Tag: scarf

Wrap/Scarf time

Summer is ending and it’s time to look toward autumn and, dare I say it, winter.

An autumn essential for me is a good sized scarf. That’s what I’m knitting now.

Would you like to join me? I’ll be knitting this for a month or so. I’ve published the pattern with an interim photo, because obviously it’s not done yet LOL, in case you want to knit along with me. It’s Gauge-Free and modular, oh, and the pattern is free.

Reversible Ribbon

As you know, if you’ve been following me, I’m stuck on sleeve island (where did this term come from???) on a couple of sweaters, so for relief I’ve started this new idea for a Wrap/Scarf.

So far I have 2 triangles made and a tiny bit of Triangle 3 up on the top right of the photo.

It’s a two colour wrap made with triangles that join-as-you-go. Triangle 1 begins on the left of the photo, in the Main Colour, with increases worked along the top edge. Work as far as you wish then change to the Contrast Colour for the bottom section of Triangle 1.

An Eyelet Row is worked when changing colours which makes it reversible!

The depth of Triangle 1 determines the depth of the wrap/scarf.

Triangle 2 begins again with the Main Colour and joins to the Triangle 1 stitches.

Then count the number of ridges of CC colour in Triangle 1. I have 35 ridges in green. Count 35 sts from the far end and put in a removable marker. Join up Triangle 2 to Triangle 1 until you reach that removable marker and then change to CC. This is going to give you a zigzag of the CC colour.

I’ve added some modifications, of course! I’m doing Modification 1 which is to vary the width of the CC sections. I’m knitting each CC section 5 sts narrower with each triangle. Then I think I will either add in a different CC colour or just widen them out again. I’ll decide when I get there. I like to mix it up as I go along. You’re surprised, right?!

I’ve posted this pattern on my debgemmellmods ravelry group if you want to join me. I’d love to see some other colour versions.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmellmods 435 on youtube

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Act One and Act Two

3-Act Play Scarf

I finished the first Act of the 3-Act Play scarf. All three triangles are done. I do love how all the triangles join up. Somehow the joining makes me a happy knitter.

The triangles also determine the depth of the scarf which, for this one, is 12″. I’m hoping blocking will take it to 14″ deep.

I was suffering from eyelet fatigue so the third triangle is striped.

I added in this bronze/gold/orange colourway. I will be working with this colour across the centre portion of the scarf. This is Stange Brew, colour Sedona, by Shelridge.com. Look at all those lovely colours.

I’m sorry now that I didn’t work more ridges of blue against one ridge of the new colour. The colour change is a bit more abrupt than I had expected. Too late now.

It’s definitely time for something new.

The second Act is worked on the bias. It can be done in garter stitch, but I just did a garter triangle, so I’m done with that business. The Mods pages offer 4 slip stitch patterns and right now that sounds just about perfect.

The Mods pages have this 1×1 slip stitch knitwise pattern worked over 4 rows. Two rows garter stitch and 2 rows slip stitch. I love how the colours work here.

Of course it didn’t take long before boredom set in which always leads to something fun. I kept playing with which colour was the background colour (the two knit rows). Can you see where the colour switches?

Then I changed the blue to a dark teal, just for the hell of it.

Hmm, well, it’s interesting.

Now to do some lace. Yay. Stay safe and enjoy the sun. Deb

3-Act Play Scarf on ravelry

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

Off to a fast start

3-Act Play Scarf https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/3-act-play-scarf

I’m now on the second triangle of three which make up the first Act.

Here’s the beginning. Triangle two is getting attached to triangle one. I just love modular knitting!

I’m working this one with eyelets worked every right side row.

I’m noticing that the eyelets, worked every 4th row in triangle one, look different to eyelets worked every 2 rows.

Fascinating.

Done. You know it’s the right project when it whips along this fast.

On to triangle 3.

Cheers. Hope you are enjoying your summer knitting. Deb

3-Act Play Scarf

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

In between

3-Act Play Scarf

One large project is done so of course I wanted to cast on right away. But what to knit now?

It’s that between time. Almost time to think of knitting a sweater for the fall, but who wants to think about summer being over, and too late to do a summer knit.

I don’t know why but I want to knit another 3-Act Play Scarf. This will be my fourth one. Why not? I want this one to be nice and big.

It starts with 3 Triangles, joined-as-you-go. The basic pattern is written in garter stitch. This is the first one I knit out of odd balls.

This time I am diving into the Mods and working eyelets in the first triangle.

I chose to work the eyelets purlwise (one of the 4 eyelet options). I know that wouldn’t be most people’s choice. I have a good reason.

The shaping for this triangle is worked on the wrong side rows. So I combined working the eyelets with a shaping row.

Wrong side row: Shaping row + eyelets worked purlwise.

Right side row: Knit.

Wrong side row: Shaping.

Right side row: Knit.

I get those lovely angst-free knit rows. Yay.

Also there is a knit/purl/knit stockinette section with the eyelets sitting exactly in the middle row which makes my symmetrical heart happy.

So far it’s the perfect knit. Happy August. Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

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3-Act Play, Triangle 3

The 3-Act Play scarf begins with 3 Triangles joined-as-you-go. Why make a point of talking about any one Triangle over the other two? It’s because Triangle 3 has some differences the other two triangle don’t have. It can be knit in garter stitch but here I knit it with eyelets and colour stripes. Yes, it was an adventure.

This was the second 3-Act Play scarf I knit. I decided to add Triangle 3 to the centre colour section by knitting it in two colours, plus the eyelets just to keep the eyelet thing going over all three triangles. I wanted to see how that would play out.

I really like how it looks but it is tricky. This is the 4-Row Eyelet pattern in the Mods pages: 2 rows for the eyelets and 2 rows in garter stitch. The colour of the garter stitch rows are the most obvious when it’s done. That’s a bit of a shame since the eyelets are more decorative but that’s the way it is.

It’s tricky because the beginning of the right side rows, where each new stripe is going to begin, is in the centre at the join between Triangle 2 and Triangle 3. I did a video.

3-Act Play scarf: Triangle 3 with stripes

Moving foward, I’ve ordered wool to make a couple more sweaters. I wish it was here already because I want to knit 2 more sweaters before the summer comes. Wait here, I’ll just go look on the porch to see if it’s come, nope, not today.

In the meantime I’m knitting my little grandson a mini-me sweater. It’s a great way to use up all the left-over odd balls and a testknit for my pattern. Daddy’s sweater and little Max’s sweater.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

3-Act Play Scarf is published, gulp.

I did it. I pressed the Publish button on the 3-Act Play Scarf. This is hard to do while my fingers are crossed as well as my toes. Pressing that button is … boy it’s hard to explain, it’s pushing something out into the world and letting it sink or swim, all on it’s own. It’s like taking your child to school on the first day. They know their name and their address, they can count to ten and are hopefully, fairly well behaved. Then you have to watch them walk in that door, turn your back and walk back home.

I have to confess that once this vague and unformed idea for a scarf became a little more concrete, I got totally carried away. The scarf and I started running off in all directions and it was hard to harness it into something I could write down clearly.

The main pattern is worked in garter stitch and is 6 pages long. That includes photos and a title page and all that you expect in a written pattern. The actual instructions are 3 pages.

Then there is a separate download that has lots of modifications (variations) that you can work on this scarf. That document is 7 pages long and that’s the cut down version. Ha, ha, ha, I know, I know, crazy, eh? There are instructions for stripes, 3 eyelet patterns, 4 slip stitch patterns and 3 lace patterns. It is certainly an adventure and not for the weak of heart, as my testknitters found out.

I am making videos for the first 3 Triangles. It’s amateur hour but here is a video about Triangle I to make sure you end it at the right point. 3-Act Play scarf: Triangle 1 This is my little sample.

If you want to follow along with me, I am going to blog about one Triangle a week as I make more videos. I just wrote this down. Now that it’s in writing, I must do it. You can keep me accountable on this.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Little Socks

I have gone overboard once again. To increase my concentration, which has mostly deserted me, I am trying to work on projects that require attention. But now that’s all I have to work on. What am I going to do when my mind clouds over and I’m done with this concentration business?

I am working on 2 lace projects. One is the Tail End of my 3-Act Play scarf.

The concentration needed to follow my own pattern exactly is hard. I’m not very good at following directions (which is why I write patterns instead of following them) so this is a struggle.

Secondly I’m trying to imagine I’m a newish intermediate knitter trying this pattern out. How can I make this as easy to follow as possible? This takes some mind altering as I try to convince myself that I don’t know what this pattern is about when it was me that thought the whole thing up in the first place. You can see that this is a form of mind gymnastics that cannot be maintained for long.

So I’m knitting socks for my new grandson. Tiny socks that make me smile just to look at them.

I recently recommended our Need A Sock book by Brenda Harris and Cabin Fever (Cabin Fever is me and my sister Lyn) to a new sock knitter so I thought I should take a look through it again and knit my socks from there. I’m still extremely happy with how it takes a knitter through the process, one step at a time, using double pointed needles, my favourite method. Good job, Brenda.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/cabin-fever-need-a-sock

I think I will knit little Max some ribbed socks next. The first socks used 19g of fingering wool so now I know what to do with all those little balls of yarn I have in my stash.

Cheers and hoping your stash is still holding up, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns by Deb & Lyn

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Working row+Comfort row

Working row + comfort row OR work on every row. Where do you stand on this important question? Do you like a comfort row, worked quite often in purl, where you don’t have to think about a stitch pattern? I do but sometimes it’s not the best way to go.

Right now I’m knitting lace and boy, I am really appreciating the comfort row. I have to concentrate and count as I work across the row, glancing at the chart over and over again since I don’t seem to be able to hold too much in my small brain these days. Since I’m working garter lace my comfort row is a knit row and I sigh in gratitude every time.

But when I was working the Bias Centre in garter stitch I was happy to do a little bit on every row. It gives the garter stitch, not structure exactly, but some way to tell where I was. I especially, in the case of garter stitch, like to work the decreases or increases at the beginning of the row as opposed to the end.

I don’t know if you find this but garter stitch sort of numbs me out, especially on long rows of it. About 5 stitches in my mind is off on another tangent and not paying any attention to what I’m doing. I find myself turning and starting the next row, paying close attention to whatever is required, before I realize that maybe I was supposed to do something at the end of that last row. Wait, did I miss something?? Tink back and finish up correctly. This is where a strategically placed marker comes in very handy. A very large marker that you can’t miss is a must, just like tying a string on your finger. Hmm I wonder why that string is there? I know there was something I was trying not to forget!

This little guy is our comfort these days. His family made it up to the camp (called a cottage if you’re in the south but here in the north it’s called a camp). Max is the 7th generation to come here. Right now we have 4 generations of my own family in residence, plus cousins and aunts and uncles too, over 6 camp properties (all social distancing but pretty easy since we spend all our time outside).

My daughter (who is feeling pretty good right now) and her little boy.
Max and daddy, ready for bed, at least Max is.

I’ll stop now with the Nana pics. We are overjoyed that they made it up. Another baby that can grow up here, just like Morgan and her brother did, me and my sisters did and my father before me. Makes me feel hopeful for the future.

Cheers, and I hope you are working some magic with your knitting whether you have a comfort row or not,

Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns by Deb & Lyn

Test knitting the 3-Act Play

I don’t know how many times I need to knit this scarf to get the pattern written but I’m now on scarf #3. I am calling it the 3-Act PLAY. I have included different stitch patterns so I hope knitters will have some fun playing with them. I have had lots of fun with them.

It starts with Act I and 3 triangles. Act II is the central straight bias section and Act III is the scalloped tail end.

3-Act Play scarf schematic Aug.9

It’s going to be written as a simple garter stitch scarf. Ok, not exactly simple but there will be lots of garter stitch knitting. I unraveled another shawl and knit right off of it, changing colours as I came to them in the shawl. The knitting is a little kinky (not that way!!) but I like it anyway.

20200809_170320

I’m test knitting now and getting more of the details into the pattern. I am working the first 3 triangles, each in different Eyelet pattern and in one colour.

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Here’s a close up. Right Side: knit. Wrong Side: [YO, P2tog]. I love how different these eyelets look.

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Next up … eyelets worked knitwise in the usual manner just to see how they differ. So far so good. Cheers, Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns by Deb & Lyn

Lace is just holes

Lace, it’s just holes, right? So how hard would it be to come up with my own set of lace patterns. No problem, right? Ahem, maybe and maybe not.

The last section of this 3 part scarf is worked in garter stitch which makes the lace patterns in garter stitch too. I thought I would come up with 3 different lace patterns you could work in any order and each would morph seamlessly into the next one.

The garter stitch ridges worked every other row renders a complicated lace pattern very difficult to see. You can’t see the lines of decreases at all. The design depends on hole placement only and needs to be fairly obvious. Oh dear, this is already harder than I thought.

First I tried this. Fairly easy to work and the double row of holes makes a design you can see. It moves on the diagonal which is pleasing but …

20200719_132218 - Copy

when this scarf is worn this tail will fall down the front of the wearer and then the nice diagonals look like vertical lines. Sigh. Not exactly what I was looking for.

20200719_132239

Wait a minute, if I work this double row of holes as a straight line they will look like a diagonal when worn, right? (photo on the right). OK, that will work. One done.

Now to modify it for a couple different looks. Do you like this? I’m not sure the pattern is clear enough. It’s supposed to look like the line of holes crossing. I don’t know that it’s clear enough.

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Try again. I like this one much better. How about you? A little more tweeking and I think this one’s a keeper.

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Does it need a diagonal in the other direction?Maybe.

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Time to sleep on it.

Stay safe and knit happy,

Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns by Deb and Lyn

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