Brioche fail

On By CarynIn Craft

I had another knitter who wanted to talk brioche knitting, so I had to brush up on my skills. I found a beautiful variegated yarn and decided to work from the inside and the outside of the skein, which was stunning done in the two-color brioche ribbing.

Photo description: beginning brioche knitting with variegated yarn, orange leg out on the calico cat on my lap

The color shifts are stunning, but the mistakes in the knit were not. I have a 10 second rule: if a casual observer can’t see the mistake in 10 seconds don’t fix it. My mistakes added up and overwhelmed the rule.

Photo description: brioche knitting with numerous errors, a jag around row 8, misaligned yarn overs, and somehow loosing two columns, laying on a dilute calico cat

The yarn I’m working with is delicate, ripping out the knitting would have made the yarn unusable. Continuing on with all the mistakes was unthinkable, so I bound off and am going to try again.

And yes, those are pictures of two different cats on my lap. I have become a battle ground in cat chess.

Two needles, two socks

On By CarynIn Craft

I love knitting two socks at the same time on two circular needles, but I forget how to do the initial setup every time. Every. Time. So to help my future self, here is what worked this time (after many trials and errors.)

Photo description: loosely cast on 66 stitches using the long tail cast-on method with fingering weight wool yarn on Prym 2.5mm circular needle
Photo description: 33 stitches slipped knit-wise onto a second circular needle

With the first sock cast on and divided onto two separate circular needles, I cast on 66 stitches for the second sock and transferred all the stitches to a stitch holder.

Photo description: transferring 33 stitches from the stitch holder to a circular needle
Photo description: all stitches for both socks transferred to two circular needles so that the “U” shape of each sock has the open side to the left and the closed side to the right

For me, the trickiest part is getting the two socks in the same direction on the needles, then keeping the stitches untwisted as I join the first row. After that, for me, it is smooth sailing. I never cross the two circular needles, always using the ends of one needle set to knit half of one sock, then half of the other sock (remember to switch yarn sources for each sock, so they stay separate.)

On this particular sock set, I will be knitting a 3×3 rib to start.

Twine as you go

On By CarynIn Craft, Uncategorized

I’ve been twining with plant bast fibers (the long ones from the stems of plants), and wondered if I could twine long wool. I selected some Teeswater from my stash that has a staple length around 5-8 inches, grabbed a sponge and a spray bottle of water, and started twining. There was a bumpy learning curve, especially since I decided to learn to twine left handed to get an opposite twist. I wanted an S twist direction because my current favorite nålbinding stitch has a bias Z twist, and I thought the opposite twist yarn would help. It didn’t really.

Photo description: twined Teeswater wool and the beginnings of a nålbound pouch sitting on my jeans in the car while waiting in the pickup line

As I write this post, I’m wondering if the twist in my work is the stitch, or the method of construction I’m attempting. I’m working in the round, which is typical for nålbinding, but I’m working around a long base chain, which is a little different. I’ll keep on and see if things even out, either as I go, or after I block the finished work.

The exciting part of this project is there are no joins in the yarn, rather, the yarn is created as I go.

Antler nål

On By CarynIn Craft

Awhile back I rough shaped several needles for nålbinding from deer antler I purchased from a neighbor. I need a smaller diameter nål for a new project, so did the final shaping and polishing with progressive grits of sandpaper on one.

Photo description: nål made from deer antler, approximately 7” long with curve and two holes for yarn

To make the nål I used a bandsaw to split the antler into narrow sections, then used a band sander to shape. The holes were drilled with a drill press. To get the elongated oval hole, I drilled two circular holes next to each other and then used the drill bit to mostly remove the remaining points. To finish, I shaped it using 120 grit sandpaper, then refined with 320 and finished with 400 grit sandpaper. I tested the smoothness of the holes and sides by running it through a wad of unspun wool.

Throwback Thursday: coin pendant

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

In May of 2017 I made a custom wire wrap so that a coin could be worn as a necklace.

Photo description: Black Belt coin with gold colored wire wrap on a leather cord with loop and knot closure

The wire wrap is constructed with three circles of wire just slightly larger than the coin, wrapped together at four points. The top circle crimps inward to hold the front of the coin, and the bottom layer crimps inward to hold the back of the coin, leaving the center circle to frame the coin. At the top I made a loop for the leather cord.