Greetings fibernetters,

Do you all have a favorite way to cast on and do you use it most of the time?

I spent two hours the other night trying different cast on methods from
the Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley. Usually I use what she calls
German cast on, or what E. Zimmerman calls long tail cast on. It it easy
and works just fine but
with circular knitting, the right side has a loopy appearance I have
never liked. The wrong side, however, looks great. I must have tried
eight different methods. Didn't
much care for any of them. Too hard. Not right. Not even. 

Then it occurred to me to try a reverse of the German method. Took
awhile to figure out and then to train my fingers, but finally got it
and am so happy! The wrong side is now right.

That night I began a sweater *for me* from my own naturally dyed,
handspun wool. I have 16, one oz. skeins that were dyed with
goldenrod, madder, indigo, logwood, osage orange bark, sumac berries,
pokeweed berries and cochineal. Have been searching for some way to use so
many different colored little bits since the Woolgathering and Natural
Dye-In last September. 

The sweater ribbing is in a natural dark brown wool and the sleeves and
body are being knit in a three-color helix spiral. One color is always
the dark brown (for cohesiveness) and I am adding in the other colors in
a regular pattern. It is so cool! The thin stripes of the different
colors blend in interesting ways. Of course, it is an EZ circular knit
sweater which is my favorite style.

Oh, I have been using the homemade drum carder like mad! Thanks again,
Holly, for the figure 8 tip!

Nancy in southern Indiana

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