Category: From Skein to Finished Object

Here you will find my completed designs, as well as my process in making them. As I write my patterns and knit my final samples, I will share the process with you, along with tips and tricks, helpful videos and books, and my styling ideas for a finished piece. For certain projects, you may even find some helpful color pallettes!

The Doubles Remix

On By elizabeth kay boothIn From Skein to Finished ObjectLeave a comment

As anyone who’s read my blog for awhile knows, I love knitting cowls. You can imagine my delight and excitement when Stephanie at Unwind Burbank let me design two patterns for Yarn Crawl LA this year!

I’m one of those knitters who aims to use up every scrap of yarn on a project. I’m not too crazy about leftovers. Aside from the fact that these two cowls are soft and squishy, the other great thing about the design is that you can just keep going until you’re almost out of yarn. Just make sure you leave enough to do the rows of ribbing, but otherwise, just knit through your supply!

One day I was looking to make a superfast gift for someone, and I realized I had two skeins of Malabrigo Rasta, which this pattern lends itself to perfectly. This yarn really highlights the texture of my design pattern, and I used every last inch to make this cowl! For those of you who are not familiar with Rasta, let me just say, it is so chunky, that with a few modifications to my original pattern, all you need is 2 skeins and 2 days (or 2 hours, depending how fast you knit!) and you have yourself a supersoft, squishy cowl. This is going to be my go-to version for when I need to pull a gift out of thin air!

RastaChunkyVersion
 RastaChunkyVersion2
The Doubles Remix

2 skeins Malabrigo Rasta – shown in Stitch Red #873
Size 15 24″ circular needles
Stitch Marker

CO 84 sts. Place stitch marker and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist stitches.

Work 1 1/2″ in 2×2 rib, then switch to the double seed stitch.
(Double Seed Stitch: Rows 1-2: K2, P2. Rows 3-4: P2, K2.)

Work in Double Seed Stitch until piece measures 9″ from CO. Switch to 2×2 rib for 1 1/4″. BO in pattern.

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Chevron Sands Wrap

On By elizabeth kay boothIn From Skein to Finished Object1 Comment

Just wanted to let everyone know I published a new design! 🙂

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As you all know, I love nature. My favorite place is the beach, but I have visited the desert many times, and loved that too. I bought this yarn awhile back during a special event at Unwind and the colors together reminded me of sand dunes. This design attempts to capture the sense of how the colors wave and roll into each other. I hope other people will enjoy this as much as I did! Also, in case any of my fellow knitters wondered, yes, ZYG yarn is FABULOUS to work with! Enjoy!

The Details

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I have always thought that the edge stitches on charts were optional. In fact, most of the time, this is true. For those of you not familiar with charts, here is a quick summary of how they work. They should tell you the number of stitches in the pattern, plus the number of stitches in the borders. So for instance, if you have a chart that tells you it is a multiple of 10 plus 4, this means that if you want to repeat the pattern twice, you cast on a total of 24 stitches. (10 for each repeat, plus 4 for the edges.) The chart will usually enclose the repeat section between two bold lines, with the edge stitches on either side. In most cases, you can choose to simply cast on the number of multiples you wish, and then shorten or lengthen the number of edge stitches depending on what you need to meet your finished measurements.

The Barbara Walker pattern below is an exception to this rule. It has taken me hours of knitting, ripping out, reknitting, and finally, a trip to my LYS to confer with one of my coworkers, to realize why I ran into problems. For my design, I want a finished measurement of 24″ wide. The pattern repeat is a multiple of 18 stitches, and so I determined that if I did 5 repeats (90 stitches), I would be as close to my goal as I could get using complete repeats.

However, as you can see from the chart, the repeat shifts about halfway through. (The bold lines show where this shift takes place.) In this case, the edge stitches are necessary to make the pattern work, because without them, there is nowhere for the pattern to shift.

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I hope these little details will help my fellow knitters. Because making garments fit has everything to do with gauge and stitch count, is helps to know where you can have freedom to alter a pattern, and where you MUST follow the chart exactly as it is written.

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This shows where the ribbing was interrupted in the piece without the extra edge stitches.

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And here is the partially finished swatch with the edge stitches. The shift is now working without interruption of the stitch pattern.

Yarn Crawl LA 2014

On By elizabeth kay boothIn From Skein to Finished Object2 Comments

Are you familiar with yarn crawling? If not, here is a quick description: in cities that host one, all the participating yarn stores have special promotions and events going on for a weekend, and people “crawl” with their friends. In LA specifically, you purchase a passport and tote bag and go from store to store and get your passport stamped. The more stores you crawl in and out of, the more stamps you get and the more goodies you’re eligible to win!

I am so honored and excited to design two patterns for Unwind, both of which will be free Ravelry downloads. One is knit, the other crocheted, and both are super fast, soft, squishy cowls made out of Manos Maxima. I thank Unwind for giving me the privilege of designing for our store!

Bright Doubles CowlDouble Posts Cowl

Whole New World, Whole New Me

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Those of you who wondered where I disappeared to were not alone. My dearest friend has said more than once that I disappeared off the face of the earth. Her words, not mine. The truth is, I didn’t leave the planet, but I did disappear into my studio to focus. Creative work is hard my friends. It takes alot of focus, alot of time with a sketch pad, alot of swatching, and lots of ripping out and reknitting until it’s right. I had to shut myself off for awhile until I got it right. I hope you all will like what I’ve come up with, and I send my sincere thanks to all the people who support me and let me disappear when I need to!

To see my designs so far, please head over to www.ravelry.com/designers/Elizabeth-Kay-Booth. But please don’t leave here! Having a new and improved website is all a part of the plan my friends! Thank you, as always, for your interest in my creativity!