Month: March 2020

knit swatch with the word love on it

quarantine knitting update

It’s so silly, but one of the highlights of my day has been getting an email from Paradise Fibers saying that my order is on its way. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve been following Arne & Carlos’s Quarantine Knitting Mystery KAL to try to keep my mind off the coronavirus and to help manage my ever-growing anxiety. This is one of my blocks so far. I love this green, but I’m craving red or pink! I am truly amazed at how many people have joined this KAL (short for knit-along and my first one ever). The work that some of the knitters are sharing is just wonderful. Quite a few of them were lucky to have many different colors stored away in their homes to make each square different. Or, they had lovely palettes to choose from. Others, like me, had fewer color choices, but still, it’s fun to see all the possibilities. I like the yarn I’m using, but as I kept knitting new pieces, I started longing for some red, pink, …

worsted yarn wpi

what to do with yarn that has no label

A good friend sent me a message this morning asking for some advice on what she could do with some yarn she had gotten as a gift, to which I answered, “Join the Arne and Carlos knit-along!” But she said she had other plans, like knitting a poncho or a kimono. That sounded fun! I recommended signing up for a Ravelry account to search for poncho patterns. There are so many patterns on Ravelry.com — not only that, you can search by yardage, by the exact brand of yarn you have, by type of project. It’s really a fantastic tool for knitters and crocheters alike. Unfortunately, she said that wouldn’t work, since she had no idea where the yarn labels were. From the picture she sent me, it looked like a medium weight yarn, but it was hard for me to tell from the photo alone. My first recommendation was to knit up a swatch. Cast on 20-24 stitches and knit until you have close to a square. Measure it and see how many stitches …