YARNED

If I got one piece of apparel, anything I wanted…

Posted by Kamicha on April 6th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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… from this S/S ready to wear collections I would definitely take a full printed skirt from Prada. The fairy prints for this spring were just otherworldly. I love the Miuccia Prada touch for this utterly feminine piece.

There are some real gems in the more affordable Miu Miu line, too. Perhaps some day…

Image from Style.com

Summer top

Posted by Kamicha on April 3rd, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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I really haven’t been knitting too much lately. But one little summery top is now finished, again my own design.

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Orange, pink - and things from far east

Posted by Kamicha on March 20th, 2008 filed in Project Spectrum
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I really don’t understand why didn’t I recall this UFO from last summer. Perfect for this years Project Spectrum first colour theme!

I had few stripes of it done and the rest of it did not take too long, now I need some pink or orange cotton voile to line it perfectly.

I do remember, though, how I got this crazy idea of pink-orange striped sunskirt. I was browsing (once again) Style.com and found this:
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Selma Cape - a free pattern

Posted by Kamicha on March 15th, 2008 filed in Selma, free pattern
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Phew, it took quite a lot of work but here it is - a pattern for Selma Cape. And it is free, you can even distribute it in printed form (prints and photocopies of print from the PDF), just don’t change the pattern. I also noticed that in my pictures of Selma, there was no decent side view, so here we go:

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A fresh pair of socks!

Posted by Kamicha on March 11th, 2008 filed in Harlequin Socks
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And the spring brought something new to show: a tangy pair of socks from zesty handpainted Mokkasukka yarn. And look, there is a ray of sun on the set, really!

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Selma, finally!

Posted by Kamicha on March 10th, 2008 filed in Selma
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Selma - short-sleeved strongly Anthropologie-inspired cardigan/cape is finally finished. This version took 19 balls of Rowan Alpaca soft - and yes, there was humongous amount of yarn ends to weave in. Otherwise I loved this project!

I like the result, too, but I’m not completely satisfied. I saw actually two yarns that would have been so much better options - but I was on my way with Alpaca Soft and couldn’t just think another large bulky knitting project for it to justify frogging. Alpaca Soft has lovely feel, beautiful surface and quite luxurious softness, so I’m completely happy that I happened to run on it on yarn sale. But I saw a beautiful finished object made with Rowan’s Cocoon - it had so amazing drape and so light feel in spite of a heavily cabled texture of the garment, it would have been a perfect choice for this project.

A very nice budget option woul be OnLine Linie 208 Nature-Wool - a very similar quality to Cocoon, not quite as soft (soft still!) but great drape, too, and similar gauge.

This is not easiest garment to wear, there is so much material that it is quite possible for small person to disappear in or end up looking huge (well, I’m not small, so possibly that is the actual problem for me). I would rather wear Selma with my black skinny jeans and slouchy boots with high heels, but those jeans happened to be in the laundry bag today. A short A-lined or flared skirt - no mini for me, but over the knee - with opaque tights might also be a nice option; if considering longer skirt a pencil silhouette might work. Gotta experiment a little.

I wrote down pretty decent notes about Selma while knitting, so there is a good probability that I’m able to write a pattern out of them!

Those buttons really deserve some extra attention. I found them in a rush, thought them to be just some very nice plastic ones, but closer examination revealed some irregularities that speak of the origin. I guess that they are made from horn or something like that.

Wabi-Sabi stitch pattern

Posted by Kamicha on March 5th, 2008 filed in How to
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And here’s the illustrated description of Wabi-sabi shawls stitch pattern. It is known as Garter and Loops, 440 More Knitting Stitches: Volume 3 (The Harmony Guides) uses the name Little Crowns.

Knit two first rows of the pattern.

Third row is extended stitches. After one edge stitc (knit) wrap the yarn twice around the needle when knitting. Repeat to one stitch from the edge, knit 1.

On the fourth row the stitches are knitted three together as follows. Knit the edge stitch.

Move three stitches to the right needle and let those wraps loose.

Move extended stitches back to the left needle, don’t change the direction of stitches.

Now knit those three stitches together by k1, p1, k1. Repeat to edge stitch, knit. Amount of stitches should be thus dividable by three + 2 edge sts.

Sides of this pattern are not identical, but both are presentable.

WIP: Harlequin Socks

Posted by Kamicha on March 3rd, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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I got one skein of lovely Mokkasukka -yarn. Base yarn is Zitron (Trekking?) and it is handpainted in Finland by Villamokka. And here is the love child of this cheerly colourful yarn and some nice patterns from my stitchionaries:

Overall pattern is adapted from 220 Aran Stitches and Patterns: Volume 5 (The Harmony Guides). I combined it to narrow lace border from Knitting on the Edge and my favourite heel.

Lately my knitting bookshelf has mainly expanded with new stitchionaries. I have to say that get those old Harmony Guides, while they still are available! Those new ones are pretty and practically sized BUT contain quite small selection of stitch patterns - old ones simply offer better value for money (I’ve got one of the new ones: Harmony Guide: Lace & Eyelets: 250 Stitches to Knit (The Harmony Guides))

And of course there are interesting options in other languages, too. I’ve been in awe of intricate and detailed Japanese stitch patterns seen in blogs everywhere, to get a taste just search Flickr for Japanese knitting pattern; (of course you get some patterns for whole garments, too). Latest IK:s bookshelf article was all I needed. Amazon Japan just got a new customer.