Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Because I scheduled two weaving classes in January, there has been less knitting and more weaving this month. I've also been trying to clean house, de-clutter, and wrap up unfinished action items from 2012. Remember that February is Knitting Needle Liberation Month in my house, so I've been liberating needles from stalled projects and swatches as well. One of the weaving classes I took was with Teena Tuenge and covered weaving in color in double weave. It was during this class it became painfully clear that I need two shuttles. I had been weaving with stick shuttles, which aren't bad but are a little slow. As Teena pointed out, an ideal stick shuttle should be the same length as your warp width, so that you are merely pulling one wrap off the shuttle with each pick. Why some clever soul doesn't market an adjustable-width shuttle stick, I don't know. Possibly it is because most weavers quickly move to the bobbin and boat shuttle system. While not as simple as a sti...

Just before the holidays, the yarn for the Winter TNNA Great Wall of Yarn swatches arrived. I actually squealed like a preteen when I opened the package! This time I only requested three skeins of yarn, as I have a lot of other work to do right now. Two of the three skeins are long-print yarns. The third, Trendsetter Phoenix, has long-print textural changes. I figured these swatches would be a great opportunity to play with three techniques: short rows, entrelac, and labyrinth. For Trendsetter Phoenix, I chose the short row technique. I used Alice Yu's shadow wrap or twin stitch technique. The pattern is a variation of Lizard Ridge. Instead of working five plain rows between the short row pattern, I've worked only four. And I've worked those four rows as all knit. This means that both knit and purl sides of the short rows show. I thought this yarn looked good from both sides and that the change from stockinette to reverse stockinette only served to further accentuate the...

Happy New Year! I'm a little sorry to see 2012 go, as it was a pretty good year for me. But now it is time to build on the promise of 2013! One of the classes I hope to develop is about Debbie New's wonderful labyrinth knitting technique. I happen to like this technique a lot. I know many knitters are either unfamiliar with it or balk at it because it comes out of Unexpected Knitting . Mathematically it is interesting, as the concept is based on the idea of a space-filling curve. Because you are knitting a long twisting snake instead of a flat rectangle, you can shape the knitting in three-dimensions. The stitches run in all directions, which  makes the knitting very interesting indeed! And if you have color changes in the yarn or textural changes in the knitting, those elements will highlight the unusual construction. While I think a labyrinth sweater is an awesome accomplishment, I also think it is good to warm up and learn on a smaller project. To that end, I came up wit...