On Finding Yarn and Finishing Techniques

The universe is not helping me on my stashbusting mission. First, the Goodwill windfall. Next, a fellow raveler decided to give away some of her own stash, and I was the lucky recipient of another windfall. Then, I discovered DBNY. Lastly, I was poking through a closet yesterday, opened a project bag I haven’t seen in a while, and found several skeins of different yarns (as well as four out of five of my US 3 dpns). Guys, this was pretty cool. Not only could I really use those dpns, but some of the yarn? Awesome! An untouched skein of Noro Silver Thaw! There was some other stuff in there, too–some kitchen cotton, some higher quality DK cotton, some sock yarn, a couple of other random things. But brand new Noro? Beautiful. I love Noro yarns, both for the long long long color repeats and for the interesting and often luxurious fiber blends. So now I just have to figure out what to do with it…

What I actually thought I might find in that project bag was my copy of The Knitter’s Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie M. Wiseman. I bought it many years ago and have used almost every page. I can’t find it currently and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve had to resort to the internet for questions about technique selection, finishing tips and the like, and it can be really hard to track down a good source. I like the book a lot because for each topic, several different options are discussed and the pros and cons are listed for each. The silver lining in this is that a week or two ago while looking for a decent comparison of cast ons for ribbing, i stumbled across this little gem: Tillybuddy’s very stretchy cast on for single or double rib. I used it for the project I was working on (Capucine), then for the next project (Bel et Bon mitts), then for the next and…you get the picture. If you haven’t used it before, I would highly recommend trying it. It’s good for anything with 1×1 or 2×2 rib, is very stretchy and is very fast and easy. And, it doesn’t require doing a long tail anything! I always misjudge the amount of yarn needed for those and end up either short or wasting some. So yeah, check it out.

I still hope I find my book soon. Maybe if I keep looking for it, I’ll find more stashes of Noro or other fiber bonanzas I’ve stored and forgotten about!

Not a Buff update: about half done, give or take. I may make it a little less than the prescribed 20″. But then again, I may not. I’m concocting a ggh tajmahal review post in my head for once it’s done.

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