Why, that looks like another pinwheel sweater! Yes, I've just finished teaching a knitting class at my lys where we made pinwheel sweaters - what fun it was! Because the sweater has such a unique construction, I had to make a little sample mini-pinwheel along with my students. I was just going to rip it out, but then we discovered that it was the perfect size to fit on a Baby Bobbi Bear (and, what do you know, I'm teaching a class on that pattern next month!). So I'm finishing the thing off for baby-Bobbi-bear-on-the-way and am now just at "the loopy edge".

And here's the baby hemlock ring blanket I'm finishing up for best buddy, Shannon, and her upcoming arrival. I'm at... wait for it... the loopy edge. So let's compare loops, shall we?

For the hemlock ring's loopy edge, better known as "87th rnd", we work four stitches and a yarnover, turn, make five new stitches in the yarnover, turn again, and bind off seven stitches. Net loss of stitches: four.

For the pinwheel sweater, we work three stitches onto a dpn, then work 6 rows of i-cord on those stitches, and finally place them on top of the next three stitches of the sweater and knit them together with those stitches (sort of like a three-needle bind off but without the binding off). We're left with three stitches on the dpn ready to make 6 rows of i-cord for the next loop. Net loss of stitches: three.

So, which do I prefer? Well, I like the big fat loops of the pinwheel's loopy edge a lot, but having dpns and the original needles all dangling about at the same time is a bit annoying. The lovely curved loops of the hemlock ring's loopy edge remind me of pretty flowery crochet edgings, but that work-turn-work-turn thing always feels a little one-step-forward-two-steps-back to me. So, I like 'em both about the same. And I'm kinda liking doing them both at the same time. When one starts to feel tedious, I switch to the other. So I don't end up completely loopy!