Magic Loop knitting, part 2

The market stall lady didn't like my elegant socks (shock, horror) but she wants  more wristlets. I thought they'd be the perfect thing for practicing magic loop knitting. This Blackrose pattern by Suzi Anvin is originally designed for magic loop knitting. I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I found that having a bit of knitting to hang on to made it easier to slide the stitches back and forth, so when I started the second wristlet I felt like an absolute beginner all over again. 

Magic Loop knitting

I like knitting with double pointed needles. But when I was looking at sock patterns, I kept coming across references to a Magic Loop method, so I thought I'd find out more about it. I googled it, there are plenty of videos and instructions, including this one. The method is clever. It involves sliding half the rounds of stitches at a time back and forth along the circular needle. At the moment I'm still at the stage where I get the yarn twisted round the needle and get in a mess. I know it'll need some practice. At the moment I can't see the advantage over double pointed needles, but that may come!

Cup cover

We had no electricity yesterday, from 6am to 5pm. Luckily I didn't need electricity to finish knitting my scarf.

I can procrastinate no longer about the knitted cup covers, which I first mentioned here. OK, I admit it, I had no idea why anyone would want to cover a tin cup with a knitted cover. It's so impractical that I wondered if the intention was to turn the cup into a receptacle for pencils or sock needles, rather than something to drink liquids out of. Or candles? I gather that the concept came from 'Ideas', a South African magazine, so I  looked at their website. The only comparable thing I found was candle holders for an outdoor party. The covers were crocheted, but similar. Aha?  The tatted flower is Jon's daisy pin.

Scarf Progress

I've been wanting to try the pattern for a reversible cable scarf for a while. I see I downloaded it without the name of the author, sorry. The original was for a very chunky yarn, only 24 stitches for the scarf, which wouldn't work for my handspun wool. So I knitted a sample to see how the principle worked and then created my own version. It's clever, I think. The cables are in rib and the spaces are in seed stitch. The original had only one cable, but I've done two, one turning left and one right. I like a scarf to have two 'right sides', so it doesn't matter how you wear it or how it twists.

Too efficient for my own good

I was so quick with the knitting I volunteered to do for my neighbour that yesterday Dee came round with some more yarn for me to knit for the market stall! Problem is, I have other fish to fry now - an edging to tat, wool to spin, a scarf to knit. Not to mention a sweater to knit with the wool Dee gave me in payment for the last market stall knitting. And knitting covers for tin cups is not, I have to say, something I find hugely inspirational.

Dyeing more wool

I spun some more wool to make a scarf. I dyed this lot slightly differently from the sock wool, spraying two colours on in lines across the skeins, so that the original colour of the wool will be one of colours in the scarf. I'm thinking of trying the same technique on tatting thread. Just to see how it looks.....

Hosier to Milliner

Actually, my dictionary says that a hosier is someone who deals in socks and underwear, not someone who makes them, but anyway, I have gone from making socks to making hats. The other day a neighbour was complaining that he can't buy the sort of hat that he wants. My husband volunteered my services to make him one! On Sunday Les gave me a sample, so yesterday I set off to make his perfect hat. He said that his sample was too small, so I measured it against my usual pattern and found that the pattern was a little bigger. Good. The crown depth was the same. Good. The brim of his hat was narrower than mine, so I trimmed 2cm off the outside of the brim pattern. I also used a less stiff interfacing for the brim than I normally use, and added lines of  top stitching. Les tried the hat on, it fits and he will wear it. Job done.