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Permalink Reply by Knit Picks Admin on July 10, 2008 at 7:11am: Absolutely! If you knit socks one at a time, though, you'll want to wind the second strand of yarn into a ball as you knit the first sock in order to keep it from tangling. Then, if you'd like the socks to match, make sure that you rewind your ball so that you're starting from the same end of the yarn on both socks!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by oneneedleshort on July 10, 2008 at 7:50pm: i would love to buy three sock blanks and find someone who would dye them for me. i have seven kdis and no room to either dye or store the materials. i could pay for the dyes and their time or buy them some blanks as payment. would someone be interested?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TropicFlower on July 14, 2008 at 8:13pm: - sorry about no caps..... keyboard is working off and on. -

i want to knit this for my cousin..... http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTtiffany.html

the problem comes in that the yarn that is recommended as a sub -merino style - is not super wash..... this cousin doesn't always remember things, and I'd hate to have it shrink on her, because i know we would both be heartbroken. I'm not entirely sure that she isn't allergic to wool..... could this color work be done in pima cotton/; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Knit Picks Admin on July 15, 2008 at 7:29am: How about CotLin? It isn't as stretchy, so you'll have to keep your tension a little loose and make sure that your floats don't get too tight, and your finished mittens won't be as warm. It is machine washable, though, and it blocks beautifully.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JillN1234 on July 18, 2008 at 11:40am: Knit Picks Admin

I've noticed that in the last couple of weeks that the Community pages (and the podcast pages) have cmpletely changed, it seems that they've lost any and all formatting. All I see is text from top to bottom, no images show up at all (only broken links).

I've upgraded my browser to IE7, thinking that would fix things, but its still happening.

Did something change on the site in the last month or so, as the site used to look beautiful, had lots of pictures (intead of broken links), and was formatted so it was easy to read. As the site is now, it's almost unusable, and it takes me forever to find and download Kelly's podcast now.

Any thoughts??; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gale in Arkansas on July 20, 2008 at 7:00am: I want to knit my 3 yr old DGD a Wonderful Wallaby sweater. But knowing her mom... this sweater needs to be machine washable and VERY machine dryable. It will go in with the regular laundry so no gently cycle here. Can you recommend a worsted wt yarn that will survive absolutely NO SPECIAL TREATMENT? I usually prefer wool, but will take most anything at this point that fits my one requirement Thanks.
Gale in Arkansas; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Knit Picks Admin on July 21, 2008 at 8:11am: Have you considered Swish? It's our worsted weight machine washable Merino wool yarn, and it's been designed to go through the laundry. You'd get the best long term results by washing with cold water on delicate and then drying on low, but that's true of any machine-washable garment. I'd recommend knitting a swatch and then washing it as you think the mother would a few times. Unfortunately, there are very few yarns that can make it through both a hot machine wash cycle and a hot cycle in the dryer.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gale in Arkansas on July 21, 2008 at 9:10am: I have considered Swish and that may be what I end up with. Aside from acrylic yarn, this may be my best option. Thanks.
Gale in Arkansas; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DBNico2254 on July 22, 2008 at 8:18pm: I am trying to finish up a knitted shopping bag and am stumped. I am knitting it on circular needles and am at the point of making the handles. I have 30 sts, then 15 bound off sts, then 30 more sts, and 15 more bound off sts left on my needles. One set of 15 bound off sts rests between my 2 needles with the 30 sts on each needle. The next instruction says to: cast on 20 sts over the 15 bound off sts, purl 35, cast on 20 sts over the other 15 bound off sts. I have no idea how to do this. I have tried casting on stitches but see no way to connect those stitches to the other needle. Can anyone help me? I am not a very experienced knitter so please give as basic instructions as possible. I live in China and going into a yarn shop here for help is not an option and knitting friends are all back in the states for the summer. Thank you!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by StringMeUp on July 23, 2008 at 8:46am: DB, I think what you need is a cabled cast-on. Hold your needles as if you're ready to just keep knitting the next round. Ignore those 15 bound-off stitches and insert the tip of your right needle between the first two stitches on the left needle. Wrap your yarn around the right needle tip, pull the loop through, but don't drop the stitch from the left needle. Bring your left needle tip in front of your right needle tip and insert the left needle into the new stitch on the right needle, then slide that new stitch onto the left needle. Repeat until you have cast on the 20 new stitches, and they should all be on your left needle, just waiting to be purled.
If you click on the Tutorials tab up above, there is a great tutorial on how to do this. Good luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PeteP on July 29, 2008 at 3:49pm: Hello DBNico. It is not too diffcult to accomplish this cast on, but it is very helpful if you have a knitting instruction book, at the very least, that has diagrams of the mehod(s) you'll need. Of the two methods that come to mind right away the "cable cast-on" is the nicest looking and sturdiest.
1. When you've worked to the spot where the cast-on is required, turn your work.
2. Insert the right needle into the space between the first 2 stitches on the left needle.
3. Loop the yarn around the tip of the right needle and draw it back between the 2 sts. on the needle creating a new loop.
4. Place the new loop onto the left needle. This completes 1 new cast-on.
Repeat these 4 steps treating each new cast-on st. as the first st. until you have completed the required number of cast-ons.
Now turn the work back around and proceed as usual knitting into the first st. on the left needle.
I hope you find this helpful. I'll follow this post for a few days to see if you have more difficulty.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JRoKnits on July 23, 2008 at 10:26am: I'm pretty new to dyeing my own yarn - I've only used Kool Aid and Wiltons - so I have a question about mixing the colors of the jacqaurd acid dyes, specifically how to get a sage green.

My mom requested sage green for a scarf I'm making her and I'm having a nightmare of a time finding sage green yarn that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'd like to dye the Bare Swish DK but I don't exactly know how to get a sage green color. The only info I could glean from my color wheel was that I could possibly do the pure color plus gray, but there is no gray so I suppose a touch of black? I don't know and I'm just wondering if anyone out there has attempted and achieved a good sage green yarn using the acid dyes.

Thanks!
Jenny; ▶ Reply to This