Knitting Tips and Tricks

I have been browsing the Internet for knitting hints, and here are my favorites, so far.

Use a yarn bra or old sock or stocking end to hold skeins of yarn.  Prevents twisting and tangling.  Alternative method:  Use the little bags that cherry tomatoes come in. Just cut off the top label and you have a yarn bra that is very flexible and does not snag your yarn.

To make sure you have enough yarn to complete the second sock or other half, use a kitchen or postage scale.  Weigh the finished and then the remaining yarn.

To be sure you have enough yarn to complete a second row, before knitting the first row, place a loose knot half way down the yarn. If you do not have to undo the knot to complete the first row you have enough yarn to complete another row.  Alternative method:  When coming to the end of a ball of wool and you are not sure if it will knit another row stretch out stitches on your pin and if your wool will stretch over four times you have enough for another row.  (In my own experiene, three and a half times is enough.)

I decided to make an excel spreadsheet with all the yarn I owned.  Now when I want to start a project, I go to my "stash" document to see what I own and had forgotten!

Rather than spending money on Woolite which actually attracts dirt after you use it, use dollar store baby shampoo. It leaves no residue and gets wool very clean.

After you've finished your handywork, go back with the same yarn and do a row of single crochet around the buttonhole. This will make the hole so much stronger, and it looks so much more professional!

I just recently found an awesome knit/crochet pattern book that I think every knitter just starting out should have. It's called, "One-Skein Wonders." Many a time have I ended up with just one (sometimes a half) a skein of yarn and just didn't know what to do with it. This book has some really nifty ideas. Enjoy!

I do a lot of Charity Knitting. With the balls of wool left over I knit hand warmers for the elderly. Cast on 38sts - 1st Row. K2.P2 - 2nd row P2.K2 repeat for 7 inches. Cast off. Sew up side leaving enough room for the thumb. Uses up my small balls of wool and the oldies don't care about the rainbow colors as long as their hands are warm. I know I am old too.

When knitting the cuff of a sweater use one size smaller than the pattern asks for and you will get a nice neat fitting cuff. 

These row counters that you slide on to your knitting needle can move if you hold your needle under your arm.  I thread mine through a length of wool and hang it round my neck.  This is within easy reach and the rows never get moved accidentally.

I use a yarn needle to thread one of those small row counters that's meant to go on a needle onto the tail from my cast-on instead. That way the counter isn't weighing down one needle making it feel "off balance".

if you want to know how much yarn to use for a long-tail cast-on, wrap your yarn around the needle 10 times and release, hold yarn out and measure that same amount again for every 10 sts you plan to cast on, plus some extra for leaving a tail.

A nice, stretchy bind-off:  knit the first st. then K2tog, pull the first st knit over the k2tog st, then k2tog, pull the one sts left over the k2tog st, cont in this manner till all sts have been bound off.

Use a lace faggot chain to cast on lace & never worry about a too tight cast on. (Lace Faggot Chain in Mary Thomas's Pattern Book, page 157.) Cast on 2 sts. All rows: yo, p2tog. Slip your needle through the yo loops, attach yarn & you're good to go. A plus with this method is there are loops on both sides so you can knit in 2 directions or with some contortions proceed to knit in the round. It forms a wonderfully holey center. 

When using ring markers I slip knot a 3 or 4 inch tail of sewing thread to the marker. If the marker falls off it just stays in place and it's easy to drop off to complete a stitch and then replace the marker. If you have to tink or frog the tail keeps the marker in the right place. 

My favorite tip is to use a thin 'widish' piece of ribbon for my lifeline. It has the advantage of not leaving untidy remnants unmatching fiber; it is slick and can be removed easily; and best of all, it will fold in half within the stitches and form a nice pocket in which to easily slip the needle if you do need to rip back a portion of your project. 

For a handy cable holder, keep a darning needle tied to the end of your cast-on tail and use the needle to hold your cable stitches.


.

Yet More Hints for Knitters

My mother taught me to knit when I was six years old, chronically sick with tonsilitis, and bored in bed.  I've knitted ever since, although I supose I only took it up in earnest somewhere along about 1986.  Still, any way you look at it, I've been knitting rather a long time, and still I keep learning.  Here are some things I have recently become aware of.

• Just as it is unwise to knit late at night, so also is it unwise to knit first thing in the morning.  Do not open your eyes, grab your knitting (which of course is always within reach) and try to do a few rows before getting up.  Have your breakfast first, and your coffee or tea.

• Especially in more complicated patterns, don't use the purl-back row just to coast and relax.  Instead, use it to count your stitches.  This helps catch mistakes early.  

• Do not hum while counting sitches!  Do not try to remember how the phrase goes in Greek or what the words were to that old hymn you loved when you were a Protestant.  Knitting, like prayer, requires vigilance against distractions.  Concentrate on your counting or your song will cause you to miscount.  If you don't much feel like doing this, you may not be in the proper mood for knitting and may like to do something else for a while.  Washing dishes is a chore admirably suited for humming.

• Stitch markers, with a known number of stitches between, make it easier to isolate and find a mistake.  Suppose you know there should be 60 stitches in the row but after three counts, there really are only 59.  If you know there ought to be 12 stitches between markers, you only have to find which pair contains only 11, and then it is easier to figure out why.  You may, in this way, be spared having to rip out the whole row.

Happy knitting, and may all your mistakes occur near the end of the row!

When the Stash Attacks: Creative Techniques for Concealing Your Yarns

What every True Knitter needs to know.  You are not supposed to take this article in jest, but it's okay by me if you do. 

Knitting Humor

I received this ad today and thought it was so funny others might enjoy it, too.  The ad is real.

Start your day with knitting wit and wisdom from Franklin Habit

The calendar for knitters!

Missed Worldwide Knit in Public Day last year? Intended to celebrate Elizabeth Zimmermann's birthday but forgot? [Anastasia's note: Zimmermann is a celebrated designer of knitting patterns, especially lace.)

Make sure you don't miss out on these important dates again, with Franklin Habit's Stash of Knitting Cartoons 2011 calendar! Keep track of all the noteworthy dates in the knitter's year, from festivals and retreats to the birthdays of knitting luminaries. And of course, plan out your holiday and gift knitting in advance, all on one calendar.

With wit as sharp as The New Yorker, Franklin affectionately tunes into the knitter's sense of humor, presenting thirteen hilarious, favorite cartoons from It Itches. Knitters will easily relate to the situations and characteristics of knitters that Franklin illustrates, be it from the compulsive yarn buyer to the mottephobic (fear of moths), to missing the holiday knitting deadline and the constant conundrum of just where to stash all that yarn.

Franklin Habit's Stash of Knitting Cartoons 2011 Calendar will not only help you keep your knitting organized for the year, it will also keep you laughing every month.


* * *

Oh, and while we're at it, I found another knitting cartoon I love.

More Upcoming Projects

These are two doilies by Herbert Niebling, a 20th Century German designer of lace, of "Art Knitting". If you are a knitter, don't they rather radically revise your notion of what it is possible to achieve in knitting? And even if you aren't a knitter, don't these images rather stretch your idea of what lace is? They do both of those for me, which is why I am eager to knit them.

They're intended to be doilies, but by knitting them with baby fingering yarn instead of crochet thread, and on normal needles instead of toothpicks, I'm going to make baby blankets or afghans out of them.

The one reminds me of jellyfish, and I already know how I'm going to attach it to a background in a color very close to the one shown here, a deep, ocean blue.

The other is gladioli or some such flower, not sure. Haven't figured out the color(s) for it yet.

I've acquired both patterns and can hardly wait.

Upcoming Projects

At long last, I've decided how I can use that lovely "Print o' the Wave" pattern, above, that I've been hankering after for weeks now.  I was inspired by the gorgeous "Harebell Lace" at right.  I'm going to adapt both patterns to make runners for furniture in two different bedrooms.  "Table scarves," as it were, for dressers, nightstands, and chests of drawers.  In real wool, fine wool.  Most of our bedroom furniture needs the tops covered, on account of the finish being, um, imperfect, shall we say.

I  calculate that I have another three or four weeks to go on my current project, depending upon how much knitting I decide to do each day, and then I'll be ready to tackle one or the other of these.

YES!!!

Postscript on Cracking the Code

The knitting pattern I posted immediately below this post turns out to be a very old, traditional Shetland pattern, called "Shetland Bead and Madeira." Now that I've painstakingly analyzed the pattern all by myself, I find it all over the Internet. Not the pattern per se, but things knitted with it. Here are a few.

This one looks very different, but only because it's knitted on much larger needles.

Ditto this one, which I posted last week, but didn't realize it was the same pattern, because it was upside down. (I've since rotated it.)

And here, knitted on small needles, it makes a baby blanket.

Cracking the Code

After a couple of days of staring at this picture, jotting down notes, and test-knitting swatches, I've figured out the pattern that forms the main body of the work. (I feel sure I know how to do the border decorations, too, but probably shouldn't say that before having tried.)



So, for any knitters out there, here it is, and although the result appears quite complex, the pattern isn't.

Difficulty level: intermediate

The pattern requires multiples of 8 stitches plus one (shaded at left) added for symmetry. Three repeats are shown here. Make that 3 horizontal times 2 vertical, for a total of 6 repeats.

Not noted in the chart is that the right side of the work is all in reverse stocking stitch. (It looks terrible in stocking stitch!) Working reverse stocking stitch means you must adapt your decreases. Thus, for this pattern:

/ is a right-slanting decrease, as viewed from the front. That’s P2Tog on the right side, and SSK2Tog on the wrong side.

\ is a left-slanting decrease, as viewed from the front. SSP2Tog on the right side of the work and K2Tog on the wrong.

O is an increase made by YO.

The up arrow is a straight double-decrease. On the right side, slip 2 individually, knit-wise, return the now reversed stitches to the left needle, and P3Tog. On the wrong side, do the same but K3Tog.

Blank squares are worked plain (P on right side, K on reverse).

The darker grid lines have no meaning other than that computers do strange things. I have no idea why they came out this way!

Note also that the lace effect is worked on both sides, thus requiring a bit more attention than patterns wherein the back side is always purled.

As always, to show its full glory, a lace piece absolutely must be stretched and blocked. As this does not work with manmade fibers such as acrylic, you’ll need wool.

What I’m planning to do instead (because cashmere, merino, and mohair can be very expensive when making a whole blanket) is knit the lace with acrylic, right into a background of contrasting color, worked in a much heavier yarn.

P.S.) The pattern looks pretty good in garter stitch, too, knitting on the front of the work and purling on the back. This makes the fabric reversible and only fractionally less gorgeous.