It’s Friday! You know what that means Cosplayers and Geek-chic knitters! Time for another installment of Friday Fibre Watch!
!SPOILER ALERT!
For those of you joining for the first time these little recaps do contain spoilers. If you like to do things in order, you can check out Season 1 Friday Fibre Watch posts here.
We wrapped up Season 1 of Stranger Things last time, so we are on to Season 2 today. So, so, SO, many great fibre finds in this episode, guys. I can’t even! In fact, I couldn’t even to the point that I’ve had to split this post up into more than one part...
Got your eggos and bevvie of choice ready?
It’s been three-hundred-and-fifty-two days since El disappeared and Will was rescued from the Upside Down. In the near year since the big showdown with Papa, Hawkins Lab cronies, and the big bad Demogorgon Joyce has gained a boyfriend (not the one we all thought), Chief Hopper has gained a daughter (not that either of them realise it yet); Dustin is sporting a new set of front pearly whites and Nancy has a new haircut. So much has changed, and nothing has changed. Nancy still has eyes for Jonathan, Barb’s parents are still wondering where she is, and the yarn goodies are still EVERYWHERE!
S1E1 - Claudia Henderson’s green chevron blanket.
This 1980’s household staple makes its appearance in the first minute or so of the episode. Dustin is frantically tearing the couch apart looking for quarters. It’s subtle, you almost wouldn’t notice it, unless you’re someone like me in which these things just jump out at you and scream bloody gorgon. However, since it flashes by rather quickly, finding a photo of the blanket proved difficult. The image here is actually taken from the end of Season 2, but I’ve cropped it to avoid spoilering a very minor (but emotional!) story arc.
This is a great project if you’re just learning to crochet, or for those of you who don’t have crazy crochet skillz, like Mama Viking. Also, it’s an excellent subtle geek project that can help you filter out those in the know. ;o)
This technique has been around FOREVER it seems, so there are heaps of great resources on it. If you want a primer on chevron stitches with a bit of in-depth explanations around how to modify and troubleshoot, I suggest this primer by Red Heart. (Don’t feel self conscious, we are all nerds here, we totally get it.)
If you just want to jump right in and make the darn blanket, forget all that grey matter enhancement stuff, then Mrs Moon has a great crochet pattern. If you don’t crochet, but want a near-enough look, Espace Tricot has a knitted pattern that is pretty spot
The blanket itself has a 6 colour fade/gradient progression, going from dark earthy green to a pale grey.
Suggested Pattern: (Crochet) Chevron Blanket by Mrs Moon OR (knitted version) Chevron Blanket by Espace Tricot
Suggested Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK in 408 Vanilla Cream, 425 Pistachio Green, 429 Lime Green, 426 Spearmint Green, 430 Grass Green, and 428 Racing Green
S1E1 - Claudia Henderson’s Striped Crochet Throw
Hey look, it’s El’s socks in blanket form! Way to foreshadow and to subtly cue that El has a lasting impression on her friends, Wardrobe.
I didn’t the first time, but I’m holding firm to the excuse that there was a kitty involved, and so of COURSE I’d be distracted. This project would be about the same difficulty as the chevron blanket. It’s a great choice for a beginner because of the repetition, so you’ll get lots of practice with one particular stitch. The colour changes should help keep anyone above absolute beginner level interested. Given the repetition and ‘lightness’ on the technical side, this is also great convention or cinema/tv time knitting.
Suggested Pattern: Basic Double Crochet Blanket by Kristine in Between (hey another blogger!)
Suggested Yarn: Paintbox Yarns in 420 Blood Orange, 428 Racing Green, and 403 Champagne White
Note: Colour changes here are 10 rows white 3 row green, 6 rows white, 3 row orange, repeat.
S1E1 - Nancy’s blue and white cabled vertical stripe jumper
New jumper to go with the new hairdo! If you followed along with Season 1 you’ll remember that Nancy had THE MOST costume changes and knitwear across the entire season. Also, it practically always took the form of a jumper or a cardigan. Season 2 is no different, and I’m thrilled. Though, I do appreciate that costuming lobbed me a bit of a softball for Nancy’s debut appearance, given the lack of lighting in this scene.
Despite the ‘mood’ lighting in this first scene, I think we can all agree that Nancy can give Buffy a run for her money in baby blue. What do you think?
Now this pattern looks complicated from a colour standpoint, but I assure you it's pretty simple. It's two colours, a nice bright white and a marled baby blue/white, both carried all the way around as your work the body and yoke/armscye sections. The long cables are worked using just the white yarn, the rest using only the marled yarn (carrying the white along the back) only on the body of the piece. The stripes rotate to a horizontal pattern for the sleeves, but there are no cables at that point. Cuffs and neck ribbing are all knitted in the background colour (blue).
The pattern I’m suggesting is a men’s jumper, but I think we can all agree that a basic straight-line jumper is really more of a unisex style and not let the fact that someone filed it under ‘Dudes’ stop us from making a great cosplay piece? Agreed? Cool.
There is a little tweaking that will need to happen, but it isn’t stressful.
Suggested Pattern: Rhino Jumper by Kelly Ordmann
Suggested Yarn: Main colour Knit Picks Stroll Tonal Sock in Frozen, Contrast colour Knit Picks Stroll Sock in White
S2E1 - The Pink Ladies jumpers
Grease the movie came out in 1978, yes, but that didn’t make this little side shot any less funny. The directors/producers might not have intended for this to be the parallel drawn here, but wow did it ever happen. The shot is quick, just of the three ‘bad girls’ oogling the new kids bum. (Honestly though, can you blame them? It’s pretty friggin’ nice. I’ve excluded the bad 80’s hair in the image, for your viewing pleasure.)
These three characters might bug me in so many ways, but look at their knits! We’ll go from right to left, moving along with increasing complexity.
First off is Carol’s very simple jumper (remember her from Season 1? She's on the far right and she HATES Nancy). It’s just a basic turtleneck, most likely long sleeved, waist length jumper. As with pretty much everything else at this time it’s going to have the set-in sleeves (don’t worry, we start seeing raglans this season, so if you’re over making armscyes, you’ll get a reprieve). The eye catching thing about this piece, however, is the colour fade. Yummy yummy green into grey.
Suggested Pattern: Adults Knit Turtleneck Pullover by Yarnspirations
Suggested Yarn: Sweet Georgia Superwash Worsted in Kale Chip and Snowfall
Note: Jumper fades from green into grey. You can use a similar technique as from any of Andrea Mowry’s fade patterns for fading in the second colour.
Girl in the middle (dark hair) has another straightforward crew neck jumper, waist length with, again, set in sleeves likely stopping at the wrist. We bump up the complexity with a bit of colour change, but it’s a stripe pattern, so you don’t need to carry multiple strands along as you knit, you get to change at the start of a row - easy peasy.
Suggested Pattern: No Frills Sweater by Petite Knits
Suggested Yarn: Berocco Ultra Wool in Main Colour - 3300 Snow ; Stripes - 3332 Blue Jay and 33159 Hollyhock
Note: The stripes are in clusters of 6 row repeats, the colour changes are: 2 rows aqua, 1 row white, 1 row purple, 1 row white, 1 row purple. The number of rows making up the blocks of white between stripe clusters will vary depending on your jumper size and gauge, but there is about 2.5-3 inches of 'white space' between clusters.
Girl on the left has the most intricate jumper of them all, and I really would love to make this one. It’s got a fancy lace yoke with a textured body. If it wasn’t for the fact that this is meant to be Indiana in October, I’d bet it’s got some sort of delicate puff sleeve. Either way I love how the yarn has a bit of a sparkle to it, which is going to make yarn shopping even more fun!
The pattern is going to require a little tweaking, but this top is going to have plenty of out-of-convention wear that I think you’ll agree it’s worth it.
- Knit the entire thing in the round, rather than flat with a garter button band.
- Work the lace pattern to the same point down the entire yoke, rather than staggered as the original pattern suggests.
- Knit using either a textured yarn, or with two yarns held double as suggested below, to get the wonderful texture down the body of the piece. Pretty sure the original garment was made with an angora or a boucle yarn.
Suggested Pattern: Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier (how perfect is the name for this project?!?)
Suggested Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Peerie in Aurora held double with Shibui Silk Cloud in Pool
That should be enough to get you started for Season 2. Next week we'll continue on with Episode 1 (we are about halfway through all the amazing knits that popped up).
Until then, wishing you all a weekend chock full of making, crafting, and relaxation!
Previous Stranger Strings Posts
Season 1 Episodes 1-3
Season 1 Episode 4
Season 1 Episode 5
Season 1 Episodes 6-8
!SPOILER ALERT!
For those of you joining for the first time these little recaps do contain spoilers. If you like to do things in order, you can check out Season 1 Friday Fibre Watch posts here.
We wrapped up Season 1 of Stranger Things last time, so we are on to Season 2 today. So, so, SO, many great fibre finds in this episode, guys. I can’t even! In fact, I couldn’t even to the point that I’ve had to split this post up into more than one part...
Got your eggos and bevvie of choice ready?
It’s been three-hundred-and-fifty-two days since El disappeared and Will was rescued from the Upside Down. In the near year since the big showdown with Papa, Hawkins Lab cronies, and the big bad Demogorgon Joyce has gained a boyfriend (not the one we all thought), Chief Hopper has gained a daughter (not that either of them realise it yet); Dustin is sporting a new set of front pearly whites and Nancy has a new haircut. So much has changed, and nothing has changed. Nancy still has eyes for Jonathan, Barb’s parents are still wondering where she is, and the yarn goodies are still EVERYWHERE!
S1E1 - Claudia Henderson’s green chevron blanket.
This is a great project if you’re just learning to crochet, or for those of you who don’t have crazy crochet skillz, like Mama Viking. Also, it’s an excellent subtle geek project that can help you filter out those in the know. ;o)
This technique has been around FOREVER it seems, so there are heaps of great resources on it. If you want a primer on chevron stitches with a bit of in-depth explanations around how to modify and troubleshoot, I suggest this primer by Red Heart. (Don’t feel self conscious, we are all nerds here, we totally get it.)
If you just want to jump right in and make the darn blanket, forget all that grey matter enhancement stuff, then Mrs Moon has a great crochet pattern. If you don’t crochet, but want a near-enough look, Espace Tricot has a knitted pattern that is pretty spot
The blanket itself has a 6 colour fade/gradient progression, going from dark earthy green to a pale grey.
Suggested Pattern: (Crochet) Chevron Blanket by Mrs Moon OR (knitted version) Chevron Blanket by Espace Tricot
Suggested Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK in 408 Vanilla Cream, 425 Pistachio Green, 429 Lime Green, 426 Spearmint Green, 430 Grass Green, and 428 Racing Green
S1E1 - Claudia Henderson’s Striped Crochet Throw
I didn’t the first time, but I’m holding firm to the excuse that there was a kitty involved, and so of COURSE I’d be distracted. This project would be about the same difficulty as the chevron blanket. It’s a great choice for a beginner because of the repetition, so you’ll get lots of practice with one particular stitch. The colour changes should help keep anyone above absolute beginner level interested. Given the repetition and ‘lightness’ on the technical side, this is also great convention or cinema/tv time knitting.
Suggested Pattern: Basic Double Crochet Blanket by Kristine in Between (hey another blogger!)
Suggested Yarn: Paintbox Yarns in 420 Blood Orange, 428 Racing Green, and 403 Champagne White
Note: Colour changes here are 10 rows white 3 row green, 6 rows white, 3 row orange, repeat.
S1E1 - Nancy’s blue and white cabled vertical stripe jumper
Despite the ‘mood’ lighting in this first scene, I think we can all agree that Nancy can give Buffy a run for her money in baby blue. What do you think?
Now this pattern looks complicated from a colour standpoint, but I assure you it's pretty simple. It's two colours, a nice bright white and a marled baby blue/white, both carried all the way around as your work the body and yoke/armscye sections. The long cables are worked using just the white yarn, the rest using only the marled yarn (carrying the white along the back) only on the body of the piece. The stripes rotate to a horizontal pattern for the sleeves, but there are no cables at that point. Cuffs and neck ribbing are all knitted in the background colour (blue).
The pattern I’m suggesting is a men’s jumper, but I think we can all agree that a basic straight-line jumper is really more of a unisex style and not let the fact that someone filed it under ‘Dudes’ stop us from making a great cosplay piece? Agreed? Cool.
There is a little tweaking that will need to happen, but it isn’t stressful.
- Twist the cable only half as often as the pattern says to.
- Ignore the pattern’s cable instructions for the arms, work the arms in stockinette and alternate colours ever few rows. (The number of rows per colour should match the number of stitches for each colour column on the body.)
- As mentioned above, knit the main/background of the jumper in the blue, carrying the white yarn along until you come to a cable column, and then using the white for the cables.
Suggested Pattern: Rhino Jumper by Kelly Ordmann
Suggested Yarn: Main colour Knit Picks Stroll Tonal Sock in Frozen, Contrast colour Knit Picks Stroll Sock in White
S2E1 - The Pink Ladies jumpers
Grease the movie came out in 1978, yes, but that didn’t make this little side shot any less funny. The directors/producers might not have intended for this to be the parallel drawn here, but wow did it ever happen. The shot is quick, just of the three ‘bad girls’ oogling the new kids bum. (Honestly though, can you blame them? It’s pretty friggin’ nice. I’ve excluded the bad 80’s hair in the image, for your viewing pleasure.)
These three characters might bug me in so many ways, but look at their knits! We’ll go from right to left, moving along with increasing complexity.
Suggested Yarn: Sweet Georgia Superwash Worsted in Kale Chip and Snowfall
Note: Jumper fades from green into grey. You can use a similar technique as from any of Andrea Mowry’s fade patterns for fading in the second colour.
Girl in the middle (dark hair) has another straightforward crew neck jumper, waist length with, again, set in sleeves likely stopping at the wrist. We bump up the complexity with a bit of colour change, but it’s a stripe pattern, so you don’t need to carry multiple strands along as you knit, you get to change at the start of a row - easy peasy.
Suggested Pattern: No Frills Sweater by Petite Knits
Suggested Yarn: Berocco Ultra Wool in Main Colour - 3300 Snow ; Stripes - 3332 Blue Jay and 33159 Hollyhock
Note: The stripes are in clusters of 6 row repeats, the colour changes are: 2 rows aqua, 1 row white, 1 row purple, 1 row white, 1 row purple. The number of rows making up the blocks of white between stripe clusters will vary depending on your jumper size and gauge, but there is about 2.5-3 inches of 'white space' between clusters.
The pattern is going to require a little tweaking, but this top is going to have plenty of out-of-convention wear that I think you’ll agree it’s worth it.
- Knit the entire thing in the round, rather than flat with a garter button band.
- Work the lace pattern to the same point down the entire yoke, rather than staggered as the original pattern suggests.
- Knit using either a textured yarn, or with two yarns held double as suggested below, to get the wonderful texture down the body of the piece. Pretty sure the original garment was made with an angora or a boucle yarn.
Suggested Pattern: Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier (how perfect is the name for this project?!?)
Suggested Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Peerie in Aurora held double with Shibui Silk Cloud in Pool
That should be enough to get you started for Season 2. Next week we'll continue on with Episode 1 (we are about halfway through all the amazing knits that popped up).
Until then, wishing you all a weekend chock full of making, crafting, and relaxation!
Previous Stranger Strings Posts
Season 1 Episodes 1-3
Season 1 Episode 4
Season 1 Episode 5
Season 1 Episodes 6-8
Enjoying the blog? It takes a lot of caffeine and yarn to make this happen! ;)
Comments
Post a Comment