I’ve talked about this show a bit in the past–Vicki Howel’s knitting show on the DIY network is a 30-minute knitting show that crams in lots of patterns and techniques with a young, fresh additude.

What I particularly like about the show (other than seeing on TV designers I admire in print) is that I often learn quick and easy tips that can literally change the way I knit. (For instance, it was on the Knitty Gritty that I first learned to cable without a cable needle!)

Last night, I was watching an episode about mixing yarns–the patterns for this episode didn’t make me run to the yarn store, and I have done tons of blending different fibers together myself, especially when I was designing and sellling scarves for Neighborhood Knits, the fiber arts coop I was involved in in Seattle. But I always use some guesswork and a lot of swatching when it comes to choosing the hook or needle size for a project where I’m carrying 2 (or 3 or 4!) yarns at a time…

So, along comes Lion Brand’s Stephanie Close, the episode’s guest designer, with this little tip: when combining yarns, add the milimeters for the needle recommendation on each yarn label together (i.e. if one yarn calls for a 5mm needle and the other calls for a 7mm needle, you’d want a 12mm needle) If that size needle doesn’t exist, use the closest one you can find, which in this case would be a US size 17, I think… It’s obviously not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a great starting point for when you decide to mix yarns.

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The Knitty Gritty Does it Again!