Sheep's Clothing, Valparais

I had a great time teaching Twined knitting at Sheep's Clothing yarn shop in Valparaiso. Paula's shop has a wonderful blend of modern and historical knitting -- and such great yarn selection!

We worked with Norwegian imported Hygge yarn. It is a woolen-spun, soft, Z-ply yarn. Z-ply yarn is the best for working historical Twined knitting, Nålbinding, and even crochet, yet almost all commercially made yarns are S-ply! The difference is the directionality of both the spinning and the plying. S-ply and Z-ply are spun and plied in opposite direction.

Z-plied yarns make a difference with traditional, Swedish Twined knitting. With Twined knitting, two strands of yarn are used together and they are twisted around each other for every stitch. With S-plied yarns, when twisted in Twined knitting, the individual strands of yarn ply more tightly. With Z-plied yarns, the individual strands of yarn unply slightly. Then, when they come in contact with the other strand of slightly unplied yarn, they lock together and form a cohesive, 4-ply strand of yarn on the wrong side of the fabric. The result is a stronger yarn, and a long-wearing fabric.

The class is over, but do you still want to learn Twined knitting? Contact Paula at Sheep's Clothing and request a repeat class. 219-462-1700.

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round

In other January news, our regional spin retreat met at Lindenwood the final weekend of January. I brought a challenge project: 3.4 pounds of llama/merino fiber I had processed last summer. 

Admittedly, I was intimidated by the amount of fiber, and wondered if and when I could ever get through it. Spin retreat was a great place to try, but it was so hard! There were so many distractions with lovely braids and bumps of yummy fiber. After my first bobbin was filled, I longed to spin anything else.

Singles on the mother lode

By the time I left, I had two bobbins completely filled and had started in on another. By the end of the week, I had four filled and started plying during the Super Bowl.

a lovely three-ply

I now have four skeins of approximately 600 yards triple plied, AND I'm really happy with it!

He's wearing it!

His acceptance inspired me to knit something for another teenager who "doesn't wear knits." What do you know?

Notice the eye of partridge heel

They're being worn! Thank you, February.

December's project

Then, in December, I got back my King's Road Cowl that appeared in Fall 2017 Love of Knitting. Great time of year to get it back! I've been wearing it a lot, and I like it.

King's Road Cowl I designed for Love of Knitting magazine, Fall 2017

My eldest came home for Thanksgiving, too! He's a freshman at University, and I've really missed him.

There's very little I can knit for him that he will wear. He doesn't wear many sweaters and is pretty much a minimalist. So, when he started speaking rhapsodies about The Last Jedi movie, and I saw this project on Ravelry, I cast on immediately.

This is The Star Wars Double Knit Scarf on Ravelry by Jessica Goddard. She knit the scarf and has the charts on the link, but doesn't teach how to do double knit.

Behind the neck is my favorite part: the Death Star and the Millenium Falcon

Well, I thought I had double knit color work. I have done double knit, and even designed a project that incorporated double knit with increases and decreases. I've also knit brioche, but I guess I've never done double knit color work. What a time consuming project! I calculated that each of the 85 inches took an hour to do.

I added his name on the end, to stave off thieves, and added the words behind the drones (someone else had already charted the drones -- it's not in the original charts).

Well, I had wanted to finish it by the time he went back to University of Nebraska, but I didn't. I mailed it the next week.

Here's hoping he wears it!