Men Who Knit Promoting and inspiring the art of knitting amongst men.

Happy Birthday!!! Congratulations Charles Burbridge!!

I love your show in TV!! 

 I didn't get a scarf last Christmas, any left for me?

This is the Fluffy Collar as modeled by Sadie, our 9 year old Italian Greyhound foster.  Doesn't she look fabulous?  This is my first attempt at knitting with two strands of yarn, and my first attempt at knitting with a novelty yarn.  I used Lion Brand Micro-spun sport in black, and Lion Brand Fun Fur in Purple on size 10.5 bamboo DPN's.  I've got two other female dogs in the house who are also getting this collar, and two males who will get the Supersoft Collar from the same issue, done up in the sage Lion Suede. 

Casting on with two colors separately

Recently I wanted to knit something using two colors of yarn from the cast-on row, but I didn't want to "wrap" the yarns. That is, I wanted to cast on 1 "stitch" of color A and then one stitch of color B.

So I did. I cast on 1 st of A, then 1 st of B, then 1 of A, then 1 of B and kept repeating that A/B/A/B cast-oning. (Might one call the Abba Cast-on?)

Then I PURLED the first row using ONLY color A. Then, turning, I purled right back in A on row 2.

Then for row 3, I purled using only B -- and purled back in B for row 4.

Hey, guys.

I've "discovered" a couple of teriffic knitting "things" recently and I want to spread it around. Feel free to tell me, "Thanks, Jerry; you're the last male knitter on earth to have discovered these."

That possibility notwithstanding . . .

The "Mistake Stitch Rib"  (apparently also called Mistake Rib)

1. # 7 using worsted for example 
2. Cast on in multiples of 4 + 3
3. Work a "normal" 2 x 2 rib (*k2, p2* 'til dizzyness sets in) EXCEPT MAKE THOSE FINAL 3 STS K2, P1.
4. Turn
5. Repeat numb 3 above EXACTLY.
1. "Exactly" means pay absolutely no attention to the the row you just completed and you're now knitting into.
2. I.e., k2, p2 across and working final 3 sts k2 p1.
3. When (not if) you loose your place, either (a) review you k2p2 progress across the row and jump back in, or (b) figure out your own keep-track method relative to the row you're knitting into: your k2's are knit into a final k and a first p.
6. That's it.  Keep repeating the pattern described in number 3 above.

This gives a beautiful and unusual sport look -- wider than regular 2 x 2 but still springy.  It's also the same on both sides (good for, say, scarfs scarves?)

(By which I am not refering to a chlld from Jalalibad!)

In 1996 working for the American Red Cross during a hurricane, I slipt and fell down a flight of exterior stairs, ending up with four torn ligaments in my ankle.  As you can imagine, I was laid up for quite some time.  Knowing I'd be spending a lot of time in bed with the foot elevated, I had the Best Beloved (1) move the tv upstairs to the bedroom and (2) go buy me a lot of worsted weight yarn, and I started work on the afghan pictured here (I imagine, 9child, that this is where I gained profenciency in knitting and watching TV!).  In time, my ankle healed, and the unfinished afghan got stuffed into a bag.

I gave my partner two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in the Pinstripe colorway for Xmas, because he's been wanting some fingerless gloves so he can still type when his hands get cold.  I, being the loving man I am, offered to learn how to knit said fingerless gloves.  Here's where the 'because I'm dumb' part comes in:  I don't have a pattern.  I thought about doing the Broadstreet Mitten from Knitty for him, since they're made with a sock yarn, but he wants the thumb to be cut off, like the fingers.  Is that something I can do?  Just bind off where I want them to stop?  Also, the instructions for the other hand say 'just reverse the instructions'.  Vague much, then?

After a bit of a hiatus and since winter has finally returned, I started back up again on the mittens I'd started for myself. This is a two layer mitten, with an inner layer of baby alpaca and an outer layer in a border leicester cross handspun that I picked up at Rhinebeck in October. I did the inner layer first using a provisional cast on, then went back and picked up the stitches for the outer layer. The basic idea came from Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, with short-row shaping for the end of the mitten, and I took the palm gusset from an issue of Interweave Knits. The decision to do it as two layers was mine, as I figured the baby alpaca yarn would be more comfortable and the double layer would make it a lot warmer. I got through all the gusset increases last night and hope to get through the rest of the hand (or at least to where I separate the stitches for the short rows) tonight. Then I'll have to make another one of these so I can actually use them.

This is bad... It's like when I got my first computer; I stayed up late every night surfing the internet, only to realize a couple of hours before I had to leave for work that I had to sleep. This time it's an Artisan 70D.

OH MAN, am I a knitting fool. Just for a test drive, I made a scarf for a friend at work. She thought it was way cool. My inbox is now an order taking center. Eight down, 5 to go. Not to mention the 4 my partner wants for people at work, the five my mother asked for and the ones my cousin wants to "sell" for me.

Pass the Starbucks...this is going to be a long week.

On my way to my grandmother's yesterday, I stopped off at Shirley's Yarn & Gifts (Rte. 1 in Hancock, Maine, if you ever find yourself in the neighborhood) to see what they had on hand. They've got some really nice yarns and the staff are all very friendly, so I always enjoy visiting there. Anyway, just before I could ask, one of the staff pointed out to me that they had just gotten in some Malabrigo yarn, which I've been dreaming about for a while now and really obsessing on recently. If you haven't seen/touched it before, it's a wonderfully soft merino singles yarn, all handpainted. It's kind of like a yarn version of heroin - one touch and you're addicted. It's the kind of yarn that makes you want to strip down and jump naked into a giant vat of it...really! It's...well, you get the picture.