A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

November 24, 2005

Eu-Freaking-Reka

The fifth trip to the PO was a failure. Let's not even talk about it.

Wednesday nights are Seattle Stitch 'n Bitch meetings. Several people said they were planning on going last night so I headed over as usual. I was feeling lucky because I got the one parking space right in front. Inside the place was empty. I ordered my coffee and sat down.

I started working on my second Christmas Rose bag which I started on Tuesday. I've been doing two-color stranded knitting with one color in each hand. I am a poor, bordering on tragic, continental knitter. I was trying to keep my gauge loose so my work wouldn't pucker. I noticed that the pattern showed up slightly better if I kept the contrast color in my right hand. I had mentioned my tension problems at Purlygirls on Monday and Wendy said that's way she only uses her right hand for two-color projects. She only holds one color at a time. This was too slow for me. I've seen Nancy Bush demonstrate carrying both yarns in her right hand but couldn't quite get the hang of it. So as I sat alone with my coffee I puzzled over it. I experimented with different ways to try to tension the two yarns in my right hand and suddenly it clicked. I started knitting along. Immediately I saw improvement. The tension of both colors evened and my knitting tightened up considerably. I also was able to work much faster. See the difference for yourself.



I only have a few rows left on the last chart. I also cast on for my second Latvian sock last night and got the cuff and a few lace rounds down.