jigsaw – Deb Gemmell: Top Down, Gauge Free and more

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

Jigsawing away

I’m obsessed! I can’t seem to stop.

Do you find that you deep dive into some projects? I do if I’m learning something new. This Jigsaw blanket is a modular workshop for me. Working with 2 strands is also new to me and coupling colours together for the marl affect is an adventure.

Have you taken on something intriguing?

I am finding that some of my pairings didn’t work well. This is a beautiful blue green with a speckled beige sock yarn. The blue shade is gone, and to my eye, it looks hunter green now with speckles. Not a fan of that one.

I love the coral and red together. I was using really tiny left over balls as the second colour. Ran out of red so added a small ball with a bit more yellow in it and the bottom is a multicolored bit with some orange in it.

Isn’t this one beautiful? Teal green and teal blue together. Yummy.

Blue plus a blue-green handpaint. This is lovely too.

Now I think I have a better idea of what’s going to happen when I pair up two colours. I’m trying not to be too smug, ha. I’m probably headed for a fall. Still quite a long way to go yet.

How are your projects coming along?

Cheers, Deb

Gauge-free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Purl Back Backwards: New Year, new 2023 challenge

It definitely feels like this year needs something new. So I have given myself a challenge: videos. The first one is purling back backwards (near the bottom of this post).

I’m ok with amateur-hour videos as I figure this out. But videos there will be. Let’s begin as I intend to continue, with my first 2023 project with videos.

I was gifted 2 large bags of fingering weight wool by my sister Lyn, of Shelridge Yarns. Yup, this is a lot of excellent wool.

It’s burning a hole in my project bag. Is this even a thing? You know what I mean, right? I need to use it, lots of it, right now!

I’ve chosen to work Stephen West’s Jigsaw Puzzle Blanket. It has a lot going for it. Two strands of fingering are held together throughout. It’s worked on nice big needles and it’s modular too, yahoo.

So far I am on my third section and I can already see that the turning, turning, turning for the garter rows is going to be a drag as this gets bigger.

Purling back backwards is coming to the rescue. You work it with the right side facing (no turning to the wrong side). It gives you the garter stitch bumps needed.

Here’s how it’s done. (You can skip to the video below if you want to.)

With yarn in front, insert the left needle into the back leg of the next stitch, from back to front.