Tag: stripes

Cast On, Cast On, Cast On

I am right in the middle of choosing patterns. Maybe this one, maybe that. Do you love doing this?

It’s amazing how much time I can spend deciding and undeciding (is that a word?). One little voice is saying ‘make up your mind’, another voice is saying ‘let’s look at one more ravelry page’. I also scan my library of patterns over and over. I downloaded those patterns for a good reason, at least I thought so at the time.

This one is from my library. I do love a long project. I am knitting the Polaris Wrap by Veera Valimaki as a blanket. I belong to the Rustic Heather Sport Club by Lichen and Lace, where I get 2 50g skeins of rustic sports wool every month. I am going to knit the blanket out of my club wool. It will be bigger than the wrap because I’m jumping from fingering (pattern) to sports weight (my wool) and a much bigger needle. I think it will make a great blanket.

Looking good so far don’t you think, ha, ha.

Next I cast on Romi Hill‘s Winter’s Finery shawl, again in the Rustic Sport wool. I am experimenting with what this wool can do.

A lace shawl always looks a mess before it comes off the needle. I am very close to being done.

I am also knitting from one of my own workshop instructions: 3 Tier Shawl Workshop. I have taught this do-it-yourself triangular shawl at several retreats. I give you a basic structure and you choose the stitch patterns from a list in the pattern. It starts with the normal tab cast on to knit a triangle shawl with centre increases. Then it breaks into sections where you can work different stitch patterns. It’s tons of fun and I will tell you more about it as I get going.

I have knit several shawls using this pattern. Here’s one of them.

The shawl here is a stockinette based version (wrong side rows are purled). This time I decided to jump on the wool/mohair band wagon and work a garter stitch based version (all wrong side rows are knit) of the same shawl. I’ll post the pattern on ravelry this week. (The title of the workshop pattern might change since ravlery quite often doesn’t like my titles.)

How many is that, 3 so far. One long project, one almost done and one shawl just started.

I have a sock on the go, of course. I am trying to see how I can make Timberyarns stripes dance a bit. Nothing too complicated. An increase at either side of the front of the sock and a double decrease in the middle, with a short row heel. Fun to watch the stripes move.

I guess that’s enough to get on with at the moment. I have one more I want to start but nothing on the needles yet.

How about you? Is this Cast On time for you? What is taking your fancy?

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Resting after vacation

Does anyone else have to do this? I’m just back from an 11 day bus tour of Newfoundland, with 3 days of driving on either side. We travelled across 5 provinces, wow. It was a whirlwind tour around most of the NFL province. When I got home and let my daughter know, she sent the message “will you be in bed for the rest of the week?”. Ha, Ha. She’s not wrong. My husband knows I won’t even go out of the apartment for several days. There are people out there and I can’t talk to another person, except you guys, of course.

So I am knitting, knitting, knitting. My comfort place. I’m finishing up a Musselburgh hat for my grandson. It will be done today.

Timberyarns

I knit on the trip. Not as much as I had thought but that’s always the case. My Reversible Ribbon Wrap/Scarf was easy knitting on the bus. Please excuse the wrinkles. I had it stuffed into a small project bag. It’s probably a little bit larger than a travel project should be but easy to work on.

I added the second Contrast Colour and am really happy with it. I wish I had thought of it sooner. My winter coat is that green colour but I felt the wrap needed a little lift and the celery coloured stripe does that. I’m going to make the celery colour wider and the dark green narrow as I progress. You can see I’ve started triangle #4 (bottom right). This will be good TV knitting.

On the trip I finished a pair of socks for my grandson.

Timberyarns

As you can see Stripey the Sock went on an adventure. My grandson is 5 and reading so I sent him a Stripey story every day. Stripey saw the ocean. Look at all the rocks on the beach. Stripey though a beach had sand but not here.

Stripey went on a couple of boat rides. The sun was shining and the ocean was calm. A great ride.

Stripey liked all the fishing boats, especially this one.

Stripey accompanied me on a little walk in the woods.

When travelling in an new place it is comforting to be somewhere that is somewhat familiar. I took a big breath and enjoyed a woods walk, even though it’s not quite the same as home.

And I went to a wool store in St. John’s. This is Pam of Windswept Fibre and Designs.

It’s great to go away but it’s wonderful to be home again.

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the Cabin Fever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell 435 on youtube

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

deb.gemmell on instagram

Progress through the heat

It’s even hot here in Northern Ontario but I have made some progress.

The green V is getting some love.

Shelridge 80/20 fingering

That’s another 4 inches, at least. Ha, in my dreams.

I have started extra wiggle room for my hips starting above my waist, working increases on either side of the back only. Now I will work increases on the front and back, every inch or so, to get an extra 3-4 inches around the hips. It gives me something to keep track of which seems to help it go faster.

The V sleeves here are both 6.5 inches long. If this was one sleeve I would be almost done! OK, so keep on truckin’.

Waxwing yarn co.

I started a new wrap.

Shelridge 80/20 fingering

I have finished one triangle in two colors and started on the second one. It will look something like this.

Maybe this drawing, where I’m trying to show where the green will go, will help? OK, maybe not.

Anyway, it will become clearer as I get a little further on. So far, nice easy garter stitch. Good for watching video podcasts, car knitting, etc.

That’s it for me. How about you?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Just For You V Pullover

You have probably seen it but if you haven’t, I published the Just For You V Pullover pattern, even though I haven’t finished the sleeves!

It’s available for free at Debgemmellmods store on ravelry.

No one seems to have minded the “no sleeves” thing but I am knitting them now, two at a time. I heard it builds character to finish things. I’m not sure I need more character but here I go anyway.

Waxwing Wool Co.

This is how they sit on my lap when I knit them both at the same time. I work them on two circulars.

This is a video of the last time I did this.

Have you tried it?

There is no way around the fact that knitting in fingering weight wool takes a very long time!!!

I’m afraid I have not made any further progress on the green one, or anything else.

The kids and our grandson were up for a week and lots of board games, group meals and general busyness ensued. Not much knitting at all. Summertime at the lake, wouldn’t miss it for anything.

I hope your summer is going fantastic.

Cheers, Deb

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

Debgemmell 435 on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@debgemmell435?si=fA-GDr5DuciuKomI

Deb.gemmell on instagram.

Summer Place

I’m so excited to be here in Northern Ontario. I look forward to it every year. I especially like being outside most of the time. Once we are here at our cabin, it takes several days to get everything sorted: empty out all the stuff we store over the winter in the cabin, clean up after the mice, do some laundry (mouse related), set up our water, grocery shop, etc. Now the weather is heating up, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Here’s a video tour of me in my happy place.

As you can see my V-Neck Pullovers are progressing well. I’m loving the stripes.

Waxwing, a rustic fingering weight wool

The difference in the two fingering weight sweaters makes my knitting very interesting. The rustic wool by Waxwing is somewhat more forgiving. I’m using it to try to get more practice not looking as I knit. It’s sort of working. Can you do that?

This green one is in Shelridge 80/20 fingering and because it’s a superwash the yarn is lighter and much smoother.

The pattern for this one is sitting for a couple more days as I work myself up to doing the charts for the twisted stitch pattern.

I love twisted stitches so I’m enjoying this no end. How do you feel about them? Love twisted stitches or not so much?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell 435 on youtube

A Circular and a new Raglan

I’ve started a couple of new projects since I found that knitting one or two things is w-a-y to monogamous for me. I did a video. It’s at the end of the post.

Did I show you my third Twelve-Point Circular Yoke yet? I had some Hempton yarn left over. I have enough to knit my daughter a striped version. This is so much easier than the helical version. The simple stripes are 6 rounds deep. How easy is that?

I used the RL1 and LL1 lifted increases for the points. I think they look really nice. One more stripe to go before I can take the sleeves off.

The new project I wanted to tell you about is the Any Gauge V-Neck Pullover. I’ve started knitting two of them, of course. This is a top down worked in any gauge of yarn. You start with the ribbed neckband, then you work short rows up again the neckband. As you work, the V shape is made.

One is using left over wool from the mitts I knit. This is fingering weight rustic wool by Waxwing.

Big stripes of bright colours. I’m loving this. Don’t stripes make everything go faster?!

Next stripes are navy, light blue, medium green and then lime green. Bold!

The second one is in Shelridge 80/20 fingering.

I’ve made some progress on the short rows. I’ve added a panel of twisted stitches to this one. They follow the slant of the V and get wider and wider as you work down the V. This is an experiment!

I’ve never charted the short row section for this type of neck before. You may see this as a modification to the pattern or maybe not. I’d have to hand write the chart because it is weird. We’ll see if this works out or not.

All of these are in the pile of projects to take with me. I also have another Lunenburg to finish for my son-in-law. He chose green, red and grey Sport by Briggs and Little for his colours. I added in some black too. I didn’t follow the colour changes on the chart exactly, ok, hardly at all, so it looks really different from the one I made myself.

I printed the chart in black and white and then just change colours when I wanted. It’s freeing and, well, sort of worked out.

I’d like to try it again with some variegated wool that would do all the colour work for me. No ends to sew in. I know lazy, lazy but it could work really well and I already bought some Lichen and Lace wool to do it! LOL.

So here I am still planning on knitting several sweaters over the summer. Am I setting us up for a really hot, humid one?

Hope your knitting is going well. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Stripes 3×3

I’m stashbusting. I have quite a few 50g skeins of Shelridge 80/20 fingering wool and it’s going into a cardigan.

I’m going to work 3×3 stripes. Three colours, three rows of each. This is especially terrific if you are working back and forth. You’ll see why very soon.

Getting started is fairly straightforward. Three rows of each of the three colours: yellow, blue, and ending with the purple on the left side.

Now for the next stripe: Yellow.

On the left side, when I finish the purple stripe, the yellow yarn is ready to work. There is no other colour strand available. The yellow stripe will end on the right side. What colour is available to knit with on the right side? You got it. The blue is available.

Three more rows of blue finishes on the left, and the purple is there waiting to be worked.

Is this not perfect? Each time you finish a 3 row stripe, the next colour is there waiting in the wings for you to pick up and continue.

You can twist the waiting colour around the colour you are working with once during each stripe to keep the carries neat and tidy. You are carrying yarn up both front edges of your cardigan. I think this is a great advantage. I always worry if carrying the colours up only one side that that side will tighten up. This way they are even.

To add some extra interest to the 3×3 stripes, on a wrong side row, I knit one of the rows of each stripe to get some texture happening. It also cuts down on the amount of purling I have to do on this cardigan.

Top Down Cardigan knitting has begun.

Cheers and happy knitting into spring. Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free knitting patterns by Deb

Deb on instagram.

Too Many WIPs

I have definitely dug myself into a big hole with all of my WIPs. It’s a somewhat comfortable hole since I am sitting on a pile of knitting but I’m overwhelmed and discouraged.

It’s was a bad sign when I had to take the needle tips off of this project to knit something else. This is a Family Crew Neck for my grandson. Part of my procrastinating is that I’m not at all sure what to do with the sleeves. I have a second ball of this yarn for the sleeves but I’m wondering how to do the stripes on the sleeves so that they sort of match the body. Some more thinking is needed.

I grabbed the needles from that project to do an Any Gauge Raglan Pullover because I’m running a class right now and thought I should knit along with my students. I encouraged them to knit with worsted weight yarn or chunky yarn so they could get their pullovers done over the 6 weeks. I, of course, am knitting mine in fingering weight yarn. I feel like I am knitting furiously and getting nowhere. Sigh, I know. What was I thinking?!

Then there is the blog which you have been reading. I have wanted a Family Crew Neck for some time. I will be getting back to that soon. I have so much more to tell you about getting a good fit with your raglan.

You would think that three sweaters is enough to keep me busy. Then I cast on a hat. I knit the whole hat on the wrong size needle, ran out of yarn, pulled it out and am now on the redo with the correct needle. Not much more to say about that!

Am I finished? Apparently not.

For the month of February I am teaching a sock class. My first time sock students are knitting boot socks in worsted weight yarn. They will have a pair of socks done by the end of the month. I will, maybe, have one sock done past the heel with my sock yarn.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? I hope you are in better control of your knitting. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free knitting patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

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