Twisty

I had to have a couple of go's at joining up the neck at the front, but now it's going well.

Meanwhile I've been indulging in another kind of twisting stitches: twined knitting or Tvåändsstickning (Swedish) or tvebandsstrikking (Norwegian). I think both those terms mean 'two-end knitting'. That's what you do: take the two ends of the ball of wool and knit with each end alternately, twisting between each stitch. You can also use two different colours, as I am doing. It sounds really laborious, but actually when you're shown how to do it right (as I was, at the IKnit weekender by the lovely Dutch Knitters) it's not so bad - hardly any slower than any other two-colour knitting. Your wool does get twisted up, though and you have to spend time untwisting (again, there's a technique for that). It would be less twisty with the real z-plied wool, but I'm using some lovely Gotland that I bought from Blacker at the weekend. I could spin my own z-ply, I suppose!

 

Comments

[dawn]

I think the fabric might be more dense? A bit like when you knitting in two colours and stranding over one stitch? It looks great, as does that elusive aran (meaning I haven't seen it yet IRL!) Are you using a pattern from a twined knitting book? Looks intrigueing , wish I'd taken the workshop now!

[Brigid]

Jill's comment shows me I wasn't quite clear in my description. It's the same technique whether you use the two ends of one ball of wool or use two different colours. If you're using two colours you can, as I've done here, wind them together to keep them tidy.

[Jill]

This is not meant to be dismissive, but why? What is the difference between doing it your way and using two different balls of wool? The way you are doing it, do you get a double fabric, I can't see from the photo?