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Learning about Silk with Knitting Daily

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silk knitting dailyDid you know that Interweave has a YouTube channel? You can currently see more than 800 clips from Knitting Daily and Quilting Arts TV, as well as previews of shows, publications and workshops.

One recently posted video from Knitting Daily features Eunny Jang and Clara Parkes talking about silk yarn and blends. They note that silk has a lot of luster and drape but it’s also dense because it’s a solid tube with no crimp and no elasticity. You can stretch silk yarn and it won’t spring back, which is good for lace projects but not such a good idea for some other things you might like to knit (like garments).

Silk is often combined with other fibers, particularly merino, which adds elasticity and loft to the silk, while the silk brings a little shine to the wool.

Do you watch Knitting Daily? I did for the season or so it was on my PBS station, but I’m way behind!

[Photo by Knitting Daily.]

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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!