Macarons (This is still a knitting blog!)

First of all, allow me to apologize for all those updates of this post while I thought I was working on a draft. This time, it's for real.

What can we do with all those yo-yos? If you search yoyo crafts on Pinterest, you will find an overwhelming variety of project types. The vast majority are in fabric, but there is no reason most of them can't be interpreted in yarn. This is especially true of the projects that use stacks of yo-yos to form the torsos and limbs of a whole menagerie of little friends; there are a number of these type of projects in knit and crochet here and here on Ravelry.

But when it comes to sewing them side-by-side, I wanted more guidance. I did this by modifying the original Basic Yo-Yo to have Round 6 (a non-decrease round) as a purl round instead of knit. This makes a fold line (and flattens the yo-yo somewhat) and produces all those nice (in theory) little purl bumps that can be used to stitch the yo-yos to each other. But I couldn't find a way to seam them that was satisfactory; I wanted tidy results that, nevertheless, made a line of demarcation between the pieces. I'm still not there, but I did come up with another use: join them back to back with a thin band of I-cord. This produces the classic macaron shape.

Make two basic yo-yos substituting a purl round for Round 6 as mentioned. These particular yo-yos gather into a less attractive shape than the original, so you'll want to block them into circles before proceeding to sew. Pin through the stitching loops, NOT THE YARN, to the outline of a circle template. The picture to the left shows the decrease lines and the loops.



In the diagram, the white stitches and loops are the decrease lines and the light gray stitches and loops are most of the other stitches. The dark gray elements are those stitches on Round 6 that are hidden by the decreases made on Round 7. They are not really visible so I did not work with them.

If you are going to add embellishments, sew them on now. Then cast two stitches on a short double-pointed needle. Also place loops from each of the yo-yos onto needles. (It is best to use light-weight needles so they don't slip out of the loops.) Use a fourth needle to knit.  Step 1: slip the first loop from the right needle to the center needle and k2tog with the first cast-on loop. Step 2: slip the second cast-on loop k-wise. Step 3: slip the first loop from the left needle (k-wise or p-wise, it doesn't matter) and knit it together with the loop from Step 2 (as for ssk). Take the yarn across the back (as for I-cord) and continue in this manner. 

Once you have worked all the way around the yo-yos, cut your yarn leaving a tail of about 12".  Thread your yarn needle and take it p-wise through the first stitch on the needle without removing the stitch. Go under the first real stitch at the beginning of the I-cord as for duplicate stitch. Bring the yarn needle back to the live stitches. Work k-wise into the first stitch and remove it from the needle, then p-wise through the second stitch and leave it on the needle. Go under the base of the left-hand stitch on the first row of I-cord and finish by slipping the second live stitch k-wise from the needle.

There is no particularly good way to darn in the ends, so knot them together close to where the I-cord meets one of the yo-yos and bury them inside the macaron.

If you want to string the macarons into a garland, you will need a long needle such as used for soft sculpture. The one I've used is 5" long and has an eye large enough to carry a one-eighth inch ribbon. You can see part of it in the side view of the macaron; I needed something to help it stay upright for the picture.

Next up will be some thoughts about joining the yo-yos side by side. Until then . . .