Knitting the Honey Cowl designed by Antonia Shankland

A friend's birthday is coming up so I thought I would knit up a cowl to give her.  I like knitting the Honey Cowl.  It's sort of mindless knitting, but not really boring.  Both sides have an interesting look to it even though there is a right and wrong side.  The right side resembles a honeycomb.

You can clearly see my inconsistent knitting.  I call it, "Giving the finished item character."

Here's the wrong side.

I used a knitted cast on which had a good amount of stretch to it and once again used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off.  I absolutely love how this bind off looks and of course it is stretchy.

I hope she likes it.

Knitting a moebius cowl

I knit up a cowl for my friend.  It is an infinity scarf with a twist.  It is called Moebius Cowl and it is designed by Cat Bordhi.

I love this pattern.  All you do it knit, but since there is a twist in the loop, you are knitting on the back and coming back to the front without turning your work.  You just keep knitting and knitting.  It is so cool.  I don't know what yarn I used, but I do like how the colors came out in the pattern.  You can see how the top part of this picture is knit, and the bottom is purled.  The twist in the loop is where the trick lies.  You are basically knitting on both side of your cast on row.

It is an eight stitch repeat, and the pattern calls for stitch markers every eight stitches.  I found this a bit cumbersome and it just slowed me down so I only used stitch markers every twenty four stitches.  After the pattern was established and I had become good at reading my knitting, I removed the stitch markers except for the one that marked the start of the round.

I bound off using Jenny's surprisingly stretchy bind off which made a very pretty edge and, of course, was stretchy.










Here is a video by Cat Bordhi herself explaining the cast on for this pattern:

Here is Cat Bordhi explaining how to do the stretchy bind off:

I find it difficult to do the stretchy bind off after a knit stitch, so I just purled my entire bind off row.  I love how the finished edge looks.  Here is my finished item:

Ribbing with twisted stitches

I read in Elizabeth Zimmerman's book Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes to twist your stitches when working ribbing.  Why on earth would you intentionally twist your stitches?  Well, your ribbing really pops when the stitches are twisted.

I decided to try this and here's a few tips I discovered:

• Don't twist your stitches as you knit them onto the right needle (right handed knitting).  This makes them difficult to work when you make your way back to knitting them off.
• Instead, twist the stitches as you are knitting them off the needle.  In other words, knit and purl each of your stitches through the back loop.
• Purling through the back loop can be a little intimidating so if you are working in the round, you can opt to just twist the knit stitches and not twist the purls.  You will be consistent since you are working in the round.

Try working some ribbing with twisted stitches and compare them to regular ribbing.  You will definitely notice a difference.

Circular knitting needle storage/organization

I wanted to share how I organize/store my circular needles.  I am struggling with this currently since I have a bunch of needles, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more needles.

I found these little gadgets at Dollar Tree.  I liked the pink color.

 It is just a little expandable organizer.  It has tabs that can hold a paper so I could write the description if I wanted, but I just left them blank.  I put the needles in size order so it is easy to find what I need.  I also keep the needles in their original packaging.  Most of the needles have what size and brand they are marked on the needle or cord itself so it isn't necessary to keep the original packaging.

The problem I am having is that the elastic that wraps around to keep it closed is losing it's strength.  I have so much in it that the elastic has become worthless so I have a ribbon that I tie around it to keep it closed.  The front flap doesn't stay lined up properly when it is closed anymore.

I have to find another storage solution, but I don't want to spend a lot of money.  Any suggestions?

Brioche Stitch - kromboomssloot snood

I have been studying how to knit brioche patterns.  I have a great book by Nancy Marchant.  You can find it here.  I like the instructions and the patterns.  There are patterns for one color, two colors and three colors.  Some patterns are reversible.  The projects in the book are beautiful.

I demonstrated one of the patterns, which is knit in the round, and uses any even number of stitches.  You can watch it here.

I like paperback books, but I don't like how the pages don't lie flat when you have the book open.  I took my copy to Staples and had it spiral bound.  I also had the front and back covers laminated since I carry this book around in my backpack.

The covers are still nice and pretty even though this book has been carried around with me for at least a year.

Happy Knitting!