Happy Friday Fiber Fiendes!
Do you know what that means? Time for the first ever Friday Fiber Watch!
See, I had this *ahem* cunning plan. I’m a pretty big geek, my partner is too (lucky for him because his ability to talk nerdy to me definitely was one of the reasons he gets the title of My Mate), and Youngling hasn’t decided it’s uncool yet. Our home pretty much runs on coffee, love, and geekery. I don’t complain about this.
My cunning plan is to kick my weekend off right by geeking out with you about what fibery-tastic things I saw in the fandom flavoured yarniverse this week. For those extra geeky and nerdy of my readers, or those of you who love a detailed, on point cosplay, I hope this makes you happy in your soul parts. For the rest of you, I’m sure we’ll have you converted before long. ;-)
I promise this isn’t going to just be star wars amigurumi pinterest finds. Those really obvious fan makes are great, and I will include a couple here and there. But my tastes run deeper than that. I love subtly geeky stuff that makes you double/triple/quadruple take before you get that ‘ah-ha!’ moment - it makes me feel like I’m in that inner circle of ‘the know’. My Fiber Watch rundowns are going to reflect that.
To kick things off I thought I’d start with Stranger Things, since I’m currently rewatching all that Netflix has made available trying desperately to not think about how season 3 won’t be available for likely close to another year. (you laugh, but I know you are doing the same thing when no one’s looking. Admit it.) Grab some eggos, your yarn, and settle in.
This week was Stranger Things Season 1 Episodes 1-3.
S1 E1 - Nancy’s pink bunny cardi.
This spot-o was pretty obvious. It’s a basic cardigan in pale pink ‘baby weight’ (think light fingering) yarn with a stripe of stranded colourwork in a blue bunnies motif. Yes, I know it’s hard to see, but they are definitely blue bunnies; I checked...Several times. At this point we are supposed to assume that Nancy is the ‘good girl’ next door in small town USA. How more on the nose can you get than stereotypical baby colours with innocent bunnies?
This would even be a great first-timer-try for a newbie colourworker. This pattern would be perfect for the base cardigan. It’s got the deep v-neck, the delicate button band accent, and set-in sleeves (not raglan, which is common now). Check out your LYS (local yarn shop) and see what they have in light fingering weight yarn in pastels for the cardigan, with a proper baby blue for the colourwork.
Here’s a chart for the lil’ bunnies running along the waistband and cuffs.
S1 E2 - Joyce's yellow & white afghan
You don’t even need to make this Stranger Things staple. I bet everyone’s parents or grandparents have one of these ripple crochet blankets packed away somewhere.
This blanket is pretty spiffy in that you can do a beginner version or add in one additional step in your stitchwork to bump up the skill level. Even better is that you can make a cotton version of this blanket for areas of the world (or living persuasions) which make wool inappropriate.
I’d suggest a pattern like this one, for beginner crocheters. Be sure to stick with the narrowest row count for switching between your yellow and white yarn to get the same effect as Joyce’s throw.
If you feel like amping up your stitch game then this pattern is pretty dead on.
Not a crocheter? You can get the same effect of the raised traveling zigzag using (for a beginner) some increases/decreases and a garter stitch background. Check out this pattern here for instructions. Just switch between yellow and white every few rows (be sure to keep that row count consistent!). If you’re able to read a chart and are up for a very simple cable stitch, then cast on in multiples of 12 for the size blanket you want and use this chart.
S1 E3 - Nancy’s striped jumper
Can we just stop for a moment and admire this design? There is heaps going on here. The basic design is a cropped, rolled crew-neck jumper with set-in full-length sleeves. The base jumper pattern would be something like this. NOTE: this pattern has a deeper neckline and shorter sleeves than Nancy’s jumper. Extending your sleeves to the correct length is pretty simple, you just keep knitting until you’re happy with it. Cinching up the neckline will take a little extra fiddling. This piece is knit from the top down, so you can opt-out of some of the front neckline short rows in favour of a higher neckline.
Then there is the colour and texture all over the jumper. *swoon* Don’t let the colour changes or stitch pattern intimidate you, these are pretty straight forward. It definitely looks more involved than it actually is. Think of the patterning as two blocks, one is a 2x1x2 rowed stockinette colour stripe (and the colours are Wonder Woman themed, did you pick up on that?!? That was a pretty subtle cue from costuming, I must say) and the second block is a stockinette background with a diamond brocade pattern.
For the Wonder Woman stripes it’s pretty straight forward. Knit two rows of stockinette in one colour, change to the gold colour for one row of stockinette, then change to the third colour and knit two more rows. There is no carrying/catching of your yarn, it’s just simply knitting and switching colours at the beginning of a round. Don’t forget to include a repeat of this colour stripe on the cuffs and the waistband of the jumper!
**ProTip: Be sure to cross your old colour over your new colour when you change. This avoids having a gap between the previous and the new row.
The diamond brocade is also pretty straight forward. You might have to do a little math to enlarge the diamonds to the right size for your jumper, but luckily there is a video tutorial to help you out! (Check it out here)
I hope you have a weekend chock full of string, creativity, inspiration, and MAKING.
See you next Monday for the start of Plastic Free July!
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It takes a lot of caffeine and yarn to make this happen! ;)
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