Projects
My Isabell Knitalong
Dear Ann,
I’m a stickler. (In some things. As you know, I’m loosey goosey about other things, mainly things I only learned about after my neural pathways calcified, such as how many spaces go after a period in the post-Selectric typewriter era.)
But back to being a stickler: I like to start working on my knitalong projects on Rope Drop Day, and not a minute before. It feels more festive somehow.
I didn’t do that with my Bottom Line Pullover. I’ve been working on it for three weeks and am nearly down to the bottom line of it.
I wanted to line up with all the other knitalongers and start a fresh project yesterday, and quite frankly I didn’t want it to be another sweater on Size 2 needles. Let me finish this one first!
The Solution: Starting Holiday Gift Pile 2019
Looking around the drifts of yarn in my abode, I seized my sample skein of Jill Draper’s newest yarn, the tweedilicious Kingston, in the shade Elmendorf, a color that is purple and not-purple—at the same time. Jill is an alchemist!
This yarn traveled to Edinburgh and back last month, in case i needed a backup project. I thought I might finish my Bottom Line Pullover in one week. Isn’t that hilarious?
After a quick and dirty Kay-style provisional cast-on in waste yarn, I am happily knitting along on the larger of the two sizes of Isabell Kraemer’s X-Factor Cowls.
This sweet neckwarmer pattern is easy, it’s memorizable, it’s a little bit different, and it will be an FO before sundown tomorrow, just from knitting on it while talking to you on the phone.
And then I get to make the drawstring cord that adds the extra something-something to this accessory.
KitchenAid or Loome Tool?
I don’t want to commit myself too early, but I might forego the hand-mixer method of getting the twisted cord twisty enough. As fun as our sample knitters made that sound, you were not kidding when you said there was a risk of ending up with a meringue. Just a glimpse of the hand mixer in the back of a kitchen drawer gives me a powerful urge to whip a bowl of cream and call it lunch.
I’m considering: using my trusty Loome Tool and this handy video, and making my cord that way.
So far, so good, and it’s fun to do.
Stay tuned: this kind of decision making is the stuff of legendary knitalongs.
Here’s wishing everyone a fantastic time in the Great Isabell Knitalong!
Love,
Kay
I was unable to pay attention to the remainder of your post after the phrase “how many spaces go after a period” due to severe trauma.
I lived through the turning point of 2 to 1. The change seemed arbitrary and unnecessary, and although I was pressured into submission (by editors, there were actual submission involved) I’m still not really comfortable with it. Maybe it will swing back. Right? I mean, it could, right?
I know, right?! I couldn’t believe that suddenly it went from 2 to 1 space – after a lifetime of typing 2 spaces! See, notice i keep typing 2 spaces. There, sometimes I remember to type 1. That’s what all of my writing looks like…
Same here! I just think I’ve got it embedded in my mind and fingers to just type one space, and I find myself typing two again! (And I learned how to type on a manual typewriter — ding! thwop!)
It was years before I stopped trying to return a non-existent carriage.
Wait…it’s one space??? Whaaattt???
What is the “quick and dirty Kay style provisional cast on” please?
I cast on the regular way in waste yarn. It doesn’t unzip so when I need to free the stitches later, I have to snip it out.
Kay, that is not a provisional cast on. That is just knitting. Crochet provisional cast on! Get with it! Gah! Signed, your co-blogette
Go for it, Kay! I’m all for quick and dirty.
I guess I am here to horrify people with my slovenly methods. On the plus side, I’m a very careful snipper.
You could also make the cord using a toilet paper tube and popsicle sticks. I’ve done that with my summer camp kids. Might have to be careful it’s not too large. Here is a link to repeat crafter me’s instructions http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2015/11/cardboard-roll-snake-knitting.html
I was also thinking the following: a sort of thick crochet chain, or some I cord. That said, I am fascinated by use of the tool that Kay showed, and am on my way to view the link for the toilet paper roll and popsicle sticks.
I’m intrigued, what’s the KitchenAid method?
I haven’t done it myself, but you attach the yarn to the mixer and let it do the twisting to make a nice twisted cord. Apparently doing this by hand can take a while…
That sounds scary. I might try it with an eggbeater first. Wheee!
I think you put a half cup of flour in there with it.
Must see a video tutorial!! Please:)
A Google search using “kitchenaid mixer twisted cord with yarn” brings up a lot of choices.
Agree! I wpuld dig out the moxer for that! Especially since I love that cowl.
I also have a handy little tool that I use to make plied fringe on my woven projects. It’s a series of little alligator clips mounted on two pieces of wood, one of which rotates and twists the clipped-in threads together clockwise. You knot the ends and let the plied cord twist itself the other way, and voila! Very low-tech, just my speed
For anybody who hasn’t seen one of the fringe twisters Victoria is describing in action before, The Woolery has a nice video here: https://youtu.be/WjXmJUaFOlw
A web search for “weaving fringe twister” will lead the curious to lots of vendors, and even some instructions for DIY-ing one. A clever little tool!
I had no idea that the number of spaces after a period had changed! So much for the nephew who had told me I was the hip aunt. Guess he was wrong…
I learned the one-space-after-a-period back in the ’90s when I took a desktop publishing course through community ed. I was over 40 at the time, so apparently my neural pathways were not quite sufficiently calcified to absorb something new. (Yay, 40+ year-old me!)And I just checked the AP Stylebook (yes, I have one and keep it next to my computer; I am a grammar/punctuation nazi) and it say, “SPACING: Use a single space after a period at the end of a sentence.” I was pointing this out last week to a couple friends with whom I was editing a document; one is a former copy editor and still uses the two space rule. The other, an attorney, explained about how that extra space was not needed now that computers use proportional spacing, rather than the monospacing of typewriters. However, you do you and I shall not protest 🙂
Neither had I!! I’ll still use 2, it just looks right 😉
I”m glad you said that Karyn. Two spaces looks better and is a bit easier to read. I like Kristen’s theory that the computer fills in the extra space.
I believe (and this is just my theory) you type one space, but the computer puts in the second one automatically. Or at least that’s what used to happen. Maybe that was just a step towards complete elimination of the second space.
I think you should try using a “Spinster”…available at Amazon and YouTube will help out. It’s fun to use and you can have a professional looking cord in about 5 minutes. Then you can show all your friends and amaze them with your talent. It’s been around for years but somehow goes unnoticed.
Risk of ending up with meringue. HA!
Hmm. that’s a good question. Lucet cord (do I still have a lucet around? do I need to get a loome to use to make lucet cord?), twistytwisty cord (I do that by hand, which is a good stress reliever), or crochet romanian cord (because I can)?
I think what I am doing is using the Loome Tool as a lucet.
Be daring — use the mixer. What’s the worst that could happen? Cake mix on the ceiling? (And it is two spaces after a period. Although you really need three or four with some computer fonts.)
Apparently I don’t have a hand mixer any more, so I used my drill. I over-twisted the first attempt pretty badly—no speed control!— but got the hang of it after that. It was fun!
You advised that I use Spud and Chloe mix cotton and wool for a large baby blanket. It’s the most wonderful yarn ever and at $100+ the most expensive but it’s so worth it
I love “calcified neural pathways.” The yarn is lovely, though my monitor shows it as a soft grayish black. Finally, at the risk of sounding heretical, given the terrifying speediness of a Kitchenaid mixer, or the ancient-but-slow lucet or modern Loome, why not use the knitting needles that you have right there and make an i-cord? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate quick ‘n’ dirty?
I-cord takes me forever. I discovered that casting on and immediately casting off looks the same, at about 1/4 the time.
Hand mixer? Whaaaa…? I’m gonna have to see a video!
um … I still have a Selectric in my attic/study … and get ‘yelled at’ when I edit Eldest or Youngest’s writing … as I place two spaces after a period. Which apparently, the younger generation of word processors do not do.
Signed, typing paid for graduate school …. and those I typed for wanted me to go to law school. Le Sigh.
Though my children found the typewriter ‘fun.’ It’s more fun to work one’s way through UFOs.
I type two spaces after a period— even though my brother (Northwestern School of Journalism grad) repeatedly points out that it’s unnecessary— for the same reason I like a desk chair with no arms on it: I like the spaciousness of it. (The desk chair with no arms has the added bonus of not catching and ripping my white coat pockets, because I’m a doctor. Which leads to the “Why the white coat?” question: because it has three pockets, and I use every one of them, and I suspect people would give me odd looks if I just stuffed everything in a fanny pack or something.). 🙂
You had me at whipped cream for lunch.
Using Google, I typed in “twisted cord kitchenaid” and found this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQKSGU81Zk
“Rope Drop Day”? It’s the only puzzling phrase in your letter, Kay. Please, what is this? Do I celebrate it with rope shaped cake? Cookies? Dropping a really large basket of I-cord from my roof?
Egg beater cord? Yep. Tiny twisty tool thingy? Got one & it works! I miss the good vibes feedback of a typewriter, but my speed is way higher on my laptop keyboard . . . Thanks for sparking my memories of my IBM Selectric!
Kay, I’m doing my Bottom Line on size twos as well! But I couldn’t do the ribbing on size 1’s and still get it to fit over my head! What did you do?