Blog Posts

King Charles Brocade

• Knitting

This weeks Crazy Quilt swatch is the King Charles Brocade from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 31.

I knit this beautiful pattern in a nice dark blue from Berroco Vintage Chunky called Dungaree, color 6187.

Enjoy!

Hexagon Swatch

• William Estep
• Knitting

The Crazy Quilt swatch block knitting continues! In Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 67, the Hexagon Pattern is an interesting mix of colors and slip stitches. This stitch pattern is deceptively simple. The garter stitch rows are slipped in alternating checks against a smooth background of stockinette stitch.

I used Paintbox Yarns Simply Chunky for this swatch. The darker foreground color is Raspberry Pink, color 343, and the background color is Ballet Pink, color 352.

Trellis With Moss Stitch

• Knitting

The next Crazy Quilt swatch block is the beautiful Trellis with Moss Stitch pattern in Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 261.

I used the Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn in Fuchsia. It’s a descent alternative to full plastic yarns. It’s a good percentage of wool, and has a nice feel, and it will block.

The traveling cables are twisted so the stitches ride on top of the cables and really stand proud against the background of purl bumps. The moss stitch is a nice fill for the diamonds. It’s not easy to keep the Moss stitch tight with such a bulky yarn, but just be diligent and tighten a little before each purl.

Staghorn Cable Swatch

• Knitting

Another stitch pattern for what I’m calling my Crazy Swatch Quilt project is the Staghorn Cable from Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

(Yes, the cable flare does bug me, and I will probably re-knit this pattern before adding to the blanket.)

This one is in Paintbox Yarns Simply Chunky color Daffodil Yellow. The yarn is ok to work with. I’m not a fan of acrylic yarns, but Paintbox comes in a bunch of colors.

Swatch Quilt Ideas

• William Estep
• Knitting

I’m working through Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns and making some swatches. I think I’ll make them large, with a bulky yarn and maybe turn the resulting swatches into a blanket someday.

Today it’s the Inverness Diamonds pattern using Berroco Vintage Chunky left-overs from my large cardigan.

Nice texture. Lovely pattern. Enjoy!

Error Running Coverage on Ubuntu

• William Estep
• Programming

Trying to install pytest and coverage on my ubuntu development server, and ran into an issue when running coverage:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_sqlite3'

To resolve, install python with enable extensions:

PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS="--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions" pyenv install 3.9.2

Enjoy!

Found My Watchcap

• William Estep
• Knitting

Cleaning out the boat I found my old watch cap (wool hat) that I made back in 2004 for an Alaska cruise. So glad to see it again! It’s in pretty good shape, and even has a few Dalmatian hairs still stuck in it (miss you Samson!).

Enjoy!

Freestyle Caps by Cheryl Andrews

• William Estep
• Knitting

I’ve made two of the Freestyle Caps by Cheryl Andrews. It’s a fun knit. The construction of the brim doesn’t require any additional support, and the welt around the lower edge is a nice touch.

It’s a hat that works well for my friend @cerberus_forge.

Enjoy!

My First Gloves

• William Estep
• Knitting

We don’t get a lot of cold weather here in Florida, but it’s been chilly the past few days, and my new “Don’t skid, honey!” by Justin Lorkowska gloves are just right.

Comfortable, easy knit, and stylish.

Enjoy!

The Fitzgerald Sweater

• William Estep
• Knitting

I finished knitting my first Cardigan, and my first sweater done in pieces. The pattern (Fitzgerald by Amy Christoffers) is from Berroco and uses the Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn, so the pattern knits quickly. (Well…quickly for a sweater.) I’m still waiting on the buttons to arrive to call the sweater 100% complete.

I really like how it turned out. I’m not really a fan of plastic yarns, but the Berroco Vintage has a good amount of wool, and is easy to work with. Plus, it’s not a huge financial investment.