Knitting in the News; the Wall Street Journal had an article in today’s paper on how deadly serious knitters can get. I thought it was a hoot and it even sounded like wicked fun It was all about a game of Assassin with hand knit socks - a sock knitting race/competition, if you will. I sooooo loved this! Read all about it at Sock It to Me.

And the Coping with Winter thing has started. We had 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday in the SE corner of Michigan. Other parts got it worse. Personally, I can live without ever seeing another snow flake the whole rest of my life. I guess I wouldn’t mind so much if the brutal cold did not go with it. Can’t someone invent warm snow? Oh, wait! Mother Nature has already done that, it’s called rain

But, on the bright side (there is always a bright side, sometimes its just good at hiding), cold weather means you can wear all that wonderful knitting and weaving and quilting you’ve been doing. From about Halloween through April, my hands are cold. It interferes with all of my hand-ish chores. My solution is (of course) knitted hand warmers. Most of mine are very practical and almost all of them are made of odd bits of left over yarns. I did do one pair from a lovely cashmere and silk blend that I dyed just for the purpose. The problem arose when my dye job - an adventure, as always - produce two balls of very different colors. I had been teaching a class in adventurous dyeing (the only style I know) and grabbed two balls of this lovely expensive yarn off the shelf and didn’t even skien it up, much less scour it. I just took a syringe and squirted green and blue dye into the center and around the outside of each ball, set the dye and rinsed. I skeined it and was surprised at the results (so, what is new about that)? Both skeins had both colors but one was very blue and one was very green. This was about three 0r four years ago and I had been meaning to write a short article for my web site on knitting with hand dyed yarns. This presented the perfect opportunity. To make a long story short, the finished hand warmers matched perfectly! Here is the tutorial I wrote so long ago on knitting with hand dyed yarns when all the skeins don’t exactly match.

But, back to using up all those odd bits. My favorite pair of hand warmers, and the ones that get me the most attention are my Ruffled Rags. Pictured above and below, they were a combination of two patterns, the basic fit is a pattern I bought; Arthritis/Carpal Tunnel Hand Warmers, by Joan Sheridan Hoover at Heritage Spinning and Weaving and a free pattern; Mrs. Beeton’s Wrist Warmers, by Brenda Dayne from Knitty.com. I did some adjusting of gauge and number of stitches cast-on and in the thumb. The Heritage pattern was written for sock weight yarn and I used worsted weight. Bit of a difference there. Then I used sport weight on my ruffles and changed them a bit too. But they were the inspiration and the launch pads for my favorite warmers OK, small confession here; the ruffles are a bit big and often get in the way. But its a small price to pay for knitting couture

OK, I’ve procrastinated the things I should be doing to get ready for Christmas long enough. I think I’ll try to avoid the distractions that keep jumping in front of me and focus (a novel concept). Have a terrific Holiday to everyone and see you after Christmas!!

Deb H

I’m just too clever for my own good! I have invented a new cast-on, a nice and stretchy one that is really easy. Since I can’t show you all of my current projects (they are all Christmas presents, the projects for me being on-hold), I can at least show you my clever new cast-on.

First, the description, then a little demo. It’s a simple knitted cast-on with an extra step; using a knitting needle in your left hand and a crochet hook, about the same size as the knit needle in your right hand. Make a slip knot and put it on the left hand needle. Using the crochet hook, enter the loop as if to knit and (surprise!) knit a stitch. As you all know (who are familiar with a knitted cast-on), you do not remove the stitch off the left hand needle, instead you put the loop from the right hand needle on the left needle. But WAIT, don’t do that yet. Next, chain one with the crochet hook and then put it on the left hand needle. You have effectively cast-on a stitch with a chain stitch in between. Lots more room, lots more stretch! Just keep doing that and you have plenty of stretch for a sock top, glove wrists, sweater hems, etc. You can even adjust the amount of stretch by adding the extra chain only as often as needed; like every third stitch that you cast-on, or for a ruffly edge, add two or three chains between each cast-on stitch. Here is a demo;

While I’m basking in my stupendous feat, I do know I probably am not the first one to dream this up and millions of knitters all over the world, for centuries, have already discovered it but… I’m still impressed with myself ;o) To add chocolate sauce to the event, I’ve also figured out videos and how to put them here. Cool, huh?

As for Ravelry, I’m in! If you are there, come see me. Back to Christmas projects…

Deb H