Go, click the above, watch it before it disappears Sunday night at midnight! I had no idea it was only there for a week, so I’m lucky I caught it. Also read Joss Whedon’s letter further down on the main page, “Read the Master Plan”.

Materials:

Worsted Weight yarn, two colours, 100 yds/90m each. Snail shell is shown in Bernat Super Value Ombre Mountain Lake (335yd/306m, uses less than half a skein) and snail body Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Solids Beige 160 yds/146m. The shell’s sleeve can also be done in the colour of the snail’s body, for a more realistic look. For a striped shell using two colours, label one CC1 and the second CC2.

1 set US6/4mm DPNs
US6/J/4mm crochet hook

Gauge
Approx 22 sts/25 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch
Gauge is not important for this project, but it is advisable to knit a firm fabric to prevent the stuffing from showing through.

The shell is worked the same as Nautie from Knitty until there are a total of 27 stitches, and is used with the designer’s permission. Edited slightly by me when relevant.

PATTERN NOTES
Coil Shell
Roll the shell back and upwards, toward your left needle; insert the tip of the left-hand needle into a stitch on the shell. Knit this stitch together with the next stitch on the needle.

Add Stuffing
This toy is stuffed as it is knit. When instructed to add stuffing, fill the length that has been knit with stuffing. This will begin when only a short length of I-Cord has been knit; at this point, use a knitting needle or pencil to poke a small amount of stuffing down the center of the cord.
For a striped shell, don’t worry about making a jogless join. One-row-high stripes will always look perfect at the seam line. (Try it if you don’t believe me.) The increases are hidden on the inside of the coil.

I-Cord
Using a circular or double-point needle, CO or pick up required number of sts.
Next Row: Instead of turning work around to work back on the WS, slide all sts to other end of needle, switch needle back to your left hand, bring yarn around back of work, and start knitting the sts again.
Repeat this row to form I-cord. After a few rows, work will begin to form a tube.

DIRECTIONS
Shell:
Using CC1, CO 3 sts. Work 1 row of I-Cord.
Join CC2 and continue working I-Cord as follows:
Row 1: Using CC2, m1, k to end.
Row 2: Using CC1, k all sts.
Row 3: Add stuffing; using CC2, k all sts.
Row 4: Using CC1, k all sts.
Rows 5-8: Work as for Rows 1-4.
Row 9: Using CC2, m1, k to end. 6 sts. Distribute sts evenly between 3 double-point needles and begin working in the round.
Round 10: Using CC1, coil shell, k to end.
Round 11: Add stuffing; using CC2, k all sts.
Round 12: Using CC1, k all sts.
Round 13: Using CC2, m1, k to end.
Repeat Rounds 10-13 until you have 27 sts.

To close the opening end of the shell:

Round 1: *k1, k2tog* to end (18 sts)
Round 2: *k1, k2tog* to end (12 sts)
Round 3: *k2tog* to end (6 sts)

Cut yarn leaving tail, thread through remaining stitches, pull tight and fasten off, weaving in ends.

Snail Sleeve:

With closure facing up and leaving a tail for weaving, pick up and knit 6 sts along the side of the shell near the closure, then 6 more along the side of the spiral. Knit in st st for 2.75 inches. Move live stitches to holder, or leave on DPN. You may need to weave spaces closed along the pick-up line.

Repeat on other side of shell. Join with kitchener stitch, single crochet around both openings.

Snail Body:

CO 6 sts, divide between 3 needles.

Round 1: kfb, knit to end (repeat for each needle)
Round 2: knit

Repeat these 2 rounds until there are 9 sts on each needle, 27 sts total. Next round, kfb once, then knit for the rest of the round to get to 28 sts.

Continue knitting with no increases until snail measures 5 inches from tip, or to desired length. Stuff, check to make sure it can fit snugly in the shell sleeve, adjust stuffing if need be. Divide remaining sts between 2 needles, BO using kitchener stitch.

Tentacles
On the corners of the top, about 2 sts from the edge of the kitchener seam, pick up 4 sts and work in i-cord for 1.5”. BO and rep for other side.

Optional
Snail eyes aren’t noticeable, but you can stitch on beads for eyes, or use thin yarn. A bead that matches the snail body at the tip of each tentacle would give a realistic look, black eyes on the body itself below the tentacles gives a cutesy look.

Weave in all ends, slide snail into sleeve.

If you have any questions, comments or errata, please let me know. I’d love to see the snails that other knitters have made with this pattern, including modifications.

Above pattern belongs to me, Denise Cameron, and the shell portion to Beth Skwarecki of Loxosceles. This pattern is free, and cannot be reproduced on other websites or books in part or in full without permission.

I was just listening Episode 60 of the Lime and Violet Podcast, and near the end they were looking at an etsy site (Gaslight Dyeworks, the username is yarnzombie). That person doesn’t have any 100% vegan fibers, but they mentioned how one of her rovings contained something called Black Diamond, which is carbonized bamboo.

I found another etsy seller that sells 100% Black Diamond, mataharispinnery, and the link takes you to a beautiful picture of what it is with an explanation below. In her words:

“Black Diamond is a Bamboo carbon fiber. Bamboo fiber is carbonized through baking at high temperatures producing an all-carbon fiber with the exact same shape. Black Diamond is resistant to ultra violet rays and possesses anti-odor properties. It also adjusts well to humidity and dryness. Black Diamond is a dream to spin. The top glides from your hand and the natural gun metal grey color is mesmerizing.”

I tried to find more information, but there wasn’t much else there. I’m not sure what this does to the bamboo itself aside from what she mentioned, and what it does environmentally (does it breakdown faster, does the baking process release chemicals, etc). It’s something that I want to keep an eye on, though.

I also found some yarn from etsy seller YarnWyrkz, though it’s way too expensive for me. She seems to be the only one on etsy (that I can find so far) that sells it in handspun yarn form, but there are more entries if you look under roving. I don’t spin and don’t plan on it in the near future, so I’m not interested in roving, though it would be great for thrummed mittens. They grey colour is beautiful, and it looks like it would be wonderfully soft.

When I first saw Dahlia on knitty (it’s Winter 2007), I thought it was cute, but I didn’t think it would look good on me. Texture around the stomach and an empire waist? But I’ve lost weight since then, and am still losing, so I had more confidence to try it. With modifications, of course. I went down a needle size for both needles, and used Vanna’s Choice in Dusty Purple, about 3.5 skeins.

Before starting, I checked Ravelry to see what other people had to say about the pattern. A lot of people mentioned that it runs big, so even though I’m a 38″ bust, I went for the 34″ bust, which is a size Small in the pattern. The first change I did was with the raglan increases. The pattern had some way of doing it that involved picking up a stitch from a row below, and while I’m sure that’s great, I like the look of kfb, sm, kfb. It makes a clean, attractive line, and works fine.

As I was knitting further, after joining to work in the round, I started worrying about how big it was. When I tried it on, it just looked huge and the neckline fell so low. I considered frogging it, but decided I could fix it when I pick up stitches around the neckline, and I’m glad I did. More on that further down.

When I got to the cabling, I realized that I started it more than “1 to 2 inches below the bust”, so I did less of it, about 6.5 inches of cabling. There’s 6″ of stockinette from the underarms to the cables. I’m a fan of the cable pattern, it looks interesting, and since you don’t cable all the cables in the same row, those rows aren’t as harsh. I learned a new bind-off, the sewn bind-off, though it kicked my butt at first. The instructions said to estimate 3 times the total length of the fabric to be bound off before cutting the yarn, and I did that, and only got half-way before I ran out. So I cut another length, this time 5 times the remaining. I still was short, having to cut a piece that was about 8 inches long to finish. I guess I was binding off loosely, and it does look looser.

I love how the neck worked out, and I incorporated the cable pattern into it. I picked up a total of 149 stitches, and since I wanted a multiple of 8, I decreased one at the start, and 2 at each of the front corners while doing (k4, p4) around, ending up with 144 sts. Here’s the rest:

Round 2: (C4F, k4, p4, k4) around.
Rounds 3-4: (k4, p4) around.
Round 5: (k4, p1, p2tog, p1, C4F, p1, p2tog, p1) around.
Rounds 6-7: (k4, p3) around.
Round 8: (C4F, p1, p2tog, k4, p2tog, p1) around.
Rounds 9-10: (k4, p2) around.

I did a simple bind-off, like the first one shown here on knitty. The sewn bind-off is there too, further down. I love how the neck turned out, it’s gorgeous, not too low, and looks great with the cabling at bottom.

For the sleeves, the first time I did one it looked too puffy, and the k1, p1 end was tight. I redid the sleeve, and for round three I knit straight through instead of decreasing, and rounds 4-7 were k4, p2 around. To bind off, I used the decrease bind-off (also at the link above), but I did it through the front-loops instead of the back-loops. I like this bind-off for sleeves because it’s stretchier.

When my mother saw the Picovoli that I knit, she wanted it. Not in a different colour, but that exact same one. I’d rather not have the exact same top as my mother (or make the exact same top twice), but she wasn’t willing to spring for the more expensive soy yarn (and shipping) anyway. There aren’t many choices, locally, for yarn of the right weight that doesn’t involve shipping or driving for at least an hour, so we settled for Bernat Satin Solids Sport. She also wanted dark blue (Marina), and this blue is darker than mine:

The first 5 or so rows were done in garter, as well as the last 5 or 6 rows of the sleeve sections. Same with the bottom part of the armhole, to keep it from rolling. It’s a size 36″, and I omitted one decrease and one increase at the waist. It’s also shorter than mine, and the last 8 rows are in garter on a larger needle size, and 1 size further up to bind off. I also did one round of sc around each armhole, and two for the neckline, with sc4, sc2tog around for the second round.

This really is a great pattern to play around with. It’s raglan, so no seams, you can experiment with the neck, the arms, the stitch pattern, the length, anything. I’m tempted to break out one of my Vogue Knitting Stitchionary books and see what interesting variations I can come up with. All that stockinette would be great for colourwork, even some duplicate stitching.

It looks great so far, she’s going to put it through the wash and block it (she wanted to do that for herself), and from my swatches earlier I know it’ll grow a little, which is what she wants.

Yesterday, June 14th, was World Wide Knit in Public Day, and I drove about an hour away to Charlottetown to meet 4 other members of Ravelry:

Above is missknittykitty, nanapei, marigoldy and jannaknits. There’s another picture that includes me on nanapei’s blog. missknittykitty was knitting a pretty green sock, but she wasn’t during these pictures since she had been up to take pictures herself.

We had originally intended to be outside the public library, but it was a cold, windy day with a mist of rain, so we retreated inside the library, then walked through the surprisingly crowded Arts center, then up a staircase to a perfect nook (though not very ‘in public’. We did have the occasional tourist pass by) where we spent most of the time until a friendly janitor let us know that it was less crowded downstairs. She got some chairs set up for us, and that’s where we took pictures. The Arts center staff were really nice, a security guard took a picture for us, too.

I don’t think I ever showed these off. Cupcakes are a common pattern with many, many ways to make them, but this pattern comes from the Vegan Goddess of Amigurumi, BitterSweet. Her blog not only has knitting and crochet patterns, but also gorgeous photography of food and other forms of crafting like sewing. She even has a cookbook called My Sweet Vegan.

The cupcakes I made are Lion Brand Cotton-Ease for the brown cake, and Vanna’s Choice for the top. I sewed on the beads from my mini bead stash with matching thread before stuffing.

Fiber content: 50% soy 50% acrylic

1 Ball Contains: 70g, 134yards/122m

Price: $3.99

Weight and Type: Worsted (it seems more like Sport to me), plied

Label’s Gauge and Needle Size: 19 sts and 24 rows = 4″ in st st with US8/5mm needles

My Gauge, Pre-Wash: 19.5 sts and 23 rows = 4″ in st st with US7/4.5mm needles; crochet - 16 sts and 21 rows = 4″ in st st with H/4.5mm hook

Post-Wash: 18.75 sts and 24 rows = 4″ in st st with US7/4.5mm needles; crochet - 16.5 sts and 21 rows = 4″ in st st with H/4.5mm hook

Colour Range: Shown in Celery, also comes in 7 more colours, all solid and pale.

Washing Instructions: “Machine Washing and Drying - Wash in water not exceeding 40c/104F. Tumble dry on low heat, delicate setting. Do not bleach, do not iron or press, do not dry-clean.”

I had to play with the colours a lot in Paint.net to get them close to right, and they’re still off. It’s a pale green, not something that I would name celery. It doesn’t look like the picture on the Bernat website. Either way, it’s a pale green that isn’t really one of my colours, but isn’t an ugly shade, either.

The yarn is soft and has a nice body to it. It’s easy to work with, feels great against the skin, and only changes a little after washing. It is a little high maintenance, as with all soft yarns (easy to pill, or catch on something), and I’d stick to the delicate cycle on warm or cold for washing. It works up smaller than a worsted weight, at least for the way I knit, somewhere between a sport and a worsted. Bernat soy is also fairly drapy, and as with most soy yarn, tends to grow, so that needs to be taken into account when making clothing or anything that’s meant to fit a certain way. It probably won’t hold ribbing well.

I have sent e-mails to Bernat, begging them to make colours aside from pale blue, pale green, flax (which doesn’t go with my skin tone), pale pinks (which I just don’t like), white and oatmeal, but so far, they haven’t listened. If you’ve seen this yarn and like it also, send an e-mail, or write them a letter. Or even if you have 5 minutes and feel like helping me out. Dark colours would be nice, as well as more blues, purples and reds, maybe some variegated.

This is also the same type of yarn that I used for my dyeing experiment some time ago, which I later found leads to bleeding when using koolaid yarn. I still wear my koolaid-dyed headband a lot, which never gets wet.

As for this green yarn, it’ll probably turn into a hat or something for my husband’s 2-month-old niece.

Fiber content: 100% Polyester

1 Ball Contains: 50g, yardage not listed. It looks similar to Bernat Cool Crochet (which is cotton and nylon), there’s probably around 200 yards/180m.

Price: 99 cents ($1.14 after tax)

Weight and Type: DK, chained structure

Label’s Gauge and Needle Size: The label only has a recommended needle size of 8mm, which is 11US.

My Gauge, Pre-Wash: Size 11US 8mm - 14.5sts and 14 rows = 4″ st st, Size 5US 3.75mm - 25.5 sts and 33 rows = 4″ st st, and (crochet) “F” hook 3.75mm - 21.75 sts and 27.75 rows = 4″

Post-Wash: Size 11US 8mm - 13 sts and 15.5 rows = 4″ st st, Size 5US 3.75mm - 24 sts and 34 rows = 4″ st st, and (crochet) “F” hook 3.75mm - 21.5 sts and 28 rows

Colour Range: I can’t find any information online or on Ravelry whatsoever. This yarn is from the 99 cent or Less store (in PEI, Canada), and they have a few other kinds as well. Other colours I’ve seen are blues, greens/purples/yellows, and one or two others. Maybe 5 in all. This one is purple/lavender/green, Dyelot 72.

Washing Instructions: “For best results, hand wash. Dry flat.”

I saw this yarn a few times before deciding to buy it. I didn’t like that it didn’t show yardage, and I’d never heard of it before. Also, since I can’t seem to find any information on it online, that makes it more mysterious. Someone has to have used it before somewhere, right? Is it that new? Or is it actually true that not every yarn under the sun is on the internet?

It’s nice to work with, at any rate, soft and sort of silky. There’s a shiny thread in it, so under the light it shimmers. The colours blend nicely and complemented each other. One thing about the colours, though, is that the dye bleeds a little. I was using my Denise Interchangeable needles, which are plastic, and the tips were dyed purple just from making swatches.

The fabric is drapey, and combined with the chain construction it reminds me a lot of the SWTC Bamboo that I swatched last year (and still have some of in my stash). It’d be nice for a scarf or wrap, something lacy. I was confused by the suggested needle size, which is 8mm, but I think it was either an error or this yarn was made with the intention of knitting something very lacy. Working DK weight yarn with size 10US needles is uncomfortable for me, I’d rather use smaller needles/a smaller hook.

I especially liked how the crochet swatch ended up, the colours blended even better there.

I found a great use for the South West Trading Company Pure yarn (100% soy) in Blue Depths that’s been sitting around since being frogged:

It’s the Picovoli pattern by Grumperina, with a few small modifications. I wanted to use this yarn, but I got gauge with size 6US needles instead of 4US, so I used those. It’s a looser gauge than intended. I also didn’t decrease all the way or increase back all the way, and the bottom is the Big Bamboo stitch pattern from Vogue Stitchionary so it wouldn’t curl. It’s not obvious because the yarn is so dark. The colour is closer to the picture below.

I did 1 row of sc around the armholes and 2 rows of sc for the front/back/shoulders. On the second round, I did 4sc sc2tog around. After blocking, the yarn stretched more than I thought it would, so I had to seam at the armholes. It’s still beautiful, though, and I love it. It feels incredibly soft, like actual silk, though it’s a little more see-through than I thought it would be.