaters. I told him I'd fix it if he would bring it back.

Time passes and he brings it back a year later. It's a darn good thing I didn't use up the rest of the Bartlett yarns for something else in the meantime!!!

I started modifying by marking with a red thread where I wanted to make changes

And then I used a long circular needle to pick up stitches just outside the markings. Originally I did the ribbing flat, and then sewed the side seam. For altering, I didn't want to undo the side seam, so I had to knit the ribbing in the round.

I will spare you the process of reknitting the ribbing and then <*gasp*> CUTTING the original armholes and ribbings. Here it is, remodeled, washed, and laid out to dry for a couple days before returning it to him.

It fits... he likes it... Woo-hooo!!!!!

Trying it on in the library at work, he has to gloat to some co-workers looking in to see what's up. (click to see what I added to the picture)

This is the shawl made from Noro Silk Garden (45% silk, 45% mohair, 10% lambs wool), done in garter stitch, starting at the center neck, building a half-square, and then knitting on the edge to make the counter-panel around the edge, and then yet again picking up the sides to make a few more rows in the manner of the inner part.

And now I can use the rest of the blue Bartlett yarns for some other projects I've been waiting on.

The machine knitting:

This were made by commission for a friend of mine whose (current) favorite beer comes in a bottle that doesn't fit standard vertical koozies. Here is the first shot taken after the first pass of knitting -- knitted flat on the Bond, with over a half-dozen rows of adjustments in each one, to accomodate the spread of the base and slope of the body.

The hand knitting:

And here I have hand-knit the bottoms into place, and then hand manipulate the seams, edgings and button-loops

After Felting

Here is after the final felting (it took two sessions), with the koozies further shaped by hand-felting and the button-loops held into place with giant toothpicks while they dried.

The finished product

And here is the final product -- dried, shaped, buttons sewn on, and ready to go!

Clearly, felting (or fulling) is NOT an exact science. This particular project called for swatching and sampling and testing and even with all of that, I STILL didn't end up with what I wanted for this project. The collar is too high, even after two sessions in the washer and another session of manually agitating with hot soapy water in the kitchen sink.

It is FUN to watch your creation turn into felt, and to create things in knitting that one would not normally expect, but this isn't something I particularly enjoy doing. It is tedious, unpredictable, and the results aren't always what you thought you'd get.

Like, as you can see in the early pictures, I incorporated some intricate patterns and stitches into the work, including some slip-stitch, some lice-work ("little lice" -- the little dots of contrast color on a sold field of another color), and other interesting changes. Felting took away a lot of this effort, and I will not do that again. Large-field intarsia is okay, but small details just get lost in the end result. I feel a little cheated for having spent the time to create the effects, only to find them literally washed out. But to redeem the event, of course, I can say I have actually learned something. Granted, I learned what DOESN'T work, but it's a lesson just the same. :-) Plus, having experimented with stitching techniques, I discovered some cool tricks that WILL work effectively on the Christmas stockings. So it's a good thing.

Sweater for Baby Grace

This was done mostly following EZ's pattern for an almost-seamless top-down baby sweater. This was done in washable acrylics after the wool one just below.

Almost Seamless Baby Sweater

Made with EZ's almost seamless top-down baby sweater, in wool. My daughter didn't want to fuss with wool, so I'll keep this one.

Holiday Stocking

Done in the round, with a corrugated ribbing at the top, using a collection of mostly Bartlett worsted weight wools. My first all-by-hand stocking, including the short-rowed heel and the toe done by shaping at the sides.

The Koozie Project

A friend asked for specialty Koozies to fit his favorite brand of beer. This is the first prototype, intended to snug the bottom of the bottle, and hug that indentation at the base of the neck.

This is after knitting on the machine and seaming into a tube.

And this is after the first cycle in the washing machine for felting. Amazing what you can do with wool, eh?

And this is the result after the 2nd cycle in the washer (I lightened the picture it a bit to show the detail of the neck). Very cool fit .... but only if you don't pick it up. The slope of the bottle (and his requirement not to use elastic) means that when you grip the koozie,the bottle is like a bar of wet soap and shoots out the bottom!

Given the constraints of time and design, it's a 'failed' project -- looks pretty but won't work, for the safety factor.

I can redesign the concept of course, but it would increase the cost ... and most normal folks wouldn't pay $18.00 for a felted koozie, when a tube sock will do the same thing and you can buy 3 pair of tube socks for $7.95!!!!

No wonder knitting is still a craft and not an "Art" in the minds of most folks.

These are some various shots of my daughter's baby blanket. I started with the braided cable across the top banner, and then picked up stitches along one side and created the main body of the blanket in the Diamonds in the Rough pattern, with minor cables up the sides.

Diamonds in the Rough:

Multiple of 8+1, plus selvege stitches

o = knit
- = purl
x = knit at end, slip at beginning

Odd rows, on right side, follow chart from right to left.
Even rows, on wrong side, work stitches as they lie (i.e.,
knit the knits, purl the purls, as they face you.)

repeats= | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

02 -> xoo-----ooo-----ooo-----ooo-----oox <- 1
04 -> xo-------o-------o-------o-------ox <- 3
06 -> xoo-----ooo-----ooo-----ooo-----oox <- 5
08 -> xooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooox <- 7
10 -> xoooo-ooooooo-ooooooo-ooooooo-oooox <- 9
12 -> xooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooox <- 11
14 -> xoo-----ooo-----ooo-----ooo-----oox <- 13
16 -> xo-------o-------o-------o-------ox <- 15
18 -> xoo-----ooo-----ooo-----ooo-----oox <- 17
20 -> xooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooox <- 19
22 -> xoooo-ooooooo-ooooooo-ooooooo-oooox <- 21
24 -> xooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooooo---ooox <- 23
26 -> xoo-----ooo-----ooo-----ooo-----oox <- 25
28 -> xo-------o-------o-------o-------ox <- 27

Manos-and-Cascade220 Mitered Squares Modular Sweater

This is the back with a close-up of the upper section. I wish my digital camera would offer better coloring, but I'll work on the problem before I display pics of the finished sweater.

Making mitered squares is sooooo incredibly easy, although it looks quite complicated. I think the best part is that you don't make squares or shapes and sew them together later.... you just make a block, then pick up stitches along one or more sides, and make another block. Very cool technique.

And these two are a couple of shots of the front. I had started the sweater with just the squares around the bottom, them made all-around stripes of the same colors around the upper abdomen. Then, I decided I wanted a pullover, rather than a cardigan, so I was able to stitch up the two sides of the front parts and join them together with a ladder of stripes. It looks way much more cool in real life

Short Ribs charity pattern

The basic pattern is simply 6 rows of K2-P2 rib, then 4 rows garter stitch. You can pick up stitches around the edge at the rate of 8 stitches picked up for every 10 rows of the body of the blanket.

On this one I picked up and with the main color (MC) worked 2 rows garter stitch, 6 rows of Short Ribs, then 2 more rows of garter, switch to a variegated blue and work 10 more rows of pattern, then back to MC I worked 4 rows of garter, binding off on the 5th row. This edging was worked in the round, so I used markers at the corners for increasing, and purled every OTHER row of the garter stitch sections.

Commissioned Holiday Stockings

These were created on the Bond USM. The yarn was a combination of Bear Brand and Fleischer vintage wools, gotten from eBay, then dyed with Kool-Aid. The designs were done by using the Intarsia keyplate, all except for the tiniest squares on the Squares-Squared -- those 4 little contrast stitches in each square was done by manually duplicate stitching after the work was done. The hanging cord was created by crocheting the back seam and then making a loop at the top. Once construction was finished, they were given a fulling cycle in the washing machine, and they came out quite glorious and wonderful. They took a week, including manual seaming and felting.

Chihuahua Dog Sweater

started on the Bond, finished by hand on DPNs, in a wool/cotton blend. The top picture shows the sweater on my desk next to my coffee travel mug. The shot below is Pica modeling her new sweater. The owner writes:

We thought you'd like to see just how striking our little rat-thing looks in the sweater you made. You did an excellent job creating something that works well and looks good, too! We truly appreciate what you've done for us. Pica appreciates staying warm, too, but she's not as likely to gush about it. :)

Isn't that sweet?

Ticky-Tacky Afghan (in progress)

Made of all my leftover snippets of acrylics. (I'm becoming less and less fond of dime-store acrylics. There *are* some adequate acrylic yarns suitable for infant wear, along with cottons and superwash wools. The stuff you get at Wal*Mart just isn't good enough any more. I'm a snob and proud of it.

My No-Pattern FunCap

This was made from a collection of leftover wools in one weekend. It was done partly in solid rows, partly in stranded rows, and my tension was rather hinkered so the stranded rows came up much tighter than the others. I *fixed* it by stretching it over a mixing bowl just large enough to create a tensioned stretch. Then I filled a spray bottle with hot-hot-hot water, and spritzed it all over the hat until it was well moistened, and then I let it dry on the bowl.

These are shots of the start of theManos -and-Cascade220 Mitred Square cardigan

Felted Christmas stocking, made of Bartlett Yarns, constructed on the Bond.

This is the edge of a baby blanket, hand-knit with Red Heart acrylic yarns, knit on the bias in simple garter stitch, then given a worm-stitch edging on the Bond.

Purple and Teal Christmas stocking for a friend at work. This was done on the Bond, and came out rather well, I think. I'll need to modify the pattern and use the smaller machine to make really wearable socks, but it's nice to know there is a way to do it.