Posts Tagged “swatching”

Filling in the blanks

By | February 26, 2015

Let’s say you want to design a shawl composed of lace wedges. You have a lace pattern in mind, and you want each wedge to grow by two stitches on each right-side row. How do you get that lace pattern to fit into that wedge shape? In Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, Martha Waterman suggests making […]

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Still learning

By | December 30, 2014

Yesterday, in the Stitch-Maps.com news article announcing the availability of symbols for Estonian gathers, I mentioned that stitch maps are awesome for seeing which stitches to knit loosely on the previous row, to make the gathers easier to work. I fear that I may not have made that point strongly enough. In knitting the sample […]

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More swatching

By | December 5, 2014

Yesterday I spent an obscene amount of time swatching, not to choose yarn, or needle size, or stitch pattern, but get this: to figure out how to shape some lace in the most attractive way possible. Why? For some time now, I’ve wanted to knit up a couple more samples for my Wedge Shawl Design […]

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Elizabeth

By | September 7, 2014

Remember the stitch map I showed you the other day for the Elizabeth edging? That stitch map prompted this swatch: I think I prefer this edging over the Coronet edging; as it turns out, I’m not terribly fond of its giant eyelet. But if I were to design a crescent shawl? I might have to […]

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Swatching yet again

By | June 14, 2012

Last month while at Churchmouse I scored a couple skeins of Loft: Oh, such lovely stuff. For a month, those skeins sat on my coffee table where I could pet them daily, and imagine what they might become. Last week I finally wound them into balls, and got started swatching. First up, basic garter and […]

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Fitting

By | June 5, 2012

Remember how I said the Be Sweet Skinny Wool clearly wanted to be brioche? The Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace clearly wanted to be lace. And not just any lace: I pictured it looking fabulous in Estonian lace, complete with nupps. I was wrong. Lace, yes. Estonian lace, sure. But nupps? Not so much. Working my first […]

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Playing around

By | May 29, 2012

Lately, I haven’t been able to commit to any long-term projects. Shoot, I haven’t been able to commit to anything bigger than a swatch. But that’s okay. I like swatching. Case in point: along with a number of my fellow Stitches teachers, I volunteered to create swatches for the Great Wall of Yarn at next […]

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On a rock

By | February 16, 2012

You might think from my lack of recent posts that I’ve been hiding under a rock, but the truth is I’ve been on a rock: San Juan island, site of Cat Bordhi’s Visionary retreats. It’s where Charts Made Simple was incubated, along with knit, Swirl! and Beyond Toes and so many other books. Oh, the […]

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Decision time

By | January 8, 2012

Remember that Estonian shawl I’ve been working on for months? Back in November, I estimated that I could knit 15 or 16 vertical repeats of the main pattern before I had to start on the edging. Well, I’m just shy of 15 repeats. And updated estimates – achieved with scale, calculator, and conservative guesswork – […]

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Additional mischief

By | November 27, 2011

Yes, yes, I know I’m in the midst of an Estonian shawl, and that I just cast on for a Swirl. But that hasn’t stopped me from contemplating additional mischief, in the form of a scarf or maybe a shawl. See, DH* and I are planning to take some time off together in December. And […]

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