First thing…Happy Fall! New seasons usually mean new events and classes and happenings. So I wandered over to see what’s up at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Looks like a bunch of good things. There’s the 7th Anuual Bird Lover’s Weekend in October. There are bird inspired activities all weekend long and of course you can pick up some glass birds in the gift shop or see them made in the hot shop. Or how about checking out some of their exhibits. Or learn about Science and Glass. I always say when I teach, “If science class had been this much fun, we’d all be scientists”. The Museum of Glass is a glass destination that shouldn’t be missed…
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Bring Some Texture to Your Sweater Knitting
I generally think of adding color as a way to add interest to a sweater. You can easily throw in stripes or a bit of Fair Isle patterning, even on a sweater that’s meant to be plain, to make it a little more fun.
But there’s also something to be said for working a sweater in a solid color and using textured stitch patterns to make a project more interesting.
Tressa Weidenaa’s Bluewater Sweater began as wrap design, and then a cowl she designed for a class. The stitches looked to her like they would also be good on a sweater yoke, so the Bluewater Sweater was born, too.
The textured stitches are meant to look like ripples on water, inspired by a lake her family visited when she was young. It’s all knits and purls and a single color, which would make it a nice first sweater or one when you’re still early in your knitting journey.
The sweater is worked from the top down in DK weight or light worsted yarn and has a circular yoke. The pattern is charted, but just knits and purls worked in the round makes for pretty easy chart reading. There are 11 sizes to chose from, with a finished garment circumference ranging from 40.5 to 65.75 inches, or 103 to 168 cm. You can choose the amount of ease you would like, but it’s meant to have 4 to 6 inches, or 10 to 15 cm of positive ease.
You can buy this pattern on Ravelry, and if you’re interested in how the stitch pattern looks in other designs, also check out the Bluewater Cowl and Shawl. It’s really interesting to see how to same basic knit and purl patterns can be put to such different uses, or even just how they look different when stitched in different colors. Isn’t knitting fun?
[Photo: Tressa Weidenaar]