One of the best things about being part of a group of knitters who met to explore techniques is sometimes I am introduced to projects that I would not have discovered on my own. This weeks finished project is a case in point, a hat in a magazine I have had for ages, but which I had not noticed. I suspect that this bat has been missed by many others as well, for when I started there were only four projects linked to the pattern on ravelry. Today there is the finished hat, and a gauge swatch which means plans are being made, and even some no-knitting content.
 |
| My new hat |
My Viking cabled hat is done, this was an exercise in cables that begin in a purl background, starting with lifted increases. I liked the cable, and I loved the construction. First the head band is knit, and then joined, after that stitches are picked up for the crown, and slight increases worked, just for a few rows. Then the bulk of the hat is knit, which is rather long, five inches in addition to the band before decreasing. The long crown makes for a lovely slouch. Pattern
Atle beret by Elizabeth Lavoid.
 |
| Slouch |
The crown is decreased at eight points, with pairs of decreases around two stitches. In the end my gauge came out at 6 stitches to the inch, and six cable repeats gives a nice fit on my 22 inch head. Knit measurements after blocking of course. Because photographing ones own head is a tad difficult, I enlisted younger cub as my hat model.
 |
| Swatch 3 mm needles 28 stitches in four inches |
With the hat done, I felt the need to cast on a new project, and a local knitter, K, asked if I wanted to work
Tempest as a KAL. We have had a few emails back and forth fine tuning the details, hers will be handspun, mine in fine possum merino silk. For a wee while we both considered
Slanted Sleeven, but we would need to regauge, and I'm not up to that sort of calculation with a new method right now. My gauge is 28 stitches to four inches on 3 mm needles, fine but not to fine. The possum flooooffs up when washed, or in knitter speak 'blooms'. I might have mentioned before, I will be using Tempest as a guide, mostly for the shape and colour work, but constructing top down using the contiguous method developed by
SusieM. I have a cone of this yarn in grey, and another in blue (I also have one in red but that is more vibrant than I want for this cardigan).
 |
| Tambour |
And another needle in my hand this week has been the tambour needle. Two students are wanting to bead parts of their garments and I felt a tad guilty at not being more practiced at this. Ages ago I decided to practice with just thread until I was comfortable with the technique, the add beads. I've played with different hook sizes, and thread types and even with using a fine vintage crochet hook just like is used in videos of Zari embroidery online. Each thread and hook combination teaches me something, and for now I am feeling in control, I plan to add beads to the ext piece. As for what this is - pure practice, nothing more as evidenced by my random corners. Turning crisp corners in tambour work is a knack I have yet to master ....any suggestions? My best guess is to shorten the stitch length near the corner just like in machine stitching a collar.Once I have the middle filled in and added more to the edges ... 'cause with practice more is better, I will switch out the fabric and play with beads.
take care
Na Stella
Posted with Blogsy
