Thursday, January 4
Freehand knitting
I am trying my hand at freehand knitting, spontaneous creation with the pattern in my mind.
I have been reading a little of Elizabet Zimmermann who confirms my gut feeling that our knitting forebears did not fiddle with patterns written in 3 sizes with special yarn and extra fine needles. That's a prejudice on my part: knitting can be somewhat exclusive - you have to know where to get this stuff and what stuff you want. People have been making sweaters, socks, scarves, tweaking their favorite stitch using the yarn they have and the needles on hand ever since when.
Instead, I want to know how to make something without all the preamble.
I am also working through my stash.
I picked my yarn (Reynolds Lopi Lite - 7 skeins left over from a sweater I don't like) and knit a SWATCH. EZ says you have to know how big your stitch is. I did a little math (my spi x my waist measurement) to get the cast-on. And I worked from there. So far:
That's the body of the sweater, very blocky, but I think it might be OK. I knit it in the round, no shaping, purled at the half-way point to mark the steek and then when I got to the sleeves, I also purled where I will cut the steek. I hope to have enough yarn for the sleeves and collar; if not, I will frog the sweater that I don't like. Those are bag ties that I am using as stitch holders where I want to add the pockets.
Although I was looking to lighten my yarn load, I visited Nana's and picked up the book to make felted slippers. One of the knitting ladies was in there at the same time, said it was the only felting book she had, and Cascade was absolutely reliable. What could I do:
The hypocrisy isn't lost on me - work through my stash but buy yarn; criticize the yarny doodads but buy a book on felting. Ah well.
Do you know you have to make a swatch to felt to make sure your object will felt to the right size???
I have been reading a little of Elizabet Zimmermann who confirms my gut feeling that our knitting forebears did not fiddle with patterns written in 3 sizes with special yarn and extra fine needles. That's a prejudice on my part: knitting can be somewhat exclusive - you have to know where to get this stuff and what stuff you want. People have been making sweaters, socks, scarves, tweaking their favorite stitch using the yarn they have and the needles on hand ever since when.
Instead, I want to know how to make something without all the preamble.
I am also working through my stash.
I picked my yarn (Reynolds Lopi Lite - 7 skeins left over from a sweater I don't like) and knit a SWATCH. EZ says you have to know how big your stitch is. I did a little math (my spi x my waist measurement) to get the cast-on. And I worked from there. So far:
That's the body of the sweater, very blocky, but I think it might be OK. I knit it in the round, no shaping, purled at the half-way point to mark the steek and then when I got to the sleeves, I also purled where I will cut the steek. I hope to have enough yarn for the sleeves and collar; if not, I will frog the sweater that I don't like. Those are bag ties that I am using as stitch holders where I want to add the pockets.
Although I was looking to lighten my yarn load, I visited Nana's and picked up the book to make felted slippers. One of the knitting ladies was in there at the same time, said it was the only felting book she had, and Cascade was absolutely reliable. What could I do:
The hypocrisy isn't lost on me - work through my stash but buy yarn; criticize the yarny doodads but buy a book on felting. Ah well.
Do you know you have to make a swatch to felt to make sure your object will felt to the right size???
// posted by Diane H @ 8:28 PM 
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I have made these slippers. Don't bother to swatch. THey are really warm. The mittens on my blog are anemoi mittens from Eunnyjang.com. They have taken a back seat to my Central Park Hoodie Sweater.
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