Spindlicity

Because of Love Beret

"Because of Love" Beret
by Janel Laidman

Download Becauseoflove

New! here is a printable PDF version of the pattern.

 

 

Oh, la la! What could be cuter than saucy beret? This one is made from handspun Bluefaced Leicester wool, with a lacy little pattern and soft pink hue. Perfect for valentines everywhere!

Materials: 3.6 oz Bluefaced Leicester spun to 12 WPI plied (2ply)

Gauge: 5.5 st per inch

Pattern:

Cast on 92 stitches on a circular needle, join in a round
K2P2 rib for 10 rounds

Increase to 128 stitches, evenly spaced around

Rounds 1-28 Begin chart1 starting at bottom right and working to the left and upward. At round 27 you will have to slip the first stitch in the round, then include that slipped stitch in the double decrease at the end of the round. All even numbered rounds are plain stockinette stitch.

Rounds 29 - 54: continue following chart 2 starting at the bottom right and working to the left and up.

Round 56 and 57: K2tog to end of round

Rounds 58-62: K to end of round (icord)

End by breaking yarn and pulling tail through all loops on the needle, cinch tight and pull yarn tail through to inside of beret. Weave ends in.

Shaping beret

When you finish knitting, the hat will resemble an oversized regular cap shape. To shape into a beret style, wet the hat and gently squeeze out excess water. Stretch the hat over a dinner plate and allow it to dry. Voila! une belle beret rose!

Fulled Pocket Purse

 Janel Laidman

SPECS:

Fiber: Approximately 2.5 ounces Romeldale/CVM in two different colorways, spun 2-ply WPI: 7 Gauge: Not critical, as each type of fiber will full differently and the size of the finished purse may vary. Use a gauge that gives you a medium tightness of stockinette, so that when fulled the fabric will close up.

 

Here's a fun purse with pockets built in as you go! The body of this purse is knitted in a feltable fiber of your choice, in two different colorways, spun to about a worsted-weight gauge. After fulling, the top edge and drawstring handles crocheted from Noro "Daria," a rayon-wrapped cotton cord that comes in the usual Noro-luscious colorways. Crochet gauge isn't given; just be sure before tying off and cutting the cord that you can get items in and out of the opening. If not, unravel the crocheting and rework at a looser gauge.

Abbreviations:

K, k	Knit
P, p	Purl
st, sts	Stitch, stitches
dpn(s)	Double-pointed needle(s)
CO	Cast on
K2tog	Knit 2 together (a 1-stitch decrease)
ch	chain
sc	single-crochet (UK double-crochet)
dc	single-crochet (UK double-crochet)

Materials:
About 2.5 ounces Romeldale/CVM in two different colorways, spun and plied to about a worsted weight
Cord: Noro "Daria" in color 2 or any color to coordinate with your yarn
Needles:
Two 24-inch circular needles size US7 (4.5mm) or any size to give you medium-gauge stockinette. It's best to use two different-looking needles, e.g., bamboo and metal.
One set of double-pointed needles in the same needle-circumference size as the circular needles.
Crochet hook: G (4.5mm) or size to give appropriate gauge
Stitch marker for beginning of round.

Gauge:
Not critical, as each type of fiber will full differently and the size of the finished purse may vary. Use a gauge that gives you a medium tightness of stockinette, so that when fulled the fabric will close up.

Beginning at top edge, CO80 on circular needle in color 1. Join, being careful not to twist, and knit one round (Round 1).

Round 2: Place a marker for the beginning of the round. Yo, K2tog 40 times.

Rounds 3-6: Knit.

The pockets are formed by crossing over the yarn in 10-stitch intervals from one needle to the other. Needle1 is your original needle, needle2 is your new needle. Except for the first set-up round, Needle1 always knits off of Needle1 and Needle2 only knits off Needle2. It makes things easiest if you use two different looking needles so that you don't accidentally mix up your needles. Make sure to cross the yarn at each crossover point.

Begin double knit pocket rounds:

Round 7 (Set-up round): On Needle1 (original needle containing knit rounds), k10 from Needle1 with color2.
On Needle2 (empty needle), CO10 with color1.
*On Needle2, knit next 10 sts from Needle1 with color2.
On Needle1, CO10 with color1.
On Needle1, knit next 10 sts from Needle1 with color2.
On Needle 2, CO10 with color1.
Repeat from * until you have 8 crossovers and 8 pockets started.

Subsequent pocket rounds:

Round 8: *On needle1, k10 in color2.
On needle2, p10 in color1, cross yarns to bring color1 to front.
On needle1, k10 in color1.
On needle2, k10 in color2, cross yarns to bring color2 to front.
Repeat from * 3 more times to complete round.

Before fulling

After fulling

Rounds 9-25 or until pocket is the depth that you wish: Repeat Round 7.

Round 26 (Merge round): Knit together 1 stitch from needle1 and 1 stitch from needle2 all the way around with color 2. All sts are now on needle1; needle2 is no longer needed.

Rounds 27-32: Knit 6 rows with color 2.

Switch to color 1.

Decrease rounds (switch to dpns when round gets too small for circular needle):

Round 33: Knit 1 round (80 stitches).

Round 34: K3, k2 tog until end of round (16 decreases, 64 sts).

Round 35 and all remaining odd-numbered rounds: Knit.

Round 36: K3, k2 tog to last 4 sts, k4 (12 decreases, 52 sts).

Round 38: K3, k2 tog to last 2 sts, k2 (10 decreases, 42 sts).

Round 40: K3, k2 tog to last 2 sts, k2 (8, decreases, 34 sts).

Round 42: K3, k2 tog to last 4 sts, k4 (6 decreases, 28 sts).

Round 44: K3, k2 tog to last 3 sts, k3 (5 decreases, 23 sts).

Round 46: K3, k2 tog to last 4 sts, k4 (4 decreases, 19 sts).

Round 48: K3, k2 tog to last st, k1 (3 decreases, 16 sts).

Round 50: K1, k2 tog to last st, k1 (5 decreases, 11 sts).

Round 52: K1, k2 tog to last 2 sts, k2 (3 decreases, 8 sts).

Break yarn and draw through remaining 8 sts twice, then cinch tight. Weave in ends.

Full knitted bag in washing machine. Check fulling process to make sure fulling is occurring as you wish it.

 

Once bag is fulled, begin crochet edging:

Round 1: With crochet hook and Noro cord, leaving a tail about 8 inches long, sc around bag in each yo along upper edge. This will cinch the upper edge of the bag. Check that your gauge allows room for objects to enter the bag!

Rounds 2-7: Sc for 6 rounds.

Round 8: Ch2, dc in second st from ch, *ch1, miss 1 and dc in next st; repeat from * to end of round.

Round 9: Ch1, (sc, dc, sc) in ch from previous round, *miss 1, (sc, dc, sc) in ch from previous round; repeat from * to end of round.

Tie off and break cord, leaving a tail about 8 inches long. Weave in ends.

Drawstring handles: Using Noro cord, crochet 2 chains of 100 chain sts each; weave in ends. Run each chain through the openwork round, knotting ends together on inside at opposite sides of bag. This drawstring also acts as the handle of the bag.

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Nordic Lights Socks

Janel Laidman

SPECS:

Fiber: about 2 oz. in each of two colorways, spun to about 250 yards each in fingering weight yarn WPI: 16-18 Gauge: 9 stitches per inch in color-stranded pattern Needles: Dpns or circular needle in size US0 (2.0mm) or US00 (1.75mm), or size required for gauge

Abbreviations:

K, k	Knit
P, p	Purl
st, sts	Stitch, stitches
dpn(s)	Double-pointed needle(s)
CO	Cast on
K2tog	Knit 2 together (a 1-stitch decrease)
P2tog, p2tog	Purl 2 together (a 1-stitch decrease)
SSK, ssk	"Slip, slip, knit": Insert right needle into the next st as if to knit, but slip it from the left needle to the right needle without knitting it ("Sl 1 knitwise"); Sl 1 knitwise (that is, repeat the first operation); insert point of left needle into the two slipped sts, in front of the right needle, and wrap the right needle to knit them together from this position (a 1-stitch decrease).
*...*	Repeat the instructions between the asterisks for the rest of the round, unless otherwise directed.
Rem	Remaining

CO 60 sts in color 1. Distribute on 4 dpns: Needles 1 and 2 are instep sts, needles 2 and 3 are heel sts.

Rounds 1-9: *K2, P2*.

Round 10: Increase to 72 stitches spaced evenly (i.e., 3 sts per needle).

Begin patterns:

Note: In all charts, work unmarked squares in color 1, marked squares in color 2.

Rounds 11-35: Join color 2. Following chart 1, repeat chart 3 times around.

Rounds 36-38: Following chart 2 repeat chart 12 times around

Round 39: In color 1, knit to last 2 sts of needle 2, ssk (35 sts on instep needles).

Heel flap:

Arrange all heel sts (from needles 3 and 4) onto one needle (36 sts on heel needle).

Rows 1-20: Following chart 3, knit back and forth until heel flap measures 2.25 inches (5 vertical repeats of chart).

Turn Heel:

Work heel turn in color 2.

Row 1: Sl 1, k19 (4 sts past the middle of the heel), ssk, k1, turn.

Row 2: Sl 1, p8 (4 sts past the middle of the heel), p2tog, p1, turn.

Row 3: Sl 1, knit to 1 st before the gap made by turning, ssk, k1, turn.

Row 4: Sl 1, purl to 1 st before the gap made by turning, p2tog, p1, turn.

Rows 5-14: Repeat Rows 3 and 4 five times more (24 sts).

Row 15: K12; with a new needle, K to last st, k1 in row below last st, k1 (12 sts on first heel needle, 13 sts on second heel needle.).

Gusset:

Round 1: With a spare needle, pick up 16 sts on left side of heel flap in the following stripe color pattern:

Stripe pattern: *K3 in color 1, K1 in color 2*.

If you wish to pick up a corner st, it must be one of the 16 sts picked up or it must be decreased immediately; to maintain and properly center the Stripe pattern, sts must be picked up in a perfect multiple of 4.

Continuing with the spare needle, K2 of the instep sts from needle 1, at the beginning of a stripe pattern repeat; place marker. Continue in stripe pattern to end of needle 1 (34 sts).

Work needle 2 maintaining stripe pattern as established, to the last 2 sts of needle 2; place marker; work rem 2 sts of needle 2 as k1 in color 1, k1 in color 2.

Continuing with needle 2, pick up 16 stitches on right side of heel flap following stripe color pattern:

Continue stripe pattern across needles 3 and 4 heel stitches. (92 stitches total).

Rearrange sts: Slip the last 6 sts of needle 2 to needle 3.

Round 2: Work the first 6 sts the beginning of needle 1 onto the end of needle 4; Following stripe pattern, knit decrease rounds:

*Needle 1: K to 2 sts before marker, k2tog, knit to end.

Needle 2: K to marker, slip marker, ssk, knit to end.

Needle 3: Knit to last 3 stitches, k2 tog, k1

Needle 4: Knit.

Round 3: Knit in stripe pattern.

Rounds 4-25: Repeat from * 11 times more, until 17 stripes (68 stitches) remain on needles. Gusset complete.

Foot:

Round 1: Knit 4 sts from needle 1 onto the end of needle 4. Now rearrange the sts so that the next 25 sts to be worked are all on needle 1, with the remaining 48 sts divided among needles 2, 3 and 4 (16 sts each).

Rounds 2-26: Follow chart 4 on needle 1; continue stripe pattern on the other three needles. Continue as established for the remaining 24 rounds of chart 4.

Remaining Rounds of Foot:

Rearrange sts so there are 17 sts on each of 4 needles, with the instep motif of chart 4 centered over needles 1 and 2.

Check the length of the sock. The toe will take 18 rounds, plus one grafting row. Slip a marker in a stitch. Count 18 rounds up or down that column of sts; slip a marker in the next st in the column. Measure between the markers; that will be the length of your toe. Before beginning the toe, the sock, folded flat in profile and measured from the fold at the center back of the heel, must be the total desired length of your foot less the length of your toe. If sock is not long enough, continue stripe pattern until sock is long enough to begin the toe.

Toe:

Rounds 1-18: Starting on instep needle, Follow chart 5 for toe decreases. One full repeat of the chart spans both needles 1 and 2; another full repeat spans needles 3 and 4.

Graft toe closed.

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re-post from winter 2006 Spindlicity

A Baby Camel Cowl to Keep You Cosy

Phreadde Davis

Interesting Camel Facts
Baby camels are born without humps. These will start to develop once the calf begins eating solid food. The humps are made of fat primarily and are used for energy storage when food can become scarce.

The following is included with permission from Peace of Yarn.
CAMEL
Cleaned, dehaired and combed baby camel top. This baby camel top is natural light camel brown with an approximate staple lengh of 2.2 inches (55 mm) and an approximate micron count of 18.

FIBER
Camel down is the soft warm inner down of a bactrian camel with a fiber structure similar to cashmere. The down is usually 1-3 inches long with a micron count of about 15-22 microns. Camel down does not felt easily. Baby Camel Top has been becoming more popular every year. Peace of Yarn offers Baby Camel Top which is only 18 microns (only 2 microns more than most cashmere) and which can capture the attention of hand spinners who seek a luxury fiber at a low price. It has a staple length of over 2 inches which is quite long for camel. The light color of this Baby Camel Top also will appeal to dyers.

CAMELS
Bactrian camels have two humps, weigh about 1600 pounds and stand about 7-9 feet tall at the top of their humps. Their gestation period is 370-445 days and give birth to calves weighing 80-130 pounds. Their life span is 40-50 years. Bactrian camels have two coats: the warm inner coat of down and a rough outer coat which is long and hairy. They shed their fiber in clumps consisting of both coats and is normally gathered. They produce about 5 pounds of fiber annually.

Camel Leaf Cowl
Chase away the wind’s chill with this easy and fast cowl.

I am a fast spinner but very slow knitter.  Even so, from start to blocking, this project easily took me under two weeks working only a few evenings a week.  You could do it in a weekend if you were speedy.

Fiber
I purchased 4 oz of Peace of Yarn Baby Camel from The Fold but this project only used about 2.4 oz total.

Needles
Size 4 circular and one double pointed size 4.  I used Knit Picks options circulars in metal for a slickness and speed.

Yarn
The yarn is a 3 ply of about fingering weight. The singles were between 32-36 wpi and about 4700 ypp.  The 3 ply yarn is between 18-20 wpi and 2050 ypp.  Knitpicks Bare Merino Wool Sock is a roughly equivalent yarn.

Gauge
This doesn’t really matter for a cowl but I got about 2.5 inches across a repeat of the body and 2.25 inches for a row repeat.

Cast On
Wind 10 yards of yarn into a tight ball but do not break yarn. This will be used for the top edging when you are done. With waste yarn, provisionally cast on 128 sts. Knit 5 rows of garter stitch ending with a knit row.

Body
The double vine is a lovely leaf lace that works well for a cowl.  All EVEN rows are knit stitches so I just show the odd rows. Repeat the chart 5 times.  For a shorter, non-scrunchy cowl, repeat only 3 times.

Bottom Edge Lace
For the bottom border, I used a double point needle along with the circular. You will be moving 'backwards' along the body stitches, knitting first on the stitches finished last and at a right angle to the body (see pic).  The first inch or two is awkward, but it gets a lot easier after you have a good attachment to the body.

Knit garter stitch for 5 rows ending with a knit row. Turn project around to back so the knits you just finished are in your left hand and appear as purls. Cast on 13 on the left needle using backwards loop cast on. Start the chart below: you will be on the WRONG side.

Using a separate needle, follow the chart and at the end of the wrong side rows you will knit one stitch from the main body and the one stitch from the chart together as one stitch, thus joining the border to the body by knitting (k2togbody). Continue the Wave Edging chart around and graft together the two ends.

And just in case you want that in words:
R1 (WS):k2, p9, k1, k2togbody
R2: (RS) sl, k3, yo, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
R3: k2, p11, k1, k2togbody
R4: sl, k4, sl1 k2tog psso, k2, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1
R5: k2, p9, k1, k2togbody
R6: sl, k3, ssk, k2, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1
R7: k2, p8, k1, k2togbody
R8: sl, k2, ssk, k2, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1
R9: k2, p7, k1, k2togbody
R10: sl, k1, ssk, k2, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1
R11: k2, p6, k1, k2togbody
R12: sl, ssk, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
R13: k2, p7, k1, k2togbody
R14: sl, k3, yo, k3, yo, k2tog, yo, k2

Top Edge Bind Off
I am using a modified picot bind-off for this to keep it loose around the face and so it will stretch over the head.  The body stitches will give a slightly scalloped edge and this fits well within that structure.  You can find photos of a standard picot bind off at Knitty.

Remove provisional cast on putting the live stitches onto your circular needle. BO3. *Slip the stitch from the right needle to the left and knit cast on one stitch. BO5 (two added stitches and three new stitches). Repeat from * around.

Weave in all ends, wash and block.

Stitch Definitions
BO = Bind Off
Graft = Kitchener Stitch
K2togbody = Knit stitch of pattern together with a body stitch in a k2tog to join

Hints:
I placed a marker before the final (k1, k2tog) on the bottom border. However, you will have to move it over one at row 12 every set.

No Stitch marks in a chart just indicate there is nothing more to do in that row.  When a border pattern varies in width, you have to chart to the widest number of stitches, but your rows may vary considerably in width.  Trust the chart and knit what is there only.