The Scarlet Knitter

Babies, vinyl and otherwise

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have made a parenthesis in my year of finishing to allow for a baby project. Or two.

For my tiny new niece, born barely a month ago, I finished a blanket which I hope will get plenty of use.

 

 

The pattern is Anita Jaensch's Bébé.

It's a simple, classy blanket that feels just right for a tiny Parisienne. The baby's mother is partial to neutral colorways, so I cast about for the right kind of grey in a superwash dk wool or blend. My hunt started at Stitches West this past February, but wasn't successful until I stumbled upon Berroco Vintage yarn during my visit to Knitty City in New York. Of course a Manhattan yarn shop would carry the right kind of grey baby yarn.

To my surprise, in spite of the acrylic content, I loved working with Vintage DK. The yarn always felt fresh under my fingers, never clammy as blends sometimes do, and most important given the seed stitch designs which are the point of this pattern, the stitch definition was really good, even after a good soak. I feel strongly about using superwash wool or blends for babies, as I intend to have my gifts used without any concern rather than kept pristine and unused on a shelf. I don't know how well Vintage would fare in a dryer, although the comments on Ravelry are fairly positive. French households rarely feature dryers, so I don't expect this will be an issue. In my experience, blankets knit with superwash wools do get more fuzzy if machine-dried but perhaps the acrylic content will keep the fuzz to a minimum.

 

 

Once blocked, the blanket drapes wonderfully. Bravo Berroco!

 

This was so much fun (yes, even the boring stockinette part) that I immediately cast on for another baby project for the same baby. More on this next time.

We all love babies around here, and my granddaughter Lola is no slouch when it comes to parenting her baby dolls. She handles them with infinite care, positioning their heads just so, pushing around her doll stroller or proudly parading through the house with a baby carrier strapped on her torso. I have been putting together a few items of clothing for her favorite vinyl baby, most of them store-bought, but with a few additions of my own making. I wish I could call this a stash-busting project, but it hardly makes a dent. This one took four evenings: two to knit the body, sleeves and band, one to soak and block, one to sew the sleeves on.

 

The pattern, which I found on Ravelry, was so-so. I made several changes as I could tell the sizing would not work if I followed the instructions to the letter. Sewing the sleeves in was fiddly; I much prefer knitting sleeves down when I knit for dolls; it is easier and ends up looking better. Still this will look sweet once I get around to sewing on buttons. I loved how fast it went, how easy it was to try things on my model and how satisfying it felt to turn a few yards of yarn into something that will be worn and played with.

 

Done, and done

It's just amazing how much one can progress on one's projects when one resists the temptation (constant, feverish at times) to cast on for something new.  I have been spending less time on Ravelry lately, and that has helped curb my itch to start a new cowl/scarf/pair of socks/baby sweater. Instead I restricted myself to three projects that needed to be finished soon. The strategy paid off and I have two out of the three to share with you on today's show and tell.

 

 

My travel-socks are finished, and, oh, so cozy! I had to put them on the minute they were finished, and they stayed on for a long while before being treated to their first soak. Since they were started at the boarding gate upon my return from New York, it felt right to call them my JFK socks. The souvenir yarn, bought at Knitty City in Manhattan, is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tirol. I knitted them on size #1 needles, using the 2-circular method which I like best; the needles, Karbonz from Webs, have become a favorite of mine. They are pointy, slick but not too much, and very light weight.

 

 

As soon as the socks were finished, I turned my attention to this baby cardigan. This one was truly designed on the needles. I had no pattern and winged it all the way, down to figuring out the edging as I went. This 2/2 ribbing turned out nicely, I think. For the buttonhole spacing, I put Amy Herzog's KnitTool app to work for the first time; it was so easy, I am glad I splurged for it at the time.

The yarn for the body of the sweater is Debbie Bliss's Merino DK, which Ravelry informs me was discontinued in 2007; in other words, we are talking about deep stash-diving here. I used Webs' Valley Yarn Superwash DK for the edging -- also an oldie from my stash. Buttons are still missing but I'll try not to procrastinate on those, since the sweater is my contribution to an ongoing baby-sweater drive.

In my last post, I mentioned three ongoing projects. Now that the two above have been crossed off the list, I am focusing all my effort on #3, another baby project that I will document when the time is right. Said baby made her appearance into the world four days ago, so it is clear that I won't be meeting any deadline here, but still, I am hard at work. It doesn't help much that I made a mistake while following a chart and had to frog hours of knitting to get back on track. And... that I did it all over again the second time around. Back on the saddle today. What could go wrong? (Don't tell me).

Infidelities

2016 may have been designated as the Year of Finishing, but let's face it, things happen in knitting and in life that thwart the best of intentions and provide me with yet another excuse to leave my unfinished pile in its sad, neglected state a bit longer.

First is the upcoming arrival of a new baby in my family.  It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to contribute to her baby wardrobe, and I only got started recently, which means that my gift may arrive a tiny bit late. No photo today -- but I am making up for lost time and already thinking of other must-knit projects in order to mark the occasion properly.

Second is another baby project; this one is a simple cardigan, which I intend to contribute to a project spearheaded by a friend. Maureen has committed to putting together baby kits to be distributed to families in need by World Church Services, with a baby sweater in each kit. I settled on a simple cardigan and combined an old pattern with some stash yarn.

 

 

I decided to experiment with the edging and tried a couple of rows in reverse stockinette, hoping it would roll under the edge in an attractive fashion, but instead, it behaved exactly as regular stockinette, rolling up on the body of the sweater.  No amount of steaming could make the edging behave, so this happened instead.

 

In about one hour, I had the offending edging removed, with live stitches at the bottom of the sweater ready for a new and improved edging -- most likely garter stitch, once I have a chance to return to this project. The body was knitted in one piece with phony seams at each underarm, and the shoulders assembled with a 3-needle bind-off.  Next, I will knit the sleeves circularly down from the armholes. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Merino DK, a nice wool that should keep a baby properly warm.

 

 

As for my last infidelity -- here it is.  On a recent vacation in New York, I replenished my modest stash of sock yarns and cast on at JFK airport, waiting for my flight home.  A couple of days later, my knitting gurus Kay and Ann started a one-sock-knitalong which I could not possibly resist joining. In my case, this will be a one sock and 3/4 of another one KAL. I rarely participate in KAL's, and this one is a nice opportunity to educate myself about all aspects of sock-knitting thanks to the project thread on Ravelry and the fantastic compendium of links that Ann posted here. My plain ribbed socks should be finished in a few days, and then it's going to be all baby knitting for a while -- infidelities for good causes, all.

 

 

Miss Babs et moi

My friend Kathryn, an expert (though sadly blog-less) knitter and world traveler, has requested a post on my experience with Miss Babs' yarns. Since I am behind on taking photographs of recent completed knits, today seems like the perfect time to take up her suggestion and revisit my love-affair with these lovely yarns, which now covers several years.

I stumbled upon Miss Babs' booth just as the company made its first appearance at Stitches West, around 2009, I believe. Like many knitters, I was drawn to the rich colors in Babs' fabulous palette of hand-dyed yarns, but what really made her offerings stand out for me was the great variety of hand-dyed solids. By then I had learned from much trial and error that as much as I loved to cast on with variegated yarns, I didn't often feel thrilled with the results of my efforts. Hand-dyed solids, on the other hand, often returned my love and produced knitwear that felt visually special and plain wonderful to contemplate.

The range of colors, too, felt much larger to me than that of most other "indie-dyers" that I checked out at the Stitches market. I don't know the first thing about the challenges of yarn-dyeing, but during my visits to various booths, I often felt that blues, greens and purples tended to overpower other more subtle shades, and I was too frequently reminded of the tie-dye t-shirts of craft fair displays. In contrast, the many yarns displayed at Miss Babs' booth looked polished and fashionable and spoke to my Parisian-Californian hybrid self loudly and clearly.

I had been combing the market for the right yarn to make my own version of Mustaa Villaa's soft ruffle shawl, and Babs' Yummy 2-Ply fit the bill perfectly. It is a satiny-soft, fingering-weight wool, comparable to Koigu KPPM, and the simple brown shawl I knitted with it was so pleasant to wear and so versatile that I went on to knit 5 more over the years, always following the same recipe: 2 skeins of Yummy for the body of the shawl and one for the edging.

 

 

 

These shawls have kept me warm and comfortable through many long flights and chilly nights. I have made a couple as gifts and they have been well received; the fact that they are long makes them fairly versatile.  The quality of the wool is exceptional, and relatives who tend to find most wools too scratchy have loved the silkiness of Miss Babs's Yummy.

 

 

For a couple of shawls, I broke my own rule -- what can I say? I fell in love -- and I went with a variegated yarn for the edging. This one happened to be Northumbria fingering, a slightly lighter weight than Yummy. I also succumbed to a gorgeous pink and brown colorway called Chocolate Roses and made myself a very cozy pair of socks:

 

One day, a baby blanket needed to be produced, and I finally had the perfect excuse to try out Miss Babs' Yowza - Whatta Skein!, a light-worsted, superwash wool with just the right amount of softness. The yardage is generous enough that one could squeeze out one small blanket out of just one skein, but I wanted a supersize blanket, so I splurged for two. Once again I chose a solid colorway -- a pale yellow called Wheaten -- in order to display the textured pattern to best advantage.

 

 

Not only is Yowza-Whattaskein! ideal for baby projects, but the rich colorways give the knitter a chance to branch out of traditional pastels and knit truly unique knitwear for a special baby gift. I am especially pleased with how this cardigan turned out:

 

 

Again, one skein of Yowza was plenty for one baby cardigan, with enough yarn left over to make a pair of very warm and cushy child-size socks. I have a bit more Yowza stashed away for a cardigan for moi, in a pebblestone colorway that I can hardly wait to tackle. Soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning the next UFO intervention

I hoped to have a finished denim cardigan to show off today, but the week has been too hectic to allow me to sit down and dispatch the last two seams properly. Still, the end is in sight, which means I can start thinking about another UFO to tackle. I just foraged in the bottomless knitting basket and fished out this long-neglected item:

 

 

It is meant to be a summer polo-sweater; I designed the pattern using Sweater Wizard software, which has since disappeared from the scene. It was a wonderful tool that freed knitters to use any kind of gauge they wanted, and I haven't found anything to take its place. In fact, the sudden folding of the company is a good reminder of why I shouldn't have UFO's of long standing in the first place. Knitting pals, do yourselves a favor and finish a project while the designer is still in the business and able to reply to emails, while you are still using the same computer with the same files saved in your knitting folder, while the yarn is still available, while that color is still your favorite shade or the one that works best with your wardrobe, while you still remember what you were trying to achieve with that particular project. Feel free to remind me of this the next time you see me abandon a project midway with a lame and fishy excuse.

I knitted the body of this summertime polo sweater in this particular pattern of P3, K1, because the spaced-out ribbing worked nicely with the tweedy yarn. Said yarn is Cascade Ultra Prima in Quattro (the tweedy variety) Red. The feel of this cotton is exceptionally nice and the red is much deeper than on the photograph above.

Where I got stalled with this very plain pattern was on the sleeves; I wanted short sleeves and wasn't happy with the rate of increase that the software-produced instructions recommended. I think I spent some time re-working the pattern, and then put the whole thing aside as I heard the siren-song of another project. Now, several years later, I need to dig out the pattern and re-trace my steps. I also need to knit a front placket and a collar. This is why I am so glad that we are in 2016, since in any other year, at this stage I would be perfectly happy to return this UFO  deep into the folds of the knitting basket for another long period of neglect -- whereas in 2016, the Year of Finishing, I must, and therefore I shall

A. Find a printout of the pattern which must be in my files somewhere,

B. Figure out a pattern for the sleeves and knit them

C. Figure out a placket and collar and knit them.

The only tricky and time-consuming part about this is that most of the steps involved in finishing my UFO's don't involve knitting at all; it is the house-cleaning, computer-searching, paper-sorting side of knitting that leads me to procrastinate and cast on for something new -- a vicious circle since, if I stuck to one project at a time, I would never have the chance to lose the pattern instructions in the first place.

Meanwhile, because a knitter has got to occupy her hands in the evening when it is too dark and inconvenient to go searching for long-lost pattern files, I have produced a few more socks for the afghans For Afghans small-item drive.

 

The baby socks were knitted with reclaimed Yummy sock yarn from Miss Babs; for the child-size pair, I experimented with some Karabella Aurora 4 that was stashed a long time ago; I reinforced the heels and toes with some Zephyr lace wool/silk that I happened to have on hand and the result is incredibly cushy, almost like athletic socks. I'll try to knit a pair or two more of those in the larger sizes needed for this drive.

 

On the road to Haven

Haven is almost done. I spent a couple of evenings knitting its wide, generously-sized ribbed collar, a process that I enjoyed as this is one of the most finely-designed collars I have ever encountered. First,  radical increases occur after just a couple of rows, which creates a kind of roll, causing the knitted fabric to fan out over the shoulders very handsomely when the garment is worn. In addition, Kim Hargreaves has placed the more gradual increases that shape the collar not too close to the edge but about an inch in, tucked inside a reverse stockinette section.

 

 

I must say that the collar details were a nice touch after the rather pedestrian design of the cardigan as a whole. One of the very best knitting classes I ever took at Stitches West was a class taught by Maureen Mason-Jamieson, entitled "Collar-Obedience Training", where she covered these kinds of tricks borrowed from classic tailoring techniques at length. Since then I have often had to adapt Maureen's suggestions to patterns from books and magazines. This is the first time I don't have to do so since Ms. Hargreaves has done it so brilliantly.

As you can plainly see, the collar hasn't had its maiden journey to the washing-machine just yet, and the contrast between unfaded and faded cotton is striking, but I expect it won't show after a wash or two.

 

 

Ta-da! Two long afternoons of seaming have yielded a half-finished Haven. The sewing-up of this project is taking forever.  Remind me of this next time I consider knitting a garment in reverse stockinette. I took pains to keep the first stitch of every piece I knitted in stockinette in order to make the seaming easier later on, but apparently that wasn't enough. I would consider keeping the first 2 stitches in stockinette along the edges next time, so that mattress stitch could take place between the 1st and 2nd one and truly disappear.

As it is, mattress stitch just doesn't do its magic in reverse stockinette. The seam remains stubbornly visible, almost like a scar on the knitted fabric. Fortunately, copious amounts of heat and steam applied right after the sewing help tremendously -- another trick borrowed from sewing that has made a huge difference in my knitting life. To wit, this bit of evidence:

 

 

Close-up of sleeve cap on the ironing board: can you guess which half has been steamed and which hasn't yet? Of course you can. I love my ancient Rowenta steam iron and I hope it sees me through many more finished knits as I continue to vanquish UFO's.

 

 

Rustic Stonington

This is where committing to a year of finishing projects really pays off: when one has a very long and somewhat tedious lace edging to execute. The sheer repetitiveness is a guarantee that one will pick up any other project, or cast on for something new, rather than spend one's precious knitting hours on a task that won't be fully rewarding for days and days. There is no doubt in my mind that this project would have been allowed to gather dust for most of 2016 if I hadn't had my Monogamy Epiphany back at Stiches West.

One other thing this project had going for it was the sheer pleasure of handling this divine yarn, a nice contrast to my other steady date of the moment, cotton denim. And the bonus advantage of not requiring a thorough scrubbing off of blue dye from my hands after every knitting break.

I started this shawl last Fall, reclaiming the yarn for an other lace UFO, one that could clearly not be saved from the curse of murky pattern directions on the designer's part, resulting in utter lack of enthusiasm on my part.  Still, I had fallen head over heels for the yarn, Isager's Strik Alpaca 2, a blend of alpaca and merino which combines the advantages of both and feels a bit rustic yet perfectly soft. The weight is really closer to fingering-weight than to lace, but my older eyes and hands can't even think of handling lace on its own anymore, so a light fingering-weight yarn is ideal for my purposes these days.

 

This square shawl is big and probably best used as an afghan. It isn't fluid enough to be worn easily but I am sure it will see plenty of use once I figure who to give it to. Meanwhile I'll happily keep it around the house and pull it out for show and tell.

 

 

It's an old Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern that knits up quickly and addictively, until one reaches the edging, that is. My copy of the pattern is the one included in the old Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves book but I know that there are other versions out there. The typically brief directions are reasonably easy to follow: the center square is knitted diagonally, then one picks up stitches to knit the side bands and finally the edgings. EZ points out that the pattern begins, and ends, with just two stitches, with no need to cut the yarn off anywhere along the way.

 

 

I made my shawl larger than the one in the pattern by knitting a larger center diamond, which meant of course that I picked up more stitches along each side and finally that I had many more repeats of the edging to execute. Interested knitters will find all my modifications in the project notes which I just posted on Ravelry.

 

 

As you can probably tell, giving a good photographic account of this shawl is a challenge, and the photos only hint at the lovely simplicity that attracted me to the pattern. I find that I am drawn to lace that isn't too lacy, and to geometric edgings rather than scalloped ones, and this fits the bill perfectly.

 

Adventures in denim

Back in November of last year, I blogged about my slow progress with the mis-named "Haven" cardigan from Rowan's Denim People pattern book.  As much as I anticipate that the finished garment will provide all the cozy comfort implied in its name, the journey to completion has had its challenges, which I hadn't expected since I have often had easy-peasy experiences following Kim Hargreaves's patterns. But procrastination wasn't going to make any of my issues go away, so after I decided to focus on crossing UFO's off my list this year, my first order of business was to see "Haven" through. For the past few weeks, I have spent the lion's share of my knitting hours pushing through. And here's one proof:

Scrubbing the palms of both hands has become a new nighttime ritual. The denim pigment doesn't affect the couch I knit on or the clothes I am wearing, only surfaces that it rubs against, namely my palms and fingers and the wooden double-pointed needle that I have been using for the cables. I am knitting the cardigan on an Addi Lace needle which doesn't seem the worse for wear at this point.

Patterns written specifically for denim cotton yarn anticipate a significant rate of shrinking, lengthwise, which means that every part of this sweater has to be extra long to start with. This includes not just the body length but the armholes as well. Everything goes on for a loooong time before the knitter reaches, say, armhole decreases. And then there were a few dumb mistakes along the way, all my fault, not Kim H's, such as my failure to read directions and to remember to reverse the direction of the cable crossing on the second front side. I ended up with two parallel fronts instead of having one mirror the other.

 

 

I knew this would never cease to bother me, so yes, I frogged down to the very bottom cable crossing and re-knit that side. Then it was off to the sleeves.  Meanwhile, I decided to give the body pieces, front and back, their first trip to the washing-machine.  I just couldn't wait to see the denim cotton yarn do its fading magic.

 

 

For comparison: on the left, the right front of the cardi, machine-washed and dried, and shrunk to its final size. To the left, the first sleeve, finished but still unwashed and unshrunk.

Closer up, you can see the flecks of white peeking through the heavily pigmented cotton. You can also notice the shrinking in the final size of the cables on the left. The feel of the knitted fabric has changed as much as its visual appearance; it feels tighter, a bit warmer and much more substantial.

Knitting with cotton yarn is a bit hard on my wrists, which is one reason why I gave myself a couple of days' break cranking out those wool baby socks, but now I am ready to finish the second sleeve. My plan is to launder the sleeves before sewing them to the body, and then tackle the collar. I have a feeling this will be an eminently wearable garment once I am done making it, and I am reasonably confident that it won't be turning my hands blue anymore. I may even miss the nightly scrubbing.

baby socks, post-scriptum

Connie asked about the pattern I follow for baby socks, and rather than bury my reply in the comments, I thought it would be more useful to answer right here, out in the open.

I follow a very basic sock recipe, similar to the one written out by sock-knitter champ Susan Anderson here.  For an infant or baby size (up to 1 year), using sock yarn or weight-fingering yarn, I cast on 40 stitches.

A stretchy cast on is essential as babies have sensitive little legs; after hearing that my lovingly-crafted baby socks didn't fit my baby granddaughter as well as I had hoped, I researched this topic extensively (once a grad student, always a grad student) and found very little about it in the sock-knitting books and and articles which I was able to find, at least when it comes to knitting from the leg down. I tried various methods without much success. Ultimately, I settled on a method demonstrated by Ann Budd in the companion DVD to her Sock Knitting Master Class book. She recommends a standard long-tail cast on, with a gentle stretch of the barely formed stitches every 4 stitches or so. This way allows for a bit more yarn than usual in between the cast-on stitches, which in turn results in a slightly more stretchy edge.

Afterwards I proceed as for a regular, adult-size sock; if you are concerned about socks staying on (always an issue with baby feet), then a 2/2 ribbing all along the sock, possibly with a wide cuff, is a good idea. I also like a 3/1 ribbing pattern, just because it has a nice working rhythm to it, but I don't know that it stays on any better than plain stockinette.

I knit the heel cuff back and forth on 20 stitches; on some baby socks I just use regular stockinette since babies don't need a reinforced heel. It's entirely up to you. I have also seen baby socks knitted with a garter stitch heel, which looked quite attractive. I like to pick up 11 stitches after turning the heel: 10 stitches for the instep and one extra stitch just to close up any hole that might appear. I learned this from Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Knitted Socks" book, but again, it's entirely optional.

 

As to the final length of the socks, I must confess I don't have a very good system. I borrow guidelines from online patterns. The craft yarn council offers this very basic chart. The Craftsy blog has this free pattern designed for newborns .  Finally Connie mentions this pattern by Judy Ellis, which seems quite useful for our purposes.

 

If you are knitting for afghans for Afghans, I recommend not making the absolute smallest size.  It's nice to be able to ship socks that will fit a baby beyond the first month of life, and the maternity hospital in Kabul doesn't need preemie size items.  Keep in mind that the a4A volunteers work hard to pack and ship the items requested by their partner NGO in Afghanistan and that every bit of space in these shipments counts, which means that something that is too small to be of use will not be sent.  Tiny infant socks may be adorable, but I would save them for a cute gift or keepsake for a new mother of my acquaintance instead. My feeling about size is that a 40 stitch-circumference will fit a baby through the first year of life, and that all a knitter needs to do is to vary the number of rounds between instep and toes... and to remember to knit a second sock that matches the first one.

 

 

In case you're itching to knit small socks...

Afghans For Afghans has recently announced its first drive in nearly two years. The group is collecting socks, hats and mittens, to be distributed to a maternity hospital in Kabul and to street children and displaced persons who are served by the organization Trust In Education. All the details (and they matter, so make sure to read them if you are interested in participating) can be found here.

Socks and hats are needed in sizes Newborn to 1 year and child sizes 7 and up. Mittens are only needed in sizes 7 and up. Important factoids that I have gleaned from years of giving a hand in the basement where those wonderful woolen pieces of clothing land before their big journey to Afghanistan: warmth is essential, therefore, wool or a very generous percentage of wool is crucial. I suspect that dk or worsted weight socks are enthusiastically appreciated in truly cold climates. A hat with a wide brim brings double the warmth to the ears -- same for socks with a generous cuff.

That said, regular sock yarn is fine too, and drives like this one offer a perfect opportunity to use up those few grams left over from a standard skein of sock wool. It's amazing how little yarn a pair of baby socks requires, and how little time, too. I usually manage one sock per evening, casting on 40 stitches in sock or fingering-weight yarn and making sure to keep that cast-on row as stretchy as possible.

 

The pair on the left was knitted with some leftover Regia sock yarn. Afghans For Afghans requests that we provide them with socks that actually match, which is going to require a bit of cutting and pasting with patterned or striped sock yarns. After knitting this pair, although I had the yardage necessary for another pair of infant socks, I wasn't able to create another matching pair since the cutting and pasting would also force me to discard whole sections of yarn; instead, I dug up from my deep stash a solid fingering-weight wool in a coordinating colorway and knitted the center pair of socks with that, using up a bit more of the sock yarn for the toes. Life on the edge, I tell you! The pair on the right was knitted with some leftover Koigu, probably half a skein or so.

These socks were knitted in adult size, which in this case means that I cast on 64 stitches and knitted for a foot roughly 1/2 inch smaller than mine (I wear a size 8.5 shoe). I figure they will fit someone, from adolescence on. Again I took pain to create matching stripes from one sock to the next.

These two items missed the last a4A drive by a hair and I am glad to see them put to good use at last; the hat was knitted with leftover yarn from a sweater I finished last year (discontinued Rowan Scottish tweed if memory serves) and the cuff is long enough to keep someone's ears warm; and the mittens were knitted with a worsted-weight wool held together with a strand of sock wool, just because I was getting bored with that plain, not very attractive shade of tan.

As I have mentioned before, part of the appeal of these drives, beyond the feel-good sense of making something useful and warm that will bring a measure of comfort to another person, big or small, is that they motivate me to make something out of small amounts of yarn, those orphan skeins that end up cluttering our knitting baskets for months or years. There is no end of satisfaction in seeing the piles of items that just a few skeins can turn into, and in figuring out as many variations as one can even with a limited amount of yarn.