(Mine is the blue-green-purple one, of course!)
The first in a series of projects I'm doing which I consider my "Finally Joining the Crowd" series of projects that I'm working on this spring. The other two are Clapotis and the February Lady Sweater. If you're at all familiar with popular knitting projects, you'll recognize these are REALLY popular right now. Currently Clapotis and February Lady Sweater are both in the top 10 popular patterns on Ravelry, and have been for ages. And yes, they've been on my queue for ages too, but now that I have knitting time, I'm trying to catch up on the queue and see some of these projects that people are so excited about.
Gaia isn't quite as common as the other two patterns yet, but it's a bit newer, too. We actually saw this one all over the place at Stitches, and that's what piqued our interest. It's designed to play with self-striping yarn (pattern calls for sock weight, but I did see one that worked with worsted - it's one of those nice flexible patterns). The pattern calls for Noro Kureyon Sock, but any self-striping yarn will work. Sarah and I are using Noro Silk Garden Sock (a little lighter, for us desert dwellers), and a lady in one of my Stitches classes had worked it in Mini Mochi, another gorgeously colored yarn. Those are the ones I've seen in person, but like I said, any self-striper will work. I'm working on US 5's and Sarah (who's a much looser knitter) is down a few sizes (I think on 3's). Being a shawl, though, gauge is less important - no fitting to worry about. Same reason I love scarves!
Seeing it on a bunch of people at Stitches, yet looking so different on each one because of the yarn, definitely got our attention. The eyelet rows are designed to come when the yarn starts changing color, so it leads to a really fun effect, and it makes it pretty mindless too. No counting rows or anything, just watch the yarn! I love how the front and back look a little different from the stockinette and reverse stockinette. The change in stitch is just enough to make different colors pop on each side. A reversible project, without being too mindless or two complicated. And for me, a non-sock knitter, it's a chance to use some of the fun self-striping sock yarns! Win!
So, since both of us were interested, we decided to work it as a KAL. Sarah's first KAL, actually. Even if it's only 2 people, we're still knitting the same project together at the same time, so still counts in my book! And we're hoping that if the other handful of folk in our knitting group see us having fun with a joint project, maybe we can talk them into doing one with us too. We're hoping something like Coco Vee for the next project. I was in Jane Slicer-Smith's Stitches Etc. class, and got to handle her Coco Vee sample, and it's a lot of fun! And miters, as complicated as they look, are really very simple. If you can do garter stitch and pick up stitches and decrease, you can do a mitered project, so we think it could be a good project for the less experienced folk in the group. Not too hard for them, but with impressive results. And if nothing else, it might be just us 2 again, but that's OK too :)
Oh, yeah, Gaia is a free Ravelry download, if you're interested.
The first in a series of projects I'm doing which I consider my "Finally Joining the Crowd" series of projects that I'm working on this spring. The other two are Clapotis and the February Lady Sweater. If you're at all familiar with popular knitting projects, you'll recognize these are REALLY popular right now. Currently Clapotis and February Lady Sweater are both in the top 10 popular patterns on Ravelry, and have been for ages. And yes, they've been on my queue for ages too, but now that I have knitting time, I'm trying to catch up on the queue and see some of these projects that people are so excited about.
Gaia isn't quite as common as the other two patterns yet, but it's a bit newer, too. We actually saw this one all over the place at Stitches, and that's what piqued our interest. It's designed to play with self-striping yarn (pattern calls for sock weight, but I did see one that worked with worsted - it's one of those nice flexible patterns). The pattern calls for Noro Kureyon Sock, but any self-striping yarn will work. Sarah and I are using Noro Silk Garden Sock (a little lighter, for us desert dwellers), and a lady in one of my Stitches classes had worked it in Mini Mochi, another gorgeously colored yarn. Those are the ones I've seen in person, but like I said, any self-striper will work. I'm working on US 5's and Sarah (who's a much looser knitter) is down a few sizes (I think on 3's). Being a shawl, though, gauge is less important - no fitting to worry about. Same reason I love scarves!
Seeing it on a bunch of people at Stitches, yet looking so different on each one because of the yarn, definitely got our attention. The eyelet rows are designed to come when the yarn starts changing color, so it leads to a really fun effect, and it makes it pretty mindless too. No counting rows or anything, just watch the yarn! I love how the front and back look a little different from the stockinette and reverse stockinette. The change in stitch is just enough to make different colors pop on each side. A reversible project, without being too mindless or two complicated. And for me, a non-sock knitter, it's a chance to use some of the fun self-striping sock yarns! Win!
So, since both of us were interested, we decided to work it as a KAL. Sarah's first KAL, actually. Even if it's only 2 people, we're still knitting the same project together at the same time, so still counts in my book! And we're hoping that if the other handful of folk in our knitting group see us having fun with a joint project, maybe we can talk them into doing one with us too. We're hoping something like Coco Vee for the next project. I was in Jane Slicer-Smith's Stitches Etc. class, and got to handle her Coco Vee sample, and it's a lot of fun! And miters, as complicated as they look, are really very simple. If you can do garter stitch and pick up stitches and decrease, you can do a mitered project, so we think it could be a good project for the less experienced folk in the group. Not too hard for them, but with impressive results. And if nothing else, it might be just us 2 again, but that's OK too :)
Oh, yeah, Gaia is a free Ravelry download, if you're interested.
3 comments:
I haven't tried Gaia, but it looks like a fun pattern.
Beautiful colours!
Now you did it! I've been forced to add the Gaia to my project wanna-knits :)
Your yarn choice is very cool :)
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