You know how you have cravings for chocolate that just won't quit? Lately I've been craving intarsia of all things. I can't seem to stop thinking about starting an intarsia project. I refuse to start another sweater so it will have to be a smaller project. I may end up ordering a Borealis landscape sock kit . Or perhaps I'll just ignore this craving altogether.



My current WIPs are the Trondheim sweater (on the 2nd sleeve and sadly neglected the past few weeks) and St. Enda which I'm rolling along on and should finish within a month.







I received this beautiful cotton lace facecloth from Kate in Somerset, U.K., in an exchange a few years back. Isn't it terrific?

Vine Lace Scarf

My Lenten stash diet is over at long last. I ordered a headband kit from Bea Ellis. I chose the Telemark pattern in a raspberry and dark gray. I also ordered a Philosopher's Wool sock kit from Camilla Valley Farm in the fall colorway. I have the book Foot Notes by Joseph Madl and may do the alligator's tooth pattern.

There is one type of knitting I don't do very often and that is lace knitting. Check out Catherine's gorgeous hand spun lace vest HERE. I really wish I could do that type of knitting because I love lace and I'd certainly wear it. And I even like spinning laceweight yarn. Unfortunately I find lace knitting requires a lot more concentration that color knitting and I'm not sure I really enjoy it. Here is the last lace item I made - a scarf in a vine lace pattern using some Blackberry Ridge laceweight wool.

Have you seen Elsebeth Lavold's web site yet? She has kits for items not in her book Viking Patterns for Knitting - check out the accessory kits HERE. I'm going to send an email stating I'd like the Lodose mitten pattern (with fun double cables) in English. I probably could get by with the Swedish pattern - the chart is really what I need.



I'm reading Vivian Hoxbro's Domino Knitting (What a tiny tiny book - I'm glad I got it out of the library instead of purchasing it. I think I'll buy the Horst Shulz book instead.) and I'm now planning to use up some unwanted Lamb's Pride superwash worsted oddballs to knit up some of the samplers into hotpads. I have some odd colors of Lamb's Pride which I'd like to use up. I've never been a great fan of this yarn after a pair of cabled socks I made almost disintegrated in the washing machine. I'm looking forward to trying a new knitting technique.







Every year at Taos Wool Festival I go straight to the Elsa Sheep & Wool booth and buy some of the softest, most brilliant white yarn. It is Cormo (a hybrid of Corriedale and Merino?) and it is amazing. I did not dye it in my recent Easter egg dyeing adventures because I want to keep it white and I don't want to compromise its incredible softness in any way. I occasionally think of using it for those wonderful Austrian-patterned knee socks in Socks, Socks, Socks . Does anyone else lust after those socks or is it just me? I'm not sure I want to spend that much time on a pair of socks that are just going to get holes in them sooner or later.

I'm rolling along on St. Enda finally - I'm about 1/4 done with the front. The reason I dislike honeycomb stitch is because I always make mistakes doing it. Originally I did the honeycomb stitch using a cable needle and now I do it without a cable needle and the mistakes happen either way. I think I just lose my concentration or something.



My next Starmore sweater will be Aranmor without the huge collar. I have an image of some soft purple heathered wool for it but I'm not sure where I'll find this dream yarn.



Here is Snickerdoodle the Holland lop and his best friend Bosco the Himalayan cat relaxing on a blanket. Besides this blog I maintain a web site - it is Four Corners Bunnies at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nanetteb and if you're in the Four Corners area and want to adopt a house rabbit, check it out. This time of year there is always an excess of abandoned pet rabbits.

I enjoyed the link from Wendy's blog to her reader's page of knitting tips. I use several of the tips mentioned (like wrapping the yarn around the needle to gauge what length I'll need to start the long-tail cast on and using my circular needles for straights). I really liked Valerie M.'s tip of making a link of coilless safety pins for the sleeve increases (removing one and placing it on the knitting each time you decrease). When you see all the safety pins at once you can then change how you space the increases if you so desire. Now I just have to buy some safety pins.



Here are some of my own knitting tips. I always do the sleeves of a sweater first - that way if your gauge is off even after doing a gauge swatch or you don't like the colors or pattern there is less to rip out. Once I'm past the ribbing and there are too many stitches for double-pointed needles I switch to two circulars. I simply knit all the stitches on one circular (any length) and then knit all the stitches on the second circular. A good tip I learned in Janet Szabo's finishing book is to change the ribbing order so that there are always knit stitches on each edge of ribbing and you can easily seam them using mattress stitch.



I think I've already touched on some of my organizing solutions on this blog previously - a cheap fishing tackle box from Walmart for my accessories and a Circular Solution double-pointed needle holder. I use plastic pencil cases and a three-ring binder for my circulars.



I've tried many ways of knitting socks that are more durable. I once spun up some Navajo-plyed Shetland that wore like iron - I guess it was the three plies that helped. Once I tried using the heel stitch on the entire bottom of a sock. Here is a photo of how the shape of the sock changes when you do that. I still have the socks after about 5 years and I'm extremely hard on socks.

Here is a photo of the oak niddy-noddy DH made for me. Isn't it wonderful? I am hoping to talk him into making me a book charkha from the directions in an old issue of Spin-Off.



I really love Spin-Off. I find more knitting creativity and inspiration in this magazine than in any knitting magazine. For instance, the Spring 2003 issue of Spin-Off has an article on knitting long strips, coiling them, and sewing together to make sweaters that fit. It is a refreshing change from all of the "beginner garter stitch scarf on size 13 needle" stuff in most of the knitting magazines. I don't know how all these new knitters are going to become experienced knitters if they never have any advanced or complicated or exceptionally creative designs to inspire them.



Not much knitting to report except about 1 1/2 rows on St. Enda this weekend. I hope to do more spinning as the weather warms up. Perhaps I'll have some time this week to take my wheel out onto our wonderful back patio and spin up some alpaca.

Since yesterday I've started and abandoned a project and started yet another one. The abandoned project is the Multi-Cultural mittens for my friend Joelle from The Joy of Knitting. This book reminds me a lot of another book I have checked out from the library - A Passion for Knitting. The Multi-Cultural mittens were done in alpaca from a design similar to one in the Komi mitten book which I gave away. For some reason the design kept reminding me of a swastika and the pattern committed the Cardinal Sin of multi-color knitting on the thumb gusset.



What is the Cardinal Sin of multi-color knitting you ask? Writing out the color design instead of charting it, i.e., knit 2 color A, knit 3 color B, and so on. The pattern on the body of the mitten was charted so I was unclear why the pattern suddenly went south like that.



My newest project is a garter stitch rectangle. Yeeha. Actually I have chosen a design for the kid's knitting class. It is the tie hat in a Passion for Knitting and I'm sizing it down for worsted weight yarn. I think I'll stripe it also. You knit a garter stitch rectangle, sew up one end, and do a really easy tie by casting on and binding off 60 stitches. Then tie up the hole on the top. I like this because it is quicker than a garter stitch scarf and the hats can be pretty flexible about size because you roll up the cuff. It seems like the perfect first project and from there I'll tailor the projects to the individual kids.







Here's a close-up of St. Enda. I've mainly enjoyed it but for some reason the honeycomb stitch (two center panels between the 3 cables) annoys me. I noticed when I was looking through my Alice Starmore books the other day that I was purposely picking a future sweater that did not have honeycomb stitch. I hope to actually have some St. Enda knitting to report when I return to my blog on Monday.