Mosaic boxes

It's the end of our Knitting Guild year. Yesterday we spent it at Linda's house learning to knit Mosaic boxes and V-neck Top Down knitting. It was a great day. Here we are, knitters hard at work, ha, ha.

Really we were learning how to read a mosaic chart. They are different from other charts.
Mosaic is colour knitting, working with only 1 colour across the row at a time. You knit the stitches you want to show in the particular colour you're working with and slip all the other sts. It's often found in your stitch dictionary in the Slip Stitch section.

Each row of the chart requires two passes (rows) of the same colour. With the Light Colour work the first row of the chart two times (Rows 1 & 2), once with the Right Side facing and back again on the Wrong Side. Now move to the second row of the chart and with the Dark Colour work it across on the Right Side and back again on the Wrong Side (Rows 3 & 4). Every row of the chart is worked twice with the same colour. Then the next row of the chart is worked twice with the next colour, alternating 2 rows Light and 2 rows Dark. It makes mosaic charts different from any other type of chart. Geometric designs result. The different colours make it look different.

These two below, have the colours reversed. The boxes are Light and the Background is Dark. To read the chart above and switch the light and dark is a real challenge and K & T did a terrific job.

Boo, hoo, that's it for Guild nights for a while. I'm going to miss my knitting buddies over the summer. Looking forward to seeing everyone in September.
Deb

Add Mosaic

Adding a little bit of Mosaic to this vest really makes it look different. Can't wait until the class I'm teaching on Sunday gets started so I can see how it looks in different colours. I did it in Cotton Tweed Denim with Sky Blue. It would look more dramatic with a greater contrast between the colours.

As you know, blue is my go-to colour. But I'm going to see what other colours I can choose to make more impact. The vests in the class will give me some good ideas I bet. Now I'm going button shoping. Always an adventure.
-Deb

Mosaic collar or neckband?

I have been knitting, just not writing about it, for the last couple of weeks. Now I'm back and working out a Mosaic Top Down Vest workshop to present to my knitting guild in 2 weeks.

I started out being too ambitious as usual. I thought of working a Mosaic collar on a Top Down V-neck baby vest. It's all doable but not for the time allowed for the class. The Mosaic pattern is 18 rows deep and then there are rows to knit so the collar can flip over nicely. Way too much time would be spent on the collar and not enough time on the rest of the Top Down garment. I really like how it looks though. Might be worth writing up as a pattern?

Back to the drawing board. 

I've decided a Neckband for a V-neck vest would be much more practical for the Mosaic portion of the class. Only 10 rows are involved in this mosaic pattern. That's manageable. Everyone will still learn how to read a mosaic chart which does take some practice.

I'm calling this pattern "little boxes". One box is solid and the box beside it has a centre dot. At one point you have to slip 3 sts which is good training for mosaic knitting. It's all about the slips.

Now onto the V-neck portion of the garment.
-Deb

Retreating is over

It's been a frantic couple of weeks. Two retreats back to back. Loads of fun with knitters.

The Yarn Over Sleep Over weekend was great. I taught a mosaic class, always interesting because the charts don't read like any other charts but always give a wonderful result.

I especially like it in fingering weight yarn, much more delicate looking.

Knitting a Lake Lauzon was full of triangles and rectangles and look at that finished scarf!

Looking forward to next year but now ... back to our regualarly scheduled program where I am doing my taxes. Argh.
-Deb

Eek, a Steek Retreat

The challenge for the Knitting at Lake Lauzon was to come up with a steek project. They asked for steeking, really they did. So we steeked. Steeks are beneficial when knitting with 2 colours. Mosaic knitting is 2-colour knitting where you only use one colour at a time. A great technique.

First we all worked on the Mosaic pattern. Then we sewed along the 5 extra steek stitches we added to the hat circumference.

Then we CUT.

No one fainted, everyone sewed and cut, everyone! Then we worked the buttonband and the crown of the hat. A marvelous job by all and wonderful finished hats.

Liz finished with a headband.

A terrific weekend at Lake Lauzon Resort. There will be another retreat in 2016, same weekend, same place. Looking forward to it already.

-Deb

Mosaic Sample

I've working up my first sample for a Steek workshop I'm running in Northern Ontario. It's a weekend at Lake Lauzon Resort in Algoma Mills, ON on April 25 & 26. Yikes, it's coming up soon.

Steeks work really well for 2-colour knitting because it's so much easier to do colourwork in the round. For this workshop we're going to make a hat or headband with 2 colours with a steek which will be cut and a buttonband put in it's place. Although the usual method for colourwork is to work a fairisle pattern, I decided to tackle Mosaic knitting.

I think I am in love. Have you tried this? There are lots of advantages, especially when worked in the round.
1.  Work with only 1 colour on a round at a time, perfect. No need to carry a second colour.
2.  The charts are easy to read once you know the trick. The trick is that each row of the chart must be worked twice with the same colour of wool.
3. The charts are easy to work with. Working with the dark colour, knit the dark stitches on the chart, slip the light stitches.
2.  The second round in the same colour is a snap. Phew. Always nice to have a comfortable, easy round. Work the stitches that are in the colour you're working with and slip the other stitches. You can have fun with the stitches on this round. By knitting the stitches you produce stockinette stitch or by purling them, garter stitch.

I see possibilities here. I worked the green (light colour) in stockinette stitch and the blue (dark colour) in garter stitch. What if I did it the other way around and made the green in garter stitch and the blue in stockinette stitch? How different would it look? What if I made the background the light colour and the shape in the dark colour? What if I did it all in garter stitch?

As you can see I have some more mosaic knitting in my near future. I can't wait to see what will happen.
-Deb

Decision week

Kathy, one of the students in my Mittlets by Formula class, reminded me that I haven't written my blog in several weeks and she was checking. So here I am, thanks for the kick in the ... I needed it.

I get mired in projects that are partly done and can't seem to find my way out. My Blue is stalled. I can't decide if it's long enough. I'm going to make a decision this week and stick to it.

It looks long enough to me but trying it on is the test and I've done that several times which usually means I'm close or waaaay off and don't want to believe it.  I really like the Back.

Done in Cotton Tweed, Just Navy. I love this dark, dark navy. Much darker than photo shows.

And then to get ahead of the season I started a summer knit. A circular yoke following the Need A Circular Yoke numbers, in Saucon Fingering (cotton/acrylic) with a 3.50mm needle to get 6 sts = 1".  (It's really Cherry red, I don't know how the camera makes it pink.) 
The yoke has a mosaic colour pattern. I really enjoyed the affect. It's great to only have to work with one colour at a time and get a great two-colour affect.

Down to the bottom of the bust now. I'm putting in a line of purple and going to work out some sort of columns of increases down the front and back. Another decisions to make.

And because these are bigger projects I had to start something smaller to carry around with me. I'm calling them Catch The Wave Socks. They are surprisingly easy to pick up and put down again. That's the beauty of stitch patterns that work the same every round. Very little angst about which round I'm on. Who needs more angst?

Decision week. Do you have to make some this week?

-Deb