Archive for October 2009

My Knitting Projects: One Thing at a Time. What?

Well, as an Aries I guess I had to get used to the idea of time and slowness. Knitting is giving me an opportunity to see things unfold over time, even the planning and re-planning of projects. Usually I’m kind of impatient and don’t see the process of things. Somehow I expect them to just happen fast, but they don’t.

1. I have my red scarf planned and barely started. It’s a complicated pattern I’ve mentioned before, but I’m not excited about doing a scarf as I keep getting distracted.

2. I’ve been positioning myself for my first pair of socks, and have determined that I will do them toe up, magic loop, and have picked a pattern – mostly. I still have to order the yarn. I’m going for sport weight for a bit of a faster knit, but I also want to try a pair in worsted as the yarn is also cheaper – and I have some to use up. For the pattern I’m going to use the Serpentine pattern from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, but I need to modify the pattern for a taller sock, so that is delaying me. Socks are complicated! So many choices.

3. Another project is the Notting Hill cabled vest I ordered the pattern for from Interweave. I also sent for 10 balls of Dougherty yarn for it from knitpicks.com’s that is a blend of middle greens in their wool Shamrock line. Great price. The yarn just came today so now I have one project with a clear path and target. Nothing to figure out. Whew.

Notting Hill Vest from Interweave

Notting Hill Vest from Interweave

4. Then I thought up a project for use in knitting itself, inspired by my cousin Leigh. She knits with her yarn sitting in an appropriate piece of her Hull pottery collection. I have a Hull & Sons chair, but I don’t have any Hull pottery or anything else.

One of Leigh's Hull Knitting Pots

One of Leigh's Hull Knitting Pots

I’ve been using Tupperware equivalents. So I decided I would knit myself some bowls and full them (like felting). So far I think I will double knit them so they have tougher walls to hold their shape, but I am yet to decide on a design, size or shape. I’ll have something for two-at-a-time socks that will hold two balls and the socks, and others for various projects, yarn and wip contained together. But probably not for the whole vest.

I paid $5 for this beauty. It's actually pretty comfortable.

I paid $5 for this beauty. It's actually pretty comfortable.

I’m going to use mostly Lion Brand Fisherman’s wool worsted weight because I keep getting coupons for Joann’s to get 40% off and don’t really need much else – and they are big skeins for $9 before discount. I’m going there today to get a couple. Maybe I’ll buy some cheap craft felt or foam sheets to plan my bowl structure.

5. I also had begun a roll-up knitting needle holder but I’m not thrilled with how it’s turning out. It was to be in a multi colored acrylic yarn – didn’t care about that as it’s just for utility. But now I do care and have decided to make a sort of quiver with felted/fulled wool, and I think I’ll do a set of felted/fulled tags to keep the pairs paired rather than everything mixed up.

And then there are all the other exciting things I’m discovering: 6. I want to do a few videos on some things to show how the techniques are done in Portuguese knitting style, and 7. I have a new idea for a method that is derived from entrelac that I need to test. 8. I would also like to try stranded knitting.

One thing at a time. What? One thing at a time. What? One thing at a time. What?

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How to Make Plarn (Plastic Bag Yarn)

A video posted on youtube by aephemera

“A quick little tutorial on making “plarn” – plastic yarn made from grocery bags. You can crochet or knit with it to make environmentally responsible upcycled trashion items. Woohoo! Visit http://www.aephemera.net to check out the blog that this video is to be featured in.”

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Stranded, Multi-Color or Fair Isle Knitting Portuguese Style

Wow! I just experimented with doing two-color, fair isle knitting with the Portuguese style and it works great! Easier than I thought. I’ve seen Andrea Wong’s sock video where she demonstrates fair isle knitting on socks, but she does the second color English style, which I don’t like and it would just slow me down. If you are good at English then that might work, but you know me…

I tried it with my Portuguese knitting pendant that I invented, but with two hooks, and it worked great. No slowdown, just as fast as if I were doing just the one strand Portuguese style, and I found it was as easy to do right side and wrong side. I had seen another video on fair isle for socks using two knitting pins, but I think it was also socks and was done wrong side only…? I was afraid the yarn would tangle or something because i was turning the work but it took care of itself and I had no problems.

Now I need a fair isle project. I think I’ll go for a vest of some sort.

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