Issue 28, stitch collectors

we all have our favorites

hey everybody,

It's been a busy few weeks with an intense work schedule and the stress of the US elections. Yarny projects have kept me mostly sane. I feel so fortunate that when the world outside gets difficult to handle, the small world inside my fiber studio provides a welcome creative retreat.

Last month I taught an online freeform class, and as an experiment, I encouraged the participants to come to the class with a favorite stitch pattern in mind. During the class, we looked at one of those stitch patterns and talked about ways to use it effectively in a freeform fabric. It made me think about the vast array of stitches in the crochet world and the many ways to combine themff. Playing with the possibilities gives freeformers the ability to personalize their work with their favorites.

If we think of ourselves as stitch collectors, it helps keep us open and alert to new ideas to try in freeform fabrics. Of course, everyone has their favorites, the ones they like to use over and over. I actually keep little swatches of my favorites, physical reminders of the stitches I’ve learned and collected over the years. The ones I like best find their way into my freeform work where they mix and blend with each other. Some of the stitches in my collection have been favorite for decades, like the granny stitch, used in the many afghans I made as a child. Others I’ve picked up from following knitting and crochet patterns, books, social media, and freeform classes over the years. You’ve no doubt seen my favorites often in the photos I post here. What are some of yours?

Most recently, I learned a new technique from the Endless Ladder pattern from Cirsium Crochet.

a photo of Endless Ladder from Circium Crochet’s project page on Ravelry, see link above

It’s a crescent shawl design made with a stitch pattern that reminds me of knitted brioche, but it’s crocheted. Here’s my sample swatch:

And here's a little chunk of the new stitch pattern added to the edge of a scrumble:

new stitch pattern in green and off-white

I love Circium’s original Endless Ladder shawl design, and I might crochet it one day as written, but right now I'm excited about adding its stitch pattern into my favorites collection and putting little snippets of it into my current freeform project. Here it is in another scrumble:

Endless Ladder in purple and light grey

At first, it’s a little fussy to manage, as many new things are. But after I got the hang of it, I could imagine using it in a variety of ways, for instance, shaping it for use in a leaf:

y’all know how I love to make a leaf…

Finding little treasures like this in the fiber world and adapting them to use in my freeform work is very satisfying. I enjoy letting the new ones mix and mingle with the older ones in my bag of swatches.

a work in progress

The green and purple shawl is growing little by little. I’m adding stitches directly into the fabric to build it out and incorporate the scrumbles I’ve already made. The goal is to avoid having it look like I a made a bunch of scrumbles and joined them together. The stitches that are being worked directly into the fabric are intended to help the scrumbles appear to grow into one another organically.

My intention is still to keep it spontaneous. I had some ideas about the shawl shape and which scrumbles would look good in various positions in that shape, but I set them aside and just started focusing on creating the fabric. Here’s the whole piece so far, slightly rumpled from being arranged on a not-quite-flat surface:

When it gets a little bit bigger, I’ll decide what’s the top, and what’s the bottom, and what’s left to do to finalize the shape.

a new finished item

I always claim to dislike knitting colorwork projects, but it’s probably time for me to stop complaining. Every now and then I make one because they’re pretty, and most of the time, they actually end up being fun to make. Andrea Mowry’s Frame Your Face Cowl certainly was, even when I had to rip and out and re-knit sections that had mistakes.

The yarn is Spincycle’s Dyed In The Wool, two skeins each of Shades Of Earth and Family Jewels. This is truly a yarn to love. Seeing the colors change and interact makes the knitting extremely enjoyable. My color choices are more blendy than most that I've seen for this design, but that suits me just fine. The quilter-ly eight point star design appears in some places and disappears in others, a pretty interesting effect.

This one’s going to be quite cozy.

a few more things you might like

What I’ve been listening to: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 3 and the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack in preparation for work, and Jon Batiste’s music in general in anticipation of his new Beethoven Blues album releasing later this month.

What I’ve been watching: Elsbeth, a quirky comedy-drama series

What I’ve been reading: All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!

Lisa

PS: About online freeform classes: the last few months of the year tend to get pretty busy, so in an attempt to keep my calendar manageable, the next online freeform class will be in the new year. Dates will be posted in the next newsletter.