The topics for our virtual June meeting is:

How to Make a Magic Ball of Yarn

and

Matching Cast-on and Bind-off methods

The author of the link below, Nicole Haschke, describes what a magic ball is, how to create one and how to determine the yardage through weighing it. She also provides patterns and pictures of projects that were made with magic balls.  She writes:

It’s a little thing called Magic Ball knitting.

It’s a way to use up our leftover yarn in a truly fun way. One that becomes a little project in and of itself. And one that – because we’re gathering leftover yarn and putting it together – can almost feel like a de-cluttering project!

Hey… it just might be enough to silence the clamoring for cleaning for a little while.

Want to learn more about creating and knitting with Magic Ball yarn? Click the link below!

How to Create and Knit with Magic Ball Yarn Create a Magic Ball and make magic with your yarn leftovers

To summarize, Wanda Leibowitz writes in one of the sub-links: The basic idea behind magic ball knitting is that you’ll tie a bunch of short lengths of varied yarns together to create a single long string of bold, vibrant yarn that will yield a new surprise with every row. To get started, 

1. Go into your yarn stash and grab all of the odds and ends of yarn; anything from a stray ball to a few stray inches can become a part of your magic ball. 
2. Then, throw all of it into an opaque bag or box. 
3. Close your eyes, and pull something out at random. Snip off a length of yarn, and wind it into the start of a new “magic” ball of yarn. 
4. Then, grab a new skein from your box or bag, snip off a length of that yarn. Tie it to your first snippet, and continue to roll your “magic ball” as though there were no join in the yarns. [See the links on tying two lengths together with an overhand knot, or doing a Russian Join.)
5. Keep going, adding lengths of new random colors to your magic ball, until your magic ball is the size of a regular ball of yarn. 
6. Then, start all over again with a new magic ball! Repeat until your box or bag is empty. 

Now, use your magic balls of yarn the same way that you would any other balls of yarn!

Matching Cast-on and Bind-off methods

We all have our favorite cast-on and bind-off methods. And if it looks good and you like it, none of them are wrong!

But if you have every wanted those edges to really look the same, consider these matching cast-on and bind-off methods. I’m sure there are many more – there is a book with over 200!  Take a look at the Icelandic and the Channel Island methods. The videos by Patty Lyons from Mason Dixon Knitting are good and easy to follow. Here’s a link to one of many videos for the Channel Island Cast-on.

If you have any questions, please contact us at knittingguildofthedesert@outlook.com and we will get back to you by email or phone.