New followers keep flowing in!
It is terribly exciting, Kristie, to learn that James is quoted in Wikipedia. Yes, he was there for Tiananmen. He was the BBC Peking correspondent at the time, pretty young and new to the job. Somewhere I have a letter from him -- these were the days before email -- wishing that something would happen in China so that he could prove himself to the BBC.
He won a Sony Radio Award for his reporting. He went to London for a week last year and made two programmes about it for the World Service on the occasion of the 20th anniversary. They put it out in a nice plastic box, but I can’t find it on the BBC website now. Must have sold out.
Jeanne, that’s an amazing clip from Lucy Neatby showing how to knit with three stands of yarn, when what you’ve got is one big cone. On a recent visit to Strathardle, I spent quite a while winding lace-weight yarn into separate balls – that stuff goes in for serious yardage; it took a while. So I am ready to roll, without the Neatby trick, but it is one I will remember.
I don’t think knitting with two or three stands together, from separate balls, is all that difficult. I’m not so sure about a number higher than that. This might be an occasion for facing up to some of the tricks in “Knitting Brioche”.
Jennifer, thanks for your encouraging remarks on the subject of knitting multiple strands of lace yarn. I like the Wurm Hat (Ravelry link) you mention – it might be a wiser choice than the EZ Snail, when I move on to hats. EZ is rather fierce, as she can occasionally be, about not attempting yarn substitutions for that pattern. I’ll download the Wurm – it may inspire me to do something about replacing my printer. I notice you used four strands – maybe I’d better do some more winding.
Meanwhile, Amedro moves forward. I finished the second row of roundels yesterday. I have no memory, as I’ve said, of the difficulties of picking up stitches for this final sprint, but I am beginning to think I do remember feeling a surprise which is stealing over me again, at how wide the upper edging is. There will be another 10 rows of moss stitch when the roundels are finished.
Still, the end is in sight.
Judith, thanks very much for the info on dehydrators. Where can I read the not-so-good reviews of the Lakeland one? I love the idea of rose-petal confetti
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Another option for using your lace weight yarn is to knit it with heavier yarns. The last minute knitted gifts book has the purl scarf which uses a very chunky yarn together with a strand of 4 ply and a strand of very fine yarn. And I think their legwarmers do the same thing... I've made a few purl scarves now and used various combinations of yarn including some of the large bag of mohair nestling in my stash. It was all the fashion in the 90s but has receded somewhat these days, but still acceptable in scarves...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the Navajo Plying/Knitting. Great idea. I remember some yarn from the 80's that was made like a crochet chain, but I don't think I'd be up for crocheting a whole skein and then knitting with it.
ReplyDeleteI knitted a vest from a Candace Eisner Strick Merging Colors kit - it used 8 strands of laceweight in multiple tones from pale blue to purple. You changed one strand at intervals, to achieve the gradual shading.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.strickwear.com/
It wasn't that difficult to manage the multiple strands.
Here is the link for the Lakeland dehydrator, the comments are at the bottom of the product page
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lakeland.co.uk/F/keyword/dehydrator/product/14210
It is quite a good price so maybe worth trying but I am very fond of my Stockli!