Cowls and Scarves

Recently I have found myself on a bit of a scarf tangent. I have found that I love both designing & knitting them. I decided to write this post to find out if I have any compatriots out there. How do you, gentle reader, feel about scarves?

Do you like them long or short? Skinny or wide? Warming or decorative? YES PLEASE to all is how I feel, but I know that there might be dissent and I would love to hear it.

So far I have not published many “traditional” scarves (I define traditional as long rectangles). No. Mr Bond I Expect You to Die, Ziggurat, and Gyre and Gimble fall into that category.

Captive is traditionally shaped as well

For non-traditional scarves I think I would branch out to include Curiosity as well as …and Curiouser. Hmmmm, maybe I have created more scarves than I initially surmised? Possibly this is not a new infatuation but simply a dawning realization? This could take some pondering …

Oh well, onward & upward. 😉 Considering that cowls are frequently referred to as “infinity scarves” and that they serve the same purpose I tend to lump them into the same category and I have many of the same questions.

Do you prefer long or short cowls? Tall  or short? Decorative or functional? Inquiring minds want to know. I have designed both close-to-the-neck pieces and long dangly things. Most recently the shorter ones have been occupying my imagination (see Oh Bother and McClanahan) but perhaps I should revisit the long/super long version? For some reason I have only designed two in this style, Code Breaker and Rollercoaster. Both of which I still love.

I mean look at this:

She’s all like BAM!

It makes me smile whenever I see it. The photo is so much fun and so is the cowl … but what is the perfect length for a “long” cowl like this? For that matter, what is the perfect length for a short one? These are the kind of questions that keep me up at night. Silly, I know.

I would love to hear thoughts from y’all on these weighty subjects. Please feel free to let me know what’s what in the comments!

Gyre and Gimble

Have you seen the new issue of Knit Edge magazine from Cooperative Press? If not you should.

I want to let you in on a little secret. When a designer has something that is being published in a magazine (be it electronic or hard copy) they are just as surprised as you are when it hits the public. We have a general idea what season it is going to come out in, but as far as opening up Ravelry and seeing it pop up in the new patterns feed. Just as surprised as you!

A close up, for suspense purposes.

Imagine my surprise when I looked at Ravelry and found I had a new pattern listed under my name. Woo Hooo! So excited! And this is one that I have hinted at and wanted to show off for a good little while. Remember when I said that I might (Ha, might) have more Alice in Wonderland up my sleeve? I totally wanted to say “Just you wait until you see my cool new scarf!”

It is super long, the neck is wrapped twice!

This is Gyre and Gimble. It has been in the works for some time concept wise. I have been wanting to do something that uses the same concepts and techniques as Golden Lion Throne but that in no way even resembled it. As I started playing around with combing slipped stitches/mosaic and lace in different ways I stumbled upon this technique that is kinda, sorta like traveling cables in that you have a line of stitches that move across the surface of your knitting. But instead of raised cables you have lines of color.

See how long? This is loop + pull ends through style.

Then I decided to see how far I could push the illusion and create something that looks like the stitches had been embroidered or woven into a solid ground all tapestry like. It still has the repeated nature of mosaic color-work, but I don’t think that anyone would look at this scarf and go “Hey, nice stripes.” Because that is what you are knitting. Stripes.

Well, stripes and lace with slipped stitches. That is the magic combo. The other magic combo going on here is the yarn. Pixie from Dragonfly Fibers in Another Kind of Green & That Ole’ Chestnut. Kate at Dragonfly is a magician with the dye pots and I think that there are any number of colors that would look awesome in this scarf. For me it was a close thing between doing this green & brown scheme to evoke leaves vs going with charcoal and red/orange to make flames.

Here is the whole thing flat.

Another reason I have been chomping at the bit to show this piece off is how happy I am with how the photographs turned out. I used a new, awesome, model to whom I am totally grateful for getting up too early on a freezing morning (do you see the ice? ICE in Georgia!) and looking so beautiful. For once the weather cooperated fully and things went beautifully if freezing-ly.

Finally, if you pop over to either Knit Edge or Ravelry and plop down your cold, hard … umm … PayPal/Plastic … you not only receive this pattern but an entire magazine. The concept of Knit Edge is that while yes it has patterns (a total of 5) it also has really fascinating articles about knitting and the knitting industry. And the patterns are deliberately a little more complicated or interesting than your standard magazine fare. I also believe that, on the Knit Edge page, they are offering a special for new subscribers.

So, there it is! Click on over to Ravelry and say Hi! to Gyre and Gimble. If you like it, maybe favorite or queue it. Leave a comment if you feel the need. And guess what? This will totally count in the Lace-a-long!

 

Captive attention

Often times, the photography is my favorite part of producing a pattern.

This image I owe to a good, helpful friend.

This was not one of those times.

A rare moment in the past month where it wasn’t raining.

Nothing wanted to cooperate, the timing, the weather, the scarf … nothing.

Why do I love beads so?

I ended up getting the shots – but they were painfully acquired.

Detail of the blurple version

But the scarf? The scarf is easy peasy. A simple stitch repeated over the length of the scarf. Unusual for me, I know, but summer knitting should be fast and fun. The stitch is something new. I call it a Captive Double YO and it gives you a big hole that doesn’t get all crazy.

Wrong side is not so wrong

And in the DK weight version I think I like the wrong side as much as the right side. It has a very interesting depth and dimension. I had considered doing a mobius cowl so you could see both sides. Who knows, maybe I still might?

The nitty gritty on the scarf is that I knit the blurple version in DK weight cotton and the ivory one in a fingering weight cotton/silk blend. And I added beads. Because, why not? The pattern is easily adapted to be wider or narrower. You can use pretty much any yarn you want between fingering & DK weight;  heck it would probably make a nice winter scarf in worsted wool. This is not a piece that you will make only once. I have the attention span of a gnat and I made it twice.

An interesting aside to this, I thought I was going to need more than one skein of yarn for the fingering weight version but in the end I did not. The upshot is I have an extra skein of that yarn. And I bought way more beads than I needed. I was thinking about kitting the yarn & beads up and doing a give away. Possibly using it as a prize in a knit-a-long for this scarf. Would anyone be interested?

No Mr. Bond

While it is a stereotype that “men” do not particularly care about fashion, the popularity of certain celebrity/fictional dapper dressers belie this belief. Of all of these icons of both masculinity and fashion one is my favorite.

Bond, James Bond.

He is also a favorite of my husband, so I decided to make a scarf in his honor. Long enough to secure beneath your bullet-proof overcoat so that you do not loose it when you have to jump out of a diving plane, it is knit in a luxurious silk and baby llama blend that will gently cushion the cheek of a beautiful lady as you comfort her in her distress.

For the on the go, yet stylish man.

Imagine this scarf whipping behind you when you leap from the steps of the Russian opera house onto a conveniently located snowmobile in high speed hot pursuit of a dastardly villain. Yet it will be appropriate for when it is necessary to escort the Queen to high matters of estate.

Now, I know that not every man can pull off such a bold statement, so for when it is necessary to be undercover it is possible to work this piece using more subtle choices. I worked up a swatch in a more textured yarn with a subdued color palate and it worked out beautifully too.

Rowan Lima – alpaca is awesome.

So if you need something for you or your date to wear to the upcoming Oscars, this might just be the ticket.

“Do you expect me to talk?”
“No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”

Shawl enough for a Man

Happy New Year!

OK, glad that is over with. I have never felt any significance of the turn of the year, it has always seemed kind of arbitrary to me. Who decided that January got to go first? Most likely there is a long and historical explanation, but I cannot be bothered to go suss that out. There is knitting to perpetrate! I have had quite a few things percolating and I am stoked to be able to finally get them out into the world!

Luckily I get to decide what comes first here and the first in this new year is Curiosity.

The Sport weight version of Curiosity

It is no secret that I adore Malabrigo yarn. It is quirky and beautiful and I cannot get enough of it. They are also an awesome company who puts their yarn where their mouth is when it comes to supporting independent designers. The Malabrigo Quickies program is a fantastic opportunity for designers to pitch ideas to Malabrigo and receive support if accepted. The designer gets to publish their pattern exactly the way they release their other patterns and Malabrigo gets a new pattern that features their yarn. It is totally Win/Win.

It wears great all tucked in.

Do you remember last fall when NASA actually sent a successful rover mission to Mars? In this day and age of spectacular fiction media it is kinda easy to be underwhelmed by the photos sent back by the rover – but I am totally a space geek and was stunned by the idea that we were LOOKING AT THE SURFACE OF ANOTHER PLANET. I mean really, it is freaking amazing.

When I found out that one of the new color-ways that I got to choose from for this project was named Marte (Mars in Spanish) it was perfect. Add that to my penchant for fiddling with the odder aspects of knitting Marte became Curiosity. This wrap walks the line between shawl and scarf, you get to decide what you want to make. If you use a lot of yarn, you are going to get a shawl. If you use less, you will get something that is more of a scarf.

The shape is … Curious

And you can use any yarn you want. Any yarn, any needle, any size. I had testers & reviewers work in Malabrigo Sock, Malabrigo Lace held double, Malabrigo Rios, & Malabrigo Silky Merino. Some of the projects are not yet done, I cannot wait to see how they turn out. The upshot of all of this wiggle room in this pattern is that it is truly a unisex pattern. Depending on the choices you make you can skew the results to be completely masculine, feminine or something in between.

If you hadn’t noticed, I tend to trend toward a little complicated. But for this I tried really hard to keep things simple. Garter & Stockinette – that is all that is going on here. The shape is the only thing that is a deviation from the norm. Increasing irregularly along the center line, you end up with a long and gentle curve that drapes easily around the neck and shoulders. The longer you make it the wider the trumpet end gets, eventually you end up with something that is distinctly a shawl – but for the sample in Arroyo (sport weight super-wash) I stuck with one skein that yielded something in-betweenish in size.

Wrapped a little more shawl-like.

So – what kind of Curiosity do you think you might make? Inquiring minds want to know.

Chart Crazy

Back in September I decided to get crazy with the cheez-whiz and learn how to knit solely from a chart. What is a chart you might ask if you were a question asking kind of person? Most patterns I have seen, up to this point, are written patterns. They are a set of instructions written in Knitting Kode that tell you what to do – k1, p2, yo … the ever popular p2togtbl … and such things. Like a recipe, you follow the directions for “ingredient” and quantity and eventually you get a finished object.

A chart is a method of visually conveying that same information, kind of like a map. You have a legend that tells you what symbol represents which stitches and then those symbols are arranged on a grid that you follow in a specific manner. Most commonly you follow the chart in the same way that you knit; starting in the bottom right hand corner and reading right to left. When you hit the next row you do not return to the right hand side but instead read the return row from left to right. Exactly how you knit.

The deciding factor for me learning this technique is that I fell in love with a pattern The Bromeliad Shawl by Nicole Eitzinger (sorry, Ravelry link). And so the first chart I decided to use:

Did I mention crazy?

I might have been smoking something when I made this decision, who knows?

On the plus side, the yarn that I decided to use for this? I only had one skein. So I had to modify the pattern a bit from a shawl to a scarf. In the above chart I kept the edging (the two columns on the outside edges) dropped the next two columns (coming in from both sides) and kept the 3 center columns. Then I knit and knit and knit and knit and knit ….

until I ran out of yarn. Which I did last week and now it is all blocked and finished!

The finished Scarf

The yarn is Socks that Rock in colorway Firebird and I was a little worried that it would be too busy for the pattern. But I think that the movement of the stitches really accentuates the color and vice versus.

The whole schebang

It was a bit of a pain in the ass, but I think it was worth the results. And now, now I am confident in my ability to use a chart to produce a finished product. If there is anyone out there that has been timid about using charts I tell you go for it. It really is a better way to navigate lace than a written pattern.

Anyone out there have a pattern that they have been eyeballing but afraid of because of a chart? Share it with us and I am sure we (the internet) can help you thorough the ordeal.