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Archive for August, 2012

Cross Stitch Adventures

Posted in cross stitch designs, Knitting Projects, Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

I was  having lunch with a friend who is a Red Hat lady the other day, when I mentioned to her that I had designed a pillow top with a Silkie chicken as my subject.  Well, that led to an imaginary trip of what if’s-  she had a red hat on; she carried a parasol; she was energetic; she was HOT- and on and on.  We were laughing at the possibilities the rest of the day.  My mind was reeling with ideas, so….home I went just itching to get my hands on my mouse (computer mouse, that is).  The picture below is the results.  I have both a knitted version and a cross stitch version.

The cross stitch version is a very straight forward design, that is stitched on 32 count sky blue linen.  And… because it only uses 9 colors of DMC, the project is quite affordable.  The design dimensions are 14 by 14.  It can be made into a picture to be framed as in the photo above, or it can be made into a 14 by 14 inch pillow.   The pattern is available in my Etsy store.

The knitted version is a 16 by 16 inch pillow top, Intarsia design, with border of red  floating chains of lace weight yarn riding over the top of  purple fingering yarn.  I will have this pattern available soon.

This has been a really fun project.

Happy knitting – KT

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Knitting Videos on YouTube

Posted in Knitting Tutorials, Uncategorized, tagged , on August 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This morning I finally took the plunge and uploaded my first video on YouTube.  What did I upload, “Knitting backwards/ or Reverse continental.   In reading  my stats daily, I have noticed that this seems to be one of my most popular pages, so there was no better place to start.

Here is the link- “Knitting Backwards/ or Reverse Continental”

Enjoy – KT

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Knitting Aids

Posted in knitting embellishments, Knitting Projects, Knitting Tutorials, tagged , , , , , , on August 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

During the process of knitting up my Sebright Hen and Chicks pillow, I have come up with some things that have made the project much easier.   The first thing is my “Knitting Palette.”  It is a 30 stitch sample of the yarns, and blends of yarn that I have chosen to use in the pattern.  By first experimenting with the colors, I was able to begin knitting on the picture, confident that the colors I chose would work.   Below is a photo of the sample that I uploaded to my Serif publishing program.  Once in Serif, I was able to label the colors and save the sample for future reference.

 

I have boxed the various shades with colored borders and written a description on the right.  The bottom section is a mix of Mohair lace weight and fingering yarn.  This blend of the two types of yarn added a bit of reality to my little “fuzz ball” chicks.  It worked great.   I even varied the amount of strands to see what it would do.

 

By adding an extra strand of the Mohair lace weight I was able to create a “relief sculpture” affect to the wing and belly area.   This expanded area is retracted to its proper gauge, by creating a yarn web across the back which is stuffed with a bit pf Polyfill.

And yes,  that’s” Scratch” on the ground, created by making small bobbles of blended yarn.  I got a kick out of making those.  Sorry for the side track – now back to the Yarn Palette.

The top half is the shades of color I chose  for my Sebright hen.  I began with Suede alone, knitted 4 rows.  Next, I blended one ply of Suede with one ply of Brass Heather.  That gave me a slightly darker golden tone.  The next 4 rows were done with Brass Heather alone.   In the blue section I blended Brass Heather and Doe, but this combo didn’t lead to much of a change. (scratch that one).  The next combo gave me a darker shade- yes, Brass Heather and Bison will do it.  All this prep took time, but I didn’t need to guess how it would look .  I worked for me!  by the way, the colors mentioned above are all from Knitpicks.com.

The next aid that really helped me was my MUSIC STAND.  Yep!  There it was, sitting there next to my harp doing nothing (I play mostly from memory anyway) and the light went on in my head, “Wait, you can use that to put your chart on.”  And so I did.  Now it is not sliding off my lap so I have to chase it all over the floor.

Little things mean a lot!!!!!

Just thought I’d share.

Happy Knitting

KT

 

 

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