Little Ruffle Seed Stitch Scarf

I came home from the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival with a skein of ACE 150 yards of 90% Suri Alpaca /10% Tencel . I knit this little scarf knitting from both ends of the ball at the same time. Beginning with the lace ends and knitting both at the same time till I ran out of yarn. I then grafted the two ends together with the Kitchner Stitch. This was fun to knit but I wish I would have made the lace wider and the seed stitch part of the scarf about an inch narrower so it would have come out a little longer. here is a picture. My pattern will be given away with the purchase of this yarn from PA Preferred , 100% Pennsylvania Grown Alpaca Yarn from Wini Labrecque/Star Weaver Farm, email: strwvr@zoominternet.net. www.starweaverfarm.com I shared Wini's booth at the Pgh. Knit Festival. I sold a lot of Valetines and enough yarn to cover my expenses for the week end. I had a really nice time. I enjoyed meeting Noro Bellows from Noni Knits. Her Felted bags are really worth seeing. I took a workshop from Daniel Yuhas Lace and Loop scarf. I will post a picture of my scarf soon. I am knitting the lace and loops I have 17 loops finished. There are 23 I cord loops on one end of the scarf. This is fun to knit but I am only getting few inches finished a day so it will take me a while to finish.

Knitting Valentines and writing patterns

I have been knitting hearts for over a week. It all started when I decided to donate my knit Valentine pattern to the Ravelry Goodie Bags at the Pgh. Knit & Crochet Festival.

My Knit Your Heart Out Pattern was posted here Wed. Feb. 14 2007. You can check it out in the archives. I designed this heart to sell at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival. The Festival happens around Valentines Day every year. There are workshops by famous knitters and amazing yarn to inspire you. There is a link to the Knit Fest. web pages on the right under links. Sometimes the sun comes out here in February and the snow stops and melts off for awhile. This event is a wonderful place to escape into the world of yarn and fibers after a difficult winter.

About a week ago, I got our my old pattern and knit the heart. I wanted to revise the pattern, using other stitches than the Kf&B increase in the center. This increase came out uneven and I wanted to edit the pattern to make it easier to follow. I also wanted to add rows to the pattern to make the heart to come out a little bigger and better shaped.

I became completely consumed by this task. Knitting before breakfast and doing almost nothing else all day till late into the night. I am ever dreaming of knitting hearts and variations that I am anxious to try.

The lavender heart pictured below is the basic pattern. Very easy to knit, all the stitches are knit stitches, resulting in a simple garter stitch heart. I am happy with this basic pattern. It creates in nice round heart shape. The size is about 20% larger than my old patten. It takes about 22 - 25 gms. of knitting cotton. You can knit two hearts from a 50 gm. ball of yarn.
















Experienced knitters can experiment with alternating knit and purl stitches to create an endless combination of patterns that make the heart look interesting. Beginning knitters can use this simple design to improve basic skills and experiment with new stitch patterns. Seed Stitch, Double Moss, Ribbing and other combinations look good in alternating rows to make the heart look fancy and complex. It is much easier to knit the complex combinations of stitches and just make them up as you knit than it is to write it down as a pattern so someone else can reproduce the design. I gave up on trying write a complex pattern variations. Maybe next year.



Below are two of the hearts with stitch combinations that I did not write down. The pink heart was fun to knit. I love the way the stripes of k1,p1 ribbing make this heart more interesting to look at. It makes the heart look more like a Valentine Heart. I get bored just knitting every stitch. I have knitted 15 of these in the past 5 days while I was revising the pattern. Each one is different and I could not wait to finish each one so I can begin another one trying another combination of stitches. The ideas just keep on coming. I am really having fun knitting these.