Welcome to Project Knitway or should I say Project Renottaway? It's my cyberspace place to post my favorite things...thoughts about family and creativity and design. One of my favorite things is making stuff, specifically clothing and accessories from fiber and metal. So you'll see a lot about that here. I also love spending time with my family, so there will be a bit about that too. When I'm not with my family or in my studio, I am most likely at nextdoor, my store. I have always had a store ever since I was a young woman. I started with a weaving store called the niddy noddy in Waukesha eons ago. I ended with nextdoor in Brookfield. It's my dream store filled with great clothing, especially denim. Really nice women work and shop there, it's a fun place to be. You can find us there every day and online at www.shopatnextdoor.com So come for a visit here and there.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Bamboozled or What a Difference a Day Makes


Well, we were all fooled with our taste of spring...actually saw green grass for a few days. Alas, winter is back in all its glory. The good thing is the end is in sight instead of the beginning. Every year at this time I put away my wool yarns despite the weather and  work with lighter weight fibers. I keep a collection of cotton, rayon, silk and bamboo on hand in a variety of colors just for this purpose. Most of the yarns are on cones and have about 2000 yards to a pound, about the weight of a fingering or sport yarn. I like to strand them together and knit them as a worsted weight yarn on my bulky machine. In this poncho I used a strand of cotton and a strand of bamboo. Bamboo is a beautiful soft yarn with a silky hand. It comes in tons of colors and knits up well for shawls, scarves and wraps that drape. It works well doubled stranded with cotton, the cotton giving it a bit firmer hand. This poncho is one of my favorite easy wraps to wear indoors now for a cozy, but springy feel.The directions can be found in my January 5th blog...Poncho Viva. If you're not a knitter you can purchase this piece on my website http://www.shopatnextdoor.com/ and click on Project Knitway. In the days ahead I'll be knitting more of these pieces and talking about ways to blend yarns. Till then, think spring and stick to your knitting.


Renotta