{"id":6103,"date":"2014-11-23T15:48:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T21:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2014-11-23T15:48:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T21:48:03","slug":"exp-knitting-two-gauge-hourglass-pillow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/23\/exp-knitting-two-gauge-hourglass-pillow\/","title":{"rendered":"Experimental Knitting: 2-Gauge Hourglass Pillow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hey, friends! I was sick for a whole 5 days and didn’t touch my needles. I decided I should probably compose a post about a pillow I knit early this year. I don’t have a pattern written up because I don’t really think anyone wants to knit one, but perhaps you might like the idea of using two gauges at once and YOU want to experiment, too? Anyway…<\/p>\n

Way, waaaay back in February, I started knitting a pillow with Lion Brand’s Luxe Fur Yarn<\/a>\"\". It was on super sale at Michael’s and so so soft, I picked up like 10 balls and was determined to knit something…ANYTHING with it. Maybe a teddy bear?! <\/p>\n

I knew that it would be a little tricky to knit with yarn that had so much texture, so I paired it with a regular worsted weight yarn in a similar tone. That just so happened to be Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca. I started knitting a gauge swatch and wondered what it would look like if I dropped the fur and worked stripes without it. I knew I’d need to use a smaller needle, so I switched right there. I made a little swatch with furry stripes and knew I was on to something.<\/p>\n

What proceeded was a marathon knitting session where I jotted down notes on notes of measurements and calculated possible patterns. I realized that one stitch with both yarns (and the larger needle) was close enough to two stitches with just my lighter yarn (and smaller needle). Using a series of short rows, I was able to create the front of the pillow you see above in one single piece. The blocking I did afterwards was minimal, too. I didn’t have much to do once I finished. <\/p>\n

Yarns:<\/b> Lion Brand Luxe Fur (about 6 skeins) and Berroco Ultra Alpaca (2 skeins)
\nNeedles:<\/b> 6.5 mm (US 10.5) and 3.75 mm (US 5) 29″ circular needles (you’ll be using both at the same time)
\nGauges:<\/b> (both yarns, bigger needle)<\/i> 16 sts x 28 rows = 6″ x 6″ in garter stitch
\n(lighter yarn, smaller needle)<\/i> 11 sts x 15 rows = 2″ x 2″ in stockinette stitch<\/p>\n

\"luxefur03\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

I started by casting on 50 stitches with both yarns and the bigger needle. I knit one row, then started my work with both needles and gauges. When I was using the smaller needle, I knit with only the ultra alpaca. When I switched back to the larger needle, I picked up the Luxe Fur.<\/p>\n

Row 2 looked something like this: With smaller needle, kfb, switch to larger needle and both yarns, K 48, switch to smaller needle, kfb, turn. [What I ended up with is 4 stitches on the smaller needle and 48 stitches left on the bigger needle]<\/p>\n

Still using smaller needle,<\/i> Rows 3 and 4 were my short rows. For Row 3, I slipped the edge stitch, purled the next stitch, wrapped the next stitch and turned. Row 4, I knit the two stitches, then turned. <\/p>\n

Row 5 went right across. When I came to a wrapped stitch, I just picked the wrap up and knit it with the stitch. I started with the smaller needle and slipped 1, P 1, switch needles and K 48, switch needles and P 2, turn. The furry part of the pillow is in garter stitch while the other is in stockinette. <\/p>\n

Rows 6 and 7 were short rows like 3 and 4. Row 6: slip 1, K 1, wrap and turn. Row 7: P 2, turn.<\/p>\n

Row 8 and every 6th row from here on out, I increased the number of stockinette stitches by knitting in the front and back of the edge fur stitches with the smaller needle. I ended up with 4 rows of stockinette in the lighter yarn equaling 2 rows of garter stitch in the heavier weight. It certainly wasn’t a perfect match, but it worked! I increased the stockinette portion until I only had 10 stitches left in the original gauge on the larger needle and 80 stitches on the smaller needle (40 on each side). <\/p>\n

\"luxefur02\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

At this point, I started the same sort of pattern, but instead of increasing the stockinette portion, I decreased by using my larger needle and both yarns. Basically, I would use the larger needle and both yarns to turn two stockinette stitches into one on either side of my fuzzy center. Once I got back to 50 stitches on my larger needle, I had about as close to a square as I would get. <\/p>\n

It was actually a rather simple pattern, but the result looks rather impressive, if I may say so. <\/p>\n

The back of the pillow is two fuzzy panels with twisted rib in the smaller gauge. It was meant to be an envelope design, but I stuffed a 24″ pillow and it gaped too much, so I attached a zipper along the edge of one side and along the furry edge of the other. <\/p>\n

\"luxefur04\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

\"luxefur01\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Do you ever get the desire to experiment with knitting like this? I can say this is the first time for me. I don’t know if I’ll make anything similar. This pillow is enormous, so maybe one day I’ll knit a smaller one to compliment it. I DO like knitting with yarns I don’t normally have in rotation. That’s why I’m currently in a big chunky yarn fit. I have knit no less than 5 cowls for Christmas. This entire week I’ve been sick, all I wanted to do was knit, but coughing and knitting equals gross.<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Hey, friends! I was sick for a whole 5 days and didn’t touch my needles. I decided I should probably compose a post about a pillow I knit early this year. I don’t have a pattern written up because I don’t really think anyone wants to knit [Read More…]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81,227],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6103"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6119,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions\/6119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodknits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}