Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

A Perfect Combination!

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Sugar Bunny yarn from Knit Picks is a merino/angora worsted blend that is just heaven on earth.

Put this with an old pattern I scrounged up (did the whole Google thing and couldn’t find it, sorry) and you have the most incredibly soft, snuggly, warm, cuddly, fuzzy wrist warmers you can imagine.

Oh, before I forget, the pattern is called Girl’s Best Friend (not the one on Ravelry – see I really did look for it) by D2 Designz.

Back to this yarn. Sugar Bunny is 80% merino and 20% angora, worsted weight, and 136 yards, almost just perfect for one pair of mitts. (I actually broke into the second skein but if I had made the cuffs 1.5″ rather than 2 I would have had enough).

So, seriously,Sugar Bunny rocks, but you better hurry if you want to try it, it’s a limited edition line.

 

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Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!