After the IWC Knitting Workshop

Double knit, single strand scarf,  knit with Noro Silk Garden--photo taken in backyard

I have completed two scarves using Valentina Devine’s double knit technique which utilizes only one strandof yarn. The scarves before they were blocked were about 4 ½ inches wide by 80 inches long, after I washed them they grew to 89 inches long! I think I made a mistake in rolling the scarves in towels to get the excess water out of them.

The scarves were knit on a #7 knitting needle using Noro brand Silk Garden yarn, which is 45% silk, 45% kid mohair, and 10% wool. Noro Silk Garden is not the softest yarn, but the color changes are great and they made up as nice looking scarves. And of course, it is always nice to finish a project, which is not always the case with me.

Double knit means that there are actually two layers of fabric. The scarf is knit in a circle so the center is hollow, then the knots from the color changes in yarn can be pushed to the center of the scarf to be hidden.



Same scarf with photo taken against stucco wall

The whole scarf consists of four different rows of knitting. The first row you cast on an even number of stitches.

The second row: knit the edge stitch through the back of the knit stitch, *yarn over, knit through the back of the next stitch*, (repeat the yarn over and knit through the back of the next stitch until the last stitch in the row), the last stitch slip the stitch as if you were going to purl it. Turn knitting.

The third row: knit the edge stitch through the back of the stitch,* slip the next stitch as if to purl it, knit the third stitch in a regular manner*, repeat the slipped stitches alternating with the regular knit stitches across the rest of the row including the edge stitch which is a slipped stitch as if it was purled.

Continue knitting as in row 3, changing colors at will. I always knotted at the edge, but that isn’t necessary. If you look at Valentina Devine’s example of double knit edging and cuffs on a black jacket in the last blog, many of the new colors were introduced in the middle of the line. As long as the knot is hidden it doesn’t matter where the color change takes place. Knot yarn, and then knit for a few rows before hiding knot in center of scarf.

When scarf is desired length begin row four binding off. Bind off first and last edge stitches as single stitches, but treat the knit and purl pairs of stitches as one knit stitch in binding off. After binding off the last edge stitch single, cut the yarn leaving a two inch tail and put the tail through the last loop. Hide this knot in the center of the scarf.

Lightly wash and lay out scarf to dry, blocking out to the scarf’s measurements.

Noro Circle Vest

The last few weeks I’ve been on a kick knitting with Noro Silk Garden yarn. I finally finished a circle vest knit from a pattern in Elaine Eskesen’s book Silk Knits. Carla Giuffrida designed the Circle Vest done in the earthy tones, while Elaine Eskesen did the Circle Vest done in the light summer colors. My version was done in blues, Noro Silk Garden Color #37.


The vest pattern calls for the vest to be done on size #9 double points to get started and then on #9 circulars 16 and 29 inch to continue. I finally switched to a 47 inch to finish off the vest, as the 29 inch needle just got too crowded for my taste. The pattern recommended 7 balls of Noro Silk Garden for my size, Large. I thought I only used 6, but I’m not sure as I lost count of the wrappers.

It was as interesting pattern, and once I got into the rhythm of the knitting I was okay. But when I had been following the written instructions so carefully through the pattern of increases and got to the point where the pattern told me to continue the increases in a like manner, I did a low level panic. Once I got my head together and analyzed how the pattern of increases was working I then worked up a little cheat sheet to keep track of what I was doing. I’m the kind of knitter that checks off the rows with pencil and paper to keep track. I never got in the habit of using the row clickers. I couldn’t remember if I had clicked or not at the end of a row.



When I finished the circle vest it looked like a huge sombrero, with the mount in the middle. Thank heavens, after washing and blocking that went away; so did the curling edge.


But if I were to knit another circle vest I would make the arm holes longer. The present armholes are a bit snug. The armholes are made by knitting the required length of the opening with waste yarn. Then when the vest is finished the waste yarn is carefully removed and the live stitched are slip stitched with a crochet hook.



I enjoy knitting in the evening while listening to TV, if I watch too much I usually have to reknit something. Anyway I find it a nice way to relax, IF the pattern isn’t too challenging. I found I can’t do lace at night listening and/or watching TV, my counting never comes out correctly.

Next: Sadie and Mac, our live in crazies

This Is For Candy...

I will do just about anything for dark chocolate, no not really, but I do have a real weakness for it. Some kind, diabolical person filled a gift box with Hershey miniature candy bars and left it on the group table at Wooly Wonders yarn shop, where I work, over the holidays. I did my part in trying to find all the dark chocolate minis. I have enough guilt that I probably should replenish the stash, of course that means there will be more chocolates to snack on during WOW (weaving on Wednesdays) and when I work. But I digress.

Candy was actually my art supervisor in my former life as a Clark Co. Middle School art teacher. We’ve since both moved on to other things but run into each other occasionally. We have found in each other a kindred spirit--someone who like to knit during football games. So for the past few years we have both brought our knitting to the same Super Bowl party.

This year I ran across Candy at a holiday party just before semester break. Sorry to say, I talked her ear off. I told her about some of the websites that I found in the holiday issue of Vogue Knitting that I mentioned in my last blog entry. I also mentioned a knitted scarf pattern that my son had found for me on a craft magazine website, craftzine.com. I promised to pass the pattern and the websites to Candy as she handed me her business card with her email address.

Don’t they say that “the way to Hell is paved with good intentions”? When we got back from Salt Lake City Dec. 31, after helping Carlee and Tom get settled, I noticed Candy’s business card laying on my computer desk! The great procrastinator had forgotten to send the promised items to Candy before we left for SLC. Yuck.

So to make amends I’m going to try describe the scarf and illustrate the stitches used in the scarf pattern I promised to send Candy. I found I didn’t know how to do the stitches and had to ask Joyce the owner of Wooly Wonders to show me how to do them.

So for the rest of the blog I’ll concentrate on the directions of the herringbone scarf, which is not difficult once you know the two basic stitches (where have you heard that before--but it’s really true.)

This is the blog entry that my son passed onto me via craftzine.com:
My So Called Scarf - October 26, 2004
I was wearing this scarf over the weekend while I was at the Knit Out in Boulder, and I got a number of comments and requests for the pattern. Here’s the story behind the scarf. A couple of years ago I was in San Francisco and happened on the yarn shop, Imagiknit. What a fun shop! The owners, Allison and Sara, are so personable and helpful. I would recommend stopping in if you are in the Bay area anytime soon! There were a ton of scarves knit up on a rack as samples, and that’s where I spied this lovely one. I had never seen Manos Del Uruguay before and fell in love with this colorway, it’s color 113 (they are calling it wildflowers). The scarf pattern came with the yarn, one of the shop girls had typed it up. Now, every time I wear it, someone comments on it and I’ve been asked so many times for the pattern that I finally called the store and asked if I could give it out. They just laughed and told me that they appreciated the call, but that it was just a stitch pattern out of a pattern book and that I could distribute it at will. Thanks Imagiknit ladies! So here it is:
Materials: 2 Skeins of Manos del Uruguay; US #11 Needles; Darning Needle
Glossary: psso=pass slipped stitch over; P2tog=purl 2 together
[CO=cast on; BO=bind off (I added these items]
Instructions:
-CO 30 Stitches.
-Row 1: K1, *sl 1, K1, psso but before dropping the slipped stitch from the left needle, knit into the back of it* repeat until there is one stitch left, K1.
-Row 2: *P2tog, do not slip stitches off the needle, purl the first stitch again, slip both stitches off needle*
-Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you run out of yarn.
-BO. *Weave in all ends. Wear proudly! Posted by Stacey at October 26, 2004
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I looked through a bunch of my knitting pattern books and the only one with this pattern was “365 Knitting Stitches a Year - Perpetual Calendar” (2002) by Martingale and Company on the October 30 page. The wording was slightly different, I’m sure to avoid copyright infringement, but the technique was the same. It’s called a horizontal herringbone stitch in this calendar.

I tried knitting the pattern with some Manos del Uruguay I had in my stash, but the colors were very dark and the variations in the thickness of the yarn were too much. Sometimes the strand was as thin as thread, and it was hard to keep track of the stitches, so I switched yarns. I’m now using Kaya by Crystal Palace Yarns 100% wool, color 0108. It’s a two ply, variegated yarn in a ball of 65 yards recommended for a 10.5 - 11 US needle. Since it’s not a thick ’n thin yarn I’ve been much happier knitting with it. My scarf measures on the needles between 6.5 and 7”, and I’m kind of a tight knitter especially with this pattern. A skein of Manos del Uruguay is about 138 yards, so “My So Called Scarf” takes about 276 yards, which is a generous amount for a scarf, partly because of the stitch which almost creates a double thickness with the crossover stitches.

Other chunky yarns which could be used with this pattern perhaps using a size #13 needle would be Berroco’s Hip Hop, 100% wool skein of 76 yards, and cast on 2-4 less stitches. Another yarn might be Nashua’s Painted Forest, 100% wool with 55 yards a ball. A third yarn you might use is Cascade Yarns’ Nikki which comes in some beautiful colorways. Like Manos del Uruguay and Hip Hop, it’s a thick ‘n thin yarn of 100% wool but the skeins are larger at 110 yards. I’d probably figure 250-275 yards at a #13 needle, so 4 skeins of Hip Hop and 5 balls of Nashua would probably work. Depending on how wide and how long you want your scarf you could get by with 2 or 3 skeins of Nikki.

Because the technique produces a tighter fabric, whichever yarn you decide to use I recommend going up two needle sizes to get a scarf fabric that isn’t stiff and too tight. The label on the Manos del Uruguay recommends needles US 8-10 and the yarn does look thinner than Hip Hop and Nashua.

Other Needle Sizes and Yarns
I’m also trying the pattern out with smaller needle sizes. Generally, to make changes to the scarf directions keep in mind the total stitches cast on must be an even number. For my own sanity I like to make the number of cast on stitches a round number as it’s easier to remember. A person could hand a tag on the cast on yarn tail with the number of cast on stitches on it. If you’re working on more than one project at a time a reminder helps. Or put two knots in the yarn tail to stand for twenty stitches, or three knots to stand for thirty stitches, etc. As a senior my “hard drive” sometimes reaches overload, so I try these tricks to cut down on my frustrations.

As I mentioned before when you pick a yarn, use knitting needles two sizes up from the size usually used with that yarn. The rest of your decisions are figuring how many stitches to cast on for the desired width, and how long to make the scarf.

Right now I’m using size #10 needles with Noro’s Silk Garden with 38 stitches which produced approximately a 7 ¼” wide scarf. I’m also working on #8 needles with Noro’s Silk Garden Sock Yarn with 40 stitches on a scarf that is about 6 ¼” wide. This one is only about an inch long as I tore it out to move up a needle size, so the width might not be too accurate.


The knitting needles I’ve been using are Serendipity Needles birch needles with polymer clay finials (ends). They’re a specialty item that we sell at Wooly Wonders that are great for gifts. I bought a pair to take on a cruise because they were so cute, but I really liked knitting with their sharp points. So I’ve gotten some more needles in other sizes.

It’s been kind of fun trying different yarns with different needle sizes to see what the pattern will look like after a couple of inches. Of course the larger the needles the faster the scarf develops and the lesser the amount of yarn used.
Next Post: How the stitches are worked.

Visiting LYS and Gathering Ads - Part 1

The past couple of weeks I’ve been visiting a few of our local yarn shops to sell ads for our fiber arts guild’s newsletter. The first shop I visited was the newest knitting shop in the LV valley, Knit Las Vegas. It’s located at 10740 S. Eastern Ave. in Henderson, NV 89052, on the corner of Eastern and Horizon Ridge.



Christine, the owner, is a friendly, vivacious woman that I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about in the future. She is a great supporter of the guild as she took out a half page ad in our newsletter for the year! She is a great advocate of crochet, although she does knit too and the shop is stocked with lots of yarns and threads to satisfy both types of crafter’s appetites.



Presently Christine is in the midst of creating garments that are a combination of crochet and knit for a forthcoming book. She had just finished a gorgeous piece that was on the mannequin in the store. Here is a sneak preview of the piece, front and rear views. The square motifs were crocheted out of Noro sock yarn and the knitted sections were done with Southwest Trading Company’s Jezebel. I found myself drooling over the various examples that Christine was showing me. Her use of crochet, combined with knit, was winning me over. It was really refreshing to see a new approach to crocheted garments that was appealing to my sense of touch. In the past crocheted fabric has always struck me as being too stiff, and drab.

Knit Las Vegas is the closest of all the shops to my house, so it wasn’t my first visit, so I had to cruise the yarn aisles. And, of course, I didn’t leave the store empty handed. There is a nice selection of Karabella yarns, Artyarns, Cascade yarns, among lots of others. I bought some Karabella Cable 5 to use as warp, they have such nice jewel tones. I also bought some Artyarn Regal Silk to knit a shawl pattern, my first.

The knitting of that shawl pattern is going pretty badly, and I think I’ll have to back off and try a simpler design. I hate to admit defeat on a pattern, that that’s the way it goes. I just don’t have the experience with shawl knitting yet, and I think I have to sit down and concentrate more. I’m too easily distracted, and it’s something you can’t do and try and watch TV at the same time. Besides the Regal Silk is too pricey to mess up with, I’d rather come back to it when I think I can handle the pattern.

We’ll have to keep Christine and her crochet/knit projects in the back of our minds and see what she comes up with next. She was working on a herringbone knitted piece that really looked like a basket weave. I like to see that piece when it’s further along.

The WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays

Two years ago three or four of our weaving & spinning guild members started getting together a couple of Wednesday mornings a month. At first we met at my house but last year we started meeting at Wooly Wonders, a knitting and weaving shop on the east side of Las Vegas, and we decided to start meeting every week. We call ourselves the WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays Group.

We’ve grown to eight to ten members, some arriving early, some late--that’s always me (have to check my e-mail first). We talk a lot, drink our coffee & tea, knit, crochet, spin and even do some weaving. We often bring in rigid heddle looms or tapestry looms, like Kathy who is working on a sort of fantasy landscape in Noro yarns shown in the photo.

I brought in my 8H Leclerc Voyageur table loom, but didn’t do much weaving. I work at the store tomorrow and Friday and probably will get some weaving time in then. I’m trying to weave off the bookmarks as I’m going to need the loom for a workshop in lace weaving in Salt Lake City in late October. The bookmarks have a black rayon thread warp and a variety of pattern wefts. They are a variation of bookmarks from the March/April 2007 Handwoven article, “Elegant Bookmarks” by Syne Mitchell. Last year our guild challenge was to weave with warp smaller than we usually weave with. Boy, this warp sure fit the bill. I could have gotten by just by using 20/2 as a warp, but I was fascinated by the beautiful pattern of the bookmarks.

I’m not sorry I did the project, once the correct sett was worked out for my rayon warp and the warps stopped breaking. But I’m sure not going to use this tiny a warp thread any time soon. I’m ready for something a bit bigger. When the warp comes off I’ll be able to take some photos of the different pattern wefts, some of the bookmarks actually turned out nicely, and the broken warps were easily hidden.


In the photo, Nancy is spinning with a drop spindle, but often brings her wheel to spin with. She is one of the founding members of our guild, and is an excellent weaver too.

How do your guild members get together between meetings? We find we enjoy the weekly get together to exchange ideas and show what we’ve been doing, and look forward to the next week's gathering.