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Posted on 04/03/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Show-Off Ruffle Skirt, Tips
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.
Posted on 03/12/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Show-Off Ruffle Skirt, Tips
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.
This is what I was casting on for:
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.
Posted on 01/21/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Tips
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.
Posted on 01/16/2008 by Barb
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Finished Objects, Knitting, Spinning, Tips
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!
Posted on 01/15/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Tips
In the last episode of Cast On, Brenda mentioned that she loves the Fiber Trends felted clogs, but she hates knitting them because it's so easy to get lost in the pattern.
I kind of feel the same way, but I love them enough that I know I'll be making lots of them in my time. They'll make great gifts. In the process of knitting these, I've come up with a triumvirate of tools for not losing my place in this rather convoluted (but completely genius) pattern. In case they're helpful for anyone else, I thought I'd share them here. Basically, it involves documenting in the pattern and in your knitting where you are at any given time. Doing it this way, I was able to knit the soles of these clogs without ever having to rip back ONE stitch.
1. A Post-It Note.
The Post-It Note marks the section you're currently knitting. I line it up so that the left-hand side of the paper aligns with the first stitch in the section I'm working and the sticky side is just above the line I'm looking at.
Once you're finished working a small section (e.g., a bunch of M1s or a section of knitting before a wrap-and-turn), move the Post-It note so the left-hand side of it now aligns with the next unworked stitch you'll be working. ALSO, before beginning to knit that next section, you'll now need your cable needle:
2. A Cable Needle.
Once you move the Post-It to its new location, you want to mark in your knitting the last stitch you just worked. I stick a cable needle through the stitch I just finished working and also through the knitting below (just to keep it secure). This is your lifeline. You know that all the knitting up until this cable needle followed the pattern and you don't have to worry about it anymore. If your next task is to knit 24 stitches, for example, it'll be really easy to make sure you've actually knitted 24 because the cable needle should be back at the 25th stitch. It'll also be hard to forget where you are in the printed pattern because that Post-It note is sitting there telling you what do to next.
Here's a close-up of what I'm talking about:
(You could also use any movable stitch marker or safety pin. I used safety pins at first, but I found the cable needle was the fastest and easiest, because you can slip it in and out easily without having to open it.)
3. Some Hershey Kisses.
Hershey Kisses, safety pins, bottles of beer. Anything that you have several of and doesn't move of its own volition (I was going to say cats, but that wouldn't work). I used Hershey Kisses because they were the only thing I had seven of that were easily within arms reach. Plus then you can have a built-in reward when you're done knitting.
The Hershey Kisses are for those times in the pattern where it'll say something like (M1, K2) seven times. You don't really need the Hershey Kisses, but if you really want to be foolproof about knitting this pattern, it's just easiest to have seven items handy and move them one pile to the next as you finish each (M1, K2).
And that's it!
If you do these three things together, you'll actually be able to knit Felted Clogs even if you're not in a soundproof room, even if you're absorbed in watching that episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer where the girl's mom who really wanted to relive her cheerleading glory days switched bodies with her daughter and then started sabotaging the other cheerleaders using voodoo. This complicated pattern will actually start to resemble relaxing and relatively mindless knitting. I swear.
And for anyone else who's knitted these, let me know if you have any other tricks for getting through this pattern! I plan to knit lots more of these in the future.
Posted on 12/14/2007 by Andrea
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Knitting, Tips
I need to finish a pair of toe-up socks (everything's done but the bind off, on both socks) and I'm tired of just trying to bind off loosely and deal with the non-stretchiness at the top of the cuff. I'm in search of a stretchy bind off that will be ideal for toe-up socks.
Most of these links were gotten from a Ravelry discussion in the Up With Toes group.
- ChicKnits' favorite stretchy bind off. This looks easy. I'm tempted to try it.
- Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast-off. This is supposed to be very stretchy, and supposed to not stretch out. It looks like a sort of tubular cast-off. Very tidy. It also looks sort of fidgety (I'm a fan of never needing to trade my knitting needles for a tapestry needle). But the results seem to be worth it.
- Giant list of stretchy bind offs. This definitely looks worthy of some detailed exploration.
Also noteworthy are some new methods of casting on for toe-up socks, which I haven't tried yet. I always just use a crochet provisional cast-on, which yields good results but is a pain in the butt. Next time I make socks, I'll be trying these:
Update:
Another resource chock full of interesting bind-offs: this Techniques with Theresa article in the Summer 2006 Knitty. There's a whole section of "particularly flexible bind-offs". The suspended bind-off looks interesting.
Posted on 11/26/2007 by Barb
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Knitting, Tips
Originally uploaded by bjk4
Especially for newbies, and especially with tiny needles or loosely structured yarns, it can be challenging to knit the first row. I've seen beginners in tears over it. So here's a little trick you can use to get a loose cast-on so the first row isn't such a challenge. (The photo shows a long-tail cast-on but I think this would work for most others as well.)
When you cast on, lay a second needle alongside the needle you're going to actually use for your project, and then cast on your stitches around both needles as though they were one. Unless you're using really tiny needles like the 0's shown, you'll probably want to have the second needle a bit smaller than your project needle so the stitches don't get too loose. Once your stitches are all cast on, just slip the second needle out. You should have a nice, neat row of loosely cast on stitches that you don't have to fight with on your first row.
Posted on 11/19/2007 by Andrea
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Free Patterns, Tips
Have you see the Daily Knitter's Free Knitting Pattern of the Day? It's kind of a nice way to find out about some of the better free patterns out there on the internet. The Buccaneer's Booty Socks linked to today are pretty funny. Also worth looking at on Crafty Diversion, the same website as the Buccaneer's Booty Socks: Instructions for how to make your own swift for about $15. Wow. I can make a lot of things, but the thought of conceiving of and then constructing a swift absolutely blows my mind.
