Finally! It took over 3 months on needles, but the Adult Ribbed Lily, based on Georgie Hallam’s Oriental Lily pattern, is finally finished – and the results are just lovely. For this project, I chose Yarn Barn’s 8 ply merino in Teal, bought at the Geelong craft market in summer. This yarn is a little splitty to work with, but it has a beautiful lustre. With the pattern, I chose to knit it in 2 x 2 rib rather than garter stitch to give it a lot of horizontal stretch, but employed the basic top-down raglan approach of the Oriental Lily. I added waist shaping after the bust crossover, and lots of increases for the hips. The edging was done in a single row of double crochet.
Category: Knitting
Lilypad Arduino LightScarf
Working with Lilypad Arduino is something I’ve wanted to try for a while now – but simply haven’t found the time! Knowing that BarCampGeelong was only a few weeks away spurred me into action. First, I read up on the Lilypad Arduino tutorials from Leah Buechley. Running Ubuntu, I had already installed the Arduino IDE from the software manager, so I was good to go.
So, what sort of project was simple enough to allow me to get the hang of this new technology while still presenting enough of a challenge to be interesting? I decided on a scarf that would detect light levels, with the aim of turning on some bright white LEDs if light levels were too low.
First, I needed a scarf. I decided on this Dropped! lace openwork pattern so that the components could be sewn in with conductive thread and not look out of place. I also thought about what type of material to make the scarf out of – in case any of the electronic components overheated and melted or caught on fire. I chose a 98% wool blend – ‘Beulah’ by Sean Sheep – nice and cheap too in case the project didn’t work out.
Next, I needed some Arduino Lilypad components – which are now available in Australia from Little Bird Electronics. For this project, I used;
- Lilypad main board – http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/lilypad-arduino-328-main-board
- Lilypad light sensor – http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/lilypad-light-sensor
- Lilypad e-sewing kit with conductive thread – http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/lilypad-e-sewing-kit
- Lilypad power supply – http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/lilypad-power-supply
UPDATED: Photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathyreid/sets/72157627158152752/
Ben’s Finagle hat
A part of craft it forward, I made a lovely Finagle scarf for Ben, but had 100g of 12ply bulky yarn left over. Wanting to make a hat to match the scarf, the following pattern was improvised.
Needles: 5.5m (done using magic loop on KnitPro interchangeables)
Yarn: 100g 12ply
Pattern:
- Cast on 84 stitches, join to work in round. Place stitch marker at beginning of row
- Work 10 rows in K1, P1 rib
- On row 11,* K1 front and back (creating an extra stitch), P1*, repeat from * to end of row. 126 stitches.
- On row 12, *K1, P1, K1 front and back (creating an extra stitch)*, repeat from * to end of row. 168 stitches.
- On row 13, *K3, P3*, repeat from * to end of row.
- On row 14, *K1, P1*, repeat from * to end of row.
- Repeat rows 13-14 5 times.
- On row 24, knit the row.
- On row 25, *K6, K2tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 144 stitches.
- On row 26, knit the row.
- On row 27, *K3, P3*, repeat to end of row.
- On row 28, *K1, P1*, repeat from * to end of row
- Repeat rows 27-28 5 more times.
- On row 38, knit the row.
- On row 39, *K5, K2tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 120 stitches.
- On row 40, knit the row.
- On row 41, *K3, P3*, repeat from * to end of row.
- On row 42, *K1, P1*, repeat from * to end of row.
- Repeat rows 41-42 4 times.
- On row 50, knit the row.
- On row 51, *K2tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 60 stitches.
- On row 52, knit the row.
- On row 53, *K3, P3*, repeat from * to end of row.
- On row 54, *K1, P1*, repeat from * to end of row.
- Repeat rows 53-54 once.
- On row 57, *K2tog, P2tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 30 stitches.
- On row 58, *K3, P3*, repeat from * to end of row.
- On row 59, *K1, P1*, repeat from * to end of row.
- On row 60, *K2tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 15 stitches.
- On row 61, *K3tog*, repeat from * to end of row. 5 stitches.
- On row 62, K2tog, K3tog. 2 stitches
- On row 63, K2tog. Bind off remaining stitch.
- Weave in loose ends.