Never Volunteer

That's what I've been told.

Have I ever paid attention to the things those older and wiser than myself have told me to try to save me from finding out the hard way?

Nope. What fun would that be?

Last Thursday I was at the "Stitch Effect", the once a month Library knitting group. Knitbasket, the usual group leader, had her baby early (It's a boy!) so she wasn't there. None of the other regular knitting librarians were either, which left bgulley, who's pretty much a newbie to the group, in charge. She was looking a little stressed, said she didn't think knitbasket would be back by the February meeting and that she didn't know what to do.

That's when my mouth opened itself and said, "Would you like me to teach Magic Loop knitting?"

So now, on my one year learning to knitiversary, I get to teach a group how to do Magic Loop.

Courage, I have. Sense, I suspect I lack.

Ah well, it should be fun. Or at least entertaining for the attendees.

Now to get to work assembling material list, samples, handouts... I'll post up some pictures when I have them.

(All names have been Ravelryized to protect the innocent.)

Comparative Needleology

- or - Knitting Bitty Swatches

I went to a new yarn store yesterday, so new that its grand opening is not until September 6th. The owner tempted me with a pair of Addi Turbo lace circular needles. She let me take them out of the plastic and play with them. The cable was wonderfully flexible, especially when compared to the stiff black cable on my cheap-o circulars. So I bought a 40 incher in size 4 to knit the fingerless mitts with.

Geeze o' pete, that needle is slickery.

I had absolutely no control over the tension. My stitches were loose enough to drive a Mack truck through.

Some experimentation was in order. I have a bunch of bamboo dpn's from Amazon: sizes 1 to 15, 5 of each, $19. They're not as nice as Clovers, but the price was right and I don't mind that dpn's aren't smooth, smooth, smooth. I want 'em grippy so they don't slide out when I'm not looking. Plus, it gave me a wide selection of sizes to fiddle with at a low price.

On size 3 bamboo needles, I did a long-tail cast-on, knit a couple of short rows, then did four rows of stockinet, then four rows of ribbing. It's the yellow and green swatch. On size 4 bamboo needles, I did a cable cast-on and knit essentially the same swatch in blue and lime. On the size 4 Addie Turbos, I did a backward-loop cast-on and knit another twelve stitch swatch, the all green one. They are all from the same strand of yarn. I didn't break the yarn off between the swatches and just left them hanging on the needles to make sure I would know which was which.

Click on the picture to see it enlarged.

Of the three cast-ons, the cable cast on is certainly the most attractive. It takes the longest to do, but I think the appearance is worth the effort. And I know with practice I will get faster.

I don't know if this is typical, but the bitty swatch from the Addis seems to be more hard edged than the two from the bamboo needles; the stitches seem more sharply defined. The Addis were substantially more difficult to knit with because they were harder to hold on to and the yarn kept wanting to go in different directions than I wanted it to. My stitch tension did improve between my first and second attempt at Turbo knitting. It's true it's faster to knit on Addis, but I would like to feel more in control. I can see where the sharp, slippery points would be good for lace, though.

Decisions, decisions. Ah well, I can procrastinate until I get back from vacation in a week.

Knitting Little Tubes

New techniques. Gotta try 'em.

I've been knitting lots of little tubes like these guys. They don't look like tubes because I mashed them flat and scanned them instead of having them smile pretty for a photo. The colors are more accurate, but, somehow, that third dimension gets a little lost.









I have a friend who has rheumatoid arthritis. She makes wire and bead jewelry. I know that it hurts her hands, but she's driven. I've decided that what she needs for her birthday/Christmas present is a pair of fingerless mitts to keep her hands and wrists warm while leaving her fingers bare to do the bead work.

I've already bought the yarn. I am, however none too fond of double pointed needles. Just too many pokey-outs all over the place.

So I'm studying different ways of knitting tubes. In June I learned Cat Bordhi's two circular needle technique. Last week I learned Magic Loop. Last night I tried two tubes on one long circular needle. Supposedly it's easier to get two matching socks - or mitts in my case - and you don't end up finishing one and diddling around, never finishing the second.

With my Baby Bootie track record,
I figured this might be a very good thing... I need to get some needles with a more flexible cable before I start, though.

Too Many Needles

Always eager to learn new techniques, I checked Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles out of the library.

I'm not brave enough yet to think about knitting socks, nor have I ever figured out why anyone would put all the effort of hand knitting into something that's going on their feet. Geeze o pete, socks are what KMart's for. I have a friend who is a wine connoisseur, though, so I think I would like to knit her a wine cozy. Seems more sophisticated than a tea pot cozy in any case.

Once I figured out to rotate instead of flip to go between needles, it wasn't difficult at all. Because I'm a tight knitter, the last couple of stitches on the coming-up needle were difficult to slip from the cable back onto the needle, but it's still easier than using double pointed needles and having pokie-outs all over the place.

So I decided to get fancy and add a couple of cables. I did the math then went at it.

It's workable.

Still looks like too many needles, but I hate to even think about trying it on DPN's.

What yah doin' Mom?