Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

I've mentioned to several people that this blog is partly for the world at large -- and the world at small, such as my students or customers who have purchased a pattern. But the blog is also a place for me to write stuff down so I can find it later. More than once I've come back to a project or been working on a new project and realized that something I've done previously might be a great idea. I then dig up my notes (did I make any?) and attempt to decipher what I did. Failing that, time to reinvent! With that in mind, today I'm posting merely about where to find something. I find myself consistently needing to go back and look something up on This Week in Ravelry. At this time, the "weekly" newsletter has pretty much fallen away. But, I still find myself needing to reference old issues. I am especially fond of the "Ask a Knitter" column by Rox, as it is full of useful tidbits! So, if you are looking for old This Week in Ravelry newsletters, th...

Damask knit with a notch about 15 inches/38 cm deep. In the previous post, I said I didn't want to knit a solid triangle, but rather a triangle with a notch in it. Why would I want to do that? A triangular shawl may not necessarily sit nicely on your shoulders. I wear my shawls. I do household chores while wearing my shawls. They need to stay put. A regular triangular shawl does not have a place for your neck, so you end up with a chunk of fabric that bunches up at the back of your neck. And you end up with much more fabric across your back than across your front, which means the force of gravity tugging at the back is always more than the force of gravity tugging at the front. There are a couple ways to deal with this. Faroese shawls incorporate shaping, so they have a gentle "wing" shape that reminds me of a butterfly or a manta ray. The shaping helps get more fabric to the front so that gravity pulls evenly on both sides. Ruanas also work this way by havi...

I don't knit a lot of other people's patterns. I do admire a lot of other people's patterns. And I do read a lot of other people's patterns. But every now and then there is a pattern that just has to be done. When I was in Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2011, the owner of Urban Fiber Arts was wearing a recently-completed Damask by Kitman Figueroa. This is such a beautiful lace pattern that I just had to work it. When a friend was de-stashing, I was able to acquire a large (215g) skein of Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester 2/8. The skein was marked as 250g, but I must say, it wasn't that on my scale. Not sure if my scale is wrong or if Fleece Artist's scale was wrong, or maybe the yarn had acquired some moisture at some point? Nonetheless, either 215g or 250g is plenty of yarn for a shawl. Plenty. I like my shawls large. I get cold. I don't like cold. (I don't like dark, either, just for the record.) So I decided to make a large Damask. The patt...

You may have noticed the button for "Unwind," which replaced the "SAFF" button here on my blog last autumn. I am very excited to have been chosen as an instructor for Unwind 2013! This is a knitting retreat weekend in North Carolina from Friday 26 April through Monday 29 April. The other instructors are Michelle Hunter, Charles Gandy, and Debra Lee. I'll be teaching Unventions, Brioche Rosetta Stone, and Daring Double Cables as well as giving a short presentation about The Center for Knit and Crochet. The retreat is put together by Nancy Shroyer of Nancy's Knit Knacks fame. This is a low-key weekend with some classes but also some plain sitting around and knitting. It is a smaller and more intimate retreat where you are likely to meet most of the attendees by the end of the weekend. For $450 you get: Three nights stay - double occupancy (come with a friend or match up with a new fiber buddy) Three breakfasts Two dinners Three classes Four co...

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...