Advent Calendar Scarf 2014, Day 7

Hello:

The subtitle for today's post should be Nupps! Rhymes with Soups.  These balls are made by knitting into a stitch, yo, knitting into the same stitch, yo, repeatedly until you have a certain number of loops on your needle.  For today's pattern, it was 7 loops.  You leave those 7 loops on your right needle, and when you are purling back, you slip your needle through all 7 of the loops, and purl them together.  The front side part of a nupp is not hard, but it is very tough to catch all of the loops when you are purling them together.

Kristin has a link on the pattern to a video of how to make a Nupp with a crochet hook.  This is a much easier method.  Basically, you use a crochet hook instead of your needle for the front part where you are making all the loops, then instead of transferring all of the loops to the right knitting needle, you YO one last time, and with the crochet hook, pull the yarn through, then transfer just one loop to the right needle.  It is way easier to pull the yarn through with a crochet hook than it is with a regular knitting needle.

I finished one full repeat (there are 14 rows with 6 nupps in each section), but I was really unhappy with how my nupps looked.  Well, they looked ok, but they were all at the back of the knitting, and I couldn't find a way to pop them to the front so you could see them.

Again, I ripped the whole day section back to the garter stitch spacer, and started over.  I was at Panera's in Redmond for the Eastside Stitchers Sunday Morning group.  I think by this time, GwenS and I were the only people left at the table.  I really wanted to solve this problem before I left for home.  I decided to try making the nupps on the backside, instead of the front.  When I got to the stitch for the nupp on the front, I simply made a knit stitch.  On the back I made the nupp using a size 1 crochet hook, then after a bit of experimenting, I KNIT the next stitch instead of purling it.  This almost guaranteed that my nupps would pop to the front of the scarf, and stand out.

As you can see in the above photo, the Day 7 pattern involved Nupps. They are certainly not perfect, but I am very happy with how they came out.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with little yarn balls called Nupps.

Advent Calendar Scarf 2014, Day 6

Hello:

This is the pattern for Day 6 of the 2014 Advent Calendar Scarf by Kristin Benecken.  I remember knitting this pattern for last year's scarf.  It was the Day 14 pattern last year.  There are 2 complicated parts to this pattern, and I have a bit of a tutorial on last year's blog if you want to check it out.

To create the bottom of each bump, you YO, then make 3 from 1 stitch with a knit YO knit all in one stitch, then YO one more time.  To close the bump at the top you make a left leaning decrease (like ssk), then knit 3 together.  Then you pass the loop from the first decrease over the k3tog. The knitting 3 together was the toughest part for me, and slowed me down quite a bit.  Although I am a fairly loose knitter, I sometimes found it tough to get the needle through all 3 stitches.

 Although this pattern is fiddly and a bit slow to knit, it is really striking.  I wrote last year that I wanted to use it in some other project, and I still feel the same.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 6.

Advent Calendar Scarf 2014, Day 5

Hello:

Well, this pattern gave me tons of trouble.  In fact, I fell behind for the first time in 4 years of making the scarf.  I just couldn't finish the pattern before I went to bed.  Again, it wasn't that the pattern was difficult.  There are only the usual left and right leaning decreases and two of the rows have double decreases.  My problem was that I skipped a row.

Can you see it?  The pattern has you knit 8 rows of pattern, then 4 rows of garter stitch, then repeat the 12 rows once more.  I was half way through the second repeat, but I kept thinking that something was looking wrong.  The top repeat was bigger, and more filled in than the first repeat.  Then I figured it out, I had skipped rows 3 and 4.  (The even rows are just purling back.)

RIPPIT!  I ripped back to the garter stitch spacer row, and started the whole section over again.  I made myself stay up until I had finished one full repeat, but I was just too tired by this time to continue, and I didn't want to make another big mistake, so I gave up and just went to bed.

I finished the section when I got home from work the next day.  I am really glad that I didn't leave the mistake in.  I am also glad that I don't work on the weekends, so I can catch up if I fall behind!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 5

Advent Calendar Scarf 2014, Day 4

Hello:
I am catching up on posting the photos for my Advent Calendar Scarf 2014, by Kristin Benecken.  I really like how this lace pattern looks.  It is a bit closed up on my scarf because I am using size 0 needles, but I hope it will open up when I block the scarf.

The pattern really reminds me of the lace in the Coupling Socks by Deb Barnhill.  I knit those socks 2 years ago, and I still love wearing them.

I think the motif is slightly larger in the Coupling Socks, but it is the same general design.  It was very simple to knit.  There are left and right leaning single decreases, and a double decrease that is slip one (I slipped as if to knit) k2tog, and pass the slipped stitch over.  That was about it in complexity.  I am not sure if you can see it in the photos but you are basically knitting diamonds that are separated from each other by YOs.  I could definitely see using this pattern again.  Perhaps in socks?  ha ha ha ha.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 4