Thursday, January 16, 2014

Twined Knitting



Okay, so I've done three evenings worth of work on the Twined Knitted hat for my brother, and thought I'd post pictures and give my initial assessment.  
First thing when it comes to twined knitting -- you are supposed to knit from a single ball, one strand from the inside of the ball and the other from the outside.  Which, since I'm knitting with two colors like is most frequently done with this style, I had to create a dual-color ball.  Not a big deal, but since I'm using worsted weight.. the ball was HUGE!!  I think it was at least 6" across..   I put a scrunchy around the outside of the ball to hold the outer-thread in place and not let it unwind unless I want it to.  This technique does work really well.  The two strands naturally twist around each other as I knit this project, so every now and then I have to untwist them.  And because of the scrunchy holding the outer yarn in place, I can just hold the whole thing up by the yarn and let it naturally spin to untwist.  Super easy.  



This is actually a picture of the work after two nights of work.  Last night I added another 7 rows or so, as I didn't spend quite as much time on it the third night, but I have completed a full repeat and then some.  This picture is just a little short of a full repeat.  I'm actually surprised how well the pattern shows in this picture.  Obviously, lighting helps strengthen the pattern visually, because in my semi-poor lighting that I tend to knit in.. it's sometimes hard to see.  Isn't it awesome though?  Below is a picture of the backside of this, where you can see it just switches colors every stitch.  I actually really like how that comes out as well, it just looks so clean.
This pattern is a little odd in it's initial creation.  You knit this tube like you see in the picture, but it's basically creating a quadruple layer of knitting that will be the main band of the hat.  When I've done 8 repeats of the pattern, I'll graft the finished end to the cast-on edge to make a loop.  I'll then attach the crown of the cap to the top of this part.  No wonder it makes for such a warm hat..with such a thick layer!


So far?  I'm impressed with twined knitting.  I think it's actually REALLY clean looking (when not mixing in a pattern), although the pattern itself looks cool as well.  But the tight color changes just look pretty amazing to me.  And the resulting fabric is really stiff, which has benefits and downsides.  I'm glad I'm learning this technique, though, and can say that I might be convinced to do it again for a pair of mitts for my brother or for me.  




Tuesday, January 14, 2014

January Knitting - Drowning in WIPS

I have determined that January is the month of too many cast-ons.  My eyes grew much larger than my time allotment allows for!!


It started with that In Dreams shawl.  (and here's some updated pics of it). I got all the pieces together and just couldn't help starting it up over the Xmas break after I finished up my holiday gift knits.  I'm up to 95 rows complete on it, and close to done with the main portion of the beading work on it.
-----As an aside on the In Dreams shawl.. This shawl had it’s first hiccup this past weekend. It went for a stroll out in the yard, enjoyed the leaves and played in the wind. My dog apparently thought the tupperware I was keeping it in was tasty and dragged out the whole tub, shawl, yarn and all. Luckily, the dog didn’t seem to chew on the knitting itself and just dragged it out into the leafy yard. And I believe the shawl is still okay, once I picked out the leaves and dirt. No chew marks on it or the ball of yarn. Apparently I need a new place to put this work in progress.


I also still have the Strangling Vines Scarf, which is pretty much my go-to piece for traveling knitting, because it requires almost no thought to work on it.  It's still going.. about a ball-and-a-half left of yarn to go on it.



But pretty early in the month, I decided I just HAD to try making a softy.  I fell in love with this little guy. <---- But I didn't have the yarn right away. I did order some good yarn to use on him though.  But until that came in.. well, anyway, instead I found another softy that would still look
great on my desk during the winter months --->  My cute little snowman.  He's sitting next to a couple candles on my desk now, making my office look and smell quite cozy.  He also only took a couple days to complete.  I do, however, want to do this reindeer this year.  Maybe in February.


Then my husband found this scarf.. and while I don't think he's really wanting it, I did have a couple friends beg me and offer to throw money at me to make them this scarf <---  So now I've got the yarn to make two of these.  Each skull crochets up super fast.. so it's a good filler piece when I get tired of working on the bigger pieces.  But it's hard to get myself to stay focused on it.  I'm almost halfway done with one scarf though.


And then.. I somehow came across this hat pattern ---> and learned that it was made with a special knitting technique developed in Sweden called.. tvåändsstickning.  Yeah, I don't know how to say it either.  But it means "Twined Knitting." And what THAT means.. is you knit with two yarns that are constantly twined around each other to make for a super warm double-layer of knitting.  I immediately knew I had to learn this technique and knit this hat for my brother, who moved to Canada.  I found this hat.. during the peak of the Polar Vortex that was sweeping down through the nation, dropping temperatures to somewhere near -30 degrees Fahrenheit (or worse) in portions of the continent.   While I'm sure he was keeping as warm as possible, another item or two to help with those extremes would certainly be welcome.  I showed him the picture and he really liked it too.  So.. I ordered some yarn for this project.  Turns out, it is easier to do twined knitting if you do it with "z-twist" yarn, as opposed to "s-twist".  Most yarns are twisted in the direction of the "s-twist", but some are done the opposite direction.  So i found some suggestions.. and ordered some yarn from Montana (yay for keeping it in America.. as opposed to going to Sweden for the yarn...).  I just got the yarn in yesterday and started working on this hat last night.  I was a little intimidated about the new technique.. but once I got myself all set up, the directions with the pattern were super simple to follow and I quickly got the hang of it.  After doing two rows, I think I've done just about every stitch the pattern will employ, and nothing about it is hard.. just fiddly.  I can definitely do this.  I'm looking forward to seeing the pattern emerge as I get more rows done.  I just hope I can get this hat done before February so he can get some value out of it this season!!

And to top it all off... my good friend is having a baby shower the first weekend of February.  And I really want to knit up a pair of booties and a tiny hat for the baby to have in time for that shower.  Luckily..booties and tiny hat will knit up super fast once I get started on them.  It's just one more thing to add to the pile of items that I want to do in January.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Holidays are Done

Progress Report:

Align Mitts - finished!  Gave them to Kim (my coworker) before the Xmas holidays, and she loved them :)


Sweater for Lizzy - finished!  Got this done just before Dec. 25th and she wore it for about a day before we took it off to bath her.  Since then, she's worn it for a day here or there but it hasn't been super cold for her to wear it.  This next week she'll be wearing it again.












Primrose Path - finished!  Completely!  Ends are weaved in and it's blocked and it's actually hanging in my closet!  I'm super excited about this, although I haven't yet worn it.  And really, it's something of a spring sweater anyway.. so once it warms up again some and the winter gray starts to disappear under the bright warming sun, I'll wear it out.  And it'll look fabulous.  (This isn't the final pic, but it's what I've got at the moment.)



Strangling Vine Lace Scarf - Onto my last two balls of yarn for this one.  I want this scarf to be long, and I tried it on after finishing my fourth ball and decided it had to have the 5th ball, and since I want it long it should just have all six.  This is my super easy no-thinking knit that I can do in the car, on lunch, or anywhere.  It'll be done before too much longer.


In Dreams - I've made real progress on this shawl.  I started it Christmas eve, after I'd finished my holiday knits, and focused on it for those two days I had off from work.  I kept plugging away for the next week on it, and with very minimal hiccups made pretty good work on it.  These pictures show both the pattern and a pretty view of the beading on it.  BEADS!  So many beads!  But I LOVE what they do to it, and I find them pretty easy to put on too.  Beading may be a new obsession of mine.  I took a couple days off of this project over the new year, but intend to dive back into it this weekend.