Tag Archives: A. Catherine Noon

Spring Bag

Knoontime Knitting

I’m on a kick to make more gift bags. I found a cool overdye at Michael’s, and I like the colors. I think it looks like Spring or Ostara.

I did the top as straight knitting, but I used a knitted cast on instead of long tail. I like the way it comes out, since you can’t really see the edge and it looks very neat and clean. It’s looser than long tail, too, which is nice; although when working that first row off the cast on row it sometimes is tight.

I used a slip-stitch pattern from Barbara Walker’s stitch dictionary, A First Treasury of Knitting Patterns which has been re-released by Schoolhouse Press. I actually didn’t like the way it looked with this yarn, which surprised me. I have found it to be pretty on some overdyes, whereas on others it looks flat and muddy – which I thought it did, here.

I switched back to plain knitting for the next segment, and then experimented with a Garter Rib. I tried doing the plain rows by switching between knit and purl by row for the first segment, then doing purl every straight row for the final segment.

It wasn’t until I finished and turned the bag inside out to seam it that I realized my error – I did the stitch inside-out!

I like the way it turned out, but for the next bag with this yarn I’ll do the garter rib for the whole thing and see how that looks. I used the three needle bind of for the end and made a 3-stitch i-cord for the cord. On the whole, I like how it looked.

The yarn is worsted-weight, and I used a size 7 needle, which is much smaller than I’d usually use for this yarn thickness. The resultant fabric is quite dense, which I like for the purpose of the gift bag.

Element Bag

Knoontime Knitting

I recently experimented with a pattern for a gift bag, which is really a very simple project. I used pearl cotton, gauge 5 and gauge 12, to create the bag. Starting with yellow for East and Air, I then used red for South and Fire, (both yellow and red are the gauge 5), then navy blue for West and Water, and finally green for North and Earth. For the i-cord, I used indigo and violet, both gauge 12, held together to make it thicker. Take a look:

You can see the difference in yarn thickness between the 5 and 12 sizes. I used a Size 3 (US) set of double-pointed needles to make the bag (and plan to switch away from my usually beloved bamboo and purchase some steel ones; anything smaller than Size 5 (US) is too bendy in the bamboo and wood).

For the next bag, I plan to use only the size 5 thread; I found the size 12 too thin and the resultant fabric too flimsy for what I wanted. I could double up on the 12, but that would use twice as much yarn and I don’t need that thickness for warmth or durability, just appearance.

This is a top view of the finished bag, with all colors visible but the i-cord untied. The finished bag clocked in around four inches tall.

This is the finished bag. The pattern I used calls for a 3 needle bind off, which I did use; I also like stepped decreases though did not use that for this bag. They give a more rounded finish.

Birthday Project

Knoontime Knitting

Happy birthday to meeeee! (Actually, my birthday is May 8th, but still…) I received some money for a gift and took myself to get a Bucilla needlepoint kit. I didn’t realize this, but Bucilla is now owned by Plaid Online, a collection of a number of handicraft providers.

I selected “Oriental Crane,” a lovely pattern of painted canvass needlepoint. It comes with crewel wool, floss, metallic thread and beads. I’m looking forward to working on it. I haven’t completed it (I’ve only just started separating the yarns), but I’m enjoying the colors.

The only complaint I have is the instructions are awful. They are written in about six different languages and it appears that in trying to solve the problem of being an international company, they’ve missed the mark. While there are six languages, the actual instructions are so skimpy that if I weren’t an experienced needle worker I would be lost. For example, if I handed the kit to my husband, who is good at needlepoint but not very experienced, he wouldn’t know how to complete the kit. It’s a shame.

I’ll post more in-process pictures once I have something interesting to look at, but here’s the design so you can at least see what I’m doing.

I’m thinking I might frame it and hang it on my wall at my office. We’ll see.

Update on Opera Gloves – Design Challenges

Knoontime Knitting

In designing my opera gloves, I am using a couple resources. The first is the stitch dictionary by Barbara Walker, A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

Additionally, I did a web search for a few different opera glove designs, but found nothing exactly to my liking. What I want is a glove pattern that goes up the forearm and over the elbow, ending in a ruffle. The fingers will be partial, so it will be a ‘fingerless’ glove, but I do want actual fingers rather than a flat line across the knuckles.

I found it a lot harder to do the swatch with the two lace patterns I’d picked out. I wanted to use one panel that’s a lace rib stitch, two lines, and one as a center panel that’s sixteen rows. It turned out to be too easy to drop stitches on the larger lace pattern, when trying to track both it and the circular knitting. I fiddled and struggled for a while and then realized, if I was having this much trouble on the swatch, I’d hate doing the gloves. I switched to the simpler two row repeat and voila!

One thing I did change, in the pattern, is that it’s a K1 * yo… etc. Well, at first, I did the K1 at the beginning of the round, but not each new needle (I’m knitting on three needles). That was pulling too wide at the joins between the needles, so I decided heck with it, I’d add a K1 on each needle change and it made the pattern much neater. Also, since the pattern is written for flat knitting, I had to reverse row 2 (which is the wrong side row), but luckily it’s just either K or P stitches, no complicated stitchcraft. It’s run to work.

I don’t have pictures yet, but when I finish the swatch I’ll post another update.

Box Loff – The Grand Finale!

Knoontime Knitting
I finished my first needlepoint box! I’m pleased with it. To recap, I used a simple overdyed yarn, worsted weight (double DK weight) for the needlepoint and a plastic frame cut to size. I learned a lot putting it together and like the final look.

Here is the box completed and closed. There’s a lip around the bottom so the lid sits snuggly down over the bottom, making it look like a solid cube. In fact, two people I’ve shown it to couldn’t figure out how to open it at first!

Here’s a view with the top and bottom separate. You can see how deep the box is in this shot. It is three inches square, which is a lot larger than I thought at first.

One of the key learnings I took away from sewing the pieces together was this: at first, I used one horizontal stitch, then a diagonal stitch from the same square on one piece to the next square up on the other piece. That looked good but I didn’t realize it was canting the pieces sideways by one square, which threw off the finished design. I’ve shown that below so you can see what I’m referring to.

To fix it, I just placed the stitches two in each square horizontally. I was worried it wouldn’t have enough coverage to conceal the frame, but it worked just fine – as you can see from the pictures.

The next box will have actual stitch patterns using different textures of thread and yarn. The suggestions I saw in the book I’m using call for Paternayan crewel wool and perle cotton, which look nice together. Pix soon!

Opera Gloves

Knoontime Knitting

So, I joined Weight Watchers. I decided to make milestones for the celebrations, and I’m celebrating my first 5%! I’m so excited. I purchased two skeins of Sock Ease™ yarn from Lion Brand in “Red Hots.” It’s beautiful!

I will say it’s more orange than I was thinking it would be (which isn’t bad, just surprised me). It’s very Autumnal in flavor and I think will look really nice with summer-tanned skin (not that I tan a whole heckuva lot, but hey).

I’m going to make a pair of opera gloves that are fingerless. I’m thinking I’ll have partial fingers go to about the middle knuckle, then have the glove go all the way up to cover the elbow and end in some pretty ruffles. I’m just swatching right now, but I’ll post more as the design comes together in my head.

These are double-pointed needles from Brittany, size US2 (2.75 MM). I want to like them, but I find them too bendy and broke one while making a sock. I’m going to get some Crystal Palace (first I’ll swatch with my CP 3’s and see how it looks, I may just use them). I am also planning to try some metal needles for the really small sizes, 4 and below, because the natural ones just seem to be too fragile when they’re that thin.

Box Loff!

Knoontime Knitting
As some of you know, I’ve recently started playing with fabric boxes. Here is the bottom of my latest creation, Earth Meets Sky.

The bottom of the box has a lip, visible in the picture; the lid will fit over the entire piece and be flush against the lip.

Here is a detail of the box. I used a simple overdye yarn so I could concentrate on the construction; but next time I plan to use more embroidery design. I’d like to make boxes in other sizes, as well as a drawer liner for my desk at home (to house things like paper clips and stuff).

Several people have asked me how the box is put together. Here is an image of the bottom being worked. First the designs are laid in, and then the box is sewn up. You use simple plastic canvass from Michael’s or JoAnn’s (which has the benefit of being cheap!) and can use any yarn or thread you like. This yarn is a simple worsted weight (double DK) that cost about $2.00 USD a skein (which would make a LOT of boxes – smile). The pattern is a simple tent-stitch, I just varied the rows by covering one or two squares.

Fuzzy Shawl

Knoontime Knitting

My lovely sister in law gave me yarn for Christmas (which is a little like giving crack to an addict, but there you go). Two of the balls are this really fuzzy tribble stuff that have a variegated black and grey colorway with little silver sparkles. It’s fun stuff. I decided to make a triangle shawl with it, since it’s a little scratchy, that way I can wear it over other clothing.

Here’s the progress so far. I’m going to have to switch to circular needles shortly, since I’m running out of room on these. As you can see from the tip, I was adding four stitches every other row – a make one on each edge and a yarn over in the middle once the lace pattern started. I decided to leave off the make one, so I don’t run out of depth (since I only have the two balls). It makes a pleasing sort of rounded heart edge on the point that I like.

This detail picture shows the lacy bit, which is a little silly with such a textured yarn but I like it. Bonus points if you can spot the error!

The Story Shawl

Knoontime Knitting

My husband and I went on an Outward Bound Dogsledding expedition in 2006. When we got back, I went shopping with a friend of mine in Wisconsin and found some incredible silk and mohair yarn that looked like sunrise on snow. Still under the influence of the Boundary Waters and our experiences there, I set to work on a shawl that would tell our story.

The border is eight stitches, one for each person in the party. I chose a seed stitch to symbolize life and growing. Just like in a garden, people can come together and learn to support each other in the same space but not taking the other’s light or nutrients. We form symbiotic relationships.

I added a row of lace yarn-overs, the holes symbolizing the fact that when we came together, we weren’t a team. We were eight separate individuals, but not one unit. We separated into two teams of four; three students with an instructor. One day the students were with the dogsled, one day they were skiing. The instructors had a two-day cycle, two days on the sled, two days on skis. I chose a basketweave pattern of K4, P4, four rows each, every so often going for eight rows to symbolize the instructors.

At one point in the middle of knitting, when I had about a hundred stitches on the needles, I decided to try an alternate basketweave stitch that I found in a book, thinking it was the “right” way to do it.

It looked totally wrong.

Faced with the decision of unknitting three rows of over a hundred stitches, it occurred to me that this was a perfect metaphor for the middle portion of an expedition. You know your mates well enough to identify their quirks and likes, and well enough for little frictions to pop up. After all, you’re adults enclosed in a vast and threatening wilderness with these other individuals for hours at a time.

It was exactly right.

I left the stitches in and completed the shawl. Eight rows from the end I dropped the yarn-overs, symbolizing that by the time we arrived back at Home Place, we were a team.

The bind-off is done in a sewing needle bind-off that took about six hours to complete. Incredibly detailed, it nonetheless creates a soft, supple edge that doesn’t look at all like a bound-off edge. It’s springy and slender and adds to the beauty of the garment.

This is one of the most expensive and time consuming projects I’ve designed and I share it with you so you can see what can be done with two sticks, some yarn, and an idea.

Fingerless Gloves

Knoontime Knitting

I came across a wonderful pattern for fingerless gloves in a book by Melanie Falick, Weekend Knitting. Here it is from her website with some images you can browse:

http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com/weekend-knitting-gallery/

I used some bulky wool from Knitpicks, in a lovely dusky rose color. I got them from a class I took a couple years ago, so these gloves are a good thing to use when you have stash and no project.

My hands are larger than the model, though, so I cast on 30. The first one I knit I used the directions for the thumb and didn’t check before I bound off; it turns out to be too tight. I apparently have really muscular hands. (We won’t say fat, will we?) The other one I used six stitches and it fits just fine.

This first shot is of the gloves flat on the table. They’re not very attractive this way, surprisingly, though you can see the garter rib stitch very well.

For this second shot, I used one hand with the camera and wore the glove on my right hand, which is coincidentally the glove where I modified the thumb.

I really like the purl bind off. It’s simple but pretty and makes a nice line of stitches that match the cast on. I will definitely be making these again. If I make them longer, to go up to the elbow, I’ll need to modify them to fit over the muscles in my forearm (here is where your gauge swatch will come in handy). (Shush. Of COURSE you gauge swatch.)