Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category
Turia is a lightweight version of a winter classic knit in Berroco Yarns new spring yarn Linsey, a 64% Cotton, 36% Linen blend, giving you the softness of cotton with the look of linen. Available in solid colors as well as gently shifting multicolor shades Linsey, is an ultra soft yarn for summer. Worked completely in the round, this garment has minimal seaming making it a simplified knit.
Another very cool thing about this pattern and the yarn is it gives the look of complicated color work, but all you do is use a variegated colorway along with a solid colorway to give the illusion of a very technical fair isle chart. With several sun-weathered shades of summertime available you have the option of several coordinating color combination’s.
This pullover makes judicious use of the naturally occurring color changes at play and due to the natural striping of this yarn, your garment may look very different from what is pictured. This lets each and every garment be a complete original. We have the Linsey pattern booklet along with a large selection of Linsey yarn available at the shop now. -B
Mixing yarns and colors within the same project is something I think a lot of us are hesitant to try. In the case of Allison’s Melted Crayon’s shawl I think the final project is truly breathtaking and couldn’t be more perfect. Using two of our favorite multi-colored yarns Noro Silk Garden and Manos Del Uruguay Wool Classica combined with basic shawl construction she was able to create a vibrant piece of artwork.
The project is a quick knit because of the large gauge and lets you relax as you go, keeping your eyes and mind interested just by enjoying the colors. I love the idea of all of the color options, just think of all the possibilities of combinations you could use by mixing these two yarns, endless. If you understand basic shawl construction this project can be made in any size and with any amount of texture you prefer.
Allison mixed garter here and there with stockinette stitch to add interest, but a shawl in all stockinette or all garter would work well. If you would be interested in learning basic shawl construction L & B will be offering the Melted Crayon Shawl Class, April 2nd from 3:00pm-5:00pm, contact us to sign up. Thank you to Allison for sharing her project and inspiring all of us. -B
Spring is in the air and all of us at L & B are busily unpacking our shipments of spring and summer yarns, which are so sunny and light that we can’t help but dream about the long summer evenings ahead, and the garments we can start preparing for the prevailing season in Oklahoma: summer. While woolen accessories are a great way to keep warm during the cold months, knitwear proves its endless versatility by being just as useful in the summertime–you just have to change your materials up a little bit! Our newest cotton tape yarn, “Sol Degrade” by Lang Yarns, is a light combed cotton ribbon yarn that features long color changes. The yarn is ombre dyed to cause a gradual change from light to dark colors. The yarn is 100% cotton, but unlike so many cotton yarns, it is very lightweight and easy on the hands. This is due to the yarn’s structure–instead of being plied strands of cotton, the strands have been knitted into a light fabric, resulting in naturally stretchy yarn.
Leslie decided to make a lightweight vest that would be easy to wear over a tank top or t-shirt when the temperature starts to rise. She chose a free pattern on Ravelry called “Summer Vest” for its cute racerback detail and otherwise simple, easygoing shape. The pattern is designed by Julie Beatty, who was inspired by another Raveler’s take on “Coachella,” a very popular racerback tanktop that is available on Knitty.com. Having selected her pattern, Leslie cast on with size 9 needles to ensure that her fabric wouldn’t be too dense. After a few evenings of knitting, the vest was ready! All in all, it required a little less than 3 skeins.
The pattern is written for one size, but if you wanted to make yours bigger or smaller, it’s as easy as adjusting the beginning stitch count (we’re always here to help you customize your project and do knitting math). For those that prefer solids, we think that this vest would lay very nicely if knit out of Sprout by Classic Elite, a supersoft organic yarn that comes in an array of pretty colors. The vest is all stockinette stitch, which causes the front edges to curl gently, and showcases the color-changing yarn beautifully. This vest is knit from the top down and requires no seaming.
What kinds of summer projects do you all have in mind? We hope the shop serves as a source of inspiration, and wish you all luck with your summer knits!
-Elizabeth
Marjie is one of our local knitters that is always inspiring me to knit. She’s always making gorgeous blankets and heirloom baby items for members of the community. She made this particular gorgeous and bright blanket, called “Princess Squares,” out of Cascade 220 Superwash yarn. The pattern calls for Classic Elite Yarns “Princess,” a yarn we also carry that is a luxe blend of merino, cashmere, and angora. Because the blanket needed to be washable, though, Marjie selected 220 Superwash for its softness, washability, and pretty color palette.
The pattern is a Pam Allen design that was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting. Pam Allen is a veteran designer that has published several books as well as having had dozens of her original patterns published by Vogue and Classic Elite Yarns.
This blanket was inspired by Danish knitter Vivan Hoxboro’s book about modular knitting, “Knit To Be Square.” Modular knitting means is first knitting small pieces of fabric and them joining them together to make a larger item. A lot of knitters like modular knits because each little block/modular piece requires only a little bit of yarn, so it’s a great way to knit up your leftovers, meanwhile creating something new and beautiful! Marjie’s blanket contains 64 garter-stitch squares, which are knit individually and then sewn together in panels.
Because the pattern is modular, you could choose to either make the blanket bigger or smaller–the pattern is easily adaptable. The border is picked up and knit at the end with a contrasting color. This requires a circular size 7 needle (or several, to get all the way around the blanket!).
The recipient of this blanket will enjoy it for years and years to come–wool is incredibly durable and this heirloom will hold up for generations. We’d like to thank Marjie for sharing her finished projects with us and letting them inspire us. Happy knitting, everyone!
-Elizabeth
Valentine’s Day is truly right around the corner–and it looks like we’ll have more snowed-in days before the holiday actually arrives! These little felted hearts make a perfect snow day project and add a cute handmade element to your Valentine’s Day decorations. The pattern is a free Ravelry download from Teresa Fox called “Little Hearts.” The pattern calls for any feltable worsted weight wool; we chose Manos Wool Clasica in candy colors for our hearts. Manos Wool Clasica is a bulky hand-dyed yarn that is handspun and felts like a dream. Its soft touch and beautiful colors make it a joy to work with!
The hearts are knit in the round with either a circular needle or size 9 double points. Using whichever method you’re most comfortable with knitting in the round, these hearts are sure to work up quickly. After stuffing the heart with filler fluff, it’s ready to be felted! We embellished our hearts with stick-on letters from the hobby store to make them resemble Sweethearts Valentine candy. You could get creative with the message and surprise your significant other on Valentine’s Day with a custom-made wool candy heart!
These little hearts would also make cute Christmas ornaments (maybe with a little embroidery?) or toys for baby. If you’ve never felted before, this would be a great way to get acquainted with the technique (knitty.com has a good tutorial here).
I would like to thank Lisa for making these adorable little hearts and bringing them by the shop to share!
Happy Valentine’s Day and lots of love from all of us at L & B!
-Elizabeth
Although this hat would look extra adorable on the ski slopes, I think it looks pretty cute worn around in an everyday setting, too! Using size 17 needles and just one skein of Twinkle Soft & Chunky, this hat can be knit in an afternoon–it contains only about 20 rows of knitting. Twinkle is one of our favorites for hats, because the super soft virgin wool makes a great against-the-skin yarn. The pattern can be found in “Big City Knits: 31 Chunky-Chic Designs,” a book of patterns by designer Wenlan Chia. She did a good job with the name: it looks like something right out of an Aspen boutique!
The chunky brim is created by knitting flat in garter stitch for 10 rows. After overlapping the brim by a few inches, you get out your double pointed needles and join in the round. From there, it’s just a matter of 10 decrease rounds before you’re done! The button on the hat is not functional (so you don’t have to worry about buttonholes); instead, the button serves as a funky accent to top off the look.Accents are a fun way to display your creativity. If I made more of these hats, I would experiment with maybe adding a couple of different buttons, or maybe even a crocheted flower with a sparkly button in the inside.
This hat would be a good project for beginners who have knitted a basic hat, and want to expand their repertoire. Not only is it a quick knit, but it would be a good project to learn how to go from knitting flat to knitting in the round if you’ve never done that in the same project.
This is the first post of the New Year, also–we look forward to another great year of fun and fiber at L & B! Happy 2011 from all of us at the shop!
-Elizabeth
The Potato Chip Scarf is such a fun knit that it gets its name from a joke comparing it to potato chips, in that “you can’t knit just one.” Not only is the potato chip a cute and versatile scarf, but it’s also a pleasure to knit for beginners and advanced knitters alike. The potato chip scarf is one long ruffle, knit lengthwise and consisting of only about 10 rows! Our potato chip is knit out of Colinette Jitterbug, a beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn from Wales. Made out of 100% merino wool, its vivid colors and soft touch make it a fun yarn to work with.
The pattern is available for free here. The great thing about this pattern is that it can be applied to any yarn you like, whether it’s thick or thin (which makes it a great stashbuster). If you look, the pattern is actually written for a DK/sport weight yarn, but we used a fingering weight yarn (which is lighter weight) and it turned out great. When converting this pattern for use with a smaller yarn, we recommend casting on more stitches–125 to 175–to compensate for the finer gauge. Likewise, with a thicker yarn, casting on between 50 and 75 would be ideal. The way the scarf works is interesting: knitting increases every few rows causes the number of stitches to quadruple. All those extra stitches ruffle up on themselves, resulting in a gorgeous and elegant ruffled scarf.
The pattern recommends using knitting needles two sizes larger than those recommended on your chosen yarn’s ball band. I like to use bigger needles when I knit scarves, to make sure that they drape well. To make this scarf out of sock yarn, I would recommend using a size 5, 6, or 7 needle.
They really are a pleasure to knit–for newer knitters, it’s fun to produce a scarf lengthwise and learn how to knit a ruffle. For more experienced knitters, this scarf is an opportunity to enjoy a really beautiful skein of yarn and work on a relaxing project. Over Christmas weekend, I made a potato chip scarf in a deep red color out of Pagewood Farms’ “Alyeska” sock yarn. I cast on 225 stitches to make it extra long, and it’s gorgeous!
For help getting started on a Potato Chip Scarf of your own, come by the shop or call us at 405-310-3636 with any questions about how best to proceed. We hope you enjoy this project as much as we have!
-Elizabeth
Something about gray and wintry days makes me appreciate bright, primary colors so much more. This is why so many of my winter hats and scarves are vividly colored–it just cheers me up to wear them! The true red color of this Rowan Big Wool definitely does the trick in this regard. The color reminds me of spotting a bright red cardinal in the middle of a gray winter yard. Allison paired her red cap with a green tee and her favorite yellow cardigan–a beautifully cheery ensemble for chilly days.
If you’re interested in learning to make your own, she’ll be offering this hat as a class on Saturday, January 8th from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The class costs $32 and includes the pattern and 2 balls of Encore Mega*.
As for needles, you’ll need a set of size 11 and a set of size 13. You can use either a 16″ circular in both sizes OR double pointed needles in both sizes, but you won’t need both (some hats require you to move to dpns during the crown decreases; this hat doesn’t). If you’re interested in obtaining the pattern, it will be available on the blog and at the store after the class is held in January.
I’d like to thank Allison for sharing her original designs! She’s awesome at devising her own hats and fingerless gloves, and very kind to share them with all of us. Look out for a fingerless glove class in January as well!
-Elizabeth
*Note: If you’d rather use Rowan Big Wool for the class, the cost difference in yarn comes out to $6, bumping the class up to $38. Both yarns come in an array of bright and lovely colors for you to knit with!
Shawls are my absolute favorite thing to knit. One thing that makes knitting shawls so appealing for me is that they remind me of the tradition of knitting more than any other knitted objects do. People have knitted shawls for centuries, both for everyday wear and to commemorate special occasions like weddings. Whereas garments and accessories like hats, sweaters, and scarves more or less keep up with fashion trends, there is something timeless about knitted shawls that makes them special to me.
This shawl is one of Leslie’s beautiful creations. The pattern is a house pattern, available on the “free pattern” section of our website. Leslie used four skeins Rowan’s PureLife “Revive,” a gorgeous 100% recycled yarn that is a blend of silk, cotton, and viscose. The neat thing about the pattern is that you can use any yarn you like, at any gauge you like–just knit until the shawl is as wide as you’d like it to be, and then begin decreasing to bring the other end of the shawl to a point! Unraveling the four edge stitches once you’re done knitting is what makes the fringe, but if you prefer a fringeless shawl, you can omit this last step.
To get started, you’ll need 250+ yards of the yarn of your choice and needles appropriate for your yarn weight. I’m always on the lookout for patterns that can help me knit through my undesignated-for-projects stash yarn. This shawl would look great in many different gauges, fibers, and colors–the sky’s the limit, so get creative! Shawls are surprisingly warm additions to winter outerwear, but come in useful on cool spring and fall evenings, too. I attribute the longevity of the shawl to its versatility, and I know that I for one will be knitting and wearing and proselytizing about shawls for years to come!
-Elizabeth
There are lots of things I love about knitting and crocheting, and this blanket speaks to a few of them specifically. First, I love the use of color in all fiber arts. I was never great and drawing, but I always felt I had an eye for color. Knitting and crocheting solve this problem by providing a structure (the fabric) that leaves me free to play around with color. Another thing I love is that when I pick up one of my finished objects, I remember where I was and whom I was with when I created it. Well, this blanket is not only the boldest and most colorful creation of mine to date, but it also brings up fond memories of watching the World Cup this summer with friends and family!
This pattern came out of “Noro Flowers: Book 4″ by Jenny Watson Designs. It calls for 10 skeins of Noro Kureyon Sock, a self-striping 100% wool sock yarn, and a size G crochet hook. The catch is that all 10 skeins of the yarn are different colorways, which I picked out according my whim as I crocheted the blanket up. The blanket is essentially one big granny square; the bigger the perimeter of the blanket gets, the less far the color segments of the yarn go around. Because all the skeins were different, each corner of the blanket has different colors. After getting the hang of the double crochet stitch (thanks Christy!), I got going…
…and before I knew it, I was crocheting through a 500-yard skein of Kureyon Sock in a day! This project was so fun to crochet that I literally couldn’t stop, and the result is a blanket I’ll cherish for years. Hopefully this is the first of many brightly-colored crocheted afghans that I get to make! I can’t think of a more appropriate top blanket for my bed–the colors really brighten my room and my mood.
This project is suitable for both the novice and the veteran crocheter. It’s a good project to learn on, although you won’t get bored if you’ve made lots of granny squares before: it’s the Noro colorways are that keep the repetition of the granny square engaging. Although the self-striping quality of the Kureyon sock yarn make the color planning of this afghan a no-brainer, you could also use any bright-colored sock yarn for this project. Come by our shop to check out our painter’s palette of sock yarns and begin dreaming up your own!
-Elizabeth
