Two Words

Kid. Cold. Need I say more?

So I finally sanded my knitting rake and knitted a potholder. This item started life as a pair of dishcloths that were ruled "too thick" by the guy who does most of the dishes in this house.

They were also ruled too thick by Michigan humidity and warm summer air. When it's too humid, a thick dishcloth doesn't dry fast enough after being used to keep it from getting "feh".

They still weren't quite thick enough to be potholders, though. I unravelled them and started double knitting this on needles, using Judy Becker's "Magic cast-on for toe-up socks" from Knitty.com. (Do the magic cast-on, then knit from one needle, slip from the other. Slide the stitches back, turn, knit off the second cast-on needle, slip a stitch that was knitted from the first cast-on needle.) Continue in double knitting.

However, I had to start playing with it. (Who, me? mess around with a pattern?) I was trying to do the "knit one, purl one, slip one, slip one" to get the yarns to cross in the middle, because I really like the way that interrupts the variegated colors and keeps them from zig-zagging. And it worked, but my thumb was killing me!

So I got out my knitting rake, (finally) sanded it, and took the potholder off the needles onto the wire brads.
The picture shows about nine inches or so of the sixteen inches of knitting space on my double rake. The wire brads are set back 1/4" from the edge, and on 1/4" centers. I have about eight washers that I use to adjust the spacing in the center.

Although I can easily pick out where I switched from tubular double knitting to "crossing in the middle" double knitting, it's very hard to tell where I slid it off the needles onto the brads. And just to stir up the issue some, I did a row or two of plain double knitting in the middle.

I took it off onto needles at the end and cast off using the tubular or grafted cast-off. So although no one in our kitchen is going to notice, I have a piece of knitting in it with no beginning, and no end.

I was going to start my lecture on whether or not frame knitting counts as "real knitting" or is "cheating". But I'll let this potholder speak for itself.

If you're good, in a while I'll show you lace knitting on a double rake, and exactly how easy that is, and we can argue about whether it's cheating.

PS: The color is Sugar & Cream "Evening Jewels Ombre", also called "Jewels".