Monthly Archives: April 2021

Lovie backpacks

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The “lovies” are decked out in their backpacks. What a grandmotherly oversight! This knitter had to be asked (and so sweetly) if she could make another backpack. The one made a good bit ago just wasn’t cutting it. Apparently the lovies were squabbling about who got to wear it.

This pair is wearing Jane Peirrepont’s freebie “Dustbag Rucksack.” Personally, I’ve never heard of a dustbag. I looked it up and find it technically means something that’s intended to protect expensive leathergoods from, well, a bunch of stuff including dust. This is sized for a doll called “Dusty” so maybe it’s just a designer pun. But a rucksack I get. It’s a bag with shoulder straps. In my neck of the woods that would be a backpack.

Pierrepont’s pattern is cute and very adaptable. I made the blue one in the DK weight yarn the pattern calls for. Except I used US size 5 instead of size 2 needles. I decided I wanted a larger one, so I knit the orange one in worsted weight. I increased the cast-on to 20 stitches and added some rows to increase the depth of the backpack. The pattern doesn’t mention it, but after studying the pattern photo I decided it was obvious that a knitter was supposed to knit two straps instead of just one long one. Cute pattern.

Reports are that the lovies are squabbling much less now. Here’s a look at Dustbag Rucksack off the lovies’ backs.

I was on a backpack roll and decided I’d knit a few more. These are “Dolls’ Day at School” by Rebecca Venton. It’s another Ravelry freebie. You’ve seen me knit this once before (scroll to the end of the post). It’s the backpack that started the whole lovie scuffle in the first place.

Such a cute pattern. Designed for Aran weight. Sized for an 18″ American Girl sized doll.

Here’s hoping that the unruly lovie crowd has turned ruly.

Botanical dishcloths

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This is not a gold Christmas tree. I mean, it could be a gold Christmas tree but this is mid-April, and even though it’s been below freezing at night, this is actually and merely a gold fir tree. It’s Amy Marie Vold’s Fir Sprucing Up cloth. I knit mine in Paintbox Yarn’s Cotton Aran. 18 grams of the main color and 16 of the contrast is all the yarn you need.

Here’s another version, knit in the same yarn. This time it’s a fir tree standing in the sunshine.  Ok. I guess it has some snow on its branches.

Sticking to a botanical theme, here’s Vold’s Sunflower at the Sink. Again, this is knit in Paintbox Cotton Aran. What tickles me most about this cloth is that the sunflower’s petals are irregular. Too many knitted sunflowers suffer from perfectly-uniform-petal syndrome.

In the real world sunflowers are messy whirls of yellow petals. In the real world sunflowers are wild things. Comparing one to another is a bit like comparing snowflake shapes. This is easily seen in Steve’s 2009 photo of a field of sunflowers near us.

Vold’s design captures another feature sometimes missed: the seed pod in the middle is huge and dwarfs the petals. This cloth is such a fun knit. Consider giving it try.

Next up is another design of Vold’s: Sunny Dish Position. This time I knit the pair in Drops Paris, another workhorse “kitchen” cotton:

The pattern is designed for DK weight. But Aran weight and US size 6 needles worked great.

If you haven’t yet dipped your knitting toes into mosaic a/k/a slip stitch knitting, trying out the easy colorwork technique with a dishcloth pattern should tempt. Vold’s patterns are presented both charted and line-by-line. Her patterns are tested. And they are clear. You alternate two rows in one color yarn and two rows in the other color, being sure that your yarn is on the non-public side of the work when you slip stitches. That’s about all there is to remember. Easy peasy.

Fingerless mitts

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This was a totally fun knit. Brigit Grunwald’s Norwand. I knit it in a pricey yarn that I do not enjoy working with: Kate Davies’ Milarrochy Tweed fingering weight. Apparently it’s high on the fair isle authenticity rating but to me it just makes the work look indistinct. Not a look I like for fair isle. Compare Grunwald’s sample and I know who wins.

But. The point of this knit was to give this unusual fingerless mitt pattern a try. What’s so unusual?

You start with the thumb. If you haven’t knit fingerless mitts before, just trust me that you never knit the thumb first. You’d no sooner knit the thumb first than that you’d knit a butttonhole before you knit the sweater, or frost a cake before you bake it. Here, you knit the thumb. Then you increase and knit the mitt to any size you like and the slightly sloped edge ends up covering your fingers. I was skeptical it would really work. But it does.

Here’s another look. I decided that mine depicts nightfall.

I used a three needle bindoff for the final (and only) seam. And to keep the bind-off comfortably stretchy, JSSBO (Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off) worked well.

Next up is, “…yes Virginia, there really is …” another pair of Fetching mitts that snuck its way onto this blog.

Most of the time a skein of Noro Silk Garden doesn’t do this weird of a color changing trick. Not sure what happened to Noro. But I have a high tolerance for its color quirks.

Such an excellent pattern. This is Fetching #11 for me!