knittingjuju

Anyganomy

jujuridl — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:29:44 +0000

On a big Zimmerman Ganomy kick. Figured out a scheme for any size ganomy with any yarn.

Here’s how you do it: First read Knitting Without Tears. Fall in love with Zimmerman and her kin. Next get Knitters’ Almanac, and make your first Ganomy following the instructions as written.

When you want a bigger one or a smaller one, or want to work it in fingering or sport or worsted, follow this scheme:

Measure head, tape from forehead to front of ears, then behind head.

Inches x gauge=A
A-12=B
B/6=C
Cx2=D

K1, m1, kC, k2tog, SSK, kD, m1, k2, m1, kD, k2tog, SSK, kC, m1, k1

I haven’t worked out a scheme for when to stop the increases yet. Just sticking with Zimmerman’s instructions for that, but if you have ideas, please share. I want to make a newborn version out of alpaca next… Maybe a bit of math will occur to me…

Just did…. Stop front increases at 20% circumference, and back increases at 30% circumference… ?? Holler if your mileage varies…

My favorite Ganome:

Catchup

jujuridl — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:58:48 +0000

So much knitting to catch up on. Soon as I can. I’m working at recovering from a long un-diagnosed case of Lyme Disease, which has slowed down my writing, reading, doing, a good bit. But after a year of treatment, things seem to be looking up, and I’m getting more writing done. Just fired up a new blog for musings about mid-life in the Midwest, with a bunch of smart writers I know. Check it out if you like that kind of thing:

New Communitas

Twin Fair Isle Sampler Vests

jujuridl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:01:43 +0000

At last!

Finally finished these little buggers...

The short version: Started a small child’s vest. The child outgrew the vest before I could finish it. Then I realized I did have another child coming up who would fit it…. but this child had a twin sibling…. Reasonable people have stopped following this story…

We pick up half-way through the second vest before discovering that the yarn brand has been discontinued, and the red yarn, in particular hard to find, but finally found it through good old Ravelry.com (I wouldn’t complete anything without Ravelry.com.)

And so, at last, these babies went off with their Lala to my great-niece and great-nephew in Pittsburgh today. Very fun little projects. Maybe if my desk clears, I’ll fix the currently-imperfect Stitch-Painter paper pattern, below, though there should be enough in this schematic for you Fair Isle Freaks to go by if you want to reproduce one for yourself.

I really got a kick out of the huge difference in gauge between my first vest– my first Fair Isle project, and the second, several projects into my knitting life. I actually decreased the second vest by one full medallion in circumference (doesn’t match up nicely in the pattern that way, so I don’t recommend this if you’re taking it on.), but it ended up matching the first vest in width, perfectly. I’ve loosened up that much! Crimey!

I used these color patterns, but not the exact decreases to make these vests. See below...

This vest knits up to about a size 4T. I used Digit (which is JaggerSpun 2/8 Heather), and would do it again in a proper Shetland Jamieson’s.

I started decreasing for the neck and the armpits at the same time, actually, choosing a centerpoint of a medallion for the v-neck’s center stitch. Put 12 stitches on yarn holders at each armpit, 1 stitch on holder at neck. Backward-cast-on 5-stitch steeks at each armpit and neck, then decreasing 1 st. every other row at each side of each armpit, and one stitch every third row on each side of the v-neck. All of that is to say, I ignored the whole top of the pattern except it reminded me to be careful to keep my medallions aligned as I knit on up the steeks. Shoulders are joined using three-needle bind-off on the outside, having ended the work in the middle of a gold perie pattern.

I locked the steeks in place using slip-stitched crochet before cutting them. They are barely tacked into place using just the threads that needed to be worked into the work. Blocking the vests already had those little steeked facings sticking nicely in place. That would be more the case if you used a real shetland wool, which I would do next time. The merino is soft and pretty, but it doesn’t hold as strongly as a proper shetland would.

Right. There’s another set of twins in my future. I think they’re getting blankets, though. Safer….

Pinkie Blankie written pattern

jujuridl — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:52:14 +0000

Sweethoney on Ravelry nudged me on to write out the Pinkie Blankie pattern for knitters who don’t love charts (So many of you! I didn’t know!)…

Here is our pattern. I think we’ve got it right now…

After bottom border rows (which are all garter stitch, as many as you like to balance the size of the blanket you make. I make 12 rows (6 ridges) at top and bottom of blanket to match the 6 garter stitches on the side borders, which are included in the pattern below):

1 (RS) K6, *{K1, YO, K3, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K3, YO},*, K1, K6
2 (WS) K6, * (P), *, K6
3 (RS) K6, * {K2, Yo, K2, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K2,YO,K1},*, K1, K6
4 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6
5 (RS) K6,* {K3, YO, K1, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K1,YO,K2},*, K1, K6
6 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6
7 (RS) K6, *{K4, YO, ssk, K1, K2tog, YO, K3}, *, K1, K6
8 (WS) K6, * (P), *, K6
9 (RS) K6, *{K5, YO, sk2p, YO, K4}, *, K1, K6
10 (WS) K6, * (P), *, K6
11 (RS) K1, P2tog, K3, YO, *{K1, YO, K3, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K3, YO},*, K1, YO, K3, P2tog, K1, K6
12 (WS) K6, * (P), *, K6
13 (RS) K6, K1, p2tog, K2, YO, * {K3, Yo, K2, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K2,YO},*, K3, YO, K2, P2tog, K1, K6
14 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6
15 (RS) K6, K1, p2tog, K1, YO, * {K5, YO, K1, P2tog, K1, P2tog, K1,YO,},*, K5, YO, K1, P2tog, K1, K6
16 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6
17 (RS) K6, K2tog, YO *{K7, YO, ssk, K1, K2tog, YO}, *, K7, YO, ssk, K1, K6
18 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6
19 (RS) K6, K2tog, YO, *{K9, YO, sk2p, YO}, *, K9, YO, ssk, K6
20 (WS) K6, *(P), *, K6

Repeat these twenty rows for the pattern, then knit garter stitch to match the top border. Thanks, Sweethoney!

Twin Fair Isle Sampler Vests

jujuridl — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:07:21 +0000

Posted via email from JuJu

This is how the knitting fates will get you…

Recall this project from, well, ever so very long ago? A cute little project that started out normally enough. Coneived to be a fair isle sampler of peries and medallions in a lot of fun colors of a size big enough and construction complex enough to get a really good feel for traditional Fair Isle knitting. So I knew, before investing in a larger project, whether this sort of thing would work for me, or not.

I targeted a nice young man to receive the results of this little experiment. And then the project…. lagged. Not because I didn’t love it. I do love it, but because other knitting, as it will, jumped to the front of the line. By the time I cut the steeks and added the arm and neck ribbing, the child had outgrown the vest by… oh… 3 years or so.

Luckily, there are always new babies around. The right kid at the right size in our family happens to be a twin…. so… the second Fair Isle Sampler Vest is screaming along, really trying to make it before the two-year-old twins turn four.

Meantime, the yarn has been discontinued. More or less. But good hearts at Ravelry saved me there.

I think I will make it, puling off the second vest in a month or so if knitting, and clearing the size 3 needles for the next project. One inspired by the Atlantic and granite and fog:

Say, want to keep up with this? I’ve just added the new WordPress email subscription feature, right there in the next column at the tippy top. Subscribe, and you’ll get the posts as I add them, sporadically, sure, but, you know… as they come…