Rowan Mystery Afghan Knit-along- 4

I have completed knitting the first clue - 6 squares in two colours,  C and D on my chart. (C is Magenta and D is Candy). 

These are two of the squares from clue 1 in Candy, not very true to the actual colour.  They look a bit lurid here but  candy is nowhere near as bright as this!  I found these foam mats at Aldi.  I actually bought them to go on the floor of my studio but in the meantime have used them to do bocking.  I have drawn 20 cm squares in waterproof marker pen on them so that I can pin up to four at one time.

 I have also completed the first 3 squares of the second clue in colour A (Raspberry), the next three squares will be in B (deceptively named Rosy, which is actually an old lilac shade).  This is a Nordic Star; unusually, the charted pattern dictates that the design emerges from the wrong side row.  I have never come across this before.  

The square for this clue has a garter stitch border all round in contrast with the clue 1 square, which only has a garter stitch border top and bottom.  I can see myself re-knitting clue 1 all over again to match the second clue!  

There have been quite a few problems with gauge but clue 2 seemed to knit up almost exactly to the right size on 4 mm needles.  I can barely understand this as the first square, even when knitted on 4 mm pins, seemed still to be short ( even though there are the same number of rows in both).  There has been a huge amount of discussion about this on the Ravelry thread, which you can see if you sign up to Ravelry and visit the Rowan Forum for this knit-along.

So far this hasn't been too difficult but I think each new clue will grow in complexity and  throw in a few little twists to keep things interesting.  

Rowan Mystery Afghan Knit-along - 3

This is the potential layout for the Afghan in 4 colours and 8 patterns with a contrasting border.

The colours were taken from my photos of the actual wool so are a fair approximation of what the final layout may look like

Rowan Mystery Afghan Knit-along 2

Started yesterday when the first pattern was posted.  I've completed the first three squares in the first colour. This is the first one that I completed

It was only roughly blocked so it is not quite square yet.  It is knitting roughly to size, but others are having quite a few problems with this, so I think I am quite lucky that my tension seems to be working quite well.   I am finding it is just over 20cm square and slightly wider than it is long, but this can be sorted when it is properly blocked.  So far, so good.

Rowan Mystery Afghan KAL

The colour inspiration for the Rowan Mystery Afghan Knitalong came from a chocolate fish my friend gave me for Christmas.   I ordered the yarn two days ago and it arrived today from Loveknitting.com; it was beautifully packaged in net bags.

The first pattern for the kal will be issued on 21 April.  Have to be patient until then!
Correction:

First pattern will be published on 17th April!

Good Old Granny

A friend was requesting small items to donate to the premature baby unit, so I made this small, granny squares blanket with yarn from my stash.  It was very quick to make and an ideal size for a small baby crib or baby carrier. 

The construction is fairly obvious from the photo showing detailed stitches.  Each square was about 10cm2. The final row of each square was attached to the next square with a single crochet between the shells.  The blanket was finished by crocheting four rows of trebles, one row in each of the colours and finishing with picot edging evenly around the whole blanket.

Brioche Knitting Experiments

I've been learning a new technique - brioche knitting, it's quite exciting giving myself this challenge.  It seems that this technique is particularly suitable for warm garments as it, effectively, produces a double layered fabric, trapping an insulating layer of air between the layers.  I have bought myself a book on the subject so that I can learn even more variations: Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch technique by Nancy Marchant.  The photographs in this are excellent and will be helpful to follow how the stitches are made. 
The actual stitches are straightforward and any reasonable knitter would be able to make a simple garment in a single colour; however, it is the introduction of other colours that makes this fascinating.  It seems that colours can move across the surface, change from one surface to the other, cables and interesting increases and decreases for shaping garments can also be made, there even seems to be a way of knitting brioche lace. 

So far I've only attempted the simplest of the stitches which is brioche ribbing with which I've made a neck warmer in a single colour. 

Brioche Colarette

Also, I have now finished a two colour, syncopated brioche scarf. Syncopation entails changing the colour that appears on one side to the other. Different patterns can be achieved by this means and is explained very clearly in Nancy Marchant's book. Having said that it is clear, the notation is slightly different from a normal knitting pattern but relatively easily understandable.

 


Two Colour, Syncopated Brioche Scarf




Syncopation




My Model Husband!


There are quite good websites to go to learn how to do brioche knitting or a site where you can see brioche being knitted, Verdigris knits.

I've enjoyed this excersize and will try to knit some swatches of other stitches to see how they work out.  Watch this space!

Bits and pieces

I've made a few things recently using bits and pieces of wool left over from other projects.  Some of these experiments grew into a finished article as seen in this group.

 This headband was knitted in Cashmerino and the flower was crocheted and placed over the seam.

Headband in Cashmerino

Crochet flower detail

The colarette is in superwash DK and was knitted in a fillet lace pattern with moss stitch ends with a button hole made in one end.  The button was crocheted and applied to the other end.



Fillet lace stitch detail









This Shawlette was knitted in Snuggly DK and is very soft.  I improvised the stitches as I went along and finally decided on (what I think of as ) tortoise stitch going left and right from the central two stocking stitches.  The triangle is made by increasing at each end of every knit row. The first and last two stitches of every row are knit.  every alternate row is a purl row.  The pattern is on every other knit row.  The pattern wasn't established at the beginning but I quite liked the lacy pattern at so I didn't rip it back, even though it went a little askew.

Lacy Shawlette



 

Lacy Shawlette, tortoise stitch detail

I've knitted a couple more collars as these were very useful in this very cold weather.  I'll post the others soon.  Unfortunately there are no patterns for these knits as I made them up as I went along,  However, they would be quite easy to reproduce if needed.