Knitting

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Knitting With Variagated Yarns.

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I’ve always loved variegated yarns. The mystery of the pattern and the striping, or pooling, or even flashing is intriquing. That being said, not everyone likes these surprises. There are some who want perfect stipes with no pooling, and no flashing, just perfect stripes in their projects. That’s ok too. One of the wonders of variegated yarns. Toddle on over to any LYS or even department store craft section and you’re sure to find at least a minimum of selection on the this versatile yarn.

How do you knit with this stuff? Me? I throw caution to the wind and just love to see the way the colors knit up. Everything from drop dead gorgeous, to eewwwwwww, what were they thinking.

Currently I’m working with some sock yarn, Flat Feet from Conjoined Creations. I don’t like the colors in the flat, just not my style, but knitted up they are cool. Very blue-jeany, almost desert southwest-y colors that I normally wouldn’t wear, but I do like them. And yes, there is pooling, striping and flashing but that’s ok. When they are finished, my socks will not be identical, but hey, I call it a good day when I can find two that match anyway.

I recently found a really good site with information on working with variegated yarns. Keeping You In Stitches publishes this article, it’s here:  http://variegated.k1p1keepingyouinstitchesstudio.com/asi1.html And guess what? she’s got lots of free patterns there for dishcloths etc.

Check her out here:  http://freepatterns.k1p1keepingyouinstitchesstudio.com/

Comments

  1. I am currently in love with Bernat’s Baby Jacquards. (I knit newborn caps and donate them to my local hospital.) I’ve used three of their variations so far. Photos of the first, “Boo Berries,” knit into a cap can be found on my blog: http://www.karlakrafts.com. I’ll post photos of the other two soon.

    The third variation I used, “Spearmint Candy,” didn’t come out quite as neatly as the first two. I think it’s because of where I started. I use the long tail cast on, and when I start the next cap, I think I’ll make sure I begin in the middle of a large section of a solid color. We’ll see! In the meantime, hats, I mean caps off to Bernat!

Have you read?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.