Knerdy Knitting
where spelling isn't as important as awesome

So a few weekends ago my friend Erin agreed to help me with a photo shoot. The LYS Fiber Nooks & Crannies asked to display my knitting! I chose eight or so garments from across my knitting career, from my first socks made early last year to the headband I finished the day before. One of my favorites is Tubey, a Knitty pattern by Cassie Rovitti. It has a really interesting construction; knit a flat panel for your back, attach a tube on each side for your arms and another tube at the bottom for your body. There’s almost no shaping, but the rib pulls it in just enough to look good.   (I did add hip shaping however.  My ass is a mighty force indeed.)  I did it in bold colors (which is subversive knitting but I’ll save that discussion for another day) with a now discontinued angora yarn. So not only is it fuzzy and warm, it also looks quite fetching. But because of the construction, you don’t see how nice it looks when it’s on the hanger.

Enter Erin and her photography skillz! She took pictures of me in all the garmets I wanted to display, including Tubey.  Here’s just a few.

It was hard to come up with a topic for this Project Friday.  Not because I haven’t been completeing projects — I think I’ve finished three different gifts in the last week — but because I haven’t been excited about any of the projects.  I already talked about the Dr Horrible wristers.  I already talked about the Snowflake hat.  (Which I really should rename because we all know snowflakes don’t have four points like the pattern has, but I digress.)  The only other projects I’ve been working on are a pair of Fetching and a very plain stockinette sock.  All in jewel tones and cool browns and purples.  Very appropriate to the time of year, and no doubt stylishly suited to the recipiants.

But.

I was getting tired out them.  So I started swatching some of my early handspun.  It’s from Abstract Fibers, in the fantastic colorway Chartreuse.  It’s all orange and rust and yellow and green.  I love it.  I love it so much I luff it.  With two Fs.  But I’m not casting anything new on until I finished my Christmas presents.  So I’m *swatching*, not knitting.

Ok, fine.  I’m knitting.  It’s so beautiful!  Even though I only have a few inches, I really enjoy knitting it and squishing it and petting it.  The pattern is the Yarn Harlot’s One Row Handspun Scarf, which works perfectly for the fluffy handspun yarn.

There are several conclusions we may draw from this.  One, that I need to be working on a project just for me sometimes.  I am not a completely charitable knitter.  Two, that I don’t knit just to turn out projects.  I am happiest when I enjoy the yarn I’m working with.  And three, that it may shock my sixteen-year-old self, but I like autumn colors more than winter colors.  Be still my screaming gothy heart.

Thick woolly hats are a wonderful thing, but not when you are trying to wear a bike helmet at the same time. Since my mom rides her bike to work almost every day, knitting a bike helmet liner for her made tons of sense. This hat is thin and machine washable, and the double thickness of the fair isle design keeps it snug and warm. At least that’s the plan.

Now that I have entered the 21st century, I have a PDF of this pattern also available.

Materials
Two balls of Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK Solid (acrylic and nylon), one in white (A) and one in black (B)
Set of five US 6 dpns
Five stitch markers, one of them different to mark the beginning of a round
(Note: This pattern only takes about 75g of yarn, so you will have lots left over.)

Gauge: 6 stitches and 7 rows to 1 inch

Snowflake Pattern

(White squares = knit with A, Black squares = knit with B)

Decorative Round

*k1 with B, k1 with A, repeat from * until end of round

Directions

Cast on 120 stitches in A color. (Be careful these stitches are loose. I used a long tail cast on over two dpns held together.) Arrange the stitches on four dpns such that there are 30 stitches per needle. Place end of round marker one stitch from the end of the fourth needle. Join, being careful not to twist stitches.

Work five rounds in three by three rib, then knit five rounds.

Work decorative round.

Knit three rounds in A.

Work the next eleven rounds from Snowflake Pattern chart, repeating the chart twelve times around the hat.

Knit three rounds in A.

Work decorative round.

Knit five rounds in A. On the last of these round, place a marker every 24 stitches.

Work a five pointed decrease as follows:
*Knit to within three stitches of a marker, k2tog, k1, repeat from * until there are just two stitches between markers. Then k2tog around. Five stitches remain.

Cut yarn and draw throw the five stitches twice. Weave in ends and block as desired.

This is a pattern from one of the first books I purchased, Exquisite Little Knits. It turns out there weren’t that many patterns in that book that I want to make, but this one really jumped out at me. It uses a technique called “double knitting” in the book, but I’ve also seen it called “double sided knitting.” The idea is that you knit all the odd stitches in one color and purl all the even stitches in another. If you don’t tangle the two working yarns, you end up with two entirely separate pieces of fabric.

In this scarf, you have alternating sections of double knitting and knitting both colors together. This makes a long pocket down through the double knitting section. The pattern itself is quite simple and elegant, but there’s a really cool trick that give the pattern its name. You cast on with both colors held together. Then when you begin the double knitting, you still use the entire held-together cast on stitches. That is, even though you are now using just one strand of yarn, you knit through both of the strands used to make the cast on stitch. This makes the edge of the work pucker a little bit, which makes a very pretty scalloped edge. You can just barely see it in the bottom of the photo above. The scallops are supposed to look like waves in a blue scarf, but since mine is green I guess I should rename it. Wind in the Trees, maybe?

I’m really happy with how this scarf turned out, but it was very slow going. To speed things up I began to hold one color in each hand like I was doing fair isle. This took a while to build up the muscles in my left hand. And even though I used all the yarn I had, it makes a very short scarf. And since this line of yarn is discontinued, I can’t get more to make it longer. So, even though double knitting takes up a lot of yarn, but it is very warm. I wore this scarf all around London, and it was the perfect caulking in between my sweater and my beret.

This one’s for all those Dr Horrible fans out there.  Remember the scene in the beginning of Act II where Penny is eating frozen yogurt with Captain Hammer in the park?  Remember swooning over her wristers?  Ok, maybe I am the only one who answers yes to that second one.  But with a little work I now have wrister just like hers!  Except I put some pretty leaf buttons on the hands, because I could not resist the power of pretty leaf buttons.

(Errata is in red.)

And now, thanks to the lovely and generous Wierdlings, it comes in PDF format! (The PDF has been changed to reflect the errata.)

Here’s an outline of what I did.  I’m new to writing patterns, so I hope it makes sense.

Dr Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Wristers

Materials:

Two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, one in dark green (A) and one in beige (B)
(You will use about 90% of ball A and about 55% of ball B.)

Size US6 straight needles

Size US6 dpns for the thumb hole

Twelve buttons that fit the buttonholes you’ve made
(I used six 3/4″ leaf button and six 3/4″ green buttons.)

Gauge: 5 stitches per inch, 7 rows per inch

Directions:
Cast on 38 stitches in color A.

Work 2×2 rib in color A for 6 rows.

Work in st st (4 rows in B, 4 rows in A) five times. Carry the color you aren’t working with up the right hand side of the work. Work 4 rows in B one more time.

Make thumb hole (left glove):
Work 20 stitches in A, work 6 stitches with cotton waste yarn, slip 6 cotton stitches back to left needle and work them again in A, work remaining twelve stitches.

Make thumb hole (right glove):
Work twelve stitches in A, work 6 stitches with cotton waste yarn, slip 6 cotton stitches back to left needle and work them again in A, work remaining twenty stitches.

Hand (both gloves):
Work three more rows in A, four rows in B.

Work one row of st st in A, and then five rows of 2×2 rib in A. Bind off using Stretchy Cast-off for 2×2 Rib. (See pattern notes at end.)

Thumb:
Carefully undo cotton stitches, putting bottom six stitches on one needle and top seven stitches on another.

Work across bottom six stitches with B, pick up two stitches in the gap, work across top seven stitches, pick up two in gap. Cast off all thumb stitches.

Button Band:
With A, pick up and knit 45 stitches along side of work farthest from thumb hole (about five for every seven.) (I did this by picking up three, skipping one, picking up two, and skipping one. If you end up with more than 45 stitches, don’t do it over. Just decrease (or increase) to 45 stitches in the next row.) Work two rows in st st, beginning with a wrong side row.

K3, (make a single row button hole, k3) to end (See pattern notes at end.)
Knit two more rows in st st, bind off all stitches.

Weave in all ends and block as desired. Wear while eating frozen yogurt.
Notes:

Single Row Button Hole in Four Easy Steps (I don’t remember where I learned this, but I didn’t come up with it.)

1) Move the working yarn to the other side of the work, slip the next stitch, and move the working yarn back to the original side of work.

2) Slip next stitch from left needle to right needle, pass second stitch on right needle over slipped stitch.  You have bound off one button hole stitch.  Repeat two more times.  Three button hole stitches bound off.  Slip stitch from right needle to left needle.

3) Turn work.  Bring working yarn to back of work.  Using cable cast on, cast on four stitches.  Turn work.

4) Slip stitch from left needle to right needle, pass second stitch on right needle over the slipped stitch.

Stretchy Cast-Off for 2×2 Rib (This one I did come up with)

1)   Transfer the stitches to be cast off to a dpn.  While transferring, rearrange the stitches so that the first stitch is a knit stitch, the second stitch is a twisted knit stitch (the lefthand “leg” of the stitch is in front of the needle), the third stitch is a purl stitch, and the fourth stitch is a twisted purl stitch.

2)  Using a tapestry needle, sew through the first stitch on the needle from left to right.  Sew through the second and first second stitches from left to right.  Drop first stitch on needle.  Turn work.

3) Sew through the second and first stitches on the needle from right to left.  Sew through the third and second stitches on needle from right to left.  Drop first two stitches on needle.  Turn work.

4) Be sure that the yarn is up over the knitting needle and behind the work as you sew. Sew through the second and first stitches on the needle from left to right.  Sew through the third and second stitches on needle from left to right.  Drop first two stitches on needle.  Turn work.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all stitches have been bound off.

Sunday morning at OFFF, I discovered in short order that (1) my class was actually in the morning, (2) my instructor was running late, and (3) my class was going to be moved to the afternoon. This left me and Cynthia with no knitting, no fiber, and no car keys to obtain either one. Clearly I was fated to make one last purchase.

I chose some yummy superwash merino dyed up beautifully by Maisy Day. So what if there was less then 2 ounces? It called to me. So I hung out with the PDX Knitbloggers and began to spin. This was when I only knew one method, so I used the largest ratio, short draw. As usual, it came out slightly underspun and very sproingy. (Yes, that is a word.) Spinning all morning I finished the entire two ounces and got about 60 yards after it was plied.

So it’s beautiful, sure, but what can you do with 60 yards? Not much. Even little projects seemed to require more yarn. What I really wanted was a pair of mitts, but no go. So clearly I had to make up my own pattern.

I started with Fetching, the extremely popular Knitty pattern. Even these little mitts called for too much yarn. So I went up two needle sizes, cut out one of the cable twists at the wrist, and made the hands slightly shorter. It worked wonderfully, and I even had ten yards of yarn left. I used this to pick up around the wrists and knit another two rows; without these rows the mitts were pretty but not long enough to be useful. Now they are both! Knitting them up took about a day.

Being so small and slight (both in size and in woman hours of work), I call them Slightly Fetching. And I’ve been wearing them nearly constantly ever since.

When I saw this pattern, I instantly thought of my Dad. He’s way into yoga. Particularly, the kind of hot yoga promoted by Bikram. I call it his Nazi Yoga. It’s the same thing every day. It’s in a really hot room. One day he even collapsed during the session.

And it’s a vital part of him keeping happy and healthy.

So I picked out a mercerized cotton yarn called Plymouth Yarn Fantasy Naturale Solid. It’s in a really nice blue — his favorite color — and is machine washable. And I began to knit. And knit. And knit. It’s a bag. I thought it would take a couple weeks or so. A month at most. But it’s been a month and I’m only two thirds of the way done with it. I blame the cables.

I have a little practice with cables, but after this project I’ll have a lot. It’s a three by three cable twist, first to the front and then to the back. And it takes for-freaking-ever. If I had known, if I had the experience to know, I would not have started this project. But now I’m two thirds of the way done and Dad knows I’m making him a yoga bag for his birthday. Which was two weeks ago.

It’s always a little sad when something I do for fun becomes something I have to do. Knitting should not be work. But then again, knitting shouldn’t be 27 inches of cables. So there you go.

In a slight deviation from knitting, here is a sample of my cross stitch powers.

Because Diesel Sweeties is awesome.

Arrrr!  Saturday, it were Talk Like a Pirate Day, so in keepin’ with that theme, this post be in pirate speak.

Avast be the name of the pattern for this sweater, being of a nautical turn and suitable fer the man in yer life.  I be makin’ it fer me boyfriend, a fine pirate and a fine man.  It has a construction new to me, in that it be a bottom up cardigan.  The cables ’round the waist be knit in a long strip, then stitches picked up along the top to form the body.  It be knittin’ up well, though the stockinette be a bit tirin’.  Eventually, I’ll be knittin’ the sleaves seperate than then joinin’ them to the body in a raglan style, so there’ll be all but no seamin’ in the project.

Now, there may be some among ye that shiver at the mention of a sweater fer a boyfriend.  There’s some that say knittin’ a sweater fer a man before a-weddin’ him be bad luck, and that such a sweater be Cursed.  Cursed this sweater may be, and a full minute o’ breakup may be comin’ of it.  But Pirate Boyfriend be wantin’ a sweater more than we be wantin’ a weddin’, so a sweater he will have.  Also, I have heard of no curse on the makin’ up after.  If ye know what I be meanin’.  Arrr!