Kaye’s Something New

Broomstick Crochet Scarf
By Kaye Keller (a member of our group who actually lives a long way southof us!)

Our group here in Mildura have explored this craft for the last month and have produced some excellent results … tea cosies, coat hangers, cushions, scarves and berets and have had great fun sharing our ideas.

Instructions used were from: Creative Knitting #6, page 17
Designed by Dale’s Hand Knits (fax: 02 4951-6513 email: pdstau@idl.net.au)

I have completed my “Scarf Exchange” scarf and I am quite pleased with the result. I have mentioned the exercise to the girls at Armidale when I have visited and doubtless you have heard of it. It’s great fun and the rewards are exciting. One never knows what you get back after the effort you put in for your wool. I have been well rewarded for my efforts over the last 8 years. I recommend any group to join in. Dubbo has the job this year, so if you are down that way in October pop in and have a look, as it is worth it.

Regards Kaye

Lynne’s Something New

HOW TO AVOID ‘SECOND SOCK SYNDROME’

I can’t remember whether I heard or read somewhere that a sock could be knitted on two circular needles instead of four (or five) pins. I was considering trying that trick when the thought crossed my mind… could I knit two socks together on two circular needles…? Well, I tried, but it wasn’t a happy idea. Could I do it on THREE? I couldn’t see why not, but was a bit bamboozled as to how to go about it.

After a few false starts, I managed to get half the stitches for each sock on each of two circular needles. I would recommend using short needles and two balls of wool, but I have only long ones and one large ball of variegated sock wool! I put the ball on one of the CD spindles that Noni provided (another use for those) and used the thread from the outside for one sock and from the centre for the other. This, of course, meant that the colour repeats are reversed on one sock – another good reason for using two balls. Fortunately, Noel is happy to have socks, whatever the colour, and if I don’t point out the difference he probably won’t even notice.

Apart from the minor irritation of the long needles hanging about, the plan worked rather well until I reached the heels. I use the Niantic heel, which requires decreased stitches to be left on the needle until picked up again when increasing. A bit more head scratching and deep consideration brought me to the conclusion that it would be easier to do the heels one at a time. Once the heels were turned I continued with the two at a time method without problems.

There was absolute relief from ‘Second Sock Syndrome’ because once one sock was finished the pair was finished, hence the opportunity to get on with something else. I probably will use this method again as it is quicker, but most likely not with the long needles. Untangling them was a bit of a pain. The ball on the spindle wasn’t a problem except for the colour reversal. Try it, sock knitters, and see what you think.

PS re SECOND SOCK SYNDROME

OK, all you knitters can stop laughing now! The penny has finally dropped. OF COURSE the two socks can be knitted on two circular needles … if you use both ends of THE SAME NEEDLE! I was using the third needle to knit off the two halves on one needle, then using the newly vacated needle to knit off the other two halves! It was a bit like manipulating soggy spaghetti but it worked. TWO needles work much better! And, YES, I am doing more socks without second sock syndrome, and enjoying it more. It has been a double bunger “Something New”, and quite a learning experience.

HAPPY SOCKING.
Lynne

Jenny’s Something New

Writing up this “Something New” on my moebius scarf has taken much longer than actually knitting it! I first became interested in knitting a moebius scarf back in March. I should probably explain what a moebius is. A moebius strip is a band or surface with only one side and one boundary edge. Clear as mud huh? Take a strip of paper. Give it a half-twist (turn one end over) then tape the ends together. That’s a moebius strip. Draw a line down the middle of one side. If you’ve done it right, your line will go all the way down one “side”, then back down the other “side” and you’ll come back to where you started, but have a line on both sides of the paper. If you were to cut the strip down this line, you don’t end up with two pieces of paper; you end up with a loop twice as long with a full twist in it.

So why knit a moebius scarf? Well it doesn’t have ends that flop around and get in the way or need tucking into a coat, and, as its circular, it will wear evenly. The half-twist gives it a nice drape. A full twist doesn’t sit nicely. And it’s fun when you inevitably have to explain to someone what you’re knitting (or have knit) and you watch their brain go into meltdown…

My moebius scarf was based on a Cat Bordhi pattern, the Cashmere Moebius Cowl. The yarn was a Touch 4 ply merino in a variegated purple/green/black. The needles were 4 mm 150 cm Addi Turbo circulars I bought over the internet from Yarns Galore in Western Australia, but you can now get Addi Turbos from the Wool Room in Uralla and Nicola is happy to order sizes in. I made a tactical error with the needle length and really should have used 120 cm circulars. The needle needs to be long enough to hold all the stitches along the boundary edge but not so long that the knitting has to be stretched. And I hadn’t wanted to go too short (take a pair of 80 cm circulars and make it form two loops then consider knitting something like that – no thanks!). As the boundary edge goes around the scarf twice, my 150 cm needles forced me to knit a scarf with at least a 75 cm circumference. So I had something like 180 stitches to cast on once I worked out a gauge from a tension swatch (which, because it is double sided, gives 360 stitches).

The cast on is double sided and runs down the centre of the moebius. It’s like a long tail cast on but uses the circular needle as the long tail. I used instructions from The Girl From Auntie and an instructional video (note: 6.7 MB file) but there is now Cat Bordhi’s demonstration available (still about 5 MB). My moebius had a diagonal pattern, which ends up making chevrons. The easiest way to understand it all is not to think too much about it and just do it!

Above: During knitting – the cable part of the circular needle holds the stitches on the bottom of the knitting, the tail of yarn from casting on comes off the middle of the knitting on the right and a stitch marker is needed to tell when a round is complete (since you come past that tail twice in a round).

The first half-round is a pain in the butt to knit because the stitches are tight and have to be un-twisted. But after that it was really easy to knit. I started it in late July and finished it in mid August so it took about three weeks. And it was school term time so I didn’t spend a lot of time knitting. After finishing and washing it, the yarn relaxed much more than I expected, so rather than going twice around my neck it goes three times. But it is very cosy.

If I was going to do it again (and I intend to) then I would use a bulkier yarn (the 4 ply is too flimsy), 120 cm circulars and a different stitch pattern – stocking stitch alternating with reverse stocking stitch (just turn the knitting inside out and knit in the reverse direction – no need to purl). With fewer stitches, it would be a really quick knit.