Tips and Techniques Set 4
Here's another idea for a cute summer top: appliqued flowers to dress up a simple cotton. This idea was shared with me several years ago ~ Isabel Cutler.
Isabel made her sample on the Studio Midgauge SK160.
Ewrap 10 needles for each petal plus 5 needles on each end, knit
1 row.
Needle Set-Up: 5 needles in work, 1 needle in hold, 8 needles in
work, 1 in hold, 8 needles in work, 1 in hold, 5 needles in work.
Each petal will have 8 stitches. When you gather the flower and
seam the side, you will form another petal.
Put machine in Hold, knit 6 rows. Take carriage out of hold and knit 1 row. Leaving enough yarn for seaming, break yarn and thread it through a double eye tool. Remove stitches onto the yarn end. Block scallops into shape. Pull up on the yarn end and stitch the flower into shape. Seam the side.
Flowers can be fastened right side or wrong side up for variety.
:Another idea for the flowers:
Make your favorite v-necked shell for summer. Make petals and arrange them around the v-neck. Add a little pizzazz ~ sewing pearl beads or gold beads at the base of each petal.
And, now, how about an easy fairisle pattern?
Here's the pattern:
xxooooxx (10 rows of this pattern)
ooxxxxoo (10 rows of this pattern)
One variation is to use the same main color, but to change the contrast color every 20 rows. For example, you could use white as the main color, and red and blue for two contrasting colors. Or go with icy pastels for the summer season.
If you like cables, you could do a 2x2 cable over the two sets of center cables. Or, you could do simple twistie cables on the 2 (x) colors. Even scattering cables across the colors would be pretty.
And, one more time, how about those shoulder seams?
Some people hang one set of shoulder stitches behind the latches, right side facing, and then the other set of shoulder stitches in the latches, wrong side facing. Pull one set of stitches through the other and latch tool bind off.
But if a stronger seam is needed, pulling one set through the other isn't the answer. One way is to hang both sets of shoulders, knit one row, and then latch tool bind off. The pull against the seam is now distributed against both sets of stitches evenly. For an even stronger seam, pull all the needles to hold position after the two sets of shoulder stitches are rehung. Crochet cast on in front of the work with garment yarn, then bind off all stitches around the gate posts. This seam is VERY sturdy.
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