Portuguese Knitting

When I was at K's this weekend she told me that the way I had been hand knitting I was twisting my knitted stitches so I got out my DVD on Portuguese knitting and practiced on that technique. The item I took to her house was a pair of pants that I had put hand ribbing on. On one leg I had used straight needles, on the other I used a circular needle. I was wondering why the circular ribbing had a lean to it then it dawned on me it was probably because I was twisting my knit stitch. I practiced all day Sunday and part of today and I think I'm pretty comfortable with this technique. The problem I was having before was on the tension of the yarn but I think I've got it. I still have a little trouble when I switch from one row of knit to the next row of purl but I guess that will just take practice.
If you're not familiar with the Portuguese technique they use a pin with an open hook that is attached to your clothing up on the left shoulder and the stitches are worked with the yarn to the front. The knit stitch has the yarn over the needle and the purl stitch has the yarn under the needle. So it goes from the left hand, over the hook, then to the right hand, on to the yarn ball. The yarn is put over the second finger on the right hand for tension control. I was knitting it way too tight to begin with but finally got to where I'm a little looser. I like the bind off they do too. You don't have to pick up a stitch and try to slip it over another stitch. You basically knit one stitch, put it back on the left needle, then knit 2 together, or something like that, going from memory here! I practiced the yarn overs too and they came out ok. I think I will try to stick with this technique for now. I've done the throwing method, continental, half of the eastern Europe method where they work into the back of the stitch, and now this technique. I like the eastern European method for knitting but the purl stitch is kinda funky to do. 
Well I was almost finished with this post and the power went out, again! Just long enough to muck up all the clocks. I swear I don't know what's going on with our power lately. This is the 3rd time in 10 days we've lost power. The first two were brown outs and now this one. Thank goodness I didn't lose my post!


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Whole Day Knitting!!

K and I had set up a time to get together for some knitting. I had some 3 ply that needed to be put in a skein so she let me use her swift to wind it up. Then I can wash it and get the crinkles out from the frogging. Then we snacked on some cheese, meat, crackers, and some great dip she made! After that we talked about knitting, hand and machine. Next I showed her how to make socks on her Bond, made her a pattern with the Magic Formula and gave her some tips on using it. She was surprised how fast we got it done. ( I knew she would be surprised as she is a hand knitter!). We only made an anklet but even with going over the directions and teaching her short rowing it still went pretty fast! Then we ate some more, drank some tea, and knit some more! It was so much fun being able to share knitting with someone else! Then we started playing with yarn just making cables, eyelet transfers, and tried some bobbles. We made another date for next month and she's going to come over and teach me hand knitting. I'm doing my knit stitches twisted because of the way I'm knitting. She has picked out an easy scarf pattern that we are going to do. I crammed her head with stuff this time and she gets to do it to me next time! LOL Oh yeah, she has some natural sock yarn she bought for dyeing and I brought home a skein to make socks for her on my standard gauge. A really nice knitting day!
 
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Black Sleeveless UFO Not!

When I was cleaning up my knitting room I came across a top that I had made with Knitware that didn't fit right. I made it sleeveless and the armholes were too big so I  stitched the shoulder seams together to pull up the armholes. I had never finished it. I tried it on and it fit rather nicely so I decided to put some trim on it. I crocheted a filet type border on the neck, and made up a design for the armholes, and found an edge I liked in one of my crochet edgings book for the bottom. Here are pics.

This is the bottom.

 This is the full top.

 This is the neckline.

 This is the armhole trim that I made up.

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March snowstorm

This is what we woke up to on the 21st of March! When I finally got up and got outside it had already started melting but I still measured 5 1/2". It's almost all melted off of the ground now but the mountains closest to us to the south are still all white. Supposed to have another storm thru to the weekend. Looks like another late year on the garden!

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Snow?!

It's March 21st at 12:17 am PST. It's been raining most of the day. When it got dark it started snowing! Just went and checked and we have a good 7" and it's still coming down. That's a big storm for us here in the high desert! Southern CA has large power outages due to snow, ice, wind. I really feel sorry for all these people around here that have to go to work in the morning. It will probably melt tomorrow so there's a good chance some places might have flooding, especially in Reno. This is some crazy weather!
Spent the whole day working in my knitting room. Going thru things I made a long time ago that didn't work out and didn't want to throw them way. I ripped out those items and rewound the yarn to be used again. Put little labels on the balls and weighed them. Also went thru all my bits and pieces and rewound them up and labeled them. Just a few more items to rip out and rewind and I'll be done. Found a couple of shrugs I made that are basically finished, one needs some ends woven in and I need to put buttons on another one. One of them was too tight so it will get recycled. I was hoping I could find enough of one color to make a hoodie pattern I saw online but no luck there. I have a couple ideas on how to make it with different colors but will have to play around with that idea. It has cables up the front near the bands and around the hood. One idea is to make the hood in a fair isle but not sure how that will look. All in all a good productive day!

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Bramwell Yarns not trading anymore?!

 First this;

Within the next few months, Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing will effectively shut down its operations in Old Fort.

Jack Lonon Jr., president of the family-owned company, told The McDowell News on Thursday that the company’s assets will be sold to Spinrite Yarns of Canada. The sale will become final on Feb. 25. After that, the future of the business will be uncertain."

Was going through my email and saw one from a few weeks ago that I forgot to read and this is what it was!They are in the UK, so don't know if it applied to the US or not.  

and now this.

Click Here to View Combed Cotton

We have just been advised that Bramwell Yarns are not trading anymore.  I have updated our stocks in our Ebay Shop, once this stock has gone we will not be able to replace it.  May we suggest you stock up while you can.  We have now introduced the Yeoman 4ply Yarn to replace the Bramwells 4ply.

  Should we receive any updates on Bramwells we will let you know.

Thank you for your continued suppport

Best Regards Caroline BSK Ltd

Click Here to View Remainder Of Bramwell Yarns

Click Here to View Yeoman 4ply Yarn

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Kelley's Mitten Class - Introduction

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