Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

(Photo: Cuddy Hubby and I looking into a late afternoon sun with Flathead Lake, Montana behind us.) After two years and three previous blog posts ( 18 July 2008 , 4 June 2010 , 5 June 2010 ), I am elated to report that I have completed the Puzzlemaker Jacket by Kerry Ferguson. I completed it while on vacation in Washington State in late June. The knitting had been completed in Atlanta, but there was the matter of weaving in ends and devising a closure. What I learned: Even if you live in the South, cotton is not your friend if your project involves a lot of ends. I got the best results for weaving in mercerized cotton by splitting the plies and running them in different directions, then weaving the yarn back on itself and splitting it with a chenille needle. This is similar to the technique used in a Russian join or for weaving in ends on needlepoint canvaswork. There are triangles which took as much time to weave in ends as they did to knit. Changing the pattern from two colors to thr...

Long before I met Rick Mondragon in person, I learned his name from an old Threads magazine article. If you have the February 1995 issue, or the reprint in Great Knits (Newton CT: Taunton Press 1995, pp. 58-61), you can read his article "Knit in Blocks of Color -- without Bobbins." Rick's technique allows you to knit individual blocks and then connect as you go. In that regard it is similar to modular knitting, except you really are ending up with the yarn in exactly the same place it would be if you had lined up a long row of little balls or bobbins and knit not-so-merrily across in intarsia. And if you are a Kaffe Fassett fan, this technique could open up a whole new world! One way to learn this is to knit two plain intarsia blocks and then unpick only one of them. (The white dots are the tops of the pin heads. I've pinned this swatch flat to a pillow.) I've unpicked the top eight rows of knitting on the blue half of this swatch. Do you see the paire...

I've been knitting on some older projects that just need to get off the needles. In particular, I've come back to Puzzlemaker. You may recall that I started this project in 2008 . I was moving along rather nicely that summer, and got a lot done during the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. This is when things went bad. I believe the Egregious Error was made sometime during one of the beach vollyball finals. The Americans were playing rather well at beach volleyball, and I got hooked on it. With the twelve-hour time difference, the finals that started at 1 PM Beijing time were at 1 AM Atlanta time. I couldn't resist staying up to watch the finals LIVE. And I knit along merrily. Do you recall in Gremlins how you aren't supposed to feed the cute little creatures after midnight? I believe there may be a similar rule for knitting. If it requires the least bit of thought, do not attempt after your normal bedtime. Just don't risk it. Well, not only did I make a mis...

I know that I tend to knit the more idiosyncratic items. I've done an ouroborus sweater, a labyrinth sweater, a mobius scarf, a jester tentacles bag. I know I am, in fact, outside of the mainstream of knitters. I've been editing my stash into Ravelry . And since I moved the whole stash around a month ago, I was well-reminded of intended projects just waiting to be cast on. The South Cobb Arts Alliance member show just went up, and I didn't have a thing to put in it this year. That's a testament to how much of my knitting has been for other things -- two baby sweaters for the NGKG presentation, scarves for the nieces and nephews, samples for the classes I'm teaching at the shop. I decided I really, really needed to knit something for myself. And I might as well post it on Ravelry. So there are over 150,000 people on Ravelry right now. I decided to see what other people have done with this pattern. Hmmm. There aren't any other people who have posted this...