First Forays into Stranded Knitting

trying out stranded colourwork by doing continental style knitting with the green yarn and english with the blue! actually, it is not hard at all. i watched eunny's demo and just had at it.

to keep my eye focused on one line of the pattern grid at a time, i cut a skinny window in a 3x5 note card and slide it down as i go . "crimson and clover" is the name of this pattern and i found it in vogue knitting stitchionary 3.

next time, i will try steeking to see how that works. :)

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also on the needles:

i accidentally cut a hole in some of my yarn while struggling to sew my nautie's head on his shell. argh. i'll need to tear out about 2 inches and re-knit, but i am really quite close to finishing him. (he has lots of tickly tentacles!)

i am also working on an amigurumi version of noah, our parakeet. unfortunately, the pattern i bought offline has not worked out to my satisfaction so far. i will need to tweak it--tweak it good!

i also learned how to do the tubular cast-on required by the fingerless glove pattern i mentioned a few posts ago. i used this video by interweave. i think i will start them tonight!

...

what's on the needles/hook?

on the needles: i am halfway through the nautilus pattern. the colours requested were black for the shell and acid green for his little head and tentacles. working with black was tough at first, and i do wish i had bought that bag of black fiberfill i saw a year ago. i have about 2 inches to go before i switch out to green.

on the hook: i have some squares that i am sampling from the book the crochet stitch bible by betty barnden.




also: i have spent the last couple of days sifting through prospective patterns for my new yarn and am leaning toward knitting fingerless gloves. of course, i love the crazy-intricate ones, but i think i will try a straightforward yarn-showcasing pattern by verabee.

yeah, THAT VERABEE! d'oh! she's one of my favorite illustrators!

so...what to do next...

i checked vogue knitting's stitchionary 2 book out from the library a few days ago and my cable-lust is through the roof! i went through and tagged a few things i would love to attempt as "dishcloth practice". but...one of my fans has quietly pleaded that i return to crocheting amigurumi ASAP. alas, dishcloths and scarves do not impress everyone--even if they have amazing cables.

i would normally jump to fulfill this particular fan's request, however, i still have a sprained wrist from the car accident i mentioned a few posts ago. i have worn a brace on it all week, but it is barely improving. knitting doesn't hurt much, but boy, crocheting snakey-style certainly does.

truth be told, i crochet all wrong. i add this funky wrist twist that no one demonstrating on youtube seems to include and i am certain any of my elder masters would warn me to STOP IT NOW. the constant twisting is simply asking for repetitive motion injury. this might actually be the perfect time to re-learn my stitch motion, since i will be heartily punished with a stab of pain each and every time i fell back to the snakey-style twist.

i have also considered trying knitting amigurumi. there is an awesome little pattern out there i would love to make:

the nautie by beth skwarecki

this pattern demands i learn how to use double-pointed needles and make i-cord, both new skills for me. it may be the perfect "transitional" project while my wrist is recovering. i will consider it...