"Pink" Stripes On The Needles and Kaffe Fassett

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//"In The Pink" Scarf Design. Here are the facts:

• Yarn: MC - Stitch Nation (Passionfruit), 100% Peruvian Wool, DK weight
• Color A - Briggs Little Soft Spun (Carnation), 2-ply 100% pure wool, DK weight (if you're not familiar with this yarn, it is a product of Canada, from one of their oldest woolen mills. I picked it up at TNNA one year.)
• Color B - Dark brown, 100% alpaca, DK weight
• Needles - #8 circulars
• Border: MC - 8 rows of garter stitch
• A - 6 rows of stockinette stitch
• MC- 6 rows of stockinette stitch
• B - 6 rows of stockinette stitch
• MC - 6 rows of stockinette stitch
• Etcetera, etcetera until scarf measures 59 inches
• End with MC, knitting last eight rows in garter stitch
• BO all stitches 

I did end up changing the color choices a little bit from what you see in the swatch. This change is however, reflected in the above directions. Instead of using a multi-color yarn for my first color change, I used the Briggs Little Carnation instead.

I have long been an admirer of Kaffe Fassett and recently acquired his book, "Welcome Home". I love how he uses color and the freedom with which he does so. He doesn't worry about dye lots, designing right on the needles. So I have been playing with colors and trying to put them together in a pleasing way and also trying to be a little less constricted in my design thoughts. I hope you like my choices. It is pretty exciting to do, I highly recommend it.

If interested, Creative Bug offers three Kaffe Fasset workshops: two quilt design classes and one pillow design class. His assistant and fellow designer, Brandon Mably, also teaches two classes one of which I am enrolled in "Magic Ball Color Play" which encourages the use of leftover yarn in your stash and learning to put colors together. 

Would you like some help knitting stripes? I know I would. Here are a few places to go:

• TECHknitting: She always has a lot of good information on any technical problems you might have in knitting. This post addresses jogless knitting of stripes in the round.
• Fluffandfuzzknitting: A good article on changing colors when knitting stripes.
• Cottonandcloud: How to knit single or odd numbered stripes without cutting the yarn.
• Millamia: Here is a great article on knitting single row stripes.
• The Knitter: Yet another great post from Jane Crowfoot, one of the UK's leading knitting experts.

I hope this inspires you all to try knitting with colors and stripes. Let me know of your efforts and/or tips!

xoxo Shannon

Finger Knitting, Etc.

Has anyone ever tried finger knitting? Leave it to my 13 year old son to show me how. I couldn't believe it, he learned this in his art class recently and came home to show me how it is done. He did most of what you see in the above picture, I did one row. It is relatively easy, it's just a matter of getting the hang of it and getting over the awkwardness of winding the yarn up and over your fingers. This is a great way to introduce knitting to kids. My son seemed somewhat enthralled with it anyway. Give it a try or teach your children. Here's a link to show you how.

//It is done! Yes, the Brett Hat is finally done. This is my own design consisting of a knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for the brim, stockinette stitch for the body with some color work as you can see. Stripes are the way to go when first starting to use different colors. For me for some strange reason, it was hard to cut the yarn when changing colors, but you get used to it after doing it a few times. The pom pom was a first for me and I was pleased with the outcome. The basis for this pattern came from Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns", a very helpful and informative book everyone should have!

Wouldn't you know,  about half way through knitting this, my son Brett decides he wants to give the hat away to a friend for Christmas. So sadly, this will not be staying in the family. After you have put time and effort into something it is a little hard to let it go!

Are you all ready for the holidays? Only four more days! Remember the REASON for the season.

xoxo Shannon