Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

It is almost time again for Christmas in July at The Whole Nine Yarns. I've missed the last couple years because I've been out of town during the event. The challenge is always to come up with a quick gift knit. Since I've been doing quite a bit of double knitting lately (see the soap sack ), some double knit sachets seemed like a good idea. The yarn is Classic Elite Soft Linen, which is a linen, wool, alpaca blend. The linen gives it crispness and structure, while the animal fiber gives it softness. I came up with two different double-knit patterns. In the first, you start with Judy's Magic Cast-on, double knit the sachet, and bind off using purlwise grafting. The edges are rounded. Since some people are not going to like the cast-on and the bind-off, I designed a second pattern with a crocheted cast-on and a three-needle bind-off. The difference is that a line of chain stitch goes all the way around the sachet. The edge is squarer and sharper. It is this se...

You'll recall I used this burst of intense summer weather to dye some fiber. During the Independence Day holiday and following weekend, I spun that fiber up into yarn. I'm trying to decide whether or not this yarn can be labeled as "successful." I was aiming for a peachy-pink color that would emulate the traits of dewy European fairy-princess flesh -- pale, pink, soft, with a gentle glow. Pink Slime/Gore/Road Kill hand spun, hand dyed, hand carded mohair Yes, it really is this color, which is why I photographed it outdoors. A couple things happened along the way. Firstly, the core fibers I dyed with pink lemonade Kool-Aid had quite a bit of brown kemp. The brown didn't show much in the rolags, but it did show when spun into the core singles. I didn't take a picture, but the core singles were noticeably both pink and brown, rather than just pink. Also, the core singles required a lot of twist. Mohair is slippery! Duh! When spinning 100% mohair, it keeps ...

 . . . dye fiber! I don't wander into politics too much on this blog, but it needs to be said that at this point, the arguments against the existence of global climate change are cold comfort. (There is, however, plenty to discuss about possible causes and what our responses should be.) After that non-winter, I don't think there was a lot of surprise that summer came in with the fiery heat of a woman scorned. And I am giving a lot of thanks for all those lovely mature shady oak trees in my yard, thank you very much Atlanta developer who didn't denude my neighborhood in the 1970s. Still, there had to be something useful to do with all this heat. I've been thinking for awhile about dyeing some fiber, and had recently read this old Knitty article by Kristi Porter . She mentioned that you could dye yarn in the same way as making sun tea. So that's what I did. Yellow and pink mohair, blended with hand cards. My inspiration is a batt I suspect of being a wool a...