Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

If you are making the Viridi pinnam pattern, there are a couple things you can do to make the knitting flow a little more smoothly. The lace pattern is 24 rows, but with action only on the 12 right-side rows. Furthermore, those rows can be divided into two groups of 6, as the Japanese feather pattern stacks up on one side for 12 rows and then the opposite side for 12 rows. The lace trellis pattern is handy for counting, since the holes alternate right or left with every right-side row. I used a large safety pin placed through the trellis hole on row 23 or row 11. In the picture, I can count holes in the trellis pattern. There are three. My yarn location puts me at the beginning of a right-side row. From the Japanese feather pattern, I can tell the pin is in row 23. Since there are three right-side rows completed since row 23, I can tell I am about to start row 7. After every 12 rows/6 holes in the trellis, I moved the large safety pin up. This made it very easy to count pattern ro...

Since my goal for this year is to get the reversible lace technique out into the world in a big way, I have been designing items using the technique. When I was at South Carolina Knit Inn, Cindy from Stony Hill Fiber Arts insisted I take a couple skeins of Pacolet Valley Fiber Company Southern Exposure organic cotton. This is a sport-weight 100% organic cotton yarn grown and spun in the United States. If we want an American textile industry, we need to purchase their products. The cotton is 50% organic naturally-colored cotton and 50% organic cotton. (To learn more about naturally-colored cotton, visit Fox Fibre .) I was keen to try the green. I must admit, it did not look green in the skein. It looked beige or brown or neutral natural (photograph at right). Definitely not green. However, being the reader of knitting and spinning and weaving literature, I had read about these naturally-colored cottons and understood they will darken when boiled. So, after I finished knittin...

It has been a busy week here. My next reversible lace pattern, Viridi pinnam, is almost ready to post on Ravelry. Spring Fling is this weekend, where I'll be teaching reversible lace on Sunday. Completely off topic from knitting — on Wednesday I attended a Congressional Visits Day. It was very interesting spending a day running around the offices for the House of Representatives and meeting with legislative staff. My group was especially fortunate to get an in-person meeting with Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia's 4th district, on the east side of Atlanta. If you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. Those of you who are keyed in to visual cues will learn a lot about their priorities very quickly just by looking at how our representatives decorate their offices. If I were still in art history academia, I could easily get a master's thesis out of office décor on the Hill. Friends have also sent some interesting fiber-related web links to my inbox. I must s...

I've written a little bit about exhibiting knit and crochet . One of the reasons quilting is taken seriously as an art form is that quilters exhibit their work. They also keep records. If a scholar wants to research the connection between a quilt pattern and a particular group of people in a particular time and place, there is the possibility they can do so. Even if a quilt is in poor condition, non-quilters recognize its value. They appreciate that time and skill were involved in its creation. But if you have ever crawled the aisles of a second-hand store such as Goodwill, you will see that non-knitters and non-crocheters do not always recognize the value of the work. It is not uncommon to find a crocheted afghan languishing in a second-hand store. Not all of these are great works of art, but they are the result of time and skill. Very often they are a physical manifestation of love. Keeping records of what we've made and exhibiting those items as works of fiber art are th...

The National Needlearts Association (TNNA) is conducting a survey of fiber artists as part of their 2016 report. TNNA is the trade group for fiber arts retailers and manufacturers. You may have heard the staff of your friendly local yarn shop talk about going to TNNA. They host a twice-yearly trade show that is the major opportunity for retailers to see all the latest developments in our field. They also host direct-to-consumer events, such as Spinzilla. And they were very supportive of Center for Knit and Crochet by contributing funds that made the initial symposium in 2012 possible. TNNA has asked people to spread the word. The survey is here and will be up until Saturday 13 February. It is an anonymous survey, but there is a chance to win a $100 gift card. If you knit, crochet, spin, weave, embroider, needlepoint, or cross stitch, your input is needed. The data helps people on the business side of our industry make smart decisions. After all, we do not want friendly local yarn...

I think reversible lace looks especially nice with one-color Italian cast-on, incorporated i-cord selvedges, and tubular bind-off. It is a little tricky to transition between the cast-on and the i-cord and between the i-cord and the bind-off. Some of the maneuvers demonstrated in the videos might also work for transitioning between other cast-ons and bind-offs. If you are using an even-number of stitches in the i-cord, then you can cast-on with knit-purl pairs when working Italian cast-on. For odd-numbers of stitches in the i-cord, you'll need to start with a purl rather than a knit. Notice, too, you can use a cable needle to rotate stitches to make them more knit-like or purl-like, as you need. When transitioning to a tubular bind-off, work the same maneuvers you did to transition into the i-cord, but work those steps in reverse. A tubular bind-off to match Italian cast-on takes two "rows": Row 1: alternate knit 1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front. The knits wi...

One difference between beginning knitters and intermediate or advanced knitters is that novice knitters tend to only know only one or two cast-ons. A good cast-on can make an edge look professional, well-crafted. A poor match between cast-on and fabric can make a project look amateurish, even if the knitter has correctly executed the directions. For 1×1 ribbing — and, therefore, reversible lace — I like the look of one-color Italian cast-on. When worked in two colors, the cast-on can be used for double-knitting. It also works well for brioche knitting. Notice that the maneuvers are essentially the same as knits and purls. Stitches are cast-on in knit-purl (or purl-knit) pairs, which is why this cast-on does not work well for plain stockinette. To cast-on a knit stitch: duck the right needle front to back underneath the front yarn, wrap the back yarn as you would when making a knit stitch Continental style, bring the yarn forward as if pulling up a knit stitch. To cast-on a ...