In the Magic Cast-On article, I mentioned that it could be used to start small circles, like top-down hats and bottom-up bags and such. But I never really explained how one would do that. A few people have asked, so here’s a little tutorial. You can click on the pictures to see a larger version.

In this picture, I’ve used the Magic Cast-On to place 5 stitches on a pair of DPN. As usual, the tail is over my index finger and the working yarn is over my thumb.

The first stitch cast on is on the right on needle A. Because I’ve cast on an odd number of stitches (5), the last stitch is the one on the left on needle A.

In this picture, I’ve rotated the needles. I’m going to knit the stitches from needle B using needle C.

Note that I’m holding both the tail and the working yarn together. I’m going to knit all 5 stitches using the double strand.

Now I have knit 5 stitches, and I have 10 yarn loops around the needle — one loop of tail and one of working yarn through each of the original 5 stitches.

On the next round, I’m going to knit each individual loop. By knitting each pair of loops individually instead of together as one stitch, I will double the number of stitches I have on the needles from 5 to 10, without doing any M1 increases.

And here is the result of the last step. I now have 10 stitches on the needles.

I’ve added another DPN because that makes it easier to knit around the circle.

Here is the circle after several rounds. After the second round, I used regular M1 increases to increase from 10 stitches to 17 and added in a fourth DPN.

There’s nothing significant about the number 17, I just wasn’t really good for this demo about increasing at a regular interval. You, of course, gentle reader, will do better.

But note that I have a neat, closed circle. There’s no hole in the middle. And I didn’t have to mess around with tightening anything up or trying to close the middle.

Using the tail held with the working yarn to double your stitches is optional. But sometimes that first increase round can be intresting. This can make it a little easier.

The double-yarn increase method works great as long as the last stitch you cast on is on needle A. If you need an even number of stitches to start your circle, simply start the Magic Cast-On around needle B instead of the more-usual start around needle A. By starting around needle B and casting on an even number of stitches, you will end up with the last stitch cast on around needle A, just where it needs to be.

And there you have it! This works well for hats, round bags, pinwheel blankets and star toes on socks. I used this method to start the Spanish Lavender Basket Wave socks with 6 stitches.

The method can be used with DPNs, as I’ve shown it, or double-circs or magic loop. I demoed with DPNs only because it’s easier to keep them stable when having only two hands to juggling lighting, props and camera.

Have fun!

pontoon toe start

With the Bo Diddley Socks off my needles, it’s time for a new beginning.

Thanks to all of you who asked for the pattern. I’ll see what I can do. Being the wonderfully organized designer that I am, ahem, I have absolutely no notes. I did chart the stitch pattern the way I knit it, so at least I have that. But the rest… I’ll have to reverse-engineer it. So don’t hold your breath, ‘K?

But I digress.

Here you see the very beginnings of a pair of Cable And Corrugations socks — that’s the light colored, cabled socks on the right side of the cover of Cat’s new book. Cat calls this the pontoon toe. It starts with the Magic Cast-On, but then you knit back and forth for a few rows on just one needle, so you end up with a little square. Then you pick up stitches on each side of the square. The increases are worked at the edges of the picked-up stitches, so the original square becomes a band that wraps sideways around the toe, and the picked up stitches fan out to become the top and bottom of the foot. It’s rather cool, and I like it a lot. But… it’s not the easiest toe to work in my preferred mode of two-at-a-time on two circs.

So the picture shows how I’ve used a set of DPNs to pick up the stitches along the sides of the little square. Since the toes end up sort of sideways on the needles, I also used the DPNs to help me shift the toes so that all of the instep stitches were on one needle and all of the sole stitches were on the other needles. I really like the way this toe works, but it’s definitely not one to work away from home when I just want to cast on and go, go, go.

Cables And Corrugations instep

But it does make a pretty, pretty toe! And here is the results.

These socks are really a fast knit. They would have been even faster if I’d actually trusted the pattern and knit it as it was written. But nooooooo. I knew better. I was sure that the socks would not be wide enough, even though my feet are skinny and the measurements looked right. Because I was sure that the cables would pull the fabric in too tightly to fit. If I’d bothered to actually read the pattern, I would have seen that Cat thought of that, because Cat thinks of everything. So, after knitting 4″ of toe, I ripped back to the correct place in the toe increases so I had the actual designed number of stitches, and reknit the toe.

Yes, gentle reader, I’m a slow learner. But I can be taught.

I’ve knit up through the first repeat of the cable pattern. I’m really liking these! And… yeah… they fit. 🙄

The yarn is from Pagewood Farm, a small wholesale dyer and spinner. The yarn is a yummy mix of wool, bamboo and nylon, and the colorway is called Really Red. It’s a nice, smooshy yarn to knit with, and the bamboo gives it a pretty sheen. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to knit it into this pattern.

Cables And Corrugations sole

And this is the sole side. The gusset (if you want to call it that) is increased between the markers. I got the cute little lettered markers at Cat’s Magical Moebius Festival in Newport last spring. I believe that a major fiber arts company will be offering some really cool ones for sale soon. I hope. Because I’d really like to get another set. You can see that the first sock increases are between A and B, as instructed by the pattern. But the second sock increases are between… cute-little-sock-marker-with-heart and E. Yeah. It will be nice to have two sets.

Tomorrow a group of local and not-so-local knitters are meeting for a Sock Yarn Crawl — sort of like a pub crawl, except with yarn. The crawl starts at Abundant Yarn And Dyeworks, and Rodger has the itinerary listed on his blog. If you are going to be anywhere in the area. Come and join us! Saturday is also my birthday, and there might be some pastry, or even adult beverages (I hope) involved. But not too much of the last, because driving will also be involved.

Today I got a nice surprise in my mailbox. Or, actually, two surprises. But one I’m holding out on. You will see it later.

The other you might not want to look at, unless you want a spoiler. It’s the Rockin Sock Club August offering, down there below the little clicky link. Me likey!

Friday night Blue Moon Fiber Arts held a reception at the World Forestry Center to launch Cat Bordhi’s new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One I took off from work a wee bit early, it being Friday and all, and drove to a west-side park-n-ride lot to catch Max back to the Zoo. I was afraid that traffic and parking would both be frightful, because there was also a concert at the Zoo, and it was Friday so everybody would be trying to get out of town. Or into town. Depending on their inclination. But at any rate everyone would be trying to get somewhere and a goodly portion of them would be trying to get to the Zoo. So I rode MAX, which at that time, going towards town, was almost empty.

The MAX stop at the Zoo is the deepest transit station in North America, and the second deepest in the world (no, I don’t know which is deepest). There are high-speed elevators that whisk you up to the surface in nothing flat. Every now and then people get stuck in them, and local news has a heyday. But that didn’t happen tonight. I would have been OK because I had knitting with me. But I’m glad I had the usual 20-second ride to the top.

patient knitters

When I exited the elevator, the first person I saw was Bobbie. Apparently she had the same get there early and knit idea that I did. So we sat, and knit, and chatted, and were soon joined by Duffy and Chrispy and several other knitters. And we all sat and knitted and looked at each others WIPs and FOs, and everybody petted my swatches. (The verdict: Malabrigo is really soft and nobody could believe it was 100% Merino. Most people preferred swatch #1, except Duffy. She liked swatch #3 the best. I’m still undecided.)

After knitting and chatting for awhile, we decided to wander over to the World Forestry Center and find the building (Miller Hall) where the reception was. It was not terribly well marked. We ended up briefly crashing a wedding reception, but eventually found Miller Hall. Blue Moon wasn’t quite ready for us, but it wasn’t too long before the doors opened and we were allowed in.

Tables were set up in the foyer with stacks of Cat’s books for sale. There was no yarn. Blue Moon wanted the night to be about Cat’s books, and yarn would have been a distraction. A yummy distraction. But distraction nonetheless.

So we trooped into the hall, where the PDX Knit Bloggers, being the shy types that we are, pretty much took over the left-side front of the seating. Kathy was there, and Cindy and a ton of other people that I’m forgetting. All of the socks that are pictured in the book were spread out on the table where Cat signed her books. We got to look at all of them, and touch them, and admire them. And Cat very graciously answered all of our questions.

my winnings

The plan was that Cat would speak, then sign books, and there would be dessert and coffee served. But traffic tie-ups meant a lot of people could not get there by 7:00 pm. People sort of raided the dessert tables, and Cat began signing books. So Tina Newton of Blue Moon, ever the resourceful hostess, played a little game with the audience. Did I say there was no yarn? I may have slightly misstated that…

Yarn was won for having “unusual” items in knitting bags. Almost everyone there had a knitting bag, so we all began digging. Kathy won the first skein for having a plastic fork used as a lucet to make cording (link borrowed from Cindy) — deemed the most unusual tool made from an ordinary object. I have never used a lucet, but it looks cool and I need to learn. I must have a plastic fork around here somewhere…

I won two skeins, one for having dental floss (what, you don’t carry dental floss in your knitting bag?), and another for having, well… certain feminine articles, let’s say, this being a family-friendly blog and all. You can see them here in my bag, along with the dragon-scale, snake-whatever socks: One skein of light STR in Blue Brick Wall, a gorgeous mix of ecru, periwinkle, cerulean and turquoise that will be on my needles soon I think; and a skein of medium STR in Metamorphic, a steel-blue, rust, gold, lime blend. Duffy won a skein of Oregon Red Clover Honey STR. I had been dying to see this colorway, as a possible contender for the Bee Fields shawl. On the Blue Moon site, the color looks reddish. But the skein I saw was a beautiful golden honey color. And it’s available in a silk lace-weight. That might be the one!

Cat knitting a treehouse

Cat, as always, was witty and charming and told wonderful stories — I think mostly off the cuff. In the picture, she is showing how to knit a treehouse. If nothing else does, that should give you a clue what a strange and wondrous place the mind of Cat Bordhi is. Who else would have thought of knitting a treehouse? Who else would have thought of eight completely new sock architectures? The new sockitectures in her book arose after she realized that the gusset triangles that we sock knitters have, for hundreds of year, been carefully placing to either side of our foot, could in fact be placed anywhere around the foot without changing the fit of the sock. It’s completely brilliant. So there is a sockitecture with the arch shaping underneath, and one with it on the top, and one that has a big gusset only on one side, and one with the increases running in a spiral around the foot and up the leg — eight sockitectures in all with little baby socks to practice on. Book two will reveal sockitectures that don’t start at either the toe or the heel. That should be very interesting! I can’t wait for book two.

Through her whole talk, Cat wove the theme of three things that knitting is made of: Knits, purls, and that unnameable something that makes knitting a magical thing that captivates us and nourishes us and keeps us buying yarn.

Cat announced that her book has sold out (Blue Moon still has a few available via their web site), and the second printing will not be available until October! And then she completely and totally embarrassed me by thanking me again for getting the flu one day and making up the Magic Cast-On.

If you have a chance, check out Cat’s new You Tube videos showing many of the techniques she uses in the book.

And I, who was feeling a little bit slightly famous and cool was reminded that the universe does like to keep me humble. I was asked, for the very first time by a stranger, to autograph a book. She said to me, I have no idea who you are but you’re somebody famous, so sign my book. I truly think it was one of the funniest things anyone has ever said to me. And the other PDX Knit Bloggers got a pretty good laugh about it, too.

Little Cow Bag with Little Cow

Check out this little Posy Sock Sack I received in the mail Friday from Knitnana at Nana Sadie Rose. Isn’t this just the cutest thing?

I don’t live in Vermont or Wisconsin, but I do love cows. Which is maybe a little strange, now that I think about it, because my Mama was terrified of cows. She told me once that when she was a little girl she used to have nightmares about her neighbor’s cow, Bossy. In Mama’s dreams, Bossy, with gnashing teeth and flared nostrils, was chasing her across the field. And Mama knew, in her dream, that if Bossy caught her she would be eaten. Some cow, eh? Wonder if Bossy’s milk was pre-curdled? But I digress.

I love cows. And so when I saw this bag over on Knitnana’s blog I immediately emailed and asked for one just like it. And doesn’t one of my mini-herd of little cow tape measures look just perfect with this bag?

In the picture, you can just see the interior fabric of the bag. Yep. It’s cow spots! And flannel, so it’s soft on needles and accessories. Inside there are four slim pockets for DPNs or crochet hooks, and a larger pocket that’s perfect for Little Cow.

The Posy Sock Sack is just the right size for any small project — socks or mittens or a hat. It has one strap that can be slung over your shoulder like a backpack. And it’s washable. What more could you ask for?

Sheryl asks:

I would love to knit a shawl for my mother in law. Could you suggest a pattern and yarn for a first time lace knitter. Simple as possible, please.

I would suggest something like Wendy Johnson’s Fir Cone Wrap pattern. This pattern uses the most common laces stitches, so you will get a feel for knitting lace. But it’s a relatively uncomplicated, over-all pattern, so it will be easier to see how the lace is actually constructed. It has a very nice garter-stitch border that is knit at the same time as the lace.

Wendy knit hers from Seasilk, a lovely yarn to work with. But I would suggest substituting a wool or wool-blend for a first-time lace knit. Wool, because it’s has more give, is a little more forgiving than silk. It’s also not as slick and stays on the needles better.

The blocked dimensions of this wrap are 25″ x 66″ — a pretty decent size for a wrap. But you could make a larger one by adding more pattern repeats. Go look at the chart included in the pattern (I’ll wait right here while you look). See how the middle section of the chart is a 10-stitch pattern repeat? To make your wrap wider, cast on more stitches. Just make sure that the extra stitches cast on are in multiples of 10 — 10 or 20 or 30. Then knit the 10-stitch repeat over those extra stitches every row. To make your wrap longer, repeat the 16 rows of the chart a few extra times until your wrap is as long as you want it. Remember that it will grow when you block it! Check the unblocked vs. blocked dimensions given in the pattern to see this in action. And wool will block out larger than the Seasilk did.

Also remember that if you make your wrap bigger, you will need more yarn. Plan accordingly. 😉

For a really wonderful how to reference, it’s hard to beat Eunny Jang’s Majoring In Lace tutorial. It’s very comprehensive and covers lace from how to match needles to yarn, to how shawls are constructed.

And now a tiny bit of own-horn tooting. 😳

Cat Bordhi’s new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, is being released on August 1st. Finally!

I had the privilege of exploring a couple of Cat’s new sock architectures at the Magical Moebius Workshop I attended last spring. They are marvelous and wonderful and magical. I can’t wait to see this book and the two volumes that follow. Cat’s brain works in strange and mysterious ways, and I know that she has come up with wonders and adventures for sock knitters everywhere.

Cat Bordhi’s Portland book signing

Blue Moon Fiber Arts is hosting a little book reception for Cat at the World Forestry Center (over by the Zoo) on August 17th, 7-11 PM. That’s a Friday, but if you want to check your calendar, I’ll wait right here.

If you are anywhere within striking distance, please plan on attending. I think it’s going to be loads of fun. Cat will be talking about her knitting adventures, and will have samples of socks from the new book. Cat is a hoot, and I have seen her socks and they are wonders to behold. Come and show Cat how enthusiastic Northwest knitters are!

Isn’t it perfect that Blue Moon, the lovely ladies that bring us Socks That Rock and other marvelous yarns, is hosting? Perfect!

And now, the tiny little bit of self-horn-tooting: It might be that a blogger you know has a wee mention in Cat’s new book. Something about a Magic Cast-On. 😉 (It’s as close to fame as I am ever likely to get!)

Hi to all you Knitty.com readers that have been hopping over here the last couple of days from the Magic Cast-On article. Please be sure to check out the knotless version, which also has one error in the article corrected (the wrong picture illustrating DPN step 10).

In your life, gentle reader, has there ever been a moment in time when you would give almost anything for a do-over? When you think to yourself, self, what were you thinking? You must have been having a really horrible hair day or something. Ever have that kind of day?

I would give a lot to be able to take back that little knot.

Actually, I offered my first born male child, but there were no takers.

(Just kidding, #1 Son!!! 😆 Really. 😉 You know I love you, sweety. Put on a sweater if you are cold.)

In my own knitting, I don’t like knots and never use them and eliminate them ruthlessly should I encounter them willy-nilly in a skein of yarn (which I loath. Don’t you think that for the price we pay for yarn, we could get a single strand of it?) But I honestly thought it would be easier for other knitters just starting with the Magic Cast-On to keep the first loop on the needle if it were a little slip-knot.

And thus was born a great deal of interweb discussion — to knot, or not to knot, that was the question.

So I will stand up, now: Hi, I’m Judy, and I’m a knotless knitter. I just twist the yarn around the needle to make the first loop, and hold it there with my right-hand index finger.

If you don’t like the knot, you can do that, too. If you don’t mind the knot and want to continue using it, that’s OK also. My motto is: whatever gets loops of string around your pointy sticks is a wonderful technique and you should keep doing it if it feels good. If it doesn’t feel good, then you should try a different technique until you find one that does feel good, and just keep making loops.

I love to sit with a group of knitters and watch the knitting techniques each uses. Everyone hold the yarn a little differently, makes stitches a little differently, knits fast, knits slow… but they are all knitting and producing beautiful fabric. How cool is that?

First of all, thank you all for your commiseration with me over my extreme dorkiness. 😳 I may eventually live it down. Or not.

I can’t believe how many people raised their hand when Stephanie asked how many people blogged! I had no idea there were so many of us! It would be cool to do a little Portland Portland/tri-county/Vancouver/larger-metro-area/whatever Knitting Bloggers thingy. I’m touching bases with a few other bloggers whose emails and/or blog addresses I have to see if there’s any interest in getting something going.
[ed. 06/11/07 12:01 PM – to be inclusive of a larger territory than only Portland proper. When I say Portland, it’s my shorthand for all this stuff around here within striking distance. I certainly don’t want anyone to feel excluded!]

Did any of you knit in public on Saturday? I did. It was at my normal haunt — Tangle — but it was in public, even though it’s a yarn shop. And a couple of non-knitters did come in. I think.

On Sunday I had lunch with my muggle friend M. She said, did you know today is National Knitting Day, or something like that? I gave her lots of credit for trying, because she was obviously paying attention! And told her that the day before had been Worldwide Knit In Public Day, and I did knit in public, which I do all the time anyway.

On the more changes in PI subject, gentle reader, I’m pleased to announce the return of spell check on comments. Oh frabjous day! I think that’s the last thing lost during the WP 2.0 upgrade that had not been replaced or rewired or recoded or updated. Whew. It’s a really cool spell checker, too. Better than the old one. I think you’ll like it.

Yes, that’s a blatant hint that you should try it out! 😆

Here are the little blue baby socks. The knitting was finished at the Harlot’s book signing, and I did the bind-off when I got home. I think they came out really cute. I’m so pleased that I had some Cascade Fixation in a color that worked so well with the little sweater. I also have some Fixation in a lime green, but I think it may be too green. There really are two socks in this picture.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Cascade Fixation — 98.3% cotton / 1.7% elastic, 100g / 50 yds per ball — in an unknown colorway (might be 2706) — a tiny amount left over from a different project.
• Needles: Knit Picks Classics, US#2 (3mm).
• Pattern: my own standard toe-up sock pattern, just knit really, really small. Magic cast-on. Flap-and-gusset heel. Tubular bind-off.

Next up: finishing the Spanish Lavender Basket Wave socks, another stab at Clapotis #2, Sockapalooza socks – hopefully the yarn will arrive!