As time goes by.......

So it's been a looooong time since I've blogged.  Much has changed.  But knitting continues on, stitch by stitch, like the second hand of the clock clicking second by second.
  It's funny how projects go in bundles-several months of socks, then a shawl or two, a few pairs of fingerless gloves and a sweater n cap as babies pop out into our world.  Life and death, happy and sad, peaceful and restless, the list goes on and on.
 I'm grateful God created fiber and the ability to create.  I'm thankful for the incredible colors reflecting "life".
  I think I will settle in for the night and dream of my next project........

I am getting ready to teach a class at Newton's 25th Annual Fall Festival Seminar.
September 28-30 2012 I'm teaching "Design Your Own Shawl: Shape, Color, Texture and Lace"

Learn to develop your own shawl recipe. The class will be fun and informative.
Call Helen at Newton's  714-634-9116

I'm preparing my hand outs and love this part of teaching. I always learn so much! I learned a new word.......

Metamerism:

The phenomenon that makes color look different under different lights. Natural or artificial light will affect the hue of colors dramatically. Even early morning sunlight vs. sunset light makes colors look different. Color and color hues meanings and effects on us is a fascinating subject and plays a huge role in our knitting. Like yellow is seen more easily than any other color. It is perceived three times more easily than violet. Colors were chosen in different societies and religious groups probably in what natural dyes were available on hand. Did you know that the Catholic Pope wears red shoes? Most of these traditions go back centuries. Tibetan monks wear yellow-orange and "pure" colors. These colors are achieved with natural dyes of vegetable matter, like saffron, turmeric. Using tubers, bark, flowers and leaves.

Well where have I been ?

It's been over a year since I've posted a single word. I've knitted,spun on a spindle,ripped up and out fiber for over a year. I enjoy learning more and more. Stitch formation amazes me, however I still can't repair an error in lace with out going back "stitch by stitch". Hence a lifeline is vital. Yet sometimes I don't put one in. Live and learn, the hard way. I've been on several knitting retreats. Finding each one inspiring, enjoyable and different. The Internet with Facebook and. Ravelry have allowed me to keep up with several friends. Such fun ! I hope to be better about keeping up to date in the months ahead. Got to get back to me knitting, working on the ivy league shawl.

Stranded Knitting

Fair Isle - 2 color knitting - continental from Garnstudio Drops design on Vimeo.

Different ways to Cast on and Bind off's

I'm always interested in different ways to cast on and to bind off my knitting projects. Sometimes I need a very loose bind off like at the top of a sock and sometimes it needs to be just decorative. I often do a "crochet provisional" cast on and at the end bind off both the beginning of the knitting and the end of the knitting, this way they both match.

Here is a link to Lucy Neatby's YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3J-sUx_whE

LiatMGat also has a very nice demonstration I can embed here:


The provisional cast on is done with scrap yarn leaving a clever little tail to undo when it will come time to use these live stitches you've made. After you have the number of stitches cast on with your scrap yarn then you will just start knitting with your working yarn and continue your project. When finished you will decide which technique you may want to use for your bind off at the end of the project and you can use this same technique at the beginning of the project. Voila they match.

Now here are a few binding off techniques:
This "crochet bind off" is actually a demonstration on "knooking" which is a weird little crochet-knitting kind of clever. I'm going to modify one of my crochet hooks to be able to do this but I would like to do it in the round. I'll let you know how it goes. Here is a link to "Knooking" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV3ZkUig048
But I've digressed, the internet is so great for digressing and for a curious sort of person that I am I just jump from one subject to another like monkeys in a tree.

The bind off is actually for this "knooking" but you can see how the "string" is substituted for a needle and it shows very clearly how to do this technique:



This is my default bind off, it's faster for me and efficient way to bind off. I always have crochet hooks around because I use them often.

Here is a demonstration on how to bind off in a knit and purl technique. Like for a ribbing you may have at the top of a sock.




This one is one version on the Crochet Beaded Bind off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVS6yr43T5Y

And this video is a familiar one I suddenly recognized as I was searching around:



A note about the YouTube video I use

i-cord Cast On