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Learning New Skills

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Hello Yarnies,

So this post starts with a story. Occasionally I take care of a sister duo, Sweetness and Light. Sweetness is four, and Light, is around… oh, seventeen months.

2011 February and March 229Sweetness is a rather independent and precocious soul. When learning to walk she would refuse anyone’s help, waving hands away, and shout “SELF! SELF!!!” One day while we were drawing, I looked over to her paper and asked her what she was drawing. I expected something like, “a rock.” Instead I got, “The Lunar Landing Module.”

If you haven’t guessed, her father is an engineer.

Well, since I’ve been taking care of her, occasionally she’ll see me knitting or crocheting. We’ll have a moment when Vivi is playing and she is drawing, and I’ll pull out my knitting or crochet to get a few rows done.

Well, lately she’s been asking me to teach her. You see, at first I taught her finger knitting, but she quickly realized that what she was doing, and what I was doing were two different things. She wanted to knit with sticks.

Okay, I said, fine by me. I really didn’t expect it to go anywhere. It’s the rare four year old that has the hand-eye coordination, never-mind the concentration to learn to knit.

So I taught her. She practiced for a few minutes, got tired of it, and decided to make up her own knitting. Which basically meant that she made a big tangle of the yarn.

That was fine. I only gave her a little yarn. (yes, I’ve been through this before. Children will use all of any resource you give them. That’s why my mother only kept three band-aids in the box, and the rest somewhere else. Otherwise, we’d want ALL the band-aids for our dolls) I really didn’t expect her to even sit through the whole lesson.

Well, a week passed, and I was knitting again. She asked to help. I put her hands on the needles and just let her watch as I worked.

Another week passed, and again Sweetness asked to learn. It had been a rough day, and I might have responded a little harshly. I said it wasn’t fair to me to teach her if she wasn’t willing to practice. She said she would.

I taught her, at first, her just placing the needles and me wrapping the yarn. And then, at her insistence, I taught her how to wrap the yarn so she could do it herself. And now? She’s still working on it. It’s slow, and she only does three or four stitches, but when you’re that young? That’s quite a feat.

My point is, when you learn a new skill, things can often look rocky. Take my Kitchener stitch. For the longest time, every time I needed to do it I had to look it up. When I do it now, I always accidentally purl the first few stitches, and then have to undo it and correct it again. But one day in the future I will whip out something that needs to be Kitchenered, and I will remember it, right away.

And it will be a beautiful day.

The other lesson: indoctrinate children to knitting/crochet early. It can keep them occupied and quiet for a full five minutes.

Tuesday in My Queue

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Hey Yarnies,

It’s time for another edition of Tuesday in My Queue. This week is Ivywild, by Carol Schoenfelder, a pattern that I think is particularly suited for the Spring that is just around the corner. Seriously, I don’t care what anyone says. Spring might be officially weeks away, but I come from the NORTH, darn-knit (tehehe. A pun), and when it’s raining, there’s mud, and there’s daffodils, it’s spring. Now, if that means spring comes early now that I’m in DC, and later if I were to live, say, in Canada?

So, Ivywild. I found this pattern in the fall, and when I looked at it, I knew it was going in my queue, because while I wouldn’t be interested in working on it NOW, I knew that it would be perfect if I did it in some sort of milk/soy fiber for spring/summer. There’s a really sweet one that The Yarn Spot carries, that escapes me now, but I know it when I see it.

What people are doing with it:
Most people seem to be sticking to the yarn that is called for, Knitpicks Cotlin. It’s a good yarn, soild for the price. It’s a cotton and linnen blend, which is right up my alley. Of all the spring/summer type yarns (IE: cotton, soy/milk/other manufactured protein fibers, seacell, linen, and silk, linen and linen blends are my favorite. I think it’s the Swede in me.) If I were to do it, I might experiment in some other blends, simply because I’m not too fond of cotton, unless it’s REALLY good cotton. This is because cotton tends to be heavy, and doesn’t quite have the body of my favorite winter fiber, which would be wool (with alpaca running a close second).

One of the things I would say to watch for in the pattern is where the end of the diamonds hit on the bust. I have a big bust, which might make the point of the diamonds hit in just the wrong spot.

Other things I’d look out for: I’m not quite sure what is going on with the cap of the sleeve, which doesn’t seem to be fitting quite the right way. That might be the way the decreases are worked, and it might be something else entirely, but I’d be tempted to mess around with it a bit.

I like the ribbing on the bottom, and the way it looks a bit lacy. I wonder in the cotton how effective the ribbing is, seeing that cotton doesn’t quite have the springback that a wool or wool blend would.

I’m also a bit dubious about the neckline. I’d be tempted to simplify it, and maybe get rid of the points. It doesn’t seem to be lying quite flat on the model’s neck, and that would drive me crazy. I might just go for something that would draw it in a bit more. You can see how the girl to the right here brought it up higher, and made it so it gathered tighter around her neck. This causes the diamonds to hit a different place on her bust, but I think it works for her.

I would seriously consider doing the whole sweater in reverse stockinette, not just the diamond part. I think it would be interesting. Plus, I love knitting reverse stockinette.

I’m not quite sure what the shaping for this pattern is, but I think it would be a simple matter to make sure you do some increases around the hips to make sure it expands nicely. It would also solve the potential problem of having the ribbing around the hips stretch too much.

The Specs:

by Carol Schoenfelder
Published in:Knit Picks Website

Published: June 2010

Yarns suggested:Knit Picks CotLin
Yarn weight:DK / 8 ply (11 wpi)

Gague: 16 stitches and 28 rows = 4 inches in stockinette
Needle size: US 5 – 3.75 mm
Yardage: 550 – 750 yards (503 – 686 m)
Sizes available: Ladies XS (S, M, L), Petite XS (S, M, L)

Until later,
Jen

Gauge, and Shaping

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Dear Yarnies,

So you have this great pattern. You’ve got the perfect yarn for it, and your gauge is spot on. You stitch it, either in crochet or knitting, exactly as it says. And yet, it doesn’t fit the way you want it to when you’re done. You look at the model and you realize that well, she’s a bit more endowed than you in the bust, and a bit less gifted in the hips. It occurs to you that MIGHT be the reason why the darn thing rides up in the hips and bags around your armpits.

Well, I’m here to tell you something.

That can be avoided. Remember how I was talking to you about Gauge? Well, your gauge can really help you when working on that sweater.

You see, your gauge tells you how many stitches you get per inch. Think of it as a ratio. (I know, we’re getting back to some math from long ago, but bear with me). Say you get 10 stitches in an inch. You have a sweater pattern that has you knitting 30 inches around your bust, so you should have 300 stitches around your bust. But your waist is only 25 inches around. that means going from your bust to your waist you have to somehow decrease to 250 stitches.

You could do those decreases gradually, or you could do them all at once. (Most people choose to do them gradually, or it would cause ripples in your knitting. But if you want ripples, do those decreases all at once.)

Then, your hips are 35 inches around. So from your waist to your hips you need to increase 100 stitches.

In it’s most simple form, that is what shaping is. Now, you can get complicated by then figuring out that in between your bust and your waist you have 5inches, and you need to decrease 50 stitches. So you can figure that each inch your decreasing 10 stitches. You get 5 rows to the inch, so each row your decreasing by 2 stitches.

Do the same type of math for your waist to your hips.

The same thing would work for crochet.

So, Yarnies, make your gauge work for you, so you can have stunning pieces of work to show me!

Until later,
Jen

So, let’s talk about Gauge

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Dearest Yarnies,

As you all probably know, I started off as a crochet-person (I always find that crocheter looks a little odd to me, but there’s not a better way of writing it, I suppose). I came to knitting when I crochet a pair of socks, and wore them to death. I was much disappointed when I tried to darn then, because most of the ways to darn socks are for knitting. I resolved then and there that I was going to knit my next pair of socks, so that I could darn then when they wore out.

Yes, I know. Crazy reason to start knitting, but then, there you go.

It was around this time that I began to realize that knitting, and crochet seem to involve a more math than I was willing to admit. Now I embrace it, but as an English major, I found this offensive to my creative soul.

And so, I rejected one of the most valuable tools in a crafter’s arsenal.

The Gauge Swatch.

Now, for those of you who do knot not know what a Gague Swatch, it’s a small piece of knitting or crochet that you make before you make the big project. The advantage is this: you can figure out what needle you need to pair with the yarn (to get a tighter or looser fabric). You can also find out how many stitches you get per inch, which is a very important piece of information to know.

Your gauge works like this:

Thicker yarn with a larger needle = less stitches to the inch
Thinner yarn with a smaller needle = more stitches to the inch

Typically, on a ball band, there will be a recommended needle size that goes with the yarn, and the ball band on the yarn will tell you how many stitches you will get, approximately, if you use that yarn with the needle they recommend.

Thicker yarn with a smaller needle = less stitches to the inch and a tighter fabric (socks or washcloths)
Thinner yarn with a larger needle = more stitches to the inch and a looser fabric (lace or a drapey fabric)

Now, other things can influence the quality of your fabric (like what the yarn is made of or the stitches you are working), but these are good guidelines to keep in mind.

Later we will be talking about Gauge, and how it relates to shaping your project. We’ll also talk about the great information you can learn from your swatch.

Tuesday in My Queue

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Hey Yarnies,

Another eddition of Tuesday in My Queue. This time we’re looking at The Central Park Hoodie, done by Heather Lodinsky. This is a pattern I love. It’s got lovely downward cables, which are slenderizing and add interest to the knit. It’s got a great deep hood, which I love.

What people have done with it: As you see from some of the pictures here, a lot of people have added buttons, even though the model for the original pattern doesn’t have any. You could also add a zipper, which would work just as well. Shaping isn’t that hard to add… and would remove some of the excess fabric around those of you who have waists.

If I were to knit this, I would probably also made the hood deeper (I like deep hoods) and adjust where the ribbing falls at the bottom of the pattern. I have a short torso, and I wouldn’t like the ribbing hitting around my bottom. I also would probably kitchener stitch the top of the hood together, just because I don’t like how there’s a seam at the top of the hood. And also because I am convinced that I always know better than the designer, even when I don’t.

I also would choose a yarn for this that is solid or semi-solid. This is really a pattern where the patterns and the cables add the interest, instead of the yarn.

HEADS UP! There’s errata available for the pattern, so make sure you got it going in.

By the way, the brown version, to the left, is done by Dry Active Beast, who in addition to being a great knitter, has really good taste in music, and food.

The specs:

Published in:Knitscene, Fall 2006 Interweave Online Store The Best of 2010: Top Ten Patterns for Knitted Cardigans

Published September 2006

Yarns suggested:Tahki Yarns Donegal Tweed
Yarn weight: Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)

Gauge: 17 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch on larger needles
Needle size:US 6 – 4.0 mm amd US 8 – 5.0 mm
Yardage: 1098 – 3660 yards (1004 – 3347 m)
Sizes available: Sizes 32 (36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60)” bust.

She does it again

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So Yarnies,

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love Samurai Knitter. It think I mentioned how much she rocks my world, and how much her reviews of Vogue Knitting Magazine make me think.

Well, she’s done it again. She’s got her latest review of the Spring Vogue Knitting out, and I think it is definitely worth reading. In addition to critiquing the patterns, she gives us some great pictures demonstrating how models “work” patterns, so that they look good on the models.

I will make a few comments of my own on the new Vogue Knitting Magazine. First, what’s with Vogue choosing sections where all the patterns are the same color? And seriously, white???? let me just say, there are very few people that look good in that much white, and even the models by the end of that section are looking rather washed out (and a bit bored, in my opinion, which is not a surprise, considering how boring the white is).

HOWEVER, I really really like the colored section that comes a the back. I think the backgrounds are great, the colors are wonderful, and most of the patterns in the back are something I would consider making (which, after Vogue’s fall and winter issues, is a welcome relief, because I was getting tired of reading all about these bulky, shapeless knits).

Now, I admit a bias. Generally, I tend of the like the designs in Knitty or Interweave more than I like the ones in Vogue. Being an average woman (if a bit on the chunky and short side) I really am not into the supposedly “high” fashion designs that they highlight. It’s one of the reasons I tend to not be a fan of Takki’s pattern books either. (I tend to prefer Classic Elite’s Pattern books instead).

But I like the back section of Vogue Knitting. And I do keep subscribing to Vogue Knitting because I think their information articles make it all worth it.

Anyway, go check out Samurai Knitter’s review. As always, her critique says it all.

Tuesday in My Queue

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Good afternoon Yarnies!

Have you ever noticed how strange a word Queue is? Just throught I’d throw that out there.

Welcome to the first Tuesday in My Queue! This is where I feature a pattern in my Queue on Ravelry, and talk about why I like it, what skills it uses, what problems might be found with it. For those of you who don’t know, Ravelry is one of the most amazing online resources for knitters and crochet people.

Today’s pattern is Sylvi, by Mari Muinonen. Her website is madebymyself.blogspot.com/.
Link to pattern Some of her best designs, in my opinion, involve cables, and a particular love of mine, which is Irish Knotwork.

First, take a look at Sylvi, up above. I’m sure you noticed her when you came in, but just take another look for a moment. Linger. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Done? What do you think? Because I’ll tell you what I think:

Gorgeous.

Look at the lines, the flowers, the movement. And gosh, the color! At first I thought the red was almost too much, but I’m thinking that if you’re going to wear something like this, you can’t have it subtle. It has to be out there and bold.

What people have done with this: I think the best examples of this jacket is when the creators went with a single color. For example, this blue one’s vivid color make the shadows that for the flowers really glow.

However, one woman has done it with colorwork, and while it is lovely, I’m not quite sure it’s what I would go for. I think the single color is what makes this design really interesting. The intricacy of the stitches and the cables are really allowed to shine. When you make the project in multiple colors, it’s the colors, then the project, that are seen. The stitches take a second, backseat to the color, and if that’s what you want, that’s fine. But I think that the single color really make the project elegant, instead of just another knit project imitating nature by using flowers a vines. (don’t get me wrong. I love flowers and vines motifs in my knitting. That’s a large part of my queue.

The specs:
Finished bust measurements: (38, 41 ½, 44 ½, 47)” / 86 (97, 105, 113, 120 ) cm
Yarn: 12 (12, 13, 13, 14) skeins Briggs & Little Atlantic (100% wool; 136 yd/124.5 m per 4 oz/113.5 g) in Red
Needles & Notions: size 10 US (6 mm) 16″ (40 cm) and 32″ (80 cm) circulars; cable needle; stitch markers; tapestry needle; 6 large buttons; 5 stitch holders or scrap yarn
Gauge: 12 sts and 16 rows = 4″ (10 cm) in seed st
Construction Notes: Body knit flat in pieces, sleeves knit in the round

So this project is really going to eat your yarn. Let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat. It’s a coat, for goodness sake, so if you didn’t expect that, I’m sorry. It also has a boatload of cables, which also eats your yarn like nobody’s business.

I’d recommend doing this project in a solid or VERY subtle semi-solid yarn. Again, it’s the stitches that you want to pop, not the crazy pooling of a variegated yarn or the color-work from you modifying the pattern.

It’s going to require buttons. I’d go for some wooden ones, just my preference, though I also like what this one woman did with her pink flower buttons.

It looks from notes that the petals are knit separate and then sewn on, which means that if you don’t like seaming and finishing this project, those steps are going to drag.

So tell me my yarnies, what do ya’ll think?

You should really check this out…

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So one of my favorite people who is talking about knitting right now is Samurai Knitter. Her adventures of raising a (rather precocious!) daughter and her knitting insights are great. But you want to know the real reason I read her? Her insights into fashion.

Let me explain this in a rather roundabout way. I work in a yarn store, the rather wonderful Yarn Spot, in Wheaton, MD. You would think being a yarn store that we knit and crochet all day. Not so. If we aren’t selling yarn and helping customers, we’re entering and putting away patterns and yarn that we got in. When we’re not doing that, we’re tidying up the pattern books. If we’re not doing that, we’re cleaning the store, putting away yarn that’s fallen, or doing a myriad of other tasks. When we’re not doing THAT, we maybe, maybe, get to look through the new patterns and books we get in so that when someone comes in we know exactly the right place to point them to.

Needless to say, we hardly ever get to look at patterns on our time off.

So what do I do? I read Samurai Knitter’s reviews of Vogue Knitting. Because one, they make me laugh so hard I stop knitting (yes, I knit and read at the same time… don’t you?). And two, they are REALLY, really insightful into the patterns, what works about them, what doesn’t, and what I should look out for when a customer is looking to make a pattern, or if I’m planning to make a pattern.

So, Samurai Knitter just posted her review of the winter edition of Vogue. You should read it. Because really, I’m not sure if I could say it better.

Until later,
Jen

Tuesday in My Queue

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Hello Yarnies,

Time for another eddition of Tuesday in My Queue. Today I’m featuring one of my favorite designers, Joan McGowan-Michael. Her designs can be really really complicated at times, but the end results are just beautiful. If you haven’t ever been to her website http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/, you should. Ruby is one of her feature patterns and really exemplifies why I like her so much. She makes classic, beautiful patterns that are both interesting to knit and look good on people with… figures. That type of thing makes me VERY happy.

What people have done with this: This pattern seems to do best when it is done with a solid color. It’s the stitches that really are meant to stand out and pop.

I really like how other people’s projects show you how the back looks and how it fits over people’s bodies. You can tell that the shaping really give curvature to people with very little, but also the downward lines give people who are quite curvaceous to have a bit more downward line. The ribbons really add a great touch.

The Specs:
Fits bust sizes: 31.5(35.5,39.5,44.5,49.5,54.5,59.5)”

5 sts and 6.5 rows per inch over stockinette on US 7 needles

Cascade 220 Wool Yarn requirements:
6( 6, 8, 8,10,10,11 ) skeins or 1320 (1540, 1760, 1980, 2200, 2300, 2420) yards.

Note here: I would use something nicer than Cascade 220. While it’s a great yarn, I can’t really imagine wearing it next to my skin. Just my 2 cents. Also, reviews about the pattern have been mixed. Some of the charts are rather hard to read, and it really is an experienced knitter pattern, because there’s a lot of shaping and cables and lots of things going on at once. You need to be able to read your knitting. REALLY Well.

Tension in Knitting, Crochet and Life…

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So life right now has been a bit of a balancing act for me. I’m working at The Yarn Spot, babysitting, and trying to figure out if I can really make a career out of being my multi-directional self. I feel like I swing between too much and too little. I get tense and uptight worrying that I’m not going to make things work, then I relax and let things roll and don’t quite motivate the way I should.

It’s kind of like knitting or crochet… too much tension and your fabric will be too tight (I even saw one sweater where the person couldn’t get their head through the hole), too loose, and the fabric has no form, flopping down over your head like a three-times-too-big hat.

How the heck do you find a balance?

Well, I can’t really tell you how to go about it with life. I’m making some discoveries about myself, and others, and I’ll share those thoughts with you, but I’ve got it far from right. On the other hand, I can share with you my thoughts about knitting. You see, today we had a customer come in. She had switched from throwing (where you feed the yarn out of your right hand) to continental (or picking, where you feed the yarn out of the left hand, kind of like crochet). Her tension was all wonky, and she couldn’t get a consistent gauge. She was an experienced knitter, but this new method of knitting, while faster in the end, was not working for her right now.

We tried a few methods of wrapping the yarn around her fingers to try and get more friction. I showed her my way where I weave the yarn through my fingers and then loop it over my pinkie, and then I showed her the way another one of the employees in the store does it, where she wraps it around her thumb. In the end, the customer did neither way, but combined the two to get her tension where she wanted it.

I guess that’s what I’m trying to do with my life right now. Combine my passions… for children, for books, for yarn, for writing, for designing patterns, for crafting all into one seamless whole.

*grins* We’ll see how it goes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I’m going with the Boyfriend to New Haven this weekend to visit with friends. Not sure what’s going to happen, but I’ll try and take some good pictures to show you! We’ll be taking the train, so the Boyfriend will be pleased.

When I get back, I’m planning to put together a tutorial on holding the yarn when knitting continental, and different ways to modify it for loose or tight knitters.

I’ll keep you updated, Yarnies, for when I get back.

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