Category Archives: projects

Airplane knitting

In October 2012 I went to New Zealand for my uncle's funeral. It's a reasonably long flight from here at 15 hours, and I figured I needed an easy project to knit, that I could pick up and drop without losing my place. The Revontulli pattern was ideal, and also used up some yarn in my stash that needed a simple enough lace pattern to not overpower the yarn.

Yarn: Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in colour EV, one complete skein

Needles: 5.5 mm

Pattern: Revontuli-huivi/Northern Lights

Modifications: I had to rip back the last two rows to have sufficient yarn to bind off.

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laurendw/revontuli--huivi-northern-lights

Tweed hat

We were planning on going to Regina, Sakatchewan, for Christmas 2012, and thus a new hat was needed for my husband. He picked the pattern and of course went for a simple one. I did have to rip out and reknit to make it big enough, but it worked out in the end. It's said to be very warm, which is needed for the -30 deg C that one can easily encounter on the prairie.

Tweed hat front

Tweed hat front

tweed-hat-2 tweed-hat-3

Yarn: 2.25 skeins of Berroco Blackstone Tweed Chunky in a light grayish brown

Needles: 5.5 mm for the brim, 6.5 mm for the body

Pattern: Jason's Tweed Hat by Melissa Thomson

Modifications: I added 10 stitches to make it big enough, thus 80 stitches, and I used Techknitter's flat top method for the top.

Comments: The yarn is a bit splitty, and doesn't like being ripped back much.

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laurendw/jasons-tweed-hat

Red and black and grey

These colours make a good scarf, knitted in Brioche, for a Christmas present. Multi-colour brioche knitting is almost like shadow or illusion knitting, but the image isn't quite as dependent on viewing it from the right angle.

Yarn: Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in colours EMC and EC

Needles: 3.5 mm

Pattern: Geveldak Scarf by Nancy Marchant, from the excellent 'Knitting Brioche' book

Modifications: None

Comments: the book is excellent, the pattern was easy to follow.

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laurendw/geveldak-scarf

Festivus Bitterroot

For the 2010 Festivus I drew yarnpiggy and after much hither and thither, and a few false starts, I ended up making her a Bitterroot shawl out of Kauni Effektgarn, complete with beads. I'd never added beads to a shawl before (or anything else for that matter), so it was a good excuse to try it out.

Lace is always amazing. A crumpled bit of what looks like string

bitterroot shawl lace pre-blocking   crumpled bitterroot lace

turns, via the magic of blocking

blocking bitterroot  more blocking bitterroot   edging detail

into this

finished and blocked

Project details

Yarn: approx 100 g Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in the ET colourway

Needles: I forget, but probably 4mm.

Pattern: Bitterroot by Rosemary (Romi) Hill

Modifications: None

Comments: A quick knit on the way to and from a conference, with lots of knitting time there as well as on the flights. The yarn doesn't slip or ravel easily, so it was easy to fix mistakes in. The long colour lengths look really good, too.

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laurendw/bitterroot

Festivus 2010

It's been a long, long time since I blogged anything. I blame a number of factors, all of which too boring to detail here and now. But, I finally gave myself some motivation (I couldn't wear my festivus gift until I photographed it; and it's only a small step to blogging once I have the photo!)

The TCYW Ravelry group's Festivus 2010 was held in December. The basic concept is that each person in the group who wants to take part gives a fibre art gift to one person, and receives from someone else. You know who you're giving to, but not who you're receiving from. There's a price limit, and we all go out for dinner some place nice. This year it was organised by the inimitable Beentsy and Yarnpiggy, and it was, just like last year, an excuse for spoiling each other and being spoiled.

It turns out that having a mystery spoiler/spoilee is also a good way to get to know someone you might not have previously known; my spoiler was Lady Sheepsbane whom I hadn't met before. With help of appropriate Ravelry forum postings she came up with just the right gift (that's the Ravelry link), knitted in the right size and colour. And some lovely handspun yarn that hasn't told me yet what it wants to be, a notebook just the right size (small enough to fit in my purse), and a candy to top it off. A perfect combination of festivus items.