Make an extra floofy i-cord pom-pom

This fun loopy pom-pom made from an i-cord is a unique topper for any hat. Instructions are for small 2.25" (5.75 cm) and large 3.25" (8.25 cm) size pom-poms.

The Flower Petal Hat pattern shown above featuring an i-cord puff is available via ravelry or as a kit from MollyGirl Yarn, but in the spirit of the holiday season, I've made a free tutorial for the i- cord pom-pom.

Gift Cowl Pattern

Winter is the season for gifts, and every year this is my go-to cowl for family and friends who are on my gift list. Worked in an airy lattice stitch, this cowl is still extra warm for winter because of the thickness of the recommended yarn.

A printer friendly version of this pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry, or you can continue online with the instructions below.

How to knit the lattice stitch

Tomorrow I'll be releasing my first pattern collection, Jersey Shore Knits, and in it there's a super airy openwork scarf inspired by the boardwalk.

You can see that this stitch is neither a traditional lace or mesh, it looks a lot more like crochet. It is in fact very different from other stitches that I have used before in patterns, but it's my favorite new thig to experiment with.

A closeup of  the base stitch looks like this:

It's something worth learning for summer and winter use, so I've put together a series of videos to show how it works.

The cast on

The base stitch

The bind off

You can use the stitch without the special cast on and bind off as well, so give it a go.

Trig Wrap

The Trig Wrap is a boomerang shaped shawl made of short row triangles. There’s no sewing or complicated colorwork. Each garter stitch triangle is simple enough to be relaxing, but still holds your interest.

Edited by Liz Rolle
Photos by Beth Shepherd Peters
Modeled by Carol Ruth Shepherd

Instructions are for 3 colors, but you can use up to 7 colors. See yardage info below for details on making a 7 color (stash buster) version.

Finished Size: 72” (183 cm) long on inner edge and 100” (254 cm) long on outer edge and approx. 14” (36 cm) deep.

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light 420 yards/100g (384m/100g) per skein.
Color A: Tart, 80g, 336 yards (307m)
Color B: Purple Basil, 75g, 315 yards (288m)
Color C: Cousteau, 60g, 252 yards (230m)

To make every triangle a different color, you will need 30g, 125 yards (115 m) in 6 colors, and 45g, 188 yards (205 m) in one color for triangle 4.

Needles: Size 7 (4.5mm) 40” circular needles, or size needed to obtain gauge.
Gauge: 20 sts x 40 rows = 4 x 4” (10 x 10 cm) square in garter stitch.

Other Materials: 2 markers, sewing needle.

About the model: Carol Ruth is my grandmother. She’s as beautiful at 92 as she was at any other age. She’s also an intelligent lady who reads the newspaper every day and takes an interest in global issues. She is an award winning photographer and knits for charity. As you can see in these pictures, she is also very agile. She lives with her mini chocolate poodle, Coco, whom she is devoted to.
Overall, she has been a great role model to me over the years, and she is a great shawl model as well.

Trig is available now for download on Ravelry.

Here's a coloring page so that you can try out your colors before you get the pattern

You can see what the sample looks like as a reference.

The pattern will give you color instructions in this order, but I really want to see some crazy 7 color shawls going on, so raid the stash!!

Zipper Scarf

The Zipper is a unisex sideways knit scarf with a unique ripple pattern. Inspired by the dots and curves in Aboriginal art, the wave motif provides a great foundation for any color combo. It looks great in dark colors or brights, making it bold or subtle. This pattern inspired a lot of graphics and animations when I was exploring color combos, but I'll stay on topic and post them later.

 

This pattern uses stacked increases and decreases for the colorwork. This means that it is

Learn to use stacked decreases

If you've learned how to work a stacked decrease in my first article and possibly tried making an oak leaf, you're ready to come up with your own patterns that use this unique stitch. This article is going to focus on how to adjust the height of your stacks  and go over some of the math. Don't worry, it's not too hard.

Learn to knit stacked decreases

Some knitters have been asking about stacked decreases lately. In response, I've put together this article, a video tutorial, and a free pattern that uses this technique in a few ways.  Since publishing my Petal Cowl and Fox Paws patterns, there have been many emails from knitters asking whether they're interpreting the pattern right or wondering how I took these stitches and put them together into a pattern.

I'll go over the basics of how to do the decrease here, then, in the next article, we'll move on to some design tips.

Fox Paws and Color Choice

If you're one of the many people who has started knitting Fox Paws in the last few weeks, you know that there are certain advantages to using 5 colors of yarn. They generally look good because there are so many of them. In any case, the questions have been coming in about what to pick, how I picked my colors, and how to arrange them in the best order.  I'm posting this to show a bit of color theory and process behind my decisions. I'd like to encourage all of you to add some advice that you have for other knitters as well.

How did I pick my colors? Let me explain.

Fiber Friday: Couture beading, knit glass, and organic embroidery

1. Tambour beading is a type of beaded embroidery often seen on couture gowns. If you have never heard of it, check out this blog post showing examples and finished works. It even has a link to a YouTube video showing how it's done and a class in the technique.

Fiber Friday: Wild Knitting, Tattoos, and Fascinating Fashion

Starting this week, I'll be listing my favorite 3 awesome fashion, fiber, and textile links that I found this week.

So here they are -

Field Trip: Lion Brand Retail Store

Last weekend I took a trip to the Albany area. The trip included a stop at the Lion Brand Retail store in Colonie, NY. If you like Lion Brand or live in the area, this store is worth the trip. It's one of the only places to see nearly all of the yarns and colorways that Lion Brand has to offer including clearance and discontinued items, new yarns, and a few small batch products that are only carried in their retail and factory stores. Any knitter, crocheter, or general crafter can find something there.

Knit Tips: Weaving in ends as you knit

I love knitting stripes and using different colors in my knitting, but I HATE sewing in ends. To avoid all that extra finishing work, just these simple directions.

☠ chromatose ☢

I got this yarn on impulse, thinking that maybe it would make a decent sweater. The idea of entirely unique skeins made from mill ends is really wonderful. I want to make a bunch of these just to group skeins into sweaters. I am looking into getting this yarn direct from the mill in Michigan to make some machine knit sweaters for retail!

Machine Knitting Trip Part 2: Knitting

The 2 day intensive machine knitting course at the Textile Arts Center in Carroll Gardens was incredibly informative.The instructor, Mandy Kordal, Really knew her stuff, using a combination of demos and one on one instruction to make sure everyone was able to grasp the basics.

Machine Knitting Trip Part 1: Shopping

Last weekend, I took a very sudden vacation to New York City to take a machine knitting class at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn.

A while ago a generous person gave me a knitting machine to use, but after a year of improperly installed sponge bars and jammed carriages, I knew that I needed help. I found a knitting machine class on tumblr and found that it was relatively easy to get to. Immediately, I found that my mother wanted to share a hotel room to reduce the commute time and so we made plans.

Petal cowl pattern

A while ago, I made a post about some swatches that I was developing into patterns. Well, today I am publishing the first of my crazy stripe patterns.

Petal is a cowl designed to highlight the color shifts of a self striping yarn. The stich shapes are inspired by flower petals, fish scales, and vintage crochet afghans. A great summer knit, or a cold weather project when made in heavy yarn. A unique stitch is used to create an extra long chevron motif which set this cowl apart.
 

Finished Size: 10” (26cm) wide and 40” (100cm) around.

Yarn: 1 skein of Noro Taiyo Sock (shown in color 59), Silk Garden Sock or 462 yards of self striping fingering weight yarn. Gauge can be adjusted to work with any weight yarn.

Needles: Size 5 (3.75mm) 32”circular needles, or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: 36 sts and 18 rounds in patt = 5 x 5” (12.5 x 12.5 cm) square.

Other Materials: 1 marker, sewing needle, pins, damp cloth, and iron for blocking.

Instructions are for fingering weight yarn, but are adjustable for any stitch count or gauge. I cannot wait to make this in Kureyon for winter.

Feather Flame Pattern

Feather Flame is a chevron patterned scarf knit on the bias.  It has a scalloped edge and a slight curve that makes it easy to wear. The stitch pattern can be scaled to fit any gauge and yarn weight. Self  striping sock yarn gives definition to the waves of the flame stitch pattern.

Instructions are given in both chart and written form. Difficulty is intermediate, you need to know about increasing and decreasing using a few techniques but all are explained in the pattern. 

Yarn: 1 skein Lion Brand, Sock-Ease Prints, 438 yards (401 meters) shown in Red Hot,
or any fingering or sock weight yarn.

Needles: Size 6 (4mm) straight needles.

Gauge: 24 stitches and 32 rows in a 4 x 4” (10 x 10cm) square in pattern stitch.

Other Materials: Row counter, sewing needle, stitch holder.

Finished size: Approx 60 x 8” (152 x 20 cm)

You could definitely use any wight yarn with this pattern and change the number of repeats to get the  width you desire, striping sock yarn just happens to be a great way to show off the flame stitch pattern without using multiple colors to create stripes. That said, the pattern still looks nice in solids.

I hope you'll give it a try. The pattern is now on sale in my ravelry store or you can buy it here, use coupon code spring14 to get a 50% discount for the rest of March.

Crazy Stripe

The last few weeks have been really busy for me with outside work coming in, but I have been spending all of my free time watching netflix swatching some really interesting patterns. Usually I design knits with overall shape in mind, not lace or cables and complex textures. To make things interesting, I decided to look at Missoni style textiles. None of these are copies of commercial knits, their machines do things that hands can't, but in studying the technology , I have come up with my own new ideas.

Here are some of the stitch patterns that I have made using stripes. each pattern is worked with one color per row, yet they look a lot like stranded motifs. the advantage is that there aren't any messy loops on the wrong side, making them great for shawls, wraps, and blankets.

1. This is how the idea started, extend chevrons vertically, lobes will form.

2. Put lobes on the lobes and it will look even cooler.

3-4. Alter the pattern slightly to try to flatten the fabric.

5. Garter stitch makes everything fit together perfectly and lay flat. I amgoing to make an afghan in this pattern and I am working on a wrap with this as well.

These look super hard to knit, but in reality, they are just glorified chevron patterns with increases and decreases - no harder to knit than any other stitch pattern.

1-2. I am looking at ways to make deeper chevrons, you can expect a  detailed post about the number of increases and decreases to make all sorts of chevron patterns as soon as I have time to knit examples. #2 has waves along the chevrons as well.

3. This is a border pattern. It looks cool, but it has short rows in addition to incs and decs. Ain't nobody got time for that.

4. Lobes - loving these lobes. They are easy. You'll see these in a scarf design.

1. I am working on a triangular shawl and thought this would be a good border.

2.  Yet againn, everything lies flatter in garter stitch.

3-4. These are center and corner experiments for the shawl. I am feeling very good about it right now and the pattern should be ready in august.


That's what I have been knitting these days. For now, I am keeping my technique secret until I release the patterns. It's difficult to write because they should be chartable, but most are not due to the change in stitch count from row to row. Maybe I will need test knitters next month. Any interest?

Simple Gifts Scarf

It is gift season and if you are a knitter, you are probably looking for some easy , fast last minute ideas.

Consider this simple brioche stitch scarf.

Fingerscarves Finally

Did you ever wonder what would happen if a pair of gloves and a scarf had a child? What would happen if you just reached into your scarf every time your fingers were cold?
Well this is the answer to those questions that you never actually asked.

It took only 2 years to put aside time to actually edit and publish this pattern, does anyone even remember it?

How could you forget a scarf that has fingers.