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[knitmuch]

2 things I learned from my knitted swatch other than gauge

This week I'm knitting with Sweet Roll by Premier Yarns. Yesterday, I explored making gradients with this self-striping yarn, and a big swatch. Today I’m sharing a couple things I learned from swatching that have nothing to do with gauge.

This swatch gave me practice with paired increases made with yarn-overs and twisted stitches. Both techniques improved with this swatch.

I embarked on a project to knit a mitered square blanket out of Sweet Roll yarn, but I wanted to do it in stockinette stitch instead of the traditional garter stitch. Well, there’s a reason why most mitered squares are done in garter stitch. It has to do with the number of rows versus the number of stitches you get. In garter stitch each ridge is comprised of two rows of knitting and the ratio is almost exactly 1 garter stitch ridge to 1 stitch, which makes squares possible.

In stockinette stitch, the ratio is closer to 4 rows to every 3 stitches, so mitered squares that are decreased or increased at the same rate as garter stitch squares end up looking like diamonds.

I did some math and thought it was right, but I ended up with a shape that reminds me of an awning on a Who-ville house (from Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas). Needless to say, this swatch is going to the "frog pond" to be unraveled.

But not all is lost. I learned two other things from my failed attempt.

1) I learned that with chunky yarn, or at least with 2 strands of yarn held double, I don’t like lifted increases. Lifted increases are where you lift a leg of a stitch from one or more rows below the current row and knit into it to create a new stitch. For a right-leaning increase you work into the first leg of the stitch one row below the loop on the left-hand needle. For a left-leaning increase, you work into the second leg of the stitch two rows below the loop just knit onto the right-hand needle.

I decided to do twisted yarn over increases:

I shine a light on the twisted yarn-over paired increases.

Twisted yarn over increases are made by adding yarn overs on the right-side rows and purling into the yarn-overs on the wrong-side and twisting the yarn over stitch. To do this, knit to where you want the first of a paired increase to be, yarn-over, knit to where the next increase is to be, yarn-over, and continue. On the return row, at the first yarn-over, change the orientation of the loop on the left-hand needle (if necessary) so that the first leg is at the front and the second leg is at the back, then purl into the back leg. Purl to the next yarn-over and change the orientation of the loop on the left-hand needle (if necessary) so that the first leg is at the back of the needle and the second leg is at the front, then purl into the front leg. These two different maneuvers twist the stitch in opposite directions, which mirrors the increases to give a balanced look.

Right-leaning mix twisted stitches lay the knit stitch over top of the garter stitch ridge.

2) I learned I like the look of twisted stitches where the garter stitch edging butts up against the stockinette section. To make the twist, I used the last garter stitch and the first stockinette stitch to make the twist, which makes the stockinette st cross over the garter stitch bump. To do this on a practice swatch of your own, try the following.

These left-leaning twisted stitches create a unique transition between stockinette and garter stitch panels.

Swatch instructions

Cast on 20 sts.

Rows 1- 6: Knit. Row 7: Knit. Row 8: K4, P12, K4. Row 9: K3, with RH needle lift the left front leg of 2nd st on LH needle and tug open, remove RH and reinsert as if to knit and K1, then slip first st on LH needle purlwise, removing both stitches from LH needle, k10, remove first st off LH needle and pinch with fingers from left hand, slip next st on LH needle purlwise, return pinched loop to LH needle and knit it, K3. Row 10: K4, P12, K4.

Repeat Rows 9 and 10 for the pattern to desired length. Knit 6 rows, bind off purlwise.

Let me know if you try the scarf from Wednesday’s post, or either of my discoveries from today. I do hope you try Sweet Roll yarn and that you'll share with us what you knit with it.

[knitmuch]

Knitting gradients with self-striping yarn

Self-striping yarn became popular with the quick growth, almost a movement, in sock knitting. Gradient yarns have become popular with the development of shawls and stoles and their visibility in the knitting community. Yesterday, I worked with one colorway to create stripes. This whole week I'm exploring our featured yarn, Sweet Rolls (a worsted weight, not a sock weight yarn), in knit gradients.

Holding two strands of Sweet Roll together with staggered placement of the stripes opens up a whole realm of possible gradients.

I chose two colorways of Sweet Roll, Caramel Swirl and Cappuccino Pop to blend together to create a gradient. The warm cream and camel tones of Cappuccino Pop coordinate well with the mocha, beige, and cocoa browns of Caramel Swirl. The warm gray in the Cappuccino also creates a nice contrast and complements the brown family without making all the colors muddy when they come together. This way of holding strands together rids the knitting of stark stripes and makes the color transitions more gradual.

Make your own marled gradients by blending two different colorways of Sweet Rolls together.

You can see in my knit swatch above, that a gradient is created when the different colors combine. This provides depth and a tweedy or marled look to the fabric, which I achieved by holding the two yarns together, but starting one of the colors partway through its self-striping pattern. Other yarns are spun this way deliberately but with Sweet Roll, you have control of the colors you want to blend.

Some of you may be wondering what this knit item is? Well, it was supposed to be a blanket, but it ended up being a swatch! As I designer, I don’t like to think that I failed (although, there are days…), but this was a learning experience! I learned that mitered squares work better when knit in garter stitch because the row to stitch gauge is almost equal. In stockinette stitch, stitches are little rectangles. Increases quickly throw off the symmetry of a square, so I couldn’t get my math right here. This square will be frogged and I'll go back to the sketching board with calculator and graph paper! 

My not-so-hot attempt at a mitered square blanket blending my own gradients. The gradients are fine, the "square"? Not so much.

In the meantime, if you’d like to use 2 different colorways of Sweet Rolls to knit a mitered square, I’m going to refer you to an excellent resource for mitered squares. While Nicolette makes lots of small squares and sews them together, I would start with my two balls of Sweet Rolls held together and make 4 big squares to show the gradients changing as the squares grew, then I would sew the 4 squares together to make a diamond out of the gradient color changes.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about 2 other things I learned while knitting this blanket…errrm, learning swatch.

These center-pull cakes don't cause a fuss or a tangle and are great for blending together.

[knitmuch]

Shadow knitting with Sweet Roll Yarn

This week we're knitting with Sweet Roll yarn by Premier Yarns. This long color repeat self-striping yarn is ideal for sprucing up shadow knitting with worry-free color changes. This is what we’ll explore today, while yesterday we looked at some free patterns provided by Premier Yarns.

  Sweet Roll yarn stacks up to your most imaginative ideas. The Punch Pop colorway features lavender, bright turquoise, and a rich teal.

Shadow knitting was initially developed in Japan and roughly translated, it's known as 'fine knitting', which doesn’t really hint at the optical illusion that it creates. If you’d like to learn more about this history of Shadow knitting and see more patterns, I’d recommend this Interweave book Shadow Knitting

History of Shadow Knitting and many patterns can be found in this volume by Interweave.

Shadow knitting is a great way for beginners to do colorwork without knitting with two colors at the same time on the same row. It involves knitting 2 rows in one color and then 2 rows in the next color and then alternating back and forth. The strands of the unused color are loosely carried up the side of the project where each color row begins and ends. When you do this, you basically get stripes. If you only knit you get garter stitch ridges, and if you knit one row and purl one row you get stockinette stripes. Like these.

Stripes of 2 rows of each color

If you look a little closer at the pattern, you’ll notice that on a few of the stripes things look a little wonky. Perhaps to the untrained eye, it would look like a mistake. But these irregularities my friend, are what make shadow knitting what it is. If you look at the knit fabric surface from any angle that's shallower than a perpendicular bird’s eye view, you’ll start to see some changes in the color and the texture of the fabric, and what you're seeing are the shadows that the alignment of certain stitches creates.

On this scarf, you’ll notice a series of L-shaped blocks arranged in a motif that’s called a Greek Key. I made up a simplified version of a Greek Key because some of them can get quite complex and have a variety of corners and parallel lines.

Looking at the scarf at a 30 degree angle makes the Greek Key pattern jump out at you.

To make the shadows, the knitter uses strategically placed purl stitches that create raised garter stitch ridges that run one half row off-set of the other garter stitch ridges. It’s a thing of beauty.

Sweet Roll yarn added a cool element to shadow knitting in that the color changes add a whole different dimension to the shadows. I used almost all of 2 rolls of the same colorway, Punch Pop in this case. To ensure that you don’t end up with the same color overlapping, it’s necessary to unwind all of one color from the center of the roll so that when you use the yarn from one ball to be on color of stripe, it always contrasts the yarn from the other ball. If you use two different colorways together you won’t have to do this step. In the picture below, you can see how the colorways “chase” each other across the length of the scarf, making it look like there are more than 3 colors in the colorway.

Bird's eye few of alternating stripes of Sweet Roll Punch Pop makes it look like you have more than 3 colors.

My wife knit this for me and she really enjoyed the pattern. It was one that she could take with her to knit-night because it doesn’t take too much concentration. She loved the feel of Sweet Roll as she knit with it, and the end result is a soft scarf with beautiful drape and a squishy feel to it.

If you’d like to try to knit this scarf and see how you like shadow knitting, I’ll include the pattern for this scarf below.

finished measurements 8½" x 76¾"

materials

2 balls of Sweet Rolls US 8 [5mm] needles

Gauge isn’t essential for this project.

  Keep people wondering how you made this optical illusion with only 2 stitches and 2 balls of yarn

Cast on 34 stitches with yarn A (your first ball of yarn). Place a locking stitch marker around the yarn going to ball A.

Rows 1-2: K34 in A. Rows 3-4: K34 in B. Rows 5-8: Repeat Rows 1-4. Row 9: K34 in A. Row 10: P6 in A, k22 in A, p6 in A. Row 11: K34 in B. Row 12: K6 in B, p22 in B, k6 in B. Rows 13-20: Repeat Rows 9-12. Row 21: K34 in A. Row 22: P21 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A. Row 23: K34 in B. Row 24: K21 in B, p7 in B, k6 in B. Rows 25-32: Repeat Rows 21-24. Row 33: K34 in A. Row 34: P6 in A, k8 in A, p7 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A. Row 35: K34 in B. Row 36: K6 in B, p8 in B, k7 in B, p7 in B, k6 in B. Rows 37-44: Repeat Rows 33-36. Row 45: K34 in A. Row 46: P6 in A, k8 in A, p7 in A, k7 in A, p6 in A. Row 47: K34 in B. Row 48: K6 in B, p8 in B, k20 in B. Row 49: K34 in A. Row 50: P6 in A, k8 in A, p20 in A. Rows 51-54: Repeat Rows 47-50. Row 55: K34 in B. Row 56: K6 in B, p8 in B, k20 in B. Row 57: K34 in A. Row 58: P6 in A, k22 in A, p6 in A. Row 59: K34 in B. Row 60: K6 in B, p22 in B, k6 in B. Rows 61-68: Repeat Rows 57-60. Repeat Rows 5 to 68 until you’ve reached desired length minus ½''.

Knit 4 rows. Bind off purlwise.

Chart for shadow knitting Greek Key scarf.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at another way to use Sweet Roll colors in a unique way.

[knitmuch]

3 patterns to knit with self-striping worsted weight yarn

This week we are knitting the lovely self-striping worsted weight yarn called Sweet Roll by Premier Yarns. Yesterday, we took a close look at its characteristics, and today we'll look at 3 patterns that are perfect for Sweet Roll yarn.

2 rolls of the multicolored, self-striping, worsted weight Sweet Roll in the Punch Pop colorway. I love this fun color combination.

Self-striping sock yarn has been around for quite a few years, but I haven’t run across worsted weight self-striping yarn. One of the bonuses of self-striping yarn is that color choices and color changes are all done for you. There are no knots to tie and there's no headache to be had from trying to get the right colors to coordinate. Sweet Roll yarn solves these 2 issues very well.

Take the chill off with this Ice Pop colorway of Sweet Roll!

Sweet Roll isn’t a gradient yarn, though. The color transitions are brief rather than happening gradually over long stretches of yarn. Yesterday I wrote more in detail about the colors and their arrangement. I have heard reports of a knot appearing in a roll in one spot every rare once in a while, but this does happen occasionally during the manufacturing process of all yarns and can’t be helped. The mills that spin Sweet Roll obviously take pains to reattach the yarn in the same color stripe where the break happens rather than creating an even more abrupt color change at the knot! It never happened to me though, and I’ve knit through 8 of these self-striping skeins from different colorways.

Premier Yarns has provided these 3 patterns for free and you can see how the color change happens randomly. I like the natural transitions and the color schemes that they’ve chosen are great.

Don't worry about color changes, make these easy and quick projects with Sweet Roll.

The earth-tones of this scarf and the classic ribbing stitch pattern make this easy-to-knit scarf a great unisex style for any casual or dressy winter outfit.

Knit these fraternal twin slipper socks for some playful warmth around the home.

If you have a sweet Phoebe in your family, or another young lady who wants to be warm with a bit of pizzazz as well, this easy little Phoebe Poncho is a great introduction to knitting in the round.

Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to one of my patterns that takes advantage of the color transitions in a new way that's quite unique looking, even though I only knit and purled.

Purl rows and knit rows with this Punch Pop colorway of Sweet Roll make the mystery project that will be revealed tomorrow.

[knitmuch]

Knitting with Premier Yarns Sweet Roll, a self-striping yarn

This week we’ll take a look at this long repeat self-striping yarn by Premier Yarns called Sweet Roll.

These 2 rolls called Capuccino Pop (top left) and Caramel Swirl (right) make me thirsty to knit!

Sweet Roll is a worsted weight yarn and it’s 100% acrylic that is packaged in a yarn cake or “roll” format. It comes in 26 colorways (scroll to the bottom). Each colorway consists of long repeats of 3 colors, and each in each roll, the colors repeat at least twice per roll. The length of each color segment is fairly consistent. At the transition points the change from one color to another takes place over a 1" or 2" segment.

In some of the colorways, each color is dyed with a more heathered look, where several small strands of fiber are dyed different colors and then blended to create a mottled look.

This blend of cornflower blue and lavender fibers make up a heather color section in the Punch Pop colorway.

In other colorways, each color is more solid with the occasional speckle or dollop of one of the other colors from the scheme.

This cream section from the Pop Cappuccino colorway has speckles of an oatmeal beige distributed randomly across this stretch of yarn.

The ball band says that Sweet Roll knits up at 17 stitches per 4", which makes it a tad bit thicker than a worsted weight, more like an Aran weight, but it's a soft, 'cushiony' (for lack of a better word) yarn that has a lot of spring to it, so knitting at an 18-stitch gauge will work great as well. Each roll weighs 5oz (140g) and has 245yds (224m).

The architecture of Sweet Roll is really interesting. It consists of 4 individual plies that are twisted together to give the yarn nice definition. Each of these 4 plies is crimped or something like that. I don’t know what the process is called, but it gives the end result a crepe finish, and it also reduces pilling a lot. There's no halo around this yarn, even after knitting and with the usual friction of rubbing against the sides of a project bag, my hands, and the needles. I didn’t have a chance to throw it in the washing machine, but I predict very little if any pilling.

4 plies are spun together to give this yarn a squishy texture and clean stitch definition.

The rest of this week, we’ll look at different patterns and stitches that really complement Sweet Roll yarn. I hope you come back to see what we have planned to share.

[knitmuch]

Book Review and Giveaway: Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

I’m excited to review the book Bath Knits. This book is written by my friend Mary Beth Temple and she has come up with 30 great patterns to spruce up any bathroom. The designs are both practical, and beautiful, and definitely are “made to pamper”. 

I'm also pleased to announce that you can enter the giveaway contest at the end of this post for your chance to win a copy of Bath Knits. Let's get started on the book review.

Cover of Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

The book is divided into 5 different themes. Each one features a lovely color palette to give you some ideas as to how the different knit projects will complement those private spaces we retire to seeking solace and comfort.

The first theme is called The Naturals.

Make these lovely neutral toned knits to soften the atmosphere of your bath retreat.

My favorite pattern in this section is the Tab-top Towel. This cotton towel is perfect for a busy family with lots of hands who need a dry off. Make 7 of them to rotate through the week. It’s a great project for a beginner knitter who wants to learn a bit of color-work in their knitting. The other projects in this group are also sure to bring a touch of sophistication to any bathroom space.

The second theme is the Flower Garden.

Several practical washcloths would make great gifts

These designs will make a woman’s toilette very classy and add a touch of warmth. My favorite patterns here are the “Shaped Washcloths” As you know, I’m a technique-oriented knitter, and I really want to learn how to work these shapes that are constructed from the center out.

The Oceantide section of the book is calming and soothing.

I want that stack of blue washcloths to add tranquility to my bathroom counter.

There are many cool patterns for washcloths, but the project I'm going to knit first is the Textured Bath Mitt. I don’t really like bath poofs, so this is the perfect masculine solution to applying body wash to the skin without using abrasive plastic.

This knit texture is easy to do and the resulting mitt is fantastic.

Sunny Days is the fourth theme of the book and these designs are warm and invigorating.

A couple of sweet washcloths can be knit and then stored in a knit basket. How fitting! Then there’s a mod twist on the edging for towels. My first choice is the Textured Linen Washcloth, mostly because I’ve always wanted to knit with linen yarn, but never really had any idea of what to make. This fits the bill perfectly.

Linen yarn will become softer with each use, and this textured look is perfect for a little scrubbing action.

The final section is Bright and Cheery and these designs are perfect for helping family members wake up every morning with the bright pops of color that you could feature in your bathroom.

The Framed Lace design is very appealing to me because it scratches my “how is that knit” curiosity itch. Though Mary Beth suggests framing it to make it a piece of wall decor, I would like to use it as a wash cloth, and it would be very fun to knit with the short row and lace construction.

Short rows and lace make this lovely circular washcloth. Probably my first project from this book.

After looking at the designs, I then turned the pages again to study the yarn choices that Mary Beth has made. There's a wide range of yarn thicknesses, from a finer fingering weight all the way to bulky. There's also a wide range in composition of the yarns. Lots of cotton, naturally, because of the durability, but other natural fibers are used as well, like linen, as I’ve already mentioned. The price range for these yarns is also great, making all the projects very affordable without using low quality yarns.

Lastly there's a good range in purchasing options for the yarns, with some being common in big box craft stores and others in local yarn stores or online shops.

What about the speed of making these projects? Well, I think there are enough patterns that would give process knitters some fun as they try short row and color techniques that won’t leave you dumbfounded, but won’t let you get bored either.

And product knitters and beginners who would like to finish things quickly have lots of options as well.

These coordinating washcloths could be knit with any pairing of a solid color and a multicolored yarn.

Many of the projects make great gifts and if you’ve let some holiday or special occasion creep up without knitting anything to give away, many of these projects would make perfect projects to get ready quickly.

While there are a lot of decor and utility items, Mary Beth hasn’t forgotten to include some garments. There's a cute pair of lacy socks and the plush robe for a personal spa day!

Lacy pedicure socks to keep your feet warm while your toes shine!

Lastly, the photography and book design are lovely and complement the designs and the intent of the patterns well. There are closeup views of every item that needs to show where design elements are worked in a special way, or how a finished item should look.

I really hope that you’ll consider entering the giveaway contest, but if you don’t win, please look for this book at your favorite store, or ask them to order it for you. It’s $16.95 in the United States, which means just over 2 quarters for each pattern, and I know that between my wife and I, we’ll easily knit 80 to 90 percent of the patterns.

Good Luck!

   Back cover of Bath Knits by Mary Beth Temple

How to Enter the KNITmuch Giveaway Contest

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To enter the contest, log in below either through Facebook or with your email, then follow the instructions. You’ll have the opportunity to get multiple entries and multiply your chances of winning! We also encourage you to explore the awesome FREE tutorials, patterns, and magazines on our blog. Good luck!

[knitmuch]

Crossing stitches is easier than knitting cables

Today I’ll wrap up this week’s feature yarn, Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura. I’ll show you how to knit crossed stitches, which look like fabulous regal braided cording and are easier than knitting cables.

This is a top-down sweater for a toddler featuring centered decreases and sharp, lovely braided cord made of crossed stitches.

After knitting different swatches with this soft and shiny yarn, and focusing on a scalloped cast-on in yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but move from swatch to sweater. So I started a top-down sweater for a toddler with a 20" chest. I didn’t have enough time to make the whole sweater, mind you. I’m fast, but not that fast.

I kept some of the elements of the leaf lace swatch that I wrote about on Wednesday: the center double decrease and the yarn over and twisted stitch increases, and the crossed stitch cording. This panel without the leafs made for easy increasing around the yoke for my top-down design.

This top-down yoke has two main elements, the centered decrease and the 2-stitch crossed stitch cord which is set off by purl stitches.

The design element in this yoke that I like the most is the crossed stitches. In this case, I made all the stitches cross to the right, but it is possible to make them symmetrical and cross to the left as well, but we’ll leave that to another design.

To make a crossed stitch leaning to the right, insert the right-hand needle under the front leg of the second stitch on the left-hand needle and tug a little towards you and towards the tip of the left needle, too, but be careful not to take it so far that the stitch is passed over the first one.

Lift the 2nd stitch and bring the front leg forward to make it easier to knit into it.

Then remove the right needle and instantly re-insert it in the front leg of that stitch to knit it without removing it from the left needle.

Knit into the front leg of the 2nd stitch first, but don't slip it off the LH needle

Then insert the right needle into the second stitch and knit it, removing both stitches from the needle. And that… is that.

   Knit the first stitch and slide them both of the LH needle

I’ve run out of time, and won’t get this sweater done on time to post a picture of it. The crossed stitches are so quick to knit up than knitted cables, so it won't take long. When it's finished, I’ll be back to show it off.

When I set out to blog about Radiant Cotton, I really didn’t know what to expect. I have knitted for a long time, and I have used a lot of different cotton yarns. So basically, I came at this with no expectations at all. Truly.

[knitmuch]

1 cotton yarn that makes this scalloped cast-on edge stand out

Today we’ll continue looking at how Radiant Cotton yarn by Fibra Natura is ideal for knitting textured stitch patterns, and especially for this scalloped cast-on edge.

Radiant Cotton makes the bobbles, lace, and scalloped edging pop on this swatch.

Yesterday we saw how this lovely cotton yarn works up in a lace pattern. Today I’m delving into a little more texture.

First, the scalloped edging. Isn’t it fabulous?!

Top-down view of the crocheted scalloped edging! Adorable and worthy of this cotton yarn.

Now - I'm a patient man and a patient knitter, but when it comes to scalloped edgings, I’m not patient at all. I haven’t really ever found a knitted scallop edging that either a) didn't look like bunting banners, or b) didn’t give me a headache. So I cross over into some of my other craft skills and turn to crochet. I know some of you are die-hard non-crocheters, but we’re not making a whole garment or afghan.

Trying a new activity and using new hand muscles and brain cells is important for some of us who get set in our ways. New skills are good for aging synapses, right? So I hope you'll give it a try. If not,after we look in detail at the edging, I’ll talk about the other textures in this swatch, which are ALL knit.

It takes 4 simple steps to make the first double crochet stitch.

To make this scalloped edging, you need to know how to chain, how to yarn over, how to make a double-crochet stitch and a treble-crochet stitch. You begin by making 4 chains, then yarn over (1 in the photo above), then insert the hook in the first chain and pull up a loop (2 in the photo above). Yarn over and pull through first 2 loops on hook (3) and yarn over and pull through remaining 2 loops (4). That’s the double-crochet completed. The next stitch is a treble crochet (tc or tr). To make it, yarn over twice (5 in the photo below) and insert hook in same chain space as the dc, yarn over and pull up a loop (6). Yarn over and pull through 2 loops (7) and do that twice more to finish the treble-crochet (8).

The second stitch is a treble crochet in the same chain.

To make the next scallop, chain four again, and work both the double-crochet and the treble crochet under the 2 strands that are the front loop and the first vertical bar of the last treble-crochet you made.

To do a little planning for your knitting project, you need to know that you can get 4 knit stitches to each scallop of this crocheted border.

A strand of 6 scallops, ready to become a cast-on scalloped edging.

To pick up and knit stitches, start with the loop that was on your crochet hook and slip it onto your right needle. Then flip to the wrong side of the row of scallops where you'll find…wait for it…purl bumps! Yes, on the back of each treble crochet stitch you can find 3 bumps. Each one is an insertion point to pick up and knit 3 of the 4 stitches that will be allotted to each scallop.

"Purl" bumps on the back of the scallops are highlighted to show where to pick up and knit stitches.

Then after you pick up 3, you flip the scallop back to the right side up and you can see the juncture between the scallops. This is where you pick up and knit the fourth stitch.

You pick up and knit every 4th stitch from the right-side under the highlighted strands on the scalloped edging

When you’ve picked up all the stitches across you'll have a multiple of 4, plus 1. The first row is a purl or wrong-side row. In this row, you can increase or decrease the 1 or 2 stitches you may need to adjust to get the given stitch count for your pattern. For this bobble and lace swatch however, 25 sts was just what I needed.

4 stitches per scallop, plus 1 for the edge creates a balanced row ready for knitting.

This scalloped edging or cast-on (if you want to think of it that way) is great for blankets, and other items of home decor. You may like it on a shawl or scarf, too. It adds a marginal amount of weight, so to balance a finished item, like a blanket, I would crochet on a scallop border that looks exactly the same after I had bound off the last row. To do an added on edging, you simply join the crochet to the knit fabric with a slip stitch. Then you chain 4, double crochet in the same spot the chains come from, treble crochet in the same spot, too. Then you lean the scallop across the edge to equal a distance of 4 stitches and you slip stitch into the edge of the fabric and you’re ready to repeat from there.

Now, on to the bobbles and lace of this swatch. I saw a little baby bunting on Pinterest that was completely covered in bobbles and it struck a chord with me. Once I started knitting with Radiant Cotton, this stitch seemed like a perfect pairing to knit with this soft glistening cotton. Here’s the lace pattern I re-engineered from a very blurry photograph on Pinterest.

Symbol chart for this easy and charming bobble and lace stitch pattern.

Legend for chart symbols

Knowing that not all of you love knitting charts, I’ve added the text instructions below, too. This isn’t a complete pattern, but you can use this chart for any project that you like. Explanations for some of the abbreviations are given in the Stitch Glossary, below, but the trickiest bit is the bobble, so I’ll explain that separately.

Make bobble (MB): In next st, (k 1, yo, k1) all together, turn your work, leaving rem sts unworked, purl 3, turn, knit 3, turn, purl 3, turn, slip first st purlwise, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over the first st and then proceed to follow the rest of the row instructions. You can do it at any time, but popping the bobble out to the RS of the fabric is easiest right after you’ve made it.

Row 1: Knit. Row 2 and all even rows: Purl. Row 3: P2, [p1, yo, k1, ssk, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p4] across to last 11 sts, p1, yo, k1, ssk, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p3. Row 5: P2, [p2, yo, k1, s1-k2tog-psso, k1, yo, p5] across to last 11 sts, p2, yo, k1, s1-k2tog-psso, k1, yo, p4. Row 7: K1, rki, [ssk, k3, mb, k3, k2tog, k1, yo, rki] across to last 11 sts, ssk, k3, mb, k3, k2tog, yo, k1. Row 9: P1, yo, [k1, ssk, k1, yo, s2tog-k1-p2sso, yo, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p1, yo] across to last 11 sts, k1, ssk, k1, yo, s2tog-k1-p2sso, yo, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p1. Row 11: P2, [yo, k1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1, yo, p3] across to last 11 sts, yo, k1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1, yo, p2. Row 13: P2, [p1, yo, k1, ssk, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p4] across to last 11 sts, p1, yo, k1, ssk, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, p3. Row 14: Purl

Repeat Rows 5-14 for pattern.

Stitch Glossary

k2tog: Knit 2 stitches together. rki: Lift the stitch 1 row below the next stitch onto the left needle and knit this stitch. mb: (K, yo, k) in 1, turn work, p3, turn, k3, turn, p3, turn, s1-k2tog-psso. ssk: Slip 2 stitches knitwise, then knit slipped stitches together. s1-k2tog-psso: Slip one stitch knitwise, then knit 2 stitches together and pass the slipped stitch over. s2tog-k1-p2sso: Slip 2 stitches together knitwise, knit 1, then pass slipped stitches over.

Try something new! Use this scalloped edging on one of your upcoming projects!

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post. Tomorrow is our last day with Radiant Cotton, and once again, I’m combining lace and knitting -- this time, for children.

[knitmuch]

Knitting delicate lace in a summer stole with cotton yarn

This week, I’ve been swatching and knitting with Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura. Its brightness and smooth touch make it ideal for summer lace and so I thought I’d explore designing with it, and I think I’ve come up with a perfect idea for a summer stole that you can wear well past twilight to fend off the evening chill in the prettiest possible way.

2 lacy leaves flank a column of double decreases in this swatch of knitted lace

Yesterday we looked at some free patterns provided by Universal Yarn and explored some other characteristics of this yarn, but today I want to show you why I like it so much.

One thing about Radiant Cotton that has quickly made it one of my favorite cottons is that it makes textured stitches pop! The sheen and the twist are very conducive to delicate lace, but also to twisted stitches and crossed stitches.

Crossed stitches frame pairs of leafy lace motifs in this summer stole.

In the picture above you can see that I’ve started to knit a lace motif that has two leaves that lean towards each other. Once I knit a couple repeats of the paired leaves, I wasn’t sure I really liked them paired evenly like that so instead, I thought I should stagger them a bit. This is what I ended up with.

Staggered leaf motifs bring balance to this cotton stole pattern.

To make the leaves slant towards the center, I use a double decrease up the middle stitches and increase on the outer sides of the leaves. When I first started, I used a yarn over on the RS of the work and purl in the back loop of the yarn overs on the WS rows to give a little twist to the increase. To keep the column of purl stitches set into the fabric, I wanted the flanking column of knit stitches to be twisted all the way up, but with the yarn over increases, this effort was interrupted, so I needed to figure something else out.

Mistakes and problems inevitably surface when designing. Here are texture issues I needed to solve.

To frame the lace, I decided to have a nice corded look on either side, so I chose some crossed stitches set off by purl stitches on either side. It really makes the cord stand out -- you can see what I mean about the sheen of Radiant Cotton making the textured stitches look great. I also decided to keep only the knit stitches that weren’t affected by the yarn over increases twisted, so in this picture it’s just the column to the left of the purl stitches that is twisted this way.

Crossed stitches flanked by purl stitches that are then flanked by twisted stitches creates a brilliant opportunity for this cotton to shine.

So, after a few more little tweaks, I came up with the following pattern. You’ll need 5 balls of Radiant Cotton and size 4mm needles. The final stole will measure 20¾" [53cm] wide x 59¾" [152cm]

Here’s the legend for the chart symbols.

Stitch key or legend for chart symbols for wedding stole pattern

And here’s the chart.

Chart for wedding stole pattern

To start the stole, you need a multiple of 28 stitches, plus 16. In this case, cast on 100 sts. You could do fewer for a scarf or more for a full-blown shawl.

Knit 4 rows first, then begin the chart. A printable PDF of this pattern with all the details is available below.

I hope you enjoy knitting this stole, and be sure to come back and share your pictures in the comments or email us, Tomorrow I’ll show you another experiment I tried with Radiant Cotton.

[knitmuch]

Knitting summer tees with Radiant Cotton yarn

Some people have a hard time knitting with cotton yarn, because well, it’s often hard, hard to the touch that is. Knitting with Radiant Cotton may just change your mind about cotton yarn though, because it’s soft and once knit, there's some body and elasticity to the fabric. This week we're looking at this cotton yarn by Fibra Natura.

Stockinette Stitch swatch in Radiant Cotton shows excellent stitch definition and subtle sheen

Yesterday, I described Radiant Cotton’s architecture and qualities, and today we’ll look at some other characteristics.  When I knit this stockinette stitch swatch, I used US size 6 [4mm] needles and achieved a tension of 24 sts and 32 rows per 4" [10cm]. So that’s on the lighter side of a DK, more like a Sport weight, but maybe it’s just me. The ball band recommends US size 5 [3.75mm] needles to achieve a 22 st/28 row gauge. I’m not a tight knitter, generally, but I guess I’ll go up a size or two to achieve ball-band gauge if necessary.

My swatch has a lovely drape, despite the “tighter” gauge and the hand of the fabric is very pliable, has as much elasticity as your average cotton T-shirt yet it feels much more luxurious.

While these two colors of Radiant Cotton are serene and understated, there are 22 other colors, many of which are bright and saturated. It is easy to wind balls off of these hanks without any struggles with tangles.

More about the information on the ball band, or label in this case. Each hank of Radiant Cotton weighs 100g and contains 203yd (Okay,186 m). The hank must be wound into a cake on a winder or into a ball by hand before knitting, but I had zero struggles when winding it off the swift. There were no tangles in the hank and the ties around it were made with each of the two ends, and the label was the third “tie” keeping the hank strands in order.

Another tidbit of information, once knit up, you can machine wash and tumble dry your knit item…another great reason to use this yarn to knit children’s items, too.

The Lucky Star Tee, a free pattern that uses between 4 and 6 hanks of Radiant Cotton in the Viola color.

Universal Yarns offers two free patterns for Radiant Cotton and they're both lovely spring or summer tops.

The Lucky Star Tee features rows of mesh lace with a few solid rows separating the bands of eyelets. There are six sizes from XS to 2X and these are knit with from 4 to 6 hanks of Radiant Cotton, which shows how ample the yardage of this yarn is.

The other pattern is the Down the Lane Tee, which debuts a twisted vertical rib through the waistline up to the bodice which that morphs into a lace panel. It’s a square scoop neck and the sleeves are worked in one piece with the body pieces. It comes in 6 sizes as well from XS to 3X.

Radiant Cotton in Calypso, a bright salmon pink, is knit into this slimming summer tee with simple cap sleeves.

As you can see from these two patterns, Radiant Cotton yarn is excellent for lace knitting and tomorrow, I’ll share my explorations into designing a lace pattern for a wedding stole or a summer scarf.

[knitmuch]

Knitting with Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura

Do you have one of those favorite shirts or t-shirts that just feels right next to your skin? Radiant Cotton is a yarn that gives me that sensation. It feels nice in the hank. It feels nice wound into a cake. It feels very nice going through my fingers to the needles. And it feels great in the knit fabric.

Starting today, this week we're going to feature Radiant Cotton and look at some lovely ideas for knitting up projects for warmer weather.

Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura in soft colors Winter Blues and Custard. A soft and shiny Egyptian cotton yarn for light garments and baby clothes

Fibra Natura makes Radiant Cotton and it’s distributed by Universal Yarns in the US and by H.A. Kidd in Canada. This cotton yarn is made 100% of cotton grown in Egypt and processed in Turkey. Egyptian cotton has developed quite a reputation in the hand-knitting world, but some of you may recall that it’s been in high demand for bedding and linens as well because of its superior characteristics. Egyptian cotton has a very long staple and its own natural sheen. It absorbs color extremely well compared to some other cottons. Another key aspect about the integrity of this cotton is that it is hand-picked rather than machine harvested, which keeps the fibers sturdy.

This Egyptian cotton yarn is nice to the touch in the hank and in the swatch it has amazing drape, with a subtle sheen and great stitch definition.

When spun for hand-knitting, Egyptian cotton keeps its famous softness and sheen at the same time. Four individually spun plies of the cotton fibers are spun together to make Radiant Cotton.

Untwisted end of Radiant Cotton shows 4 individually spun plies that are twisted together to make this soft yarn.

I tugged out the fibers and was able to get some tufts and individual strands that were between 1" - 1½" [2.5 – 3cm] in length, but I was pulling from a cut end. If I were to untwist a single ply more gently rather than tug at it, I’m sure I would find individual fibers three times as long.

2 tufts of Egyptian cotton fibers pulled from one ply of Radiant Cotton

Radiant cotton isn’t a springy yarn and like so many cotton hand-knitting yarns, it doesn’t have much, if any, elasticity, but as it passes through your hands and fingers, it doesn’t feel like a cord or like kitchen string. It is already soft and subtle to the touch. The stockinette swatch (which I’ll show you tomorrow) has a lovely drape and proved to me that it would be very suitable to knit baby’s garments, too.

Radiant cotton comes in 24 colors, from the soft pastels that I get to use this week, to some intense brights that would be fun to include in any spring or summer wardrobe. You can see the colors at the bottom of this page. Tomorrow we’ll look at a few pattern ideas and explore a few more characteristics of Radiant Cotton.

This yarn has a beautiful twist and definition which is really clear when wound into a yarn cake.

[knitmuch]

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[knitmuch]

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[knitmuch]

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[knitmuch]

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