I stopped by Gail Knits, the LYS near my home looking for inspiration. I just finished by Christmas gift blitz of six scarves and two shawls in three weeks (all on superbulky yarn and or large needles, so don’t be that amazed) and want to knit something for myself. I’ve been eyeing a leaf lace pattern for a scarf, but try and try again I keep messing up, not liking the yarn, not liking the pattern, wanting to change the pattern and not getting it right, and ripping everything out about ten times by now. Something was wrong. I had what I’ll call “knitter’s block”. Nothing would cooperate: not my hands, not the yarn, not the pattern.

It was the fiber. I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do with the yarn I like. I was reminded of this at Gail’s store when I found the Eco Alpaca and Eco Duo by Cascade. NIIIIIIIICE. It’s single ply, which to me is wonderful, old world, “real” yarn, not the “city-fied” stuff they make by the millions of miles nowadays. I like the feel and vibe of natural fibers, especially naturally dyed or non-dyed. I love the hand spun look of single ply yarn as well. Comparing them in the store, even the beautiful blends that have tencil or some acrylic in them, they just aren’t right. They feel like they are made of plastic, and they are. They are plastic yarn. This is not real.

I have come to  a point where I am just not satisfied with synthetic fiber. As nice as it can look, as affordable, colorful and easy to get as it all is, it just isn’t real. And I think that is something of a theme in my life development. I want real. I want real me, real friends, real purpose, and real fiber in my knitting just underlines realness in all the rest.

What I want is my single ply, undyed alpaca reversible cable scarf I planned last summer but never bought the yarn for it. That will be my next project. So the other, artificial yarn I have I will use up for Christmas gifts and experiments. Yes, artificial, like flowers made of polyester and plastic. It’s not yarn snobbery, but wanting real stuff. Like real tile, not vinyl flooring, or real wood doors, not moulded mdf printed with wood grain and texture. Real chicken nuggets, not injection molded reconstituted chicken substance. And so on.

I’ve been doing another of that great scarf pattern but I’m starting to realize I don’t like the look of the double decrease, which is supposed to mirror the sk2p (slip one, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over). It doesn’t look as nicely defined as the sk2p. I’m going to try k3tog instead, which is supposed to lean right, as well as my own concoction: k2, slip new loop back to left, pass next unworked loop to the right and drop off left needle, then slip new loop back to the right. I haven’t had time to try this yet, but wanted to post it here in case you are trying the pattern and want to see if it looks better before I can get back to you on it. Happy Knitting….

By the way, I’m also adding a 2+2 cable crossover in the middle for added vine effects.

Edie wrote to me and asked about yarn-overs in Portuguese style knitting. Glad you asked, Edie. Thanks for writing. A yarn-over is very easy in PK.

If you want to do a yarn-over between purl stitches – P YO P – you already have the yarn under the right needle. To make a proper yarn-over lift the working yarn up your side of the right needle and then back down the far side so it is back where it started. You will notice that you are in effect wrapping the yarn counter-clockwise around the right needle tip if it were pointing at the ceiling.

For a K, YO, P sequence: you have the yarn on top of the right needle. drop it below as if to purl, then lift the working yarn up your side of the right needle again and back down the far side so it’s under the right needle again, just like for P YO P.

To do a yarn-over between two knit stitches – K YO K – it’s a bit simpler. The yarn is already on top of the right needle. Just put it below it as if you were about to do a purl stitch. When you knit the next stitch you will see that you are lifting the yarn up your side of the right needle and down the far side – as always – and thus wrapping it counter-clockwise around the needle tip.

For P YO K you likewise just leave the yarn below the tip of the right needle.

This counter-clockwise secret is very important for all knitting except maybe eastern European knitting. It assures you will get loops on your needles that are not reversed/twisted. If you look at your loops on the needles you will see that all of them have the yarn leading off to the right on your side and to the left on the far side. If it were reversed you would get twisted stitches.

My cat Lucy demonstrates her version of the yarn-over.

Above, my cat Lucy demonstrates her version of the yarn-over.

There is a myth in p-style knitting that you can do a purl, yo, purl sequence by just lifting the working yarn up on top of the right needle as if to knit, but if you did that you would get a twisted yarn-over that might complicate things when you went to knit or purl into it on the next row up. You can see that it would be wrapping the yarn clockwise on the right needle and you mustn’t do that.

I figured all this out for my article on knitting backwards, which is on the blog. It’s a good thing to know this bit of mechanics, so you can tell what you are doing.

• There Is No Wrong Way To Knit! (teachstreet.com)
• That Girl! KAL: Which Sleeve?! (craftzine.com)
• Colorful Homespun Scarf to Knit – Free Knitting Pattern (knitting-patterns-techniques.suite101.com)
• Projects ” How-To’s ” Little Knitted Backpack (cutoutandkeep.net)

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere I’m working on a Glengarry hat for my kilt wearing times, so here is the results of my second test knit with pattern changes. The pattern was inspired by the one in Folk Hats by Vicki Square, and I’ve made a bunch of changes, so I may publish the pattern in then next month or so.

One thing I did was make it shorter in the back, as that is what I see in some “authentic” ones on the web. I also expect to be wearing my intended black version in a New England July at the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival in my home town of Northampton, Massachusetts, so I have worked in ventilation by putting yarnover “lace” holes in the top. There is also some texture added as I tried to put in diagonal lines with purl bumps but missed or misplaced a few, so it looks rather sloppy/rustic/whatever. This one is just a test of various pattern changes I made anyway.

Here are a bunch of pictures of this version. My black one may be made with single ply wool. I’m also considering upsizing it then felting it down again to fit to see what that does to the fabric.

I knitted this half Continental style (stockinette side) and Portuguese style when I was working with purls facing me, since purls are very easy with Portuguese style knitting. See my article on better short row methods also. It’s listed in Techniques and on the Site Map tab on the menu bar above.

And I invite your ideas and comments!

From the side.

From the back angle

Front view. I wonder if felting will help it keep a better shape.

Top view. See the ventilation? Smart! To wear it in winter I could knit a liner.

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