E Is For Experiments

I do a lot of experimenting with my knitting. I'm probably reinventing the wheel a bit. Never mind. It's my way of hands-on learning.

I'm also experimenting with this blog post. The images are in a slide show format inserted below. Will it work?

B Is For Bag

This is NOT the bag for the Australian Knitters group’s Bag Swap (on Ravelry).

But as I hadn’t knitted a bag before, I thought I should at least try one before choosing a pattern for the swap. Neither the colours nor the style are what I think my swapee would like (but I could be wrong)

I started this on Boxing Day and finished on 3^rd Jan.

This IS my first ever bit of (deliberate) felting.

The yarn is Cleckheaton Vintage Hues.

The base was knitted in the round on circular needles; I used two circs when the centre diameter was small. An increase of 8 stitches every second row makes a flat circular base.

I made a welt of three rows of reverse stocking stitch, for the turn for the side.

I then knitted the side, and the second-last row has eyelets. I threaded a non-felting nylon cord through the eyelets before felting, to preserve the holes.
The unfelted diameter was 27 cm (10.5 inches) before felting, and 22 cm (8.5 inches) after felting. The height was 18 cm (7 inches) and shrank to 11.5 cm (4.25 inches).

I gave the bag a very light rinse before felting, checking for colour run. It didn’t seem too bad – a slight red tinge in the water. I have a front-loader washing machine, so it really was a case of "chuck it in and hope for the best”. I was pleased with how it felted.

I popped it on the open-mouth end of a bucket to dry it.

While it was drying, I knit the top part longways like a scarf.

I was going to pick up stitches and knit upwards, but decided against that. The felted part was a bit heavy and bulky, especially for the hot weather we've been having.

It is kind of like a sampler; I was experimenting with different stitch patterns and tried to make the panel lengths match the colour changes. I only had to undo one panel to get the colour right, and one other because I didn’t like how the stitches looked.

I joined the "scarf" with a three needle bind-off, seam to the back. Then I sewed the top to the felted side. The finished height of the bag is 25.5 cm (10 inches)

I didn’t felt the top part. I wanted it to stay soft and flexible for ease of opening. Both edges had a row (column) of eyelets. One row was to make it easier to sew the top to the bottom, the other became the casing for the drawstring cords.

Each drawstring cord has two wooden beads – different colours on each cord. These make it easy to close, and easier to open. Instead of having to push or pull apart the top to open it, a gentle pull on the beads will loosen the top enough for an easy opening. A pull on the opposite beads will close it again.

One thing I didn’t take into account was the height or width needed for stowing straight needles. You see, I usually use circs, even when doing straight knitting. Doh. Currently a pair of straights is poking out the top – dangerous! The bag is big enough for one project, because I usually knit smaller items, or part of a jumper project.

The design of the bag is my own, although I’m sure you knitters out there will see similarities with other bags out there. I thought it looked a bit like a circus tent, but Mr M called it a yurt as soon as he saw it, so Yurt Bag it is!

In The Pink

The domino effect continued. Who could believe that one small change would lead to so many others?
So, I now have the new chest of drawers, flower arrangement, and curtains.

Then the old rug just had to go! It was just a small one, in an aztec-southwest sort of pattern in blue, green and tan - a left-over from another time and place.. It didn't go, so it had to go!

I've replaced it temporarily with a brown and white small rug (more mat size) that almost looks knitted. Admittedly giant stitches on jumbo needles, but feasible. Must take a photo...

It isn't necessarily the final choice, but it's way better than the aztec.

And no, Cindy, my dear, I didn't knit a toilet - it would leak! (hehehe)
Nor a toilet seat cover (shudder)

But (hangs head and blushes) this is almost as bad.

It's a soap dispenser cover.

You see, once I'd changed the colour scheme with those pink floral and feminine curtains, the blue liquid soap and its blue-topped dispenser just looked so wrong.
I guess I could have just replaced it with a more compatible one, but that would be wickedly wasteful. And too easy - where's the challenge in that?

I found a stitch pattern I wanted to try, from my ancient Mon Tricot stitch dictionary. They've called it Fishtail 2, but Barbara Walker calls it Horseshoe.

It's the first lace pattern I've tried. I've knitted plenty of stuff with holes, but they were unintentional, and definitely not decorative.

I had about three of four starts - first to establish gauge, then to work the purls the way ordinary folk do. You see, I have a strange knitting style; it's given a name these days, "combination" but I'm not sure I even do that the way others do.

The wonderful Toni, referred to as The Bionic KnitterWoman by Cindy, helped me identify how and why my knitting isn't standard, and it seems to be the way I wrap the yarn to form a purl stitch. The knit stitch (knit into the back, which is the 'leg' closest to the needle tip) uncrosses the stitch, so I don't have unintentional twisted stitches.

I haven't mended my wicked ways - I like the way I knit.

HOWEVER, there are consequences. One of these is yarn-overs don't work the way they should. My stitch-forming closes up the holes!

SO, I have to try to knit "properly" in order to do lace. I keep forgetting. Old habits...

I'm not convinced I've got it right yet. The first needle size I tried gave a too-loose effect, and it was all holes - the decorative holes got lost. The smaller needles worked better, but the holes still seem to be less 'holey' than the dictionary illustration.

I may have kept notes, somewhere, and there is possibly a ball band to identify the yarn - it may have had cotton in it, but I could be just making that up. It is pink - PINK. Heh. What's next? Twin-set and pearls?


I managed to finish the piece, and here it is cosily covering the dispenser, hiding all the hideous blue soap. I also obliterated the blue colour of the dispenser top with lavish layers of nail polish (it sticks to plastic better than paint does).

What's next? A knitted tissue-box cover?

Byzantium Moebius Scarf

I had some Katia wool (Nordic Print) left over from the “Byzantium” hat , so I decided to make a scarf. Now, a normal scarf with a couple of wraps around the neck would have been very bulky in this yarn, so I decided to try a Möbius scarf.

Yeah, I know – probably a bit ambitious for such a newbie knitter. It’s not uncommon for my ambition and enthusiasm to greatly exceed my abilities and knowledge. But that’s how I learn stuff – jump in feet-first and hold my breath till I know which way is up!

It’s interesting what such a tricky cast-on and first few rows does to my mental state. I approached it in a kind of Zen frame of mind. Just do one stitch, see how it goes. I can do one stitch. Okay, I did one stitch. Now do another, I can do just one more. And so I did. And another. And another. It did get easier.

I used the simplest of cast-ons, it’s the one I usually use. Mainly because I haven’t learnt any others. Yet.

I don’t know what the cast-on is called. In macramé terms, it’s just a half-hitch.

It’s one needle in the right hand, and a loop of yarn across thumb and index finger on the left.

It’s very quick, no fuss. As the stitches aren’t really formed until the next row is knitted, it is also neither too tight nor too loose.

Its major disadvantage is with working the first row. The yarn between the made stitch on the right and the waiting loops on left needle grows and grows. I get round this a couple of ways – use that extra yarn to make extra loops on the left and drop the same number of loops at the end, or simply work with it until the end, where it just becomes a tail, long enough for sewing up. I always cast on with an extra loop at the end anyway, and that gets dropped off too. This can be a problem with knitting in the round, as there is no “end” from which to drop off those extras.

I didn’t use any specific pattern for the Möbius – just the instructions from here

I also didn’t want a shoulder-width shawl kind of scarf. I wanted a neck-hugger. I knew how many stitches I had cast on for Byzantium, and what circumference that many stitches made, so I just worked it out from there – how wide I needed it to fit over my head, but not have it sit too far away from my neck.

The stitch pattern I used was the “One Row Scarf” from the Yarn Harlot . I didn’t quite get the first couple of rows right – it was quite hard work getting those at all! I knew the pattern wouldn’t quite line up because of the off-set from knitting into the bottom loops of the cast-on.

Oh well. It is what it is, and I still quite like it. I can get my head through it, and it fits snugly. What more could I want?

In The Mood For An Interlude

There was a lovely design for a cardigan in a pattern book in my 'library'. It dates back to the '80s, as does most of my knitting literature, as this was the last time I had knitted. It was designed by Diane Ayre of Lister Handknitting, in the book The Pure New Wool Designer Knitwear Collection, published 1986.

Here is a close-up of the stitch pattern.





It got me thinking about the basket weave, and what would happen if you used two colours, one for the stocking stitch parts, and one for the reverse ss parts.

I did a small swatch to try it out.
It didn't behave quite how I expected.
I thought the reverse ss would recede, the way it does when it's used as a background in cable work. Instead, it puffs forward, like it does for the reverse ss bands on the Byzantium hat and the colour separator ridges on Crocus. And of course, with the dark colour puffing forward, the effect is not what I wanted. I wanted the light bits to stand out, and the darker bits to recede, further emphasising the basket weave pattern.

Here is the back of the work. It's the first piece of stranded knitting I've ever done. It really looks in the photo as if the strands are pulling the fabric, but in reality, it stretches out just fine with no pulling.

It has me pondering a deeply philosophical question - why is it that reverse stocking stitch sometimes recedes and other times stands out? What makes the difference?