I’m so excited to show all of you these beautiful projects in this month’s Show and Tell! It’s a great way to find fresh inspiration for your next project. For everyone who sent in a FO or WIP, it’s also an opportunity to share what they are working on among a group of people who really get all the effort that goes into each project.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Show and Tell
These photos came from Carianne. She has been knitting these gorgeous doilies for gifts and decided to make a few Lord of the Rings themed ones.
Each one came from a different knitting pattern, and two of the patterns were over 100 years old! Carianne used Galadriel’s Gift for the top left, The Paths of the Dead for the bottom left, and Chasing Orcs and Hobbits for the bottom right.
The next project came from Debbi. She used Sunflower to knit this beautiful stole. The pattern is The MKAL Advent Calendar Stole by Brigit Kok.
The next project is from Holly. She used the 2022 Eight Days of Easter kit to crochet this lovely wrap. The pattern is the Intentions Wrap from Knot Bad Britt.
The next project is a WIP (work in progress) from Lynn. She came up with her own assigned pooling stitch for the shawl she is making using Emerald and Amethyst on Sparkly Merino Sock.
I can’t wait to see the FO!
Next we have three gorgeous handwoven scarves from Kelly. I can’t decide which one is my favorite! She used Purple Iris for the one on the left. For the one in the middle she used The Great Black Bull, which was January’s club colorway. For the one on the right she used After the Rain along with a deep purple yarn.
Kelly has some of these available for sale in her Etsy shop.
The next project is a pair of lovely socks from Pat. She used the club colorway inspired by Leda and the Swan by Ghirlandaio to make these.
She used Buttery Soft DK for these, so they must be sooo soft to wear!
This next project is from Holly. She crocheted the 2023 Lord of the Rings Advent calendar into this beautiful wrap. The pattern is the Just Feel Cozy Wrap by Caleisha Ryan. Holly shared her progress day by day on her Instagram account, which was a delight.
The last project is from Magdala. She designed the pattern herself and named it the My Little Flower Garden Scarf. She used the January club colorway, The Great Black Bull for the design. Isn’t it beautiful?
That’s it for the Show and Tell this month. I’m always delighted to share what you create, so email me your project whenever you think of it and I’ll store up the photos and pattern info until the next Show and Tell newsletter.
A Mitered-Square Recipe
I decided at the beginning of the year to make a mitered-square blanket using all 12 of this year’s club colorways, so I’ll have a visual (and cozy) record of the club colorways as well as an art history knit blanket at the end of the year.
I’ve never made a mitered-square blanket before, and everybody says it is a lot easier to join the squares as you go to save all the time spent seaming them together. However, since I don’t know what the colorways will look like for the entire year, I decided to do it the hard way and just make the squares as I go and sew or maybe crochet them together at the end of the year. Here are the three from January, February, and March:
The one on the left is The Great Black Bull from the Lascaux Caves, circa 18,000 BC. The one on the right is The Tomb of Nebamun from the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, circa 1300 BC. The one on the bottom is from a tomb at Agios Athanasios in Ancient Greece, circa 400 AD.
These little squares are very addictive, and I’m finding that this makes a great mindless knit for when I’m waiting for my kids or have a few minutes here and there. After looking at lots of different methods and sizes, here’s the “recipe” I settled on:
Cast on 25 stitches, place stitch marker, and cast on another 25 stitches.
Row 1 (RS): Slip first stitch with yarn in front. Knit to 2 stitches before stich marker, K2tog, slip marker, SSK, and knit to the end of the row.
Row 2 (WS): Slip first stich with yarn in front. Knit to the end of the row
When you are down to just 4 stitches and on the RS row, K2tog, remove stitch marker, SSK.
For the last 2 stitches, K2tog and pull the yarn through to bind off.
The method I used came most of all from this article on Craftsy, though I switched out the right side and wrong side rows. I am using Squoosh Worsted for these, and they come to about 5-1/2 inches square before blocking and 7 inches square after blocking. Each skein gets me 6 squares.
Fresh from the Dye Pots
The last couple weeks have been very busy. I finished and sent all the Eight Days of Easter kits, and then right after that it was time for the March club colorway. Now that I have those all done, I get to spend a little time dyeing up spring colorways. This week I dyed Paris. Here it is on all the yarn bases I dyed:
From left to right they are Squiggle Sock, Sparkly Merino Sock, Stained Glass Sock, So Silky Sock, Buttery Soft DK, and Squoosh DK.
I also dyed up and renamed (again) Party Like It’s 2029. I originally named this colorway Party Like It’s 2021 in the midst of Covid in early 2020, assuming that it would all be over by 2021. Yeah. You know. Anyway, year by year, I have been moving the party date forward, but this week I decided to move it a lot further forward, so here is Party Like It’s 2029 on Diamond Silk Sock:
I also dyed it on Squiggle Sock, Sock Perfection, and Buttery Soft DK.
I think that’s everything for this week. I hope you have a beautiful spring week with plenty of time for the fiber arts.