Friday, March 26, 2021, Issue 191: What is on your needles?

• Posted on 26 March 2021
• By Susan Wong-Tsang
• Posted in March 2021, spring knitting, sweater weather
• 0

It started gray and gloomy but has turned out to be a not too bad day! It has been the kind of weather where you want to cast on a spring or summer sweater to wear as soon as possible!

Tillandsia by Laura Aylor is a swingy, slightly cropped spring top that skims the body with A-line shaping. Knit from the top down with yoke and then raglan increases and trimmed with deep lace and texture borders, it’s easy knitting with a bit of concentration required at the end.

It is sized to fit with 1 to 6 inches of positive ease at the bust - depending on your personal preference. Lighter colored top is shown modeled with about 8” of ease (about 2” more than recommended) and the dark version is worn with 2” of ease.

All border stitch patterns are both charted and written. The darker one was knit using Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light but any fingering weight yarn would look wonderful in this wearable design!

The gauge is 22 stitches and 33 rows = 4 inches in lightly blocked stockinette, knit in the round using 3.5 mm (US 4) needles or as required too get gauge.

One of my favourite summer top patterns is the Rock It Tee by Tanis Lavallee. There is nothing more comfortable than an easy breezy knit top. She chose to create tone on tone stripes by alternating between fingering and mohair yarn in her favourite shade of blue, but this basic shape lends itself to infinite possibilities when it comes to stripes and colour blocking.

Knit top down, flat until the neck shaping is complete and in the round after that.

Tanis's sample is shown with about 6” of positive ease.

The sizes are the actual finished measurement of the garment. Select a size that is 6” larger than your actual chest measurement to achieve the recommended ease.

The gauge is 24 sts and 32 rows = 4” square in stockinette stitch knit in the round and flat. Same gauge for both yarns. The recommended needles are 3.75mm (US 5) 24 or 32” circular needles or the size needed to get gauge.

This is the one that I knit last summer - I think at least ten of us knit it last summer. I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and Garnstudio Drops Kid Silk. My sister has knit three of them and yesterday I cast my second one on!

The Patchwork Fields Shawl by Caroline Sommerfeld of Ancient Arts Yarns was released today!

The City of Calgary lies at the place where the prairies give way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. To the east of the city lie the prairies, with a patchwork of farmer’s fields stretching as far as the eye can see. To the west of the city lies the Rocky Mountains, and the rolling foothills that lead up to them. This shawl brings together the colours and geography that surround Calgary, in a patchwork of fields and colours that evoke both the prairies and looking out from the city towards the mountains!

The finished shawl measures 119cm/47” from tip to tip, and 66cm/26” from center point to inner edge

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This design is a heart-shaped triangle shawl, which forms an easy to wear shape that stays nicely on the shoulders. It uses a contrasting i-cord edging to stabilize and finish the bottom edge.

Gauge will affect the amount of yarn used; should you find you are running out, you can leave off the final stripe border, proceeding with the i-cord edging.

The patchwork is created using intarsia, but if you prefer, you can make the shawl with plain stripes instead. To prepare your yarn for the intarsia knitting, divide each colour into two balls of yarn. To change colours between patches, bring the new colour up from below the previous colour to catch the strands together.

You will need 1 skein of the main colour fingering weight yarn held double with a strand of mohair and a contrast colour in fingering weight yarn such as Ancient Arts Yarn Socknado.

WIPs and FOs

I cast on my second Rock It Tee by Tanis Lavallee. I am using Bergere de France Bigarelle in Bleu and Parme and love it already! Bigarelle is a fingering weight linen and organic cotton yarn with its little flecks of colour scattered here and there.

• 55% Organic Cotton - 36% Linen - 9% Viscose
• 427 yards per 100 gram
• 3 mm (US 2) needles
• Approx. 26sts/34rows per inch
• Machine wash, dry flat.

It really is still sweater weather so I also cast on Blomsterjakke (Flower Cardigan) by Sandnes Garn using Sisu, the yarn and colours used in the pattern! I have 321 stitches on my 2.5 mm (US 1.5) needles so these few rows of ribbing took me a long time. I am very slow at knitting my ribbing.

I finished the baby romper that I knit for my great niece!

I don't think that you can see it but I finished the legs and socks and just had the sleeves to go when I sewed in the ends and decided to fuss with some loose stitches. What happened you ask? Well I undid my woven in ends and ended up with a big hole where the increases are in the back! I guess I should have taken some photos of the process of fixing it.

I knit the sleeves before I tackled the repair. I put my needles back in right before the last buttonhole. I put the top of both legs on to waste yarn and then I cut the in between section out, re-knit the last buttttonhole to the crotch area and then kitchener-stitched together each leg to the body.

I wanted to add crocheted daisies instead of bobbles to decorate the romper but since I don't crochet very often, they kept out too big even using fingering weight yarn. I used leftover fingering weight yarn from my Gnomes to add the crocheted bobbles.

KNIT GROUP AND GALLERY

The current Knit-Alongs are the Any Sweater / Shawl KAL and the Knit Your Project: the everlasting knit-along to encourage and support you to knit is running from January 1 to April 30, 2021.

Remember to post photos to the finished object (FO) thread HERE when you finish a project during the Knit-Along so that you will be included in the next draw! We will also add the option of posting your finished project to Instagram using the #sue2knitskal so that I can find them!

Katherine has finished her second Adult Community Tunic by Joji Locatelli! She knit it using Noro Ito for her main colour and Istex Alafosslopi for the contrast colour.

Love that yoke!

Carole finished her Mousseux by Espace Tricot knit using The Fibre Co. Cirro! She modified it for a more fitted waist and elbow length sleeves.

Jocelyne (jocblais) finished Goldwing by Jennifer Steingass. She used Lichen and Lace Rustic Heather Sport but worries there isn’t enough contrast.

Rose finished her Valentines Mittens by Anita Viksten. Yarn is Garnstudio Drops Alpaca.

Carla (carlaeleanor) finished her Raspberry Cordial Casapinka KAL Shawlette

Here’s Ann (annvanwagner)’s Raspberry Cordial Casapinka KAL Shawlette

Veronica designed this Charcuterie Beanie to be worn in the spring..

Veronica (@xovee.knits) knit this version Charcuterie Beanie in Rowan Felted Tweed! Check out her great pattern at her Veronica Topham Ravelry store!

Sandi knit a pair of Basic Ribbed Socks by Kate Atherley with Zitron Trekking XXL for Chris.

Jenny (JChan8) test knit this stunning recently released Aglais by Lisa Hannes!

VIRTUAL SOCIAL KNITTING

Virtual social knitting using the Zoom app! It has been a great way to knit together through social distancing! Join in with us either Tuesday afternoon from 2 - 4 pm or Thursday nights from 7 - 9 pm. We are continuing to hold our Zoom meetings each week until we can meet again in person. Clicking on the link will take you to our Zoom meeting.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
 
Meeting ID: 407820804

Happy Friday, Happy Knitting, Crocheting and Crafting! Keep calm and keep on knitting and making!