Here's yet another Spontaneous Scarf - this one done in various Easter egg dyed yarns and made narrow for my best friend's daughter who wears a lot of scarves. To make a Spontaneous Scarf (from a recent issue of Spin-Off), simply cast on as many stitches as you want it long, then seed stitch each row with a different yarn and leave about 8" of yarn tails on each edge for fringe. This is a nice frugal method of knitting - you can use up all those extra pieces of fancy yarns or weirdly handspun or dyed stuff in your scarf creations. You can use any weight yarn (although I do double lace weight) and a larger (7 US & up) needle.









Here's the inside of the tam - I think I like the colors better inside because the darker colors predominate.

Our local nonprofit rescue group, a satellite of the national House Rabbit Society, now has an online store and all profits from the items sold go directly to the care and rescue of pet rabbits in Colorado and New Mexico. Our sweet extra-large rabbit Peaches (adopted from one of Four Corners Bunnies rescuers) is lending her beautiful image to some of the items.



So if you'd like a Peaches mousepad, mug, journal, calendar, bag or t-shirt, please go to http://www.cafeshops.com/4cornersbuns and help out abused and abandoned rabbits at the same time. We also have items with the two beautiful southwestern-style logos seen here.

















In a similar rescue fundraising effort, I am going to write up some color knitting patterns in a small Cafepress spiral-bound booklet. The charts inside will be black and white but I'll get a color photo with all the items on it for the cover. (Actually I don't like color charts anyway - I find them annoying when I substitute different colors.)



I'll try to keep the booklet inexpensive and will include lots of tips on color knitting. I should have approximately 5-6 patterns for small items (socks, mittens, gloves, hats, bag, etc.) for publication by the beginning of summer. All money from the sale of the booklet will go to Four Corners Bunnies.

Here's the tam. After much wringing of my hands, I have decided I like the colors after all. I originally collected 16 colors of Shetland yarn but only used about half of those. I wanted to do some sort of a water theme and added anchors on the bottom and a pattern that looks like waves around the rim of the top. The charts are from the McGregor fair isle book.



I used the Starmore chart on her designing your own tam article in Threads for the top decreases. That is a terrific resource for designing your own tam but I greatly dislike the specific double decreases used - SL 1, K2TOG, PSSO . The end result is kind of a feathery looking stitch which you can see if you look at the very center of the tam. I'll try to get a picture of this being worn so you can see it in all its glory. I look really stupid wearing it though so I may rope someone else into modeling it.



I can really see how tams can be addictive. They are such a fun way to play with color and patterns and this definitely won't be my last one.



Go HERE to see a photo of many of the tams made for the Asoflives Tamalong. They're like knitted jewels, aren't they?

Here is the first Dancing Violet Sock - this is a kit from Blackberry Ridge using their own laceweight yarn. It is part of the Elite Feet collection of socks.



I made a few changes in this sock. The first is the top chart by the cuff. I thought it was vertically symmetrical but it is not. I couldn't figure out from looking at the photo if that was the way it was supposed to be or if it was an error. I just made it symmetrical. I also changed the heel because I wasn't sure if the afterthought heel would be as comfortable as a Dutch heel.



I'll get scans of my nautical fair isle tam tomorrow.

It is a cruel irony that today I'm showing you two dreadfully boring pairs of socks knit on request for DH. This is the same DH who recently informed me he will be at the Kentucky Derby with co-workers for the week of our 20th wedding anniversary. Ouch!



Anyway, DH likes heavy hiking socks. I used Aran weight Selkirk from Ram Wools. This wool yarn is inexpensive ($4.50 for a 272 yard skein) and only one skein is needed for a pair of socks. It does become softer upon washing and I have washed my remaining skeins so it will soften up before knitting. I'm still not sure I'd wear it next to my skin.



The first pair is in khaki and was done on 48 stitches on size 7 dpns. For his hiking socks I do 8" of K2P2 ribbing then a Dutch heel on 24 stitches then at the toe I decreased to 16 stitches.







The second pair I only used 44 stitches and decreased to 12 stitches at the toe and I like them better. The color is Forest Brown.

Here we have a series of photos showing Peaches in action with her new bunny tambourine. Imagine it is 3 am and you're awakened to the sound of jingling bells and you pretty much get the picture.















Georgia asked for more tips on tension when doing color knitting. A certain amount of puckering can be expected - blocking really does work wonders in this situation. There are those nice times I have no puckering whatsoever and don't even need to block at all but then there are times when the puckering is hard to ignore.



On the tam I noticed some puckering while working with Pony Pearl dpns and Shetland yarn. I switched to two metal circulars and it went away. Dpns do seem to cause more problems for me and I really think some times problems in tension have to do with the particular combination of yarn and needles.

Here's the re-post I promised.



TWO COLOR KNITTING







I'd like to reassure everyone that knitting with more than one color isn't hard. Really. Even if you are a new knitter you can do this. It is more a matter of training yourself on how to hold the yarns and how to read a chart.



Two color knitting (also called stranded knitting & Jacquard knitting - Fair Isle is one type of two color knitting) is different than intarsia or picture knitting. Two color knitting involves carrying the unused yarn on the back of the work (these carries are called floats and if they are too long you can catch your fingers or toes in them). In intarsia, the yarns are twisted around each other every time you get to a color change and the unused yarn is not carried along.



Many knitters prefer to knit with only one hand and simply figure out a way to hold both colors in their right or left hand, knitting English (throwing) or continental (picking). Supposedly Meg Swansen is a one-handed two-color knitter.



In two handed knitting you knit continental in your left hand and English in your right (if you are right-handed). The photo on the cover of the Starmore Fair Isle book shows what this looks like. I sat down with a sock project and just forced myself to learn how to do this method. It is quite fast and I like it because I think it takes some of the strain off my dominant hand.



About the only place your yarns can tangle using this method is at the beginning of a needle. I usually make an effort not to let this happen at a needle change because it can also be noticeable, especially if you're working with dpns. I usually put the skein of background color on my right side and the contrast skein of yarn on my left side to keep things straight as I'm knitting. If for some reason your yarns do tangle just grab the yarns about 2 feet from the project on the needles and let the whole project on the needles dangle and untwist itself.



Although a first two color project with bulkier yarns will go faster, the tension issues won't be as noticeable with smaller yarns and needles so I think a beginner's colorwork project should be done at a fine gauge.



I still occasionally have minor tension problems or puckering, especially in projects with longer floats. All you need to do in this situation is be mindful. If your knitting is puckering when you're knitting with more than one color, it means you are carrying the yarn not in use too tightly. You can remedy this by regularly stretching out your knitting on the right hand needle immediately after it is knit. Purposely knitting looser may also help you and good blocking can make a multitude of tension problems disappear. If your tension on a color knitting project is really bugging you, try switching to a different type of needle. I find this sometimes helps me.



By far the best online reference to knitting with more than one color was one done by Anne Featonby for the KBTH Virtual Conference. Anne's online class, Fair Isle 101, has lots of photos that show how to hold the yarn at every step of the process and how to catch long floats. There are even some great photos and info on steeks. Judy Gibson's Cyberclass on Two-Color Socks has lots of excellent info on colorwork. Her Lesson Two on Handling Two Colors has some photos also.



One thing a lot of new color knitters do not know is that it matters in which hand or how you hold each color. Whatever method you use, be consistent or it will be quite noticeable. The yarn you carry ABOVE (look on the back of your work) will usually be less prominent. See HERE for a better explanation and photos.



In Joyce William's Latvian Dreams she makes a case that how you hold the yarn doesn't always result in a certain yarn being held above or below - I don't know. I do know I always hold the main background color in my right hand and the foreground or pattern color in my left hand. Just be consistent.



In Carol Rasmussen Noble's Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves she says, "To achieve better clarity of pattern put the pattern yarn on your left hand and the background yarn on your right hand, because stitches made using your left hand are a bit larger and show off the pattern more."



The Philosopher's Wool method is a two-handed method that has you weaving in the yarns on back more frequently than you do with regular old stranded knitting. There is a book on the subject and some new knitters feel this method is easier to learn. I think every time you weave or catch a float on the back of the work you risk the color showing through on the front of the work so I minimize this as much as possible. But go with whatever method works best for you.



Some charts will occasionally require really long floats between colors. You can simply leave them long or you can "catch" them so your fingers or toes won't get caught on them when putting on the garment. I generally catch floats every five stitches. Judy Gibson has some information and photos on catching long floats HERE.



You will occasionally find rows in colorwork knitting designs where you have the dreaded three or even four colors per row. Dale of Norway designs are famous for this and I see a lot of them in Latvian mitten designs. I continue to hold the background color in my right hand and the other two colors in my left and just knit, although it is slow-going and yarns do become tangled. Some knitters prefer to simply slip any stitches with a third color and re-work the row a second time with the third color, slipping the first two colors, if they are working in the round. And some just knit with two colors and duplicate stitch in the third color when they're done.



It doesn't seem like any current knitting magazines or books ever discuss this subject. Fortunately there are several excellent older reference sources on the subject. For a good discussion on the different ways of holding yarns for knitting with several colors, you can't beat the illustrations in Anne Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. This book is becoming scarce fast so buy it now before it costs a billion dollars on Ebay. Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting also has some good info. KBTH, Norgeknit, and ASOFlives are online mailing lists you can join that are populated with knitters who do colorwork and can answer your questions as well.

Here's the nautical tam in progress. I did an anchor pattern, then a peerie where the tam folds, then a pattern that reminded me of waves. The center of the wheel will have a black star.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Peaches says her favorite (food) color is green. I'll be gone tomorrow so I'll be back on Sunday.

WEAVING IN ENDS



Back when I was showing my seaming methods Devbear asked me to show how I weave in ends. Sorry I took so long Devbear!



Amazingly there is very little information on what to do about yarn ends in most of the knitting reference books. Most resources tell you to bury the yarn ends in a nearby seam. Obviously this is not helpful for those doing colorwork in the round or those doing intricate lace. Some sources say for you to knit with both ends for a few stitches as you start a new yarn. In colorwork this could result in the old color peeking through, not to mention the extra bulk.



For intricate lace I believe your two options for dealing with yarn ends are the Russian Join or the spit splice. Are there any others?



For color knitting you may have hundreds of yarn ends to deal with. I tend to have as many yarn ends as possible because the one sure fire way to deal with the natural pattern jog at the end of the row is to cut the yarns at the end of each color pattern. Yes, yes, I know it is tempting to try to carry the yarns up several rows when you'll be using those colors again. Don't. Not only is it a complete pain to have your knitting in progress attached to 14 different colors of yarn but this method will allow you to achieve the much-desired jogless jog. Just remember to take each color yarn the OPPOSITE direction it was going to weave in your ends. For instance at the end of a row you'll see a blue yarn that is going to the right. Take this blue yarn end and work in the ends on the left of the end of the row. This will align your pattern at the end of the row. This jogless jog method only works on patterns where many different colors are used.



I use three different methods of weaving in ends. This first sample shows two of them.







The bottom method is duplicate stitch weaving on the purl side of the work and is as about as bulletproof as you're going to get. This is easier done with a tapestry needle but can be done with a crochet hook if your yarn ends aren't long enough. The only reference I know is a diagram from Janet Szabo's wonderful The "I Hate to Finish Sweaters" Guide to Finishing Sweaters.



The second method is one I sometimes use when I have multiple colors to deal with. It is pretty invisible on the back of your work but is shown on top in the above photo. Finding the purl bumps to do the first method when there are lots of strands of yarn is a pain so I needed a different method. I weave in the ends by taking a crochet hook and working the yarn end up from the bottom purl loop on the row and then down through the top purl loop. I continue this for a while on one row and then work back with the same method on another row. I also try to only find purl loops that are the same color as the color of the end I'm weaving in but this isn't always possible. Here it is used on the inside of the Salsa socks - I hope you can also see how this method can help eliminate the jogs.











There is one additional method of weaving in ends on colorwork. This one is for cotton yarns or if you're doing intarsia. This is a poor photo of the back of an argyle sock and the method is from Sherry & Keely Stuever's Intarsia: A Workshop for Hand & Machine Knitting. Essentially you take a tapestry needle and work the yarn end diagonally through the purl stitches, purposely splitting the stitches.





Let me know if you have any additional methods of weaving in ends on colorwork. I can always use more ideas.

MORE FUN WITH VINTAGE PATTERNS



I don't get much knitting done when DH is home on vacation. Plus spring has sprung here in New Mexico so I've been cleaning and furniture re-arranging. Last month I did "What NOT To Knit for the Man You Love" and today and the day after tomorrow we'll look at some questionable patterns for the little ones in your life. If these photos don't load immediately, try refreshing.





For the knitter who is too tired to knit her child both a sweater and a pair of mittens, here we have a sweater/mitten combo. It looks like a sweater for an alien life form, doesn't it?











This crocheted combo looks fine initially but look closer at the booties. Yes, that's right here we have a pair of open-toed booties. Why? Why? Why?









Tomorrow I'll have photos and info on different ways to weave in yarn ends.

I lied about showing the Dancing Violets socks today. Instead I'm going to show you a chullo-style hat I made yesterday.







First I wrote down what I wanted in my knitting journal then I charted out some designs on graph paper. I chose 6 peerie designs from the charts in Alice Starmore's Fair Isle book. I purposely did a 3 row design, 5 row design, then 4 row design and repeated this throughout (3 row chart, 5 row chart, 4 row chart, 3, 5, 4, 3, 5, 4).



The hat doesn't fit completely in the scanner so here is the main part. I used size 7 dpns and various worsted weight yarns from the stash - Paton's Classic Wool, Peruvian Highland Wool, and some Galway.







I wanted to bury the top decreases and at the same time make the charts (4, 6 and 8 stitch repeats) continue to match up at the end of the row as I decreased. This hat is for my friend Brad and I'm just sure he'll put it on backwards so it had to look good even at the end of the row.







The only thing I'd do differently would be to continue the striping all the way to the top of the ear flaps. I knew I'd be picking the earflap stitches up and knitting them with the K2P2 rib and was worried that any color other than the main color would show through on the purl stitches.



Well that was fun believe it or not. I'm actually looking forward to to designing a tam in the next week or two.

Thanks to all who posted in the comments as members of the "Frugal Knitter's Club." I'd like to reduce how much I spend on knitting books so I hope learning to design my own stuff will help.



I just ordered a book called Style Your Own Kid's Knits and a bunch more Dover charted needlework design books for inspiration from Amazon. DH will be home on vacation next week and I'm planning a few more mindless projects. First I'd like to design a chullo type hat for my friend Brad. I want to finish the second dancing violet sock (the first should be finished so I can show it to you tomorrow). I want to knit some worsted weight ribbed hiking socks for DH.



And I want to do another self-fringing Spontaneous Scarf with these bits and pieces of various yarns died with Easter egg dyes. (A Spontaneous Scarf, from a recent issue of Spin-Off, is knit lengthwise in seed stitch with a different yarn each row. The seed stitch gives it a woven look and you leave about 8 inches of yarn at the beginning and end of the rows to be knotted for fringe.)

Miss Peaches is exhausted after another late night.











Lately I've been trying to decide if I'm a cheap knitter. Cheap as in miserly.



The other day I saw a kit for a baby hat for $57. For a tiny wool hat. For a baby. That sort of stuff boggles my mind. Looking at the price of the glitzy scarf yarns in the newest Patternworks makes me think that scarf knitters must be a lot wealthier than the rest of us.



In my defense I knit a lot. If every item I knit cost $200 I'd have to stop knitting in about 2 weeks. I mostly knit with wool. I don't really like knitting with silk and mohair much. I only buy angora if I know the producer (like at a fiber festival) because I probably don't want to know how the rabbits are treated for commercial angora yarns. I like cashmere and fine alpaca yarns but I can absolutely live without them.



I generally only shop sales. In fact, one of my guiding principles is to pay less than $4 a skein for DK and thinner weights of yarn. There are some times I will spend extra money on a project. So far I've spent $60 on yarn for yarn for a tam because I want to do a Fair Isle with plenty of colors. Still it is only Shetland Spindrift which is reasonably priced in the first place. And there will be plenty of lovely leftovers.



Yes, I fear I'm a cheap knitter.

UINTA CABIN SOCKS







Sorry about the poor scan but I'm in a hurry today. These are the Uinta Cabin Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road: Sock Patterns for Traveling Knitters. They are knit with Nature Spun sport weight and size 3 dpns.

Here are the fingerless mittens. That is supposed to be a rabbit's head and ears but perhaps I should have made the ears asymmetrical. The yarn is Heirloom Alpaca from Ozeyarn and is really nice. It reminds me more of angora than alpaca. This pair is going to the Colorado House Rabbit Society for sale in their gift shop.











I thought I'd answer my comments in the blog today. KarenC writes and says she ordered the Dancing Violets sock pattern from Blackberry Ridge and points out how much nicer the colors look than in their photo. I've noticed this phenomenon before Karen - sometimes it is hard to see the pattern in their photographs. I changed the heel in the sock to a Dutch heel instead of an afterthought heel - I'll have a photo of the first completed sock here this week.



Mare sent a neat link to this Fibonacci bunny chart HERE. Thanks Mare! I can always use more bunny charts. This week I'm going to try to collect all my rabbit charts and chart them out in my notebook for future reference.



Blue Earth Knitter writes that she signed up for the TKGA convention two months in advance and only got one of her class choices. That would annoy me as well BEK. I've never gone to any of the TKGA events or Stitches because I live far away from most of them.



Isabelle in France writes that she is designing her own fair isle sweater. I am in awe of anyone who can design a fair isle anything! I'm going to try to design a fair isle tam this month but all the colors are intimidating.



Peaches loves the compliments. I'll have new photos of her this week.

In my continuing efforts to actually design something (I'm working on some fingerless mittens in alpaca with rabbits on them) I'm learning a lot about different graph papers. I initially tried a rabbit chart in Annemor Sundbo's Everyday Knitting which looked adorable in the square graph chart in the book. Knitted up the rabbits looked more like anteaters with big ears. I do have some knitter's graph paper so I've been using that for charts and it really does make a difference.



Once you know your row and stitch gauge, you can go HERE and input the numbers and print out knitter's graph paper so your color charts will be exactly the same size as your stitches. How cool is that?







Here's a Peaches action shot. Happy weekend!

Here are the completed Salsa Socks done in Regia with an additional chart repeat to make up for the thinness of the Regia. I also changed the heel gusset colorwork.



With the amount of worrying I do about running out of patterns to knit (knitting may be quite popular now but colorwork seems practically dead) I often wonder why I don't just design my own stuff. Lately I make adjustments to every pattern I knit. In the Dancing Violets socks I'm substituting a Dutch heel for the afterthought type heel in the pattern. I do this stuff all the time and yet I dread designing my own stuff.



Now look at this web site HERE and scroll down to look at the beautiful gloves. Here is a knitter who designs his/her own colorwork glove patterns. They are beautiful and very inspiring. There is no reason I can't do the same thing so what am I waiting for?

This is a Dancing Violet sock, #6 in the Elite Feet Collection, from the kit from my favorite Blackberry Ridge Farm. The kit was a mere $16 and includes the three colors of their lace weight wool yarn. The gauge is 10.5 stitches per inch so this isn't speed knitting by any stretch of the imagination but I know I'm going to love these socks.

Apparently Lisa isn't the only knitted glove fanatic out there. Look at the photos from a terrific article, "Gloves from Handspun: Totally Tubular" by Jude Daurelle, Spin-Off Winter 1996. The in-depth article offers patterns for the Pansies in the Snow and Cashmere Lace Gloves shown in the first photo.











The brown gloves in the center of the second photo are made from handspun camel down. The article includes information on spinning for gloves, designing your own gloves, dividing stitches for fingers and bridging the gaps (spaces between fingers). The Interweave web site doesn't list this one as available but I think you can find old issues of Spin-Off on Ebay and via Google.



I've said it before and I'll say it again - Spin-Off is by far the best knitting magazine out there.