Monday, February 23, 2009

Below is a photo of two corrugated ribs, both of which show the little blips of color that occur when you first start the ribbing on the purl stitches. I’ve read every where I can on how to prevent this but closest I can come is Meg Swenson’s PWYC (purl when you can) method. I’m probably not understnading something as I cannot figure out how to prevent those little blips of color when you change from one purl color to another.



I've started "Lismore" in Jamieson & Smith colors. The top rib is the start of Lismore. Still working on laying out a more vertical stranded sweater but it isn't as easy as I thought it might be. Lismore is large charts so doesn't look as horizontally striped. This photo is my internet knitting friend Junie's Lismore from a few years ago. I won't make the high turtleneck and my colors are a bit more muted but the design charts are the same.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Time to start a new stranded project and I've been searching for a panel type (vertical) instead of horizontal bands. There are some excellent examples of knit designs on Ravelry plus I've been pulling out all the design books and magazines for ideas. I want a pullover but one where I can hopefully create a modified set in instead of a drop shoulder. Don't need all that bulk under my arms as I'm feeling shorter all the time.



Here is one I'm previewing since I'm trying to use stash and not buy one single solitary skein of yarn for this. The larger photo in the book does not look quite as horizontal stripe. Recently all the skeins and balls of Jamieson & Smith, Jamieson and Harrisville in two ply jumper weight were laid out on the floor and sorted by color. I kept one skein of each color out and put those in a canvas box like you would for a box of crayons. Easier to see the colors this way rather than have to sort through tubs of yarn looking for similar blues for example.

One of the better examples of a stranded work that looks vertical is "Whalsay Jumper" out of Ann Feitelson's "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting - History, Technique, Color & Patterns". When I first bought this book, this sweater was among the ones I liked the most and I had collected the browns, tans and peachy/lavender colors for it. Even though my hair is getting grayer all the time, it's basically brown and I would have washed out in this sweater.

It calls for J&S in these colors. The color names are Feitelson's but they give an idea of what the color looks like.

143 Chestnut Brown
80 Dark Brown
72 Light red heather
134 Maroon
1281 Yellow-orange heather
1288 Red-orange heather
1289 Orange heather
FC45 Medium dull gold
133 Medium Red-violet

Had all in stash except for 1281 and FC45 but, with help of the color card, came fairly close with FC50 and 78.

Here are my substitutions in J&S but in the green and blue color ways rather than the brown and orange-purple. These color names are mine for description purposes. The top row in each color is the original called for, the bottom row is the substitution.





143 = FC48 Deep Ocean Blue
80 = 21 Dark Navy
72 = FC24 Lightest green/gold heather
134 = 58 Dark Green
1281/FC50 = FC62 LightGreen/bluish heather
1288 = 29 Medium green/goldish heather
1289 = 1293 Darker green/goldish heather
FC45/78 = FC37 Medium blue/purple heather
133 = 1295 Darkest green/goldish heather

Since I'm also a quilter I had a set of the red and green colored squares to look through. These take out the color and leaves just intensity (darkness/lightness). These colors match up quite well in intensity. Since my favorite colors are blues and greens, this just might work.

Swatching next?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Town & Country is finished! It came out the right size from measurements taken with sister this Christmas. All that is left is to wash and block and send it off. Very happy with the color, the Cascade 220 wool and the finishing. Here's hoping she gets a lot of use out of it before hot weather hits Virginia.





Not sure what is next for knitting. I'm slowly working on Joe's "Shalor" but I think there is a problem with the sleeve size. Might have to rethink how I'm approaching that one.

Also anxious to get another stranded work on the needles and am looking at "Lismore", a Starmore pattern. I managed to pull all the J&S substitute colors from stash so maybe that is a sign to go for it? My colors are a tiny bit more subdued in the reds but I haven't swatched yet so not sure if my reds will go in there or not. This photo is of Junieanne's Lismore in the original Starmore yarns and colors.