TWINED KNITTING



I'm greatly enjoying reading Twined Knitting: A Swedish Folkcraft Technique by Birgitta Dandanell and Ulla Danielsson. I checked the book out of our wonderful library and wish I could find a decently priced used copy.



Twined knitting is also called Tvaandstickning or two-end knitting and essentially means working with two yarns of the same color (although the book briefly mentions working with 2 colors) and alternating the yarns every stitch. It is traditionally done with both ends of the same skein of yarn but I've seen others recommend against this as you can't untwist the yarns as easily. I tried a small sample and I needed to let the knitting hang from the needles and untwist quite frequently. The back of the work looks interesting - purl rows alternate between twined rows but the front also looks different. Stockinette stitch in twined knitting has a different look - the left half of the knit stitch stands out more because of all the twisting going on.



The purling is interesting in twined knitting. If you're just purling one stitch you leave both yarns in the back of the work. If you're purling the entire row of stitches you leave both yarns in front of the work and twist each stitch (which is what I do with two colors for an easy braid look). But where twined knitting really shines is when you do a crook stitch - K1, P1, K1. For this one you leave one yarn in front for purling and the yarn in back is used for knitting. To do a chain path - you do two rows of crook stitch offset by one stitch. So on the second row of crook stitch you knit the purl stitches and purl the knit stitches. You get a really pretty loopy-looking O stitch.



And here's my black Satin rabbit Flip contemplating a piece of kale as large as he is. It is tough to get a good photo of him but you can kind of see how shiny his fur is.

Noel Stockings

There is a discussion on the Knitlist about adapting another type of needlework such as embroidery or crochet to knitting. A while back I purchased some inexpensive Dover counted cross stitch books of various designs. I use the Christmas one to chart out letters - here's a sock using Kroy sock yarn and a design from Katherine Pence's A Time to Knit Stockings. I added the Noel on top. (BTW, I really hated the Kroy yarn. It pilled a lot and actually shrunk in the laundry even though it is supposedly superwash.)




One of the best examples I've ever seen of using non-knitting designs for knitting is Catherine Devine's Sock page. Her Celtic socks are terribly inspiring and I already have the Celtic Charted Designs book she got the designs from. I need to get out my graph paper and colored pencils and make some charts for future mittens. The Harald mittens from Viking Patterns for Knitting in Tahki Sable wool/angora will be finished today and will go in my knitting box waiting for someone to fall in love with them.

This weekend I hope to do some tvaandstickning and report back here on my experiences. I'm sure you will all be holding your breath!

Here's how I microwave dye with Kool Aid and Easter egg dye. It isn't scientific by any means and like I said, I rarely get the results I was going for. But it is quite fun - here are some handspun KA dyed skeins.







First of all, soak your yarn or fiber (protein fibers only) several hours or overnight in lots of water with a bit of mild dish soap. I was told the dish soap helps the fiber soak up water better.



To get one solid color, put the soaked fiber or yarn in a large microwave-safe casserole dish. Then dissolve Kool Aid (unsweetened kind only obviously) or Easter egg dye in a small amount of water (say 1/4 cup) in a small glass container (don't put any of this in plastic). For about 2 large skeins or 8 oz of fiber I use approximately 4 packets of Kool Aid or 4 little dots of Easter egg dye. I add several Tbsp of white vinegar to the dye and gently mix it with the soaked fiber or yarn. Then I add just enough water to cover. Cover the microwave-safe casserole dish and microwave for 20 minutes on HIGH. Check the fiber or yarn carefully - if the water is clear, it is done. If not, you may want to microwave it for a few more minutes. Let cool and rinse the fiber or yarn well.



There are several ways to do rainbow dyeing. You can carefully place the fiber or yarn tightly coiled in a hank in the casserole dish so it spirals. Then pour the dyes in rainbow order (i.e., yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green) in stripes on the fiber or yarn. Do not pour the dyes so they touch each other - leave about an inch between each color. The colors will expand to meet each other in the microwave.



You can also do this on plastic wrap. Cover your work surface well with newspaper and then large quantities of plastic wrap. Place your wet yarn or fiber on the plastic wrap and add rainbow stripes. Carefully add a piece of plastic wrap to the top and roll the whole mess up. I put this in a casserole dish and zap for 20 minutes. You can also use a spoon in each color dye and lightly shake it over the fiber for spots of different colors using the plastic wrap method.



I generally only get reds and oranges and yellows with Kool Aid dyes. There was one flavor that gave you a bright light blue but it was hard to find. Grape Kool Aid gives me kind of an ugly brown-red. I can get a wider range of colors with Easter egg dyes but they are more pastel. I've never tried using Wilton cake decorating pastes but those are next on the agenda.



One last note - do this on a warm day so you can keep the windows open. Unless you like your whole house smelling strongly of wet wool, vinegar, and Kool Aid.