Graffiti Knitting Comes to Town

A couple of posts ago, I linked to an article about graffiti knitting. On my most recent trip downtown, I was surprised to see that we have our very own graffiti knitter in town. The statue of Lincoln down by the federal courthouse is sporting a new scarf.

In the News: Graffiti Knitters

Watch out, folks... you never know when a renegade midnight guerilla graffiti knitter will strike near you.

In the News: Serving the Community While Serving Time

If you're in the Boulder area, and you're wondering what to do with your leftover washable (i.e., synthetic) yarns, here's a project that could use them.

Women inmates at the Boulder County Jail are learning to knit, crochet, and weave items for nursing home residents and the homeless.

• 
  Boulder County Jail Project: A knitting offshoot

Teardrop Scarf Errata

I ran into some inconsistancies in the teardrop scarf pattern, so I emailed the author, Celeste Culpepper. It turns out that the magazine misprinted a couple of rows. Ms. Culpepper very kindly gave me permission to distribute the corrections, so I'm passing them on here.

• Rows 8 and 24 end with last 11 stitches: k10, place bead on last stitch.
  
• Row 16 ends with last 18 stitches: k17, place bead on last stitch.

Starting the Teardrop Scarf

I cast on this weekend for the Knitscene teardrop scarf, which my husband refers to as a "spider web scarf" because of its lacy pointed ends. I didn't do a gauge swatch because finished size wasn't all that important for me. The pattern seems pretty straighforward, but I made a couple of mistakes early on before I caught the rhythm of the yarnovers. I've decided to treat my first efforts as a combined trial run/gauge swatch. Here are my observations:

The design, which is knit sideways, is very well thought out.

• For one thing, it's garter stitch. No purling involved.
  
• For another, all yarnovers are worked at the beginning of the row so you don't have to worry about where to start the pattern on the far end of the scarf.
  
• Beads are attached as you go, by using a bit of thin flexible wire to hook an existing stitch into the bead hole. This certainly beats stringing them in advance and pushing a hundred beads, more or less, along several hundred yards of yarn as you work.
  
• The pattern won't suffer from accidently casting on a stitch more or less than called for. Since all the fancywork happens at the beginning of a row, you can easily adapt the total length however you want by adding or subtracting stitches. Ideally you'll cast on an even number, but if you cast on an odd number, you can correct for this on the first all-yarnover row by substituing a simple k1 for one of the k2tog's. In fact, by switching yarns and needles, and by changing the total number of rows or stitches, you could easily miniaturize this pattern into a doll stole with lace-weight yarn, or enlarge it into a stole for yourself with a worsted-weight mohair and large needles.

On the down side, each row begins with a yarnover. If you don't form the yarnover correctly, it will combine with the next stitch you knit, messing up both your lace pattern and your stitch count. Be very careful that the beginning yarnover is a distinct, separate stitch! This has the potential to cause a lot of grief to a knitter who isn't being careful.

I did a long-tail cast-on with needles a size larger than I used for knitting. The cast-on still seemed too tight, so next time around I'll go up two sizes for that part.

By the way, my copy of The Principles of Knitting is now on eBay, with an opening bid of $170 (no reserve). If you've been wanting this book but were put off by the super-high ending bids it used to bring, here's your chance to own it for under $200.

In Case Knitting Isn't Exciting Enough By Itself...

...you can try Sock Wars. The object of the game is to finish knitting a pair of socks before you get "assasinated", which occurs via the arrival of a pair of socks from a rival knitter... or something like that. I'm not sure I understand the rules. But you can read about it here:

• Killer Knitting
  

In the News: Mama Bears

Amy Tyler, of Katy TX, honors her grandmother's memory by spearheading a drive to knit teddy bears for Alzheimer's patients. The article is here:

• Business Calling on All Mama Bears

And Amy's blog entry on the subject is here:

• Charity Knitting - Peggy's Bear

Winter '08 Projects

Right now I'm working on a bias-knit sweater, which I'll explain in Bias Knitting, Part 2. I hope to be done with that in a couple of weeks.

When it's finished, I'm looking forward to knitting Celeste Culpepper's Teardrop Scarf from the Fall 07 issue of Knitscene. I don't care for any of the other patterns in that issue (too young and strange for me) but that scarf is a must-have. I'll make one for myself, and one to put away for DD's next birthday.

First step was choosing yarn and beads. For DD, who limits most of her wardrobe to black or dark blue, I've chosen "Fino" lace-weight baby alpaca and silk in a dark denim-y blue. So soft! The beads are navy with an iridescent finish that this photo doesn't do justice to. The beads are left over from an earlier project, but they just happen to match this yarn beautifully. I love it when my stash cooperates with my new plans that way.



For my own scarf, I'm using lavendar silk from Kaalund Yarns. I haven't bought beads yet, but I'll probably go with white teardrops with a frosted finish. The blue Bernat Baby yarn next to it is for a doll project.


The next step is to wait patiently for my Knitscene to show up in the mail. This will be a problem, seeing as how all the mailboxes in my neighborhood were stolen this weekend, and the ground is frozen too solid to put in a new one. (Yes, I've reported the theft to the postmaster, the county sheriff, and the local recycling network.) The roads are too snowy to drive into town to get the mail right now.

I won't be buying yarn for any more new projects till I finish these. I most emphatically don't believe that, "She who dies with the biggest stash, wins."

Knitting on the Bias, Part 1

I love knitting on the bias, mostly because you don't have to worry about gauge. Start with one stitch, add a stitch on the next row, and another stitch on the next row, and just keep going till you've got the width you want. Then increase at one edge and decrease at the other till you've got the length you want, and finally decrease at both edges till you're back down to a single stitch. At which point, you're done!

The first bias project I ever made was a purple baby blanket, which I ended up donating to Romanian relief efforts. This was followed up by a bias-knit cotton dish cloth. (Note to self: handknit dishcloths aren't durable enough for use on pots and pans.)

Next I made a bias-knit garter-stitch pillow out of Lion Brand Fun Fur for the loveseat in my bedroom.



I knit the front only, since the back will never show, and sewed it onto a muslin pillowcase. It adds just the right contrasting texture to all the lacy pillows surrounding it.

There's a story about the Bye-Lo Baby that I'll share with you next time around.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I created this blog so I'd have a convenient place to post what I've been doing in the world of crafts and fashion dolls. It's a spin-off of my Fashion Doll Dreams website.

These days, I'm more interested in creating people clothes than doll clothes. It's still fun to create the occasional doll outfit, though. My latest doll creation was the dress for Furga Simona that I knit back in December '06.


It was partly inspired by the famous Yves St. Laurent "Mondrian" colorblock dress, partly by Francie's vintage "Quick Shift" pink-and-green jumper, and partly by the wonderful Kool Wool merino blend yarn I found on clearance at JoAnn's. I remember the days when fuschia, olive, and cream were considered a delightfully shocking combination of colors, so daring, so untraditional, so innovative--so totally mod.

At the same time, I was knitting this little three-quarter sleeve sweater from the same yarn, for the same doll:



I decorated it freehand with scraps of needlepoint wool. I also have purple wool fabric to make the matching skirt, if I ever get around to it.

Kool Wool is an amazingly soft, vivid wool blend with a ropey look, sort of like thick chenille. On closer inspection, however, it's a six-ply yarn, which I painstakingly untwisted down to a single fine strand of fingering weight to make my doll clothes. Unfortunately, Lion has discontinued Kool Wool. Bummer. I'd love to make myself a sweater out of it. It's chunky enough to knit up quickly, but very lightweight in proportion to its bulk.



The doll dress and sweater are my original knitting patterns, and sorry, they're not available right now. If there's enough interest, I'll consider transcribing them and offering them for sale.