Knitting 101- Slip Stitches - the patterns

Slip Stitch Speckles
from Halfknits.com

How's that slip stitch going?  I hope you're having a ball with it.  These are a few free patterns that include slip stitch as their primary design element.  So pretty!

The cloth at left is more practice, and much like one of the exercises in the first article.  It's nice in that it's fast to knit, and would make a great blanket square or washcloth.

Slip Rib Fingerless Gloves

The fingerless gloves at right are from Cascade Yarns.  The photo shows them made in Pure Alpaca, in a particularly lovely heathered colorway.  This pattern is knit in the round, so if you're not there yet, be patient.  If you already knit in the round, you'll love this project and the beautiful gloves.  The finishing and weaving in goes in a flash!

Texture Study 1

This last is a stunning scarf that has the wonderful benefit of being easy while looking intricate and difficult.  Like the turkey at Thanksgiving, it's a WOW piece that merely requires a little patience and attention.  It's from Flying Dog Fibers, and it suggests you find "300 yds of the softest sport weight yarn you can find" and have a go.  I agree!  One caveat - it will not look as textured the fuzzier the yarn you use is.  Low-halo softies like cashmere and baby alpaca will be stunners.  Mohair and other high-halo yarns will hide your wonderful stitch work.

Knitting vs. Designing

Slowly but surely I am awakening from my knitting hiatus.  Coffee has been involved. Design is still fighting for supremacy, but some knitting is finally getting done.  I've added an inch to the No H8 Mittens, and a few inches to the Guinan Hat.  The mittens are in Cascade Ultra Pima (white) and Cascade Pure Alpaca (burgundy), and so soft!  The hat is in Cascade 220 (turquoise) and Aslan Trends Bariloche (grey) and really warm.  I've decided to finish the hat in spite of occasional hives because it's easy, cute, and has been adopted by one of the children.  I started to frog it, and was asked to stop when a teen daughter realized she could never "borrow" it if it didn't exist!  And still lurking in the workbasket are the two-color brioche scarf, yummy socks, and the promised Girlfriend Gloves.  At least I don't have to start anything for an upcoming class right now!   I love that there are no deadlines.  Unless you want the mittens, hat, scarf, and gloves available this winter.

The rival of my knitting queue, my design process, often involves me knitting up a swatch of a small part of a design to check the look of a motif.  These side projects are a major impediment to getting UFOs into the FOs column.  I still can't choose one over the other as the priority, though, as I only want to design in spurts.  Trying to design when I'm not inspired is as futile as gift wrapping Jello. I need to get it down on paper while it's fresh, or it's gone forever.

I fuss over each design project a little every day like a doting mother.  There are some William Morris inspired mittens, Nursery Rhymes blanket squares, and a whole set of Arts and Crafts/Mission Style pillows, blankets, and towels.  The hand bone mittens are coming along, though ridiculously slowly.  I'll get there.  I think I have design ADHD.  Is there a cure for that?  Does it come in coffee flavor?