Alden & Stephenie, Shetland and MS3

Have you ever used one of these?

Knitting Belt and needles, also called whisk, whisker and other names I have forgotten.

I like mine but could use it more. The long needles are harder to find than the belt. I see from other sites that there is a controversy about how many needles to use. I like 4, three to hold the sweater and one to knit around. The comments on other sites are heated, so I will leave that search to you all. But I do invite comments – how many needles do you use? In a dream world, I would find those nice, slightly bendy 18” steel needles that are not rusted. But Inox is also nice.

And as long as we are in Shetland knitting land, I have to mention this amazing photo tour of Purlwise’s trip to the land of wool. Her blog is splendid and this photo tour just can’t be beat.

Oh, and one last visit on today's Shetland tour.

It is the damn MS3 that has me blogging slowly these days. I just started a week ago and am so far behind. I blasted through clues one and two and am on three now, but quite shy about admitting to being two clues behind – well three today. Liking it though. Most of my spinning is lace weight when I am not paying attention or spinning for pure joy. Perhaps this is just the push I needed to return to lace. I really would hate to show a photo of the bins (yes, multiple bins) of laceweight. I swear that I could knit a shawl that could cover the house easily. It is a small house, but still…

I am using the steel sheet from my local lumber supply chain, along with super magnets and flat magnet strips as row holders. That way, not cat tail or clumsy human can disrupt pattern continuity. The yarn returns to a cage (dvd spindle) when not in use and stays nice and clean.


Meanwhile, for those who have expressed interest, I am putting the final touches on the socks with all the popular techniques built in. Henceforth called Bandwagon socks, for joining all those bandwagons on my favorite sites. They should be up very soon – just waiting for a sunny day to take the final photos.

Still recovering after last weekend’s workshop. Alden Amos and Stephenie Gaustad doing fiber prep. Extensive, wonderful, exhaustive and exhausting. Just wanted to sit at the feet of the masters and soak it all in. Ooh and we got to play with all those fancy tools. [Ropemaking, combing, wheels, ooh what fun!]