Knit Knitting

Apple orchard colors, fingerless mittens, picking up stitches, questions and more…

Welcome to the 21st issue of the online SpinCraft Newsletter, and thanks for being my subscriber. As always, if you don’t want this newsletter, or don’t remember signing up for it, please don’t spam me. Instead, click the link at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. I appreciate your kindness in that regard.

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Apple Orchard Scarf
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This is beautiful! Fabulous colors on a otherwise simply knit scarf makes an unusual pattern. The trick to this is in the way the yarn is dyed.

Cast on 20 sts
Rows 1-4: knit all (garter st)
Rows: 5, 7, 9, 11: knit all
Rows 6, 8, 10, 12: K4, P12, K4
Rows 13, 15, 17, 19: K4, P12, K4
Rows 14, 16, 18, 20: knit all

Repeat Rows 5-20 until scarf is as long as you want

Last 4 rows: knit all (garter st)
Bind off loosely, block lightly

Click here for: Irresistible Ewe Apple Orchard Scarf

Click here for: Long Print and Apple Orchard Yarn

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Fingerless Mittens
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Love fingerless mittens, and here is a really nice fingerless mitten, that is long up the arm and done with some beautiful variegated yarn.

Click here for: Fingerless Mittens

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Dropped Stitches
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Drop a stitch? Here’s a great idea. Instead of messing around with pulling it up with the end of your knitting needles, grab a crochet hook and rescue that stitch!

Click here for: How to pick up a dropped stitch in knitting

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Ikat Knitting
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What is Ikat weaving? Here we have a short little video by Wendy Weiss, textiles professor, who explains this ancient Indian technique. She doesn’t get very deeply into the technique, it’s just enough to bring out the curiosity bugs!

Click here for: Ikat Weaving

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Knitting With Dog Hair
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I’m featuring a book in this newsletter because because it is so cool. It’s about gathering, saving, spinning, and then knitting with all that hair from your pet! I love the subtitle on this book too, “Better a sweater from a dog you know and love than from a sheep you’ll never meet.”

A word of caution though. I’ve done a lot of spinning and knitting of dog hair, and you really have to love that dog! What ever you make will smell like wet dog when it gets wet! Just one of those unfortunate facts of life.

But all the same, take a look at: Knitting with Dog Hair

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Questions
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Posted on: How to Knit – Binding Off

by Rosalind

“I need to learn how to bind off with circular needles plus a third one.”

Good question, and it’s very easy. In fact, when you are knitting an item with circular needles binding off with a third, larger, needle is always a good idea. When you bind off using a larger needle each stitch you make will be a bit larger than the body of your knitting, and you will avoid having a tight bound-off edge.

The technique is quite simple. When you are ready to bind off you go rummage through your bags until you find a needle a couple sizes larger than your working needles. Hold it in your right hand, hold the working end of the circular needle (which is on your work) in the left hand… and simply knit your first stitch and then start binding off.

Of course, and obviously for you lefties out there…. if you knit using the opposite hands, reverse the left/right instructions.

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Enough for today
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And it’s back to enjoying spring as it rumbles and grows through my own apple orchard. The irrigation system is calling my name as my own piles of yarn lie languishing on the side table.

Happy knitting to all and enjoy the sun when you can get it!

Sincerely,
Connie Delaney
knitknitting.com
spincraftpatterns.com
learn-to-knit.com
free-knitting-pattern.com