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Tradewind Knitwear Designs |
Knitting Tip: Making Navaho Knitting Yarn |
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This is a very useful technique for making use of those irresistible bargain cones of ultra-fine yarns that were just too wonderful to leave in the sale bin. Quite when we thought that we'd find time to use two miles of mulberry silk on 2mm needles remains a mystery to us all, but we all suffer from the same delusions in the face of a bargain!
Now, we could weigh the cone, and divide the total yarn weight into halves or thirds and wind appropriately sized balls of yarn. But winding two miles of silk holds little appeal, and once it leaves the security of its cone it is going to become a decomposing slippery mess!! (Not to mention the challenge of creating multiple exactly equal-length balls with no leftovers.) But, by directly poaching an idea from hand-spinning, we can make a continuous three-strand yarn from a single source. (In the case of spinning, this is used to create a three-ply yarn even though you may only have one bobbin or spindle with the single-spun yarn on it.) Take a close look at the structure of a crochet chain made with your fingers. Begin with a generous slip knot, *put your thumb and first fingers through the loop and pull through a large new loop of yarn. Repeat from *. Now look closely at the chain you have created: There are three strands of yarn at all times: the two sides of the loop and the yarn connecting the base of one loop to the beginning of the next one (known as the back of the chain). So how does this help us? If we were to make GIANT LOOPS, arms-length long loops, then we would have a continuous length of 3-strand yarn with only the occasional little linking blemish. In fact, we could make an arms-length of yarn and then knit up to the end of the loop, and then make the next giant loop. In this manner the yarn can be tripled as you go. This method allows you to triple the yarn (as you go) from a single source without any special preparation. It has a couple of other benefits as well: In colour situations, a yarn that has long colour gradation allows for the colours to be maintained pure and in sequence. What was a 9 foot long length of red yarn will become a 3 foot length of red yarn, and, if you only pull the last loop out until it is level with the colour change in the yarn leading from the ball, then colours will not become muddled. Conversely, some wonderful colour graded yarns do suffer from occasional abrupt mid-ball interruptions which can be very annoying (or you may not be able to find the exact match at the start of a new ball), but if you adjust the length of the loop in this situation, you can arrange the transition to occur so that the full loop of yarn is in the old colour and the back of loop connector is in the new colour, so that the colour-jump will be softened somewhat. It will go from three old to two old and one new, and then to three strands of the new. If it necessary to join a new yarn, rather than cutting and joining all three strands, make the join in the single yarn and then draw through the join to the middle of one of the three strands of the loop. The join could be a splice, a spit splice or a temporary knot to be neatened later. |
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