Knitting Archives - Page 2 of 5

Unique Sweater Pillows Tutorial

March 9, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Lately I’ve been able to dig my teeth into some interesting projects like the hobbyhorse blanket I repaired a couple of weeks ago. Today I wanted to share with you another project I’m working on. I was approached by a client interested in having six sweaters turned into pillows. A dear friend of hers had passed away, and she wanted to take her friend’s distinctive sweaters and turn them into pieces she could treasure.

I’ve worked a few times with commercial made sweaters; although more often I’m taking them apart for teaching purposes or using them to practice techniques I’d like to teach. While this isn’t a tutorial per-se, it’s an outline of my process and some tips and tricks I’ve discovered after working on other smaller projects similar to this.

Stabilizer ironed onto the back of the sweater pieces

My first step was taking the sweaters apart. All but one was chain-stitched together, which made disassembling them pretty easy once I got the hidden stitching undone. The last one was sewn together, which was a bit more of a pain to take apart. At least it was done in mattress stitch!

Next I ironed on stabilizer. The stabilizer gave the knit fabric more woven qualities, which was needed for several reasons:

It made sewing into the fabric infinitely easier.
For colorwork or stranded knitting sweaters, it prevented unraveling.
The stabilizer prevented the fabric from distorting by keeping lines straight and preventing stretching.
For sweaters with button bands or zippers, it prevented them from accidentally opening. It would allow some of the sweaters button bands to not be sewn, preserving some of the sweater-like qualities.
It allowed the finished pillow to be sturdier.

On the very last piece of sweater I was just shy of covering the entire sweater. Since I would be trimming most of the edges away, I pieced together a few extra scraps of stabilizer I had to finish it off (you can see this above).

Figuring out the size of the pillow, and making sure all the lines are straight

After the stabilizer was on, I began to look at each sweater, determining the notable features of the sweater – what made it distinct? How could I choose a shape that complimented the look of the piece? Would the pillow look better as a square or rectangular pillow?

Cutting the pieces using a quilter’s template and a fresh blade on my roller cutter

This tall ice-skating Santa would have gotten cut off as a square pillow. I also loved the beading on the edge of this sweater and the beaded snowflakes. I had to fudge cutting this pillow out to make sure that I caught all the elements that made it interesting.

I cut pieces to preserve the button bands, then had to make sure the button bands were in the center of the pillow

I thought it was important to keep the qualities of the sweater above that made it interesting – button bands and ribbing at the edge. This pillow had a really thick button band that was nearly impossible to sew through, needing a lot of hand stitching.

After cutting out all the pieces and making sure I’d gotten them to the correct size, it was time to pin them together. For most of the pillows I was able to use my sewing machine to sew at least three of the sides. For two of them I was also able to machine sew part of a fourth side, saving on a lot of time.

A stack of sewed pillows, awaiting stuffing

A stack of sewn pillows, awaiting stuffing

The top pillow above, with the blues and greens, ended up being a favorite. I love the buttons on the button band!

Mattress stitch is almost always a perfect solution to having two fabrics come together invisibly

Next I began hand-sewing the final edge of the pillows. I used #10 crochet thread instead of normal sewing thread. This was becasue I was having to yank at the pillows to get them to look the way I wanted them. This was doubly true when sewing through the button bands, and getting three layers of very thick knit fabric to come together. Even still, sometimes I wasn’t careful and had the thread break. Not fun!

Mattress stitch (aka ladder stitch) was my stitch of choice.

Pillow made out of old sweater, button band showing

The pillows are coming together now! I wasn’t always able to get the ribbing to come together evenly on the bottom. It’s a nitpicky detail, and probably something only I could notice. It couldn’t always be helped though. I love here how I could keep the button band unsewn, so it looks like the button band on a normal sweater, with that dimensionality! The thick stabilizer unerneath will prevent stuffing from escaping.

Some close shots of the lovely beadwork on the bottom of the Santa sweater. I just had to keep a detail like this. I’m already wondering how to replicate this in a handknit design.

This has been a fun project and a unique way to honor a passed friend. In the next few days I’ll wrap up with the final touches – removing lint, straightening edges and getting ready to send these pieces back to my client.

Reweaving a Lace Knit Blanket, Part 2

March 6, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Today I resume notes on my recent repair, a lace hobbyhorse blanket. This is the second of the series detailing my thoughts as I worked through this reweaving and repair project. You can see the first part here.

Base of the hobby horse, stitches on locking stitch marker.

When I last left off I’d gotten the piece reworked up to the lacework, and fixed a couple of runs that were below the hobbyhorse. I’m ready to start working my way up the lace horse.

To review, this is what a whole hobbyhorse looks like (below). You’ll see I’m using stitch markers to visually mark my place – the green stitch marker represented the first line of stitches in a column that were whole and unraveled.

Reference hobbyhorse

I got my stitches on a pair of needles and began “knitting” my way up the rows, following and mimicking the other lace horse. I used a trick I often use with children and beginning knitters – the knitting needles are two different colors so I could easily remember which were right side rows and which were “wrong side” rows. By that I mean the rows I was working with the lace (which would have been the right side of the pattern) and the rows I was just plain knitting (which would have been the wrong side, or the purl side).

Double pointed needles made it easy to not have to slip the stitches back and forth.

Reknitting and reweaving the foot of the lace knit hobbyhorse

At this point I was to the top of the horse’s foot and began to notice a problem I hadn’t been sure about until that point. I thought there was a jog in the line of decreases and yarnovers to the left, but I wasn’t quite sure. As I began working the pattern up the leg of the horse, it became apparent that a couple of mistakes had been made by the origional knitter when knitting the horse.

Note: you’ll also notice that as I was making these repairs I wasn’t paying attention to gauge too much – both because I could go back and “adjust” areas, and also because this repair had a time budget – it was more important to get the repair to a place where it wouldn’t come unraveled.

Reknitting and reweaving the leg of the lace knit hobbyhorse

There were three apparent mistakes, but two of them affected the repair – circled below. You can see the jog in the line of stitches on the bottom circle, and another jog at the line of stitches in the horse’s neck. The third mistake, the one which may have led to the run in the first place, is right at the top of the dropped stitches. The mysterious part of all of this was the fact that there wasn’t any broken yarn – the run must have resulted in a dropped stitch that couldn’t get fixed.

At this point I was also starting to suspect that there might have been an extra pair of stitches in the original pattern. Looking at the horse I began to wonder if perhaps there was a fourth mistake that was lost when the stitches dropped down? I’d been noticing that even accounting for differences in gauge, the stitches were really loose. This hypothetical fourth mistake would account for an extra row of stitches, and thus the extra yarn hanging out in each row. I started to suspect that the drop might have resulted from the original knitter trying to fix those mistake; and perhaps losing a stitch in the process?

Comparing how the hobbyhorse is supposed to look, vs the horse with the run in it

By now I worked my way back to where the drop happened. I had to strategize how I was going to finish this repair off. I had two different choices I could follow:

1.) Cut the yarn to reweave the affected area and then weave in those ends.

2.) Use additional yarn to sew the gap closed.

I discarded the first option for a couple of reasons: time and cost was a factor for this client. I also wouldn’t have much ends to work with when weaving things back together. Since this is a child’s blanket, I wanted a sturdier option.

Instead, I went with option two. I found some embroidery floss in as close of color as I could get, and cinched in the stitches. I then sewed through the area several times, weaving in the ends afterward.

Getting ready to sew the run and hole in the hobbyhorse closed

To get the stitches looking more even, and to test to make sure everything was locked in tight I decided to go with an unconventional approach for blocking. I wet the blanket, maneuvered the stitches so they looked as even as I could get them in a reasonable amount of time, and threw it in the dryer (since the yarn was dryer safe). This fluffed up the yarn, locked the stitches into place, and helped everything even out.

And there you have it! This piece went off to its owner last week, back into the loving arms of a boy that will have it for years to come.

Getting Cocky on a Sweater

January 31, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Remember how yesterday I said I had everything left but the seaming? Well, dear stitchers, that’s what I get for being over-confident.

Yesterday, oh yesterday, the future was looking bright. I had a sweater nearly done, a window in which to finish it, and a baby that would look adorable in said sweater. Turns out, not so much.

You see, the problem starts with the sleeves. I’d worked on the sleeves over the weekend, when I was teaching at Fibre Space. I’d mentioned before how I was winging it, a little, on the sweater? I mean, I’d worked out some rough numbers, and I knew basically how a sweater was supposed to look and fit. I figured I could go from there.

Since I had a limited amount of yarn left (I was rather committed to only using one skein, since I’d technically “stolen” it out of my business inventory), I decided to knit the sleeves two at a time. That way, I wouldn’t have to remember the shaping decisions I made when I went to work the second sleeve. Also, that way if I ran out of yarn, and the sleeves ended up a little short, I could just claim they were meant to be three-quarter sleeves. Not a big deal.

My first downfall would have probably been leaving the rough numbers and calculations I made at home. My second downfall was deciding I’d just eyeball things.

And my third downfall was ignoring my little niggling feeling in the back of my mind when I looked at the sleeves two-thirds of the way through, and wondered if they would be wide enough. Instead, I allowed myself to feel smug when I finished the sleeves with only a few yards left to go. “Just enough to seam,” I thought.

I think you know where this is going. The sleeves? They’re really, really small. See those sleeves? Yes, they’re curling up, but even when they’re spread out, they’re still small.

Still, I was in enough denial (it’s the yarn fumes, I swear), that I managed to seam one of the sleeves together, and pin it to the body of the sweater. And then, just to verify, I shoved my child’s arm down the sleeve to truly see if there was any hope of salvaging things.

If you can’t tell, that’s my child, with her arm out, rather puzzled as to why she can’t bend it. Hint: the reason is the stitches are so stretched out in order to get her arm thru the sleeve that she can’t bend her arm.

So the sweater, is in timeout where I decide if I want to unravel and re-knit the sleeves or raid the business for another skein to finish things off.

And to look at my numbers to see where I went wrong. Wish me luck.

Little Turtle’s Sweater

January 30, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

A while back I made a sweater for Rebecca that fit for all of two minutes, and I’ve been wanting to make another since then.

A spare skein of Dragonfly Fiber’s Traveller in Flannel Pajamas and a size 6 needle, and I was on my way. Stacey Trock had made her daughter a sweater using a kimono type sweater pattern, and I remember how she loved it because it only had two fastenings. I looked around at a couple of different styles, decided I really didn’t like anything (mostly because a lot of them tie up, and Rebecca would untie things as quick as fastened them). So I played around with the numbers and started knitting.

You know when everything in knitting goes well? It’s a simple pattern, minimal shaping, and the yarn is a joy to work with? Well, this is that sort of project. I love Dragonfly Fiber’s Traveller base, I love the colors, and I like anticipating how cute this sweater is going to look on Rebecca. I’ve got great needles to work on (nice a pointy, how I like them), and it’s nice to be working on something that well, isn’t for work. A little bit of a break, you could say. I’m going to have this done this week, and Rebecca will be able to wear it for the rest of the season, and it’s going to be wonderful.

I’ve got the body done, and I’ve got the sleeves done too. All that remains is the final bit of seaming. I can’t wait to have Little Turtle in the sweater, ready to wear. As it is, it makes a cute vest.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

PPS: also, appreciate this photo, above. It’s really hard to get a picture of my daughter when she wants to wiggle.

Stitch Adventure Sale at Dances with Wool

January 28, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

I’ve talked a little bit about my new partnership with Dances With Wool, a yarn store just outside of Richmond, VA. I’m super excited to be able to teach at this wonderful, vibrant new store. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to teach weekly classes, and to develop many of the relationships that I loved when I taught at Woolwinders.

This week we’re running a sale on a particular type of class – our inaugural Stitch Adventure class. What is Stitch Adventure? It’s a class that gives you the benefits of a private lesson – flexibility and ability to cover a variety of topics, with the community aspect of a class.

Stitch Adventure classes can be a great way to tackle a new project that you need a little help on. If you want to be held accountable to finishing a project up, we can do that. And if you need help picking a project and finding the right yarn, the instructor is right there for you. Each class you can bring in a new project – it doesn’t matter if it is knitting or crochet, since I can help you with both!

Right now the Stitch Adventure class is discounted 25% off – so sign up before we start on February 1st. The class with run Wednesdays, Feb 1, 8, 15, 22 7-8 PM.

I’ll see you there!

News about Upcoming Classes & a Sale

January 26, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Fibre Space Classes

This weekend on Saturday the 28th I’ll be at Fibre Space in Old Town Alexandria, VA to be teaching two different classes:

Ooops: Fixing Mistakes: If the sight of a dropped stitch, a mixed up cable, or a problem in your lace sends you scrambling for the LYS, this class if for you. Learn to fix your mistakes!

Hairpin Lace Scarf: This highlights a fun riff on Hairpin Lace by making a quick project that will teach you the basics of this stunning technique!

I also am trying out something a little new: I’m scheduling a few Private Lessons for students that miss the one-on-one attention or would like to discuss a topic outside of my normal class offerings! I’d love to meet with you then!

Dances With Wool Classes

I’ve also been fostering a new relationship with Dances With Wool, in Midlothian, VA, just outside of Richmond. I’ve got a number of classes coming up with them.

Sugar Maple Hat is a great class for learning how to work in the round, working cables, and reading a knitting pattern with cables. The class will run February 1, 8th and 15th.

If you want to learn how to work socks, this next class is for you. Toe-up socks: Time Traveler covers how to cast on for a toe-up sock, how to work a riverbed heel, a primer on intermediate lace (just enough to keep your interest!), and a folded over brim. Classes are spaced out so that students have the time to work on the pattern before getting to the next place. Dates are February 22, March 8th and March 22!

I’ve also got a new sort of class that I’m running at DWW, called Stitch Adventure. Got a project that you want to work but want a bit of handholding along the way? Need help on choosing yarns or tackling a new skill? Want to be held accountable to get those projects done? This is the type of class for you! And this week, we’re running a sale of the class – 25% off. Signup here!

Classes at the Ashland Library

And now, finally one last opportunity I want to call your way. If you live in Ashland, VA, I’ll be teaching a Beginning Knitting and Beginning Crochet class this month. Volunteering and making needlework accessible to everyone is an important cornerstone of my personal values. At the same time, I don’t often give my instruction away for free, as it’s one of my primary methods of income. Still, sometimes I feel it is important to give back to my community.

Thus, I’ll be teaching two different events at the Ashland Library this month:

Beginning Knitting Workshop
Wednesday, February 1, Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Jennifer Raymond, owner of Tinking Turtle Designs will show you how to get started with your first knitting project. No experience necessary. Supplies provided. Call or visit the library to sign up.

Beginning Crochet Workshop
Wednesday, February 15, Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Jennifer Raymond, owner of Tinking Turtle Designs will show you how to get started with your first crochet project. No experience necessary. Supplies provided. Call or visit the library to sign up.

New Classes at Dances With Wool

October 27, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

It’s always exciting when a new yarn store comes to the area – what yarns are they going to carry? So it was super exciting when a few months ago Debbie Floyd, the owner of Dances with Wool, got in contact with me. She was opening a new yarn store in Midlothian, VA. And she wanted to talk to me about classes.

I’m so excited about this new yarn store to the Richmond VA area, especially as the Knitting Basket is closing. While I haven’t been by the store since they had their opening, what I did see was a store focused on good quality yarn, beautiful patterns, community and classes.

Starting in November I’ll be teaching a Skill Building class focused around my pattern, Wild Wood Leaves. It’s a crib blanket with options of three different sizes, and is currently only available if you take the class. The wonder of this series of classes is you can take the entire series of eight (and get a discount on all of them) or pick and choose which ones you need the most.

The classes are as follows:

Week 1, Nov. 2, 6-7 pm – Reading Patterns, Knits and Purls (middle left panel)
Week 2, Nov. 9, 6-7 pm – Increases, Decreases and Yarn Overs, Beginning Lace (bottom left panel)
Week 3, Nov. 16, 6-7 pm – Color Work With Duplicate Stitch (bottom right panel)
Week 4, Nov. 30, 6-7 pm – Color Work With Intarsia (middle right panel)
Week 5, Dec. 7, 6-7 pm – Beginning Cables (top left panel)
Week 6, Dec. 14, 6-7 pm – Slip Stitches (top right panel)
Week 7, Jan. 4, 6-7 pm – Bringing It All Together with Seaming and Finishing (all)
Week 8, Jan. 11, 6-7 pm – Picking Up Stitches and Borders (all)

You can sign up for the classes here.

I can’t wait to begin teaching locally again! I’ve missed being able to do it since Rebecca was born, and I’m so pleased to be able to spend time with students while establishing good foundational knitting skills.

You should also check out Dances with Wool!

Fall Designs Featuring Animals

October 25, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

This fall I’ve got a number of designs coming out, and several of them are children’s garments featuring animals. I’ve noticed an uptick in my interest in designing children’s garments (I wonder why? *coughlittleturtlecough*). There’s two children’s designs I wanted to highlight today.

Raynard is a children’s dress featuring sweet little foxes on the front of the body and pockets. Featuring a folded over hem at the base of the dress and on the pockets, this simple and sweet dress is an idea that came into my mind fully formed. I blame the proliferation of forest animals featured in baby items lately – foxes just seemed to be everywhere.

The Foxes are worked with duplicate stitch before the dress is assembled, meaning this project is very approachable to beginners looking to stretch their skills. And with the majority of the pattern worked in the round, this dress fairly flies off the needles!

It was a joy working with Willow Yarn’s Daily Worsted – this blend is washable while still being durable and soft. And with such a range of colors, you can come up with some adorable color combinations. Willow even offers the pattern at a kit – which takes the decision making out of the process.

You can purchase and download the pattern here!

I’m also excited to tell you about my first pattern in Love of Knitting magazine. This pattern features some animals near and dear to my heart – my cats, Peake and Watson. I’d originally envisioned this as an adult pattern, but the editor of Love of Knitting, Deborah Gerish, pointed out how perfectly it would work as a children’s sweater.

I think she was correct.

Inspired by the silhouette of Peake and Watson as they sit on the window watching the outdoors and birds, the pattern is titled Window Cat. The cats are written as intarsia, but could also be added after the fact with duplicate stitch. I have them on the pattern facing away from the viewer, but with a little ingenuity, you could add eyes and whiskers so that they’re facing out.

The sweater is worked in Classic Elite Yarn’s Liberty Wool, one of my favorite yarns. Liberty Wool is sturdy and soft and long-wearing. It’s washable and comes in SO MANY COLORS. While the solid colors are stunning, I also think it would be fun to make the cats calico – by using one of their variegated yarns in browns and oranges and whites. I have so many ideas for how to adapt the pattern!

I also love the finishing details on this pattern – the vintage buttons match the sweater perfectly. They’re not too upscale. Instead they match the quality of the sweater, casual and much-loved.

I love the brown of the trim, the garter stitch around the yoke, the crochet trim around the neck. Simply put, I love the way this pattern turned out.

I have to admit, I have some plans for this motif in the future – I’d love to turn it into a matching hat and cowl pattern too! So many potential options!

Do you have cats? How would you customize this pattern?

Works in Progress.

October 20, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

The leaves are starting to change, the windows are open day and night, and it’s fall, fall fall! It’s my favorite time of year.

Life has been busy in the Turtle Household. Last month my sister, Rosemary, moved to Richmond. She’s been settling into her apartment in Richmond, and it’s so wonderful to have another member of the family close by. We’ve been getting together quite often, as she doesn’t know many other people right now. It’s wonderful, as Auntie Rose is great with Little Turtle, and I’ve been able to take a bit of breathing room.

Last weekend I was over at Fibre Space, teaching a handful of classes. It was my second time being away from Little Turtle for an entire day (the first being when I was hospitalized). After teaching, Rosemary, my brother Matthew, and I got together for dinner, and it was a lovely hour getting to catch up all together.

Meanwhile, Little Turtle is growing so quickly, already able to sit up, with a little help from her boppy. She loves sitting outside on the mat her grandmother sewed for her, looking at the trees and the cats and her mama knitting. She’s quite vocal, frequently letting people know her thoughts with shrieking, humming, babbling and generally making noise. She’s a smiley baby too, interested in the world and really not keen to view it on her stomach.

Little Turtle’s grandma has been furnishing her her with October and Halloween themed outfits, one of my favorites being this dress:

But let’s be frank, you aren’t really checking here for adorable pictures of babies, right? *wink*

So what has Tinking Turtle been up to? I’ve got a variety of designs that have released over the summer and into this fall – more on that next week. I’ve got two crochet designs I’m working on, a tank top and a blanket. I’ve also got a knitting project on the needles for a class I’ll be teaching later this fall.

This week my online class, All About Yarns is wrapping up. I’m sad to see it finish.

Meanwhile, Watson has been helping with the guarding of yarn balls.

And I’m hoping, rather futilely, to knit a wee sweater for Rebecca before she grows too big to fit into it. That may be stretching things a bit.

What have you been up to?

Bang out a Baby Sweater

September 7, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

Three months into becoming a mama, and I’m just starting to rediscover life outside of our immediate family. I was talking to a close girlfriend the other day, and I was marveling at how everything changes and nothing changes. It seems like each day the changes are so gradual that I don’t notice a difference, and then I look at pictures from a month or two months ago, and I realize just how far we’ve come.

The last time I talked about Little Turtle she was 5 weeks old and just growing out of the newborn clothing. Now she’s solidly filling out 3 month old clothing, and a few of the smaller onesies are starting to get tight. Her head control is pretty good now – she likes to follow people’s faces as they move around a room, and her eyes will flick back and forth as she listens to her parents speaking.

She likes to play the “reach and grab” game when you hold a toy in her arm range. After she grabs things she hasn’t quite managed to figure out how to let go, so she’ll look pretty confused as she waves her prize around. Last week she rolled over for the first, second, and third time from belly to back. She hasn’t repeated the feat again.

My stitching mojo is slowly starting to come back. Last month I taught two camps fiberarts camps, each a week long. As the campers were working on their projects, I began to just work some simple garter stitch. Didn’t do anything with it – just working on a swatch to demonstrate to my students.

Then, I was pulling together classes for Fibre Space this fall, and was looking for a new pattern to teach intarsia. I found one I liked, bought the pattern, and began working a sample. And all of a sudden, things came back to me. Before I knew it, I was motoring away on a second version of the project, and I’m contemplating a third. It’s a simple project that probably works up in about 4-5 hours… perfect for my attention span! The pattern, titled Totally, his here.

Still, I had no interest in working on anything of my own.

Then, over the weekend we were at the farm. It was one of the first times I had some real downtime. While both of the grandparents had come and visited before, I was running camps, completing errands I couldn’t do with Rebecca, and going to doctor’s appointments. At the farm someone else was holding Rebecca, and I didn’t have any work, and I decided I was going to “bang out a baby sweater.” I wasn’t going to worry about math, or a pattern, or being able to replicate things. I just went for it. I used a shirt that was just a little big on her for a template.

It doesn’t have a button yet for the neck. And I think it’ll fit her for all of two weeks (well, maybe a bit more than two weeks, she is wearing it over a shirt and overalls right now). The sleeves are a smidge snug. But it was done in just over 24 hours.

It’s yoked, with random yarnovers in the yoke to provide shaping. Short sleeves because I just wanted it done, and I didn’t want to calculate sleeve length.

Sometimes you just have to go for things.

Also, see those overalls? Notice the turtles? My mama made those, G-ma Turtle. I think they’re amazing.

What have you been just going for lately?

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Tinking Turtle

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