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Rosy, Posy, Pink & Poesy

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It’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week again! You can read all of last year’s posts here.

I’ve written before about my love of pink, especially paired with dark green. And while I magnanimously love all colours and can spend hours inventing new colour names, if I had to choose one, I’m sorry Lilac, but let there be Pink.

Last year during Blog Week, you may have seen this yarn on my shelf. Now it’s winding/winging its way to being a fully-fledged shawl. All grown up!

I’m using my own Fill-in-the-Blanks Shawl Design formula (currently in testing!) with the Wheatear Stitch. I’m so so so excited about this ebook, I just can’t wait to release it!

“Pink, it was love at first sight” – Aerosmith

And then there’s this bottom-up, leafy number which I’m knitting in Artist’s Palette Glisten; 100% silk, except for the 100% pleasure that I’m quite certain is plied with it. It’s also been in my stash for far too long! If you’ve never understood “process knitters” (i.e. knitters who enjoy the process of knitting as much as, if not more than, the finished project), then perhaps you’ve never knit with a yarn which makes you want to watch every stitch take form. Silk takes dye particularly well, and no photos can do these colours justice. The yellow isn’t yellow, it’s gold…

“Pink is the color of romance and a friend tells me that the girl with the pink dress at the party is the one who is selected for each dance” – Alfred Carl Hottes

Was Hottes talking about roses? I don’t know, but recently I’ve developed a penchant for polymer clay and I made this pink rosy posy heart pendant from white Cernit and coloured it with a blush…

And I think blushing must be what Emily Dickinson writes of as a “shawl of Pink”:

Shame is the shawl of Pink
In which we wrap the Soul
To keep it from infesting Eyes —
The elemental Veil
Which helpless Nature drops
When pushed upon a scene
Repugnant to her probity —
Shame is the tint divine.

One last heart/shawl in progress, which isn’t strictly pink unless I get vaguely scientific and point out that white light is a combination of all colours (think Pink Floyd prism).

C’est tout! Lick a pink confection, listen to Piaf, and pick a pink stitch (a pinch?) or two. Á demain…

23rd April, 2012 // Inspiration, Knitwear Design, Literature // tags: 3KCBWDAY1, blog week, pink, poetry, shawls, spring.

Sunday Morning Knitting Project

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Well, none of us are in heaven… and it’s Sunday. But don’t worry, I have a project that’s sooo quick & simple, it’s sure to cheer you up. :)

Here’s what you need:

an old wooden frame. You won’t need the glass, but you can brighten it up with a lick of paint, if you like.
a few thumbtacks. I used 18.
small amount of lace-weight yarn, and suitable needles. I used some undyed cotton, and 3.5mm (US 4) needles.
(optional) s-hooks

Knitting
If you already have a nice swatch lying around, and it fits your frame, perfect! But if you’d like to make one just like mine, here’s the stitch pattern I used. You’ll need to make it about an inch shorter than the outside of your frame (or wherever you’ll be pinning it) on the long side & the short side, so that you can stretch your lace out to look nice. My frame is 18.5cm x 13.5cm on the outside edges. I cast on 30 sts, and worked 4 pattern repeats.

LATTICE LACE
Cast on a multiple of 7 sts + 2.

ROW 1: K3, *k2tog, yo, k5, rep. from * to last 6 sts, k2tog, yo, k4.
ROW 2: P2, *p2tog tbl, yo, p1, yo, p2tog, p2, rep. from * to end.
ROW 3: K1, *k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, rep. from * to last st, k1.
ROW 4: P across.
ROW 5: K1, *yo, ssk, k5, rep. from * to last st, k1.
ROW 6: *P1, yo, p2tog, p2, p2tog tbl, yo, rep. from * to last 2 sts, p2.
ROW 7: *K3, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, rep. from * to last 2 sts, k2.
ROW 8: P across.

Rep. these 8 rows until swatch is desired length. Bind off loosely. No need to weave in ends.

Note: Check KnittingHelp if you need help with abbreviations, or working stitches.

Tacking

Secure each corner of the swatch with a thumbtack to the corners of the frame (make sure the wrong side is facing you!).

Then push a thumbtack into the centre of each side.

Secure with more thumbtacks as necessary.

Make sure it looks good on the right side…

Wind the yarn ends around one or two thumbtacks so that they’re secure. Trim off short, so that they can’t be seen from the right side.

You’re done!

Hang up your earrings. If you have some s-hooks handy (you can buy them at hardware stores), you can use them to hang rings and necklaces up too.

You can also use your swatch as a pretty key holder.

Or just hang it up as a piece of art. ;) Have a great week!

22nd May, 2011 // Balay, Home // tags: art, free, Home, jewellery, keys, lace, pink, swatch.

Her Ribbons & Her Bows

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Ev’rybody knows
That Baby’s got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls

– from Just Like a Woman, by Bob Dylan

I love ribbons.

Organza ribbons that look like watercolours…

Velvet ribbons with the dark sheen and softness of night.

Satin ribbons like running water.

I love the whipping sound they make in the wind.

I love feeling like a Victorian child when I walk into a haberdashery shop & see all the rolls of ribbons lined up like sweets.

I’ve used ribbons in my designs before. For this cropped cover-up…

… for the Country Stockings I mentioned on Thursday…

& for the small & simple KniTwit Bracelet, which is nevertheless rather a nice opportunity to showcase a bit of pretty ribbon. I have a lot of small lengths of ribbon that I’ve snipped from clothes & tags, and keep in my oddments box. Do you do that too?

Recently, my love of ribbons reached new heights when I discovered Minty, from S/S 2010 issue of Knitty. Except for a few eyelets, you just knit around and around, which means that Minty takes all of a few hours to knit. I have had more comments on my Minty hats than any other hat I’ve knit. My boyfriend even ~~stole~~ asked for my first one (which was black & had icord). The second, pink one, you may have seen on Wednesday’s post, hanging out on my shelves.

The third is grey & I worked the “pepperminty” crown shaping, just for a change. :) I switch out the ribbons to better match my outfit. When I went to Istanbul for the weekend, I even put a couple in my pocket, so simple!

Ribbons are definitely my embellishment of choice. They can be hip or elegant, simple or sophisticated, and at a pinch, you can use them to wrap up parcels. :) Of course, ribbons are nothing without bows. Do you know how to tie the perfect bow? Or maybe you’d just prefer to knit one…

P.S. I hope you will excuse the delay in releasing the Bow Pouch pattern. This week has been such whirlwind of blogging, I thought it would be best to save it for next week.

2nd April, 2011 // Inspiration // tags: 2KCBWDAY8, blog week, bow, grey, knitty, pink, ribbon.

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