quarantine knitting update

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Published by fairfaxhill

It’s so silly, but one of the highlights of my day has been getting an email from Paradise Fibers saying that my order is on its way. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve been following Arne & Carlos’s Quarantine Knitting Mystery KAL to try to keep my mind off the coronavirus and to help manage my ever-growing anxiety.

This is one of my blocks so far. I love this green, but I’m craving red or pink!

I am truly amazed at how many people have joined this KAL (short for knit-along and my first one ever). The work that some of the knitters are sharing is just wonderful. Quite a few of them were lucky to have many different colors stored away in their homes to make each square different. Or, they had lovely palettes to choose from. Others, like me, had fewer color choices, but still, it’s fun to see all the possibilities.

I like the yarn I’m using, but as I kept knitting new pieces, I started longing for some red, pink, and orange, but I had none at home. So, I went online and ordered a few bright colors and that’s what will be arriving soon. 🚚

It feels good to support any small business during this time. Please consider ordering some yarn from your local yarn store if you are short on supplies.

Besides being able to enjoy beautiful work by other talented knitters from around the world through the KAL, I’ve also picked up some new tips! Here are a few things I’ve learned from fellow knitters in a short period of time:

APPS TO TRACK KNITTING PROGRESS — Cool!
As long as I’ve been knitting, I’ve mostly followed patterns from magazines or pamphlets. If I download a PDF, like the charts from this KAL, I usually print a copy and keep it close by to keep track of where I am on the pattern using a pen or pencil. But when patterns get more complicated, I sometimes need to resort to crazy ways to remind myself of where I left off, like creating my own code, like this! (blushing)

Anyway, someone in the Facebook group said that she didn’t print the charts. Instead, she recommended a knitting app you can download on your phone or iPad called Knitcompanion. This app allows you to upload your patterns, or link your Ravelry account to view patterns you have already saved. It includes a highlighter so you can easily follow knitting charts line by line (so helpful for those with bad/declining eyesight). It even counts for you! You can mark where you leave off in the app and be sure you’ll know exactly where to start next time you pick up your project again.

This has always been a problem for me. I’ll sometimes write a note on my paper pattern, like, “on 6,” but then when I return to it, I can’t remember if I meant, to start at 7 because I left off on row 6, or start at row 6 because I just completed row 5. (I know, confusing!) So, this app is a must-have for anyone who knits. And it’s also handy for other crafts, like cross-stitching or even working with beads. I’ve downloaded it to my phone and iPad and now I can follow along with the charts so much easier and I don’t need to waste ink or paper. Yay!

REVERSE KNITTING — knitting like a lefty has some added benefits
The second trick I learned that is super cool is reverse knitting. I have friends that are left-handed that have asked me for help with their knitting before, but since I’m right-handed, it’s nearly impossible for me to explain things to them. (I’m sorry!) I tried reverse knitting (knitting like a lefty) once, and could only do it if I went super slow. It felt extremely awkward. So I just gave up. But what I learned from the group, which totally makes sense, is that if you knit from left to right, as right-handed knitters do, and then at the end of the row, you don’t turn your work, but instead you knit from left to right, like left-handed knitters would, you never have to purl the back of a fair isle project! Isn’t that neat?

I don’t know if I’ll ever try this (too hard!) but it was a fun fact that made total sense. I found this video on left-handed knitting that I think can help anyone who is interested in learning more about this technique.

And finally…

DOUBLE KNITTING — you’ll look like a magician with this trick!
The third thing I learned is that you can knit two versions of the motifs we’ve been making simultaneously by doing what is called double-knitting. The results are super pretty! I haven’t had enough time to try the technique yet, but it’s something that I’ve been wanting to learn, and with Arne and Carlos’ video on the topic, I think I’m ready to give it a try. The resulting piece has the pattern you choose on one side and the reversed version of the pattern on the other side. Very neat!

The colors I’ll be getting remind me of the beautiful poppies that were everywhere during my mid-day walk with Estelle today.

I can’t wait to get them!

what to do with yarn that has no label

Published by fairfaxhill

A good friend sent me a message this morning asking for some advice on what she could do with some yarn she had gotten as a gift, to which I answered, “Join the Arne and Carlos knit-along!” But she said she had other plans, like knitting a poncho or a kimono. That sounded fun!

I recommended signing up for a Ravelry account to search for poncho patterns. There are so many patterns on Ravelry.com — not only that, you can search by yardage, by the exact brand of yarn you have, by type of project. It’s really a fantastic tool for knitters and crocheters alike.

Unfortunately, she said that wouldn’t work, since she had no idea where the yarn labels were. From the picture she sent me, it looked like a medium weight yarn, but it was hard for me to tell from the photo alone.

My first recommendation was to knit up a swatch. Cast on 20-24 stitches and knit until you have close to a square. Measure it and see how many stitches and how many rows you have per inch. Make sure the knitting isn’t too tight. If it is, try swatching again with larger needles. This will give you your yarn’s gauge. Once you know if your wool requires 20 or 24 inches per 4 inches/10 cm square — whatever your results are — you’ll be able to use that information to search for a pattern.

The next step would be to weigh the yarn. Hopefully, you have a scale at home to do this. (Or, you could put all the yarn in a small plastic bag, stick it in your purse and take a trip to the nearest supermarket and quickly place it on one of the scales in the produce area —just kidding! But if you’re desperate… 😉. ) Knowing the type of yarn and how much of it you have will help you choose the right project.

My friend’s question left me thinking about what else she could do to figure out what type of yarn she had, because I too had a few skeins of yarn that had lost their labels.

I learned there’s another method for finding this out. It’s done by figuring out your yarn’s wraps per inch, also known as WPI, which is a standard measure used in the yarn industry to determine yarn weights.

To figure out your yarn’s WPI all you need is something like a pencil (or, pretty much anything with a regular circumference) to use as your measuring tool. You need to mark one inch on the pencil. I marked mine by placing some washi tape on two sides of it, leaving one inch in between, like this:

What you do then, is you wrap your yarn around the one-inch section to fill the gap. Don’t do this too tightly. The resulting number of wraps is your resulting WPI.

So, for example, DK yarns are about 11 wpi and a sport yarn, 12 wpi.

I tried this with some yarn I had and I can now say I have one skein of yellow DK weight yarn and one of green sport weight yarn. How cool is that?

My recommendation even after trying this fun experiment still is that you should always do a test swatch.

Let me know if this was helpful and good luck with your stash projects!

Here’s the chart from Ravelry with all the numbers: https://www.ravelry.com/help/yarn/weights

knitting during quarantine

Published by fairfaxhill

Hi! I’ve been working away on the Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knitting project. So far I’ve managed to knit up the first two clues. I really loved the first one — both the pattern and the blue I found in the basket full of yarn I have in the studio. It looks nice with the white. I would like to try knitting the design with a thicker yarn. The yarn I’m using is a sport weight, so my “squares” are turning out to be rectangles. But I figured, if I just keep using the same yarn, they should all at least be the same size in the end. That is if that even matters! We have no idea what we’re making and that’s what makes this project so interesting!

I’ve also been getting new ideas on how I might use these designs in the future. I was thinking of some cushions for our TV room. We need some color in there. But first, I want to figure out how to make these into true squares. I think starting with some different yarn might help. But that will have to wait until I finish the KAL and some other projects I have on hold.

For the second clue, my tension was a little off, but I guess that really doesn’t matter. Someone in the FB group was worried that they’d made a mistake. Like Arne and Carlos say, this should be fun. For this project, I’ve decided to just do whatever feels good. It’s nice to get to decide on the colors, how I knit, whether I block each swatch or not. I need something I can control when everything else around me is so chaotic with the coronavirus spreading all over the world.

I found some old books and used them to block both swatches. My English-Swedish dictionary, which has come in handy over the years, and the book History of Psychology, which I really enjoyed. I am so curious to find out what it is we’re making! Aren’t you?

This project has been an incredible help for me in the last few days. I am a stressed-out person “out of the box” so it doesn’t take much to get my cortisol levels up. (This Coronavirus situation is not helping!). I think everyone needs a break from the news.

My kids will be home until mid-April. That’s the latest we heard. They are not happy about this new normal. They miss their friends and going out with them. I’m trying to stay positive and focus on all the good things we can be grateful for. It rained today. For California, that is always good news. I’ll concentrate on that, and try to figure out my third swatch color combination. Perhaps finish my audiobook. What are you all doing to cope?

I’m listening to The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks. I have enjoyed it a lot so far and I’m getting close to finishing. I try to listen to audiobooks while I knit, but if the pattern is complicated, some days I find that I’ve suddenly “listened” to two or three chapters and have no idea what is going on in the book. So, I may just listen to it in bed before I fall asleep tonight.

By the way, in today’s video, Arne showed how he knits with two colors. I do it way differently and apparently the wrong way according to him! I hold one color with my left hand and the other with my right hand. By doing it this way the yarns don’t get twisted. (When you reach the end of the row, you turn your work similar to how you turn it when you crochet, like the page of a book, to the left. This way the yarns never get twisted.)

I guess we all knit differently. My rule is to knit in whichever way feels most comfortable to you! For example, in my case, if I am just knitting garter stitch I may knit the Continental way, but if I’m mixing knit and purl or working cables, I’ll definitely be knitting in the way I was taught, which was the English way. So do what feels right to you. Here’s a short video of the way I hold the yarn. I don’t have the right setup to record videos, so my apologies in advance for my lack of expertise in this area. Hopefully, someone finds it helpful.

Watch this video of how I knit with two colors.

Oh, and before I forget! I had promised to tell you about some of the nearby yarn stores I know and recommend. During these uncertain times, I urge you to order your yarn online to support all the small businesses that are suffering from the current situation. Locally, Dharma Trading in San Rafael, Atelier Marin in San Anselmo, Knit House on Main in Tiburon and Cast Away Yarn Shop in Santa Rosa are some of my very favorite stores. And another store you shouldn’t miss for many types of craft supplies is Once Around in Mill Valley!

Stay healthy and talk soon!

-Gabi

joining the arne & carlos mystery knit-along

Published by fairfaxhill

It was announced this afternoon that Marin County residents will need to shelter-in-place starting at midnight tonight until at least April 7. (That’s a long time inside our homes!) Thankfully, we have creative people in the world to help us through this stressful time with projects to help reduce our anxiety. Today, Arne & Carlos have surprised knitters by launching the Quarantine Mystery Knitalong.

If you’ve never heard of Arne & Carlos, then you really should check them out. They are two pretty well-known Scandinavian knit designers who have published books like “Norwegian Knits with a Twist” and “Knit-and-Crochet Garden” (which seems to be out of print, unfortunately).

I first learned about Arne & Carlos on YouTube some years ago. Of course, I was interested in their Scandinavian point of view and aesthetic and I really liked how they successfully made traditional motifs feel new and fresh. Their shows are funny. Carlos does most of the talking, while Arne, who doesn’t speak English as well, seems to be the faster knitter of the two. It’s great to see this couple share their love of knitting. Besides having published several books, you can also find them on their blog arnecarlos.com.

Thanks to Arne & Carlos’ creativity, we can now take our minds off the stressful news and the new reality we are living in, at least for a little while, by concentrating on different knit designs that will help us not only enjoy a little quiet time focused on something else than bad news but also getting a chance to connect with the other people around the world that are in our same situation.

This project will have another positive effect on knitters, as it will most likely help many of us use up some of the yarn that we’ve stored in our closets, drawers, ottomans, wooden chests, under the beds, armoires… I know I’m not alone!

So hey, why don’t you go grab some yarn and join this KAL with me? The first design published today is adorable. If you only knit one of the swatch-sized squares, make this one. I know I will. I’m going to be using a slightly different yarn than what they recommend, so I hope it still looks as pretty as theirs. AND, they mention they are not doing double-knitting to make this more accessible for all knitting levels, but after seeing their double-knit sample, I know that’s something I really want to learn how to make.

So neat!

Stay home. Wash your hands. Wink at your friends. 😉

FairfaxHill

life, knits, food, marin – by Gabi

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