TRAVEL KNITTING

I've been thinking for awhile about what to take along as a summer knitting project. Two things are within reach of my passenger seat, camera and something to knit or crochet. When I'm not Nancil Adams ever alert for photo ops, I'm Nanci Navigator; in either mode I don't have time to rererence chart or detailed pattern directions. Ideally a project should be, well, I won't say mindless, interesting enough to hold my interest without becoming a distraction.


What I am taking this year should have been the least of my considerations. It's a sleeveless blazer from Knitter's Magazine that I have been admiring for nigh onto a decade. I've been waiting all this time for "just the right yarn". The design called for a handpaint in a shetland coupled with a baby loop in a deeply contrasting color. I wanted primary colors against navy. I did not want a boucle giving me added bulk. My years long quest had me often contemplating Koigu sock yarns, but I could never make a choice among all the colorways, and besides, it would have made the project a bit pricey, and what would that do to me if I hated it after knitting it up? A recent offering from Elann.com seemed to fit my need, and after consulting with their staff, I ordered it along with a solid blue that would blend. I changed my mind about the navy, and opted for a blending blue, a less stark contrast I hoped would be more subtle, ergo more flattering.

You can see in my swatches my plan didn't quite come together. The blue all but disappeared in the background panes. The multi colors are actually less than my crayon expectations. What appears as bright red here is actually hot pink. The green, though, is indeed the deep olive it looks -- not the bright verdance I'd anticipated. Dwell on the top swatch only long enough to realize I obviously garbled the directions. The stitch pattern (panes of multicolor alternated with those having a cross frame within) of the original design is not there, the color carry-overs on the right side don't belong there, but far worse, the stitch instruction required like 14 rows.
Agggghhhh. Not pretty. Not suitable for travel.



Just curiosity had me make another swatch with a simpler slip stitch. Hmm. Gauges the same.
Certainly looks tidier. Easy peasy knitting...

I already have about six inches done! It's knit in one piece to the armholes. This is a project I can work on and off and not lose my place. BTW, this garment is called a sleeveless blazer because it has a tailored, notched collar. I'm not so sure how I'll like border loops that go completely around. If it looks too fluffy, I'll do a simple crochet picot and/or eliminate some of the frous-frous.

I'll be westbound tomorrow if I can get packed. It's insane, but I want to get one more blog off before I face a computerless summer. If I don't, I'll have plenty to write about when I get back this fall.

STITCH EXPLORE 09: MAY - NEEDLEWEAVING

If you refer to my previous post further down the page, you'll see that I completed the design I began with work in casalguidi. Here I've put the spin on it so you can see it in different rotations. Funny, while working on it, I thought the correct orientation had the two butterflies on the left, but I think I like it best with the butterflies at 12:00. The words are important only in that they indicate the months of the stitch exploration, although I did wrap "MAY".

I used two shades of Watercolours, regular cotton floss, and perle cottons in #5, #10 and #12.

The wheel began as a circle stitched with knotted buttonhole with spokes added evenly spaced from the center. I worked detached buttonhole around the inside of the circle and making a crescent shape on one side. From the center of the circle I wove with the same perle as the spokes, followed by two rows with watercolours. Next I wove three spokes together, then two sets of two wrapped spokes, 2 individually wrapped spokes, and finally two more spokes wrapped together that look like a continuation of the first three spokes. Five spokes remain bare but with the illusion of looking different lengths.

The first arc from the wheel has a foundation of parallel lines of backstitch (Watercolours). I used perle to wrap the two lines with a loop effect. The next arc begins with a line of barred chain, over which I worked surface coral stitch, knotting each of the underlying bars. Later I extended the line with regular coral stitch. The short arc is simply two rows of running stitch with the "bars" alternating. Then a second thread is woven .

I thought I was finished until I saw Sharon B's recent tutorial on weaving a picot and I had to try it right then. The closest stitchable thing was my April-May sampler segment. Cool. I thought I'd be stitching a cluster of leaves, but the angle of my second picot made me think of wings. I made two more and judged these butterfly/moth thingies deserved to stay on my doodle design by merit of their spontaneity and because they verify my use of words (remember, MAY is comprised of wrapped straight stitches). A few more fillers : tied crosses, French knots, eyelets.

Stitch Explore 09 - April: Casalguidi

Here is my effort at Casalguidi. It is just a sampling of some of the raised and pulled stitches. I enjoyed these and will probably add more. I went to a linen fabric for the pulled work, and it was a refreshing change from the red, white and blue on gray I had been using. Here, too, is proof that I do use a hoop on occasion.

I'm not certain, but the fabric may be Dublin. I began the long, meandering line by couching down a cotton yarn. I satin stitched over it with #8 perle, then did the over stitching with Caron Watercolours. Then I made more lines with buttonhole bars and detached buttonhole. I used plain buttonhole to stay stitch consistent and for flat contrast. I worked a few bullion knots because they were mentioned and because they are such fun to do. ;-)

For the pulled stitches I used #12 perle and worked part of the pattern provided in Carol's pulled stitch tutorial. From her whitework lessons I tried, I'm not sure how successfully, to make faggots with a #5 perle. These showed up better than the stitches done with #12. I think #8 or #10 would have been better choices; I didn't have any on hand but a few that would color clash.

You realize the above is just doodling. I'm sure there are many ways to vary these stitches . The whole time I was thinking how I might distort or make the stitches irregular, so I have some ideas I'll save for another playtime session.