FO – Page 31 – Fiber Musings

Artisan’s Vest

On 20 Dec, 2007

It’s been cold. I just want to wrap myself up in something soft and warm. I can’t stay in bed under the comforter all day, so…

Pattern: Artisan’s Vest by Green Mountain Spinnery (I have both the single pattern and the book)
Yarn: Handspun of unknown source and vintage; approximately DK weight; chain-plied. The fiber is most likely from Dicentra Designs, but I can’t be absolutely positive.
Needles: US #6/4.00 mm and crochet hook E
Size: 40″ (because it’s all about layering)

I followed the pattern exactly as written, even down to the needle size and gauge. The only change is the yarn. It’s a little loud, but it’s soft, and warm. It’s also bright enough to cheer up any gray day…too loud for me to comfortably wear outside the house. No matter.

There are random spots where the color is long, and they happily occurred in the top front areas. I didn’t go looking for them, they just happened. I love it when that happens. I even like the fact that they are not the same colors.

For the crocheted edge, I picked up 3 out of every 4th vertical row. I need to find 5 buttons to finish off the front. Any suggestions on colors? I’m thinking a potpourri of colors. What do you think?

I have enough yarn leftover to make a hat or fingerless mitts or both.

I’m now digging through my handspun stash for more yarn that I can turn into winter warmers.

Triangle Shawl Sampler

By Ann

On 20 Nov, 2007

In FO, Knit, Spin

This is the sampler I made from Evelyn Clark’s workshop. (Click for big.) It has only had a sauna treatment (steam block) because I bound off just in time for the guild meeting and I wanted to take it for the show and tell. The ends are not yet trimmed because it really needs a nice soak in a hot tub and re-blocked before I can call it finished.

Pattern: my own compilation of Evelyn’s stock lace patterns in her book “Knitting Lace Triangles”
Yarn: 2 ply spindle spun yarn (Lisa Souza’s Superfine Merino in “Bird of Paradise” colorway)
Needles: US #4, 3.50 mm
Size: Depth: 22″; Wingspan: 50″. Just about the perfect shoulder shawl size for me.

I worked the lace patterns from most open to most dense, and worked all the transitions in between. In retrospect, I should have followed Evelyn’s advice that if you are mixing elements, you want to have denser patterns at the top of the triangle. But by the time she dispensed that piece of advice, I had already worked through to the first or second repeat, and I was too lazy (or stubborn) to rip back and start over.

Of course, if I were to completely do this over, I would have chosen a more solid colored yarn. I think the pattern is busy enough and doesn’t need the competition of the variegation.

I close this post with a detail of the tip, complete with the “mistake” I referenced in the last post. Can you find the mistake if I hadn’t already told you where it was? No? Me neither.