Variegation

Variegation:  adv. varied in appearance by adding and changing colours.

 We’ve all done it.  Strolled the yarn aisles, picked up the yarns to feel them – savoring the soft silky ones, fingering the nubbly ones, and … oddly drawn to the bombardment of colour from the variegated yarns … and inevitably finding that one multi-coloured yarn that you draws you in.  You don’t have a project in mind for it, but you just can’t resist buying it.

And then the second thing happens … it doesn’t knit up as nicely as you thought.  It just doesn’t have the same appeal it did in the skein.  What went wrong? 

Multi-colour (variegated) yarn comes in all kinds of patterns:  long variegations where the colour changes every few rows … and short variegations where the colour changes every few stitches.  The colours may repeat randomly … or in a specific pattern.  The colours might create a design, as in self-striping yarn. Or maybe they are twisted together to create a tweedy look.  These are all things to take into account when choosing a pattern for the yarn  - or the yarn for the pattern. 

A great way to match the yarn to the pattern is to “audition” the yarn.  I like to buy a skein of the yarn and knit it in a number of different ways.  It’s the only way to really see what kind of variegation it is and what designs it can create in the knitted fabric.  Here are my favourite "auditions":

1.  The Rotating Square: 

This sample uses Worsted Weight yarn & US Size 6 needles.

Cast on 20 stitches
1.     Work 35 rows in Garter Stitch; Bind off on Row 36, leaving the last stitch on your needle (This will be the first stitch of the next section.).
2.     Pick up and knit 20 stitches down the left side of the square.  Knit 34 more rows.  Bind off, leaving last stitch on your needle.
3.     Pick up and knit 40 stitches down the left side of your work.  Knit 34 more rows.  Bind off, leaving last stitch on your needle.
4.     Pick up and knit 40 stitches down the left side of your work.  Knit 34 more rows.  Bind off, leaving last stitch on your needle.
5.     Pick up and knit 60 stitches down the left side of your work.  Knit 34 more rows.  Bind off, leaving last stitch on your needle

2.  The Square Knit in the Round:

This sample uses Worsted Weight  yarn & US Size 6 double-point needles

Cast on 8 stitches and divide evenly onto 4 needles.
Knit one round.
Round 1:  K1, YO, K1.  Repeat for each needle.
Round 2:  Knit.
Round 3:  K1, YO, K1, YO.  Repeat for each needle.
Round 4:  Knit.
Round 5:  K1, YO, Knit to last stitch on needle, YO, K1.  Repeat for each needle.
Round 6:  Knit

Repeat rounds 5 and 6  until the square is the desired size  (preferably until you have gone through all the variegations repeats at least once.)

3.  The Pinwheel:

This sample uses Worsted Weight yarn & US Size 6 needles.

Cast on 18 stitches.

Row 1:  Knit 3; turn.             Row 2:  Knit to end

Row 3:  Knit 6; turn.             Row 4:  Knit to end.

Row 5:  Knit 9; turn.             Row 6:  Knit to end.

Row 7:  Knit 12; turn.           Row 8:  Knit to end.

Row 9:  Knit 15; turn.           Row 10:  Knit to end.

Row 11:  Knit 18; turn          Row 12:  slip first stitch as if to purl, knit to end.

Repeat rows 1-12 until you have a full circle.  Sew seam.

4:  A Simple Square:

This is a free-for-all.  Cast on at least 30 stitches and do whatever you want.  I like to have a section in Stockinette Stitch, a section in Garter Stitch and a section in Seed Stitch just to get an idea of how it looks in a variety of stitches.

Just to be sure to knit it big enough to get a very good idea of what it would look like in a larger project.

6:  The I-Cord:

This sample uses Worsted Weight yarn & US Size 6 double-point needles.

Cast on 4 Stitches.

Row 1:  Knit.  DO NOT TURN WORK.
Row 2:  Slide Stitches to right end of needle;  with yarn in back, knit across row.  Do not turn work.
Repeat Row 2 until cord has reached desired length.

 In the samples at left, you can see how variegations differ.  The top sample uses yarn that has a long variegation and throughout the project I didn’t actually get to all the colours in the yarn.  The bottom sample uses yarn with a short variegation and it created a repeated stripe pattern.



All this goes to show that pretty in the skein doesn’t always mean pretty in the piece.  That’s why I recommend trying out some of these test swatches before committing a project to variegated yarn.  Here’s a prime example:  

←the yarn is … okay. 

Same yarn  in an I-Cord necklace … nice!→

This month, play with variegated yarn to discover its possibilities and limitations.

For a long-term project:  make 20 Rotating Squares and stitch them together for a lap blanket (4 across, 5 down).  So pretty!

Buddies

buddy n. a companion, friend or pal in an informal way

Buddy is a happy word. It makes you smile. Try to say "Hi buddy!" without smiling! Or try to introduce someone as your buddy with a serious face. Probably a little tough.

Now what the heck does buddy have to do with knitting? Well, this month's project was inspired by a simple little email from my brother. He wrote, "I saw something at a friend's house that seemed simple and rather useful. A knitted tube about 2 or 2-1/2 inches in diameter and about 16 inches long. It it used to hold wadded up plastic grocery bags to take to recycling. Stretches to accommodate a ton of those things."  I knew exactly what he was asking for ... a Bag Buddy!

I contemplated what kind of Bag Buddy I would make ... (1) a tasteful colour, (2) a durable fiber, and (3) a nice way to hang it.

A tasteful colour. Hmmm. I guess any colour you like can be "tasteful". I look around my house and wardrobe and accessories and decided that for me it's black. Do you know how many "little black dresses" I own?! More than I probably need, but it's my go to whenever I don't know what to wear. It's even my go to colour for knitting! So, logically, I had decided to make the bag buddy in black.

A durable fiber. This took a little more thought. An acrylic, wool or cotton yarn might pill and fray from repeated rubbing with balled-up plastic bags. A nylon yarn might work, but I haven't yet found a decent nylon yarn. Then I remembered an old yarn -- Phentex Slipper and Craft yarn. And guess what, you can still get it! 2 skeins of black, please.

A nice way to hang it. I decided I would like a Bag Buddy that would hang from a metal or wooden ring, rather than a loop of yarn. A loop of yarn would eventually break just from normal wear-and-tear. So my design had to incorporate a way to hang it with a ring.

One other design consideration was making a wider opening at the top to stuff the bags in, and a narrower opening at the bottom to extract only one bag at a time.

With my goals set, I knitted swatches of the Phentex to decide on the needle size I wanted to use. Next was deciding the size of the bag, which then determined how many stitches I would cast on. And, as I so often do, I just sat down and started knitting, deciding increases and patterns as I went along.

It only took three tries before I had the design I envisioned. So this month, I challenge you to make a Bag Buddy to contain any plastic shopping bags you might have laying around. Putting them neatly into your Bag buddy will surely make you smile!

One last note about buddies ... every third Saturday of the month is "Knit-with-a-friend Day". Let's call it "Buddy Knitting Day" this month! Plan now to have a spring knitting session with your buddies on May 19th!