Warning! Picture heavy post! I was going to post about the Bangor show that I was at yesterday…but there are a lot of pics for that too! Tomorrow…

But before we get there, Dr. Mel just posted about goat eyes!

The other night my pal G showed me how to catch the yarn if you are carrying it for a bunch of stitches. I looked in a few books, but the pictures weren’t helping, or the explanation, so I thought maybe some of you might want to know too. This is “right” only in that I was so clearly not doing it in a simple effective way before (I would pick up the whole skein of yarn and wrap it around the color I was working). If you have a good way, skip this post! Unless you want to see the top of the hat, last pic.

This explanation assumes you do two color knitting with the left hand carrying one color Continental style and the right hand carrying the other color English style. I carry the right hand yarn (brown) above the left (blue), not sure if that is important. And I’m using both colors double-stranded.

To catch the color you are carrying in your left hand (blue here)… Insert the right needle into the stitch as usual, lift the blue yarn up over the right hand needle

then wrap the right hand (brown) yarn as usual

and knit the stitch

and the next one knit as usual

The blue gets caught here. Is that freakin’ simple or what?

To catch the yarn you are carrying in your right hand (brown here). Insert the right needle into the stitch

wrap the brown yarn (the color you want to catch) as though to knit

wrap the blue yarn as though to knit

unwrap the brown yarn

and knit the stitch

Again…simple? You can get a good rhythm going. I’d say to follow Sally Melville’s advice in her Color book, which is to have your stitches spread out on the right hand needle at about the gauge you are using versus scrunched up.

The outside of the had is done, just need to duplicate stitch on the wind turbine blades, the snowy mountain tops (4 of these) and maybe some snow in the sky. Then knit up the liner. Here’s the top, decreased as in the pirate hat

It’s a little pointy at the corners, hoping blocking will even that out. This pic is odd because the pointy mountain tops are at the corners and the ones that need their snowy caps added are in the middle, but it looks the other way around here.

I did a bit of sewing yesterday.

a tiny curtain! This is botanically correct juniper with berries

behind curtain #1…microscopes, hoping to keep the dust out

Made using this

circa 1965-1968 Kenmore

This was Mom’s. She made my clothes on it. And clothes for my Barbie. That I pretty much never played with. Except to go scuba diving. She became a double amputee. Notice the electrician tape about a foot from the machine. Some puppy chewed through the cord. I think I might have changed the tape a few years ago. I still have the Barbie box!

what could possibly be in here?

2 “real” Barbies, one that is double thigh high amputee, and one fake Barbie in hand-made purple velour dress

Either I didn’t play with this enough, or I was clueless (possibly both). I did some close inspection yesterday and found that MOST of the outfits were made by Mom,

gotta love them all, they even have little bust darts!

So the DH birthday sweater…I did some short-row lengthening on the back. It really bugs me that the sweater I made him last year rides up on his back side. HE doesn’t care. My friend Ginny suggested lengthening with short rows. Basically it is exactly as Vogue Knitting recommends on page 186. I took some photos, sorry they are poor quality. DH said “let me take your pictures”. He has a better digital camera. But he was on the phone with one of his 4 brothers last night…

On the knit side (I did this short row with 6 stitches remaining to the outside), you are knitting along,

slip the next stitch

bring the yarn to the front

slip the stitch back to the left needle

flip the whole thing over

and now you have to bring the yarn back to the front so you can purl across

On the purl side (if I do a short row on the knit side I want to do a corresponding one on the purl side)

you are purling along

slip the next stitch

wrap the yarn to the other side

slip the stitch back to the left needle

flip the whole thing over

and then bring the yarn to the back so you can continue knitting

Then you need to hide your wraps, on the knit side,

the dissecting needle tool points to the wrap

insert right needle under the wrap

and into the next knit stitch and knit these two together

On the purl side

the dentist tool shows the purl wrap, this is harder to see in the picture than in real life

the photo for the next step was TERRIBLE…insert right needle from back to front into the wrapped stitch, lift this onto the left needle and purl these two stitches together

After all this, this is what you get,

notice just to the right of the needle, three rows, and to the right of that, two rows

I did this short row on the K and P side three times…thinking Illl add at least 1/2 inch, maybe 3/4. Now I just need to remember to measure the back at the seam and not in the middle!