Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Category: Stitches

  • Evolution of a Stitch

    Evolution of a Stitch

    • Jacobean
    • Details

    Today I released a new pattern “Jacobean”. It is a heavily embellished hat, worked in two colours. It combines an embroidery style stitch, fair-isle patterning on the crown and beads throughtout. It was knit with Ancient Arts hand dyed Lascaux Fine in the “A Walk in the Woods” and “Scent and Scensibility” colourways.

    One of the stitch patterns used is a “drawn” stitch and is a variation of the pattern used in the Big Leaf Maple pattern. It is the first of 3 hat patterns that feature the drawn stitch, each one worked differently than the original pattern.

    The link to Big Leaf above contains a short video on how to work the “drawn stitch” pattern.

    In Big Leaf Maple I used the stitch exactly as I found it. Two colours, striping in pattern. With this pattern I isolated the “drawn stitch” part of the pattern and used it as an detail stitch only, working it in as a contrasting colour pattern worked over the main colour, almost like an embroidery stitch. The look of the stitch reminded me of an Embroidery technique called Jacobean couching. Hence the name Jacobean.

    I am a big fan of embroidery, unless I am the one doing it. I am not very proficient and have never taken the time to figure out how to change that. With stitches like the “drawn stitch”, various knitted quilting sts and “Roositud”, an Estonian embellishing technique, I find that I don’t need to learn how to embroider. I just work the techniques as I knit.

    • Brimmed Cap
    • Floral Bulky
    • Big Leaf Maple

    It is going to be a stormy day here! Lots of heavy wind and rain! Time to pull out all the woolies and get ready for the rest of Fall and the Winter ahead!

    Have you heard of Wovember on Instragram? I just read about it yesterday. I am thinking that I might participate. I will fill you in when I know more.

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

  • Knitting Alternatives

    Knitting Alternatives

    What do knitters do when they want to play with fibre but really don’t feel like knitting? I am primarily a knitter, but I can sew, but that isn’t quite the same is it? And I have dabbled at hand-dying yarns and hand-painting my knitting with dyes, two very different approaches to adding dye to your knitting. I love them both.

    Hand-painted after knitting – Garden Gate Shawl

    Hand-dying yarns is much faster to do, but takes longer to get to the finished product. Hand-painting your knitting with dyes gets you a finished product quite quickly, as you have already done the knitting! However painting your knitting takes longer to do than painting your yarn. For a quick fix – I like to paint my yarn!

    Two years ago I started to play at dying with Darlene – my co-worker and friend. She is an old hand at it and basically held my hand as I learned the in’s and outs. We worked with Wilton Cake Dyes – non-toxic – bright colours – inexpensive to play with and a hole lot of fun! Take a minute and google dyeing with Wilton Food Dyes – there are lots of great how-to instructions!

    We painted a sock blank and then we painted some hanks of yarn. I had some fine alpaca laceweight and then some fingering weight non-superwash merino, a good basic worsted wool and some mohair/silk blend yarn. Darlene had a similar collection.

    We had a ball!

    Alpaca lace weight – hand-dyed and then knit.
    Merino Sock blank knit into a small shawl called Shoulder Blade
    More Fruits of our labour!

    Why am I thinking about this now? Well, now that covid restrictions have been loosened, we are thinking of doing it again! Maybe with more traditional acid dyes this time! I will have to start collecting some undyed yarns to play with – stash diving here I come!

    I have already made a bit of a start – I do have a fairly extensive collection of undyed yarns – always thinking that I would do more knitting and then painting – there is never enough time in the year or all of my ideas! What do you think?

    Last time the alpaca went from undyed to Wow! I think that this time I will go for a more subdued sultry kind of vibe, reds with black and gold highlights maybe – or maybe not – dyeing is not a precise craft when you are learning – but we must have goals. I will need to wind off a couple of 100 gr hanks first though!

    I have about 1500 yds of the brushed cashmere and silk, I will need to wind those as well! I am really curious to see how this takes the dyes. Cashmere is usually a little subdued when dyed, but silk takes the dye vividly and glows. The combination is intriguing. I know the Mohair and silk, Maidenhair from Handmaiden will be gorgeous. I have painted this one in knitting many times! But I have never dyed it in the skein before. A good start don’t you think? What else should I try? Any suggestions?

    Well back to my knitting and it is also time for tea. I am going to try a new (to me) tea, It is Whittard # 12, English Rose flavoured black tea. I bought it this morning and when I opened the cannister! Isn’t it beautiful? I hope it tastes as good as it looks! The aroma is that of old fashioned blooming Summer Roses!

    Be well and knit Happy!

    Lynette

    PS – below is the hand-dyed version of the Celebration Shawl

  • Another Sunday, Another Pattern

    Another Sunday, Another Pattern

    Meet the Big Leaf Maple -Cowl and Toque. Knit with Handmaiden Flouf, on big needles – they are a quick and fun knit.

    Both items are knit in the round and from the top down. The big leaf stitch is a type of drawn stitch and the post here has a video that I did to show how to knit the stitch.

    Just Playing Around will be available at half price for just another evening. By around 9:00am pacific time the price will revert to the full price of $24.00.

    It has been a wonderfully sunny weekend here and I have spent a lot of time in the back Garden. We spend a lot of time here in the Summer.

    Where do you spend a lot of your Summer Time, well your free time anyway? On your Deck? In a your Garden? In a park? Out in the woods? We all have our favourite places, I hope to share some of mine with you!

    Be well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

    Another pattern to be released soon! Elise and I had some fun with a photo shoot this morning.

    Crystalline
  • Drawing the Big Leaf

    Drawing the Big Leaf

    Video is approximately 3 min long. Watch and learn how to “draw” the motif for the Big Leaf Maple Cowl and Hat.

    Big Maple Cowl and Hat is worked in a “drawn” stitch in that the contrast yarns are drawn through an eyelet pattern created in the rows or rounds before the contrast colour is introduced. I was really taken with this technique as it creates another layer of colour over our base.

    This technique is some times called knitting into stitches below, though I think that drawn stitches better describes the technique as we are not really creating stitches, just loops. The yarn used is not really knit to begin with, just pulled through holes in our knitting and then knit together to gather and close the stitch.

    There will be a few more patterns in the Just Playing Around Ebook that will feature this stitch.

    Heading into Fall

    It always amazes me how much certain knit stitches can look like like flowers, or leaves or other natural shapes. Norah Gaughan really explored that concept in her book Knitting Nature.

    The Big Leaf Maple is a species of Maple that we see on Vancouver Island. I see it on all of my favourite walks and at all times of the year. It is truly a beautiful tree at all times but its leaves are immense – more than 12 inches across and perfectly formed, just as nature intended.

    This stitch was just a stitch until one day I saw it as a maple leaf now that is all I can see. I hope that you see it too!

    Turn on your speaker as you watch the video and you can hear my explanation as I knit and a little cursing as I correct myself!

    Be well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette