I showed Andrea a pair of socks I’ve been working on and she said, “There, you should blog about that,” pointing to the rubberband I use to hold my double-pointed needles together and keep the stitches from falling off when my project is getting tossed around in a project bag.
So, folks, here you go. Just take any ol’ rubber band, line up your dps (working needle and the ones with stitches on them), hook the rubberband over the tips on one end of your dps, give it a half-turn as you bring it over the stitches, and then stretch it over the tips of the other end.
Over a year ago I dyed a hank of sock weight yarn using gel frosting dye. I didn’t really have anything in mind when I dyed the yarn. It was just experimental, I hadn’t used frosting dyes so it was just fun to play around. I posted about the experience and said I’d write up how we did it but I never actually got around to it and in fact didn’t do any more dying with frosting dye, in spite of the fact that I was pleased with the brightness of the color
My yarn:
My wrist warmers (do you call them wristers or wrist warmers?) with this yarn looked sort of … well, frankly, like 60s tie-dye. (I should have taken a photo of them before dying but I didn’t … you’d really see what I mean!)
So anyway, I decided to bring out my notes from the initial gel dying and over-dye the wristers.
Quick explanation of dying process:
Gather up:
The item(s) you want to dye
Bowl or bucket in which to presoak the item(s) you want to dye
White vinegar
Water (room temp is fine)
Gel frosting dye (Wiltons, available at Michael's)
Plastic wrap
Rubber gloves
Microwave safe dish or bowl
Microwave
Hanger or rack on which to hang item to dry
Soak the item you want to dye in a mixture of water and vinegar. Thoroughly mix the gel dye in plain ole the water. I made just a tiny batch because this was just a tiny project. I put the wrist warmers in the dye water, swished them around to make sure they got thoroughly and evenly saturated. I probably left them in the dye bath 5-10 minutes. Then I squeezed out the excess water, laid each on a piece of plastic wrap, folded the wrap around it to seal, rolled each up like a cinnamon roll, put them on a dish and microwaved (microwave for 2 minutes on high, leave in microwave for 2 minutes, then microwave on high for another two minutes, remove, let cool until you can handle them, then unwrap, and hang to dry).
For this, I used only about a quart of water and ¼ cup of white vinegar in a plastic ice cream bucket to soak the wrist warmers. Soaked them for a couple of hours. Then I used 12 ounces of tap water to which I added 1 tsp each of red and burgundy gel.
And here’s the final product:
I am actually okay with the result. I have a purple suede jacket that I love, and the purple on the wristers (which doesn't actually show up very well in the photo) is a nice match.
So … see? There’s hope for some of those “really, I thought that was a good idea????” projects.
(That's a touch of local dialect ... and a very cute baby.)
This Whirligig Shrug is so cute. If you make it, you can very easily use the basics of the pattern to improvise a little matching hat.
I made the shrug using Merino 5 Superwash by Crystal Palace Yarns. I bought three 50-gram skeins (110 yds/skein) and had most of one left over so I was able to just use that. I used the same size needles I used for the shrug. And I chose to approach it as a top-down construction so the U-cable for the hatband wouldn’t be upside-down compared to the waistband of the shrug.
I started by casting on 7 stitches in a circle. (Tip: After a round or two you’ll want to place stitch markers to divide the piece into 7 sections. Then make your increases in the stitch before (or after) each stitch marker. Just be consistent in where you add them.) Working in stockinette stitch, I added 7 stitches per round until I had 28 stitches. Then I added 7 stitches every other round until I had 77 stitches. I worked those 77 in stockinette stitch to the length I wanted (about 3-1/2 to 4"). (I cook that way, too: "Oh, I don't know ... you just wanna add 'some'.")
Just before starting the U-cable section, I added 3 additional stitches to bring the count to 80. You bring the stitch count to 80 because you need multiples of 8 to duplicate in the hatband the U-cable stitch pattern of the shrug.
After finishing the U-cable “band”, I made a ruffly brim by adding stitches in the same manner as they were added to form the ruffle of the shrug. The brim is maybe 8 rows of seed stitch.
Here's a very nice, simple video of what may be the easiest ever provisional cast on. It uses both a crochet hook and a knitting needle, plus, of course, the contrasting yarn. No more poking around in a chain trying to find the right crocheted loop to pick up. I may never do any other kind!
When I knit socks, I do a short-row heel ... but I've never found them particularly easy and mine never look that great. So I was looking around for different ways to do short rows, and came across what looks like the easiest ever short row technique. I can hardly wait to try it!
You might also like to download Charisa Martin Cairn's "Lifestyle Toe Up Socks" pdf and Judy Gibson's "You're Putting Me On" generic socks pattern. Both of these contain links to lots of other instructional materials.
Now that I'm starting to get the hang of two-color stranded knitting, I've begun to discover that a whole world of information and patterns out there are starting to open up to me. Where previously, I used to kind of ignore any patterns that involved colorwork because they always seemed like they'd be such a drag, my sense of challenge and excitement is now piqued.
Here's a roundup of some stuff I've been delving into.
Stranded - A Ravelry group devoted to "Fair Isle, Bohus, Selbu, and any kind of stranded colorwork" (I can see I still have a lot to learn! I don't know what Bohus and Selbu are).
So far, here's what I've learned about fair isle knitting:
It takes a while to learn to knit with two hands (basically, knitting continental and English style at the same time), but it is completely worth it in terms of being able to knit without the two strands of yarn getting hopelessly tangled. Plus, it's cool to now know how to knit English style.
My Ravelry-and-Flickr-friend Suzanne tipped me off about "locking in" the non-background yarn every few stitches. This has really helped keep the tension even.
The bonus of learning about locking in the yarn is that one technique you can use is the same technique for weaving in loose ends as you go. Here's a great photo tutorial. So I've already woven in a few ends as I've switched colors, which will make finishing much less of a headache.
At least with this particular project, I love the way this fabric I'm making feels as mittens. They're really warm, but it's still easy to move my hands all around. I can see that I'm never going to be happy wearing any mittens other than handknitted fair isle mittens. Which is amazing to me, because I never thought they were that exciting, before I started knitting some.
Unfortunately, I am putting these mittens on hold a little while to make some stretchy socks for my dad, for a belated birthday present. THEN I'll finish my lovely mittens.
Every once in a (long) while, I get a chance to learn some new knitting technique that makes me feel like a knitting rockstar. Toe-up socks was one. Three-needle bind-off was another.
Well, add to that list the latest new technique that makes me feel like a knitting rockstar: knitting backwards. Actually, to be more accurate, I have been purling backwards.
As you know if you've been reading thus far, the Show-Off Ruffle Skirt contains endless rows of bobbles. Each bobble is constructed of five stitches knitted into one stitch, then worked back and forth for four rows, then reduced back down to one stitch. That's a lot of turning the work, especially as the rows are interminably long and as I knit more rows, the fabric is just getting bulkier and bulkier.
So one day I thought, what the heck, this is already taking me ages and ages - why not take a little extra time and learn how to do this back and forth without turning the work? The bobbles are reverse-stockinette, so this meant I had to learn how to purl backwards.
I could have gone to Knitty and read this excellent article on the art of knitting and purling backwards (both English and Continental methods are shown). Or I could have watched any of a number of YouTube videos showing how to do the same. But the truth is, if you understand the mechanics of knitting, it is not difficult to figure out how to knit and purl backwards. I figured it out in about 10 seconds, but then it was a matter of getting my hands used to this new motion.
I'm happy to say that I can now purl backwards about as fast as I can purl forwards. If you want to see how to knit backwards, check out this video:
I haven't been able to find a video of purling backwards, since most people who knit backwards do so to avoid the purl-back row. But it's there in the Knitty article. And, shhh - don't tell anyone! - it's really not that hard.
Last night, Mom and I got together for a bit of coffee and knitting. We both had new projects we were attempting to get started.
Mom was trying out the magic loop technique on a toe-up sock. At various points, I observed the needle in her mouth, flipping through the air, and almost poking her eye out. Magic, indeed.
I was wrangling something a bit different: casting on 307 stitches using a grabby cotton yarn and a not-at-all slippery Denise circular needle (I see some Addi Turbos in my future). At one point the stitches were so bunched up and stuck on my needle that when I went to tug on them to move them, I ended up yanking a whole gaggle of stitches off the ends of my needles by accident.
The Show-Off Ruffle Skirt by Kat Coyle, published in the book Lace Style (my current favorite knitting book). I'm making it in a red cotton/nylon blend (Cascade Yarns Cotton Rich DK). I hear that the bobble rows take eons to knit, but I'm so motivated to have this skirt and wear it, that I can endure the pain. I know I can.
My mom gave me a good piece of advice before I started casting on for this. Because there were so many stitches to cast on, she suggested using two balls of yarn instead of one. I just tied the ends together and cast on as though it was a regular long-tail cast on, but I never had to worry about running out of my yarn. It took a lot of the anxiety out of casting on that many stitches.
And after an evening's work, I'm only four rows into the thing (and that doesn't include one of the infamous bobble rows). This is going to take a while! I'm leaving for a business trip tomorrow and I usually only take sock projects with me on planes, but this one is definitely coming with me.
People say it's a good thing to make mistakes. Making mistakes allows us to learn, builds character, yadda yadda.
Those people are crazy.
I was too demoralized to mention it at the time, but when I was trying to finish Brad's St. Mawes sweater just before Christmas, I ran into a monumental knitting disaster.
This may be difficult to see, but it's a hole in the sweater. You see, I realized after I sewed the front and back together, knitted on the collar, and sewed on one of the sleeves, that I had knitted the sleeves FOUR INCHES too long. In the process of trying to remove the seamed sleeve, I accidentally CUT a stitch in the front of the sweater.
Let me pause here while we all finish gasping in horror.
Okay, I'm recovered now.
Like I said, I was too demoralized to face this. I put the sweater away for a month and finally got up the nerve to bring it back out and figure out what to do about this problem. The answer was simpler than I had even hoped. There's a very clearly photographed example in Knitty of how to fix this type of problem: Knitty: Repairs 101. You basically undo the knitting horizontally until you have weave-in-able ends and use a new piece of yarn to graft the stitches together, much like a kitchener stitch.
See? All better:
The only real problem I ran into was that this hole occurred in the second-to-the-edge stitch, so I didn't have a long end on that side to weave in. Here was my solution:
I tied a new piece of yarn to the short end using as tight of a square knot as I could manage. I plan on weaving the knotted end into the sleeve seam.
All's well that ends well. Now I just have to take care of that small problem of the extra eight inches of sleeve.
I recently added a zipper to a sweater and people asked how I got it in straight, without having it look all "ruffly."
It's pretty simple. In addition to a sewing machine, your garment and the zipper, you'll need a sheet or two of white tissue paper.
This technique works for all sorts of finicky fabrics ...
Here I'm putting an open-end zipper in the front of a sweater. First, carefully block the sweater, making sure both edges for the zipper are the same length, that they're straight and any stripes or patterns line up left to right.
I generally leave the zipper zipped when I do all this, but if it's easier for you to take the two halves apart, that works, too.
Position the first side of your zipper along the edge of the sweater as shown, and pin it in place. Then lay a sheet of thin tissue paper over it. The tissue paper permits the sewing machine foot to glide over the knitting without pulling at or catching on the yarn. With the tissue side up, carefully stitch through tissue, sweater and zipper, making your row of stitches far enough back from the teeth so the zipper pull will be able to move freely along teeth without any yarn catching in it. It's pretty easy to see what you're doing right through the tissue paper.
Then carefully tear the perforated tissue paper away and remove the pins. Repeat for the second side of the zipper.
Photo by Andrea
That's all there is to it. When you're finished, you'll want to give it a good blocking, of course.
I just grabbed a bit of scrap yarn and tied it to the zipper pull on this sweater, but it's fun to find an interesting bead or bauble to dress it up. I'm keeping my eyes open for just the right thing!
