Twists And Turns

Day 61: Although this is another Red Heart "colour pooling" yarn, the shades are such that I don't want to lump it into the Ugly Yarn series even though it has a somewhat harsh finish. In fact, I find the pastels rather pleasing. Still, variegated yarns are best employed as novelties or small projects, so I thought I'd make myself a new winter hat using nalbinding. Having learned the Oslo stitch, it was time to move up to something a little more complicated, i.e., Finnish stitch. Finnish is more dense than Oslo and gives a lovely plaited effect reminiscent of four-strand braiding, but oh, the twists and turns! There are a number of variations to the stitch depending on how many threads the needleworker chooses to pick up from the edge and/or reverse side, as well as the number of threads carried on the thumb at any given time. Here, I pick up one edge stitch, then the innermost of three thumb loops, one "mouse ear" loop from the reverse, and then twist the three loops downward as I pass my needle under the remaining two thumb loops and the working thread. It sounds complicated, but in practice, the process is fairly obvious. Increases are made by utilizing the same edge loop twice in succession, decreases by picking up two edge loops instead of one. That said, the needleworker will not find standardized patterns for nalbinding garments or other items due to multiple factors including an individual's thumb size, the tightness of the work, the type of yarn used and so on. A willingness to experiment is crucial, and the experience gained by it will dictate your success with nalbinding, which is to say that my first try at the crown of a hat came out way too pointy, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.