Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

There have been some questions for the Georgia FiberFest knit-along. While it has been advertised as a mystery knit along, quite a few people have been curious. The schematic at left will give you some idea of the overall shape. When you wear this shape, it turns out to be rather flirty and cute. The Bootkicked scarf also used a similar shape. Several people are using gradient yarns other than the ones called for in the pattern. That's fine. In fact, that is part of the fun of a knit-along. How will the final projects be similar or different? The trick is, I wrote directions for dividing the yarn (with pins, please don't cut the yarn!) based on the Camelid Cottage yarn. This is a post about how to divide the yarn if you are making your own design decisions. The first questions is, "How much yarn do you have?" The second question is, "How many zig-zags do you want?" The third question is, "How much do you want to blend when you change colors?...

The downside of the technical experimentation I do is in trying to describe a new technique. If you are doing something that isn't commonly done, what words do you use to explain something that doesn't yet have a name? As with teaching, the key is to find terms that are already common knowledge and build upon them. The following three videos are intended to clarify these terms. Some of these might be things you already know. I'm just showing you what the words are that I use to describe them. This first video is the difference between yarn over and reverse yarn over. In some of my patterns, I do differentiate between the two! If you are a standard Western European/North American knitter, may I please recommend you make the regular yarn over your habit? The regular yarn over will have the same stitch facing as the rest of your stitches, so you won't have to think about it later. This second video shows the difference between Western and Eastern stitch facings. ...

While many of us are interested in the newest developments in knitting, it is also enlightening to look back at the past. Fashions come and go. Something like a miser's purse, which were quite common in the 19th century, might become almost completely extinct. (A quick Ravelry search returned 5 miser's purses finished in 2015 and none yet in 2016. To learn about the history and use of these fascinating and often luxurious objects, read Laura L. Camerlengo's master's thesis, The Ubiquitous Miser’s Purse , which you can download from the Smithsonian Institution here .) There is a theory that like attracts like. I don't know if that is true. It may be more simply that when people discover you have an interest in something, they send appropriate items in your direction. There is quite a bit that has come my way in recent years, both from friends and family. For example, Jenna the Yarn Pimp gave me this more than 90 years old magazine. First off, I love the cover...

As part of my 2016 "full court press power-play" to get reversible lace out into the world, I'm leading a mystery knit-along for Georgia FiberFest beginning this Sunday, 24 April 2016. The pattern is a super-cute scarf I've named Za-Zing. This is the sort of accessory that will brighten an outfit and keep you warmer without smothering you with heat. The way I prefer to wear it will also hide your neck, in case your face is silently ageless but your neck is loudly proclaiming your last birthday. As this is a mystery knit-along, I'm not showing off much yet. Here's the teaser photo. This pattern is fairly geometric. I would describe it as cute, youthful, and sporty. The yarn is a three-color gradient by Camelid Cottage in a 2-to-1 suri alpaca and silk blend. Each hank is 100 yards, so the total is 300 yards. Some knitting, but not too much. The pattern is already written. I ended up with 15 clues total, numbered 0 through 14. Clue #0 is already up o...

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...