Crafts and Cooking

I just finished up my latest pair of socks, a short set of ankle socks in a bamboo rayon yarn. The pattern is based on elements of Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up which is my go-to source for basic elements of setting a toe and turning a heel (though, I still always seem to have an extra row half the time I’m turning a heel). I kept it simple with just a K2,P2 rib as the pattern and made the pair with just a single skein of the Lion Brand Truboo yarn from the label in the photo. … Continue reading Latest Socks – Bamboo Anklets

I took a step away from my lace knitting projects and knit up a quick sweater for myself this spring. I managed to finish it while there was enough cool weather to wear it a couple of times and it’s a comfy, slightly oversized fit. The pattern is Lightweight Raglan Pullover from the Purl Soho yarn site. The yarn is Big Twist Boho in color Lakeside Lodge – it’s a Joann Fabrics brand I had never used before but picked up in one of their store clearance sales. It’s an 80% acrylic, 15% wool, 5% mohair blend listed as “super … Continue reading Project report: Raglan Pullover

The next two patterns in the sampler are done, and I definitely like one more than the other – you can probably guess which looking at the photo (eleven is on the bottom, twelve above it). Pattern eleven was, frankly, an absolute pain to knit. I’m not entirely sure I ever got the combination of cast-offs, yo twice, and then k1,p1,k1 in the double yo correct and I had more issues being off a stitch in the repeats with this pattern than any other in the sampler so far. The end result is very open and the heavier, filled-in knit … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Patterns Eleven and Twelve

Getting back into lace knitting is going slowly, but I liked this pattern a lot. It had a simple 12 row repeat over 11 stitches and straight forward stitch-work. The large diamonds look great and the tiny little diamonds in the middle of the open work area will probably stand out more after blocking. Attractive and easy to follow – a good combination! I meant to stop at ten patterns and take a photo of the whole sampler unrolled for perspective, but I forgot so I’m now thinking of doing this after pattern twelve. Pattern eleven is turning out a … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Ten

With the cold weather arriving, I got back into knitting my sampler last week. This time, we have a nice solid diamond pattern with small eyelets in the middle. Working this pattern, it didn’t look at all like it was coming together as I knit it. I expected I wouldn’t like it very much. But the end product is very nice. I feel like my center eyelets are a bit lower than they should be, and I’m thinking about why that might be. Perhaps I am doing my yarn-overs wrong? I’ll have to review what the book suggests is the … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Nine

Knitting has slowed down as the days are my recreation time turns more into sitting outside reading in the evening than knitting while watching TV. But since my last update I have two more patterns completed in my sampler. Pattern seven has a subtle diamond shape formed by four small clusters in the middle of a diamond of eyelets. This didn’t turn out very distinct for me. The end fabric has a nice balance of openness and bulk though. I could imagine this pattern even scaling up to a fingering or sport weight yarn nicely. Pattern eight is a very … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Patterns Seven and Eight

Pattern five involves only a single repeat to highlight the single row of diamonds across the sampler with flat knit stitching all around. Of the patterns so far, this one turned out the most like the image in the book. If you look closely you can see the more prominent diagonals running left to right downwards across the diamonds, which matches what I see in the source sampler. The pattern was a bit involved to keep track of because the start and end of many rows were different, and with only three repeats across that resulted in a lot of … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Five

Pattern four is finished! It is a subtle pattern, and I can tell I need to start taking these photos against a better backdrop. My knits aren’t as tight as those in the sample photo so I can tell the contrast in this piece isn’t as strong between the open work triangles and the solid bands surrounding them. It might be a result of the yarn I’m using. It has a fair bit of stretch to it which works against wanting to have a very tight knit. But I also like that because it is the most likely type and … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Four

Pattern Three in my knit lace sampler is a very pretty open work diamond grid. Looking at the portion from the original sampler, that knitter finished off the tops with solid filled-in triangles next to the top edges of the last diamonds – I followed the pattern through up to the end and like the way it looks. Stitch-wise this is the simplest pattern so far – just knits, yo and ssk. I have never been happy with my yarn over technique in knit lacework in the past so I’ve been really focusing on it here (including reading the documentation … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Three

Lace knitting is barreling along – last night I finished pattern two. This one has a fan shape that I think will look even nicer once I wash and block the piece (way off in the distant future). The pattern threw me off a bit because the final decrease in most of the rows is different from the decrease placed between the repeats across the row. I didn’t entirely understand this from the description – it will say something like “end last row p2tog” which I originally took to mean do the p3tog at the end of the repeat and … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Two