Tag: knitting short rows

Short Row Slices

On By elizabeth kay boothIn Challenges and Celebrating LearningLeave a comment
I love the shawl shape!

Awhile ago, I mentioned I am working my way through a book about short rows. This shawl is the next project from the book, and was a very fun and fairly quick knit. I chose to do it in cotton, but you could use any worsted-weight yarn you wish.

Closeup of the design details

I love how the pattern uses the short rows as a design element, and because of this, you don’t need to pick up and hide your wraps.

Back view
The shape allows for nice wrap and drape

I am thinking it would be fun to do this pattern again in a variegated or gradient yarn, but I am also very happy with the solid tomato red. Fall is not particularly cool in Los Angeles, but this color is very fall-ish while the cotton makes a cooler shawl than wool would have.

I also really love the jagged edge of this shawl – great shape when you wear it wrapped around yourself!
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FO: First Short-Row Shawl

On By elizabeth kay boothIn Uncategorized6 Comments
short row knitting
Short row shawl laid flat

Last year, I started working my way through a short row book, and I have enjoyed every single pattern made out of it so far.

short row knitting, knit shawl
I wondered about the shawl shape when I was making it, and when I put it on, it all made sense.

However, I am not sure how to feel about the results of this particular shawl because the yarn didn’t knit the way I expected. The shawl pattern was alot of fun, and as you can see, it drapes beautifully.

short row knitting
Closeup of the “wings”
short row knitting
Despite the vibrant yarn ball, the lack of a dominant color makes it all “gray out”… wearing the rainbow is the new gray?

But as you can also see in the flat photos, the colors are not exciting. This yarn was given to me and has been in my stash for a long time. It is very vibrant in the ball, but knit up, is not that exciting. I think this is a classic case of the colors muddying up because of not having any one dominant shade.

I am thinking I will probably just treat this shawl as a gray shawl and wear it the way I would wear a gray accessory. I’d like to make it again in a different yarn because the pattern was so fun, and just being honest, I don’t feel like I did it justice.

But, I am curious to know what you all think – do you love it or hate it?

Gifts of Short Rows

On By elizabeth kay boothIn Uncategorized2 Comments
rescue dog and knitting
A rescue dog always makes the knitting look better! 🙂

As previously mentioned, I want to make every pattern in this book. So I decided to start at the beginning, because, why not?

Top view of the short row construction
Side view of hat, showing earflaps, which were also done with short rows after picking up stitches around.
With my fellow model. I need a rescue dog to help a hat look good on me! 🙂
So you can see what it looks like on the head…

The book was my gift to myself, but I made this hat as a gift for a dear friend (who looks so much better in hats than I do!). I don’t make many hats, because I don’t generally wear them, but this one was alot of fun and I’m happy with how it turned out. There is some seaming and some picking up of stitches, but I enjoyed the pattern very much and I am looking forward to continuing my way through the book.

I hear alot of knitters complain about short rows, and if you’re one of them, this book will spell it out for you and dispel your fears of them! They are so much easier than you think, and I love all the shaping tricks and design elements you can add with them.

Releasing and Rewarding Myself

On By elizabeth kay boothIn Uncategorized3 Comments

I have finished a number of projects, am in the process of rearranging rooms in my house to accommodate my kids’ needs, as well as my own need for a studio workspace, and have had to be very disciplined to keep myself on track.

Now that I have accomplished my goals, I am releasing myself to start some new projects and find new inspiration. (Always energizing things for me!) When I get turned loose to surf the web, I always find way more things to do than I will ever have time for (we all have this problem when we look at our Ravelry favorites, don’t we?), and my Links to Inspire category was created for this reason.

Of all the cool things I’ve come across, here are my favorites:

  1. I love, love, LOVE a cool stashbusting project! And this one uses 3 strands of yarn at once, which would be really helpful if you have a huge variety of leftovers you thought you’d never be able to find a way to make work together. Just an idea: lay out your colors and pair according to light and dark, or warm and cool. Or you can do it according to color families – reds of varying shades together, blues, etc.
  2. A tried and true way to clear your head – plus, you get to buy a pretty notebook.
  3. A cool DIY project and a beautiful way to enjoy flowers.
  4. I am going to make EVERY pattern in this book. Doesn’t happen too often that I like every pattern in a book, but this one – YES PLEASE! Plus, by the time I make it through the book, I will have tried about every short-row technique there is.

I believe when you work really hard and meet your goals, you should release yourself from obligations for a specified amount of time and reward yourself, which is exactly what I am going to do over the weekend. Enjoy yours too!

via Release