New Obsession

It’s been a while. Hello! How are you? I’m ok.

So much has happened that I could tell you about. I went on an epic road trip that included Rhinebeck back in October and stops at 9 yarn shops along the way but we’ll just gloss over that with a few photos. I knit a whole bunch of new stripey sweaters for my nephew, still just glossing over it. I finished an Exploration Station (an old Westknits MKAL) and picked yarns for Shawlography (the latest Westknits MKAL). Got a few pics of that too.

That’s all water under the bridge though! Time marches on and with it, my knitting. I’m in the middle of a hat binge right now. It wasn’t supposed to be hats, I started off to knit a scarf. The Cube scarf from Julie Knits in Paris. It’s combines double knitting with marling. I knew I had to try this, as soon as I saw it. It’s not often I see something I’ve never seen before in knitting. Instantly, I thought of the ‘Marlisle’ technique and this hat I knit back in the summer.

For the Cube scarf, instead of carrying floats across the back like ‘Marlisle’, double knit those floats instead. It’s such a simple idea. It’s only one small incremental step from ‘Marlisle’ which is only one small incremental step from a plain old double stranded/marled hat and yet, I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s brilliant in it’s simplicity which I especially love. I started a swatch right away!

I quickly remembered what a pain double knitting is. It’s exaggerated in this technique and incredibly slow! Hold your yarns together, knit 5 sts, separate your yarns, double knit for 10 sts, put your yarns back together, knit 5 sts. UGH! Perhaps if you can do stranded colorwork by holding all your yarns in one hand, it’s quicker. Sadly, I’ve never mastered that hold, not even using those finger guides. For me, a continental knitter with an english past, holding one yarn in each hand is the preferred method. This means a lot of stopping to readjust. A LOT of stopping to readjust so I re-evaluated. An 8 skein scarf (really more of a stole/wrap) would never get finished. It’s way too much of a commitment. I wanted something with more instant gratification, so I started on a cowl, but even that seemed like too much. Ultimately, I settled on a hat and started knitting.

It was slow going. I couldn’t tell you the last time a hat took me 4-5 days like this one. Buuuuuut, I also couldn’t tell you the last time I loved one of my hats and wanted to keep it for myself. Especially one with yellow in it?!?! Luckily, I still have yarn leftover AND it’s the cool end of the rainbow, so I’ll be making another one of these this weekend. After that, there’s plenty of options to explore…stash-busting leftovers, doing more intricate patterns with the double knitting. The possibilities are endless! So stay tuned, there will be more of this!