Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Today's blog post was going to be a picture of my house lit up tonight, and close-ups of the hand embroidered ornaments on my tree. The Cuddly Hubby is home for a couple weeks. I had wonderful friends visiting on Sunday. I spent most of last week cleaning and cooking, so my home is clean and my kitchen counter hosts tasty holiday treats. It was going to be a post about the loveliness of the holiday season, and how dear home is. And then I decided to go buy some firewood and get some groceries. So while Cuddly Hubby shaved and showered, I headed off to run those two short errands. I was listening to Chanticleer on NPR as I drove through the woods and over the historic Concord Covered Bridge, a fresh cup of English rose tea in the cup holder of my car. I was feeling very festive and merry. It has been raining and misty here for three days -- uncharacteristic Georgia weather. The floor of the bridge was re-planked about a year ago, and the new planking is a slightly wider pitch than...

When I look at my Ravelry account, 2014 seems to be an unproductive year. Partly, I need to be better at having multiple projects on my needles. Less travel and fewer board duties would help, too. But partly this apparent lack of progress is hidden in the completed projects. The one I worked on most of the year I finished just in time for Thanksgiving. It is a swirl jacket made entirely with my own handspun. The cobalt blue with sparkles was purchased at Uncommon Threads in York, Pennsylvania back when the shop had a different owner and was located in the downtown rather than the Queensgate Shopping Center. It was in a bargain basket in the back of the shop, tossed in a pile. I'm guessing it had been used for a class or demo. It was marked as superwash wool. While most of it was cobalt blue, some of it was a lighter blue. At the time I didn't even think to weigh it, so I can't say how much I bought. I can say there was plenty of it (12 ounces? 16 ounces?) and that I st...

First off, I must apologize for being offline for so long. I had a fabulous time teaching ten classes at Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. I met lots of wonderful students. I even had 17 people in one class! I've never had that happen before. Unfortunately, somewhere in all the fun I picked up a nasty intestinal virus and have been sick for three weeks. The first two weeks consisted of very little eating and as much drinking of water as I could manage. I even ended up in the emergency room at one point. In weeks two and three my stomach started to get better, but then my head got worse and I had to fight migraines. This third week I've been able to eat and drink more comfortably, so I'm working my way back up to my regular diet. I eat something close to Paleo diet, so lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and some meat in appropriate (4 ounce) portions. Of course, all that roughage is harder to digest, so it is taking me awhile. Being nauseated for days on end has greatly improve...

By ignoring almost everything else in my life, I managed to shoehorn a week of quality creative time into my schedule. I decided to participate in Spinzilla 2014. This is the spinning challenge sponsored by The National Needlearts Association (TNNA), the trade organization for fiber hobbies. This was the second year for Spinzilla. Basically, yarn shops sponsor teams. Spinners sign up to be on a team. Everybody has a week to spin as much yarn as they can. Prizes are awarded for spinning the most yarn, taking great pictures, or spinning at least a mile. I used Spinzilla as an excuse to spin down through my stash. I had acquired several sample packs over the years. I did a little spinning for projects, but I also did a fair amount of spinning through the sample fibers. This was a great opportunity to spin woolen, spin worsted, try a 2 ply or a 3-ply or a chain ply. It was a chance to play and see what happens. And it was a great chance to just spend time at my wheel and, by practicing...

Last weekend was a much-needed happy time. For those of you wondering why the blog has been so quiet, I apparently have attracted a quantity of bad juju. Since the beginning of August I have: come home from the West Coast to discover a flat tire at midnight, gotten to my home at 3 AM to discover storm damage to my yard, discovered the storm also put a branch through the roof, had the electrician repair the ceiling fan in the kitchen, had the plumber fail to repair the sprayer in the kitchen, run short of both colors of handspun yarn while working on my swirl jacket, failed to get a room at the Hyatt for Dragon*Con 2015, gone a week without internet because I switch providers, and gone three days without my primary land line phone because the new internet provider made a boo-boo and turned it off. And my paternal grandmother died on Monday the 8th of September. On the positive side of the balance sheet: Cuddly Hubby was home for Dragon*Con. He held the ladder so I could...

On my recent trip to the West Coast I took two projects -- the handspun swirl jacket, and the Carolyn jacket. I did do quite of bit of knitting. In fact, I did enough that I ran out of yarn for the swirl. And since it was handspun, I couldn't make more until I got home. With the Carolyn jacket I didn't have any knitting with me. Rather, I had worked two side panels and was ready both to sew in the side panels and to hem the jacket. I'm not sure how long the Carolyn jacket has been in my stash -- probably four or five years. I purchased it at one of the early North Georgia Knitting Guild annual auctions. The jacket begins with a beautiful fully-lined but unfinished kinomo-style bodice. It lays over the torso in almost the same way as a liturgical vestment or tabbard, since the sides are unseamed. The instructions recommend doing some gauge swatches. After getting the proper numbers, you are directed to cast on ribbing and work back and forth for the cuffs, work the sleeves...

It has taken me awhile to shoot video and post this technique, partly because this is one of my "unventions." I haven't seen this technique documented elsewhere. Rather, I derived it. It allows you to bind off at both the beginning and the end of a row of knitting without one side being taller than the other. In the top photograph, you can see the left corner and right corner don't match. The left corner has one more row of stitches, making the stripe thicker. In the bottom photograph, both corners match. Yes, this is a very picky detail that typically makes little difference. But for those it does annoy, this technique will delight. I usually teach this in my "Refined Baby Surprise Jacket" class as well as "Unventions" and "Looping Back" classes. The directions: Bind off at the beginning of the row, as per the instructions. Work across in pattern, stopping with what you need to bind off plus one stitch remaining at the end of ...

Yesterday was the first birthday for Mei Lun and Mei Huan. Those of you who know me or read this blog at least a little are, therefore, unsurprised that I spent yesterday at the zoo. The panda exhibit was crowded, as you might expect. With all the crowds and glare on the glass, I didn't get great pictures. But I did see a little of the birthday girls' shenanigans. Who would expect it would be possible to wrestle in a tree? Mei Huan demonstrates it is also possible to do yoga in a tree. Mei Lun demonstrates how a panda can drape decoratively in a tree. One of the docents -- Anne, I think -- was talking to some of the guests about the various animal Wild Encounters or VIP Pass experiences that can be purchased at the zoo. These are available at a variety of price points. One of the least expensive of the animal encounters is the Aldabra Tortoise Wild Encounter, at only $35, and even a little less for ZooAtlanta members. (In contrast, meeting a tiger will set you ...

On the Common Crowd Cap, the dangles are i-cords that grow organically from the top. They transition seamlessly from the ribbing, as a tree grows out of the ground. As you can see in the video, all it takes is a simple turn of the needle.

In yesterday's video, you saw how to create the stitches. Today's video will show you how to work them off in pattern for either 1x1 or 2x2 ribbing. You can extrapolate from that for syncopated rib. If you recall my post a few years ago about something I called scalloped cast-on, the 2x2 rib in the video is scalloped cast-on.

As I stated yesterday, the Common Crowd Cap uses invisible cast on. Today's video will show you how to get stitches cast on to your needle. Tomorrow's video will show you how to work them off in pattern. Basically, you regard the spare circular needle as if it were a wire and create yarn overs by ducking back and forth underneath the wire.  If you have worked Cat Bordhi's Möbius cast-on, you may recognize the resemblance.

This is one of those posts I should have done months ago. Then again, I believe I've mentioned catching up as a current theme in my life? Last year, the STITCHES teachers were asked if we would be willing to contribute original hat patterns to Halos of Hope. I don't wear hats much, but the shaping of them isn't difficult, so I said, "Sure!" Pam Haschke, the founder of Halos of Hope, asked us, "What would you want to wear if you had lost your hair to chemotherapy?" My answer is that I'd probably just want to fit in. Hence the name of my pattern, the Common Crowd Cap. The goal is just to keep fitting in with the common crowd. The pattern is for sale on the Halos of Hope website, along with much better pictures than the ones I took. Halos of Hope often has a booth at STITCHES events. If you happen to be attending, you can see my hat as well as a lot of much more inventive designs in person. I made two versions. One has dangles, because I find dan...

My theme for 2014 is: Catch up from 2013. I'm also in the middle of Things Not Going As Planned. I was supposed to be visiting in Pennsylvania and Maryland right now. But I am home in Georgia because my sweet, cuddly, fluffy ball of joy and love -- Vincent -- turned up lame the evening of Friday the 13th. A fortnight later, he is doing much better and so am I. It was a scary several days where he was doing the zombie shuffle with his hind legs and I didn't have a prognosis. He is on medication twice a day right now and I expect he will have follow up appointments with his veterinarian or the specialty veterinarians who performed a myelogram and MRI on him. So right now, I'm recovering from being emotionally and financially drained, but I am very grateful I still have a two feline household. This also means I now have two unscheduled weeks in front of me. After all, I was going to be away, so I cleared my schedule. So, it is time to catch up. Updating my Ravelry projec...

When I teach at shows, I am usually asked to provide a biography. In that biography, I usually mention that I learned to cross stitch at age four. My mother sat me down and taught me. I'm not sure why she decided -- maybe I showed an interest? My dad said I was too young. I didn't even yet write my own name. Well, here is the proof. During my childhood, I tried many, many different types of needle arts including cross stitch, embroidery, crewel, bargello, hardanger, needlepoint, and canvas work. My mother, sister, and I were all in the local chapter of Embroiderers' Guild of America . Of course, now that I'm in two knitting guilds, I see how strange it is to have a minor in the guild! But as a teenager, it didn't seem strange to me at all. I was just one more female in a big group of other females who all liked stitching. My mother was always very encouraging as I tried different stitching techniques. It was a hobby that connected all the women in my family. Even...

I get so caught up in stunt knitting that I sometimes forget simplicity is often the secret to good design. And so it has been with Scrawling. This is a scribble lace shawl I worked up last summer. It is one of the few fiber things that was started, worked upon, and completed during the personal mayhem of 2013. I had made a scribble lace years ago when I taught for Purly Gates. My recollection was the project was fairly quick and fun. And the finished fabric was like knitted Silly Putty -- highly malleable. Scrawling started with Esther Rodgers' "Corespinning for Fun and Function" class at STITCHES South 2013. The art batt was lovely, and the corespun yarn was fabulous. You'll recall I made this skein: I liked the skein so much, I decided to wanted to use it in a project right away so I could show it off. But I'm not usually a fan of bulky knits or projects made with only corespun. And the skein was only 73 m/80 yards long. Handspun art yarns are like high-qu...

I mentioned the Leicester longwool in the post about Maryland Sheep and Wool. I have an upcoming swirl jacket class at The Whole Nine Yarns. I've worn my first swirl jacket a lot . I thought that this time when I teach the class, it would be fun for me to make myself another. I'm also trying to knit from stash because, really, I do not need more yarn. The problem, of course, is that one doesn't need more yarn, but the next project in the queue seems not to match any of the yarn in the stash. Why is that? With some consideration, I did decided I could make my jacket using two handspun yarns already in my stash. #1 Blue-tiful:  #2 Louet Northern Lights: I also decided it would be fun to have a trim of long locks around the outer edge of the jacket. Fortunately, I took Esther Rodger's "Tailspinning" class at STITCHES South this year. And I took Merike Saarniit's "Microwave Rainbow Dyeing" class last year. So I know a little bit about how...

In the midst of teaching at three shows in four weeks, I decided to cast on the Six Point Tee by Cathy Carron from the current issue (spring/summer 2014) of Knit.Wear magazine . I had been doing a lot of writing handouts and knitting swatches for classes. I really needed a quick knitting pick-me-up project. I also wanted something fairly mindless that I could work on at Unwind. I wasn't planning on purchasing Knit.Wear , but I did my due diligence by thumbing through the pages when it arrived at the shop. The Six Point Tee has a couple things going for it that intrigued me. I was pretty sure the styling and sleeves would be flattering on my small-busted figure. The top-down modified raglan construction looked like an interesting knit. Instead of establishing four double-increase lines, you establish four double-increase lines and two lines that increase only one stitch every-other round. I altered the pattern so those lines also became double-increase lines, but every fourt...

Yarn Graffiti courtesy of Central Maryland Knitting Guild From Unwind I headed north to visit my husband at his Maryland man cave. This was a brief intermission, as I taught at Maryland Sheep and Wool. Thursday evening was the teacher banquet. I already knew Beth Brown-Reinsel would be there, and it is always a delight to see her. But I didn't realize also in attendance would be Maggie Casey, Sarah Anderson, and Deborah Robson. It was all I could do to pull myself together and behave like a professional knitting teacher and not like a fan girl. (By the way, Sarah showed off an amazing piece of fabric she wove that had the stretch and elasticity of knitting or even spandex. And someone had a fleece that was black at the cut end and white at the tips. The animal had changed color completely in one year!) I thought I knew a little about what to expect from Maryland Sheep and Wool. After all, I've been to Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair a few times. I knew MDS&W was ab...

I knew the spring was going to be very busy. It was. Now I'm back home in Atlanta and enjoying the transition from spring to summer. Extra rain and the unusual cooler-than-normal weather means the region is lush and green. The screen porch is ready for regular habitation. And the used knitter's cats seem very happy to see me. The last weekend of April I was up in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to teach at Unwind retreat. I believe this was the fourth year for Unwind. Nancy Shroyer of Nancy's Knit Knacks and Sue Homewood do a fantastic job organizing this event. Unlike a major show, this is a retreat. The whole group stays at the Meadowbrook Inn. There are four teaching slots -- morning and afternoon on Saturday, and morning and afternoon on Sunday. Students sign up for three classes. And teachers teach three classes. Everyone has one free period to just explore the town, soak in the hot tub, hike the mountains, eat ice cream and chocolate for lunch, or just knit or nap....

This was a somewhat different STITCHES South for me, and not just because of the new venue. I taught two classes this time, one on Thursday and one on Saturday. There were some knitting classes that intrigued me, but they were opposite when I was teaching. So I ended up taking only one class -- Tailspinning with Esther Rodgers. For that class, I wore the scribble lace I made last summer using the corespun yarn I made last year in Esther's corespinning class. I was surprised by how much people seemed to like that shawl. It isn't complicated knitting. It is an important reminder to me that sometimes simple really is better, especially if the materials are of high quality. This year, I learned three different ways to tailspin yarn. I'm thinking about making another swirl jacket, but this time with my own handspun from my stash. I may acquire some locks from Jazzturtle so I can have some crazy fringe fun around the edge. As always, if you have the opportunity to take spinni...