Tag Archives: blue

A Knitted Purse

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Here’s another project that’s been waiting on me for a while and was finished up this week. I wanted to post it yesterday, but the handsewing at the end took a bit longer than anticipated.

One Stick Two Stick Sushi Wallet instructions

It started with a kit called Sushi Wallet. Here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. The kit was from One Stick Two Stick and was packaged in a cute way, like a tray of sushi with six little balls of wool. I’ve chucked the packaging from mine, but here’s one that sold on Etsy. The kit includes the yarn, the pattern and a matching zipper.

On the right is the instruction folder, which shows the sushi wallet you’re supposed to make at the top. The second wallet is a variation, with just one sushi on the side and stripes on the back.

I found the kit for a buck in the discount section at Len’s Mills and they were all in the blue-green colourway called Caribbean Seas, possibly because it doesn’t make sense for sushi to be those colours (even though the combination was pretty). The yarn is a bamboo wool mix and there were four colours included: 64g of the medium blue, 18g of the light blue, 13g of the dark green and 11g of the light green. I weighed them all because I planned to do something different than follow the instructions. There was enough yarn to make two wallets, but I didn’t want two wallets.

I made a bigger purse instead, by casting on more stitches and knitting more rows. I also added a wedge at each side and a base so it wouldn’t be flat. (The original design is flat, a rectangle folded in half.) I also knit a strip to be a handle. Then I knit petals and leaves from the other colours. Here are all the pieces.

Purse pieces knit by Deborah Cooke for modified sushi wallet

I felted everything in the washing machine. I put the pieces in laundry bags to make sure none of them were lost in the washing machine – this set from Ikea is really useful. Once that was done, I sewed everything in place. I added some embroidery and ended up with this:

Felted Purse with embroidery by Deborah Cooke

I still didn’t love it, so I added some beads:

Felted Purse with beads by Deborah Cooke

I lined the bag with a cute scrap of batik cotton in matchy colours – just using the purse as a pattern and adding a small seam allowance. I also added a little pocket inside, because I always add little pockets inside purses. They’re so useful. You can see it on the right – it’s the perfect size for a hotel room key, credit card, or folded $20 bill.

batik lining for felted purse by Deborah Cooke

Here’s the assembled lining, ready to go into the purse:

assembled batik lining for felted purse by Deborah Cooke

I hadn’t planned on those two tabs at the top, but they came in handy when attaching the handles.

With the zipper inserted and the handle added, the finished purse looks like this:

Felted Purse by Deborah Cooke, finished - side A

And the flip side:

Felted Purse by Deborah Cooke, finished - side B

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this. The shape is a little bit wonky, but that tends to happen with felted knits. I certainly like it better than I would have liked a blue sushi wallet. 🙂

And this reminds me that somewhere in my stash of unfinished projects, I have the Elegant Edibles kit from Knitpicks, which is now discontinued. I think I knit the kiwi purse and I know I knit the orange one, and they must both waiting to be lined. I was going to knit the bunch of grapes, but I have a feeling that yarn joined the stash instead. I’ll have to have a look.

Water Shawl

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The Water shawl by Sylvia McFadden has been in my queue for a long time, even though the stitch pattern in the inserts is one that always gives me trouble. (That’s a Ravelry link.)

I made her Waiting for Rain shawl in 2017 in two colours of MadTosh Dandelion. It looks like this:

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

It’s a very long and skinny shawl, and better if I can wrap it around my neck twice.

Here’s one of the official images for Water:

Water by Sylvia McFadden

It’s so pretty!

I decided to knit mine in Fleece Artist Anni, a mohair and merino blend. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m using the colourway Frozen Ocean, the perfect mix of blues. Here it is in the skein:

Fleece Artist Anni in Plum and Frozen Ocean

I also bought a colourway called Plum. It’s a light fingering weight which makes it a little bit skinny for the pattern’s specifications. As a result, I dropped down to a 3mm needle (instead of the specified 3.75mm) to get a fabric I like. My shawl, of course, is coming out smaller, so I’m thinking I’ll need to do more repeats.

Here it is so far:

Water, designed by Sylvia McFadden, knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni Frozen Ocean

The lead edge is at the top and it’s pretty tight at this point. I hope it relaxes when the shawl is blocked.

I think I’m still having trouble with that pattern stitch. It doesn’t look like the photo from the pattern:

Water, designed by Sylvia McFadden, knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni Frozen Ocean

But I like it enough to keep going. It’s all twisted stitches so reknitting it isn’t an appealing option. I’ll just continue and be consistent. 🙂

Overall, I’m pleased. It has a wavey watery look to it that I like a lot. Onward!

New Projects

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There’s an unusual confluence of variables in my life right now, which means I’m starting both new writing projects and new knitting projects. It’s amazing to me how similar the two situations are. It’s not just about choosing the project—the bigger issue is getting the combination of variables right. Possibilities abound! I need to get some of them settled so I can start creating effectively.

Let’s talk about the knitting project here.

First off, I finished another pair of socks. These are knit in my usual pattern, the one I have memorized, in Fleece Artist Kiki. (That’s a Ravelry link.)

socks knit in Fleece Artist Kiki by Deborah Cooke

The tag says the colourway is Pansy but I think it’s really Nova Scotia (there’s no purple in this skein). I was excited to get this yarn on sale and realized later that it’s discontinued. It’s quite a thick sock yarn, so I went down to 64 stitches from my usual 72. I knit another pair of socks in another colourway of Kiki and showed them to you earlier this year. It’s a nice squishy yarn and good to have another pair of socks done for the winter. (I may have to cast on another pair of socks, just to have an anchoring project in my currently chaotic world.)

Water by Sylvia McFadden

I also cast on a new shawl. Water is a pattern I’ve wanted to knit for a while (that’s a Ravelry link) and I finally found the perfect yarn for it. The designer is Sylvia McFadden and one of the official pix of the shawl is at right. (Click through on the Ravelry link to see more.) You can see that it’s in garter stitch with lovely wavey insertions.

I bought a collection of her patterns and knit Waiting for Rain from it – that’s the Ravelry link for the pattern and this is my blog post about my shawl.

In case you don’t feel clicky, here’s my Waiting for Rain shawl.

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

In that pattern, the insertions were of a different lace pattern and they were knit in a contrasting color. There was a lot of stripe-y goodness in that design.

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

I’m knitting my Water shawl with Fleece Artist Anni (that’s a Ravelry link), a limited edtiion yarn that is also discontinued. It’s fingering weight and a blend of merino and mohair. It’s a bit more itchy for me than anticipated, so is a better choice for a shawl than a sweater. The colorway is called Frozen Ocean, which seems very apt.

Here’s how it looks so far:

Water designed by Sylvia McFadden knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni in Frozen Ocean

The color is really not true in this image. It looks very green here, but is actually turquoise. I made good progress but am now at the first insertion and need to pay attention to the lace stitch. This bit isn’t TV knitting. 🙂

Portia deisgned by Norah Gaughran for Berroco

Which meant (inevitably) that I was casting around for a TV knit, since we’re binging mystery series these evenings. I’d been thinking of making an asymmetical sweater for the girls, which reminded me of this pattern. Portia is another sweater I always intended to make. (Yes, that’s a Ravelry link.) It was designed by Norah Gaughran for Berroco and has such an interesting design.

I actually have the specified yarn, Berroco Peruvia, but don’t have quite enough of it. I could make the smallest size, but that seems overly ambitious. It’s unlikely that I’ll lose a bunch of weight, sitting on the couch knitting. (That’s a Ravelry link because yes, Peruvia is discontinued.)

So I ended up auditioning yarn candidates from my stash – which is awfully similar to auditioning opening scenes for a book, my daytime task this week. The first candidate was some Rowan Felted Tweed Aran, which is exactly the same weight as Peruvia. (That’s a Rowan link as my colorway is discontinued but not the yarn itself.) Mine is a rosy colour, though, and I’m not sure I’ll wear a sweater coat in that shade. It’s a lot of pink. Beautiful yarn, though. I need to figure out what to do with it now.

Next up, some Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran in a scarlet shade. (Another discontinued yarn; another Ravelry link.) Very pretty but I thought the yarn looked too thin when knit to gauge. I could use smaller needles, but then the dimensions of the garment would be changed. Given the design of this sweater, it’s tough to anticipate how to adjust the fit.

#18 Shawl Collared Coat from Noro Magazine #1, designed by Mari Tobita

Next candidate: Noro Nadeshiko. This is lovely squishy yarn, an angora, silk and mohair blend. It’s a little heavier than Peruvia but I really like the firmer fabric when knit to gauge. I had bought this to make another sweater coat, this one from the original Noro magazine, designed by Mari Tobita, at left. It’s called #18 Shawl Collared Coat. (Yes, more Ravelry links. The problem with a well-aged stash is that everything is discontinued.) This coat has really pretty shaping in the back.

The colourway I have is less stripey than the one in this picture. It’s mostly shades of grey with a little bit of brick-red and a bit of white. I’m concerned that it might look too stripe-y in Portia, but am giving it a try. Here’s what I have so far:

Portia by Norah Gaughran knit in Noro Nadeshiko by Deborah Cooke

This is the centre-back braid, knit down from the back yoke, so it’s going to taper from here to that lowest point. The red looks more emphatic in the photo than in real life.

After this triangular piece is knit, you then pick up the side panels along the edges and knit toward the front. If I continue with the Noro, I’ll have to make sure that the stripes are symmetrical. I’m just too matchy-matchy to be happy with the result otherwise. I’ll see how it looks when the triangle is done.

With any luck, I’ll soon have both a knitting project and a writing project launched!

Peridot

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Here’s another little cardigan from Martin Storey, originally designed for Rowan TrueSilk, a summer sweater called Peridot. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The pattern is in a book called the Rowan Truesilk Collection. Here’s Rowan’s picture of Peridot:

Peridot, a cardigan designed by Martin Storey in Rowan TrueSilk, picture from Rowan

The only thing I didn’t like about this was the multi-coloured buttons, but that’s easy to fix. I knit mine in Patons Silk Bamboo in Sapphire. (Also a Ravelry link since the yarn is discontinued.) It’s a pretty simple sweater, which means I have no explanation for its lengthy time-out. I cast on in July 2015 and stalled after the back and one front were knit. (Sometimes Ravelry is a little bit terrifying in the information it provides. 2015! Gah.)

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Recently, I picked up this project again, determined to finish it up. Here’s the completed back.

Peridot by Martin Storey knit in Patons Silk Bamboo by Deborah Cooke

I really like this colour of the Silk Bamboo. You can see that this is going to be an a-line sweater – and the great thing about a traditional construction is that it’s easy to measure the pieces and check the fit before knitting the whole thing. This one is going to be a keeper. It has a lovely drape.

It obviously needs to be blocked after all its time in the project bag, but as usual when I pick up a stalled project, there’s less to do than I’d thought. I have most of one front done, and the sleeves are only 3/4 length. The plain knitting makes it great for TV knitting – even with the increases – so I’m working on this one again. I hope to have it done soon.

Fleece Artist Socks

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Things have been really busy writing-and-publishing-wise, which means my knitting and sewing projects have been getting less action. When I need to think, I need a simple project (or two.) So I finished a pair of new socks for myself which is always a good thing.

Socks knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Kiki, Twilight colourway

I managed to crop the toe of one of them in this picture, but the colour is pretty true. They’re knit of Fleece Artist Kiki in Twilight, a superwash and nylon blend that is put up in a big skein of 140g. (That’s a Ravelry link for the yarn.) This yarn is thick, so these socks are thick, and I used almost the whole skein.

This is just my usual sock pattern, the one I don’t have to think about too much, but this time, I added two six-stitch mirroring cables to the front.

Socks knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Kiki, Twilight colourway

After the 2/2 ribbing, I changed to 6/2 ribbing for the rest of the sock, turning cables on two adjacent knit bands. When I got to the heel, I positioned them at the center front. They go all the way down to the toe and make me happy.

It was the Halo that got me thinking about Fleece Artist yarn and missing (as usual) their Trail Socks yarn base. I no longer have a LYS with Fleece Artist yarn, which is sad, but Ravelry shows that Trail Socks isn’t discontinued. Good news. I haven’t seen it in so long that I assumed otherwise. (Let the hunt begin.) I found Kiki at Little Knits, because it’s discontinued. The colour saturation is great and the yarn is very squishy. I was surprised by the thickness, though. These are heavy socks.

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

I’ve also rescued my Spector from Sleeve Island and hope to have that to show you soon. I still don’t love it, but I’ll be glad to have it done.

Halo is Done!

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Another sweater freed from Sleeve Island. This cardigan is Halo, a pattern from Fleece Artist.

Mine is knit in Koigu KPPPM held with a strand of Rowan KidSilk Haze. Here’s my first blog post about it.

I started this project a year ago, in February 2022. (It was a free pattern then, but might not be so now.) I liked the design a lot but didn’t want to buy more yarn, so I shopped my stash. I came up with some Koigu KPPPM in a mixy blue and some Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Turkish Plum which matched. The resulting fabric is lovely and soft, with enough variation from the Koigu to make the colour interesting.

Mmm. Squishy goodness.

Halo Jacket by Fleece Artist knit by Deborah Cooke in Koigu KPPPM and Rowan Kidsilk Haze

The construction is interesting. You can tell by the ridges that it’s a sideways knit. You cast on provisionally at what might be considered a sideseam, knit across the back, cast off stitches for the sleeve, then knit across one front. You put those stitches on a holder. You go back to the provisional cast-on to pick up enough stitches for the other front, then when it’s done, put them on a holder. You sew the shoulder seams, then start knitting those front stitches, up one side, pick up stitches across the back for the collar, then down the other front. This makes a self-rolling shawl collar after you knit five inches of it. Then you go back to each sleeve opening to pick up stitches and knit in the round, decreasing down to each cuff.

By the elbow of the second sleeve, I was sure that I would run out of yarn. I stopped knitting so I could look for something matchy-matchy at the Koigu tent sale in August. The best I could do was some solid-ish navy (it looks kettle-dyed) so I decided to use it on the cuffs and the front edge of the collar, if necessary. I frogged a lot of the collar to be sure I had enough Koigu for the second sleeve. By this time, I’d lost momentum and the project sat. As is so often the case, I picked it up finally and finished it in a couple of evenings.

And – ha! – I didn’t run out of yarn. I took the remaining Koigu and knit on the collar until it was gone.

Here’s Halo completed.

Halo Jacket by Fleece Artist knit by Deborah Cooke in Koigu KPPPM and Rowan Kidsilk Haze

Morning sunlight through the tree branches makes for dappled light and shadow. 🙂

Mine came out a bit smaller than anticipated. I made the larger size, which meant it should have been 25″ long and 48″ wide. There’s no row gauge specified, probably because it’s stretchy, but the stitch gauge is 20 sts to 4″. Mine is right on, but my sweater is 22″ long and 42″ wide. So, if and when I make another of these cardigans, I’ll add 15 stitches to the length and 7 or 8 repeats to the width, probably 4 across the back and 4 on each front.

I’m thinking I might knit a second one of these rather than another Lunenberg-meets-Hebrides cardigan. I have more of the KPPPM in the teal colourway than I had of the navy, so that should work out well – plus I have KSH in Trance to knit with it. Or I might buy a Halo bundle from Fleece Artist and actually knit the sweater in the specified yarn. (Had to sit down for a minute there. Phew. What a concept.) We’ll see after I finish up a few projects still on the go.

In the meantime, here’s the link to my Ravelry project page.

Pantone Hats

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Things have been quiet here, mostly because I’ve been writing like mad lately. I did NaNoWriMo in November, then was finishing up the book that publishes next week – it was almost twice as long as I’d expected, so getting it done was a bit of a crush.

I have also been knitting though. 🙂

First, I have three hats to show you.

Three hats in Caron X Pantone knit by Deborah Cooke

I found a package of three Pantone X Caron braids in the cutout bin at Spinrite a few years ago. (That’s a Ravelry link because these braids are discontinued and no longer on the Yarnspirations site.) This colourway is called Morning Blues. I think they might have been a little off-weight in certain colours – which would explain them being discounted – as I had some fiddling to do to get a result I liked.

First Snow hat knit in Caron Pantone X by Deborah Cooke

The middle one is that old fave hat pattern of mine, First Snow (which is no longer available.) It has a faux-fur pompom. I wasn’t fussy about where the colours changed on that one, just started the next colour when I ran out of the one I was using. It took every inch of the braid to finish. I knit two of these before but only managed to photograph one. Here it is.

The other two are knit using the Yarnspirations patter Fair Isle Hat, a free pattern which is designed for this yarn bundle and is still available. It specifies where to change colours and I had to fudge it a couple of times. I still think they came out well, though.

Next time, I’ll show you the cardigan that is challenging my eyesight…

Maine Ocean Quilt

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It’s been quiet here lately because I’ve been buried in writing and publishing tasks. Last week, though, I took a little fiber break and got this quilt top finished. I quilted it on my Singer 185.

Blue squares pieced and quilted by Deborah Cooke

This one was inspired by a quilt I saw on our road trip to Maine: the cabin where we stayed had a quilt in this pattern on the bed. Theirs was red and white, but I really liked the simple pattern and how effective a design it made. I doodled it down, then came home to sort through my stash. I really like this colour combination. The top has been waiting to be quilted for a while.

Since the colours reminded me of the ocean, I quilted it in waves – they go diagonally across the middle square, then I started to quilt around and around. After finishing the third (outer) square border around the middle, I had to respray the outside border with temporary adhesive – all that wrestling of the fabric had made the layers come apart again. The backing is a printed cotton sateen from my stash, and the border is the same Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass in purple that’s in the quilt.

Here’s a picture of the pieced top in the sunshine:

Maine Ocean quilt by Deborah Cooke

This one was a challenge to quilt on the machine – I think it’s either the maximum size that I can manage or close to it. It’s 72″ by 72″ finished. I have one more that’s about this size (the mermaids) and I’ll probably try to do my Storm at Sea on the machine – it’s a teensy bit bigger. (Ha. No pix of that one. It’s been waiting a looooooooong time to be quilted!) The bigger ones will have to go to the long arm quilter to be finished up.

I also have a lap top pieced in these fabrics which I’ve been handquilting with embroidery floss. It has flannel on the back and is a very cozy piece of work. I’ll try to get that done soon and post a pic.

New Blue Socks

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Most of my socks are wearing out, so I’ve been knitting new ones for myself for the fall. Here’s my latest pair.

socks knit by Deborah Cooke in Patons Kroy Socks Blue Raspberry

I really like this colourway. I used a little bit more than two balls, and needed to join from a third ball for the toes. I ran out with each ball after about 3/4″ of the turquoise band that begins the toe. You can see that I added more turquoise when knitting the right one, which means less purple on the toe. I’ll survive that. 🙂 Fortunately, I’d found that third ball in the mill ends at Spinrite, so it only cost $1. I have a lot of it left for my sock afghan or maybe another knitted dress for Barbie.

And yes, I already have another pair of socks on my needles….

More Kroy Socks

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I’m due for some new socks so took on that project for my summer knitting. After all the sock yarns I’ve tried, I keep coming back to Patons Kroy Socks. The colours aren’t as unique as hand-painted yarns, but the socks always wear well. (My other fave yarn was Fleece Artist Trail Socks, which was both pretty and durable, but they don’t use that yarn base anymore.)

Kroy Socks (that link goes to the Yarnspirations site) is a thicker version of this yarn, with four plies instead of three, so it has less yardage. There’s 166 yards per ball. Usually, I buy three then have close to half a ball left over. This time, I decided to use just two balls.

The first pair is a blue colourway called Magic Stripes. (It’s the last colourway on the Yarnspirations site.)

socks knit by Deborah Cooke in Patons Kroy Socks

I used my usual sock pattern, casting on 72 stitches, working in 2/2 rib for about 12 rows, then switching to 6/2 ribbing to the heel. I usually knit a total of 72 rows before starting the heel (because it’s easy to remember) but this time I worked only 56 in the hope of making each sock out of one ball. As you can see, I ran out and had to make the toes black. :-/

For the next pair, I followed the same strategy, accepting the fate of black toes. This colourway is called Mexicala Stripes (it’s the second colour in the third row of swatches on the Yarnspirations site). I’m always up for some bright socks and these are definitely bright. The colourway has a really long repeat: there were only two repeats in the skein. You can see that the yellow from the top of the cuff starts again at the end of the heel flap.

Sock knit in Patons Kroy Socks Mexicali Stripes colourway by Deborah Cooke

This time, I worked 55 rows to the heel flap, then only 18 RS rows on the heel flap. (There were 19 on the blue pair above.) I was surprised by how much difference this made – I not only finished the first sock from one ball but had 3g of wool left over. The second sock is still on the needles, but it will match exactly.

How do you make socks match exactly and effortlessly? This strategy only works when you shop in-person and can look at the skeins. Choose two that start at the same point in the repeat of the colourway. My second ball of Mexicala Stripes starts with the same yellow band, so the socks will match without any trouble at all. When you order online, of course, the person filling the order will usually just grab the next two balls, so this plan won’t work.

My next lot of Kroy Socks is three balls in the colour Blue Raspberry. I’ll make taller socks and have some left over for my sock afghan. I’ve been adding to the one made of mitred squares. Hmm. I talked about those in this post, although they don’t have a post of their own. I’ll write a post about that for Friday.

Have you knit any socks lately?