Heidi's Liquid Handsoap...easy as pie!

I spent yesterday morning experimenting with making liquid handsoap...yes, I was distracted by the allure of mixing and whipping and pouring and generally making a mess of things, and didn't complete the editing for my Happy Hexagon Crochet tutorial...so I am sorry dear readers, and will get on that asap in the new week...BUT, I think I have unvented (don't you just LOVE that word? Thank you EZ!), a very easy, all natural method of making liquid handsoap, without having to use lye and long cooking times... As you all know, I am totally smitten by the cold processed soap that I had learned to make from Rhonda's lovely blog, and since that, I have only made soap, never bought commercially available soaps again. My kids and husband love it, and Gerry even uses the soap to wash his hair...so all-round a big hit!

I really like liquid soap next to the basin in the kitchen, because it's so easy to just squeeze out some from a pump dispenser when you want to wash hands, and it stays clean and contained...however, the daunting prospect of making liquid soap in the traditional way with cooking in a crockpot, and watching it, and having to use KOH lye etc led me to trying to make the liquid soap using just my cold processed natural soap that had been "curing" for around 3 months.

I have seen many references on the web to using commercially available soap, grating it up and melting it in water and adding some glycerine to thicken...I went through the whole process of trying this method, but using my cold processed soap instead, and it failed completely! I even tried whipping the liquid with a a hand-held blender and it didn't thicken at all...
This made me wonder what they put in commercially sold soaps that makes it thicken with just water and a bit of glycerine? I guess it may be the same basic process as making the liquid laundry soap...if anyone knows, let me know what the "thickening " ingredient is :)

After much experimenting and some messed up batches, I have come up with the following process, and it really made the most beautiful, moisturizing liquid soap I have used :)

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap Recipe

Requirements:

240g of grated cold processed soap (made with olive oil and coconut oil)
2 Liters of water
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of beeswax

Handheld blender
Large stainless steel pot
Glass bowls
Double boiler

Start by grating your cured cold processed soap. I arbitrarily used 240g of soap as my starting amount.
Pour 2L of water into a large stainless steel pot and place on low to medium heat. Add the grated soap flakes and stir until all the flakes have melted.

The mixture will make some foam, so try not to whisk it, just stir gently ...above you can see the clear golden liquid that results.

In a double boiler (or in my case, a Pyrex glass bowl suspended on a steel pot with some boiling water in it), melt the coconut oil and the beeswax pellets. Use low heat...you don't want it to get super-hot...just hot enough to start melting the beeswax.

Above you can see the melted mix...when I see the beeswax pellets beginning to melt, I turn off the heat. The rest will melt in with some gentle stirring.


Let both mixtures (the soapy water and the beeswax/coconut mix) reach around 60 degrees Centigrade (I am not sure if this is critical...I usually make sure that any mixes are at the same temperature...).

Pour your beeswax/coconut mix into your soapy water, slowing adding all of it while blending with a handheld blender (I used the high speed setting on my stick blender). It won't thicken, just mix all of the ingredients very well...

You will now have a milky coloured watery liquid. I poured it into a large glass bowl and put it in the fridge to cool. Over the next couple of hours, I checked in on it and found that the mixture separated out into a clear golden liquid at the bottom, and a white layer on the top.

I gently mixed it back into an all milky colored liquid using a hand whisk. Next time I checked, there was less of a separation, and I again gently swirled the lot with a whisk. I mixed twice in about two hours then left it in the fridge.

When I got up this morning, I found that it had gelled into the most wonderful, thick milky liquid! It is really lovely stuff...it didn't leave my hands dry as I think the coconut oil is probably adding a moisturizing element...

I decanted the liquid soap into a pump dispenser and it works well...no clogging or blocking up...

Please try this out and let me know if it works out well for you?

Next week, the promised Happy Hexagon Tutorial!
Have a lovely Sunday folks :)

♥Heidi

African Flower Hexagon Tutorial Translated into Danish...and a new pattern!

I want to say a big ♥heart thank you today to Irene Larsen , author of the Danish Blog Min Verden Af ILD http://www.ildverden.blogspot.com/ for the wonderful Danish translation of the African Flower Hexagon Tutorial.

Irene has very kindly translated each step into Danish and I will be updating the original post with the translation during this evening. I am pretty "chuffed" (a very South African colloquial expression indicating happiness and satisfaction :) ) with the idea of having different translations for people across the world...if everyone on earth crocheted we would all be at peace, see...so all of us crochet fanatics are actually spreading world peace :D

Please would all of you who have used and learned (or will use and learn) from this translation, go over to Irene's blog and give her a big "Thank you" crochet Love!

Some news...remember my tutorial on how to do a Magic Ring start for crocheting a round-like motif? Well, I am pleased to present a new pattern for a flower hexagon...I am calling it a "The Happy Hexagon" Pattern and will post a tutorial next week some time...keep a watch out for it folks, if you love hexagons like I do and love flowers (like I do :) )!

It's Sunday night, so tomorrow a new week starts...you all deserve some energy for the coming tasks, so go and have a big slab of chocolate right now...it's good for you ;)

♥Heidi

Home Made Cold Processed Soap

Today I made my first home made cold processed olive oil and coconut soap. I was initially a bit nervous, having read about the inherent dangers of Caustic Soda, so I took paranoid precautions. The kids and dog were expelled from the kitchen, I cleared an area and covered everything with newspaper. I used Rhonda's excellent tutorial for this soap, please go and take a look at her blog, it really is fantastic! I used this version for the ingredients, wanting to incorporate some coconut oil (I love the stuff!). I buy all my ingredients from a local organic supplier, but really, you could find olive oil and coconut oil at the supermarket just as easily :) The Caustic Soda I also bought from a local supermarket.

First, I donned latex gloves and apron. Then got all my containers ready. These must be glass or plastic. YOU CANNOT USE ANY ALUMINIUM STUFF! The caustic soda will destroy it!!

You will also need two candy thermometers...one for the Caustic Soda bowl and one for the oil bowl. The two sets of ingredients must be at the same temperature when you mix them.
For my Olive Oil , I used Olive Oil Pomace (which is a lot less expensive than Virgin or Extra Virgin Olive Oil ), which is absolutely fine to use for soap.

Prepare the moulds that you are going to use. I used some silicone moulds that are rose shaped...pretty! I sprayed them very lightly with some Spray and Cook. Put them on a tray covered with newspaper. Right, moving onto the ingredients....

So I measured out the required amounts of the oils and water (you can use rain water , but since it hasn't rained here, I used distilled water).

I took a cast iron pot, placed it on low heat on the stove, and melted the coconut oil and the olive oil pomace together. Then poured it into a glass bowl. Placed the candy thermometer on the side of the bowl.

Measure out the Caustic Soda powder in WEIGHT (not mls!), and carefully pour into the glass container with your water. I also put a candy thermometer into this glass bowl. VERY carefully and gently mix the caustic soda granules until fully dissolved. The mix is initially very cloudy, but as the soda dissolves, it becomes clear. You'll see that the mixture produces fumes and quite a lot of heat. (I made sure before I started the process that all the windows in the kitchen were open, and there was a nice breeze.) It wasn't hot enough to make my hand feel hot, ie you can still continue to mix comfortably, but you can see the temp on the candy thermometer rising quite a lot!


Above you can see the mixed caustic soda, and the heat it produced.


I waited until the temperature on both mixtures was the same, ie 50 degrees Centigrade, then very carefully poured the caustic soda into the oil mixture.


When you start mixing the ingredients, the stuff look pretty awful! Like some kind of glue! I decided to use a stainless steel whisk to mix, and as the minutes passed, the mixture became creamier in colour and thicker. It took about twenty minutes to get to the point where I could see thickening, so I decided to see what would happen if I used a handheld mixer. I didn't use the normal egg beater attachments, because you do NOT want this stuff to splatter everywhere (at this stage the stuff is still caustic!). I attached the dough hooks , and within 5 minutes of mixing , the mixture became thick enough that you could see ripples in the liquid which held their shape.

Above you can see the ripples in the mix. I have never made soap before, so I really didn't know if this was the right consistency, but having mixed for so long, decided that it must be...
I added in a blend of essential oils (I have read on the Web that the essential oil/fragrance oil etc component shouldn't be more that 1-2% of the total , but here again, I haven't tested this myself), including Lavender, Patchouli and Orange , mixing it in well with the whisk.

I then carefully transferred the mix to the moulds, being careful not to drip any on my counter top or hand :)

Above you can see the uneven surface, showing how thick it has become. When you have a mixture that has this consistency, it is referred to as having achieved "Trace" .

I placed an oven wire rack on two upside down bowls over the moulds and covered with a thick towel. Apparently you now leave it be for about a day before you can take the soaps out of the mould and leave on a wire rack to cure for 6 weeks or so.

I must say that this process was a lot easier than I imagined it would be! I really enjoyed making this soap, and will try out some more recipes. I found some great ideas here, and here.

These soaps make really nice gifts. I am going to make up a whole load to give as stocking fillers :) ...and the best part of all? If you are on a budget, these really save you loads of money. Here is my cost breakdown:

Olive Oil Pomace: 800mls = R7.28
Coconut Oil 200mls = R2.00
Caustic Soda 130g = R6.50

Total Cost = R15.78 for 12 soaps....one soap cost R1.30 to make!

For all my international readers, the "R" is for South African Rand. At today's exchange rate, the cost per soap in US Dollars is US$0.16!!! Wow! I haven't costed in the essential oils, as they are not strictly necessary and you may want to add your own blends. Suffice to say that the essential oils don't add a huge amount of extra cost :)

How have your Heartmade lists come along? Have you looked at some of the links I posted before? I am adding a Linky List for any ideas you folks may want to share for ideas for Homemade gifts...just add them below...I would love to see what ideas you've seen and liked :)

♥Heidi

Bath Melts Tutorial

Thanks very much to everyone who commented and followed my Pinterest boards! And thank you to everyone who visits my blog...I don't always have time to react to comments, but want you all to know that I appreciate you all :)

Today was a really intense day in the ICU. Gerry arrived back from the States last night (jet-lagged, the poor thing!), and was back at work full throttle this morning. We were very busy, and my time has run out today... So I am doing a short tutorial on how to make a really easy Heartmade gift, which when you have tried them, will have you making them in bulk like I do... :) really, I promise.

I gave a jar of these Bath Melts to my friends in our Knitting group, and they all loved them. Even my girls (and Gerry...) use them every night in their baths. They are super easy to make, and you use easy-to-find ingredients....they are awesome for soft skin!

I make my melts in bulk, because they are so popular and they don't last all that long once you've discovered how divine they are. If you want to make smaller quantities, just use the same ratios as below:
1 measure Creme of Tartar: 1 measure Cornflour: 2 measures Bicarbonate of Soda: approximately 2- 2.5 measures of Coconut Oil. Add the coconut oil slowly, mixing your mixture very well in between additions of oil. It is easier to add more, than to take away (which obviously means you need to add more dry ingredients ). If you prefer, you can use less Coconut Oil and add some Jojoba, or other oils which you like.

If you want to add some essential oils, add them to the melted coconut oil, before you add it to the dry mix. I like to use Rose and Lavender essential oils, with dried rose petals and dried lavender respectively. PLEASE : make sure that you know what essential oils are safe to use, depending on who you are giving the melts to! If you are in any doubt, leave the oils out! The melts will still be divine for bathing :)

Bath Melts Tutorial

Ingredients:

2.5kg Creme of Tartar
2.5kg Cornflour
5 kg Bicarbonate of Soda
2.5 Litres Coconut Oil
Essential Oils of your choice
Dried Rose Petals or Lavender or other dried flowers of your choice
Large tub
Sieve
Wire whisk


Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Make sure that there are no big lumps in your mix.
Use your wire whisk to mix very well.


Add 4 cups of dried flowers. I have used rose petals, but Lavender also works well. Mix thoroughly into the dry mix.


Above you can see the huge tub of Coconut Oil , before I have melted it. Coconut Oil is solid at room temperature, so scoop some out and place in a Pyrex measuring jug. Melt on low heat , 30-40 seconds at a time, in your microwave, until all the oil is melted. BE CAREFUL not to overheat and burn yourself!!!!


My measuring jug holds a litre, so it makes it easier to keep track of how much oil I have added.


If the bulk of your coconut oil has melted, but there are a few white solid lumps left in the jug, use your wire whisk to gently stir...the lumps will melt into the rest of the oil.


Carefully pour the oil into the dry mixture. Use your bare hands to work the oil through as much of the dry mix as possible. You will need to add more oil, so don't be surprised if the mix is still very dry...it is better to add the oil slowly, and end up with the right consistency, than add too much...you can't un-add!

Melt some more coconut oil, and add half a litre at a time. After adding the oil, mix very well, crumbling the dry mix/oil together to ensure that the oil is well spread. You may need all the coconut oil as described, or less...add slowly , small volumes at a time...check your consistency often.


As you work through the mix, you know that you have added enough Coconut Oil, when your fingers leave a clear impression in the mix, that holds it's shape.

Roll balls of the mix into a golf ball sized melt. Place on a baking sheet on a baking tray, and leave in the fridge overnight.

When you run your bath, just pop one of these into the warm water...they will slowly fizzle and melt. Be warned, they are addictive.

Because these melts have no preservatives, you will need to keep them in the fridge...
Once they are hard, put them in a pretty jar and add a nice ribbon, and Voila! you have a lovely gift to give :) Just remember that you will be asked for more... :)

Tomorrow I will post a pretty label sheet for you to use for a gift tag on your Bath Melt jars ....

♥Heidi

The Pretty Picot Cast On...a Tutorial

Well today was quite a day! I had to do some proverbial emotional tap dancing, but it is testimony to my blogged determination to bring you a small post, and keep my promise! To this, I must add some explanation...

I have uploaded two videos demonstrating the details of today's post, but in the first video, I was alone, and had to content with severe body contortion and a deep sustained squint (I was eventually sure that I was looking myself in the eye...) in order to film this here little clip...

Normally my precious daughter does the filming while yours truly demonstrates knitting bliss, but in the first video, I set up my trusty tripod and after considerable trial and error , I managed to get the whole thing focused, while leaning, arms akimbo, back pretzeled, around the darned tripod. This resulted in me only being able to see what the heck I was doing , by looking at the video viewer a half inch from my nose :[

Ok, so what am I trying to say? The video makes me look like I am trying to knit while demonstrating sign language, so please forgive this ambisinistrous knitter...

The Picot Cast On...with a twist!

Ok, so you know how you sometimes want to make something uber-girly and adorable, and you are not sure exactly what kind of embellishment will add that certain " Je ne sais quoi..." without making you (or your recipient) look like a deranged escapee from the Barbara Cartland fan club? Well, search no more! 'Cos here , on your friendly neighbourhood blog, you will find just the thing!

Now, I am sure that the vast majority of readers out in Blogland, have already come across or even mastered this little cast on, and if you have, I am sorry... a tedious description will now follow...

The idea with the Picot Cast on is to create a set of little bumps at the cast on edge of your knitting. This adds a bobbly , pretty border, and is useful for a variety of items, including the ever mentioned babywear, blanket edging, mittens, gloves, scarves, hats, sweaters etc etc .... in fact anything that you can cast on for :)

If you Google "Picot Cast On" you will get a gazillion hits, and your monthly download package will be used up if you just watch the first twenty videos that pop up, so please don't think this way is the only way...it is merely how I like to do things :)

Most of the web sources will describe the picot cast on by using 5 stitches initially.

So it goes something like this...

Cast on 5 stitches.

Knit 2 stitches.

Bind off one stitch on your right hand needle, by slipping the far right stitch over the second stitch that was knitted.

You have one stitch left on your right hand needle.

Knit one stitch.

Bind off one stitch just as before.

You have 2 stitches left on the left hand needle, and one stitch on the right hand needle.

Slip the right hand needle stitch (remaining), onto the left needle.

You now have three stitches on the left hand needle.

Cast on four stitches.

(NOTE: You started with 5 stitches, bound off two stitches, and were left with three stitches. The stitch you slipped from the right hand needle to the left COUNTS AS THE FIRST STITCH, of the five you need in total, ie you cast on 4 extra stitches to make up FIVE stitches to work with, just as in the beginning).

You will have a little gap between the first two stitches on your left hand needle, and the stitch you slipped from the right hand needle to the left.

Repeat from process from the beginning...knit 2, bind off 1, knit 1, bind off 1, slip remaining stitch to left needle, cast on 4. There you go :)

Your knitting should look like the pic above. I am not wild about the look of these funny little picots...they kinda look like (please excuse the phrase...) little udder teats...not nice and bobbly-like... So I sat in bed one night, knitting and fiddled with this. How could I make them look rounder and cuter?


First I thought I would make the picots, using only FOUR stitches instead of five, making them crowd together and perhaps make them fatter that way. Above is the result. The bit of knitting has a natural tendency to curl up, since it is stocking stitch after all, but I think that the four stitch picot cast on worsened the curl up. Hmmmm...so back to the drawing board....



In the pic above, I have taped the knitted piece down to force it flat, so that you can see the effect. It's better, in my humble opinion, but the curl up is too much to deal with....

Then I added a twist...and I had a zen moment. In the pic above you can see the roundy, fat little picots that were made. It is extremely difficult to describe a three dimensional technique in written words, so I have made a video showing exactly what I did. It's the second video. I am going to add a written description as well...just in case ;)

Cast on 5 stitches.

Knit 2 stitches.

Bind off one stitch on your right hand needle, by slipping the far right stitch over the second stitch that was knitted.

You have one stitch left on your right hand needle.

Knit one stitch.

Bind off one stitch just as before.

You have 2 stitches left on the left hand needle, and one stitch on the right hand needle.

BEFORE SLIPPING THE STITCH ON YOUR RIGHT HAND NEEDLE ONTO THE LEFT HAND NEEDLE, rotate your right hand needle through 360 degrees, moving away from you .

Slip the right hand needle stitch (remaining), onto the left needle.

You now have three stitches on the left hand needle.

Cast on four stitches.

(You started with 5 stitches, bound off two stitches, and were left with three stitches. The stitch you slipped from the right hand needle to the left COUNTS AS THE FIRST STITCH, of the five you need in total, ie you cast on 4 extra stitches to make up FIVE stitches to work with, just as in the beginning).

Repeat from the beginning...knit 2, bind off 1, knit 1, bind off 1, slip remaining stitch to left needle, cast on 4.

I must say, I really like these little critters! When I started knitting, I realised that I had inadvertently created a set of eyelets just above the picots :) Of course, I had to try the four stitch picot with twist option, and yes, of course the thing looked adorable, but curled like mad.

So I went back to the five stitch picot cast on and proceeded as follows:
Row 1: Knit all
Row 2: Knit all
Row 3: Knit all
Row 4: Purl all
Row 5: Knit all
Rest of work: alternate purl and knit ie stocking stitch.

I found that this helped to uncurl the work a bit and I liked the effect of the row of purl above the picots.

Right...back to the four stitch problem...
I decided that I liked this look better, but obviously needed to add stitches to the work to allow for a bit of uncurling ...so this is what I did...


On Row 1, I knit into the front and back (thereby making one extra stitch), of the stitches shown above. I then proceeded with Row 2 exactly as described earlier on. And it worked! I made little eyelets, the picots were a little closer together, and the knitting curled a bit less...happiness!

The video above is the self flagellation one...how to make a five stitch picot cast on...

The video below is the demonstration of the twist...happy viewing!

And now, Scotty beam me up.....

Night all,

Heidi :)

Alternative Sock Toes...

Hello my fellow sock knitters :) Today I am going to chat about the options to customize your sock toes. In the previous post, I knitted a sock toe that I like for my socks. I prefer a wider sock toe as I don't like feeling my toes squished together, but if your feet are different (narrower, toes more pointy etc), then you will want to change the shape of your sock toe...

As a quick aside note...there are countless ways to knit the toes of a sock, including Short Row toes, Star toe, as well as a bunch of provisional cast-on based toes... I don't use these , so I am not going to talk about them...suffice to say that my way is not the only way :)




If you look at the toe in the pic above, you'll see that the toe is broad and the width of knitting required for the foot (full number of stitches needed for the foot circumference), starts close to the point of the sock. This type of toe is good for people with broad +/- flat feet. Also, it's good for people who like room for their toes, whether they have broad feet or not. If you have worn a sock that has a bit of knitted fabric hanging off the point of your foot, then this would be the better alternative toe shape. This toe was the one from the previous post, where the increases were made on every row, first and last stitches of each side of a round.

What kind of toe would be good for people with very pointy feet?

The broad toe above would hang loose and wide on the foot that is narrower and perhaps pointier. The better alternative would be the shaped toe, seen below. Again, the same number of required stitches are cast-on, and then on the first round you just knit, next round increase first and last stitch (both sides of the round), then knit a round and so on. You are making the increases every alternate round, until you have the total required number of stitches for the foot. This results in a longer, sharper toe shape, which when pulled over your foot, will " hug" your toes :)



In addition, you have the option to knit toes that conform to the anatomical shape of the front of your foot. This would require a " half-half" series of increases, combining the two techniques explained above. It's easiest to read the increases on a chart (see below). Decide if you are knitting the right or left foot first. Remember that you will end up with mirror image toes, so don't get confused...do one at a time :) On one edge of the toe , you will increase every round, on the other, every alternate round and so on... this might work better for you if you prefer the shaping to be over your big and second toes, tapering sharply over the outside toes).


I have drawn a little schematic chart , illustrating these ideas. On the bottom left of the chart, you have the "alternate round" increase toe, on the right the "every round" increase toe (only one side of the knitting is shown). On the top, you have (again only one side shown), the left and right feet toes for the anatomically shaped toes. On the inside side, where the big toes are , the increases are made every round, and on the outside edge, every alternate round.

By changing the increase placement, you can shape the toes according to what works best for you...

A short post today...hope your socks are coming along nicely...

Lots of Love,
Heidi :)

Double Knitting Tutorial

Hi friends!I have had no end of trouble uploading this tutorial...it has taken two days for the pics to upload, so I apologise for the delay in posting...:( Having said that, here it is (something to be said for perseverance :)) I wanted to do a tutorial on double knitting, because for a long time it was something I was puzzled by , not really understanding the online explanations that I found. I wanted to be able to knit a double layer of mitten/glove cuffs, for extra warmth, and eventually managed to work out how to do a cast on for the beginning of the glove, that didn't have a floppy unattractive edge to it. So, again, just to be clear, I didn't invent this technique, merely did it my way :)

You'll need to colours of yarn and a circular needle. I have used an aran weight yarn for this tutorial and size 4mm needles.

Firstly, make a slip knot in both yarns. Place the slip knots on the needle in such a way that the tails are "behind"and the working yarns to the front.

Holding your needle in your right hand, bring the working yarn of the colour closest to you right hand, towards you and then to your left, ie, you are bring the yarn around the other colour's slip knot, towards your left.

Hook your left thumb around this working yarn (you are going to be doing a good 'ol fashioned thumb cast on, alternating colours.

Insert the point of the needle, under the working yarn as shown above. Notice the placement of the working yarn, on your thumb.

Remove your thumb, and gently pull on the working yarn, to form your second blue stitch.

Now do exactly the same for the white yarn, coming off the white slip knot...holding the white working yarn in your left hand, bring it towards you and around the your left, slip your left thumb under it, and insert your needle in exactly the same way you just did for the blue yarn. You have cast on the second white stitch. Repeat again using the white yarn. Then the blue, alternating colours and each time bringing the yarns around each other to the front as explained.
Your stitches so far should look like the pic above.

Continue to do this until you have the required number of stitches. Here a small aside: lets say you are casting on to make a small square (a potholder for eg), and you need a total number of 25 stitches if you were just knitting straight back and forth...in double knitting you are creating exctly the same thing, but it has two sides, so in order to make the same item as in the regular knitting, you will need to cast on 25 stitches in the white as well as 25 stitches in the blue yarn (think of two separately made potholders, placed wrong sides together and sewn up all around...that is essentially what double knitting does). Now it's all good and well when you have two different coloured yarns...you can see the front and the back of the work developing...but if you have one colour of yarn, you may easily get confused...so if you have never done any double knitting before, I recommend that you start with two colours until you are feeling more confident with the technique. Once you have the hang of it, you will "see" which type of stitch comes next, just as you would "see" if the next stitch is a purl or a knit stitch in regular knitting.

Ok, now for the way to hold your yarns...
Through trial and error, I have found the following way to be the best for me.
Note which colour yarn you have cast on last...this will obviously be the colour you will first knit. This is important later, but for now, wrap the yarns around your little finger, as shown above. it is essentially the same way I wrap the yarn for regular knitting.

Now insert your middle finger between the yarn as above, making sure that you have brought the yarn that is the second colour you are going to knit (in this case the blue yarn is the second stitch on my needle), to the front of your finger.

Using your index finger, hook the white yarn (which forms the first stitch you are going to knit on your needles), and slip your index finger between the yarn (white now in front). This may seem over complicated and may well be uncomfortable for you, but I have found that it controls my knitting tension perfectly. You will have to experiment and see what works for you.

Initially you may find the whole "holding"thing a bit tricky...I initially hold my right needle in you left hand, just held by my thumb, in order to have it in the right vicinty for taking in my right hand (once you have your yarns placed well in your right hand, how else do you grab your right needle??) Once my yarns are wrapped around my fingers, I just "pass" over the needle from left hand to right...
You are ready to knit your first stitch...in this case the white...

Insert your needle into the first stitch. As you can see in the pic above, I tend to stabilize my right needle in my left hand so it doesn't flop about.

Bring your right hand up, and wrap the white yarn only, around the needle point exactly as for a regular knit stitch. Knit the stitch.

So now you are left with the knitted white stitch on your right hand needle and both yarns behind this needle. You need to purl the blue stitch on the left hand needle, so you bring BOTH yarns to the front exactly as if you were doing a regular purl stitch.

Once both your yarns are on this side of the work, you will insert your needle as if to purl, but use ONLY the blue yarn to purl the stitch.

After you have purled the blue stitch, you will take both yarns to the far side of the needles, and again using only the white yarn, knit the next stitch on the left hand needle.

Repeat the steps: both yarns to the front , insert needle as to do a purl stitch, use blue yarn only to purl, both yarns to the back .

One row completed.

Turn your work around. Before you start to knit twist the yarns around each other once, I find this makes a nicer edge.

Notice that you will need to knit the first stitch (blue), because on the previous row, you purled it, so in order to end up with an item that has knit sides showing only (ie the purled stitches all show inwards), you will need to purl the blue stitches and knit the white ones.

Looks so pretty, love this technique!

Just continue in the same way, bringing yarns back and forth...

If anything is unclear, please send me a mail and I shall clarify!

This has been a marathon uploading session (our internet in SA isn't always perfect), so I shall sign off...

Have a great evening :)
Lots of Love,
Heidi :)