Monday, November 13, 2017

Blanket for twins

Sarah and I are trying to come up with a blanket we both want to knit for Mary's twins.  We have somewhat settled on colors.....but still trying to figure out yarn.  Sarah has two stores close to where she lives.  The Must Love Yarn has Classic Elite Sprout Bulky and Classic Elite Seedling in worsted weight.  The Other store has Cumulus by Juniper Moon and Debbie Bliss Eco Baby that is a bit too thin for our project.  I have been looking at Cascade Ultra Pima and Ultra Pima paints on Love knitting.  One of the things that slightly tips the scale in favor of the Cascade yarn is that it says it washes and goes in dryer where some of the others have comments of less than perfect washing and drying on Ravelry.  I have also found another cotton yarn by Cascade that says it is machine washable and dryable made called Luna and Luna Paints.  However, this yarn has been discontinued and is not as easy to find.

My first ideas were to use three colors....however, I am now also open to all one color with a bit of a pattern.  The main reason that I am doing this blog post is to show Sarah some of the blankets that I have liked.  So here goes.  The one to the side is made out of Sprout which is available at the yarn store near her.













The next one is called Color Convergence by Yiyo on Ravelry.  It calls for using two colors and carrying them up the side.  At least one of the colors would be a self striping yarn.  Ultra Pima comes in  Ultra pima Paints ....the color I was looking at is Blue Green 9125..perhaps used with the grey Ultra Pima.  Although the Smoke color of Paints is very pretty 9123.  It is a bit hard to imagine just how that might turn out....but I do like the look of the blanket below.



Here are the two colors of the Paints that I was looking at:


Here is one I just found via google:


I am still looking for the directions.



The next is a striped blanket I found in one of my books.  It is knit on size 10 needles.  But I think that we could adjust for a different size yarn if we wanted to do that.  Or even double a less thick yarn.






The next blanket is just an idea....I am thinking grey for the part that is white in the photo and perhaps the Cascade Ultra Pima Paint yarn for the part that has the funny bumps.....


I loved the next blanket's colors, but they are not really Mary's nursery colors....but I am wondering how it might look with grey where the white is and a solid blue or teal where the dark brown is and a Ultra Pima Paints where the mottled color is?




The next is all one color with some texture.  I saw it:

Fifty Four Ten Studio on the Porch blanket on Webbs



Here is a photo of what Sprout looks like knit up from Ravelry


And here is a photo of a self striping blanket knit on size 10 needles that I saw somewhere;



This is the blanket that I had originally liked....too many choices......The blanket below is called strips the squares by Jennee Garcia.



I also have some very nice plain white cotton yarn that I bought on my Fiber Festival trip last month.  I am thinking that I will do pattern work with it such as the following (these could be done in just one color as well)

I found on line the following general rule of thumb about doubling thiner yarn to knit it on larger needles:

In general, I’ve found that 2 strands of lace weight together equal a sport / DK weight, 2 strands of fingering equal a DK / worsted weight, 2 strands of DK equal a heavy worsted / bulky weight and 2 strands of worsted equal a bulky / superbulky weight.

So if we decide to use the Cascade Ultra Pima yarn, we could double the DK weight to knit on approximately size 10 needles.  It calls for size 5-6 as it is.  Bulky yarn (weight classification 5) is generally thought of as being yarn that uses size 9 to 11 US knitting needles (5.5 to 8 mm) and that measures a gauge of 12 to 15 stitches per 4 inches/10 cm.


The next photo is on Ravelry ....free pattern called Garter Block Baby Blanket Pattern By Meg Hollar.  It is knit on size 10 1/2 needles


Next one is Geometric Baby Blanket Pattern By Shannon Cook



Yarn at Love Knitting:  Cascade Luna Paints.  They have 10 skeins.  Size 7 needles.  It says it can be washed and dried in machine.  It has been discontinued.  164 yards in skein.  I am wondering if it might be nice with a border of the dark blue?



Here is a photo of a baby blanket made with Luna from Ravelry:



Tic Tac Toe Blankie with seed stitch border



And here is the Tic Tac Toe knit in Luna Paints.  We might want to double the Luna Paints.....hmmmm so we have enough yarn?



Sarah found a gorgeous yarn by the Fiber Company.  They yarn is Road to China Light.  It is made in Peru and is lucious.

Yarn weight: Sport   Hank weight: 50 g
Fibre: 
65% baby alpaca, 15% silk, 10% camel, 10% cashmere
Length: 
145 m / 159 yds per 50 g hank
Tension / Gauge: 
24—26 sts / 10 cm / 4 in
Needle size: 3.25—3.5 mm / 3—4 US / 10 UK

I was looking for something on Ravelry that might be appropriate for my favorite Colors:  blue (3774), natural (3728, Turquoise (3735), and light blue (3731)... Of course, I am not looking at these colors in person as Sarah is.  And it isn't out of the question that we might each just choose our favorite color and make a solid blanket from this yarn.  The yarn is so wonderful that it might be the best choice?

But here are a couple of ideas:



I see this blanket done with the dark blue as the main color and the other three colors as the dots.  I have ordered the pattern just in case this is what we choose.

I found a color way that I particularly liked.  This is not taken from a knitting pattern, but rather from an add of some sort:

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Knitting at the Wild Ramp

We had an unusually big group today at the Wild Ramp.  And in addition, we had an unusually large number of finished projects to share.  Maybe because it is winter?  Or at least late fall.  But it definitely felt as if summer is over today.....knitting season....genealogy season....holiday season....

Betsy and I arrived at the same time.  Betsy was wearing her newest creation.




This gorgeous poncho is knit as a rectangle and then sewed in just one place:



I see many possibilities for this project!

Christine who was sitting very close to me today was working on a scarf.  This scarf uses a solid yarn and a variegated yarn in alternating stripes.  The knitter works from small stripes to much larger stripes as the project progresses.  But what I am trying to capture here is the GORGEOUS variegated yarn and how it works with the stripes.



I am playing with the ideas for Mary's twin's blanket and didn't want to loose the thought.

Betsy had already started her next project.



Her fabric looks exactly like that in the above photo



It is a mindless project, which is GOOD!

The yarn is Berroco Mileflore.  The pattern is Aldo by Berroco and made for this yarn.  It is called Jolana.  It is exceptionally pretty in person.  The pattern is filed in dropbox in shawls folder.  The color of the Berroco yarn is Terra



















And last but no least were Dar's socks.



I think that the pattern is Somebody's Teddy Bear from Mash.....Can't do it from memory tonight.


Saturday, November 4, 2017

Cotton yarn at SAFF

I looked early in the day at some lovely hand dyed yarn at a stall close to the main door.  

http://www.stonyhillfiberarts.com

Cindy's cotton yarns are breath taking.  But I didn't buy.  Later someone asked me if I had seen the amazingly soft yarns and described Cindy's booth.  Still I didn't buy.  Then everyone got tired about 2.  And it was decided that we wouldn't come back the next day. Hmmmmmmm.....Which of the baby kits was I going to buy for Mary?  I needed to go ahead and make that decision!  And I went back while everyone waited on me and bought from Cindy.  I am not one bit sorry even though I have still not decided for sure that these are the colors to be used in Mary's baby's blankets.  But here are some photos.  Some are patterns that I bought for the inspiration in color ways.  Some are the WONDERFUL natural color yarn that would be great baby blankets done by using aran patterns or basket weave or some such texture patterns.  This yarn is incredibly soft!




























And here is the shawl that Cindy had hanging in the booth.  It is crocheted.  However, I found inspiration in the color way.  It reminds me of the shawl that Mitzi knitted that Sally and I coveted.  Mitzi said that it was too heavy and gave it to Mary Jane.  So my thoughts are that these fingering yarns from Cindy might be perfect to use in that shawl to make it lighter!  The color way reminds me of that shawl.











And it didn't occur to me at the time, but as I review the photos, I see that the crazy soft yarn does come in colors.  We could just order the yarn from Cindy in any of the colors we choose.  I think that THIS is the project Sarah and I want to make!  YEA!  Cindy says that this yarn is best knit on size 6-7 needles.  I am very excited!

I am going to put this yarn upstairs in the playroom in one of my big, African baskets.  It is too pretty not to display!  I have put the patterns that I bought from Cindy in a folder in the kitchen that is labelled Cotton.

Friday, November 3, 2017

Dar's Socks

Dar has the most amazing socks that she is finishing now.  The pattern is Priha.  It is a pattern by Tiina Kuu.  It is available on Ravelry.  The color work pattern is included in the pattern.

The pattern is free, so I downloaded it and stored it in drop box in folder labelled socks.  It is also available in my Ravelry library.