The strangest fiber I’ve knit with so far? Candy laces from IKEA. But then I saw knitted fairy lights in my Twitter feed, so I had to try it.
I wanted to knit a ribbon of light for my Christmas wreath. I used an e-loop cast on (too hard to work long tail cast on with wire) and cast on 5 stitches using US size 9 needles. Why size 9? I want the needles to stay in the project, and my straight needles were too long! These are the biggest dpns I have that I don’t care about scratching with wire. I wasn’t ready to sacrifice my ebony needles. Stitches have to be pretty loose on the needle so you can get your other needle into the stitch; wire is not stretchy like wool.
I’d really like a longer ribbon, but the product description online was inaccurate, so I have two strands this length instead of one long one. Here’s the first set! 32 feet/100 LED lights. I may make a little bow with the second set, and see if I can hide a second battery box behind the wreath somehow. You have to decide if you’re casting on from the battery box end, or the far end. I used the far end because I wanted to end with my needles near the battery pack so I could tuck it near the top of the wreath.
Action shot! The lights are programmable to be steady, twinkle, or six other patterns.
After this bit of fun, I went looking for the original source for this idea, and it’s from @leila_raven on Instagram. She actually has instructions with needle sizes and cast on numbers for a knitted swatch. I didn’t realize there would be instructions, so I just cast on and ran with it. It couldn’t be harder than knitting with candy laces, right?
Happy holidays!
PDXKnitterati 