Tag: colourwork

Modular knitting continues

I seem to be in learning mode these days. This is my default when things get tough. Elderly care is taking up a lot of my emotional bandwidth so I need something to concentrate on in small doses. The Jigsaw Blanket by Stephen West was great for this. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jigsaw-puzzle-blanket

But I wasn’t done with modular knitting. I took all the techniques I learned from the blanket to the Conglomeration Caper Cushion by Woolly Thoughts (free download).

This pattern has lots of information about working all the shapes but does not give you row by row instructions for joining. It was fun to work on trying to transfer techniques to see if I had actually learned anything.

Not bad but I’m thinking of doing one more cushion cover to consolidate my knowledge. I have lots of partial balls left over from both projects.

So onward.

Cheers, Deb

Yarn by Shelridge Yarns https://www.shelridge.com/

Gauge-free and Gaugless patterns by Deb https://www.ravelry.com/stores/debgemmellmods

Fairisle: a fan or not?

I decided to dust off my fairisle knitting skills and knit the Ninilchik Swoncho by Caitlin Hunter. It’s a lovely design with terrific charts, and you know I love a chart or three.

My daughter liked this pattern. Do you think looking outside affected her colour choices?

80/20 fingering by Shelridge Yarns

The first couple of inches were a bit painful. I was very rusty. After working 8 inches, with a colour in each hand, it felt like my hands were beginning to know what to do.

I did learn a couple things about myself:

  1. I need to work on knitting with my right hand. It needs a lot of work. I’m a continental knitter (yarn in my left hand) even though I am right-handed. Knitting with the right hand looks so easy when I see other people doing it but they probably – OK they do – say the same about me.
  2. Long floats cause great anxiety. Are the floats loose enough? Is it going to pucker? Should I catch a stitch? Ooops, too late, next time?
  3. I like to make quick colour changes. So I dropped a few extra stitches into the last pattern. It changes the pattern but who’s the boss of this knitting anyway!

The colourwork is beautiful but now that I’m done, I must admit, I’m a little relieved.

It turns out that I’m not a fairisle knitter after all.

Now I can enjoy all those beautiful colourwork sweaters I’m seeing everywhere and know that I am not going to knit them. Phew, good to know.

Hope you’re knitting something you love.

Cheers, Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb, dive into your stash and cast on.

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