Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

It all started with cleaning out the stash. After I acquired significant new stash at the fire sale, I needed to put it all away. I do have a wall of not one but two Ikea 5×5 cubbies. That's 50 cubbies! (By the way, while you can fit two of these flat-packed into a 2007 Honda fit along with yourself and a 6'2" cuddly hubby, it is maybe not the best idea. Re-roll that Wisdom check.) Revisiting the stash reminded me of dreamed-about projects yet unrealized. And I needed to use up yarn and fiber so I could make more room. There were six skeins of Noro Kureyon Big, a bulky-weight yarn. I knew I wanted them to become an up-sized Jester Tentacles Bag. As that looked like a quick way to generate open storage space, I gleefully cast on. I had made a previous Jester Tentacles Bag that turned out too small to be useful. This time, I changed the math a little from what Cat Bordhi wrote: MCO 70 90 becomes 140 180      k 75 95    wy 25 35   ...

In the Kennesaw Kudzu pattern, each multiple of pattern is worked back and forth and decreased to a point. This shaping creates the pretty leaf edging. But it does raise questions of how to deal with those final two stitches and where to hide the tail when you are out at land's end? To graft that final knit-purl pair, start with “wrong” side facing: plunge a blunt tapestry needle into the base of the final stitch 
leaving needle in place, pull tail up and out poke eye of tapestry needle from purl side to knit side of penultimate stitch 
thread tail in eye of tapestry needle 
pull needle to bring tail through penultimate stitch and to re-complete final stitch. I prefer to duplicate stitch ends. In this case, I don't have any horizontal fabric that I can use for duplicate stitch. Plan B is hiding the ends vertically. Identify a knit wale and thread the tail down through a vertical column of stitch legs. This isn't my favorite way to deal with an end, but it will...

The Kennesaw Kudzu socks and hat both start with a center-out cast-on. This is a combination of Gwen Bortner's encasement pick-up and a typical center-out cast-on. Wrap the tail counterclockwise in a circle twice.
 Knit into the center of the circle.
 Yarn over.
 One pair completed.
 Repeat as many times as needed.
 Pull tail gently but firmly to close hole. In addition to the hat and the toe-up socks, this cast-on would be useful to work a circular shawl in reversible lace.

I said I would blog more about my winning entries at Maryland Sheep and Wool. One of the entries was a hat. This was the winner in category K14: Miscellaneous knit from commercial yarn. The design started out as socks. For the sock pattern, I decided to investigate just how stretchy reversible lace is. Socks normally have a heel turn. For some sock knitters, this is part of the fun. You work in the round for awhile, sometimes in pattern, then you have the excitement of a heel turn, then you work in the round some more. For others, this is exactly why they don't knit socks. For many people, working in the round without increases or decreases is perfect television knitting. Paying attention to a heel turn is not. And of course, there are multiple ways of dealing with heel turns. So many choices! So many options to like or dislike. While I typically enjoy the challenge of a good heel turn, I sometimes don't like the design options. If I'm working a pretty lace pa...