Hello everybody – time for the tips of the week. Let’s get right at them by starting with two letters from the Sudoku puzzle in the current contest …
Letters – The first square in the puzzle – the top left hand corner square is an “I” and the last square, the bottom right hand corner is a “K”. *sorry if you saw this when I had “P”there. That was a typo.
Minimize your ripping – If you read the posts about lace then you now about lifelines (If you didn’t you should go back and do so). A simple adaption of the same concept is mini lifelines. Placing stitch markers or some contrast color yarn snips every 5-10 rows on a project allow you to count rows very quickly and accurately when necessary. They can also give you a point of reference if you d need to rip back any number of rows – just like how you use them in lace knitting.
Track your favorites – If you buy a yarn and really like it, there’s a good chance you might end up buying some more in another color. What you can do is keep a snip of the yarn (about 6 inches or so) and tape it to the label for the yarn. Keep this in a separate box or tape it to a piece of paper that you then keep in a binder. This will allow you to sort the yarns you have used in any manner you want and also reference them very quickly. By keepingthe label you also have a quick reference of all the important fiber information you may need in the future.
Have an egg, keep the container – In my neck of the woods, when I go to the supermarket, there are these really cool, clear, plastic, tri-fold, egg containers. My first thought when I first saw them was that even though they helped prevent breakage, that’s a lot of extra packaging. Now however, after doing the posts on color work, I thought they would make great containers for all those small balls of yarn that you may need for doing a complex intarsia pattern – or just for keeping small balls of left over yarn. So what are you waiting for, go make an omelet already!
Colors – My favorite color is Royal Blue (although I love all the rest of them too). Those who need to know know why this is a tip.
Roll the dice – If you’re having a hard time deciding on color selections for a pattern, whittle it down to 6. Once you’re got your six choices, give each color a number from 1 to 6. Now grab a die and give it a roll. If you need 2, roll it twice. If six isn’t enough, you can use 12 and two dice. It’s also good practice for when you’re at the craps table in the casino!
Just so you now, there’s still room for winners in the contest. If you don’t know about it, check the posts from Saturday and Sunday of last week. Good luck.
Hugzzz 😎