Sonntag, 30. August 2015

Yarnbomb in Zurich

A couple of weeks ago I saw the air vents of a parking garage in Zurich were decorated with fabric of a really bright color ... at the time I even posted a picture of it on my Instagram account, but I thought it was just fabric (well, not knitting :)


Well, this weekend I walked by a bit closer so I could examine it better and read the sign with the explanations. It turns out that
a) it's actually knitted, i.e. a yarnbomb
b) it's part of a bigger festival, with large-scale projects in the public space - called AUFSEHEN (sensation or splash in English); this installation is called "Knitted Parking"


I also found out that I had seen some of the other projects, wondered about them and didn't know what to make of them. But I really like the ideas ... so I guess, I will try to see the installations I haven't seen yet, but I will have to hurry, because it only runs till September 6th.


Freitag, 28. August 2015

Trikonasana Yoga Socks

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
It seems that I'm going trough a "yoga sock phase" again. But this time, I try different designs to make the knitting a bit more interesting. After a sideways version and on with horizonal cables, I tried this one that is knitted diagonally - or with slanted horizontal ribbing.

As I am always trying to reduce the number of ends to weave in, this version is also knitted in one piece - and flat.

Trikonasana is the name for the triangle pose in yoga.

I haven't done much yoga lately, but I resolved to do the 30/30 Yoga Challenge by Ekhart Yoga in September. (I've often taken resolutions like that but never quite accomplished them - maybe announcing it publicly (sort of) helps :)



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This work by Kntting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials
  • three 3mm needles
  • about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn
  • scrap yarn (for provisional CO and to hold some stitches) 
  • a crochet hook (for provisional CO)
  • a tapestry needle to graft and to weave in ends.


Techniques and Special Stitches

Gauge and What to Measure
Before starting to knit measure the circumference of your ankles. You will be asked to knit until you have reached half of that circumference.
As to the width of your stitches, I had 13 stitches to 5 cm. However, this is one of the cases where knitting a swatch is actually more work than casting on “normally” and ripping back after a few rows if the piece is too wide or too narrow.
Please note that the actual width of the pice is not measured at the edge, but along the knitting direction or 45 degrees off the edge.


Construction
The pictures below shows the general construction. You start with half of the intended lenght of the sock multiplied by 1.4. (I wanted the sock to measure about 2 x 7 cm = 14 cm) - since I'm knitting slanted I aimed for about 9.8 cm (7 cm (half the lenght) x 1,4 = 9.8 cm). Since 13 stitches give 5 cm, about 25 stitches will give about 9.8 cm.
Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in slanted horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the back of the foot and the front part of your ankles (Part 2 - wide part in the middle). At the end of part 2 you put half of your stitches on scrap yarn.  Then you continue in another narrow strip of slanted horizontal ribs.
The piece looks now as shown in the photo below. To finish it you need to graft the two seams as shown in the schematic.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)


Instructions

Part 1:
Provisionally CO 25 sts but leave a tail long enough to graft these stitches
Row 1: k all sts
Row 2: k1, kfb, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Row 3: p1, p to end
Row 4: p1, pfb, p to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1

Repeat rows 1 to 4 until the side edge (when stretched a bit) is about half the circumference of your feet. Stretching the piece while measuring it, will help the socks to fit snugly, The ribbing is quite strechy, so it needs to be knitted with some negative ease.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
Part 2:
Row 1: k all sts then with scrap yarn and on a new needle provisionally CO 25 more stitches and continue knitting (k) (see picture 1)

Knit rows 2 to 4 as in part 1.

Then repeat rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) until the sock (measured in kntting direction) measures the circumference of your foot – when being stretched a bit.
End with a row 3

Row 4; p1, pfb, p20, p2tog, p1  and put the remaining stitches (there should 25 sts left) on a piece of scrap yarn. Turn your work - it should look as in picture 2.

Part 3:
Knit rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) as many times as you knitted in part 1.
However, do not knit row 4 of the last repeat - end with a row 3.

Cut your yarn leaving a tail long enough to graft the seam. Open the stitches from the second provisional CO and catch them on a knitting needle. Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 3). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)Once you've finished grafting this seam, open the stitches from the first provisional CO and catch them on a needle, also put the stitches you put on scrap yarn at the end of part 2 on another needle.
Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 4). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Weave in ends.

Second sock
If you want your socks to be symmetrical (i.e. one is the mirror image of the other) you need to turn one of them inside out, i.e. redefining the former RS to now WS. So after you've grafted the second one, make sure to weave in your ends on the new WS side.


Freitag, 21. August 2015

Random Bubbles Lace Scarf

As light as gossamer and as delicate as flower petals - this scarf is knitted from only one 50 gram skein of lace weight yarn.

Exploring the random lace technique a bit further - I wanted to knit a shaped scarf. And to make the counting a bit easier, I thought I'd use the shaping of the Seifenblasen Lace Scarf - which worked quite well in the end. This means that random lace sections will be alternated with sections of garter stitch with short rows.

Please note: This is not a stitch-by-stitch pattern. The Random sections are knitted, well, at random – giving you a unique piece of knitware. Therefore, there are no detailed pattern instructions for these sections. However, the instructions give you rules and guidelines on how to produce a piece of random lace that looks similar to the one in the pictures.



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This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.






русский / Russian Version: lutik (Ravelry name) made a video (in Russian) explaining how to do this scarf. It's available on YouTube here.


Materials or What You Need to Knit
  • Yarn, I’d suggest something that blocks well (i.e. with a high percentage of wool) in fingering weight or finer. For the scarf in the pictures, I used a bit less than 50 grams of lace weight yarn Lace Top by Lana Stop 
  • Needles (a bit bigger than what the yarn calls for), I used 3.25 mm needles.
  • Tapestry needle to weave in ends
  • The ability and the willingness to count your stitches over and over again … since there are not pattern repeats or anything that could help, it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the row. This is a concentration exercise, i.e. NOT something that I would take to my local knitting group. Since it’s be impossible for me to follow a conversation and count stitches at the same time, it’d make me very unsocial :)
  • The patience to knit a piece that will look extremely crumpled and not very attractive, while you are knitting it. I will look so much better after blocking - see picture below. 



Techniques and Abbreviations


Instructions to knit the scarf

CO12 sts
Step 1: Knit one random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace
Step 2: Knit one increasing short row section (see instructions below)
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until your scarf is about half as wide as you want it to be and knit another random lace section (16 rows of random lace)
(for me this was the case after 14 random lace sections)

Step 3: Knit a neutral short row section (see instructions below)
Step 4: Knit on random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace

Step 5: Knit a decreasing short row section (see instructions below)
Step 6: Knit a random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until there are 12 sts on your needles (the number of increasing short row sections should be equal to the number of decreasing short row sections)

Bind off loosly.
Weave in ends and block.


How to Knit Random Lace Section
  • Basically, knit decreases and yarn-overs in a random manner and make sure that after a row you have the same number of stitches you started with. That’s it.
  • Distribute the increases and decreases evenly within one row, i.e. don’t make too many decreases before you do increases (and vice-versa) – or else your piece will look crooked – at least before blocking.
  • After a bit of trying, I only counted the increases and decreases, i.e. “plus one” for every yarn over and “minus one” for every decrease, and making sure that the count is zero at the end of a row. This worked fine for the first few random sections (i.e. section with less than 25 or so stitches), but after the rows got longer, it became difficult to keep track and I had to recount the row. I guess it doesn’t matter if you lose one stitch in a row, as long as you make it up in the next one.
  • To have a knit-effect on RS, I only did “knit-decreases” (e.g. k2tog, ssk, sl1-k2tog-psso) on RS and purl-decreases (e.g. p2tog, p2togtbl, p3tog) on WS. For increases I only did yarn overs or yarn over twice (instead of mk1-stitches) to get “lacy” holes.
  • To get a nice edging, I started every RS row with sl1 purl-wise and every WS row with sl1 knit-wise.
  • About 20-25 percent of my stitches per row were yarn overs – with of course the matching number of decreases. If you do more, the lace will look more delicate; if you do less, it will look more structure – but both that’s a question of taste.
  • As a last advice, do not overthink this! If you get your stitch count right (roughly), it is practically impossible to mess this up.

Short Row Section - Increasing
Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section.
(Since the scarf is started with 12 sts, for the 1st short row section X is 3 (12/4=3), then there are 4 sts more on your needles and for the 2nd short row section X=4 (16/4=4), for the 3rd X=5 (20/4=5), for the 4th X=6 and so on.)

Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
During this short row section your stitch count was increased by 4 stitches.

Short Row Section - Neutral
Devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (Here X should be one higher as X for the last increasing section.)
Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to end
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
The number of stitches wasn't changed.

Short Row Section - Decreasing
Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (X for the first decreasing short row section should be equal to X in the neutral short row section - for the following sections, X will always be one less than for the section before.)
Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
During this short row section your stitch count was decreased by 4 stitches.



This design was featured at Oombawka Design Link & Share Wednesday - Link Party 108. Thank you!

Oombawka Design