Friday, 24 July 2026

Stars And Stripes [ And Squares]

In this hot weather, Kirsten went for a pattern that was simple, not too brain-stretching. Life is never simple though…

Her idea was to see what happens as a two colour-changing yarns interact with each other. Kirsten chose Sirdar Crofter dk, designed to knit into a faux fair-isle pattern, and a self striping yarn with gradual colour changes. In 2010, I knitted a v-neck top in this same yarn. I think K's is more 50 shades of grey, whereas mine was darker bluey purples. [synchronicity again, both going for random dye yarns this month]

Her second yarn, a self-striping yarn where the colour changes gradually. It was a simple stocking stitch/two row pattern, The downside of a small six inch square is that the colours don't change and blend fast enough, and the stripes do not show up as clearly as she had hoped. Plus she discovered she had miscounted the stitches on one square. Then mislaid the other, ended up knitting a third, and finally found them all. Poor Kirsten, we have all been there!

She said in her email that she has sent me the one which reminded her most of my beloved Breton tops and enclosed a shot of 3 squares! 

But look, she sent me two of them. How kind. The 'flat gift' in my package is a pack of post-it notes. The covers are impregnated with daisy and chamomile seeds. The pages inside made of sustainable grass paper.  Kirsten has certainly 'earned her stripes' this month. 
I award her *****

20 comments:

  1. I love working with self striping yarn. Those squares are lovely.

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  2. I love the square on the right of the three, it would be a wonderful Spring/Autumn jumper to wear with jeans. πŸ˜€

    I love a bit of synchronicity.

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  3. I feel for Kirsten as it sounds like it all got a little confusing, but the blocks look amazing and there's great joy in experimenting.
    The notes impregnated with seeds sound amazing!

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    1. I will finish using the post-its first

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  4. One time my sister and me went to a craft exhibition and she was astounded to learn that the yarn of some of the self-striping garments actually came off the ball like that and subsequently knitted up as stripes! I've used Crofter in the past when I was doing the baby knitting. Lovely squares this week.

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    1. Oh they have some pretty pastel baby colours

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  5. Lovely! I have a cupboard full of striped tops!

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    1. Your Breton habit is almost as bad as mine

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  6. That is a beautiful yarn! I love the subtle color changes. JanF

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  7. Those squares look lovely!

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    1. πŸŸ₯ 🟩 🟨 🟦 πŸŸͺ

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  8. 🟦 πŸŸͺπŸŸ₯ 🟩 🟨

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  9. The squares are lovely. I received a birthday card last year which had wild flower seeds incorporated into the handmade paper, with the instructions to soak and plant it! I had to save it in the freezer since it was too late in the year to plant it, and now I see some unusual plants coming up.

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    Replies
    1. What a lovely idea for a birthday card

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