Puzzling

My friend L dropped in for a meal the other night. L is a knitter from way back, and while I was busy with something else, this bit of knitting caught her eye: I wish I'd had a video camera on hand to catch her expression! She looked at it intently, turned it over and looked again. I could see her desperately trying to work out what on earth I was doing! Here's a close up of part of the knitting that so intrigued her.

It does look strange. The main reason is that I'm knitting with a live single. You can see in the top pic that the wool wants to coil back on itself. It's wool that I've spun with a fair bit of twist on my wheel, but I haven't balanced the twist at all. So it's terribly springy. Knitting with it is a bit like knitting with stretched elastic. The fabric wants to pull in on itself even after the stitches are formed.

Just to add to the puzzle, the yarn is fairly fine and I'm knitting on the bias--increasing at one side of the work and decreasing at the other so that the line of stitches is on an angle. Most of the knitting is in stocking stitch, which would be smooth on one side if it wasn't for the elastic effect, but every now and then I'm throwing in some rows of garter stitch for variety.

If you're a conventional knitter, I'm guessing that by now you're either shaking your head or grinning. It's the kind of thing I love to do every now and then. Something organic . . . out of left field. I don't know myself just how it will turn out, but it's exciting. L settled down after I explained it to her and now that bit of springy knitting is back on the table until I pick it up sometime and see what happens next.