New Entry from "Loose Threads"--Quick Nalbinding Update

[cathyr19355]

For those of my readers who itch to know more about my mad experiments with yarn, it's right here.

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Madness! Madness, I say!

...or, more seriously, that looks pretty nifty, though the way nalbinding works continues to confuse me a bit. (As did knitting, until I actually got it working for myself. Crochet was always pretty easy to follow...) I'm reminded that next Saturday I'm supposed to try to haul some new knitting project down to a nifty yarn shop that's a bit of a drive away, for their weekly Stitch-and-Bitch.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

It *is* confusing. I learned from a book, though a video might be better. Even so, I've screwed up and restarted every bit of nalbinding I've done a bunch of times. I still screw up regularly, but now I can sometimes generate a nice line of stitching that's several inches long (about as far as you can go on one piece of yarn). If you try to learn it the same way I did, *don't* start with expensive yarn because you'll be throwing away LOTS.

I'm still getting the hang of the "lazy join," too. Sometimes it works right and looks invisible. Other times, I leave small holes. Still other times, the fuzzy tail of my last piece of yarn works its way out more than once, requiring me to clip it off.

When it works right, though, nalbinding is uniquely beautiful, even though it may not have the versatility of knitting or crochet.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

One thing I learned from crochet (and used for learning knitting) was that yarn should be cheap enough that I don't mind if I throw it away, but nice enough that I actually like working with it. An inexpensive--but not dirt-cheap and thus horrible--acrylic in a color I like is usually good. Especially variegated colors: they help me pick out individual stitches, instead of it all being a morass of green or what not.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I felt that way about the red-brown yarn I made my one completed nalbinding garment (https://picasaweb.google.com/103483555539158593557/Slideshow#5326253197670258994) from. (Here's (https://picasaweb.google.com/103483555539158593557/Slideshow#5596280233609681218) what it looks like on.)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a nice warm color! I like.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

The pictures make it look brighter than it is. In person it's less orange, and more brownish. But it's still a nice color, I think.