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When I first tried it, I wasn’t expecting Navajo plying to produce a completely different yarn from regular plying, but it does. I tried it on my drop spindle, using multi-coloured singles (where I had spun a little purple for a while, and then switched to a little blue, and then green, and so on).
When I plyed these singles in the normal way, I got a barber-pole effect across the whole yarn like this:
But, when I Navajo plyed it, the yarn came out multi-coloured in sections, like these two:
Both from the same singles, but what a difference!
It’s logical, of course. In regular plying, you are bringing two separate singles together and, if they are different colours at the point where they ply together, then that barber-pole striping effect is what happens. Whereas in Navajo plying, you are taking one single and doubling it over on itself (well, tripling it over, actually) so, in a multi-coloured single like I was using, you are plying like with like for a while, then switching to another colour and plying a new like with like, and so on.
I find the difference really intriguing, and I can’t decide which result I like better. Which do you like more?
I’ve got my knitting mojo back! I decided I wanted to use some yarn from my stash to make a lacy dress for E2, and found a pattern in KnitSimple that inspired me and gave me direction. I had new design ideas bouncing around in my head all last night. Went to bed hardly being able to wait for morning to come so I could get started!
And then I spotted an interesting design on Ravelry for an entirely different project — an intriguing scarf. There’s no pattern for it, but I studied the pictures… and studied and studied… until I think I figured out how it was done, and now all I want to do is cast on and see if I’m right. A whole month, totally dry and then… BAM! My mojo is back!
That’s the knitlust.
You might think I’d not been doing anything, but I have — I just haven’t been talking about it much. In fact, I’d rather let the pictures do the talking…
I finally dug my wheel out of the moving boxes. Here’s the result: handspun Merino top from Stony Mountain Fibers…
I’ve also been doing a lot of spinning on the beautiful spindle that Sheila at Journeywheel picked for me. Here’s my first attempt at plying on a spindle…
Here’s the chunky jacket I was designing for my daughter, using Creme Puff yarn from Decadent Fibers, and it was going fantastically when… when… I realised I can’t find the second skein!!! It wasn’t in the moving box I thought it was, and the garage is full to bursting with boxes… it could be in any of them! This has been quite a blow, and I have completely lost my knitting mojo. I just can’t find anything I feel like knitting now…
And here’s the Debbie Bliss baby cardigan I was working on. It’s come out so lovely, and I am really pleased with it.
Really, this cardi should have had an unhappy ending, because my daughter would have surely outgrown it long before I finished it, if it weren’t for the beating she’s taken from her food allergies that stopped her growing for seven months. Getting her diagnosed and managing her condition has been a really difficult experience for her and for me, but the silver lining is that she stayed small enough that this cardi fits her perfectly now! It feels a bit sacriligious to say that though…
I have stitched up the hat and it looks fab, but it doesn’t fit so well. The circumference at the edge is too big for the depth (height) of it, so it looks a bit skullcap-ish. I should have knitted for about one more inch before I started doing my decreases.
It is absolutely, completely the fault of my knitlust. I started the hat without doing a proper gauge swatch (only 2″x2″). And I cast on with a yarn that was gosh-darned pretty but which I didn’t really have enough of, so I felt pressured to start decreasing as soon as possible. I should have taken more time… I should have waited until I could get to the shop and buy enough yarn… But I am helpless to stop it. Once an idea comes into my head, the knitlust takes over and it won’t let me be at peace until I have started working on it. If I don’t, it pervades my every moment, my every thought. I even knit through the night in my dreams. Once the knitlust gets hold of me, I have no choice — I just have to start knitting, ready or not.
Never mind, I will find a solution of some sort for this hat. I could weave some elastic into the edge (cuff? band?) of it, or maybe just some of the yarn to make a drawstring. It might even fit her a little better when her head has grown into it (I made it a bit big because these kids, they just keep growin’!). It’s too pretty not to fix somehow.
Pictures to follow soon.
I have finished the hat with yarn to spare! All I need to do now is sew the seam and it’s good to go. I might make a little flower or two to go on it as well.
But sewing-up is my most hated knitting task. I will make myself do it, but I bet the hat sits idle for a few days whilst I cast on something else and start indulging the knitlust first. What a naughty knitter!
And you know what? I already have. I bought some lovely pink wool on Friday to knit my daughter a snood to go with her new coat that her grandmother sent her. I realised that, although it’s a lovely warm coat, the chill wind was whipping around her neck and down across her shoulders, so I decided to knit something to plug that gap. A scarf will get lost or dragged through the mud, but a snood will sit there perfectly. I cast it on about 10 minutes ago.
I would have knit it in the round, but I don’t have the right size circular or double-pointed needles. So, I’ve gone all creative and am knitting it side-to-side, using an open cast-on, which I will then pick up and knit back into the last row.
It’s lovely chunky yarn, so I’m hoping to knit this up quickly. It’s too chilly for my daughter to have to wait long!.
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This hat is swiftly turning into a race to see if I can get to the end of it before the yarn runs out. I have 68 stitches on the needle and am decreasing 24 stitches every 4 rows…
Do you think I’ll make it?
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I can’t stop myself when an idea starts swimming around in my head. I have cast on a hat for my younger daughter. It was the yarn overs in those flowers that got me thinking 
about it. I just enjoyed doing yarn-overs and wanted to continue, wanted to do a piece that was entirely yarn-overs from one side to the other, and it seemed like the pattern it creates would really suit a baby’s hat, so I cast on and just started knitting. I will make up the design as I go along. I don’t even know if I have enough of this yarn to complete it, but I am just enjoying the knitting. It’s such a pleasure to see the lacy result falling from the needle.
The cardigan is on hold at the moment as I indulge my desire to knit this hat. I will go back to it soon, I’m sure. I’m afraid I find myself a bit off the cardigan because I’m knitting it on plastic needles, and I just don’t enjoy working on plastic nearly as much as wood. Perhaps I should just get myself some wooden 12mm needles and be done with it! If the joy is in the knitting, then shouldn’t I be knitting on needles that fill me with joy?
Twice now I’ve had to unravel and reknit the sleeve of the chunky cardi I’ve designed! The reasons are so stupid that I’d be ashamed to admit them publicly, if it weren’t for the fact that I can chalk it up to having a baby who keeps me up half the night.
The first time, I just plain miscounted the gauge. Hard to believe, but I did, and so every calculation was wrong. I’d only knit about 15 rows when I realised something was amiss, so it wasn’t that painful to start over.
I reworked the maths and cast on again. But this time, I just wrote the wrong number down, and so was increasing ever four rows instead of every six. A little discrepancy that ends up making a big difference after a while. Again, I spotted the mistake, ripped it all out, and we started over. I’ve just cast on again and completed row one. Third time’s the charm, eh?
But look at that lovely wool… look at that colour! You can see why I am so keen to make something lovely out of it.
And this is good for me — I need this discipline, this lesson in patience. It’s not about giving up and moving on to the next thing. I am a new knitter. It’s about perseverance, patience, commitment, commitment, commitment.
