Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Favorite Patterns?










Someone started a discussion at the Elann Chat about favorite patterns. One of my often-repeated designs is a Lion Brand pattern, one they cleverly call 'Easy Triangle Shawl'. Lion Brand have cleverly put the same knitting pattern up with 2 different pictures; this one is the best view. I love the crocheted-loop edging which is also the cast-off. These pictures show the five shawls I've made with this pattern; the pale blue/darker blue one I made for my mom, the rest have been for my charity group. I've made these with Lion Brand's Jiffy yarn, rather than the Homespun the pattern calls for(Homespun is not allowed Chez CBM) and trimmed it with variegated acrylic. For my mother's shawl, I varied the width of the pattern repeats, and used Caron's Simply Soft yarn.


















For a baby jacket, I love Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Daisy pattern, which is available from Knitty. Yeah, THAT Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot herself. When I first found the pattern, I had no idea how talented or well-known the Yarn Harlot is. I've made this one, a top-down raglan, a couple of times, and I find it is very easy to make and modify to your own yarn and ideas. The hooded version was a gift for a grandchild-by-love in 2005 and was done with a combination of baby acrylic yarns, especially Sirdar's Tiny Tots yarn. The striped version was just a combination of oddments of baby yarns and went to Stitches from the Heart, a babies' clothing charity.

I haven't made enough adult clothing to have a favorite pattern for a top or a cardi. One thing I am clear about, though; I like top-down raglans and other designs knit in one piece! I'm learning to be OK about mattress stitching, but if I can avoid seams, I'm gonna!!

PS - I've spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get the pictures to line up, and I quit. They are where they are.

6 comments:

Grace said...

love the shawls, and believe it or not have never made that pattern although I do have it among my bookmarks!!! I love knitting baby sweaters almost as much and after todays much needed rest I do think I will start one

junior_goddess said...

That IS pretty, Barbara. I like it. My verification is tosay. It's never a real word or phrase! So I'd like tosay

see ya!

smariek said...

Your shawls look great. I've saved the pattern. I never would have thought about that pattern if I hadn't seen your photos.

jayne said...

Thanks for highlighting this pattern. You'd think they would show off the patterns to their best, wouldn't you? Not always the case.

Remember that feather/fan comfort shawl in the free list? It looks hideous in there but very pretty in real life (done in real yarn).

Anonymous said...

The shawl pattern is lovely. I'm thinking I may try it in my favorite acrylic yarn: Soft Delights Extreme. (You can see it at http://www.craftsetc.com/Store/ShowCategory.aspx?d=20&c=66&s=17)

Cheers!

Sarah-Hope

Madge said...

Thanks for sharing these patterns!