meet mr alpaca

I finished the kool aid clapotis. There's not much I can say new about that. It's a wicked pattern. It was fun. It was addictive. It looks great. Knitting up, I could see how uneven the skiens I dyed were, but the clapotis can cope with a bit of striping, so it looks fine.

I've started Hedera which is fantastic. It's not pomatomus but (a) what is, and (b) it's much easier. It has the same twisted rib for definition and stretchyness. All very yummy. I'm using dpns as I've set myself the challenge of a whole pair of socks without bringing out the magic loop.

I've also started a baby cardi, haiku for a friend who's third is on the way in June. The yarn is some Red Heart a friend brought back from Florida for me because I was curious about what all the Amerincan blogs were bitching about. She's away travelling the world at the moment (last spotted, India) so won't be there for the baby's birth, I thought using her yarn would make it a gift from the two of us.

And because my boyfriend took me to the zoo and I met a cute alpaca, we have a shot of it too.

an anti pattern

Beaded i-cord jewellery is great for using up bits of leftover yarn and can be made out of most anything. It works as braclet or necklace (depending on length), is really easy and knit up super-quick.

They can look elegant or punkish, whatever you like, and the finished pieces tend to have a luxurious weight and density to them. Best of all they are fun to fiddle with.


This isn't really a pattern, it a formula for producing the appearance of chaos, where you choose some of your own rules and never work an even set of repeats. This means many things - you produce a sublimely individual piece of art and it makes for an entertaining knit. Plus it doesn'’t matter one bit if you mess up.

Materials

• One of those ends of a ball of wool that are too big to through away but too small to do much with. You can use about any yarn. My personal favourite is darkly coloured 4ply mercanized cotton. I found i-cording Kild Silk Haze painful and wouldn't wish it on anyone.


• Two dpns suitable for the weight of yarn you have. I prefer a reasonably tight gage for elegance and strength, the beads loosen it anyway. You don't want it too tight though, or it can get fiddly. For example I use a 2.5mm or 2.75mm for 4ply cotton.


• Assorted beads with holes big enough for your yarn to go through.


• I recommend spherical beads because of the way the yarn wraps round them, but have used square and oval ones successfully. The quantity depends on the concentration of beads you want and how long a piece you want to work.


• Needle or "threader" (beading needle)

Choices over yarn and beads (quantity, type and weight of both) affect each other, so don't choose them seporately. For example, a bracelet made out of loads of really heavy beads might need to be done with something strong like cotton.

Preparation

First find your yarn, then choose your beads. I put them in a bowl and stir around a bit to check the mix looks nice together.



Thread your beads onto the yarn. Remember the order you thread the beads onto the yarn will be the reverse order you work them. Make up some sort of pattern if it is meaningful to you or just do it randomly. Personally I like to make the appearance of chaos, but work to your own aesthetic.

I find starting and ending with the smaller beads looks good, plus it's easier to work the smaller beads so probably a good idea to end with a few of them.

Construction

Cast on three stitches and work in i-cord till it measures 12cm/ 5inches (enough so you can use these ends to fasten it together). Then start to work beads in.

The tips below might be useful, but go with what feels right because it will depend on the beads, yarn and look you are going for.

Work till you've run out of yarn/ patience/ beads. Make sure you finish with 12cm/ 5inches of plain non-beaded i-cord.

How to i-cord - After casting on, knit your sts from one needle to the other. Then move these sts down the needle to the other side (i.e DO NOT TURN YOUR WORK) and knit them onto the first needle. Repeat this until desired length, remembering that you are always working the right side and not to turn your work.

How work beads - Put the needle into the first stitch as if to knit, then bring a bead right up to the needles and knit the stitch to lock the bead into the knitting.

Other tips

• If working a bead into the middle stitch, do so with a purl. This is done in the same way as you bead a knit stitch.


• I sometimes purl side stitches too, depending on size of beads below.


• I tend only to add one or two beads in each row, and to do a row of plain knitting between beaded ones.


• It is sometimes easier to twist the stitches (i.e. knit through back loop) if there was a bead in the row below, especailly if it has been purled.

When finished wrap around your neck or wrist, fastening by knotting the i-cord ends (a safety pin will be more secure with some yarns though, plus it hits punk aesthetic buttons).

stash

This photo is of some stuffed birds on display at the Horniman museum. It has nothing to do with knitting, except that these birds are "red faced love birds" and I'm feeling a bit red faced. About the thing most knitters feel embarrassed about, my stash.

But in a moment of productivity (or was it procrastination, I have a pile of marking sitting next to me...) I joined stashalong.

Still, I'm not about to stand up and say "My name is Alice, and I have a yarn problem". Not because I'm in denial. Much. I've seen the flashes of stashes, I'm not that bad, but my box of yarn does bug me.

My stash can be characterised into three groups:

• Leftovers - balls, or rather almost-balls, leftover from projects or ideas that didn't work out. These are the most annoying.


• Gifts - I love the challenge of getting yarn from someone and having to work out what to do with it, but they do sit in your stash till inspiration hits.


• Jumpers - I blame cucumberpatch and their great deals. Plus, I frogged the first jumper I ever made, so have a jumper's worth of red matchmaker dk too.

There is also a fair amount of sockyarn, but that doesn't count. Well, not so much. Ahem. It's only five actual pairs of "unassembled socks", with maybe a pair or two's worth of leftovers which could be turned into stripy socks.

I've signed up for three whole months of no yarn buying. Which includes no sock yarn. I'm allowed a day off a month, but that's way more than I need (as I said, I don't really have a "yarn problem"). I might buy some boy-coloured sock yarn for a few gift celebrations I have this term (e.g. father's day). But that's it.

Ideas include blankets and toys for odd bits, plus learning to crochet. First step includes clearing some of my bead stash too, so I'll post a beaded icord tutorial sunday/ monday when I've sorted my camera.

yoghurt

Yeo Valley do wool. Yes really, they of the yoghurt. It's organic. And not badly priced.

I've finished the beaded icord bracelet for my boyfriend's mother.



The pattern isn't much more than the title - you bead icord. But I'll maybe paste up more detailed notes on it next week. I've done a few of these and there are some tricks I've worked out that are worth passing on.

decomposing to clap

So I had this great idea of a "decomposing lace" scarf. Small patches of detailed lace randomly running in and out of a basic stocking stitch base. I'd take a load of virgin merino and dye the poop out of it with kool aid. It'd be georgous, they're be some 70s style environmental comment in there somewhere (trust me, I'm working to be a Dr on this) and I'd submit it to the college art competition.

I dyed the yarn. I had fun. It turned out yummy.

I dried it, I balled it and got my needles out. I tried a rectangle and a triangle and a rectangle again. I tried several different lace patterns. I came to two conclusions:

1) The yarn was more verigated than I planned. This is in many ways a good thing. But too verigated for this rather mixed texture design. I don't really like complex stitch patterns with complex colour mixes.

2) The image of the design I had in my head lost something in the translation to pattern. Looking at it knitted up, I realised the mental image actually used two different weights of yarn, the lace a detailed 4ply, the rest of it a garter/ stocking stitch cloud of aran.

So I gave up the decomposing lace idea (for now - I may return once I've learnt to crochet, probably in plain white or cream). Instead I thought I'd make my very own exchequered. I thought I could work the MC and CC both as this kool aid yarn, because the slight stripes would been gently broken up by the swap at each box. It'd be a lot more subtle than the black and yellow, but that should be a good thing.

However... turns out? The yarn? For this idea? Isn't verigated ENOUGH. Plus double knit with the same colours is a pain in the bottom. Frogged again.

So a load of dk weight verigated yarn?

What's a knitter to do?

Clapotis of course.