Colorwork

One of the goals I set myself awhile back was to learn how to do colorwork knitting.  I’ve dabbled in a few projects including the Plaid Hatter and the Mini Motif Baby Mittens.  These both seemed small and really just a drop in the bucket compared to what’s out there for colorwork. 

I challenged myself for Ravellenics to complete a pair of colorwork mitts.  I scoured the patterns, trying to find a pattern that both appealed to my sense of style, and something I thought was attainable.  I eventually ruled out mittens as I really wanted a pair of fingerless mitts.  It was down to the Transition Gloves and the Endpaper Mitts. 

The Endpaper Mitts won out because there were no really long floats, which tend to be harder to do well.  A successful long repeat cannot be too tight or too loose, it must be just right (or fairly close at least).  If you’re too loose, the fabric won’t be right and the stitches will be sloppy.  If the floats are too tight, your motif won’t show up and your knitting will pucker in bad ways.  So, as much as I liked the Transition Gloves, I figured they were best saved for another time. 

I’ve admired this pattern for a long time.  There are endless color combinations to make the pattern really pop.  Or can be subtle and use colors that are very similar to one another.  You could make 10 pairs of these and they’d all have a different appeal. 

I chose a dark turquoise (Midnight Heather) and a deep fuchsia (Fuchsia) in Knit Picks Palette, knit on US 0/2.0mm and US 3/3.25mm needles.  Knit Picks Palette has a nice selection of colors which can be used for colorwork projects, but I don’t find the yarn as next-to-skin-soft as I do some of their other fingering weight yarn.  I chose Knit Picks because it’s less expensive and I’m usually pretty happy with their yarn lines.  For my hands, it’s not bad and the density of the fabric will keep my hands warm.  I probably wouldn’t use this yarn for a cowl or scarf, though.

I would call this knit a success.  I was able to practice short floats, practice reading colorwork charts, and watch the magic that happens when you properly soak and block your knits.  My floats were pretty decent, nothing too tight or really loose, but they were a little puckered when the knitting was finished.  After a good blocking, that all went away and I have a nice, smooth pattern that emerged. 

Now, I don’t know if I can explain the next part right…the two colors I chose seem to have the same “value” when looking at them.  Although one is more pink/bright and one is blue-green/dark, at first glance, it’s not easy to see the pattern.  But once your eyes adjust, you easily see the diamond pattern and that’s when I truly marvel at colorwork.  I’m very happy with these mitts. 

(And in case you wondered, these are for me, all me!  But now I have the confidence to make colorwork items for others!) 

Lost Banner Hat

Continuing on with my Ravellenics projects, today I'm sharing the Lost Banner Hat.  This is a Susan B. Anderson pattern and qualified for our team prize drawing during the Ravellenics.

Susan knit this hat for herself from her own gradient handspun (a Loop batt maybe?) and eventually included a picture wearing said hat in her blog banner.  Her daughter wore it to school one day and it was lost, hence the name.  This was a pattern Susan never intended to publish, but instead something she whipped up for fun.  She had an overwhelming response to the hat, finally relented and released the pattern.  I'm glad she did because I really enjoyed the knit!

With a long, ribbed brim, this hat is really cute because you can flip all that ribbing up over the stockinette portion.  I knit this with my own handdyed, worsted yarn in Snowcone and Lollipop Guild. I then mailed it to Carol to be donated with the other charity items collected.  It should make for a fun kid's hat with all the bright, vibrant colors.  I'd really like to knit another hat for myself out of some gradient yarn.

I put the hat on Lovebug and tried to snap a few shots, but she would have none of it.  (She's very anti "things-on-my-head" right now.)  Squishy modeled it for me briefly, but he too wouldn't leave it on his head.  He is still very attached to his green apple hat from Debby (knittinggrandma) that we received in a swap a while ago and doesn't think he needs another at the moment.

Ravellenics 2012

I suppose it's about time I launched into the Ravellenics knitting that happened this summer.  Ravellenics (previously known as Ravelympics) coincides with the Olympics, so every two years knitters and crocheters and fiber artists gather their fiber and tools and get to work.  There are events and badges, goals and accomplishments, and it is really neat to see what we as a community can do in a short amount of time.

I participated in a few events which included the Frogging Trampoline and the Hand-Dyed High Dive. I also entered items into the charity knitting event, one skein wonders, the mitten event and the hat event.  That sounds like a lot, but it's not really.

For the frogging event (Frogging Trampoline), the requirements were that the item to be frogged (unraveled) must be at least 25% complete, and that you take a before and after shot.  I frogged two items.

First up, the Bathrobe.  I've talked about this knit a lot but never really got anywhere with it.  It'd been languishing on the needles, untouched, for too long.  Every time I went back to the pattern I spent half the time trying to figure out where I left off, and then getting frustrated because the pattern instructions were unclear to me.  Aside from that, the Bathrobe was meant to be for Squishy, who is now closer to 4 than 3 years old and the pattern size I was knitting was 24 months.  Too small!! And too big at the moment for Lovebug.

Before

 After

(I apologize for the quality of some of these photos.  

They were taken on my phone in bad lighting!)

The second item I frogged was Evie's Sweater.  I almost had her sweater reknit after frogging it once already, but I just couldn't come to terms with the density of the fabric.  I was trying to use yarn that was too heavy, even going up a couple needle sizes the sweater was thick and hard to maneuver.  It never would have been comfortable for her to wear.  I really want to knit her this pattern because it would cover the majority of her body and neck and give her tiny body warmth in the winter.  Perhaps I can get myself in gear and get this knit for the coming winter...with the proper yarn!

Before

 After

I also competed in the Hand Dyed High Dive.  This was for yarn and/or fiber that was dyed during the Ravellenics.  I dyed two skeins of fingering weight wool.  One for a prize drawing for Team Itty Bitty Knitters and one as a yarn swap with a friend.

I also knit 2 items, a pair of color work fingerless mitts and a hat during that time, but I'll save those for another day.

Practice!

At the end of July, the 2012 Summer Olympic Games will commence.   Ravelers all over the world mark the occasion by participating in fiber-related events on Ravelry.   A long while back I blogged about this vest I made for Squishy (HERE and HERE and HERE).  I am, again, choosing to participate in what is now called the Ravellenic Games.

I don’t know how much time I’ll actually have to committing to projects, but I feel like it’d be good to try and accomplish something.  Overall, knitters and crocheters are encouraged to work on things that challenge them in some way.  Perhaps by tidying up that large WIPs (Works In Progress) pile, or to knit something new and different, try a new technique…it can really be anything you want.  You aren’t allowed to cast on (or touch a WIP once games are announced) until Opening Ceremonies.  You must finish your project by Closing Ceremonies (sorta).  A badge is awarded to those who finish and so on and so forth.

There’s really more to it than that, but it involves more explanation that I really have the brain power to write down at the moment. 

Last time, I was a new knitter.  I challenged myself to finishing a baby vest in that two-week time period and I almost didn’t make it.   This year, my challenge to myself is to knit something stranded, fingerless mitts of some kind, actually.  I’ve not done much colorwork other than stripes because it’s intimidating and I always worry that my floats will be horrible (I’ll explain in a minute).  So what a great challenge to knit myself something stranded and get over that fear?

When knitting with two or more colors of yarn in the same row/round, you are carrying yarn across the back of your work.  The unused yarn creates a “float.”  Look at the “wrong side” of a sweater you own that has several colors.  It should look something like this:

(photo by littleyellowcat.com)

Those lengths of yarn are the floats.  And if they’re too tight, your work puckers.  If they’re too loose, you can see through the knitted fabric.  There’s a learning curve to doing this successfully and getting a nicely finished object.

I didn’t want to dive into a pair of mitts that might take me a bit of work, only to have it come out looking bad.  So I chose to “practice.” 

Enter Mini Motif Baby Mittens, stage left. 

These are a small project that could easily have been frogged and restarted if they weren’t turning out right.  Can you see the picture here?  They are penguins.  :)

These are for Lovebug this coming winter.  Little thumbless mitts to warm her hands.  Great practice for floats and twisting my yarn to prevent wee fingers from getting snagged.  They’re not perfect, but I feel better having knit these instead of jumping right in to my mitts. 

A little bit of soak, then blocking and these really shaped up nicely.

The yarn was NaturallyCaron.com Country in Black and some of my own hand-dyed yarn in the color I call Snowcone.

And hopefully, with a bit more practice, I can figure out a more even tension when working on stranded projects, for an even better result.  It's one of those things that just takes practice.  There's a learning curve and if you dont' just keep trying, you'll never get there!

So bring on the Ravellenic Games! :)