What a knitter sees in the night sky

We've all heard the saying that to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Well, the same thing holds true for knitters.  This wonderful image comes from a Lion Brand Yarn email.

What I've learned knitting dog blankets

So many techniques, so little time!

There are so many interesting ways to knit like entrelac, intarsia or brioche -- the list is endless.

But there's a difference between learning how to do a technique and launching into the expense and time commitment of a full blown project. After all, what if you discover you don't like doing that technique?

And that's the beauty of knitting dog blankets.  Dogs can't recognize a knit stitch from a purl or a misstep in a pattern.  they won't complain that it's made out of acrylic yarn. They just want something warm to cuddle in on the concrete floor of an animal shelter. Research shows that when dogs are comfortable and not stressed, they are more adoptable.  It's a win for everyone.

Ravelry is a knitter's best friend

Buried deep in my stash bins were six balls of Gedifra Samina in a gunmetal gray. A blend of wool and nylon, it has a wonderful sheen that turns it silvery in some lights and gives it life.

I bought it years ago to make this shrug-like, cocoonish garment that could be wrapped, twisted and worn upside down and backwards. It looked divine on the emaciated model in the photograph. I had visions of myself wearing it to the type of soirees I'm never invited to and making a breath-taking entrance.

It was a lustful infatuation with yarn and pattern.

Autumn Flow Scarf in Blue and Gray

A week when the temperature hit 100 degrees is a bad one for finishing a scarf to give immediately as a birthday gift. But that's fate.

My blue and gray version of Christopher Bahls' Autumn Flow scarf is done now. It's an ingenious pattern that uses short rows to create wedges. Each wedge of color has a thick end and a thin end; the paired colors line up thick to thin to thick to thin. When the scarf is wrapped around the neck the ends are reverses of each other.

The end of my affair with construction twine

Just finished the second -- and last -- part of a housewarming gift for friends who moved into together.

The pattern is the Ilene Market Bag by Hannah Ingalls, free to download from her blog, iknityouknot. It's a stretchy, single strap market bag that is knit from the bottom up.  While the bottom is knit flat, stitches are picked up from around the sides of the base and it is knit in a circle up to the top of the bag before going back to flat knitting for the strap.

Retiring into an afghan

Ages ago, I fell in love with this afghan pattern -- a series of concentric tipping squares.

When I first tried the pattern something simply did not, would not, could not penetrate my skull about how it was supposed to be done. I ripped out my attempts and set it aside.

I pulled it back into the light this month with the retirement of a long-time friend. Life-cycle moments like births, new homes and retirements call for gifts made by hand.

Hand Knit Garden Trellis

An overdose of lace and fingerling yarn sent me flying into the arms of giant needles and giant projects.  It also launched a fascination with knitting with construction twine that is now waning rapidly.

One of my first projects was this trellis to cover a bamboo tripod that usually supports bean plants with a spread of romaine lettuces below.

It's knit out of nylon twine on US 35 needles. While the nylon doesn't stretch like wool yarn does, the huge gauge has loads of give. The piece was knit flat with ties along one edge.  It is tied to the tripod along one leg.