I thought the best way to do this was with a video. I’m sure someone’s done a better job somewhere but here’s my attempt. (Sorry for the gardener’s fingernails. Try as I might, I can’t grub up potatoes without snapping a nail!)
It turned out a little darker than I’d thought so for clarity, the purple strand is the top on and the green (marled) is the bottom strand.
I decided that since my wrist didn’t like me knitting on 2mm needles all the time, I’d better find something in a larger gauge. Hence Clapotis number 2:
Click-en to em-big-en
In my defence, I did work on Tubey for a bit, but it is mostly wool. And my hands sweat glow. So really, it’s all for my health – isn’t it?
I went for the purl-stitch-into-drop-stitch method I’d read about other people doing and it’s working really well for me.
The yarn I’m using is Lousia Harding Sari Ribbon that I got from Get Knitted via Uknitty (for winning a competition she ran – still no blogging from her, I hope she’s doing OK).
Sari Ribbon Yarn Montage
They are out of focus – it was part arty shots, part trying to get a good colour representation!
Winding the first three skeins went quite well, but the last one was a complete ‘mare! It was already a bit tangled and the inner part of the skein was wound tighter than the outer part. And then I found a join. Well, not really a join more of a knot. Hence what follows; a tutorial for how to join ribbon yarn so that it is (virtually) invisible:
Click on any of the pictures to get a larger view.
What you’ll need: a sewing needle, some pins, matching thread.
Overlap the two ends by about 1.5″/3 cm and pin them together
Using a running stitch, sew the ends together
The finished product
The join will be slightly thicker than the surrounding yarn, but it is hardly noticable and is the best way of joining ribbon yarn (in my humble opinion!)
Random Stuff:
0: 2Paw Cindy has an excellent tutorial for a sock bag to tote your project around in.
0: Harriet the 175 year old tortiose has died.
0: Andy Warhol’s Wig sold for $ 10,800 (so that’s where they got Halle Berry’s hair from for the new X-Men movie!)
0: Wind farm ‘hit eagle numbers‘ – literally!
Not offered to me, but by me!
There was a recent discussion on the Ample Knitters list about a pattern on the Garn Studio website. The flurry of emails was in response to an American contributor assuming that the measurements given were in inches. Being British I feel as if I’m in something of a unique position; I am fairly fluent in both metric and imperial.
For knitting, large distances and cooking I’m imperial. For small measurements, science-stuff, sewing and vast distances (space and the like) I’m metric. With this in mind, I will present a quick “How To” between inches and centimeters.
This is a very rough ‘n’ ready guide and should be used as such!
Length:
1″ = 2.5 cm
4″ = 10 cm
6″ = 15 cm
12″ = 30 cm
44″ = 120 cm
There are 10 millimetres (mm) in 1 centimetre (cm) and 100 centimetres in 1 metre.
Weight:
g = gram
kg = kilogram (1000 grams)
2 oz = 50g (v. approx. – it’s more like 55g)
4 oz = 100g (again more like 110g but it’s close enough!)
18 oz = 500 g
35 oz = 1000g = 1kg
Let me know if you found this helpful at all, or if you’d like me to do more maths-stuff!
Argyle Scarf:
Lookin’ good!
Eeep!
Tubey:
Thrilling – no?
Other stuff:
Progess on the above items isn’t a great as you’d imagine becuase I’m currently working on three design items: 1 on the needles, 1 ready to go, and 1 on paper only (but the yarn is ready). I’m not ready to show anything yet, but once I learn their fate, I’ll let you know! I’ve learnt the hard way that I’m best designing and making something, then writting up the pattern and then submitting it.
Why yes, Cindy, we do wear knotted handkerchiefs! In fact, under the bowler hats we have to wear by law, we all have one of these. David Beckam has a hand-printed silk one!
(Tongue firmly in cheek – and we won the Ashes! Yes, I know that you guys have won it for the past twenty years, but that’s not stopped us crowing about 1966, so even when you win it back next year, it won’t matter!)
