This April recap of knitting, surgery, and finishing seems an appropriate place to land after the last thirty days. So much has happened, and not happened! Recap of Surgery I missed putting a blog up on the 23rd as planned. I had surgery instead. Due to the shut down here in Washington state out-patient surgeries…
swatch
Yarn and Stitch Pattern, and You
We had to get to yarn and stitch pattern eventually! This pairing is what we want to solve most, but is actually a fairly difficult topic to address. I’ve been looking at the make up of yarn to better identify why some yarns work and some don’t. I’ve introduced fiber content, fiber processing, ply, twist,…
Unorthodox Approach to Blocking
Today Mitch caught me employing an unorthodox approach to wet blocking. I put a swatch I’ve been working on into a bath this morning, and then moved on to working on projects in my office. A while later (the water was still warm-ish), Mitch commented that he didn’t think he’d ever seen the needles go…
Techniques Needed for Medallion Shrug Swatch
Most knitters assume we know the techniques needed for what we want to knit. We do until we do something different from our usual knitting. I seem to specialize in techniques–but even I keep finding new techniques needed for things I want to knit. It is often as I embark on something that I find…
Swatch Medallion Haiku Now!
The new version of the Medallion shrug pattern won’t be available until December or January, but you can swatch Medallion now and be ready! Even if you don’t have the Anzula Haiku you want to make your Medallion Shrug in, give the stitch pattern a try now, and master it before you start on the…
Challenge Yourself To Try New Things
How often do you challenge yourself to try new things? This week I decided that I would try a different method for making the toe of a sock. I’m not completely satisfied with what I’ve done—and I can always tell when I’m not because I quit working on something, even though I want to—but by…
Row Gauge, Blocked and Unblocked
Row gauge is bound to come up whenever knitting professionals are in a conversation. I can almost predict how it will come up, and of course I know what my response will be. But unlike stitch gauge, row gauge is a little less clear-cut. It is difficult to match row gauge, so having some tools…
Swatch in Breeze from Anzula
I promised instructions for working a swatch in Breeze from Anzula. The stitch pattern I am using is one of my favorites. When I found it in 2001 or 2002, I loved the energy it has. It is called Tilting Ladder in Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. You should read Ms. Walker’s…
Swatch(es) Up? Join the Challenge!
I’ve been thinking a lot about garment fit lately. This is a pretty deep subject, so for comic relief, I think about yarn and swatches. You know I love to swatch and I want you to love to swatch too. Today the second of my blog posts about Anzula Luxury Fibers yarns went up. It…
The Joy of Color, Fair Isle Knitting Your Way
I purchased and received The Joy of Color: Fair Isle Knitting Your Way back in the fall of 2016. I put it aside. Although I was interested in seeing what Janine Bajus had done, I am not a fair isle knitter. Knowing I had the Feral Knitter as my Guest post this month, I thought…
A Swatch is Sublime, It Even Saves Time
A Swatch is Sublime? How can taking extra time to knit something you will not otherwise use, save time? This intriguing step is so often overlooked! I was talking to a former Editor I used to work with. We had a pretty wide ranging conversation, mostly around knitting. Sublime Swatch Conversation The Editor says she’s not…
Acknowledging Your True Self
Life seems to me to be a huge voyage of self-discovery, all leading me to having to acknowledge my True self. Most of this isn’t news. What I am discovering is that if I acknowledge my True self and how it reacts to any task, chore, thing to do, etc., then I am more likely…
