Finished Object Friday

Yeah, I have finished all of the swatches, questions, book reports and papers for the final level of the Master Knitters certificate!  Nineteen swatches and I feel pretty good about them.  I'm sure some will have to be redone but my skill level has really increased in the last year.  Now all that is left is to design and knit a Fair Isle hat and an Aran sweater.  You'll be seeing lots of those in WIP Wednesdays.

So here are some of the final swatches.

My first successful attempt at entrelac.  Looks cool but you have to be committed - lots of work to get to this.

Double Brioche stitch - the trick here is that a yarn over really is a yarn to the front, not a yarn wrapped.  I really liked this stitch, the fluffiness and texture really calls out.  I can see this as a great pillow top.

Lace knitting - I love lace and had never done this pattern before.  Good thing that I pulled it out for a picture because I had labeled this upside down.

Intarsia of a compass rose.  We all need a little guidance on our way.


As it's Friday, you know the drill... head over to Tami's for great and exciting finished objects.

Work in Progress Wednesday

How quickly the week goes by.  I will have an exciting finished object this week and the potential for one next week but the works in progress are a little on the boring side right now.

I'm still working away on the swatches.  As Calophi said about my last post, it is a bit unsatisfying to just have a swatch.  We want to make something with it!  Though i'm considering framing my walk in the woods swatch.

These swatches are extra frustrating because the first two have to be redone.  This is my first time doing both entrelac and double knitting.  I think I've got the hang of the mechanics of both now but need to start over in order to get the tension perfect.   I always thought entrelac looked so cool but it is a lot of work!  So much turning.  I tried to teach myself to knit both ways but gave that up as head ache inducing at this point in my life.

Those second two pictures that are a mirror image of each other are the same swatch, just different sides. It really is knitting two layers at one time.  It is a cool technique and I'm thinking away of the things I could make with it.

The last swatch is my intarsia replacement swatch.  It will be a compass rose and it is a perfect design for intarsia.  No mix of intarsia and stranding so it will block well.  It doesn't look like much now but I'm happy with it.

Head over to Tami's to see the other fabulous works in progress!

Oh Well

I'm still slogging through on the Master's Swatches.  Progress has slowed as I have gotten to the harder ones.  I've had three starts on double knitting and have to start again on that.  Two starts on entrelac and have to start over there too.  Intarsia is stumping me the most right now to find the right pattern.  I have always admired Michele Rose Orne's intarsia sweaters and adapted a pattern from her "Walk in the Woods" sweater.  And it turned out okay -

It would be beautiful for a sweater, however…….  I was trying to convince myself that it was okay, but just because I call the colored yarns worsted weight, doesn't make them worsted weight when they are bulky.  Even if Sally Melville says you can bust your stash by mixing different weight yarns and it will look okay (she's right, this looks fine), doesn't mean that the Masters will accept it.  The change in gauge by different yarns is too great.  But it does look good and I'm going to keep it for future inspiration.  Now to find a pattern that will work with with the yarn colors (blue, greys, maroon)  I have in the same weight of yarn.  Suggestions?

But here are some swatches that are on their way to being put in the notebook.  Charted patterns and duplicate stitch.

Finished Object Friday

Right now I don't have a lot of finished objects.  Maybe the lace will be finished next week.  Even at the beach I'm still making progress on the Master Knitter Swatches.  Its a stretch to call them finished because I haven't blocked them but will have to wait until I get home.  All  swatches are made with Paton's Classic Wool and size 7 needles.  The patterns are from Barbara Walker's Treasuries (# 1 and # 2).

First one is French Weave Slip Stitch from B. Walker's Second Treasury.  The trick to slip stitch is to always read the instructions for slipping yarn from current perspective you have.  In other words, hopefully clearer, if it says slip with yarn in front and you are on the wrong side, you still slip the yarn in front as you are working.

Second one is Smocking from B. Walker's first book.  This one gave me a bit of trouble at first until I started measuring the smocked loops.  They are half an inch now and that gave the fabric a more even look.

Third one is Herringbone from the first treasury.  This one I had to knit three times to get right.  First time I was too loose, second time I wasn't using a row counter to keep track - its just a four row pattern but that was my downfall.  Sorry this picture isn't as good as the others.


I'm participating in Tami's Amis Finished Object Friday so go check out all the great objects there as well!  http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/

Finished Object Friday

Okay, i'm new at all this blogging stuff.  I had this post all written and managed to lose it.  Oh well.  That's how you learn.  I found some other knitters who blog on Finished Object Fridays so I'll see if i can do that. The problem is I don't finish things every week.

But at least with doing the Master Knitter, I should have swatches done each week.  Maybe this will keep me motivated.

The first swatch is the tubular bind off and cast off. Many thanks to ChrisKnit for her kind comment on how I did the even number of stitch cast on.  I love both of these techniques, nice and stretchy for ribbing and very nice finished edge.

Second swatch is knit on cast on and suspended bind off.  The trouble with the knit on cast on is that it leaves little holes at the edge - where I have my blocking pins.  It is elastic and you don't have to guess how long a tail to use to cast on but you would have to want those little holes.  Suspended bind off is a good elastic bind off that I'll use if it isn't ribbing - for ribbing, nothing beats the tubular bind off.

So I'm wondering what I have been doing the last quarter of century not experimenting with different techniques.  Never to late to learn to be a thinking knitter.

Master Knitter

A few weeks ago, after 10 months of on and off work, I passed Level 2 of TKGA's Master Hand Knitter program.  Because I am a glutton for punishment, I signed up immediately for Level 3, the final level.

I started the first swatch and was amazed.  I've been knitting for 28 years and had never done a tubular cast on.  How very cool and useful for cuffs and necklines.  But these are very tricky people because every reference I read says this has to be on an uneven number of stitches and of course the directions are for an even number of stitches.   I read all the forums, all the group notes and don't see anyone else stressing about this.

Here's how I solved it.  Since the directions were for 20 stitches, I did the final k2together to make the final number of stitches come out even.  It does leave a bit of a bump where the two stitches are combined. This took me a lot of time to figure out. Now it did cause every row of the ribbing to start with a purl stitch instead of a knit.  When using this technique in real life, I would have an odd number of stitches and that makes seaming much easier and cleaner.  Hopefully this will be the right approach.  I should know in another ten months!


I'll keep blogging about this journey to the masters.  If someone has another approach that works better I would love to hear about it.