I've seen a scarf similar to thatirishlacenetMay 22 2008, 11:20:41 UTC
I can't remember where I saw it. I thought it was morehousemerino.com, but a quick look through their scarf patterns isn't showing anything promising.
Anyway, it looked like it was basically a really wide shallow tube when it was in progress. It was bound off, then cut, and then... Perhaps about 5 stitches were undone on each side and knotted to make the fringe. The end result was a horizontally knit scarf with fringe.
I'm not sure about fringe and babies and where the limits are, but even if you knotted it and wove in the ends, you'd be preserving much of the color effect.
Re: I've seen a scarf similar to thatchasingmyselfMay 22 2008, 12:57:06 UTC
I actually saw someone working on a small blanket with that technique the other day. She was making a lap blanket, not a baby blanket, so the same issues with fringe apply here too, but it looked fantastic.
I've never tried steeking before, so I'm useless there, but I did want to say congrats on the impending baby! I'm due at the beginning of September, and I'm having so much fun knitting baby clothes and toys!
Before the days of machine stitching, steeks were handled by cutting the threads a few at a time and knotting the ends on the same side together to keep them from raveling. Sounds to me like a good, if rather tedious, way to make fringe.
There's a pretty amazing steeked baby blanket project here (ravelry link, here for pictures on Flickr). So it's certainly possible.
If you want a fringed edge, I would lean towards doing the type of steek where you wrap the yarn a few times around the needles rather than knitting it, and dropping the previous wraps at the end of each round (I'm sure there's a name for this but it's not popping up for me right now). That way you'd have pretty precise control over the length of the fringe. Alternately, you could do the whole thing with a knitted steek, and then drop the steeked stitches right at the end. Basically, I'd be trying to avoid the annoyance of individually unravelling each round--steeks work, which means unravelling from a cut edge is a big pain. :)
I'd start by swatching a bit, just to make sure that the color arrangement you're trying to preserve by steeking will definitely show up, and to try a few different steeking methods to see what works.
That's the type of steek I was thinking of, but I couldn't figure out how to carry it off, and for some reason, none of my "Knitting Bible"-type books have anything about steeking, so I didn't know if such a thing existed.
It sounds like there are a few different types of steeks--do you have any specific suggestions for tutorials? (I can go poking around Google, but I thought I'd see if you had anything you thought was good, since you seem to know what you're talking about. :-) )
I did some swatching, and it will look nice in the round... if I can get this steeking thing to work out.
Isn't it? I knocked into it in my first few days on Ravelry and was knocked sideways.
I'm trying to remember where I saw the loopy-steek thing now. A couple of years ago I started a Fair Isle sweater and pulled out every book my library had with detailed instructions, so they're all jumbled up together in my head. :p Three likely sources that are a good place to start in thinking about steeks are Sweaters from Camp, Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, and Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. (Only bother with the last one if you can get it at your library as it is out of print and goes for crazy-high prices). Eunny's steek tutorial mostly focuses on knitted steeks but is another good starting point.
Good luck! I'm really curious to hear how this comes out, I'm a sucker for rainbows.
I hadn't remembered that Alice Starmore's book had info on steeking. I actually checked it out of the library last year and had decided to scan it (yes, the entire thing) since it was such a great resource and out of print, but I only made it through the 1st 20 pages. May try more this summer, though, if I can get it again. I really think it should be more widely available.
Were you thinking something like this: http://www.knitlist.com/00gift/round-baby-blanket.htm ? I'm curious about the shaping (I'd seen the pattern before, but never really looked at it, and thought it had something to do with short rows)--does it lay flat because of the YOs? I guess it makes me nervous because it's something new and new knittin things scare me. ;-p
Something to that effect. Any sort of increasing at the right rate would do the trick. Don't be afraid of anything having to do with knitting. It's just yarn and sticks, if you mess up you can just yank it out and try again. That's the really awesome thing about knitting, you get as many do-overs as you need :)
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Anyway, it looked like it was basically a really wide shallow tube when it was in progress. It was bound off, then cut, and then... Perhaps about 5 stitches were undone on each side and knotted to make the fringe. The end result was a horizontally knit scarf with fringe.
I'm not sure about fringe and babies and where the limits are, but even if you knotted it and wove in the ends, you'd be preserving much of the color effect.
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If you want a fringed edge, I would lean towards doing the type of steek where you wrap the yarn a few times around the needles rather than knitting it, and dropping the previous wraps at the end of each round (I'm sure there's a name for this but it's not popping up for me right now). That way you'd have pretty precise control over the length of the fringe. Alternately, you could do the whole thing with a knitted steek, and then drop the steeked stitches right at the end. Basically, I'd be trying to avoid the annoyance of individually unravelling each round--steeks work, which means unravelling from a cut edge is a big pain. :)
I'd start by swatching a bit, just to make sure that the color arrangement you're trying to preserve by steeking will definitely show up, and to try a few different steeking methods to see what works.
Good luck!
Reply
That's the type of steek I was thinking of, but I couldn't figure out how to carry it off, and for some reason, none of my "Knitting Bible"-type books have anything about steeking, so I didn't know if such a thing existed.
It sounds like there are a few different types of steeks--do you have any specific suggestions for tutorials? (I can go poking around Google, but I thought I'd see if you had anything you thought was good, since you seem to know what you're talking about. :-) )
I did some swatching, and it will look nice in the round... if I can get this steeking thing to work out.
Reply
I'm trying to remember where I saw the loopy-steek thing now. A couple of years ago I started a Fair Isle sweater and pulled out every book my library had with detailed instructions, so they're all jumbled up together in my head. :p Three likely sources that are a good place to start in thinking about steeks are Sweaters from Camp, Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, and Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. (Only bother with the last one if you can get it at your library as it is out of print and goes for crazy-high prices). Eunny's steek tutorial mostly focuses on knitted steeks but is another good starting point.
Good luck! I'm really curious to hear how this comes out, I'm a sucker for rainbows.
Reply
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Don't be afraid of anything having to do with knitting. It's just yarn and sticks, if you mess up you can just yank it out and try again. That's the really awesome thing about knitting, you get as many do-overs as you need :)
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