Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Not only are there good yarn shops in downtown Portland, but there are good shops on the east side of the river. Once again, there were more shops than I could visit. I was not able to get to Gossamer, Yarnia, or Knittn' Kitten. While the downtown is readily served by the train, the east side of town is served primarily by bus. I probably should have made an attempt to visit Gossamer (a little over a mile from my hotel), but Yarnia and Knittn' Kitten (both about 4 miles away) were just too far afield. Since I was staying at a hotel near Lloyd Center, I was able to walk to Twisted . Go to the north side of the Lloyd Center Mall and walk a couple blocks north to NE Broadway. There are lots of delightful shops and places to eat on this thoroughfare. Twisted is about six blocks east at 2310 NE Broadway St. As I walked in, a copy of Respect the Spindle was set up on a table, front and center. While this is primarily a knitting shop, there was a Schacht Ladybug wheel and locally d...

I spent last week away from the searing heat and sunshine of the Atlanta summer. This was my first trip to Portland, Oregon, and I must say I won't mind an excuse to visit again. The Cuddly Hubby was attending a conference, which meant I got to enjoy three days without adult supervision. In that time, I visited six yarn shops. Let me say at the start that one of my rules was, as much as possible, not to purchase items I could buy in Atlanta. Also, I was looking more for books, especially Japanese pattern books, than for yarn. I love yarn, but I am trying to keep myself on a yarn diet until I can get the stash to fit back in the boxes. If you are attending Sock Summit, be aware you can easily take MAX, the light rail, from the airport to the hotels. It will set you back all of $2.35 -- you aren't going to find cab fare at that rate. Plus, from the Sock Summit hotels, you can ride the train into the city for free. In the downtown I followed a three-shop hop up 11th Avenue ...

Here's how to generate a shop-hop map using the resources on Ravelry: Choose "yarns" in the main tabs. Then type the city in the box for "local yarn shop directory" and press "enter" on your keyboard or click the "search" button on Ravelry. Choose the "location map" tab in the upper right. Use the controls on the left to zoom in and out on the map and to adjust what portions you see. When you like what you see on the map, choose "Print" from the "File" menu on your computer. You may also wish to choose the "list" tab and print the list of shop names, addresses, and contact information.

I thought I'd have a little fun with one of my own patterns. This little travel pillow is just two repeats of the Serpentine Short-Round Scarf . You have to stuff it as you work, because once you've closed the section, you can't easily get back in to it. I was initially going to work 3 repeats, but it was large enough to fit around my neck at only two. Another variation would be to use a provisional cast-on, work four repeats, and graft end to beginning to produce a doughnut pillow. Such a shape could be folded in half for the neck pillow, but would also be good for sitting during long trips. I used less then one skein of red but, alas, just barely had to break into the second skein of blue. Also, I dropped down to a 3.5mm /US 4 needle so that the fabric would be dense enough to keep the polyester fiber fill from showing through or sneaking out. Because the information isn't in the pattern, let me tell you how I made the tie cords. They are cable-plied. For ...

Scarves from top to bottom: P, C, L, & O. I know I haven't blogged enough lately, or knitted enough.  And way too much of my Ravelry projects page is filled with secret projects, sans pictures. I am still experimenting both with labyrinth knitting and with double-knit traveling cables.  I showed off the double-knit cabled sock cuffs at STITCHES South, and Gayle Roehm was kind enough to send me on a hunt for Ideas for Double-sided Knitted Scarves by Toshiyuki Shimada.  I was able to find it on Amazon, and it cost about $33 with shipping.  Fortunately, my sister had given me a $25 Amazon gift card for my birthday. The book shipped directly from Japan, and I was pleasantly surprised that my 25 April order arrived on 11 May, significantly before the 20 May to 13 June expected delivery date. Can I just say up front that I now hold Toshiyuki Shimada in the same category as Cat Bordi, Lucy Neatby, Lynne Barr, Norah Gaughan, Debbie New, Kerry Ferguson, Kate Gilbert...

In the past I've blogged STITCHES South as individual posts for each day. But this year, I'm going to do it a little differently. I know a lot of people go for the market. Mostly, I go to STITCHES for the classes and the networking. The convention attracts truly talented knitters -- both teachers and students. It is so much fun just to watch what people are wearing. This year I took four classes. On Thursday I took "Embed and Embellish: Felt, Stone, and Bead Jewelry" with Sharon Costello. I must admit that by the time the convention came around, I could not recall why I signed up for the class! It must have been the beautiful pictures in the brochure. I had not done wet felting before, so this was new to me. My friends Debra and Linda were also in the class. Most of the students were very familiar with wet felting, and they were eager to move along. We learned how to layer the fibers and how to encase rocks or pieces of smooth glass inside the felt. Most of the othe...

This last video shows you how to work a three-needle bind-off.  In this example, the bind-off closes the double-knitting.  You can also use this bind-off to join two pieces of knitting.  And I've even shot it both with knitting needles and with a crochet hook. For those of you used to knitting straight through both stitches, you'll notice that I knit the stitch on the front needle and purl the stitch on the back needle.  This causes the stitches to lie flat to form a nice, well-behaved chain detail.  It also causes the wrong-side of the chain stitch to hide inside the knitting, rather than on the public side.  It's a subtle difference, but one I hope you'll appreciate.