Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

I thought I'd have a little fun with one of my own patterns. This little travel pillow is just two repeats of the Serpentine Short-Round Scarf . You have to stuff it as you work, because once you've closed the section, you can't easily get back in to it. I was initially going to work 3 repeats, but it was large enough to fit around my neck at only two. Another variation would be to use a provisional cast-on, work four repeats, and graft end to beginning to produce a doughnut pillow. Such a shape could be folded in half for the neck pillow, but would also be good for sitting during long trips. I used less then one skein of red but, alas, just barely had to break into the second skein of blue. Also, I dropped down to a 3.5mm /US 4 needle so that the fabric would be dense enough to keep the polyester fiber fill from showing through or sneaking out. Because the information isn't in the pattern, let me tell you how I made the tie cords. They are cable-plied. For ...

Scarves from top to bottom: P, C, L, & O. I know I haven't blogged enough lately, or knitted enough.  And way too much of my Ravelry projects page is filled with secret projects, sans pictures. I am still experimenting both with labyrinth knitting and with double-knit traveling cables.  I showed off the double-knit cabled sock cuffs at STITCHES South, and Gayle Roehm was kind enough to send me on a hunt for Ideas for Double-sided Knitted Scarves by Toshiyuki Shimada.  I was able to find it on Amazon, and it cost about $33 with shipping.  Fortunately, my sister had given me a $25 Amazon gift card for my birthday. The book shipped directly from Japan, and I was pleasantly surprised that my 25 April order arrived on 11 May, significantly before the 20 May to 13 June expected delivery date. Can I just say up front that I now hold Toshiyuki Shimada in the same category as Cat Bordi, Lucy Neatby, Lynne Barr, Norah Gaughan, Debbie New, Kerry Ferguson, Kate Gilbert...

In the past I've blogged STITCHES South as individual posts for each day. But this year, I'm going to do it a little differently. I know a lot of people go for the market. Mostly, I go to STITCHES for the classes and the networking. The convention attracts truly talented knitters -- both teachers and students. It is so much fun just to watch what people are wearing. This year I took four classes. On Thursday I took "Embed and Embellish: Felt, Stone, and Bead Jewelry" with Sharon Costello. I must admit that by the time the convention came around, I could not recall why I signed up for the class! It must have been the beautiful pictures in the brochure. I had not done wet felting before, so this was new to me. My friends Debra and Linda were also in the class. Most of the students were very familiar with wet felting, and they were eager to move along. We learned how to layer the fibers and how to encase rocks or pieces of smooth glass inside the felt. Most of the othe...