Wolkig Trio

Sometimes designs just grab hold and I want to knit something in multiples to see how they’ll work up. Wolkig (cloudy in German) is Martina Behm’s free one-line pattern and it had that effect for me. No joke. One line.

First I knit this one, in Dream in Color Jilly:Oops. That’s Wolkig wrong-side out. Here it is right-side out:

That’s part of the charm of this fingering weight cowl.

I decided to stop mine short of the 21 inches Behm suggests. Mine is about15 inches and is soft enough and scrunchy enough that it doesn’t look like some kind of Queen Victoria wooly neck-brace.

This next one is also about 15 inches tall, knit in Thede, one of Rhichard Devrieze’s fingering weight speckled yarns. It’s 80 percent merino, 20% nylon, and would typically be used for socks. But I like the way it turned out in Wolkig.

My Thede Wolkig bunches more easily than the Jilly one.

I kind of just couldn’t stop at two. Here’s Wolkig in Mirasol’s Khusku. Khuska is an interesting combination of 40% bamboo, 40% wool, 20% nylon. Right side out:

Wrong side out:

Glass Head declares it very soft. She wonders why I’ve never knit anything in bamboo before. Who knew it would feel so excellently soft?

Imagine Knit

Sometimes yarn surprises. At least I think so. The pattern I knit this up in is Michele, by Sarah Punderson. Free on Ravelry. Looking at the pattern photos, you see a dignified, low key, beautiful DK weight slouchy hat.

A guildmate of mine mentioned that when she saw my yarn choice for our knit-a-long, she thought I must have screws loose. Well, no. She was actually very polite about it and said something like that she’d plan to watch with interest. And, no doubt, much skepticism.

But this is one great hat. Really. It is. I’m tooting my own horn, I know, but this hat makes such a lively statement that its wearer and everyone around will put on their happy face. And how can you not love that bulls-eye crown decrease?

I know. Not everyone’s cup of tea. Our yarns start out life in our stashes like this.

And then they turn into this.

This Mountain Colors Twizzle in the Mardi Gras colorway turned into a great Rikke Hat. Rikke, designed by Sarah Young, has been knit and posted on Ravelry about 9500 times since it debuted in 2010. These yarns will pool, but tamed by the garter stitch, they work out really well. I especially like how the brim pooled differently from the body of the hat.

Sometimes you start out thinking that your wonderful skein of fingering weight Jilly, by Dream in Color, will turn out to be a shawl. And it would have made a really nice one.

But, instead, you find Martina Behm’s great one-line free pattern, Wolkig, and then your Jilly turns into something else entirely. A little silly rather than classy. Behm’s sample is a lovely pale gray. Really beautiful. But I like my version. Glass heads thinks it’s the cat’s meow.

Here’s a closer look. This pattern is worth downloading just for the fun of figuring out how the heck one round, repeated over and over, turns out like this.

I even like my Wolkig, flipped inside out.

Wolkig. It means “cloudy” in German. That is a perfect name for Behm’s gray version. Mine? I might call it something more like “cloudy with a chance of meatballs.”

Leftie

leftie2

This is Leftie, by Martina Behm. I knit my Leftie in Cheshire Cat, a Frabjous Fibers Merino 4-ply fingering weight. The other 2822 Ravelers who’ve knit Leftie and posted it on their project pages and I are in agreement that this is a doozy of a clever pattern.

leftie3

The only modification I made was to skip wrapping on the short-row leaves. And, obviously, if there’s no wrapping going on while you’re turning, there’s no picking up and knitting into those wraps that aren’t there. Thanks, Dot, for that great suggestion! I’d not have thought of it on my own.

My first attempts on the leaves were a tad on the sloppy side. I started over and without the wrapping and picking up, my leaves behaved well and look great. Wraps really aren’t needed in garter stitch short rows. You won’t notice the teeny little holes.

Garter stitch is one of a knitter’s more forgiving stitches. Maybe that’s part of the reason why it’s the first stitch we learn.

leftie