Scarves using a variety of netting stitches

I wanted to try some different netting stitches. Scarves are the perfect way to do this. So, here are five more scarves with different stitches and with different edges on the ends of the scarves.







This scarf is made using a combination of the Crisscross Stitch and plain netting, with a pointed end.













Here are two scarves made using the Lantern Stitch. Each has a different edge stitch at the end.



The Narrow Lantern Stitch Scarf on the left ends with a Sawtooth Edge.









The Wide Lantern Stitch Scarf on the right ends with an Acorn Edge.








This scarf uses the Spike Stitch.

The edge is the Lacy Pointed Edge.

















This stitch is called Diagonal Netting.

In the photo on the right, the stitch is stretched out more than the one on the left.










The edge is similar to the Ice Cream Cone Edge, but the ice cream part is longer and the cones start right on the edge of the row instead of 3 loops into the row.

Teacher Gifts - part 2

My youngest son and I negotiated. Doilies for his teachers - smaller and fewer knots. He also suggested that 5 would be great (instead of 9). So I have been netting doilies. The first doilies were finished on schedule.

Ruffle (small)

Foxfire

Chocolate Chip Cookie

I was ready to continue with the 7.5" doilies that he had selected when I received a new book in the mail. Malla was filled with gorgeous doilies having a different look than mine usually do. Though I loved the style, they were much too time-consuming to make right now with an end-of-the-school-year deadline. So, for the final two doilies for my son's teachers, I based the designs on the style of the doilies found in Malla.

Fireworks Display

Waterfalls

They were a bit larger, with more knots, than the other doilies, but I told my son I would not hold him responsible for my creativity. They were also finished in plenty of time for him to deliver them to his teachers.


Another wedding announcement arrived in the mail from a nephew. Fortunately, I was almost done with a doily using one of my grandmother's patterns.

Center Star

I quickly finished it and sent it with my husband when he traveled west for his mother's 90th birthday celebration.

Caul

Several weeks ago I was sent a link to this lovely caul. Although I am still trying to figure out how to make the stitch, I was interested in making something similar -- and simple. So I called upon a friend who is involved with SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and together we came up with the following caul in plain netting





as seen from the back and the side.

It was fun. Now to try some different stitches







and wait for my hair to grow out again. Yesterday my youngest daughter and I donated our hair to Locks of Love. Her hair was barely the required 10 inches, mine was well over 12 inches. It's been almost two years for my daughter and close to two and a half years for me.

Now I either have to figure out how to attach a caul without braiding my hair first, or wait a year or so until it is long enough to play with again.

Teacher Gifts

It's that time of year again when my children look at me and ask for gifts for their teachers. So, for my youngest daughter who graduates from high school next week, I made four doilies for four teachers / counselors who had made an impact on her high school experience.

I did ask that each doily have 3,000 knots or less and that she choose from the doilies that I wanted to remake. Several of my doilies were made and photocopied before I got my digital camera. That was fine if the doily was less than 8.5 inches. If it was over that measurement, parts of the doily got chopped off in the photocopy. Since the doilies were usually given away as gifts, to obtain a full photo I need to remake the doily.

My daughter made her choices and I began. Everything worked just fine for Summer. I finished it, starched it, and displayed it for a knitting group I attend. They had never seen a net doily and loved it. I even let them choose which one I should start next.

Summer

They liked the partial photocopy I had of Eyelet and so I started it right there. Within a couple of days I had finished this doily also.

Eyelet

I decided to make Delicate since it had fewer knots than either of the others and should work up quickly. Then I could take two newly completed doilies with me the next time the knitting group met.

This doily hated me. It did not want to get completed. Usually I can net and listen to what is going on around me, so I took the doily with me to my daughter's class day. I really can't blame the first problem on class day since I was already on round 13 when I arrived there.

Somehow I missed adding one loop during round 11, which I did not notice until near the end of round 14. I decided to fix that spot by cutting back 3 rows in just that one area. I did not feel like cutting off 3 rounds of netting and there were too many knots to even consider untying each one individually. I was able to make the repairs and continue on round 14.

On round 16 I misread the instructions and did not notice until that evening when I was finishing round 19. I could have cut back to round 15 and tried again, but I decided to keep what I had and create a new doily pattern. After 3 false starts I decided how I would decrease to get to the "correct" number of loops.

Like I said earlier, this doily did not like me, or maybe I was just tired. At any rate, when I arrived at round 22 ready to start the edge, I realized that I had twice as many loops as I had wanted. There was no pretty way to decrease at this point in the doily. I decided that I had put enough effort into this new doily and did not want to cut back to round 15, so I went ahead and made the cube edge even though the doily was fuller than I like for that edge.

So instead of Delicate, I now had Party, which I took to the knitting group along with Eyelet.

Party

I also ended up with a new decrease stitch I decided to call Cupcake.





I was determined to complete Delicate, so I started again. This time I finished it with minimal trouble.

Delicate

* * * * *

This is also the time of year for weddings. So I have finished two more doilies for weddings.

Maypole (large)

Muse

It looks like I will have at least one more doily to make for an upcoming wedding.


Then yesterday my youngest said, "Mom, do you think you could do some doilies for my teachers?" As a high school freshman he has 8 classes plus shop, and there are just over two weeks before he is done with school. We may have to negotiate. . . .

Scarves, Scarves, and More Scarves

This was a fun scarf to make. Once I cast on 30 stitches and then went circular with a knit 1, yarn over, repeated around for the first round it was just mindless knitting. Good for watching a video with the family. I knit about 24 inches before I cast off.

Casting off was scary. The easiest way to do it was to slip a stitch, drop a stitch all the way around. Once that was done, it was just a matter of binding off loosely. The catch is that you have to drop the stitch that was originally a yarn over in the first round. If you do it wrong, the whole scarf falls apart.










The fun part is where you intentionally drop the stitches all the way down to the yarn over.

The scarf grows from 2 feet long to 6 feet long and the knit stitches expand.
















I folded the tube of knitting into a long, flat scarf and tied the tube together at the ends with the fringe. That way the scarf was double thick.













I wanted to see how a narrow 5 loop diamond pattern would look, so I decided to do it as a scarf.






I liked the way the diamond shapes appeared in the scarf as it goes from one diamond to two diamonds and back again.






I wasn't sure if I liked the way the edge turned out.

So I decided to try again.

This time I made the scarf a bit wider. This one goes from two full diamonds in a row to three full diamonds and back again.



Using black yarn, changing the edge to a single point, and adding width gives this scarf a different look than the red one.









I'm curious. Which scarf do you prefer? Or do you like one from last week better?

Shugs and Scarves

Last week was school vacation. Before the two children still at home left on an end-of-the-week youth conference I had my youngest son help me photograph some of the projects I recently finished.

I seem to be in a shrug mood lately. I've finished three recently. I love how they keep my neck and shoulders warm without getting in the way of what I am doing.


This is a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. It was the first time I made a long sleeved shrug.

Just right for cool spring and autumn days.











Back in February at the very end of my entry I mentioned that I had been working on some scarves. I meant to take pictures of them, but life kept getting in the way. So once the end of the week arrived and the children and my husband were gone (taking the car with them) I had time to photograph some of them.

I don't have time to show all of them right now, but I will show 4 of them with their different edges. I like some of the edges better than others. Which do you like best? Please leave a comment.



The following scarves were all made with Bernat Glow-in-the-Dark yarn.

Each of the scarves uses about 72 yards because that is how much yarn was in each ball.

They would work great for a child. To make one for an adult would require closer to 140-150 yards.

This is just plain netting with a touch of fringe on the edge.





















This scarf was made using what I call the Ivy Stitch and instead of fringe I used the Rigging Edge.
















This Cube Stitch Scarf has a bit of Ruffle Netting at each end.
























Here is the Eyelet Stitch paired with an Ice Cream Cone Edge.

Sweater and Shrug -- Knit and Net

It's been a wonderful month. I actually finished several projects that have been patiently waiting for their turn.

When I last mentioned my brown sweater it was April, 2008. At that time I had finally finished it and sewed it together only to discover the sleeves hung down to my finger-tips. Since the sleeves were knit from the ribbing up, I was not sure what to do. Because I had other things to make the sweater got placed in a bag and "forgotten" until the lady who gave me the pattern asked about my progress. When I told her of my problem she said it would be easy to fix.

She told me to cut one of the stitches on the edge of the sleeve and pull that piece of cut yarn all the way across the sleeve. She assured me the old ribbing would come off the rest of the sweater and I would then have live stitches at the new bottom of the sleeve where I could attach new yarn and knit the ribbed cuff. According to her, I could even reuse the yarn that was part of the old ribbing.

I believed her because she showed me with a sample piece that it was possible. I did not feel brave enough to try it on my own. So eventually our schedules meshed. Within an hour both sleeves were on circular needles ready to have a new cuff knit. It did not take many days after that before the ribbing was finished to a more comfortable and usable length.


It has been nice to wear this sweater on those cool spring days when a coat is too warm.


* * * * * * *
More than a year ago I tried to net a shrug. The biggest problem with this project was that I ran out of yarn and could not find any more in the local stores. I was not even sure what yarn it was. Thanks to the Internet I not only figured out what yarn I had used, but was also able to order another skein of Red Heart's Light and Lofty #9261 (Citrus).

Then the shrug sat because I was trying to decide what to do. No, that's wrong. I knew what I had to do, I just had to psych myself into the right frame of mind to do it. One sleeve was tighter than the other one and both were tighter than I really wanted. That meant I had to undo all the knots I had tied around the body of the shrug and both sleeves. I had to undo enough knots to bring it back to when it was just a rectangle.

Eventually I untied the knots and made the rectangle several rows longer. Then I redid the sleeves and the body of the shrug below the sleeves. This past month I finally finished it. I love to wear it. It was worth the few hours spent untying those hundreds of knots. I am surprised how warm it keeps me even with all those holes.