The overalls and little socks from the Opal Brazil yarn were a huge hit, everyone wants a pair of socks now, even complete strangers :) Those colors are just so eye catching. Anyway, one of the gals from the Machine Knitting group mentioned that Red Heart had a new yarn out called Strata, she shared a scarf she had made from it and it turned out wonderful. I got curious about how the self stripes would work on a wider scale and I've been testing out my LK140 and hadn't tried the heavier yarn yet so I thought I'd try a baby blanket with it. This color way, Crayon, is similar to the socks I made, so I hoped it would go with the socks, sort of like a set. I think this yarn would make a great hat, especially one of those with the corners and tassles hanging from them like pony tails, but I'll use the HK100 or the LK100. I think the yarn is too bulky for the mid-gauge, at least for my taste in fabric anyway.
E.J. says it's got too much green and gold in it which makes it a Green Bay Packer blanket and that's not allowed in this Lions Den, sheesh, what a one track mind! My cat won't leave it alone, I went ahead and just took the pictures because she was going to snag it with her claws if I kept kicking her off, so that is Xena, my little warrior princess :) She really likes the blanket and thinks it's just for her, my vote is still out, I think I'd like it better with smaller panels so you get a real simulated fair isle stripe, maybe each panel edged with red and then assembled sort of like those mile a minute afghans, but I'm going to go ahead and finish it up as is and put a red pie crust edge around it.
I finished the blanket, spread it over the chair, stepped into the kitchen to get the camera, and this is what happened. My house dog loves it as much as my house cat I guess. If nothing else this scratchy type yarn would make great pet pads :) Actually I was able to soften it up a bit with fabric softener and steaming it. I do not recommend that garments that touch the skin be created from this yarn, but things like back packs, rugs, placemats, decorator pillows, and throws would be awesome. The patterning yarn in the bulkier weight is great.
I'm usually not a fan of the purl side of knitting, but I have to say that I like the purl side better on this blanket. It almost has a woven look to it.
and this is to be a hat and shows the actual stripes as it was intended to be used. With a little more time, I think you could actually figure out the gauge/stitches to get the colors to change on the edges. And they say machine knitting is cheating, bwahahahaa!! but that's for another day, I've got socks to finish! :)
The overalls and little socks from the Opal Brazil yarn were a huge hit, everyone wants a pair of socks now, even complete strangers :) Those colors are just so eye catching. Anyway, one of the gals from the Machine Knitting group mentioned that Red Heart had a new yarn out called Strata, she shared a scarf she had made from it and it turned out wonderful. I got curious about how the self stripes would work on a wider scale and I've been testing out my LK140 and hadn't tried the heavier yarn yet so I thought I'd try a baby blanket with it. This color way, Crayon, is similar to the socks I made, so I hoped it would go with the socks, sort of like a set. I think this yarn would make a great hat, especially one of those with the corners and tassles hanging from them like pony tails, but I'll use the HK100 or the LK100. I think the yarn is too bulky for the mid-gauge, at least for my taste in fabric anyway.
