Bags of Plymouth Dreambaby DK Paintpot arrived last month at Janet’s. In my usual Wednesday afternoon procrastination, I offered to knit up a shop sample of the Plymouth Girl’s Tunic with this machine washable blend.
Cute kid! Plymouth #2865 Girl’s tunic
The yarn was pleasant to knit, but one look at the pattern, I knew things had to change. Why on earth would I want to knit this and sew it together? This is a perfect candidate for knitting in the round! And a picot hem but a ribbed neckline and armholes? Of course, picot edging all round!
No baby here, so teddy was my model!
It didn’t take long to knit, but it took weeks for me to finally post the modifications. If you pick up the pattern at Sit and Knit, you’ll get a print out if you’d like to follow what I did. Or else, just download these Plymouth Girl Tunic modifications for your own personal use. You’ll need to purchase the pattern, and perhaps these mods will be obvious to you as well, but I thought I’d share!
Remember that surfing cat fabric I purchased last winter? Improvisational piecing resulted in a couple of quilt tops with coordinating Cherrywood gradient packs. Despite the fact my to do list is 8 miles long today, I went to Laurena’s to use the Statler Stitcher.
Of course, I didn’t want to do things simply. Mixing two quilt patterns and trimming the motifs made the process much longer. After finishing the project, I decided I wouldn’t probably use the Statler on my quilts again. Ok, maybe if I designed the quilting motif and let the Statler do the stitching. There’s a time and place for everything, so I’m sure I’ll rent the Statler again. Overall, I’d rather move the longarm rather than letting the computer do that work. However, the quality of stitching was spectacular… such perfection.
When I got home, I laid it on the floor to really look at the trimmed piece. Immediately, fluffy feline placed her paw of approval.
Can you imagine surfing ginger cats in this quilt?
Karina Kowabunga will have an orange sherbet binding then zipped out to a sweet pea I love.
The second quilt top will be dissected and placed into a larger setting. All of that action needs more space. I wonder what will happen next as the improv piecing becomes more thoughtful?
The double knitting swatch was one that needed to be reknit for my Master Knitter Level 3 portfolio. Over the last two weeks, a chunk of time was spent reviewing and expanding my references, thinking about how I actually construct the stitch. The half combination knitting, continental approach is almost described in Alasdair’s Extreme Double Knitting , which is my turn to reference. I also learn loads from Lucy Neatby’s fab resources. The reviewers also wanted me to explain how I twist the yarns at the beginning of the row.
Here’s a view of how I hold my yarn, working the knit stitch twisted and the purl stitch untwisted.
As of today, I’m happy with the swatch. Will I be in a few months? Stay tuned.
Sarah’s patterns are easy to knit but need a chunk of time to assemble. These three animals used almost an entire bag of polyfill (I chose not to stuff them with wool, as the panda was really quite big and I wondered if the wool might get a bit felted over time).
The last time I knit patterns from this book, there were mental notes about what I might do differently next time. Did I remember them? Of course not.. but this time I’m writing it down.
Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen
Leave 8″ long tails at the cast on and bind off edges to seam your pieces together.
If you have difficulty identifying the cast on and bind off edges, tie a bow on the cast on tail to help you remember which is which.
Tie sets of arms, legs, horns… everything that’s knit in twos and keep them together until the seaming begins
Consider knitting pieces in the round on double pointed needles (the shorter, the better). The legs, arms and horns could have been knit in the round for the giraffe, elephant and panda. The body sections for the panda and elephant could be, too. Just put markers in between the 2 pieces so your increase and decrease points are easy to identify.
So, there! Now, have you knit patterns from this book? I’d love to hear your tips about what worked for you.
Ohio may not be everyone’s ultimate summer destination, but I’ve always wanted to visit a Quilt National at the Dairy Barn in Athens. This juried biennial exhibit reflects cutting edge art quilts from around the world. Videos where the artists talk about their work are available on the Dairy Barn YouTube channel sharpen my anticipation.
In true Tactile Travel style, I’m researching good food, cultural history and interesting shopping. Do you have any suggestions?
