Monday 25 May 2015

I'm developing a bit of a bias.....

After a few very busy weeks and a lot of furious knitting, I can happily offer some new show-and-tell, and with a theme, no less!

I have recently been smitten with the concept of bias knitting - basically knitting a parallelogram-shaped object by increasing on one edge of your knitting and decreasing on the other, knitting on an angle. I love it because it means you can create a knitted fabric made almost exclusively in stocking stitch and the edges won't curl. I say "almost exclusively" because you still have to do something fancy pants at the cast on and cast off edges so they won't flip up on you, but that's fairly easily done with a bit or rib, garter, moss etc, etc...

So let's take a closer look at my dabblings in the wonderful world of bias knitting:

A while back I was making little colourful piles of yarn at the store when I decided that lace weight, held double-stranded and switching between 2 strands colour A, 1 strand A and 1 strand B then 2 strands B would make an interesting shifty bit of business. I'm not the first one to have this bright idea, in fact I've favourited a great shawl on Ravelry  that works just like that and looks really awesome. I've used Naturally Lace for my design, and after an appeal to Tina, I incorporated a cast on and off edge that is unlike my regular go-to moss stitch but still looks just as funky. I used a 4.5mm needle and that, combined with the delightful 60% merino wool/ 40% dehaired angora composition gives this baby a soft and drapey hand that needs to be felt to be appreciated. It's kind of a shawl/scarf hybrid, about 12" wide and about 50" long. I think I'll give it a bit of blocking before a final photoshoot and its debut on Ravelry in my pattern store.

Speaking of blocking, bias knit number two is a skinny summer scarf done in a mix of Berroco Folio and Classic Elite's Bella Lino. There's a whole mess of interesting fibres coming together in this sample: superfine alpaca and rayon in the Folio (pure heaven on its own!) and linen, viscose and cotton in the Bella Lino. I wanted to try a really long, really gradual wedge-shaped scarf so I started with just a few stitches and threw in some double increases every once and a while to get up to the final width. Blocking helped this one a lot because the mixture of fibres made everything look really uneven (and I hoped the linen blend would soften up a bit with some man-handling). I'm really happy with the result - kind of like when you finish a lace shawl and the thing looks like a hot mess, but a quick soak and some well-placed pins turn it into a masterpiece! There was an added bonus with this design, because when I weighed the yarn remaining on each ball I realized there was enough left to make another version! This time I'm starting at the wide end and doing double decreases down to the skinny one, and reversing the order in which the two yarns are used. This pattern is going to be a "two-for-one" deal - stay tuned!

















Last but not least, a bias knitting project that actually came before the first two, but will most definitely be the last to be released. I recently finished a new design for a poncho and cowl set for Estelle Yarns new yarn called "Union", making its debut at a LYS near you this fall. The poncho is composed of two equal size panels of mostly garter stitch, sewn together to make that classic triangle poncho that seems to be making a comeback recently. No worries about curling edges here, but I did find knitting all that garter stitch a bit monotonous so I threw in a few stockinette "racing stripes" to break it up, which happily enough, provided me with the name of the design. I finished the poncho and sent it off in time for Estelle's Open House, where they show off all the new yarns for fall, but added the cowl later, dropping it off at the warehouse in time for the final day of the showing. Apparently the poncho was a customer fave - look for it on one of Estelle's free tear-off leaflet pads in the coming months.

So, three designs, all knit on the bias, all destined for the pattern collection soon. In the meantime, I count seven (eek!) UFOs in the knitting basket (which my ever-understanding husband says doesn't really sound like that many - bless his muggle heart!) so there's plenty more fodder for blog posts to come!







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