Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Cat Bordhi taught two workshops at The Whole Nine Yarns over the weekend. Of course, I and my undivided attention were there. For the non-knitters who read this blog (the knitters already know this) Cat's second book in her current sock series releases this week. This title has been on my wish list for more than a year. You'll recall from the Interlocking Leaves socks last spring that I really enjoyed foxglove architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters . I think I might still prefer that architecture over Personal Footprints, but both certainly have their merits. In the Saturday workshop, we made a personal footprints discovery sock. This is basically what's in the book, but it was so very nice to have Cat on hand. Especially if you do not knit socks very often (raise my hand), it is nice to have someone who has knit many, many socks to help you with fit. I also suspect that only podiatrists have thought about or looked at as many different feet as Cat. As yo...

Sometimes a technique gets a bad reputation. Intarsia is an example. A lot of knitters will not even try it, as they've already heard the horror stories. There are reasons not to love intarsia. It can sometimes be uneven. There are lots of loose strings during the knitting and lots of ends to weave in. And it can require a lot of concentration. Of course, this is mostly true if you are making complex picture knitting. But intarsia can be used to get some very nice decorative results without getting too complicated. Several years ago I wanted to knit a ruana. I was initially inspired by the one in Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book. At the time, I had a nice stash of Reynolds Fusion and was looking for an excuse to play with it. Reynolds had a pamphlet of four different scarf patterns, and that was an inspirational starting point. So I started with that, and knit a truncated diamond shape with diamond patterns. I taught that pattern once as a class. And I've wor...

Of course, I did take some knitting with me on the Wisconsin vacation. Had to have that! And it was so nice being on a road trip vacation with the Cuddly Hubby, as he could drive and I could knit. (I may be passionate about knitting, but I do not recommend knitting and driving at the same time. Sometimes, you just have to be patient, Grasshopper.) You'll recall I had been experimenting with some brioche/shaker/Estonian patent stitches . This project evolved out of the net stitch that I showed in the video on 17 July . I was looking for an excuse to try the technique in a project. And this particular project also served a practical purpose. The Whole Nine Yarns had been to the TNNA market in June and purchased several "skeins" of Spectacular 14 from Bjorn of Hand Painted Knitting Yarns . Part of what makes this yarn unique is that it is already cut into long lengths, rather than flowing continuously from a skein. The colors are beautiful -- complex and interesti...