My Favorite Felted Mittens Pattern

This past winter, I knitted, felted and sold about 20 pairs of felted mittens at pre-holiday craft fairs. I don’t mind making socks on circular needles, but not mittens – guess the hole for the thumb bothers me, I dunno. Anyway, I use the 2-needle pattern below, but I make the mittens much [...]

Knitting as Art: The Wicked Pullover

Some of the creations of fiber artist Sandra Backlund. Referring to her technique as “heavy wool collage” she fancies herself as a sculpture more than a knitter.
Well, it’s not too hard to figure out why the model looks like that.

Knitting Tips: Bobbins

I recently came across a suggestion that makes a lot of sense. When doing color knitting, managing as few as 2 different skeins of yarn gets to be a real pain. Bobbins help a lot, and the easiest bobbin tip I’ve found is free. Just save some of those little plastic closure thingies that come [...]

Medieval Images of Early Spinning Wheels and Yarn Winder

Woman spinning on the great or walking wheel.
Luttrell Psalter, British Library, London 14th c. England
The great wheel produced thread more quickly than the drop spindle, but the thread was lower quality. It was underspun (not twisted enough) and uneven. The wheel was turned by pushing a stick against the spokes (above) or [...]

Medieval Images- Using Drop Spindles

In all of these images, the spinners are using drop spindles and distaffs.

Save Your Leftover Easter Egg Dye!

This year, my niece and nephew are doing the egg dyeing. But I did it last year, and used the leftover PAAS egg dyes  on some white wool roving I had in my stash. Here’s the result, which I’m quite pleased with. After it’s spun and plied, I’ll post a yarn photo:

Martha Stewart Does Yarn! 3/23/09

A special show, with Mo Rocca, about yarn and knitting and all the new trends.
promotional video

Knitting News: Yarn and Fiber CSA

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and idea in which the individual can invest $$ in a farm and share in the yield. It’s been done for quite a while now for food, and now a fiber/yarn producer has started a CSA for knitters and other fiber artists. Martha’s Vinyard Fiber Farm and Hudson Valley [...]

Knitting equivalent weights for cone yarns

Prices for cones of yarn are much more affordable than smaller skeins, but I never understood how they compared to knitting sizes. Here’s a chart for quick reference.
2/24 weight yarn: 5,960 yards per pound, “lace weight” .
2/20 weight yarn: 5,600 yards per pound, “lace weight”.
2/18 weight yarn: 5,040 yards per pound, [...]

Knitting as Art: Extreme Knitting, 1000 Strands

What, you may ask, is Extreme Knitting? Apparently, it’s using gigantic (fence post size) wooden needles and hundreds and hundreds of yarn skeins. Other than creating an art piece, and a very large one at that, there seems to be no other practical use at this time. The leader of this new movement is Rachel [...]