durrow cable instructions in written form
January 6, 2012
Working Out Kinks and Fingering Yarn is an online resource for visually impaired knitters. They’ve got a project underway to translate complex charted patterns into written instructions more easily read by those who find it difficult to follow charts. The sleeve cable chart for my Durrow sweater pattern is one of the ones they’ve kindly translated thus far. You can find it, along with a few other translated patterns, at this link.
Links!
Durrow pattern
Durrow cable written instructions (pdf link)
If you’re thinking about starting Durrow, please be aware that there are some problems with the yoke decreases resulting in a neck opening that is much too large (mostly due to my inexperience as a designer at the time). I am planning on knitting another Durrow myself and will work on rewriting that portion of the pattern so that it fits a little better, but in the meantime here are a few useful links to modifications that other knitters have made to the neckline:
1. Ken’s Durrow
3. mollita’s Durrow (rav link)
Posted by jodi on January 6, 2012 at 8.11am
stripes
January 3, 2012
Every once in a while a project does still get finished around here. This shawl’s been off the needles for a year, lying both unreported and unworn on a shelf. It’s a beautiful thing and I love to look at it, but I haven’t quite figured out how to wear it yet.
And of course I only have photos of the back of the thing, where the edges of the garter stitch stripes cross each other and end up looking like double stripes instead. But I like this side, and I understand this thing was one of those “it” patterns for a while so I’m sure everybody knows what it looks like on the other side already.
Specs: the pattern is Veera Välimäki’s Stripe Study Shawl (Rav link). It was quick and fun if perhaps a little boring towards the end with the long, long rows, but I would make it again provided I can ever figure out how to wear the first one.
The green yarn is something really wonderful but the ball band has gone missing in the studio; it was a gift from Hockey Mom when we visited last. The black yarn is remnants of some commercial sock yarn or other that’s been sitting around here for years with no label. There is a plan afoot to rid myself of the bins of sock yarn and this shawl is just the beginning.
Posted by jodi on January 3, 2012 at 7.36am
coming soon
November 7, 2011
Gatsby Girl in blue! Here I am trying it on in the studio right away after getting the buttons on:
First published in Interweave Knits Fall 2006, which is now out of print. In preparation for self publishing the pattern as a downloadable pdf, I’ve made myself a new sample sweater (one that fits me, AND I get to keep it). With the generous modeling help of the lovely Nicole, I managed to take the sweater out for a photoshoot during a brief spell of mild, sunny weather. The pattern should be ready in the next week or so: stay tuned!
Posted by jodi on November 7, 2011 at 8.27pm
unfortunate
August 7, 2011
Opening up your bag and finding one of your sock needles broken, well that’s never good. But finding TWO of your sock needles broken, well, THAT JUST AIN’T RIGHT.
Posted by jodi on August 7, 2011 at 12.09pm
rosaleen’s birthday socks
August 1, 2011
Yarn: Trekking XXL colourway #108, less than one skein.
Pattern: bog standard top down with picot hem, afterthought heel and wedge toe. The simple lace pattern was made up on the fly. I’ll write up a pattern soon but I’m working on an anklet version first, in a simpler colourway so the lace doesn’t get buried so much.
Rosaleen has been waiting patiently for these socks since December, and received them just in time for her 85th birthday and a heat wave that’ll keep her from even being able to try them on for at least a month. Whoops.
Here’s me and Rosaleen at her birthday party last week:
Posted by jodi on August 1, 2011 at 3.34pm
green (sneak peeks)
June 26, 2011
1. Stripe study shawl in green and black. Finished back in early May but still not properly photographed on account of indecision over whether it wants blocking first or whether that’s a waste of time with superwash sock wool. Clearly the indecision has gone on long enough by this time that the answer is: block it. Okay then.
2. Pair the second of loose gauge sock yarn legwarmers, with sporty stripes because we watch a lot of football in our household (American friends, that’s soccer to you lot). “Finished”, but not modeled yet because one needs seaming. So. . . not really finished. But! Close!
Currently on the needles is this, sort of; or rather, a since-ripped and restarted slightly smaller version of this:
Which was going to be, as part of the ongoing effort to rid this house of unused sock yarn without making any of it into socks, legwarmers pair the third. But the cuff made it clear it didn’t want to be just another legwarmer, it wanted to be a cuff on a thigh high green sock (pretty much going against the “no socks” thing, but whatever). One mustn’t go buying more yarn of the exact sort one is trying to use up and be done with (also, the whole thing with knitting legwarmers instead of socks is because I’m tired of all the small-gauge sock knitting yielding lovely socks I put my foot through on the fourth wearing), so this sock has a sporty yet lacy-looking ribbed cuff knit at a loose gauge in sock yarn, and a main body of worsted weight yarn, which knits up much faster! and, more importantly, was available in my studio in a good amount of non-earmarked skeins of the exact colour I wanted. Please don’t say this is going to be disastrous and end in tears, because here at jodi’s weblog we’re already well aware of that and are determined to soldier on regardless. ALSO. Since we like to keep things exciting around here: the green yarn is Knit Picks merino. And these socks will have their FEET knit out of that (I know, okay? I KNOW). Yes, I have a darning egg. And I know how to use it, too.
Posted by jodi on June 26, 2011 at 5.03pm
red on red
May 29, 2011
For Project Spectrum: cozy red legwarmers, completed just as the weather got warm, as is the custom around here (I haven’t even shown y’all the shawl I finished 3 weeks ago, because I’ve got all summer to block it, now). These are knit in a 2×2 rib with two different red sock yarns that change halfway down. So I can wear them two days in a row with my boots and nobody will know!
Probably they won’t actually be worn like this, but rather will be flipped the same way so as to be matchy.
Whoops, I didn’t mean to show off quite than much leg (but hey, check out my strong new thigh! Everybody loves a bonus bare thigh shot, like that time last fall when Sergio Ramos went out on the pitch in the wrong shorts and then had to change them on the sideline. . . oh, oh yeah).
This is finished object #2 in my ongoing project of getting rid of all the sock yarn with which I will never knit socks (and freeing up a whole lot of studio storage in the process); finished object #1 was that shawl you haven’t seen yet (soon!). The semi-solid dark red is something I bought from Mama E years ago, ball band is long disappeared but it feels like merino, soft and a bit pilly. The red/black is “newspaper” from Spritely Goods, which I think might be a discontinued colour. I’d originally planned knee socks with it, and had one sock completed before burning out on the second. These legwarmers, while goofy, will probably see more wear than the socks ever would have.
Come winter, depending on what sort of new home the Brawlers find for skate practices, the legwarmers may also be worn rather frequently like this:
Or rather, similar to this only with knee pads. Safety is sexy, yo.
Bonus bare thigh shot! Not quite as much bum as our broadcast showed, but still, I’ll take it.
Posted by jodi on May 29, 2011 at 4.12pm
red blanket squares
May 23, 2011
Posted by jodi on May 23, 2011 at 3.19pm
evidence to suggest that the sticks are still wielded here
May 4, 2011
It has come to our attention here at jodi’s weblog that sock yarns take up an awful lot of valuable studio real estate with little or no return on that storage investment. Sitting around looking pretty in clear plastic bins will only get a thing so far in this studio if that thing is not actually a useful thing, and if one were to weigh the time it takes to finish a pair of socks against the speed at which holes appear in sock feet around these parts, it’s clear there’s only one conclusion to be drawn: it is time for some legwarmers, mis amigos.
Ugly legwarmers, at that. Legwarmers that change yarns periodically while staying within one colour range; legwarmers that may end up being long enough to attach to a garter belt, because here in the land of the trousersless we are always looking for extra warmth under our skirts in winter. So, obviously, starting to knit legwarmers on the first of May is a top priority. Clearly anything is a higher priority than finishing those socks which were begun years ago and are now being unraveled into something new.
In concordance with the traditions of Project Spectrum, these legwarmers will be several shades of red, and the goal will be to finish them within May: an easy goal to meet, depending on what the finished length ends up being, and if they’re finished before the end of the month then the next pair will be orange. There is every colour of sock yarn taking up space here, even the dreaded purple. And come autumn, there will be warm legs.
Posted by jodi on May 4, 2011 at 2.08pm
vikkel braid (a tutorial)
February 17, 2011
This new design in progress, worked in my January handspun, uses a line of Vikkel Braid to set the main pattern off from the 1×1 ribbed hem. The braid creates a little line of knit stitches that seem to move sideways across the work. It’s normally used for small projects (such as mittens) knitted in the round, but there’s no reason it can’t be used to great effect in a larger project knitted flat as well.
There are a few descriptions of this technique around the web, but I learned it from a German video (link) Nancy Bush’s Folk Knitting in Estonia is probably the best print source on Vikkel Braid. As putting it into a design intended for publication means having to describe in writing how it’s done, I thought making a little photo tutorial would be good practice. The technique looks a little fiddly in the video linked above but it’s actually quite simple to execute.
While learning the stitch I took some photos; please excuse the quality, as I didn’t realize just how tricky it is to photograph closeups of your own hands, and the lack of adequate natural light only adds to the murkiness. I’m not apologizing for the dry skin, though: it’s February, y’all.
Step 1
Start with a M1 increase (shown above) and slip that onto the left hand needle.
Step 2
Knit a stitch through the back loop of the second stitch on the left hand needle:
like so:
and (without slipping that stitch off the needle) bring the right hand needle back to the front and knit into the first stitch.
Slip all of that (the first and second stitches from the left needle) off.
Now you have two stitches made, the tbl stitch and the regular one. In retrospect this is probably more images than are really necessary. Ah, well.
Step 3
Slip the last stitch from the right hand needle back to the left.
Now, repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get to the end. You’ll wind up with one stitch more than you started with; when working in the round, you’ll slip that last stitch over the first stitch of the next round to get rid of it. Working flat, just make the first stitch of your next round a k2tog or p2tog decrease. And now you have a lovely line of sideways knitting that will impress your friends and instill bitter envy in your enemies.
Here’s what the finished braid looks like in Berroco Ultra Alpaca (unblocked):
Posted by jodi on February 17, 2011 at 4.34pm
