Now That's Knitting!

I know there has been little knitting content lately...
buckle in - here goes!!!

I'll go in a bit of a reverse order...

Last Sunday I took a double knitting class at Knitty City here in NYC. I've been trying to get my hands on a few double knitting books (all out of print) to no aval. When a class was offered i jumped on it - I was the first to sign up in fact! First we did a two color long tail cast on (upper left.) Once done with the cast-on (right), we began to learn how to double knit. It's a slow process, taking two rows of knitting to actually produce one single row. It's also reccomended that you purposefully twist your stitches when double knitting, which for me meant throwing the yarn opposite as I usually would. This also slowed me down a little.

The photo at right here shows what looks like 2 rows finished -- except it took you 4 rows to achieve it.

I raced through, slightly distracted (which means frogging) by some of the conversations at the table, and finished my square by classes end so I could learn how to Cast-off!! Finished Cast-Off shown at left.

I REALLY like the technical easpects of this type of knitting. I wish I could take two weeks off now and get down on paper the designs in my head. It's a very mathmatical sort of knitting. It makes "sense" on a technical level, but at times you just have to trust that what you're doing will work.


Finished square? Sure!
No, it's not perfect. I messed up my slipping somehow in one spot (on both side - the same spot.) But I got down the technique, my stitches are properly twisted and I'm happy with my tension. I feel like this sucker belongs behind glass. :-)

Other Knitting FO's - Holiday fiesta!!!

Fingerless gloves for everyone...or at least the adults!!
Patterns in order - Left to Right: Free patterns are linked.
Voodoo with thumb added in Plymouth Encore Colorspun DK, Endless Paper Mitts (with pattern slightly altered) in Xiangsiqing 100% Wool, Composed Mitts in Blue Sky Alpaca Sport (colors altered) from Interweave Knits Fall 2007

Patterns in order - Left to Right:
Dashing in Cascade 220 and Dashing in Filatura Di Crosa 501.

What do the Kids get? Fun Pinky Mittens for my niece complete with an adjustable grosgrain ribbon string so she hopefully won't loose them. I had some issues with the pattern. I enlarged the thumb, but it still BARELY fit her hand. (I may have her mail them back to me so I can make them even larger...)



Dan got a striped Blue Sky Alpaca Sport rolled edge cap. (One of the single sheet patterns you can buy of theirs -- I have to look up the "real name.")



A Extra-long Froth Scarf (Rowan pattern) and 2 slightly adjusted Quaint Quants (I changed the end of the pattern) for girlfriends too!
It was a busy holiday knitting time. Now I go back to working on the bag design for the next SnB book and the volunteer Recycle-Reuse Project. (More on those later!)

Oh - And I'm off to Barcelona, Spain on Friday for a quick work weekend. Home again Monday.
But no worries, I'll be dashing to China the following week. They've let e know that there are new dishes (food) in my future!! YUM!

HOW-TO...It's a Wrap

Since folks have asked for more info, here are all of the juicy details:

I folded sheets from catalogs (3 to 4 pieces) into knife-pleats/acordian pleats and stitched them together into a sheet. I calculated how large the sheet needed to be by placing the gift to be wrapped on top and guestimating. Then I stitch across the pleated edges, which we'll call top & bottom, leaving approx. 1/4" seam allowance.

NOTE: roll up the edges of the sheet halfway up your gift when guestimating...remember, it's NOT like using wrapping paper!

Repeat making a second sheet of approximately the same size (you have a little wiggle room since you'll be cutting the side to side edges.) I pinked the top and bottom edges of both pages.

Next I put one sheet on top of the other - wrong sides together - and stitched down the two sides (parallel to the pleats.) When stitching, I left enough seam allowance to be able to pink the sides after sewing (1/4" worked fine.)

Returning to the top & bottom edges (which are independently sewn, but NOT sewn together, go to the center of this edge. I folded a line across the folds, between 1/2" & 3/4" in from the edge. Then I curved the fold from that point out to the corners where the stitch line up he sides met the ends. This creates a curved half-moon fold.

Do this on all four top/bottom edges.

You will have created a package/packet with self closing ends.

The thicker your "filling" (present), the further in you make your innitial fold for the half-moon.

I help to keep the package closed with the tying of ribbon. Then I added a gift tag (often two pieces of a catalog glue-stick glued together and cut.

Punch a whole in it.

Thread the tassles through and tie tassles to the ribbon or yarn used to tie the package closed.

Other options? Replace ribbon with yarn. Try an i-cord bow! The possiblities are endless!!

Voilà. Got it! Thought so!

It's a wrap!
(what to do with those Holiday Catalogs!)

What's a girl to do with the plentiful number of thick-n-glossy Christmas catalogs that fill her mailbox showing items that fall into the "someday I wish" category?

I mean... They must have spent THOUSANDS on producing them (afterall, I know my budget for a far less high-end catalog!) What a waste to simply chuck them aside!!

Hmmm...Gather up the catalogs and items you wish to wrap...Tear out pages in tonally coordinating colors (it helps to keep the package from looking too busy! I found that J Crew, Bloomies, Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel were good catalogs to start with. There wasn't too much writing and the art direction of the catalogs was beautiful! Brookstone was not a good fit but Lands End would work in a pinch. I may make a few with text pages from Time Out (all text.)

Fold and stitch pages together (helps keep them from separating when you fill the package)...

Stitch and Pink and fold the ends in a half moon fashion and close the ends shut by wrapping with ribbon!!


I made tassles with yarn from the item inside...a little hint to start with!And voila!

If your pages are thinner than those of the glossy Bloomingdales (etc) catalogs, you can always layer a second page (two layers) underneath the top side page and fold away!! Because of the folding, the packages are pretty strong too!
No tape needed and I am able to use things I have around the house!