Nessie Expedition: Two-Handed Yarn Management Part 2

Last week we announced the next installment in our Cryptid Knits series: Nessie Expedition.

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, a beast dwells in Loch Ness. Few have seen the beast, and even fewer lived to tell the tale. But here at the Lattes & Llamas Society for Knitterly Cryptid Studies, we have definitive evidence of Nessie’s existence. For the first time in history, Nessie has been found…

…on your socks!

Last week chartered the U.S.S Sock Knitter, and if you haven’t already booked your bearth you better hurry before they all fill up*! If you missed our first post, you can get all the sea-worthy details here.

*You know those commercials for saving tigers where they have to add a disclaimer at the end that you aren’t ACTUALLY adopting a tiger for $9.95/month? Did some angry donor call yelling that their tiger never came in the mail? I actually wouldn’t be that surprised if someone really thought they were getting a tiger. Anyhow, I guess this is your tiger-disclaimer. Our journey will be metaphorical. If you show up on the shores of Loch Ness next week, we won’t be there. I mean, we’ll be there in spirit, but our actual bodies will still be Philly.

Even though this trip is just in our imaginations, that’s no reason not to take our imaginary travels together. It’s no secret that I’m basically obsessed with MKALs. The mystery of it, following the clues and discovering the pictures painted with Jac’s amazeballs color charts, allows us to all go on a fantastic shared adventure, no matter where our actual bodies are. We’ve been talking a lot about what we want to focus on at Lattes & Llamas. There are only so many hours in the day. You may have already heard this in the rumor mill, but we have decided to cancel our spaces at shows this year. Instead, we are going 100% in on knitting experiences. Why just knit socks when you can get on board for a full-fledged sock-based adventure with all your friends on Ravelry? On that note, who’s ready for a spoiler?! This is the one and only spoiler I’m going to give you before clue one releases, so savor it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgrXVpzHaud/?taken-by=doctor_llama

Make sure to come back here every Friday during the Nessie Expedition for our shore excursions. Each week, when the new clue is released, I will show another spoiler of the progress from the last clue. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to download the Nessie-Project Sheet

The MKAL ships off on Friday, March 30, 2018. We’ll dock each Friday, and take shore leave long enough to download the new clue. Your ship itinerary is as follows:

3/23/2018-Tomorrow (Saturday) is the last day to order a Nessie Expedition kit that is guaranteed to ship before the start of the MKAL. Scroll down for your second lesson in two-handed yarn management.

3/30/2018-We’re shipping off! The first clue will be released on Ravelry.

4/6/2018-Our first port of call: Clue 2 will be released on Ravelry.

4/13/2018-Shore leave to resupply and cast on the second sock: Clue 3 will be released on Ravelry.

4/20/2018-Anchors down in Loch Ness: The final clue, Clue 4, will be released on Ravelry.

As with any expedition, you’ll need supplies and preparation. We designed yarn just for the occasion. The Nessie Expedition Kit comes with two identical 50g balls of decadent, sparkling, gradient yarn (one for each sock) and one 100g ball of Vacation Yarn in the color “Baskerville.” Additionally, you’ll get a themed project bag, hand made beaded stitch markers designed to match your yarn, and the Nessie Expedition Pattern.

If you choose not to purchase the kit, the pattern is available by itself for $6 on Ravelry, and you’ll need two sharply contrasting colors of fingering weight yarn. We will not be offering the specialty gradient yarn, bag, or stitch markers for sale outside of the kits.

Two-Handed Yarn Management Part 2

Last week we covered the basics of swatching and managing your colorwork by holding each color in a separate hand. You can view that tutorial here. Before you move on to this tutorial, make sure you have mastered knitting in the Continental style with your left hand, and in the English style in your right hand, as shown in the video. Once you’ve got that down, use this video to learn to catch your unused color behind your work for perfect, snag-free floats.

The trick to this is to go really slowly at first. If you are working on a swatch, note that this technique is intended for working in the round, and you might want to grab some leftovers from your stash, cast on in the round, and practice catching the floats in the round. Once you get the hang of this it starts being second nature. I find that my work is the cleanest and pucker free if I catch floats on different stitches each round. So, for example, even if I’m knitting eight in the main color and then one in the contrast color for several rounds in a row, don’t always catch the float on the 3rd st of the main color. switch between catching on the 3rd or 4th stitch instead so that your catches aren’t in a perfect column. Play around with the technique and find what works best for you.

~Megan-Anne

Did you know Nessie loves oatmeal? True story.