Back from Rhinovirusland

Been off schedule if anyone cares. Spent three weeks on a holiday to the norther US and a short trip to the canyons of Utah on the way back. Then  DH brought a cold home from a business trip. Lots of coughing  and low energy, but I think I'm mostly through it. Enough about me.

I finished this little vest last week. I thought I could do a whole sweater but the green did not that the yardage I expected. This should fit a toddler, perhaps 18 months or so. I have admired a slip stitch pattern called French Weave and used it here. Nice pattern, like a lot of slip stitches it looks more complicated than it really is.

Back to adult sweaters. More on that next week.

I am having too much fun with the slip stitch patterns out of the Barbara Walker books. Not feeling too wordy today but here are some photos.

Playing with Texture

So, I continue to be sidetracked with baby sweaters and using stash odd balls. I remembered that I first started making baby sweaters because I was aspiring to be a designer. I felt I could learn some mysterious intrinsic lessons with a smaller format. Of course, I did not really document what I learned well, so some of that was knowledge was lost years ago. 

I did learn that I preferred working in lighter weight yarns, thus launching me on my current run through all the worsted stash that I have acquired. 

But, designing is fun. I've been doing it with the worsted, modifying patterns, or pasting elements together for a Frankenstein like faux original. 

This one, I went totally rogue. I'm pretty pleased, and the all original design bug has struck. 

As mentioned last time, I went for a basket weave pattern from Barbara Walker V1 to begin. Since I ran out of the plain orange, I felt that I needed a break before working another pattern. I used a row of knots on a reverse garter background and a row of purl on either side. 

Then I went for the Ripple Stripe pattern from Barbara Walker V2, but read the pattern incorrectly. Well, actually, I didn't read the row 5 at all. So, instead of a vertical knit row which is part of the pattern I ended up with a softer ripple pattern. I considered pulling it out but decided that the ripple was just fine and continued on. 

The sleeves are the Swedish Block pattern from Barbara Walker, V1. This is a very simple knit purl that produces a lot of interest. 

I'm pleased with the finished project. 

Next design, I'm planning to document better, and possibly produce a pattern that can be published. I also plan on starting the neck decreases sooner.