Category: Knitting

Jan Atherton’s blog posts about jewelry design

All Or Nothing…

Modified Cruden Vest

Ever waited ages for a bus and three arrive at once? Well that is sort of what happened with my knitting projects! For the last couple of years I have been trying to complete some of my UFOs, only allowing myself a new cast on if I need something for travelling that can be worked on in between other things.

The vest is a very modified version of Ysolda Teague’s Cruden design, the numbers for the cast on and the motifs used are pretty much the same, however I changed the original scoop neck into a v neck, which works better on me and I made the ribbing a bit deeper to give me a neater, more late 1960’s/early 1970’s fit, similar to the one in the photo of Steve Marriott of the Small Faces, photographed by Andrew Maclear (not Gered Mankowitz, as I originally thought) that was the inspiration for the vest. The vest isn’t a recreation of Steve’s vest, the photo is a bit too dark and indistinct to do that, but I loved the cropped proportions and the dark background with brighter motifs and wanted something with a similar feel.



I cast the vest on in the summer of 2018, but it sat in a bag knitted up to the second set of wider motifs for a couple of years,then I knitted it up to the underarms in April this year, then finally I dug it out about a month ago and just finished it off! I knitted the upper body flat and in sections and used a 3 needle bind off on the shoulders, as the fit is quite close and I wasn’t 100% sure it would fit, so I wanted to be able unravel it and reknit it, if it was a bit tight around the bust, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if it was steeked. Now I know how many stitches I need for a similar garment in Fair Isle, I can maybe try steeking another time, but I also like that the edges are fully finished by knitting it this way.

For anyone interested in the colours used in this project, I used Harrisville Shetland in Midnight as the main colour for the background and ribbing and the rest of the colours were all Jamieson & Smith’s 2 ply Jumper Weight yarn in the following colours:

FC41, FC37, FC34, 123 mix, 20 and 14.

Cruden

Lightweight Hipster Shawl

The first scarf is Joji Locatelli’s Lightweight Hipster shawl, knitted in a lovely merino fingering weight yarn that was hand dyed by Sarah at Another Crafty Girl – this was deep stash from about 2013, I had thought a while ago about making socks with it, but I think this was a far better way to use it. The shawl was written for a similar base and I was able to use every last scrap, the original has fringe, but I’m not sure I have enough to add it and I quite like the edge without it. I’m not sure if Sarah still dyes yarn, or not, but this was lovely to use, the colour is called Blueberry, but it is more of a soft cobalt blue.

https://www.jojiknits.com/product-page/lightweight-hipster

The second scarf is Gudrun Johnston’s Tarra, from the 3rd book in her Shetland Trader series. I also used Jamieson & Smith’s 2 ply Jumper Weight in this project. I used colours 203, FC37, 21 and FC56.

The cowl is the Torshavn cowl by Susan Crawford, I used Sunday Knits Nirvana 3 ply in Ocean and Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport in shade 730S/Natural. The Brown Sheep yarn is slightly thicker than the Nirvana, but both yarns are super soft against the skin and lovely to use. I only had a 20g mini skein of the Nirvana, so I left off the narrow contrast edging on the cowl, but in the end I think I could have done it, maybe next time! If you want to try a colour work project for the first time, this would be a lovely one, it is only two colours and the floats are small – it would be perfect with handspun yarn, either fingering/sport weight too! 🙂 I have linked to the Blodini cowl, which uses the same basic stitch pattern, I think I originally purchased the pattern on Ravelry, however as I can only spend a short amount of time on ravelry, due to migraines, I prefer to share a link to Susan’s blog.

Pattern – Blodini

Tarra

Torshavn

Link to inspiration photo of Steve Marriott:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/479914904058947763/

Cold Feet and Warm Socks for Spinning.

I decided that if we were facing Winter potentially in lockdown that I would work on tidying up my studio and the area in the dining room where my loom and spinning wheel live. I’m still at that awful stage where things look worse before they get better, but I will post a couple of photos when they look more presentable!

I’m also trying to finish both some knitting and spinning UFOs and trying to use up some hand spun and leftover yarns, to make space for a few new books and to get some of my larger sweater quantities of fibre that I dyed up recently into bins of their own to protect them. I spun up these rolags:




The rolags above, became these singles, which I hope to ply, maybe next week:



The light is atrocious right now here in Illinois, I need to look out my project light when I get everything dusted and organised! I also worked on two pairs of hand spun socks over the last couple of weeks. The are definitely rustic and a bit lumpy bumpy in places as they are relatively early stash, but I feel like socks are a useful project for these yarns. I had less than 5g left after Kitchenering the toes of the brown socks! The 1 st pair were just me trying to knit socks from memory using a simple traditional Guernsey/Gansey stitch pattern called Marriage lines – you can’t really see it because the yarn didn’t have enough stitch definition, I was also trying a forethought heel and a short row heel for the first time.


The second brown pair are the Unity pattern by Niina Tanskanen, which comes from the lovely Laine 52 Weeks of Socks book, this is my first pair from the book and I can see me making many more pairs over the next few years. I have lots of single hanks of yarn – too many, really.

Under The Influence – wool fumes…that is…

Photo shows singles, two samples and lace weight yarn, made from gorgeous fibres from Dragonfly Fibers and Wingham Woolworks from the UK. I love working with their fibres, as their colours are always gorgeous and easy to spin.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with social media. I love how it can bring people from all over the world together to share their hobbies and interests. I especially love photo heavy crafting blogs, Instagram and You tube videos, but I’m also a bit of (a lot of) an introvert, who isn’t always so good at expressing themselves, except through my work. I do love being able to keep up with friends, especially as regular letter writing, or phone conversations are not my strong point.

I haven’t been on Facebook, or Ravelry much since both changed their interfaces recently. I really miss friends there, but I can only view those websites for short periods of time, before I get migraine headaches from them, so I tend to go on for a few minutes, update things, check in on a few close friends and get off again, rather than having it on in the background like I used to. Before anyone says “Have you really tried the new version?” again, yes I have, but the migraine is not worth it, especially as my son is doing home learning and needs me to be there right now. So for now, I think I’m going to try to make more of an effort to put more of my work on this blog and Instagram. Especially as other ways of showing my work is more difficult due to the current restrictions. It may be irregular, just when I feel I have some progress to show.

Instagram isn’t ideal either, but I love the textile community there, with so many wonderful weavers, spinners, knitters and beaders. I also keep up with friends that are jewellery artists and musicians on Instagram and artists and musicians that inspire me every day. One thing I haven’t gotten involved with is online influencing, I have been asked, but I usually block those requests. If I mention a product, book, or yarn, or fibre on my page it is usually something I have purchased for myself, or been given as a gift by family, or friends and if I love it, I share it. I’m not adverse to giving product reviews if they are textile, or craft related, but they have to be from companies I trust and respect and I would always want to give a considered, constructive review, not necessarily a glowingly positive one.

This side of the Morning…

One of my Facebook friends, Andrew Thornton, recently challenged his friends to blog more again, he had always enjoyed blogs, but had noticed that many of his favourites were not blogging as often as they used to. I’m terrible at keeping up with mine, but I thought it might be fun to try posting about what I’m working on, especially as my focus is changing a bit. I hope you will visit Andrew’s blog too, his work is gorgeous:
http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

Ewan and Jeremy were away with our friends Tim and Henry over the weekend, so I had my first day where I could just do my own thing in the studio for months. I wasn’t working towards a show, or anything for a website. The last thing I wanted to do was bead. sometimes when a hobby becomes work, then something else has to take its place when you need something to both relax and inspire you.

A lot of my recent crafting time has been spent either knitting and spinning a sweater, or sewing I think I’m becoming addicted to French seams, it hides all the gubbins and loose threads inside the garment! I want to learn to make more of  my own clothes, so I have a few patterns I want to work on over the winter including 2 shirt patterns and even some underwear. If I want basic plain black and white it is fine, I love my Marks and Spencer’s basic t-shirt bras, but my size is difficult to find, in anything other than those colours. Most companies skip right past it, or they are over $40 for a bra if I can find them.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaouljRHshj/?taken-by=janatherton

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaouElmnC5a/?taken-by=janatherton

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaWpUisncvg/?taken-by=janatherton

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaB6y7LHRju/?taken-by=janatherton

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaJ2farHfNF/?taken-by=janatherton

Studio Day #1

Wednesday is always a day when I can get a little bit of time to work on some jewellery, or a craft project. My son goes to a childminder every Wednesday to give me a day to work on personal projects.

Today I worked on two things, the first is a scarf for Jeremy, I did intend this as a Valentine’s present and he does know about it, but because I am hand spinning the yarn it is taking a bit longer than I had hoped, but that is because I have to fit it around everything else. I am using some Humbug BFL for the warp, this is what I have so far. It doesn’t look like much just now, but I reached about the halfway mark today. Jeremy is 6 ft tall, so I’m aiming for a finished scarf that is around 6 -7 ft long before I add fringe.

Scarf for Jeremy.

The Second thing that I worked on after dinner is the Crystal Bay shawl by Rosemary Hill, from her book New Lace Knitting. This is the second thing I have knitted from this book and I have only had it for a few months, I can see me making quite a few patterns from this book. I have completed the body of the shawl and the first two edging repeats. I would like to have both of these projects done by the end of the month if possible.

Crystal Bay Shawl #1

Knitting with Beads – An Introduction

sylviasm

I had intended to post this last week, but had a little difficulty posting to WordPress, until we did a few updates.

When adding beads to your knitted projects you can choose whether to string your beads on before you start to knit, or you can choose to use a tool to add beads as you go this series of blog posts over the next few weeks. I hope to cover some of the most basic techniques tools and materials, plus some fun ones.

There are advantages and disadvantage to both of the main types of bead knitting.

Pre-strung Beads:

Advantages:

1. You don’t have to stop and start, once your beads are strung, you can just knit and place your beads where needed.

2. You can cover large areas of beadwork relatively quickly, especially if you want the surface to be covered with beads on every stitch.

3. Portability: Once all your beads are strung on you can work on it anywhere, much easier than trying to juggle a box of loose beads and a crochet hook.

Disadvantages:

1. Preparation time: You have to sit and string your beads before you start, but mess up the sequence and you have to cut the yarn, or break the offending bead(s) to correct your mistake, if your beads are all one type/colour, you can sometimes speed this process up using a bead spinner.

2. Placement: When the beads are knitted in, they only sit on one leg of the stitch and sometimes they can wander into either the spaces between beads, or to the back of the fabric when you don’t want them to, or they can flip and sit sideways, especially if the bead is flat. If you want the beads to sit nicely on a specific stitch, for example when you want to replace a nuup with a bead, you may prefer to use a crochet hook, or other tool to place the bead over both legs of the stitch.

3. Wear and tear on the yarn/thread: If you have all of your beads for your project strung onto your yarn at once, you may experience some wear and tear on your thread, as you slide your beads along your thread – particularly if you are using crystals, or cut beads which can cut your yarn. It is better to string a portion of your beads onto your yarn, knit until those beads are used up, cut and rejoin your yarn once you have strung some  more. I use a Russian join (link) for most of my lace and fingering weight projects as it is strong, and difficult to find once your project is washed and blocked.

4. Bias: Because the bead sits on one leg of the stitch, the fabric has a  natural bias, this can be counteracted by knitting each stitch through the back loop and purling the return rows normally, though this works best for a completely beaded fabric where the beads completely cover the stitches. If you are knitting in the round, alternate knitting one row through the back loop and one row as normal.

Knitting with Beads using a tool:

Advantages:

1. Placement: You can place your beads over a specific stitch and they will stay where you put them, and they are useful for when you want to highlight  your design with a few beads here and there.

2. It is a good method for adding larger beads, sequins, pendants, or charms too.

Disadvantages:

Beads are placed one at a time, so it can take some time to bead any project, a crochet hook will only take 3 or 4 beads at a time, but the super floss, or Fleagle Beader methods allow you to load up many more beads at a time, however you then have to carry around a small box for the beads and your hook, or other tool if you want to carry your project with you on a journey, and this box needs a secure closure, or your beads can leak into your knitting bag, or carry on bag.

In the next post, I will go into more detail, showing you some of the effects you can achieve with pre-strung beads.

 

 

Dancing on the Edge of Love

lace samples

Lately I have been doing a lot of knitting samples, partly as it is easier to put down and pick back up between Ewan’s naps, and partly because I have been enjoying working with adding beads to other textiles as well as beadweaving,plus everyone has been snorking and coughing there way through allergy season – we are all allergic to the Cottonwood trees here in Chicago. 🙁

I love adding beads to my knitting, I don’t want them to take over, but just enhance the design wherever they are added. I also love bead crochet too, and I have been working on a couple of necklaces using a couple of Lisa’s pendants. Would anyone be interested in a couple of posts on adding beads to knitting and crochet? What would you like to learn?

Evolution not revolution

I haven’t posted in a long time, but I have kept my domain name and website, hoping that I would have a chance to blog more frequently again. I don’t get much time in my studio as I did before my son was born, but I am working on a couple of long term projects, the first one is mainly knitting – which may become a book further down the line, I’m gathering a pile of samples and graphs, and I am beginning to knit the full size samples of a few projects and I may be looking for sample knitters later on, if you are interested please say hi on Ravelry, or Facebook. The other is a collection of beadwork, the intension is to look for gallery space. I’m not going to rush either of these projects, I want to give them room to grow and evolve.

Strange days indeed…

It has been a bit of a weird week for me, which is why I haven’t blogged much. Tuesday and Wednesday, I taught a couple of beadwork classes at Ayla’s Originals, both students were fast learners, and really friendly. I then spent part of Thursday beading some samples for future classes, and the evening knitting on a scarf using Estonian lace knitting techniques. I’m thinking of writing it up as a pattern, if I can find some knitwear design software that isn’t too expensive. I have also been working on peyote stitching around a group of cabochons, including some ceramic cabs from Lisa Peters and Marsha Neal. I love their pieces and always try to treat myself to a few at shows.

This was also the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, I can remember clearly hearing about it—I was 8 years old, I must have been visiting my Grandpa at the time, because it was on an old fashioned even for 1980, spindly legged late 1960’s black and white tv. Every time I heard one of the songs I wanted to cry at the drop of a hat.

Friday was awful. I’m not sure whether I dropped my wallet, or whether it was picked from my bag, but I thought I had put my wallet in my purse, at the station, and by the time I got to the next stop it was gone. After retracing my steps, and reporting it missing—the guard at Berwyn was very helpful and kind, I phoned around canceling everything, something I could have done without.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBCdlBrgEmE