2015 designs , accessories , color knitting , cowls , designing fun , Elizabeth Zimmermann , Knit Picks , published designs , Ravelry , yarn suggestions
March Design …. and one that many can use right now!
Good evening! It’s 7:00pm-ish …. a beautiful sunny day but so darn cold. Right now it’s 34 and it only got up to about 38 down here in the Old Dominion. I guess no one has told Lady Spring that it’s March 28!
But it really is fortunate since this is the first day I’ve been able to post my March design, the design that’s inspired by EZ’s March entry in her Knitter’s Almanac. EZ’s design was a multi-colored sweater with, what she called a “chain mail stitch” that involved half-hitch loops, changing yarns every few rounds, and the occasional purl round to help with the blending.
Poor EZ … she didn’t live to see the amazing miracle of the modern age: self-striping yarn that allows for self-blending and no ends to tuck in! Poor thing … she would have loved this type of yarn! So, as soon as I read the March chapter, I immediately pictured a multicolor rainbow-bright yarn I had … and the black that would make the design look like a stained-glass window.
Once I started swatching, I realized that EZ’s stitch would be slow-going if I followed her directions for the stitch — half-hitches on on the needle everytime a k2tog or ssk was done. I don’t like knitting slow. But I do like knowing that I can do a make-1 by lifting the bar of yarn between two stitches; it makes a neat and almost hidden increase. Further, if I made sure I lifted the bar of the contrasting-color to make the stitch (rather than grabbing the main-color (the pure black), my stitches would be even more “invisible”!
So I went about charting my own “stained-glass stitch” and went ahead and cast on for a cozy cowl.
I think it came out beautifully, don’t you? The design is available in my Ravelry store, my Craftsy site, and on my LoveKnitting (for those in Europe!) page. BTW, I used about 75% of a 100gram hand-painted skein of Knit Picks Stroll Fingering (“County Fair”) and most of a 50gram skein of Knit Picks’ Stroll in Black.
Check it out and try out my design inspired by EZ’s “(not really) difficult” design!
Enjoy!
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