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Posts Tagged ‘free patterns’
You have to pick your moment. And there is a time for everything.
If you want to create a moment, a Wow moment – what, is there another kind of moment? – you will need to create time to make that happen.
Here is something that gets me to Wow every time I wear it. My golden bronze mohair scarf. It pours over my shoulders like afternoon sun.
Love it around my neck on cool spring mornings and late summer evenings.
Here’s the secret sauce:
You will need-
One skein of fabulous Italian baby mohair in any color you desire (500 yards)
One skein of equally fabulous bronze, gold or silver silk (500 yards)
One pair of size 12 wooden knitting needles
Directions:
Cast on 15″ worth of stitches using both yarns. You will need to knit a swatch to find out how many stitches equal one inch.
Knit first row. Then knit every row. Every few rows, double wrap the yarn as you knit the row and drop the loops on the next row.
Cast off when you get to the length you need to to drape it luxuriously across your shoulders.
This is well worth stopping time for and making for yourself or someone you want to wrap your love around. I suggest you get used to people stopping for a second look.
Get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.
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What should I knit at my next conference?
As I continue on my journey getting to Wow! I look forward to seeing good friends and new friends whenever I travel to conferences. I like the energy of gathered thinkers and gamechangers who are passionate about the arts in our lives.
OK, so I’m registered, I booked my hotel, I know what sessions I am going to, who I want to see.
I just don’t know what I want to knit.
Daughter of an Engineer
You would have liked my father. He had a thing about camping in Maine, Chopin mazurkas and figuring stuff out, like pigtail bridges and cooling systems for nuclear power plants, usually on the back of envelopes in blue ink. But what he loved best was coming up with an unusual solution to a problem: “Why, we can hang those plants up with some fishing hooks!” or “Those file cabinets will make terrific dressers!”
Function, not form. I silently pinky swore to myself that I would never live an unexpected, undesigned or unWow! life.
DNA, more powerful than my pinky promise, coupled with a stack of DIY magazines overcame me in a yarn shop. Without a second glance at the pretty cottons and cashmeres, my eyes found a delicate blend of wool and steel and I fell in love. “This will look fei cheong (Cantonese for totally) fabelhaft (German for fabulous) knit up like a loose neck sculpture thing!”
You could get a little crazy like I did and string a few clear crystal beads before you start knitting and space them here and there, to look like morning dew suspended in a spider web.
Beads on steel wool. I am my father’s daughter.
How to make it
Here’s what you do if you want to create a stunning scarf that can stand on its own:
Get some of this steel wool stuff
Get some beautiful glass or crystal beads
Get a pair of #5 knitting needles
Directions:
- String 30 beads on the wool before knitting.
- Cast on 28 stitches.
- Knit one row, purl one row.
- Knit in a bead here and there. Think of what a spider web looks like in the morning.
- Repeat until desired length.
- Bind off loosely. Weave in ends.
- Expect second looks
Can’t wait to get started?
Grab your needles and get more Wow!
If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from
Hoong Yee
me, your artspy
As dusk fell, my eyes followed the last boat from Ibiza disappearing into the distance with, at the time, all of my worldly possessions. Thankfully, that was the only inconvenience of the day. I considered my situation and the Cap Ferrar sent over from the mysterious gentleman at the bar.
Things could be worse.
Well, what do I need to survive, to live, really? Or, to really live? I wondered.
Being much more intrigued with living, I knew the answer immediately.
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My Whisper Wrap.
Inspired by an elegant lady from Shanghai who told me, “You were born to wear beautiful things, custom silk dresses. Revel in your destiny and find something fabulous to wrap around your shoulders.”
Something like a breathless summer stole, perfect for cool evenings in the casino, buying pomegranate tea in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and sipping my second Cap Ferrar in a seaplane to the mainland.
This wrap was mean to be hand knit on large needles, preferably bamboo or some dark exotic wood, in a lace mohair using a simple open stitch that offers a glimpse of a tanned bare shoulder. Long enough to skim the hem of my silk cheongsam, it is pure romance, pure rapture to wear. Sensuous, and simply gorgeous.
Take your time and knit something that enchants the eye and caresses the skin like a lover’s eye – The Whisper Wrap.
Everything else, like my luggage, can wait.
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How to Knit the Whisper Wrap
What you need: 500 yards lace mohair in a startling color. One pair of size 15 bamboo/wood knitting needles
Pattern: Garter stitch Knit every row.
Directions: Cast on 70 stitches. Knit first row. Continue to knit all rows (garter stitch) until you have reached the desired length. Cast off loosely. Weave in loose ends. Fling magnificently around your shoulders. Follow with a smile.
Need help?
For those of you who are beginners, I have included a link to a video of basic knitting stitches.
Get more hooked
If you want more style notes for people who change the world, please check out:
Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit
Style Notes from me, your artspy
Hoong Yee
the mermaid tank top
I am so insulted by poor design. Aren’t you?
Badly designed things are indifferent attempts at being an artist and deserve nothing more than to be used for skeet shooting targets. Although there are a million tank tops out there, I felt that it was time for a simple, well designed, knit tank top to be created.
If we are going to change the world, we must look good.
OK, dear reader, here it is: The Mermaid Tank Top
Don’t you just adore that image? Frankly, I can’t understand how anyone who doesn’t wear shoes can get along without something fabulous to wear besides a seashell bra all day! This tank is perfect for a mermaid to throw on after a day of frolicking through seafoam. A little something for evening.
And – of course it is well designed. I love spending time thinking about design details: how will this catch a second look, what colors would look intriguing in this stitch, how and where can this tank be worn, is it mermaid worthy? The stitch patterns are simple and intended to knit up quickly, the length can be changed to whatever you like and the entire piece is knit on circular needles like a spiral. No need to sew up the sides. It has a lovely shape that drapes like a dream on your body and you know how I feel about draping! Easy.
Pattern for The Mermaid Tank Top
Size medium
You will need
4 skeins of Patons Grace Mercerized Cotton (1.75 0z) in Wasabi or any of their other great colors. This shade of green sets off a summer tan beautifully.
#3 Takumi circular knitting needles. Always use bamboo so you can knit on a plane without setting off the metal detectors. Who needs the aggravation?
Stitch markers
Yarn needle
A small crochet hook for finishing.
Your label. Yes, your label. This is an often neglected design detail among DIY divas and knitters and one that I believe is a powerful affirmation of you as a creative design force to be reckoned with. Mine were made for my hand made knitwear company Miraculous Mandarin which, sadly is no longer around. But I, Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, am here armed with the newly designed knitting pattern that I promised you urging you to invest in putting your name on a label.
label detail
Gauge
4 stitches of stockinette = 1 inch
6 rows of stockinette = 1 inch
Simple Knitting Stitches
St st knit all rows.
Garter stitch knit 1 row, purl 1 row.
Yo make a new stitch by wrapping yarn over the right needle.
Note: This piece is intended to be knit on circular needles
Mermaid Tank Top
Cast on 170 stitches. Place a stitch marker at the beginning and one midpoint at 85 stitches to mark front and back. Knit a few rows of garter stitch as a border. Begin knitting rows of the stitch patterns, mixing them up as you like until the piece is 17 inches long. I prefer a longer tank but you know what looks best on you.
Front
You will now be working with 85 stitches.
Shape armhole
Bind off 3 stitches at beginning of next 2 rows. Bind off 2 stitches at beginning of next 2 rows. Bind off 1 stitch at beginning of next 2 rows (73 stitches left).
Shape neckline
Knit 29 stitches, bind off center 15 stitches, knit 29 stitches. Bind off 1 stitch on every armhole edge row. Bind off 3 stitches, then 2 stitches, then 1 stitch on left side neckline edge. Continue to bind off 1 stitch on armhole edge until only until 7 stitches remain. Knit until side measures 6 1/2 inches and bind off. Repeat for right side.
Back
Work as for front
Finishing
Using a yarn needle, sew up both shoulder seams. Weave in all ends and trim with crochet hook. Sew in your label. Let your tank hang on a padded hanger for a day or two. Admire and get ready to reel in those second looks.
Not a mermaid but a merman? No problem! Here is a great book, Knitting with Balls, by a great guy knitter and friend, Michael DelVecchio that has some wonderfully well designed pieces to knit.
Enjoy! I am sure your tank will be beautiful. Let me know how you are doing.
I am one of those people who remembers by knitting.
Usually it is because I am often carrying around something to knit and eventually, my memory of things are triggered by what I make.
AN EXAMPLE OF STUFF I TEND TO RECALL, NO PARTICULAR RHYME OF REASON
“Ah yes, all of those Friday evenings we spent together at Sky’s breakdancing class at Broadway Dance Center in July 2009. I was knitting a summer tank top in a fabulous wasabi green cotton on # 3 bamboo circular needles in a crazy mix of garter stitches and yarn overs for an airy openwork feeling. It was unusually cool for July. Seth got a new phone. I am longing for figs from Sophie’s back yard.”
my wasabi green cotton summer tank
I finished this tank last night after coming home from dinner with friends. So in addition to the above, I will also remember having a wonderful time with our friends Hal and Madalyn at Aureole in Manhattan where my daughter Mikki is working as a hostess.
Hal is also a board member of the Queens Council on the Arts and an avid golfer. At one point during dinner he said, “I am going to be using you in my new project. It will include great place for some exhibitions and I’m thinking about working with Queens Council on the Arts to to give local artists the opportunity to show their work .” It also involves a street closing, huge potted plants that talk and move around and a few other out of the box details that sounded really fascinating especially after two bottles of wine.
Now my green tank will remind me of an unseasonably cool string of summer Fridays, of breakdancing, Seth’s new smartphone, fresh summer fruit, a great dinner and an exciting showplace for Queens artists on the lot of Kaufman Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens.
HOW I MADE THIS
For all of you who want to know how I made this tank, I will be writing up my pattern and posting it soon under Nonprofit Knitwear. I am not a big fan of anything complicated and frustrating and difficult to knit while taking public transportation so I think that you will find all of my patterns simple to follow and to build memories upon.
OK, up next, I am designing something between a scarf and a necklace that I think will look absolutely wow in a steely blue yarn that I got at LionHeart Studios with my friend Stefanie a while ago. It is an extremely fine fiber made of wool and stainless steel. Knit on # 4 or #5 needles it produces an intriguing lace that holds it shape sculpturally. I have strung about 300 silver beads on it and intend to knit them into the piece in a sparse, random fashion.
