BT Yarns - Knitting Inspiration and Musings

Color study

btyarns — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:30:43 +0000

There’s been a lot of interest in the Bambu Bubble Beauty – knitweave cardigan.

With over 100 colors of the Bambu 7 yarn, choosing coordinating yarns for the variegated Bubble has been a blast! Good thing I don’t have all 100 colors here … I’d be swatching ’till the cows come home!

Here are a few combinations that I thought were interesting – What a difference the background color makes!

Top photo – Indian Clay Bubble with Oats, Denim and Ginger Bambu 7

Bottom Photo – Orange Twist with Mandarin and Sweet Corn Bambu 7

More Bubble

btyarns — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:00:10 +0000

We’ve featured the Bubble yarn in our recent yarn sample mailer. It’s so much fun to knit!

Using the bubble for knitweave with Bambu 7 as the main yarn, the resulting fabric is cool and comfortable with wonderful softness and drape.
This pattern is available in both Misses 6-20 and Womens 38-56.

Bubble Print Cardigan

btyarns — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:48:07 +0000

This Bubble yarn is really fun! A thick and thin yarn in both solid and variegated colorways, it knits up with so much texture that it makes the most simple garment look terrific! Take a look at all the colors on our website.
I used Karen Kuranda’s pattern for the Knitter’s Edge Spring Knit-a-long and substituted this beautiful yarn. Knit at tension 7 on the standard gauge machine gave me a one inch gauge of 8.43 sts and 12 rows.

Crocheting with this yarn isn’t fun, but there is so much going on with the yarn, that any crochet would be lost! I knit a very simple band along all the edges, mitered the corners and hand tacked the band down. “Thread” button loops out of the Bubble yarn lends a finishing touch.

The same pattern, 2 very different yarns .. WOW! Check out the solid yellow version.

Bubble Print swatch

btyarns — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:54:59 +0000

The teen in my life announced that the yellow cardigan I just finished is too “formal” and she wants something “different”.
OK, OK! How about variegated yarn, spun thick and thin in a bright, summery color?

Stay tuned!

Spring Knit-A-Long Junior Cardigan finished!

btyarns — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:57:53 +0000

After writing the pattern for the Knit-a-long, I was just dying to knit!

I chose a spring-y yellow Wool Crepe Deluxe. (which just moved to the BT Yarns Closeout section … $29.95 / pound)

I chose to put the crochet trim on all the edges (I needed a crochet “fix” anyways)
UPDATE: I used the same pattern and substituted the yarn – check out the “Bubble” version of this basic cardi.

Can’t wait to see what the other KAL knitters are doing! Join us at the Knitters Edge Yahoo Group

Spring Knit-Along

btyarns — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:08:29 +0000

Put all my other projects on the back burner because I got inspired to participate in a KAL at the Knitters Edge Yahoo group.
Karen Kuranda designed a Junior size basic cardigan for her daughter and I volunteered to create a traditional written pattern to accompany her DAK files.
Of course, I had to knit the sweater to test the pattern )
While the pieces were drying I played with the crochet edge that Karen included to finish all the edges.

The photo is dark, but the crochet looks great in the light yellow Wool Crepe Deluxe that I’m knitting.
Stay tuned … this project will get finished!

Challenge project – Part 4

btyarns — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:24:37 +0000

Here’s a nice trim for the edges of the challenge project.

I’ve decided on Stretch Cotton for the yarn – This yarn won’t be too warm and it will also show the stitch definition nicely. The stretch should make it super comfortable as well!

Stitch Pattern Inspiration – Part 3 – Pattern Design

btyarns — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:13:16 +0000

The Inspiration piece has all sorts of things going on … sideways knitting – cutout design in the center back – all done with cut ‘n sew.

To simplify this pattern, I’m going to focus on the stitch pattern, fit and finish instead of all the crazy pieces. Using Garment Designer, I quickly created the exact shape I need. (It took less than 5-6 clicks to get the pieces that I want).

Next, I need to make a decision about yarn, swatch like crazy and decide on bands to for the final touch.

Stitch Pattern Inspiration – Part 2

btyarns — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:50:24 +0000

The other major stitch pattern in the challenge garment is a simple crossed cable stitch. Unlike more familiar cable stitches, the traveling stitches stay on the top of the cable set of stitches. After the first few crossings, you can clearly see the pattern as the work hangs on the machine. It’s really easier than it looks, but be sure to take the phone off the hook!

The two samples are done over the same number of stitches. The sample on the right has hand manipulated purl stitches between the cables and the center 2 stitch column. The sample on the right has needles out of work. The original inspiration sweater used needles out of work and didn’t look sloppy …. Again, this slippery Bamboo blend yarn isn’t the best choice for this project. I’ve got another beautiful yarn in mind … one that will hold it’s shape and show off all the hand manipulation in this project.

Next up …. the garment shaping … stay tuned…

Stitch Pattern Inspiration

btyarns — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:21:47 +0000

My DDIL (dear daughter-in-law), Michelle challenged me to reproduce a bolero that she picked up at a consignment store recently.

It is made with a very nice quality, worsted weight, mercerized cotton. It fits her trim figure like a glove, so I took the challenge. (Michelle doesn’t knit, so she won’t know if I take some shortcuts to accomplish this)

The shape is a short raglan sleeve, the body is short and the fronts are rounded. There is texture going both horizontally and vertically and there are interesting bands around all the edges. In examining the stitch structure, there are basically 2 stitch patterns repeated throughout.

I was able to re-produce the mesh structure that is used for the sleeves and some of the body. Interestingly, the fabric seems to hold it’s shape well. The original swatch is done in a bamboo blend on the mid-gauge machine – very slippery, but even with this yarn, the stitch definition remains.

Next is the interesting crossed stitch/cable design….. stay tuned