Most knitters assume we know the techniques needed for what we want to knit. We do until we do something different from our usual knitting. I seem to specialize in techniques–but even I keep finding new techniques needed for things I want to knit. It is often as I embark on something that I find…
cast on
How Much Yarn Will That Take?
I’m always wondering how much yarn something will take. I’m pretty good at estimating for the big picture–how much for an entire project–but I often need to know how much I need for a row, the cast on, and the bind off. Let’s look at quick ways you can figure yarn needs out. You will…
Riffing on A Melody
I’ve been riffing on a pattern that I created several years ago. This concept development is kind of like jazz improvisation–which is riffing on a melody–and I love doing it. It is just responding to the what-ifs that come up for me. The down side is that it takes a lot of time–actual time developing, then…
Casting On the Lisse Hat
If you read my newsletter last week (10/29/15) you know I wrote about about how to squeeze knitting Lisse Hat into your schedule. I figured I should try it too. Casting On the Lisse Hat I estimated it would take 11 hours to knit in last week’s newsletter. It ended up taking about 7 hours…
Winter Knitting Season
I am down to two weeks left in my Winter knitting season. Then two weeks of finishing and on to the Spring knitting season. I’m feeling some pressure. My time estimates have proven to be overly optimistic, so Belon took much longer than anticipated although it was completely worth the effort because it gave…
Esperance Cowl Adventures
Edited to Add Photos. 3.1.15 I knit the first Esperance Cowl sample (Civility SockTwist in City Shadow). I am not usually a good sample knitter because I don’t notice if I’ve made any errors in my pattern-writing logic. So I had the second sample made by a knitter in Civility Sport. First I gave her…
Rain
We’re getting rain in SF. Finally, and pretty late, but it is good to get it anyway. There was a huge downpour during the night, and we had thunder and lightening Monday. I was kind of hoping that it would rain this morning so I wouldn’t have to go run. No such luck. Got…
Start Big
I always want to get the worst over with first. I knit my sweater bodies (even flat) in one piece to the armholes whenever possible. It makes every row a bit of an undertaking (I use markers to help me have progress intervals), but once I get to the armholes, I’ve knit the lower body…
Join Without Twisting
Tuesday Linda slogged through proofreading a pattern. Three accessories. Shaping charts, written directions. It was her job to find inconsistencies that we could fix before this set of patterns goes to the out to knitters and the tech editor. There were barely any errors–and some of them were repetitions. This is pretty amazing and is…
Second Boat leaves Dock
Yesterday I cast on and knitted the first 3″ of my Blue Canoe Front. I also cast on and started working on the neckband for Blue Canoe. I don’t expect to make progress as quickly as I did on the back, but it felt good to get it going. I quit working on it when…
Casting On your swatch
Click the photos to go right to the technique description and video links. Most instructions say to cast on. They don’t tell you how to cast on and I think the assumption has always been that every knitter knows a couple of cast ons and will just use whatever they like. This is true,…
Videos!
Fridays, after my valiant assistant Wendy leaves, are usually used for tying up loose ends. Today I got a question on Ravelry on the double-needle cast on so I decided to see if I could upload my rudimentary video on how to do it. Turns out it is actually pretty easy! So I’ve put up…
