Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

It has been a very busy month around here, and there's more coming. The recent past: out-of-state trip for Mom's 75th birthday visit from 15-year-old nephew including ropes course, go karts, rafting, and indoor sky diving trip to Gen Con stops at Fiber Frenzy and the Woolery eclipse in Sweetwater, Tennessee The impending future: Dragon*Con Georgia FiberFest Mensa Peachtreat 42 Game night at my house Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair Cuddly Hubby will be home for Dragon*Con. Also on the upside, the fall issue of Spin Off magazine just arrived at the friendly local yarn shops. And please look down through the table of contents to page 80. I wrote the article about eleven months ago, so this has been lurking for awhile. I had a great time writing the article and working with the friendly staff at Spin Off . This is definitely a champagne, chocolate, and flowers sort of accomplishment. If it weren't that we'll be busy with Dragon*Con, I would have a ...

I've continued experimentation with the Y increase and hyperbolic knitting. In this case, I started with 8 pairs in the round. I alternated one round 1×1 ribbing, one round Y increase in every pair of stitches (thus doubling). I started with 8 pairs and bound off with 512 pairs. The yarn is Lily Sugar 'n Cream kitchen cotton — sturdy, inexpensive, easy-care yarn that comes in a 2½ ounce/120 yard put-up. Some stores also carry it in a 14 ounce cone. I would love to make a very large hyperbolic poof. I think it would be interesting to be able to fall into one, as if it were some strange hyperbolic version of a bean bag chair. Here is the problem: Powers of 2   2 1   =  2   2 2   =  4   2 3   =  8   2 4   =  16   2 5   =  32   2 6   =  64   2 7   =  128   ...

I know right now is summer, filled with summertime distractions. But, there are knitting distractions coming up in the calendar. This Saturday 15 July is North Georgia Knitting Guild's annual Beat the Heat Retreat in Woodstock. This is a day of knitting camaraderie with workshops, activities, food, and just general socializing. The next weekend on Sunday 23 July is Christmas in July at The Whole Nine Yarns . This is the annual day to acquire lots of gift-appropriate patterns. Many of us who teach at the shop will be there to demonstrate the techniques, too. Intown Quilters in Decatur is bringing Patty Lyons for a weekend of teaching Friday 18 August through Sunday 20 August. Classes are: Friday night lecture: Oops, I Accidentally Knit a Dress (Tales of Lies, Heartbreak and Denial) Saturday classes: Finishing Seams Simple & Best Buttonholes Sunday classes: Secrets to Spectacular Sweater Success & Knitting ER Tragedy & Treatments The September calendar overfl...

A couple months back, I posted a video showing how to work the k-yo-k increase in reversible lace. I mentioned that one of the interesting things about reversible lace is you can knit into the same stitch twice. Each "stitch" is actually a knit-purl pair. You can knit, purl, then back up and knit again, then purl again. I've tentatively named this a Y increase because it is one stitch that splits into two stitches. When I sketch it out as a stitch chart or stitch map, it looks like a Y. I've begun experimenting with this increase. One of my plans for reversible lace is to turn circular shawls into swirl jackets. Circular shawls are fabulous lace projects. But how do you wear them? For so many people, the first thing you do is fold the shawl in half. When worked reversibly, you could insert sleeves and have a swirl jacket instead. I decided to test the idea with a teddy bear jacket. It turns out that an 8-section polygon was a little hyperbolic. The 7-sect...

It all started with cleaning out the stash. After I acquired significant new stash at the fire sale, I needed to put it all away. I do have a wall of not one but two Ikea 5×5 cubbies. That's 50 cubbies! (By the way, while you can fit two of these flat-packed into a 2007 Honda fit along with yourself and a 6'2" cuddly hubby, it is maybe not the best idea. Re-roll that Wisdom check.) Revisiting the stash reminded me of dreamed-about projects yet unrealized. And I needed to use up yarn and fiber so I could make more room. There were six skeins of Noro Kureyon Big, a bulky-weight yarn. I knew I wanted them to become an up-sized Jester Tentacles Bag. As that looked like a quick way to generate open storage space, I gleefully cast on. I had made a previous Jester Tentacles Bag that turned out too small to be useful. This time, I changed the math a little from what Cat Bordhi wrote: MCO 70 90 becomes 140 180      k 75 95    wy 25 35   ...

In the Kennesaw Kudzu pattern, each multiple of pattern is worked back and forth and decreased to a point. This shaping creates the pretty leaf edging. But it does raise questions of how to deal with those final two stitches and where to hide the tail when you are out at land's end? To graft that final knit-purl pair, start with “wrong” side facing: plunge a blunt tapestry needle into the base of the final stitch 
leaving needle in place, pull tail up and out poke eye of tapestry needle from purl side to knit side of penultimate stitch 
thread tail in eye of tapestry needle 
pull needle to bring tail through penultimate stitch and to re-complete final stitch. I prefer to duplicate stitch ends. In this case, I don't have any horizontal fabric that I can use for duplicate stitch. Plan B is hiding the ends vertically. Identify a knit wale and thread the tail down through a vertical column of stitch legs. This isn't my favorite way to deal with an end, but it will...

The Kennesaw Kudzu socks and hat both start with a center-out cast-on. This is a combination of Gwen Bortner's encasement pick-up and a typical center-out cast-on. Wrap the tail counterclockwise in a circle twice.
 Knit into the center of the circle.
 Yarn over.
 One pair completed.
 Repeat as many times as needed.
 Pull tail gently but firmly to close hole. In addition to the hat and the toe-up socks, this cast-on would be useful to work a circular shawl in reversible lace.