Two Fall Knitting Projects

Dear Knitters,

 

Do you need a few ideas for fall knitting? Here are a two projects that don't take a lot of time but are pleasurable knitting with great results. 

Finny's new hat is the Turn A Square hat by Jared Flood. The pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry.

I used Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Superwash worsted weight in two colors for this hat. The main color is  a bronze and Cactus is the second stripe. This yarn is a 2012 Featured Yarn in our studio. Read more about it on our website where you will find 14 colors and a discount on this yarn.

My Ravelry projects page will tell you more about Turn A Square hats that I have knit. Read about how I have knit this pattern for both guys and boys, just by changing the needle size of the body of the hat. You can purchase this yarn at  the Graywood Designs online site.

This is the Tudora neck warmer, sort of a cowl, sort of a scarf. It uses less than a full skein of worsted yarn and can be knit in one or two sittings.

The pattern is available on Knitty, an online knitting magazine, and includes some cabling as well as a clever bind off technique.

I used Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Superwash worsted (again) but would knit this a second time with Brown Sheep Lanaloft Handpaint worsted. Look at the color "Precious Stones" for a luscious blended handpaint look.

Both yarns are available at our online shop, Graywooddesigns.com where I have hand picked a selection of colors from the Brown Sheep charts. The choices run toward rich shades and heathers. Take a look and see if you can find something to knit with at Graywood.

Happy fall knitting!

Wanda

Another Luscious Yarn

The Brown Sheep people have done it again. Their Lanaloft Handpaint yarn is luscious and a joy to knit. We are carrying eight of the handpaint colors in both worsted and sport weights

• Wine Fire -- red to burgundy to almost purple
• Twilight -- gray to denim blue to deep taupe
• Grape Vines -- touch of mauve to heathery blue and gray
• Precious Stones -- deep teal to toned down red violet with hints of forest
• Platinum Plum -- ever so slightly purple but mostly taupey brown
• Razzmatazz -- intense red violet and teal with deep purple
• Autumn Run -- gentle teal and mauve, some leaning toward dull apricot
• Plantation Fall -- red brown with forest accent and russet 

One skein of worsted (160 yards) will make a lovely scarf or pair of mittens or a hat. The sport weight skein has 145 yards and will make our Topknot Hat.

The Graywood Designs website has photos and more details, plus there's a bit of a discount. Shipping is only $4.95 per order.

Brown Sheep Lanaloft Handpaint Worsted

Update: Boneyard Shawl

Boneyard Shawl on the lawn -- wrist watch in upper right corner

In progress, with maybe 30 grams of yarn yet to be knit from the formerly 100 gram ball, my Boneyard Shawl project is coming along. Elizabeth Zimmermann is so right about a  laceweight yarn project being the perfect take-a-long knitting task. I'm not looking at a chart or counting as I knit, so I can keep up a conversation and still knit.

I moved the stitches onto two long needles this week and spread the shawl out on grass. The longest side is almost 40 inches already and, as you can see, I have some knitting to do yet.

This scarf/shawl has given me pleasurable knitting hours in Great Britain, Wisconsin and Michigan. Whether on a bus, sitting by the lake or riding in a car, this is my 2012 summer knitting project that relaxes.

The specifics:

• Yarn: Lace Ball, 100 gram ball
• Needles: US#5 circular -- 40"
• Free pattern: Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West, found on Ravelry.com
• First blog post about my Boneyard Shawl

Coming Soon: Topknot Hat Pattern

My Topknot Hat pattern is almost ready for prime time. Several knitting friends (and sisters!) are currently knitting from the written pattern. Their experiences help me know what adjustments can be made to make the pattern easy to use. Two proofreading gurus are also working their wonders, God bless them.

I have knit four of these little gems myself and have two more in progress. I like to knit from the patterns that I write before I release the design. That way, I will know if I can follow my own directions. Believe me, there are times when I write pretty crazy stuff for knitting.

So, stay tuned. Topknot is almost ready. You will find it on my Ravelry pattern site which is right HERE.

This pattern uses either worsted weight or sport weight yarn. The design is knit using a 16 inch circular needle, US#4 or 5 or 6, depending on the weight of yarn. As usual, you can adjust needle size for your own knitting. The body of the hat is textured and the top is finished with a knot that's knit with I-cord. Funky and fun.

 I'm finishing the hat on the upper right in the photo now. That hat uses Brown Sheep Lanaloft Handpaint Sport yarn, a luscious yarn that will appear on our website this fall. The color pictured is Razzamatazz, a purple/gray/burgundy multicolor that will be in the Graywood Designs online store soon.

So, just a peek! Enjoy!

Travel Knitting -- Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West

I'm back from a 13 day tour of England where my husband and I enjoyed hearing pipe organs every day. It was a grand look at the sights and sounds of British history seen through the perspective of the organs at churches and cathedrals and town halls in London, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge and Reading.


There was lots of sit-on-the-bus time which I turned into knitting time. I had planned my carry along knitting project since January and did not make a change in my plans, unlike other trips where I'm adding extras at the last minute.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's advice for knitting during travel is to start a shawl on circular needles and fine yarn. I swatched away at Stephen West's Boneyard Shawl in January.

I wanted to get the make one left (M1L) and make one right (M1R) increases to flow from my fingers to the needle without having to think twice about which way the increases would twist.



I swatched the shawl by starting one on US#3 double point bamboo needles using some leftover sock yarn. I tried another increase, knit one front and back (K1fb), and decided that I really did need to use Stephen's suggestion of M1L and M1R. So I sketched out the twist for myself and got busy training my hands in the muscle memory of these two increases. The M1L is the easy loop that I form over my right index finger, like a cast on stitch. The M1R is more complicated; I pinch a loop in between my right finger and thumb and be sure it twists to the right. I call one increase "easy" and the second one I have labelled "hard."

I started the shawl on February 6 at 12:30 pm out in Arizona. Don't ask me why I was knitting so late at night. I'm guessing that I was getting my body clock adjusted to Arizona time after travel from Michigan. Anyway, my notes tell me that I began the shawl using Zauberball Lace yarn and US#3 needles to start.

After the second ridge, I switched to an Addi Turbo 32 inch circular needle. Stephen's pattern uses DK weight yarn on a US#8 32 inch needle, so I knew that I needed the needle length and that a slightly larger than usual needle diameter would give me a soft shawl.

Then the project was laid aside. I jammed the knitting into my rollabout in March when we travelled back to Michigan. A new grandchild came in April and I concentrated on a little cardi for Baby Val before leaving on our almost two week trip to Great Britain in May. I finished the cardi and a quilt for Grandson Max, too, before we left on our trip.

Here's the shawl as it exists in late May. There are nine garter ridges already. The Zauberball ball is about half knit up. I'm estimating that I have at least 20 hours of knitting in the shawl already and probably that many hours to go before I finish.

I wasn't sure about the color but as the subtle change from deep navy to medium denim to soft blue unfolded before me, I can see that this shawl will be a fine accent for the jeans jackets that I love to wear. Not fussy, not formal, just practical and warm and a class act of handknitting -- that's what I'm envisioning as I knit.

Elizabeth Zimmerman was so right about laceweight knitting.  I carried the shawl everywhere that we went in Great Britain. Tucked into the personal side of my totebag (the other side was the journaling and notebook side) along with my cosmetic case and umbrella, the knitting was near at hand.

The yarn would hook around the umbrella spokes and I'd find a loop when I pulled the project out of my totebag. Yarn is resilient and I worked those loopy pulls right back into the fabric of the scarf. A pull wasn't a big deal. Having my knitting with me mattered more.

I'm not good at getting going in the morning. Breakfast, while travelling, is not a meal that stays put. So in the morning, knitting gave me an anchor point, a place where my hands could perform a familiar dance and let my body relax. Often I wouldn't even need to knit many stitches before the calm of knitting would bring my stomach into control and I knew I would be okay for the day.

Knitting has so much counterpoint. Like a Bach fugue, you begin with a single row and a simple stitch. Then comes the increasing, the ridges, the changes in color. The fabric expands into a piece that is soft and delights the eye. Still the fugue continues, mingling stitch after stitch and row after row into the warmth of a scarf.

There is comfort and calm in knitting. More than just passing the time, knitting yields warmth and color, pattern and play, memories of travel and. . .a shawl.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Welcome to Graywood Knits

Welcome to a new venture for Graywood Designs, this blog that will feature my knitting designs, as well as posts about the art and craft of knitting.

I've been keeping a knitting journal for a number of years and hope to write about how I journal, and about why a knitting journal might be a good idea for you.

I've joined the Ravelry knitting bunch. You will hear about that. I'm knitting for grandkids. I have ventured into lace weight knitting. You will read about those projects, too.

And I've gotten bogged down in knitting and quilting. You'll hear about my struggle to finish things and about taking a vacation from some of the things that I love so much. Sometimes, it's a good idea to get away from it all.

I have some favorite knitting places on the web. There are designers whose work I admire. All of these, and more, will be topics of blog posts in the months to come.

The Graywood Designs website will continue to bring you knitting yarns and supplies, as well as the quilting designs that Graywood has been known for throughout the last fifteen years. You will be able to order some of the yarns that I will feature in the blog posts through the website.

Our website also carries an eclectic mix of needles and books and patterns for knitting. If you like the blog, you will probably find something on the website. We will be shipping one day a week only, though. I'm of the conviction that most knitters are reasonably patient people and will appreciate the blog, the kind of knitting yarn and supplies that we offer, and the links to Graywood Designs's shopping experience.

In addition to the website, you will find Graywood Designs on Ravelry where you can download PDF versions of my knitting designs. If you are new to Ravelry, you will be pleasantly surprised by this all encompassing social media website for knitters.

So, join me as I blog about knitting. You are hereby cordially invited to join me as Graywood Knits!

Happy Knitting,

Wanda Hayes Eichler

Jared Flood's Turn A Square Hat

Turn A Square Hat by Jared Flood

Here's Jared Flood's design, Turn A Square Hat. The pattern is a free download on Ravelry and is a great design that will teach you how to change colors for stripes without a jog. The garter stitch round that you can see in the photo above is my addition to Jared's design. I always like to add a personal touch to anything that I knit.

I used Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted for the three hats that I have knit so far. The wool is so warm. On a cool morning or in a nasty wind, the Turn A Square hat covers ears and warms the whole head.

The decreasing at the top of Turn A Square Hat forms a square.

The heathered colors of Superwash Worsted combine well with other yarns. I used dark green sock yarn, doubled, for the second stripe in the hat photographed here. Both Lichen and Gray Heather went well with the dark green. Notice that you will use less of the second color since it is not used for the ribbing and there are two rounds of this color versus three rounds of the main color.

Closeup of stripe design. Notice that the main color is 3 rounds; second color is 2 rounds.

I used US#5 and US#7 needles for the hat. The smaller needles tighten the ribbing so it hugs the head around the ears. When I finished knitting these hats, I tossed them into the washing machine right along with a load of jeans.

The wool comes out soft and smooth. I also put superwash hats into the dryer for a few minutes. Brown Sheep's label says to dry flat, but I like the plumped up stitches and soft feel that machine drying adds to the hat.

Superwash Worsted Wool

I've been knitting with worsted weight wool lately. I've made three Turn A Square hats from Jared Flood's free Ravelry pattern. Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Superwash worsted weight wool is wonderful for this hat.

The Superwash Worsted flows through needles with a smoothness that every knitting from novice to experienced will love. The wool is warm. On a cool morning or in a damp wind, a sweater or hat made from Superwash Worsted is like a soothing hug.

Sweaters, vests, hats -- whatever you knit from Superwash Worsted is machine washable. Toss the garment into the washing machine. The wool comes out soft and smooth. The stitches even out and the garment will be just fine.

The label for these yarns says to dry the knitting flat. I have tossed hats knit from this yarn into the dryer and like the fluffiness and resilience that comes from the drying process.

Here are some colors that I have used in worsted projects. All of these colors are considered heathered. Heathering means that more than one color is carded into the yarn. Often gray or black fiber is added to the yarn recipe. Gray and black deepen the colors, making them richer and less flat looking.

Cactus -- dulled grass green, more toward gold.
Lichen -- soft grayed green, kind of teal, kind of gray.

Grey Heather -- medium gray with a touch of blue, toward denim.

Shane's Red -- not tomatoey, not rose, not burgundy, not bright.

My favorite project (so far) made from Superwash Worsted is a vest that I knit for my Dad. I used the color "Shane's Red" and know that he gets lots of compliments on his vest. He is so handsome in his warm red vest and wears it often.

The yardage on this yarn is great -- 200 yards per 100 gram (3.5 oz) pull skein. Lamb's Pride Superwash worsted is a 2012 Featured Yarn on the Graywood Designs website.