Archive for the 'Dishrag Tag' Category
Here’s the secret project I’ve been working at off and on since late spring…
…a vest for my mom. The photo makes it look fuschia-colored, but it’s really a true, bright red—her favorite color.
The pattern is “Knitted Patchwork Texture Vest” from Lion Brand Yarn. (This link will take you to a free copy of the pattern. For some reason it’s on Lion’s web site as both a free and a for-sale pattern—and I had to do a bit of hunting to find the no-cost version I’d printed out originally.) Lion’s pattern calls for kitchen cotton, but I wanted a yarn with a bit more bounce to it, so I used Cascade Superwash Wool 220.
The body was fun to knit: regular changes of patterns to keep things from getting boring, but simple enough that I could pick the project up and put it down again without worrying about becoming hopelessly lost. The finishing requires picking up stitchs around the armholes and up the front and behind the neck. I worked the armholes following the pattern, which was a bit of slow going, what with having to divide the number of stitches to be picked up by the number of inches along the arm hole, then placing lots of stitch markers to keep things even. When I got to the front/neck, I just put the pattern aside and picked up four stitches for every five rows (a ratio that’s worked for me on patterns I’ve designed myself). That went much faster. Hooray for the rewards of reckless knitting!
I’m visiting my parents just now, and gave the vest to my mom when I arrived. The weather’s much too warm for her to wear it at present, but I’m pleased to report it’s a perfect fit.
Yesterday, I drove my mom to Oakland so that we could both go to a yarn tasting at Article Pract. This month’s yarns were from Blue Sky Alpacas—yum, yum and double yum! These yarns could make a soft-o-meter blow a gasket. We were both sensible about our purchases, but each had to get something. I chose a skein of Suri Merino in Garden and two skeins of Organic Cotton, one Bone and one Sage, which is a delicate, pale green, though the color doesn’t register well in the web photo. The amazing thing about the Organic Cotton is that it’s undyed. The green? The cotton has been bred to grow in that color! I’m planning to write a lacy wrist warmer pattern to show off the Suri Merino and a colorwork hat pattern for the Organic Cotton. My mom chose two skeins of Sport Weight for a project of her own.
I also wanted to show off the beautiful package I got in the Cotton Commandoes’ Dishrag Tag Back-Swap. We decided that in addition to the speed-knitted dishrag we’d each do to send on to the next team member, we would also send a second dishrag backwards, to the person who speed-knit for each of us. Kay sent me a delightful package, which was all the more fun because I’d forgotten it would be coming.
I love the dishrag pattern she chose—and the floral coasters are just what my furniture has been begging me for. The package also included two skeins of an absolutely amazing ribbon yarn that I foolishly forgot to take a picture of. It has fluted edges and is a beautiful range of pale, opalescent blues and greens. (I’ll remedy that failure to photograph as soon as I can. Trust me—you’ll want to see this yarn.) Now I need to get on the ball and send my back-swap package to Laurie. It’s all ready, but I need to get myself to the post office.
September 03 2007 | Dishrag Tag and FOs and Patchwork Texture Vest and Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
That’s life these days, chez moi.
Here are four cloths worked up in a variation on the stitch Laurie used for my dishrag tag cloth.
The colors (all Elmore-Pisgah Peaches & Creme) from L to R are Oasis Ombre 176, Mardi Gras 163, Sour Green Apple 312, and Cityscape 211. Not only do these cloths illustrate some of the colorways available—they also offer a lesson in gauge. I knit each one using the same number of stitches and rows on U.S. size 8 needles, but I worked the smaller three on wood needles, the larger one on aluminum. Apparently aluminum needles loosen up my gauge. Who knew?
The pattern is quite simple. Cast on an odd number of stitches (I used 37) and K two rows.
Then work as follows:
Row 1: K2, [P1,K1] across, ending with an additional K1
Row 2: K3, [P1, K1] across, ending with an additional K2
Row 3: as row 1
Row 4: K across
When you’ve worked this four-row pattern through until you have the size you want (I did 13 reps), K one additional row, then cast off K-wise. Easy pie!
I’m absolutely in love with the Mardi Gras colorway, which is riotously happy.
Check it out in the Mason-Dixon Ball Band pattern with a natural background. Those colors just *pop*.
Here’s another pair in Peppercorn Ombre 180.
The cloth on the left is worked in the Wheatfields pattern from page 3 of the Dishcloth Boutique. On the right, another Ball Band cloth with a natural background.
And here’s a dishcloth yet to come:
The yarn on the needles is Sunflower 196, the other two are Black Watch 192 and Lemon Lime 186.
Since I discovered the self-striping Lilly Sugar ‘n Cream at the Michael’s in Emeryville, I’ve looked for it at other Michael’s without luck. I’m not sure why one shop carries it, but the others seem not to.
At any rate, Here’s Rowena, our Oregon stegosaurus, posing with some of the different colorways and one completed cloth. (This pattern is from one of the Leisure Arts dishcloth leaflets, I can’t remember which.)
I’m delighted to report that I finally found myself asking a “what if?” knitting question yesterday. I’ve felt so preoccupied lately with teaching responsibilities, that I’ve just been following patterns without dreaming up my own possibilities. The question was simple enough: “What if I work a mosaic-stitch dishcloth from two different self-striping yarns?” The cloth I knit up to answer my question (pic to follow) is fun, though the Sugar ‘n Cream colors aren’t as saturated as I’d like them to be for this purpose.
I’ve had lots of help with all my dishcloth knitting.
Damian will eventually settle down and leave me to my work, but Maggie just aches to grab those needles and work a couple of “stitches” herself.
P.S. Have you checked out the new issue of Knitter’s Magazine? I particularly like the Jade Empire cardigan.
August 24 2007 | Cats and Damian and Dishrag Tag and FOs and Maggie and Patterns and Washcloths and Washcloths | 10 Comments »
Yesterday I started teaching my summer session course, Shakespeare Santa Cruz: Writing in Response to the Bard. I felt some dread as the start date approached—that my summer would feel as if it were ending early, that the work would be a burden. Now that I’m actually teaching the class, I’m pleased to report that I’m enjoying it every bit as much as last year.
I have seventeen students: about one-third are theatre majors; the remaining two-thirds come from a wide variety of majors and are taking the course because it satisfies UCSC’s upper-division writing requirement. The students attend three of the four plays being produced by Shakespeare Santa Cruz (The Tempest, Much Ado about Nothing, and either The Playboy of the Western World or Endgame). I give them short, non-essay, thinking-writing assignments every night (Explain how you would design the sets and costumes for the first two acts of Tempest. Tell me what you know about yourself as an academic writer. Find an effective theatrical review and explain why you think it works as well as it does.) We cover the life of Shakespeare, see excerpts from as many different film/video versions of each play as possible (today we looked at this, this, this, and this), examine what goes into producing a play, and learn different techniques for writing about the theatre. The students each write and rework three play reviews. They also do group projects that describe the history of the production of one of Shakespeare’s plays and propose a novel production they’d like to see mounted.
Sometimes my job is an absolute blast!
In other news, today marks the start of Dishrag Tag! My team, the Cotton Commandoes, are off and running. Emily Ivey of Yarn Miracle has divided us into teams of ten. Instead of passing a baton, we pass a box with cotton yarn and a knitted dishrag inside, removing and keeping the yarn and dishrag we receive, then knitting a new dishrag and mailing that and different yarn on to another team member. I’m “running” second on my team an expect to receive the box sometime between Friday and Monday—then I’ll have to drop everything and knit like a madwoman, so I can get that box back in the post and avoid letting my team down. Fun, fun, fun—Emily is a genius for thinking this up!
August 01 2007 | Dishrag Tag and Teaching | 2 Comments »
