Showing posts with label patterns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patterns. Show all posts

Monday, September 5, 2016

Vorsichtige Wiederbelebung

10.000 Jahre später ...

Ich möchte wieder über mein Gestricktes schreiben. In letzter Zeit habe ich so viel entwickelt und ausprobiert und es steht noch so vieles auf dem Programm und manchmal habe ich das Bedürfnis es aufzuschreiben. Besonders nachdem ich das komplette Blog nochmals gelesen habe - es macht schon Spaß. meine eigene Strickgeschichte zu verfolgen.

Allerdings werde ich von heute an auf Deutsch schreiben - nicht, weil ich nicht mehr Englisch schreiben mag, aber die Zusammensetzung meiner Strickblase hat sich verändert und ich mag mehr Menschen den Zugang zu meinen Texten ermöglichen.


In letzter Zeit habe ich wieder ein paar Kinderdinge gestrickt, denn Besuch bei den Niblingen steht auf dem Programm und ich stricke auch gerne Kinderkleidung auf Vorrat. In einem anderen Post möchte ich über meine Lieblingskonstruktionen schreiben, heute soll es um ein besonderes Muster gehen.

Rechts seht ihr ein Bild von Glühwürmchen, einem der Pullunder, aus schwarzer und sehr bunter Wolle mit vielen verschiedenen Farben gestrickt. In der Mitte des Ausschnitts sind drei Knöpfe. Die Träger und der untere Rand sind bunt, in der Mitte wechseln sich dicke schwarze Streifen mit dünnen bunten Streifen ab. Die bunten Streifen sind kraus gestrickt, die schwarzen glatt.

Ich finde den Pullunder so sehr nett, aber als ich das Strickstück umdrehte, um die Enden zu vernähen, fluchte ich ein wenig, weil die Innenseite noch schöner war als die Außenseite! Sie sah nämlich so aus:


Auf der verkehrt gestrickten Seite ergibt sich durch die bunten Maschen auf den schwarzen ein interessantes Muster, wie kleine Bögen oder Reißverschlusszacken, die ineinander greifen. Genau dieser Reißverschlusseffekt interessierte mich. Ich habe ihn nämlich bereits in einem anderen Strickstück erfolgreich angewendet.

Nachdem ich aber den Pullunder nicht umkehren konnte und nicht neu stricken wollte, bleibt die schöne Innenseite erst mal innen. Dafür wollte ich dieses Muster auf ein Jäckchen anwenden.


Als Vorlage verwendete ich den Cubes Pullover aus der Deep Fall Knitty 2014 und nannte mein Jäckchen Gentle cuddle.

Die graubraune Wolle dafür habe ich schon ewig. Ich kann nicht mehr genau sagen, wann sie in meinen Wollvorrat (bzw. Stash) kam, aber definitiv vor 2009. Der Eintrag des Garns, Lana Grossa Cashtweed, wurde 2007 erstellt. Manche Garne liegen bei mir so lange, sie werden ja nicht schlecht. Manche warten auf das perfekte Projekt, manche auf eine Kontrastfarbe. Und für dieses Garn fand sich endlich den perfekten Kontrast in Form von Lana Grossa Royal Tweed in einem rötlichen Hellviolett.



Also habe ich gleich das neue Muster ausprobiert und musste traurig feststellen, dass die Farbkombination dafür absolut ungeeignet war. Bzw. wenn ich geplant hätte, einen subtilen, verschwommenen Farbeffekt zu erzeugen, wäre es perfekt gewesen. Aber ich wollte doch, dass der schöne Reißverschlusseffekt sichtbar wurde.

Tat er aber nicht. Stattdessen gefiel mir die glatte Seite viel, viel besser und das Kontrastgarn leuchtete viel mehr aus der graubraunen Wolle hervor. Nur musste ich jetzt alles bis auf den Halsansatz auftrennen, denn mein Perfektionismus verlangte, dass die Vorderseite des Anschlags zu sehen war und nicht die Rückseite, die bei den glatten Maschen so kleine Knubbel macht, wie ihr links sehen könnt.



Das Reißverschlussmuster eignet sich also am Besten für Garne mit hohem Kontrast, wie ihr rechts bei meiner Katzenfamilie - also der vordersten Katze - sehen könnt. Es entsteht, wenn ihr mit zwei Farben strickt und die Farbe in jeder Reihe abwechselt. Die vorderste Katze ist komplett in der Technik gestrickt, aus dunkelbrauner und wollweißer Wolle.

Zwar habe ich für die Katze diese Technik nicht angewendet, aber für rundgestrickte Projekte im Reißverschlussmuster eignet sich die Helix-Stricktechnik ausgezeichnet. Ich möchte das demnächst in einer Mütze ausprobieren.

Monday, March 21, 2011

knitting statistics

I am a little ill at the moment, which I don't particularly enjoy, but I'm on the mend. Maybe I'll even be able to take some projects pictures later - after all, I finished a bunch of them and many still remain unphotographed. I now finally own a tripod, so taking pictures of myself actually wearing the projects should also be a little easier. And last Thursday, I officially became a Magistra of Philosophy.

However, I'm starting my 250th project recorded on Ravelry today and thought I'd show off a little. I've definitely knit more than 250 projects, but some weren't entered (because pre-Ravelry) and in two cases, two or more projects were entered as one entry, so 250 is the base of all the following numbers.







Of those 250 projects, 17 were frogged (so far - I'm thinking of frogging 3 further projects).
The oldest project added is this scarf-like thing, which was supposed to be a wall hanging, called Irish Cream.








 

I didn't frog it immediately after making it, it hung around in my room for ages, never used. Then, one day, I had an idea and frogged it so it could be reincarnated with some additional yarn as a Spring Blanket (which needs blocking badly).



 



7 projects are hibernating - they're half-finished or maybe even almost done, but I've stopped working on them and they've been languishing for a while. For example, my Kingfisher Socks need a second sock to be done.




 
7 projects are currently officially in the works, although of those, 3 have been languishing for a while as well and really need to be done. But if I put them into hibernation mode, I'm likely to forget about them, that's why they're at the top of my list. One of them is this Tachikoma amigurumi, a robot from the anime Ghost in the Shell and a birthday present for my brother that I started quite a while ago. Crochet just needs a lot more attention than knitting is all I can say ...


So, of those 250 projects, 219 are officially finished - now I'll split the 250 (219 in brackets) into different categories:
  • 19 (15) pairs of socks or slippers
  • 28 (24) shawls & wraps, a category including ponchos, shoulderwarmers and all the lovely lacy and non-lacy shawls I've knit so far
  • 50 (44) scarves and cowls
  • 52 (44) entries in the "Misc(ellaneous)" category, which includes blankets, bags, toys, potholders, knitted jewelry, cushions, cell phone socks and other various stuff
  • 18 hats, berets and headbands
  • 39 (35) gloves, mittens, fingerless gloves and wristwarmers
  • 34 (32) items of baby and children's clothing including baby hats, socks, vests, cardigans, pullovers and bibs
  • 10 (7) items of adult clothing - vests, pullovers and cardigans

And finally, let me brag a little more than I usually do: Of the 250 projects
  • 135 were intended for my own use or are in use by me now
  • 115 were made for or given to other people
  • 123 projects were designed by me
  • 30 projects were "modified", that is, I took an idea or a pattern from someone else and turned it into something of my own, so sometimes I will use a stitch pattern in a different project, sometimes I'll keep the main pattern but use a different stitch pattern, sometimes I'll change the shape from cardigan to vest, sometimes I'll combine the best aspects of two projects
  • and finally 97 projects were knit or started according to pattern.
And now that I've spent half a day on this, I'll go back to my 249th pattern, because it needs fixing and then I'll officially start the 250th.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

getting in the mood to write

I'm going to compose a blog post to see if it helps with the thesis writing ;D. It's not like I have writer's block, I just ... have a very large mental wall to climb over. Sometimes that happens in knitting, too. That's when I usually lose my knitting mojo and do other stuff for a while. Losing your knitting mojo isn't all that dramatic, unless you are a knitting designer and actually have to make a living off of your skills. But I've lost my thesis mojo time and time again and every time that mental wall got higher and higher.


So when I lose my knitting mojo or just can't find the right pattern for the right yarn or can't think of anything I'd like to knit (because my queue does not have over 300 patterns on it, nooooo), sometimes I just turn to socks. Back during my first sock phase, I racked up a large queue of socks I had to knit and bought lots of sock yarn. I'm still always tempted by sock yarn and have large quantities of it. But the sock knitting craze stopped after six or seven pairs. It's really boring to have to knit the same thing twice, after all and as with my mittens, the second sock is usually much more even and tighter than the first one. So, when I lost my knitting mojo a while ago, I knit two pairs of socks - but took pictures of only one of them so far (with gratuitous shiny bug).


These are the Parrot Primavera socks - a mere exercise to use up yarn and get the pattern off my queue. The yarn I picked up at a supermarket in Styria along with a lot of other sock yarn, some of it very, very nice. I did regift them to my friend M., whose birthday was just around the corner, knitting is kind of convenient that way. The first pair I made will join my precious sock collection.

When trying to trick the knitting mojo back into flowing, simple sock patterns are best. A lot of repetition, nothing special, nothing too fancy, just a little pattern, because just plain stockinette is extremely boring (ask my lonely stockinette alpaca sock). Like these Charade socks, also made from Styrian supermarket yarn and also gifted to a friend:


Or, if you don't have a pattern and just feel like using up sock yarn, there are plenty of easy structural stitch patterns, like the one I used on my Ginger socks (made out of Lana Grossa Meilenweit):


So, socks that are made while the mojo flows look different. Like these Kew socks, also done in Lana Grossa Meilenweit:


The irony of it all is that I don't wear woolen socks very often. That's also kind of why I stopped knitting socks. I only wear them over cotton socks when my feet are cold and only around the house, so that's another reason why I prefer knitting mittens and gloves. Sometimes I wonder whether I should do a queue purge ... but then, what would I do if my mojo failed me again?

Now I'm going to try and wrap my brain around something thesis-related. I'm trying to imagine my mental wall like below and just picture the blue sky.


Edited to add: Well, whaddayaknow, 3 new pages, bringing the total up to 12! That's 8,3% of the total or over 1/10th.
Edited to add: As has been pointed out to me, 8,3% is less than 1/10. My mathematical brain has shrunk from pea-size to ... grain of sand-size? 12 pages are 12% of the total *blush*.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

playing around

So, new design.

Today I went to the World Wide Knit in Public Day Pickknit in the Stadtpark and it was a lot of fun, even though it was so hot that knitting or crocheting was nearly impossible. I puzzled around, trying to find a good pattern for the yarn I had, but am still kind of lost on it. I think multicolored yarn just isn't me. And it's really hard to find a pattern that will make it look good. I just can't think of anything else to do with it and I like it so much. Frustrating.

I did pick up a beautiful skein of merino lace yarn in one of my favorite colors (dusky rose) from Karlaa - it will become a beautiful scarf of some sort. Right now I'm not supposed to work on it, though. I'm not supposed to work on anything besides my thesis. There's only one piece of knitting that is allowed - my Herzblut shawl, using the lace Zauberball yarn. My first attempt with it looked like this:


That's Spanish Armada, but it just didn't feel right. Right now I'm still kind of torn between Lehtivihreä and L'Aux Anges. We'll see. I have two red lace Zauberbälle and I'm a little more tempted to do a rectangular shawl, but on the other hand, that ring effect is just too cool. It must be square or rectangular. Just not sure on the design ...

The best part about the picknick - apart from seeing so many knitters and their projects and their yarns and their techniques - was seeing my friend R., who usually lives in Budapest. Seeing her is always fun :D Sadly, the evening has been ruined about 10 minutes ago by a spider that first crawled over my naked leg (AAAAHHH) and then vanished. I really would like to know where it is so I can kill it. I mean, it's bad enough that I brought in a spider in my backpack two weeks ago, but I thought I was safe from spiders on the third floor, here! No fair! Brrrrrr.