Loose Ends

I have exactly 2 weeks of vacation left. The end of summer rush to complete my projects is on. The really scary tangle of colorful yarn ends in the photo is the inside of my Palette cardi which has hundreds of ends that are going to have to be dealt with in the near future. For years I have known about the method of weaving in your loose ends as you knit along so that finishing is simply snipping off the ends once the item is complete. From habit I usually just knit happily along with all those lovely strands never thinking about the future drudgery to come in spite of the fact that I learned this fabulous finish-as-you-go technique from reading Glorious Knits by Kaffe Fassett many, many years ago. Before self patterning and self striping sock yarns were available the inside of any pretty sock would look like the inside of my Palette cardi. Scary. Very scary. I took a refresher course on this simple weaving technique using You Tube and I am now using it on the fair isle socks I am spindling. It is a wonderful feeling to know that these multi colored socks knitted from many separate spindlings of merino roving will not be any harder to finish than a pair of single ball socks.