I had an unusual year this year, because we did quite a bit of cosmetic work on our house, which was built in 1989, and we had to move out briefly. I kept on knitting, though, because I took portable things with me. I stopping putting any new patterns up for sale.
After we got settled again, I had a good, hard look at my inventory of new but unpublished patterns. Sometimes I design a new pattern, and decide that it isn't all that great, but I had accumulated a long list of unpublished patterns. It wasn't just the remodel giving me a backlog - it was my coming up with new ideas instead of finishing the old ones! I was also insecure about whether people would like my patterns.
So I decided to "respect my work" and get some of these patterns out.
This one I'm putting out today is the Dragon Scarf. I originally did it in 2023 for my knit club, and used Shawl in a Ball to make several. Then I made one with Caron Latte Cakes. It got put away during the house situation. This is a good time of year to put out a gifty pattern like this. You can make it with just one Shawl in a Ball, or about 5 ounces of self-striping or scrappy yarns. I converted it to mid-gauge and standard gauge, too. I decided it would be digital with links to a complete step-by-step video and then put short videos on YouTube with related and alternate technique ideas.
I put up three videos today and I have three for next week.
With the BIG video, that's six videos, but I couldn't resist sharing these optional and highlight techniques.
First - I-cord is the foundation cast-on for the whole long scarf! Have you used it for casting on? How about trimming an open-stitch edge? It's easy and terrific. I used it to death in my shawl book, because it's great on all kinds of shapes. I used it on my ripple afghan to give it a little thicker, sturdier edge since the edges of afghans get a lot of handling.
Okay, next video for today. What if you want to make the bulky (9 mm) scarf, but all you have is a standard (4.5 mm) garter bar? Well, bulky garter bars are rare and expensive. I use one a LOT for teaching, because it's so easy for everyone to see, but a friend of mine said she frequently uses her standard gauge garter bar to turn work on her bulky. She's a wizard who does beautiful work, so I had to try it for myself, and yes, it works so well, I turned it into this video:
And then, what if you don't want to use a garter bar at all? A friend told me recently that even after seeing me teach garter bar repeatedly she just doesn't like to use one. Hmm, that gave me an idea. While I wouldn't turn the work for garter stitch using waste yarn - it's easier to hand knit that - but for these dragon triangles, it isn't so many turns and it works just fine. So, here's how to turn the dragon scarf using waste yarn instead of a garter bar.
Two videos are going up today because I have a new beret
pattern I’m really excited about.This
first video is the automatically short-rowed beret, and the other one is the same
beret with a circular lace design.
These quick but impressive little projects are great to make for several reasons:
They're interesting to knit with lots of useful techniques included.
You can use small amounts of Group 2 yarn like self-striping sock yarn or 2/12 - the adult size is the biggest, and only uses 50 grams!
These are also cute in scraps for the sections. Here's a way to use the leftover pretty stuff!
The berets are fancy and impressive, easy to fit and wear, and make beautiful gifts.
Lace can be quite tricky to short-row, but this technique of having the machine do all the shaping works GREAT with lace.
This first video shows you how, using a Brother or Knitking
electronic knitting machine that will handle wide stitch charts, you can shape
your berets automatically!This pattern
is only for those machines.
About that: I do prefer to write patterns for almost any machine, but this pattern takes advantage of Brother electronic machines' capabilities. Punch card machines do not have wide enough patterns for the width of the beret. I did not work this out for Studio electronics, since I currently don't have one and my experience with them would indicate a number of difficulties to convert this pattern.
I am posting the pattern charts for these two baby beret
examples here to ensure you will have complete free directions to make these two baby berets.These are standard gauge hats, and this video
version is especially nice in self-striping sock yarn.
Please consider purchasing the new Berets: “Auto-Shaped and
Lacy” pattern collection, a click-to-buy digital download at https://www.dianaknits.com. This new pattern has 21 different berets –
four sizes, baby, toddler, child and adult, and five designs for each beret –
auto shaped without lace, plus four auto shaped round lace designs, star,
heart, diamonds, and cyclone.You can
program the patterns using the charts in the pattern or you will have access to
all the pattern files in Design A Knit format.
The first video has some interesting and useful technique
demonstrations.For instance, how to use
two 7-prong transfer tools to move the stitches quickly to the main bed, and how
the hat top is automatically short-rowed using the machine memory and the part
buttons.Doing the shaping automatically
is easy, fast, and accurate.
As the same time the hat top is knitted, the band is
attached with a very simple sew-as-you-go technique.The resulting “seam” is professional-looking.I also demonstrate how to graft the first and
last rows of the hat invisibly and how to gather the center of the circle neatly.I block my berets using a steamer after putting
them over a plate, saucer or other round object, which results is an excellent look
for the band cast-on edge and an accurately round hat top.
The second video is the beret plus a lace design that goes around the six sections of the top of the beret. These are really impressive-looking little projects, but the machine does all the counting and lace transfers! This video shows how to make the lacy hat top in detail, but you'll rely on the first video if you need some help with knitting the ribbed hat band or sewing up the hat.
Here is the pattern chart for the automatically shaped baby beret:
Here is the pattern chart for the baby cyclone lace:
Here's a link to the Beret patterns on my shopping cart site:
