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April 16, 2015

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Oh Bother

I had to search my own blog. I remember talking about it but couldn’t for the life of me recall when. And then I was like, did I just write that blog post in my head? But I did indeed write it. Speckle dyed yarn, a bit of an obsession for me really. It is an awesome looking dye technique that has been showing up recently from the yarn artists (dyers) I follow. Swatching to deal with the yarns idiosyncrasies took place a while ago and a pattern has been in development. Today is the day that I have unleashed it upon the world (BWAHAHAHAHA – man, I should probably lay off of the Phineas & Ferb – channeling a wee bit of Dr. Doofenschmirtz).

Can yarn look as good in knitting as it does in a skein? Yes!

Yarn in skein, yarn in pattern – do they match?

Honeycomb style stitch —> Honey —> Winnie the Pooh —> Oh Bother. Because that is the way my brain works, I have no real excuse. But this isn’t your average honeycomb stitch, can I ever leave well enough alone? Don’t answer that. By tinkering around a bit and adding some slipped stitches I was able to cause the honeycomb effect to kinda scrunch down into an almost brioche like effect. The resulting fabric is deeply smooshy with a three dimensional element. It actually has a thickness to it without a whole bunch of needle gymnastics.

Oh Bother cowl from Barbara Benson, easy to knit in DK to show off speckle yarn.

While I was knitting the cowl I kept trying it on to make sure that it was as I liked. Specifically I was going for a “close to the neck” style. Which meant that I had to slide it over my big ole head. Sometimes I would start pulling and then get distracted and end up with the cowl on my head. It felt good there. I looked at it in a mirror and it looked good there – so obviously I had to do a hat too. Luckily Gale from Gale’s Art has several colors that I lust over. The cowl that started it all is in Meadow, which makes me inordinately happy. It just makes me feel Spring in my heart. But the hat? The hat is Goth Girl which has everything I love all blended together and yet somehow still working.

Oh Bother hat, easy to work deep texture that shows off colorful yarn. By Barbara Benson.

And the hat!

And the stitch is so easy that I was able to provide instructions for sizing up the hat; Adult, Youth, Toddler, and Newborn are all included. The hats are worn with almost 3 inches of negative ease, so they will definitely grow with a child’s head. I don’t have any pictures of a kid wearing one – but hopefully y’all knitters will fill in that gap!

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Barbara

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March 30, 2015

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Reversible Cable Moebius Cowl

I have been cheating. I admit it. I should tattle on myself to the teacher but I haven’t.

Each year as the holiday approaches I come to the realization that I need to get knitting on something for my son’s teacher. But I cheat, or double dip if you will. If I am going to be spending time knitting on a gift I might as well get a new pattern out of it, right? So when I say that this new pattern is good for gift knitting, I really mean it because it was designed and knit as a gift!

When it is cold and you are out corralling about a million second graders on the playground do you need to be fiddling with the ends of a scarf? I am gonna go with no on that one. So a cowl it was to be. For naming ease I used the recipient’s last name. So meet McClanahan.

McClanahan, a reversible cable Moebius cowl in worsted, aran, and chunky weights. By Barbara Benson.

I may have mentioned that I am in the throes of a minor obsession with Moebius construction, this is the pattern that started the whole thing. But because of timing and stuff it is only now getting released. After I finished knitting the prototype I decided I wanted to work it up in multiple different weights of yarn – to give the pattern more bang for the buck. Thinking about what yarn to use I remembered how much I enjoyed working with Dream in Color Classy for Cables are Cool and I thought I would see what the color geniuses over there might have in stock in the chunky / aran yarn weight range.

Reversible cable Moebius cowl by Barbara Benson, three yarn weights in Dream in Color.

Mammoth in Rio Verde Blue

It must have been in the stars because their response was that they were in the finishing stages of introducing both a new Chunky and a new Aran weight yarn. Get OUT of here! So I got my grubby little mitts on Mammoth and Canyon and rounded out the plan with their lovely worsted weight single Calm. I asked them to pick out some awesome colors that would go well together because I had this vision of a photograph with a squooshy pile of cables. And they did not disappoint.

The Yellow/Green is Calm in Prickly Pear.

Back to the pattern (I can talk about yarn all day), since you always see both sides of a Moebius I went with reversible cables. Essentially the whole thing is ribbed. The cast on is seriously the most complicated part of the whole pattern. Once the stitches are on you have some knits & purls and a cable once every couple of rows. As my son would say “Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.” I think that one came from last year’s teacher (For her I designed I Can’t Control my Fingers).

I have provided the cast on and instructions for all three weights and the circumference of the respective cowls are inversely proportional to the weight of the yarn. And what I mean by that is the chunkier the yarn the closer to the neck the cowl will sit. The worsted weight (skinniest yarn) has the largest circumference. I tailored it to fit the yardage. If you wanted a looser cowl you could use the cast on for one of the other sizes, but then you would need additional yarn. Which, two skeins isn’t that bad is it?

A reversible cabled cowl worked in Moebius by Barbara Benson in Dream in Color aran weight yarn.

This is Canyon in Goblin Valley

To finish up the pattern I had some awesome test knitters take a whack at knitting it up and I tried something different. Usually I have a “secret” place to do the testing, but this time I decided to do it in “public”. If you are a Ravelry member and want to see the growing pains in all of their glory check out the testing thread. You can see what the testers thought of the pattern and how they helped me to whip it into shape. Once they were done it took a turn with my awesome Tech Editor and now it is available for you.

I would love to hear what you think in the comments.

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Barbara

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February 17, 2015

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Malabrigo Quickie – Reciprocity Cowl

Reciprocity – the quality or state of being reciprocal: mutual dependence, action, or influence.

Reciprocal – shared, felt, or shown by both sides

Malabrigo (or as I refer to it; mmmmmmMalabrigo) has this wonderful program where they accept proposals from independent designers for projects that focus on utilizing one or two skeins of their yarn to produce a quick and fun pattern for knitters. They supply the yarn, you supply the pattern, both parties promote the pattern and everybody wins!

Moebius cowl knit with Malabrigo Silky Merino and Silkpaca by Barbara Benson

The same lovely model as for Sardaukar

This is my second Quickie – the first was Curiosity and I am still super proud of that one. For this cowl I wanted to address the challenge of making the gorgeous variegated colorways look as amazing in the pattern as they do in the skein. My first step towards that goal was to pair a variegated color of Silky Merino (Queguay) with a complementary solid in Silkpaca (Abril). The solid was chosen to pull out one of the colors in the multi and to break things up a bit. The second step was to stick with a simple texture pattern to allow the yarn to really shine through. I worked the texture holding both yarns together for extra softness.

Texture and stockinette alternate

But do I ever leave well enough alone? Do you know me at all? 😉

I wanted to have some stockinette but I didn’t want to continue holding the yarns together, each yarn deserved its own spotlight. So I cooked up a bit of faux double knitting that is super easy to work once you have it set up. While working with the Silkpaca I did not want to stop because it is just so exceptionally soft – so there is a bit more of that in there than the DK. These extra rows cause the Silkpaca panel to bow out a bit and therefore fluff up and rub a bit against your neck. I am sure that you will bear with the sensation.

Reciprocity Moebius cowl in Malabrigo Sikly & Silkpaca by Barbara Benson

Another drape option.

Of course, I haven’t yet addressed the construction. I may be a wee bit obsessed with Moebius right now. A true Moebius has the cast on in the middle of the piece and grows out from there. The top & bottom edges you see there? Both are the cast off. This construction allowed me to create a cowl that is truly reversible and that presents different panels of stockinette at different places. The cast on itself is a bit challenging to wrap your brain around, but I have provided a link to the Cat Bordhi video and fully written out *and illustrated* instructions on how to get it done.

The whole schebang.

All in all this is a fun, quick to knit pattern that should keep you entertained the entire time. The number one thing that I am excited about is seeing what all colors people decide to pair up for their cowls. What colors do you think you would use?

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Barbara

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January 14, 2015

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Completing a House – Sardaukar Cowl

Happy New Year! I hope it is treating you and yours well. Mine started out with a nasty bout of the flu – I have decided to consider it good that I got that out of the way early.

Onward and upward!

For the new year I have decided to revisit an old idea. The impetus behind my designing was pieces inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune. I began with House Atreides and it yielded 5 crescent shaped shawls Atreides, Mapes, Alia, Lady Jessica, and Caladan. From there I moved to House Corrino with Golden Lion Throne and Irulan.

But Corrino has never felt … finished … to me. It always seemed that there was one more lurking in there, but it was elusive. That was until I went to TNNA and met Mira from Baah! Yarns. I was wearing Golden Lion Throne and she really liked the mosaic motif. But she wanted a cowl. A tall cowl. A cowl that would keep her ears warm. And she had beautiful, beautiful yarn for me to work with. Shasta is a 100% merino super-wash in worsted weight. It is wonderful to knit with and the colors are fabulous.

Yarn in hand, it was time to address the most infamous arm of House Corrino. While this cowl was going to be beautiful, it also needed to be functional. Its ability to do its job could not be sacrificed just to look pretty. And so I ended up tinkering with, manipulating, and expanding the motifs of Golden Lion Throne to create Sardaukar.

Sardaukar: Two color mosaic lace cowl by Barbara Benson

Sardaukar the cowl

I had always known that Sardaukar was going to be a cowl. The costuming from the SciFi mini-series had the troopers in these giant, bulky, black cowls and when you think of it a cowl is a logical and functional accessory. It is protective and elegant, just like the Sardaukar. But I didn’t want to be too literal with the cowl and I had to wait for the inspiration to hit. And I am glad I waited

Flat size is 11 x 19 1/2

The mosaic pattern has been expanded a great deal from what is in GLT, and the lace has been pared down to its bare essentials. Working the mosaic in the round is much easier than working it flat and the same goes for the lace. You don’t have to think about where the yarn is positioned when you slip stitches – it is always on the inside of the cowl. And the only purling that occurs is in the edge ribbing and when you need to purl a YO that is framing a slipped stitch.

As you can see, your neck will be warm.

Now, I did something with this pattern I don’t normally do. The instructions are only available charted. That is because the pattern is one giant chart (I split it up so that it is on several pages). Due to the nature of the mosaic, there are no repeated rows. That makes this much more of a color-work project than lace. But even with that it is no where near as challenging as GLT. If you have been considering GLT but have been intimidated, this might help you get your feet wet.

A bit of detail.

Now that House Corrino is done, the next logical place to go is Harkonnen. And I am going to go there, when I find the inspiration. I have to admit I am stumped a bit for ideas because they are just so … so … evil. There is a part of me that wants to do something named Feyd and riff on his … umm … bathing costume from the movie. But I just don’t know. I am open to suggestions and would love to hear them (and your thoughts on this new piece) in the comments.

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Barbara

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February 12, 2014

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Scrappy Split Stitch Cowl

Do you remember the fun knitting that I did back at the end of summer with my Swap Yarn? Those mitts were worked with two strands of yarn held at the same time and they got my creative juices flowing. I played around with some ideas but then (as I tend to do) got distracted by other things. Luckily one of the ideas was good enough that it kept nagging at me.

It kept nagging and then I stumbled across these incredibly cute 25 g balls of British Blue Wool from Erika Knight and something clicked. The idea was formed and I was off. This yarn is spun from Bluefaced Leicester or BFL which is quite possibly my favorite wool ever. It has a soft hand like merino but has a luster to it that makes you think it might have some silk or something. It takes color in a way that is deep and rich and makes me happily satisfied.

I chose 4 colors (buying two balls of one of them) and then got to knitting. Meet the Scrappy Split Stitch Cowl.

Scrappy Split Stitch Cowl /Barbara Benson

The Scrappy Split Stitch Cowl was born.

Because the yarn is DK the finished piece does not look heavy, there is fine detail in the stitch work. But it is worked on size 11 needles with the yarn held double so it knits up as quick as one of those super bulky cowls. Honestly! Once I got everything figured out (and there was some frogging mind you) I sat down one morning, cast on, and was finished by the end of the day.

I had to get out and shoot in the snow.

Don’t get me wrong. Bulky cowls can be awesome but sometimes you don’t want that bulky look. I managed to get some modeled shots and would you believe that I was lucky enough to have a wee bit of a snow. I rushed out with my live-in model and tried to get some fun snow shots. My model is used to living in Florida so she didn’t manage to look particularly pleased with being in the snow – but I think the shots are fun!

It was pretty darn cold, but it warmed up quickly. This is Atlanta after all.

As usual this pattern went through a test knitting process and something unusual happened. For several of the testers as soon as they finished their first cowl they decided they wanted to knit another one! I consider that to be a testament to how fun and fast this pattern works up. And it’s flexibility. You can substitute yarn and use scraps that you have laying around. You don’t need much of each color and you could definitely use more (or less) colors than I have called for.

I would love to see it in a solid and a gradient, or even two contrasting gradients. If you like long cowls you simply cast on more stitches – no need to even figure out a stitch repeat. Want it taller or shorter? Work more or fewer rows! If you are at all worried that the stitch is too complicated don’t be. I have included step by step instructions with photographs. Not because it is difficult to work, but because it is difficult to explain. If I could sit down with each of you and show you how to work the stitch it would take about a minute, tops, for you to get it. But words are more clumsy so I broke everything down to wee bits.

Another view of the cowl. Do you like my new mannequin?

So, what do you think? Do you have some yarn laying around begging to be this cowl? Are your creative juices flowing? I hope so.

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September 30, 2013

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Code Breaker Cowl

I have been sitting on my hands. Not literally, but with regards to what I am about to show you.

In the Atlanta area we have this awesome thing called Shop Hop. Nine of the metro area yarn shops get together and put on a whole week of awesome yarn-y happenings. One of the best bonuses of shop hop is that, if you spend at least $10 in a shop, you get a free pattern. This year one of the shops asked me to collaborate with them to create their pattern. Together we perused the shop and picked out some awesome yarn and then I got to commune with the skeins and find out what they wanted to become.

There were some parameters and frankly I work great with parameters. When I can make “oh, whatever” I can become paralyzed with how many options that are available to me. But with this one I/we laid down some rules and it helped me find my way. The pattern needed to be: a) relatively easy and appealing to a range of skills and b) short (only two pages).

If you know me at all you will know that both simplicity and brevity are not things I am known for. So a challenge it was!

dit, dit, dit, dot, dot, dot

I think it came out great if I do say so myself. I played with a lot of different ideas, there were chevrons and wavies and all kinds of stuff but in the end this won. And the yarn held up through so many froggings of swatches it is amazing.

The yarn? To be honest I did not expect to love it as much as I did. It is Prism Merino Mia and it was a dream to work with. It is a sproingey and squooshy sport weight yarn with beautiful stitch definition and colors. Blocked awesomely and holds up to all of the cramming into bags and carrying around that happened during the photo shoots.

So distinguished.

Yep, I said photo shoots. While I haven’t really done it on purpose, I have managed to create another piece that is well and truly unisex. The colors I selected are Steel and Sagebrush and they worked exactly as I had hoped. I hadn’t really realized how flexible the color scheme was until I decided to take some shots on my husband. And he looked so handsome. Another thing that was fun and not particularly deliberate is how he is wearing the cowl.

When I started with the pictures he was skeptical about the idea of wearing a cowl, but willing to take one for the team. And throughout the shoot he maintained a wary attitude until I held the cowl flat and pulled it through itself. Then it magically turned into something that he would wear. He actually got excited about it and started talking about how it kept his neck warm and that he could tuck it inside his coat and keep his chest warm … really, I am lucky I got it back.

Worn as a long loop

One final picture so you can see the full length.

Now, if you live in the Atlanta area you can go to Lovin’ Knit Yarn Shop & Studio during shop hop (until October 6) and get this as a free bonus with your purchase. For all y’all who don’t live in Atlanta I have put it up on Ravelry in my design shop (not free).

I cannot wait to hear what y’all think of this one. Please feel free to let me know in the comments!

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Barbara

Posted on

April 17, 2013

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and Curiouser

Stitches South!

Let me explain … no, no, no, there is too much. Let me sum up …

Crazy, and crazy fun. While it is no where near as enormous and overwhelming as Rhinebeck was, it is still a whirlwind of activity. I had a ton of fun and saw a ton of awesome textile based stuff. Unfortunately I left my camera in my hotel room so you will have to take my word for it.

This was my third year at Stitches, but the first one where I wasn’t working the floor, which made for a different experience. I had expected it to be more leisurely, but I was mistaken in that assumption. I still ran around like chicken with my head cut off. Unlike previous years, I managed to take a class. The talented Candace Eisner Strick taught “Two hands, Two Colors, Two Ways” and packed a huge amount of learning in the 3 hour class.

I learned how to tension the yarn in my opposing hand (right for me, I am a continental knitter) and knit with the yarn held that way. Then we knit with yarn in both hands. Then we knit backwards with the yarn in both hands. Really! Backwards! No flipping over and doing return purl rows. The final, mind bending, trick was to weave in long floats along the way. In both directions. It was b-mazing.

And then, of course, the market floor was a treasure trove of STUFF. I managed to restrain myself with regards to spending, but I got a few – choice – items. All in all I purchased 5 skeins of yarn and 4 books. 3 of the books are in languages that I cannot actually read. But more on all of that later, now I need to tell you about my newest pattern that debuted in the Market. It is a piece that I worked on with a local yarn store for them to sell in a kit.

…and Curiouser

The whole time I was knitting Curiosity it kept whispering to me cables, lace, you know you want to … but I was trying to keep things simple and elegant. So I was hard on myself. But when the idea of doing this kit came up all bets were off. This shawlette is designed to make the most out of a single skein of Malabrigo Finito, which is only 200 yards of fingering weight. But what luxury is packed into those yards! Lofty and soft I chose to knit it at an open gauge to let the yarn achieve it’s full softness potential.

A detail of the lace and cables

The cables are slip stitch cables to help break up the more variegated color ways and the lace is a one-liner. Once you get into the rhythm, it isn’t a particularly hard pattern. And, as with Curiosity, it is amenable to yarn substitution. You can use anything from lace weight up to DK and still have a lovely drape (based on your gauge) and you can knit for as long as you feel like knitting. If you would rather have a full sized shawl then just keep adding yardage. Then there is an added bonus of button holes built into the lace pattern – to help with keeping the wrap all wrapped up.

So many ways to wear this piece!

Ever unable to leave well enough alone, I had a second skein of Finito so I made a matching pair of mitts – which are also now available. But this post has gotten long enough. More on the specifics of these lovelies later, I will probably mix it in with more Stitches South.

So, what do y’all think?

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Barbara

Posted on

December 10, 2012

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Quick, Easy and Fun Knitted Hat/Cowl Set

Complexity, it is something that I have a tendency towards. I don’t know why, but for some reason I feel the need to do fiddly little bits. This makes it a challenge for me to cook up something that is simple. Which is kinda the opposite of what one would assume. It is actually a little bit harder for me to develop a pattern using only basic techniques.

I will come to a point in a pattern where something needs to happen and for me the most logical thing is to put in a quadruple centered decrease and volia! problem is solved. But when I am trying to make something simple I frequently have to look back several steps and figure out how to rejigger the pattern so that I don’t get to the point where I need a quadruple centered decrease.

Easy is hard.

Counter-intuitive, I know. But there it is.

A matching Hat/Cowl set in DK weight yarn

Esopus Creek Hat & Cowl Set

This pattern set is pretty darn easy. The cowl is made up of knits & purls. That is it. The hat is not much more complicated, you have the obvious need for decreasing in the crown to make it – you know – hat like, but other than that it is knits and purls.

Detail of the crown of a hand knitted hat

See, crown decreases for optimal hat like properties

And a little bit of fancy because I cannot resist a wee fancy. It uses the same technique as the Rollercoaster cowl in that the texture is created by alternately knitting the piece inside out. And really, once you understand that I actually want you to do something that you are always told not to do … that is a piece of cake too.

I didn’t want the set to be too matchy/matchy so I chose complementary colors of madelinetosh tosh DK. The hat is in Nutmeg and the cowl is in Earl Grey I am very pleased how they play off of each other. And I think that the cowl shows you how the texture plays with a variegated yarn. As I discussed in a previous post, if you want to substitute yarn you need to look at the actual properties of this yarn as opposed to simply looking at the fact that it is DK. I think that this would work fine in any of your heavier DKs and lighter Worsteds.

The inside-out technique means that both pieces are reversible and it doesn’t need to be blocked! The lack of blocking is apparently a plus for some people.

For the name I went with a place name. I designed the cowl while I was at Rhinebeck, so it is great airplane knitting. The texture pattern gives a wavy/cable-y feeling and it just so happened that a major creek was running right by our hotel so I asked of my roommates “What is the name of that creek?”. A few googles later – we have a name. (did you know that google was a unit of time measurement?)

Neither piece takes an entire skein, but you need more than a skein to make the cowl – so you need two skeins. If you had a larger put-up you might be able to get both out of a different kind of yarn. As always, I cannot wait to see what spins other people put on the pattern. I never cease to be amazed how creative knitters are (as a whole).

So, are you doing any last minuted gift giving knitting? Need quick and easy? What are you working on?

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Barbara

Posted on

May 9, 2012

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Roller Coaster!

It was time to come up with a new pattern, with a goal to create a texture pattern that would stand up to the crazy color changes of variegated sock yarn. And luckily enough I had received a fabulous skein of Sliced Blood Oranges from the indy dyer SoftnShiny to work with. Enter the Roller Coaster Cowl.

A hand knit long loop cowl in SoftnShiny hand dyed yarn

I am irrationally fond of this shot of the cowl.

I decided to make a cowl. Don’t know why, but it just seemed to be the thing to do. One of those really long cowls that can be worn like a scarf with no ends. My guess is that I keep seeing all of these lovely cowl patterns and I have a stumpy little neck that, when paired with a tight fitting cowl, makes me look like a psychedelic turtle.

So I found a stitch pattern that I really liked, but faced a problem. Both sides of the pattern were awesome and completely different in appearance. A swatching we will go! First I rewrote the stitch pattern to convert it from flat knitting to knitting in the round. Then I rewrote it again and basically swapped all of the knits & purls so that I would be knitting with the wrong side out. Easy peasy right?

Wrong.

This led to a couple of problems.

a) Tension is different with regards to knitting & purling, the inside out one just didn’t look the same as when I looked at the wrong side of the knitted portion.

2) OMG ALL OF THE PURLING! Won’t someone think of my poor yarn tension-ing hand?

Can you guess which is the “right” and “wrong” side of the stitch?

Which brought me back to square one. I noodled around a bit and then decided hey, you know that thing that they always tell you not to do? That whole “make sure you are working on the correct side of the work”? What if I ignore that?

So I did. I turned the whole thing inside out and simply worked the knit version of the pattern. One did have the foresight to wrap and turn the last stitch of the previous row, because One is aware of holes and stuff. And guess what? It worked! I had a fabric where I could see the front and back of the stitch at the same time. With the added extra bonus of it being a truly reversible piece.

A hand knit long loop cowl doubled around the neck in SoftnShiny hand dyed yarn

My model is moving to Florida. It makes me very cranky.

The end result is a pattern that produces a piece that looks insanely complicated, but is a blast to knit. It is predominantly knit stitches with slip stitches coming in second in frequency. And then things get really exciting for a row before you coast back into knitting. Hence it’s name.

My awesome model has been such a dream to work with. I could not get half the gorgeous shots that I have gotten without her. It is going to be really tough to find someone when she leaves. If you think that her modeling is as awesome as I do, please consider leaving a note in the comments to tell her goodbye!