The current issue of Knitter's Review has a 10% off coupon for Knitpicks - that along with the free shipping for orders over $30 encouraged me to send in an order. I'm finally springing for a Circular Solution for my circular needles. I already have one for my double points (see photo above) and I adore it. I am looking forward to storing my circular needles so they won't be all curled up anymore. I am always too lazy to uncurl them before I start knitting anyway.



I also ordered four colors of Shetland Spindrift to make two more pairs of mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia and some smaller doodads - a needle sizer that actually goes down to 000 needles, a line magnifier magnet thing to help while reading charts, and more tapestry needles. You can never have enough tapestry needles.



I have another giveaway - this time for a colorwork Christmas stocking pattern book - so watch the blog early next week so you can sign up for the contest.

I've started updating this blog in the afternoon instead of late at night, Sunday through Thursday. This is a good thing because Miss Peaches loves to run the Bunny 500 late at night and I enjoy watching her hijinks and having a good laugh. Today's discovery was that her fur is longer than my other bunnies - maybe between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2" so I may be able to spin something from it. I have a laceweight spindle from Kokovoko that I used for the pathetic demo yarn seen here. She's an agouti bun (like wild cottontails) and her fur is gray with brown and black tips.







And here are another pair of rabbit socks. These were done in Country Garden DK - the only superwash yarn I've ever liked. I figured in the amount of time it took me to duplicate stitch all the rabbits I could have knit another pair. sigh

TWINED KNITTING, PART II







JBB writes in yet another Squawkboxtv comment that never showed up on the blog, "There are also two articles by Linda Sokalski and patterns for Swedish two-strand knitting in Threads' Knitting Around the World (Taunton, 1993). One article discusses knitting with colors with a pattern for socks; the second shows the technique in detail with a white-on-white mitten pattern. "



Thanks for that comment JBB. The Threads book is out of print but you may be able to find it on half.com.



The above photo shows the mitten pattern with the decorative crook stitch. There is a special yarn that should be used in twined knitting and Nancy Bush sells it at Wooly West. It is called Mora and is spun S and plyed Z. (I think that is the opposite of the usual way of spinning and plying, right?).



Also, Theresa of Bagatelle in Norway has done a fine online demo with photos of twined knitting HERE.

I'm typing up this blog entry while waiting to see if I can entice Miss Peaches out of her room to check out the rest of the house. For such a gigantic rabbit she is quite bashful but definitely enjoying life in her forever home.



For those of you who asked about the Bernat Aero needles, they have a great tapered tip and are about the least expensive needles you can find. I love them! I purchased mine at Wool-Tyme but Yarn Forward also lists them.



TWINED KNITTING, Part I



Lisa reported recently that Schoolhouse Press is coming out with a new book on twined knitting. I found the tvaandstickning blog entry I wrote on 3/31/03 so I thought I'd re-run it along with a scan of the sample swatch I did, front and back.













I'm greatly enjoying reading Twined Knitting: A Swedish Folkcraft Technique by Birgitta Dandanell and Ulla Danielsson. Twined knitting is also called Tvaandstickning or two-end knitting and essentially means working with two yarns of the same color (although the book briefly mentions working with 2 colors) and alternating the yarns every stitch. It is traditionally done with both ends of the same skein of yarn but I've seen others recommend against this as you can't untwist the yarns as easily. I tried a small sample and I needed to let the knitting hang from the needles and untwist quite frequently. The back of the work looks interesting - purl rows alternate between twined rows but the front also looks different. Stockinette stitch in twined knitting has a different look - the left half of the knit stitch stands out more because of all the twisting going on.



The purling is interesting in twined knitting. If you're just purling one stitch you leave both yarns in the back of the work. If you're purling the entire row of stitches you leave both yarns in front of the work and twist each stitch. But where twined knitting really shines is when you do a crook stitch - K1, P1, K1. For this one you leave one yarn in front for purling and the yarn in back is used for knitting. To do a chain path - you do two rows of crook stitch offset by one stitch. So on the second row of crook stitch you knit the purl stitches and purl the knit stitches. You get a really pretty loopy-looking O stitch. You can kind of see the crook stitch sample at the top of the first photo.

Our wonderful new brown bunny has arrived. DH has renamed her Peaches and I've never seen such a large rabbit. I think she is close to 15 lbs. She adores the cats and has already been doing binkies/bunny jumps (it sounds like a herd of elephants!) and flipping onto her side - two signs of bunny contentment. I'll take photos tomorrow - I'm in heaven with a new lagomorph to love.



I wanted to add some tubular cast on info I received in the Squawkboxtv comments which didn't show up on the blog again. Kerstin says the tubular CO looks best with K1,P1 rib and it slants for K2P2 rib. Kerstin - the half hitch cast on is the same as what VK calls the Single Cast On. JBB says she used the tubular cast on for a ribbed hat in Charlene Schurch's Hat's On book - that seems like a neat place to use it. She points out that this book contains some other neat cast ons.

Robin says she watched an EZ/Meg Swansen video and they were using the tubular cast on for a ribbed gansey. Sandrine says she does the tubular cast on for both K1P1 and K2P2 rib including in circular knitting and she used it for her beautiful Kongle - check her blog entry for 1/18/04.



Here are my new Bernat Aero circulars and dpns. For some reason you can only buy these from Canada. Also, the smaller sizes of dpns give you 5 needles but you only get four with the larger sizes. They're quite inexpensive - prices shown are Canadian.

This is the Multicolor Earflap hat from Vogue Knitting Caps & Hats Two in various stash yarns. I added the duplicate stitch rabbit on the earflaps because I've got bunnies on the brain. Our new gargantuan bunny girl arrives on Sunday.



Have a great weekend!

I've purposely been knitting with thicker yarn. This means I'm less happy but the projects get finished faster. After getting to the thumb increases for Merike's Gloves (Folk Knitting in Estonia, size 0 dpns) and noticing a huge mistake on the cuff, I came to the conclusion that I need bifocals. I've been putting this off for a while because obviously I'm way too young for bifocals. Ahh, vanity. So the bifocals have been ordered and I'll continue doing some thicker knitting until they arrive. I figure I can get some HRS knitting done in the meantime.

Melissa reports that Piecework has a Nancy Bush glove pattern and will continue to offer a Nancy Bush pattern in all the issues for 2004. This alone is enough to make me consider subscribing. I hope to find the current issue this week.

Anne sent me this photo of her s-curve mittens from the first Elsebeth Lavold book done in some pretty heathery Marr Haven yarn. The pattern is Harald I believe. Thanks for sending the photo Anne! I really have to try some Marr Haven yarn myself. Anne is currently working on some Norwegian mittens from Arnhild. I'm just about to order a mitten kit from Arnhild myself.

Note To Self: Never again order a yarn color named shrimp.



This is the Blackberry Ridge Farms pet socks pattern although I substituted a different rabbit chart. I think the rabbit is a bit large for the sock and I'm now working on a second pair with yet another rabbit. The yarn is Country Garden DK (the shrimp color actually looks more "shrimpy" in person) and I used duplicate stitch for the rabbits. I'm not a huge fan of duplicate stitch - on these socks it feels almost like a patch and affects the elasticity. Plus duplicate stitches are always larger than the surrounding stitches if you look closely.









In the comments Kerstin asked about seaming two different knitting patterns. In that situation and also in a pattern where you have those annoying stair-stepped bindoffs for the shoulders I like the slip stitch crochet seam. It is one of the few seams done on the reverse side and it looks best if done a bit loosely.



Also, devBear asked about attaching yarn ends. I essentially do a reverse duplicate stitch on the back of the work with the yarn ends. I'll see if I can't get some sort of photo of this process next week.

Here's the Multi-Directional Scarf again - this time blocked to be quite narrow, about 3 inches wide. It is for a high school girl who likes her scarves narrow. It is my Easter egg rainbow-dyed spindle spun kid mohair.



I received an order today from Smiley's Yarns and I added some plastic Susan Bates pins, called Luxite Seaming Pins, which are quite a bargain compared to the Lollipop pins I bought previously at Patternworks. Ahh - only the most boring of knitters can get excited about plastic pins I guess.

Tacking down floats is really a simple process of just doing whatever you can to sew long floats on the back of the work so your fingers won't get caught in them. The photo of the back of my Halloween socks kind of shows how I did this with sewing thread. If I had to do it over again I'd do it with a thinner wool yarn which is more elastic. However you do it just remember to do it loosely.









I figured this blog needed some more bunny photos so here is Rusty. A rescuer found Rusty in a small cage at a feed store with another unneutered male who kept attacking him. The vet estimated Rusty had over 100 bite wounds and gouges at the time of his rescue. It is truly amazing his fur has grown back so nicely. Rusty is quite curious about everything and he really loves having his picture taken. Isn't he handsome? He is available for adoption to a really good home.





I wish I could adopt Rusty but I think I'll have my hands full with the arrival of the oh-so- enormous female rabbit arriving here in just 10 days. I can't wait!

This is the multicolored funnel hat from Vogue Knitting Caps & Hats Two in various stash yarn. There is an error on rows 7-9 of Chart 1 - the center yellow cross is one column off skew in the chart.



I've received a bunch of Squawkbox comments which aren't showing up on the blog so I'll answer them here.



Robin commented about Nursery Rhyme Knits. Robin - the hats and mittens in the book are done in the round but the scarves aren't. I definitely think the book encourages figuring out different ways to accomplish the designs. For three and four color rows, I generally carry all the yarns although some knitters slip one color and then go back again and do the same row over again, knitting the slipped stitches and slipped the already knit stitches. Or you could certainly just introduce the colors where you need them and then cut the yarn and start over on each row. I don't mind working ends in so that would work for me. Robin, I do think you could figure out a way to knit the scarves in the round and then steek them.



Michelle asked about the lines on the argyle - yes those are duplicate stitch - the diagonal lines going through the center of the diamonds.



Lisa asked about the seam in the argyles - I'm not sure if you can feel the bulk of the seam when you wear the argyles because I've never tried one the one argyle I made. I'd have to finish seaming it first. Someone asked me a while back about the bulk of that seam and I said it is normal to have some bulk when you do mattress stitch. It is invisible on the outside but not on the inside. Also, Lisa, about Nursery Rhyme Knits - I think I will just try a pair of the mittens and just do it my usual method of fair isle in the round and see how that works. I'm too impatient to see the color progress to wait until the end to do duplicate stitch.



Aarlene asked about the Philosopher's Wool technique of weaving in unused colors and how that would work with three or four colors per row. That is a good question Aarlene as I've wondered about that myself. Does anyone know how the PW technique works in that situation?

NURSERY RHYME KNITS

















I really like this book. It is full of great color charts and photos for adorable hats, mittens and scarves for kids. It isn't for beginning knitters though as there are many 3 and 4 color rows and some really long floats. The author gets around this by lining her stuff but still I'd wonder about the tension. (The tension of the photographed garments is great.) The hats and mittens are knit in the round but for the scarves she suggests if you need a particular color and it is on the opposite side of the row to just make a long float. Yikes. Still I love the colors and charted designs and there are some neat charted children's poems. Just don't give it to someone who is inexperienced at colorwork or they'll go completely nuts.

And the winner of the mitten book is....................... Wanda Rollins. Congratulations Wanda and thanks to Anne for thoughtfully sending me
the book in the first place. I had 20 knitters sign up for the drawing which was more than I expected. If you didn't win this time the good news is that I'll have another drawing for a giveaway in a couple of weeks for a little colorwork Christmas stocking booklet from Schoolhouse Press and some individual holiday stocking patterns.

Check out Sandrine's beautiful version of Merike's Gloves - scroll down on her blog to see them. She used Koigu and finished them in record time while mine seem to be taking forever. I promise to have an in progress photo next week along with some photos of how I tack down long floats on the back of colorwork. In the meantime, I scanned one of the Sanquhar gloves so you can see the details better. I wear them on our late night walks and the Sanquhar pattern really looks neat by the light of the moon.

I'm going to reprint one of my blog posts from last summer. In the comments yesterday Erica asked about knitting for the HRS.







The Chapter Manager of the Colorado House Rabbit Society asked for bunny-themed knitted items for their gift shop, auctions, and fundraisers. I'd suggest asking your local HRS chapter if they can use anything or just send stuff to the Colorado HRS.



I contacted several pattern writers for permission to use patterns to knit and send to the CO HRS. I was lucky enough to receive permission from Anne Bosch of Blackberry Farm to knit and donate the rabbit socks from the Pet Socks Pattern and from Barb Telford of Woodsmoke Woolworks to knit and donate her adorable Bunnies and Carrots hat. Barb also said I could use her other patterns for this purpose so I may also be making her Bunnies and Carrots baby sweater - both patterns are available for Naked Sheep.







Here's my first attempt at the Bunnies and Carrots hat in Lamb's Pride. As you can see there are tension issues with my stranding efforts between each rabbit. This weekend I made two more versions of this hat and I've decided not to strand but instead to leave long floats instead. I figure long floats really don't matter in a hat as much as they would in mittens or socks.



The Bunnies & Carrots hat is done in worsted weight and can be done in any size from baby to adult large, with or without ear flaps. If you decide to knit this particular hat, I have a recommendation. Start the ear flaps with your I-cord, then directly go from there to the bottom of the ear flap and then knit the ear flaps on the rim of the hat as specified. I made this hat for a four year old who managed to lose the cords to the ear flaps the first day he wore the hat so this method may help counteract that problem. In the photo above, the green hat was done in this method but the brown one simply had the I-cord cords attached to the ear flaps.



Also, don't strand the yarn between the bunnies because you will get puckering. This will result in some long floats but will look a lot better. You can tack down the long floats later if the hat will be for a child. If you hate bobbles (the bunny's tails are bobbles) you can double or triple your yarn and just do French knots instead. I stuffed the carrots with plain old cotton balls.



And here are two other photos of bunny stuff I donated - the mittens are just plain mittens (any pattern will do) with rabbit ears added. The bunny slippers are just Theresa's Fuzzy Feet done in size 6 needles with rabbit ears added.

FLOWER POWER











Here is the Reverse Bloom washcloth and various 3-D flower knitting experiments, none of which really turn me on. The problem with the flowers is that I think they are not three-dimensional enough for what I planned and even though I used fingering weight yarn, I suspect what I'm wanting will require crochet cotton and lace needles. I don't like the way the petal edges look on the Reverse Bloom washcloth - I used size 3 needles and some Stahl Socka Cotton as I prefer smaller cloths.



I'm back to work on Malin from Alice Starmore's In the Hebrides and size 7 needles as I'm noticing all this fine work is getting to my eyes. Lately I do most of my knitting late at night and even the Ott-Lite isn't enough.

I'm feeling a bit behind on my knitting. I'm working on Merike's gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia - it will be a slower project than I thought. Thirdly, I want to scan some photos of how I tack down floats since several people asked about that. And finally, I want to knit some 3-D flowers for the Whimsy-along on ASOFlives. So far I've collected a few patterns from my new Furze Hewitt book and from Nicky Epstein's hat book. I believe her book Knitted Embellishments also includes some flowers so I'll get that from the library. Does anyone else know any sources of patterns for knitted flowers? I'd like to add floral tape and wire to them and make a mini-bouquet.



I'll get to all this stuff this week. For today I'll show the multi-directional scarf done in my Easter egg dyed spindle spun mohair. I haven't blocked it yet as you can see.







I've had a few people write me about getting pet rabbits. I highly recommend the House Rabbit Society. Their web site has a listing of chapters and contacts all over the U.S. along with independent rescue groups where you can adopt a rabbit. The advantages of getting a rescued rabbit are many - they are already spayed or neutered and they usually live in home environments so the fosterers can tell you which rabbits get along with small children, cats, or dogs. There are many breeds to choose from including long-haired rabbits such as Angoras. You can also search for specific breeds of rabbits at Petfinder. And if you're in NM, do check out our local rabbit rescue web site, Four Corners Bunnies, which I update. We have the most wonderful rabbit named Rusty who had an awful experience but now is recovered. If I hadn't already chosen Breezy I would have taken Rusty myself.

MITTEN BOOK GIVEAWAY!



Anne, whom I'd traded with previously, kindly sent me a copy of the Mitten Book by Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson. I already have a copy so I'm offering to send this book to anyone who wants it. Just let me know you're interested via my tagboard or comments or email and I'll put all the names in a basket and let DH pick the winner. It is a book of traditional Swedish mitten patterns with graphs and photos and a basic mitten pattern. Overseas blog readers are invited to enter the giveaway also. Anne, thanks for your generosity in thinking of me. Let me know if you're interested by this Thursday and I'll announce the winner on Friday.

I can't remember the last time I knit less than I did this weekend so nothing much to report on that front. DH went to Colorado this weekend to ski and managed to visit with our future bunny Breezy who is in foster care at a rabbit rescuer's house there. Breezy is HUGE - DH estimates she is about 12 lbs and definitely larger than our cats. More bunny to love I say. She moves in with us in a few weeks. I've been busy cleaning and setting up a nice room for her full of bunny toys although she'll be a free range bunny when I'm home.

I hope you all had a nice holiday season!

I finished a reverse bloom washcloth and have started on Merike's gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia. I will have a photo on Monday.



Here are the final Santa Fe photos. First we have DH at a colorful art gallery on Canyon Road.







Here is the Pink Adobe restaurant.









This photo was supposed to show the Cross of the Martyrs which overlooks the city.







And Miriam's Well - a small knitting/weaving store nearby.