Friday Fibre Watch - Stranger Strings S1E5 Galaga & Dainty gloves

Hey there my fellow cosplayers and geek chic lovers - it’s Friday Fibre Watch!

 Thank you for everyone’s patience during school holidays. I missed doing Friday Fibre Watch, but it just wasn’t possible this time around. My new cunning plan, since the first one seems to be working out so well, is to get these babies written ahead of time when school holidays is on, so no one has to miss out on the fun!

 Episode 5 sees lots of new yarny goodies for us to enjoy while we ponder if Will will make it out of the Upsidedown alive and if Nancy will stick with Steve or go for the brooding Jonathan. Personally, I’d go for Jonathan, even after seeing Season Two (spoilers, Y’all!), but that’s just me. I love Steve, even when I hated him, but Jonathan listens to The Clash and Joy Division. How can you NOT want to spend your monster hunting, hero’s journey moments with him?

 I realise I just admitted there was a heap of yarny goodies to choose from in this episode, but I picked only three to focus on for this episode because I decided that Dustin’s funeral cardi was so intriguing that I had to make a colour chart out of it for everyone. If you aren’t sure which cardigan I mean, just wait. It’s awesome and every dude in my life needs one.

 Got your eggos and bevvie of choice ready?

S1E5 - Joyce’s green and red double crochet throw

 A chunky afghan/throw blanket with bands of red, red/green variegated, and green (equal width). There is a running ‘V’ stitch moving perpendicular to the stripes along the length of the throw.

Suggested Yarn: 

Brooklyn Tweed Quarry in Garnet & Serpentine

Red Heart Medley in Garden

Hook: US10/11 or 6mm/8mm

Firstly, I apologise for having douchebag Lonnie in the photo. I kept him there solely for contextual purposes. I hate him, too, don’t worry. 

Secondly, this blanket did my head in for so long! I asked around to some crochet buddies for their input, we were all a bit baffled as to how to get that damned ridged ‘V’ on the blanket.  Everyone was in agreement about the base stitch, but NO ONE could figure out the accent stitch. 

Some thought it was a v-stitch, but this didn’t account for the visible counter-tension the ridges are causing on the blanket as it hangs off of Joyce’s shoulder. (Yes, we are THOSE people. We care about this stuff.) Others thought it must be a crochet chain added after the fact. (This was my first thought.) But that would make the colour changes pretty difficult. Back and forth we went, no one able to find a stitch that satisfied the criteria. 

I am not ashamed to admit that I called my mother to ask for help on this one. 

Like Joyce, my mother is pretty damned kick-ass and so, of course, she had it figured out by the next time I spoke with her. (We talk most days, and she’s 15 hours behind me,  to give you an idea of the turnaround time.) Viking Mama says it’s a crochet cable stitch over top of a double crochet background, in multiples of 15. The cabled ‘V’ drops down  to anchor in the previous row. This is how you get the slightly off colour stripe that you can see in the close up image.

Mama Viking’s instructions* are: 

1. Make a crochet chain, in multiples of 15 +3, until you have a length that is suitable for your desired blanket size, turn work;
2. (WS) Dbl crochet into 2nd stitch from hook, continue dbl crochet into each stitch to end of chain. Chain 3, turn work. 
3. (RS) Skip first stitch. Dbl crochet next 14 stitches. Insert hook (front to back) into the base of stitch 15 on the row BELOW. Pull up a loop, bringing it to the top of the last dbl crochet worked, and finish with a locking stitch. (Makes the right leg of the ‘V’)
4. Dbl crochet two stitches. Insert hook (front to back) into the base of stitch 15 on the row BELOW. Pull up a loop, bringing it to the top of the last dbl crochet worked, and finish with a locking stitch. (Makes the left leg of the ‘V’)
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 to the end of the row. Chain 3, turn work.
6. (WS) Work as row 2
7. Continue working RS rows following steps 3 &4 and WS rows following step 2 until the blanket is your desired size.**
8. Finish with a half double crochet border for additional stability.

*Mama Viking is American, so double check your crochet terminology to be sure you are working the correct stitch!

** If you would like to work the colour stripes as seen in Episode 5 the colour blocking is 12 rows green, 4 rows red, 4 rows variegated, 4 rows red, then repeat.

S1E5 - Nancy’s white fingerless gloves

Can we just enjoy the juxtaposition of intsy Nancy wielding a gun while wearing dainty fingerless gloves? This is exactly the type of stuff the costumers for the show did that I just love. It is Nancy all in one - dainty and soft and very feminine, but she will Jack. You. Up. if you cross her. Also, practical to a T - if she were wearing full on gloves she wouldn't be able to feel the bat or the trigger when she was holding them.

Pattern suggestion: 

Fingerless Gloves on Two Needles by Margaret Jones 

Yarn Suggestion: 

Adagio Mills 4 ply Sock in Clouds

Fibre Co Meadow in Queen Anne’s Lace (bit on the pricy side, but you’ll get several pairs of gloves from one hank and then you and your gal pals can all be Nancy!)

I’d suggest making these with lace weight held double in place of fingering weight yarn, for extra drape. (If you check the photos her gloves are pretty delicate, even though she’s out monster hunting.)

S1E5 - Dustin’s geometric colourwork cardigan 

I am so pleased that I get to focus on Dustin a little bit. I love him - to bits - even though he was meant to be a throw away character in the first season (and therefore didn’t get the growth arcs certain other characters got). Gatten Matarazzo made the character a staple to the storyline and captured my heart. He’s just so sweet and thoughtful and clever and totally reminds me of a couple of my guy friends from middle school. 

Also, I adore his floppy curls. They remind me of Youngling when she was younger - they could both give Shirley Temple a run for her money. XD

But enough about Gatten - more about this cardi.

Dustin’s funeral cardigan is pretty simple when you first look at it. It’s a standard v-neck button down cardigan with some horizontal bands of colourwork motifs. If you look closer, though, you will see that those motifs are actually very reminiscent of the old arcade game Galaga. Righteous, eh?

I don’t know if the wardrobe team meant for the cardi to look like it was inspired by Galaga or if it was just a nifty coincidence with a factory-made garment they found searching the interwebs, but my pedantic detail oriented side was very happy to notice this. And now you can’t unsee it either. ;o)

The bonus would be that other retro game lovers will likely pick up on the similarities if you are wearing this cardi, giving you extra in-the-know geek points at your next convention or date night. (What, you don’t go to the arcade with your sweetie for date night? You’re missing out!)

Making this cardi would be fairly straight forward. You can follow the suggested pattern (given below), just omit the pockets and insert the colour chart where appropriate. The pattern is bottom up, which makes placing the colour charts (which should start just after the ribbing for the waistband and cuffs) easy-peasy. 

Suggested Pattern:

Father Knows Best Cardigan by Alexandra Virgiel

Colourwork Chart shown here (Hint: right click and save-as so you can expand the chart as much as you want to be able to see the grid.)

Suggested Yarn: 

Cascade 220 in Greystone Heather #9491 (main colour) and Black #8555 (contrast colour)

 Wishing you all a weekend chock full of making, crafting, and relaxation!




Enjoying the blog?     It takes a lot of caffeine and yarn to make this happen! ;)