Lots of Knitting

So, I’ve now been given an official “take it easy” from the doctor, and I don’t have to be on complete bed rest, at least for now. Which has been a wonderful relief.

It was fun to have a few days where I didn’t have to do anything but knit. While I don’t feel like I’ve been overwhelmingly productive, the amount of FOs and new WIPs have been adding up.

The first thing I did when put on bed rest was cast on this little cutie…

As I’ve mentioned before, my goal is to knit 2 boy and 2 girl sweaters, hats and booties, so that I have a perfect little outfit to bring them home from the hospital in, no matter how they surprise us. For some reason the boy ideas have been flowing and I haven’t been able to come up with cute girl ideas, but finally this one came together. It’s a simple raglan construction with a slip stitch pattern knit up in Knit Picks Felici self striping yarn. Unfortunately this colorway is discontinued.

I also finally finished the last step on this little sleep sack for my niece… sewing on the snaps and buttons.

I’m thrilled with the finished product… it’s a bit longer than I was hoping, but I think it’ll fit her for a good long while.

It’s so fun seeing new projects start and old ones get finished and to their owners.

 

 

Knitting Basics: Intro and Info on Choosing Yarn

Intro

Over the last couple years as I’ve taken knitting more and more seriously, word seems to have gotten around that this is what I do and that I’m the person to ask when newer knitters of my acquaintance hit a wall in their own pursuit of the craft. I love getting these questions, often I don’t have all the answers, but I usually can get them going in the right direction.

As I was answering an email today, I realized that each of these questions could turn into marvelous little blog topics and that blogging gave me a unique opportunity to explore a topic with a bit of depth and then it would be out there and available for others with similar questions. Now, I don’t flatter myself that I’m the first blogger who has ever addressed these topics. But the internet is a big place, and having good info in multiple places means that a new knitter will be more likely to come across something helpful, weather it’s my blog or someone elses.

Choosing Yarn

So the question I wanted to address today was choosing yarn. The world is a very, very big place when it comes to yarn, and it’s only getting bigger. There are more yarn companies and indy dyers popping up all the time. It’s wonderful to have all these wonderful options, but for someone just getting started, it’s really overwhelming. It wasn’t that long ago that I was completely ignorant of yarn fiber content and how to choose the best yarns for each project I tackled. But I actually got up to speed pretty simply, because in spite of  the zillions of options, most options seem to be some variation of the same simple concepts. Here’s how to approach choosing yarn.

Phase 1: Consider

You’ll want to start by assessing your project, recipient, timing and the pattern you’re using.

1) Consider your project.

Most people, especially new knitters usually have a project in mind when they go to buy yarn. The kind of project you’re working on will dictate what the best yarn options will be. Is it a sweater? A scarf? A blanket? Socks? Mittens? For each of  these types of projects you’ll want to look for some specific features in your yarn.

• Blanket – The sky is the limit here, you can pretty much get away with using anything.
• Scarves – Most scarves are worn next to the skin, so you’ll want to choose something soft.
• Sweater or other top – you’ll want to figure out if this is something you’ll wear next to your skin or will be layered over another shirt. If it’ll be next you your skin, you’ll want it very soft, if you’re going to layer it, you don’t need the fiber to be quite as soft, although typically, the more fitted the the garment, the softer you’ll want your fiber. There are some great yarns out there that work wonderfully for some projects that would make very uncomfortable sweaters.
• Sock – These are interesting, while they are worn next to the skin, I have discovered that feet don’t seem to care quite as much about how soft the fiber around them is as your arms and neck seem to. You’re feet may be different.
• Mittens – Again, close to skin, so the same rules apply. However much like your feet, your hands seem to be little less picky.

2) Consider the final recipient of your project.

This is very, very important. Is it for yourself, someone you can trust to care for your hand knitwear with the utmost care? Is it for a baby and are you going to want to be able to throw it in the washing machine? Is it for a dear friend, who loves your knitting but may forget to wash it properly? These are very, important things to consider.

3) Consider how long you’d like this project to take. 

Do you have a year to finish it? Or does it need to be done for a baby shower in a couple weeks? Yarns come in different weights, or thicknesses, and the thicker the yarn, the faster it’ll go. I’ll touch on this a bit more ins step 5.

4) Consider the pattern.

Does the pattern call for a specific kind of yarn? Usually the designer intended the pattern for that specific yarn, and you’ll get the best results by just following what they say. However, there are some very good reasons for substituting yarns, but it should be done carefully. At minimum, you should try to get the same weight and fiber content that is called for. I will go over all that should be considered in yarn substitutions in another “Knitting Basics” blog post.

Phase 2: Determine

Now it’s time to make some decisions!

5) Determine Fiber Content.

Based on the decisions you’ve made in the previous steps you’ll have a list of criteria for the yarn you choose. So you walk into your local yarn store or start shopping online. The options are endless. So let me give you a little outline of the various features you’ll get from different yarns. Generally speaking the fiberworld is divided into three categories, plant fiber, animal fiber, and synthetic fiber. Each one has it’s pluses and minuses. I’ve put together a chart to give you a general idea of the difference between each of these fibers.

Merino Wool	Merino is sort of considered top of the food chain in the knitting world. It’s incredibly soft, fairly durable, and comparatively inexpensive when compared with your luxury animal fibers.
Peruvian Wool	This is your basic wool yarn. It’s a bit scratchy, so I wouldn’t make a cowl neck sweater out of it. But it felts beautifully, and if you want to make a cheaper blanket, it’s a great option.
Superwash Wool	Excellent for baby and kid knitting as well as socks as it’s essentially washable. This fiber goes through an extra treatment process that makes the yarn resistant to felting when washed.
Alpaca	This fiber comes from animals that look like mini llamas. It’s very soft, however the tougher guard hairs can get into the yarn and make it a little “pokey” on occasion. It’s also about 4 times as warm as wool is.
Silk	We all know what silk is. In the knitting world it is just as luxurious of a fiber. Often it’s combined with wool. And makes simply gorgeous final projects. One interesting note though is that silk is actually quite a bit warmer than wool, so it’s an excellent choice for hats and mittens to match your classiest coat.
Cotton	This is baby knitting favorite. Totally washable, usually quite soft, it can also be very hard wearing as well. It does tend to pill a bit.
Bamboo	Bamboo fiber is made from the pulp inside the bamboo plant. It is very soft and is often blended with other fibers to give it a beautiful sheen. Occasionally you’ll find a pure bamboo yarn.
Rayon/Modal	This is a fiber that’s manufactured celulose out of naturally occuring polymers. That’s all I know about it’s orgin. I do know it’s a wonderfully smooth fiber that adds a lot of luxurious sheen when blended with wool or cotton.
Nylon	A fiber that’s made from synthetic polymers. You will find nylon in most yarns designated as “sock yarn” as it gives the wools some extra durability.
Cheap Acrylic	Avoid. I’ve heard it described as knitting with plastic grocery bags, and I couldn’t agree more.
Quality Acrylic	Not all acrylic is created equal. Acrylic blends, especially ones manufactured by the higher quality brands can be quite nice to work with, and again acrylic is washable which is usually a bit win with people.

 

A more detailed PDF version of this chart can be downloaded here.

Take all this info with a grain of salt. There are huge variations between brands using the same fibers. It really is best to get your hands on the actual yarn and make an assessment for yourself. At the very least, I recommend reading the comments for a yarn you plan to buy on ravelry or some other favorite yarny site.

6) Determine Weight.

Usually a pattern will tell you what weight yarn you’ll need. Yarn weight terminology isn’t very intuitive at all. But here’s the rundown: Super Bulky and Bulky yarn is the thickest, then comes heavy worsted, and worsted, followed by double knitting, sport, fingering, then lace, in that order. Like I said earlier the thicker the yarn the faster it knits up. However, it’s also worth pointing out that some weights typically work well for certain types of projects.

• Lace – As you may have guessed, this weight yarn is usually used for lace work.
• Fingering – Typically used for socks
• Sport – This is sometimes called baby weight yarn, probably because this weight is often used for baby knitting.
• Double Knitting (DK) and Worsted  - These are your typical sweater weight yarns.
• Bulky – Lots of “quick knits” are designed with bulky for obvious reasons.

So there you go, you’ve got the basics of navigating your Local Yarn Store. I will say that the information in steps 5 and 6 is just to give you a frame of reference. Any yarn that you get your hands on and want to work with could work for whatever project your looking to start.

Have fun shopping!

And So My World Changes

So it feels like I get a week of knitting and then there’s a week or two whirlwind of other baby prep, then I get a week of knitting, and the cycle continues. While I haven’t been knitting a ton these last two weeks, I’ve been doing all sorts of other crafty baby prep. Curtains were made, little burp cloths were appliqued, and custom vinyl decals for the nursery have been designed.

But as of yesterday, knitting will be getting more attention, and when I say more attention, I mean A LOT of attention. Yesterday I was put on complete bedrest. I’m not in preterm labor or anything yet, but they were very concerned that I would be if I didn’t seriously take it easy. I must say, this was one of the moments when I was glad I was a knitter. Well, I was glad for a lot of things, but being a knitter was one of the top three. I didn’t say to myself in a panic… “what am I going to do on the couch all day?” Instead, I knew exactly what I was going to do with all that couch time. I finally could knit all the things I had been dying to dive into without feeling guilty about the rest of the house. Well, I still do feel guilty about the house, but it’s out of my control now.

I’m so thankful for good friends. My dear friend called me this morning as soon as she heard. She gave me some great perspective on how I should be using this time. I’m so glad I have people who are going to help me be really productive with this time and do things I couldn’t do if I was rushing around still getting ready for these babies, and won’t let me languish for the next two months in a pile of depressed misery.

So here are some of the things I’d like to do with my next couple months of time…

1. Refresh my walk with the Lord – I now have absolutely no excuse to not spend a good chunk of time in the Word, spend extended time praying for my children, and read good books every day. Even if I do that for 2 hours every single day, that still leaves hours and hours of time for knitting, novels, and TV.
2. Think through life. Tackle what it’s going to take to get little pockets of my home organized. Even if I can’t do it, that doesn’t mean I can’t figure out the best system for it that I can implement when I’m on my feet again.
3. Stay on top of the paperwork.
4. Read some classics – librivox.org may just keep me sane, while keeping my mind intellectually challenged and engaged.
5. Knit, Knit, Knit, Design, Design, Design, Publish, Publish, Publish – Need I say more?
6. Blog, Podcast, Tweet – All things I love doing, but never seem to have enough time to enjoy. I guess I do now!

Any of my readers ever been on bed rest? Any other suggestions about what I should do with my time?

“I Should…”

So, as I’ve re-engaged the blog/twitter-sphere post-holiday madness, I’ve noticed a flurry of New Years related posts and tweets regarding other knitters various resolutions. I’m really not much of a resolutions sort of person. I think any time is a good time to start something you should be doing, and that trying to stack a whole bunch of “I shoulds” at the beginning of the year just makes life overwhelming.

But it’s funny, there seems to be something about this time of year, when the idea of taking inventory and coming up with some new ideas is just contagious. Because I’ve been noticing a few very appropriate and not very burdonsome “I shoulds” collecting in the corners of my mind. Most of which I’ve already started acting on.

1) I’m in a blog-reading rut, I don’t think I’ve added any good blogs to my google reader in 2 years. The funny part is, pretty often, I scroll to my “favorite” blog section and get disappointed that my faves haven’t posted. There’s a pretty easy solution to that…add more to your favorites! For those who comment and leave a blog address, thank you! I’ll be spending a lot more time culling the blogosphere for some new reads and y’all are top of my list. If you read but don’t usually comment, would you mind “leaving your card”? I’d love to know what kinds of blogs my readers write and start keeping up with what you have to say this new year.

2) I have a love-hate relationship with Social networking. I love Facebook, and until recently could not “get” twitter, and ravelry is an interesting case for me too. I am a social person… I promise, but I have a very, very hard time engaging the virtual world, especially when it involves interacting with people I haven’t met. It seems there is a whole new set of social protocol that enables us to connect with and enjoy people we’ve never met but have tons of things in common with, and I just haven’t figured it out yet. Last week, I sat down and decided to give twitter a shot again, this time went really, really well! I actually connected with a couple people about improving my pattern schematics, found a couple new blogs, and favorited a few etsy shops with yummy, yummy yarn. So that leads me to my next “I should”. I should spend more time on twitter, I think it’ll keep me from being the excessively introverted knitter I seem to be turning into.

3) This one seems to be every bloggers resolution. I should post more. The thing is, this blog only becomes a burden when I don’t keep up with it. When more than a week goes by without a post, suddenly it’s a millstone around my neck and I’m grasping frantically at something, anything to write about. But when I post more, I feel like my inspiration for both knitting and writing gets a great little kick in the pants, and it’s quite thereputic.

4) If you listened to my podcast, this is a bit of a repeat. I’m going to say “yes” more often to a good idea, even if I have other things on the needles. I’m realizing how detrimental it is to squelch inspiration in the name of keeping to a schedule.

What are your knitterly “I shoulds” for 2012?

 

Podcast Episode 4 – Harnessing Inspiration without Getting Disorganized

The last 2-3 weeks have been amazingly inspirational and productive, and it’s helped me reach a number of conclusions about how we as knitters can really bog ourselves down with knitting goals that are meant to be fun and just end up stifling our creativity.

Work in Progress: The Perfect Cardi

Ever since I’ve gotten into knitting , I’ve wanted a perfect, basic, black cardigan. When I first started working with Liberty Wool by Classic Elite last year, I knew I had to make myself a cardi out of it. A couple months ago, I started this…

The picture makes the black a tad washed out, but the yarn is a beautiful jet black with incredible stitch definition.

I put it down for a while to work on a couple other projects, but then just picked it up again. I’ve wanted this sweater for a couple years and with babies coming in March or April, it’s probably the last big thing I’ll knit for me in a while.

I’m loving the stitch pattern, it’s a slip stitch pattern that resembles a cable, but has a much more squishy texture than most cable patterns.

I am having a bit of difficulty in designing the sleeve caps. I feel like a set-in sleeve is the most flattering sleeve design on women’s garments, especially if you like a more tailored look, like I do. But in my opinion, it happens to be the most finicky to calculate compared with raglan and yoke shaping, especially since these can be done top down and seamlessly. Yes, I know there are ways to do a set in sleeve top down and seamlessly, but from the last two sweaters I’ve used those methods on, I’ve found you can’t really get the exact same effect as when it’s done in pieces. As I get more experience, I may change my mind. But this sweater definitely required the structure and precision that you get when working in pieces. I spent most of the weekend wrestling with math and trying to get my sleeve caps to make sense, but that math I normally use to design a sleeve cap just wasn’t working for me. I finally figured out the problem. Gauge. Isn’t that always the way? This time it wasn’t really an error, so much as realizing once again why gauge matters. This ribbed “cable” stitch had completely different stitch to row proportions than normal stockinette, making the math I normally use completely useless. I could have messed around and figured something else out, but I decided to call in an expert.

Shirley Paden’s Knitwear Design Workshop.

The cheapskate in me rarely, rarely buys knitting books. If it isn’t yarn or needles, or maybe a pattern, I feel like I’m being extravagant, because I’m not directly contributing to a final project. Which is just a silly perspective. But I actually did it, I put in an order to amazon right then. I hope to get it sometime this week. I’m really excited about getting a bit more educated on the ins and outs of how to design a garments structure from scratch. I’ve learned a lot from experience, blogs and podcasts, and patterns. But it’s just been a little here and a little there. I feel like this will be a much more comprehensive approach that will add quite a bit of polish to my designs.

Well, I’ll give a more complete review when I’ve actually gotten a chance to dig into the book a bit more.

In the mean time it’s back to knitting, I haven’t even started the sleeves yet!

Finished Object: Some super quick socks!

So, the other night, I decided I didn’t have nearly enough hand knit socks. But, with all the baby knits and other WIPs, I was just not up to the 8-10sts/in gauge, so I threw these on the needles and was completely done in just 2 days! I’m thrilled with how they turned out!

This was an original design, made out of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. It’s a bit scratchy for my taste, but since the yarn was leftover from another project, it made the whole affair supper cheap. I used the new increase I “discovered” in my last post. I really like the effect. I think I’m smitten with worsted weight socks in a 5 sts/in gauge, and my brain is exploding with other 2-day-sock ideas. There is just something magical about sitting down to watch TV and in two episodes, you’ve made it through the leg and part of the heel. I also just got some super cute mary janes from Crocs, that will show of handknit socks very well. It’s time to do some stocking up!

Pattern to follow in a week or so!

 

 

Technique Tutorial: Improved Version of “Increase One into Next Stitch” (inc1/kfb)

So ever since I first graduated to the world of increasing and decreasing, I’ve always thought the increase where you knit into the front and back of a stitch looked really sloppy. It was wonderfully convenient especially in lace knitting to just magically turn one stitch into two, and definitely had it’s functional advantages over the “make one” increase. However, it really looks like you just stuck a stitch in there. It has no continuity and doesn’t work with the flow of what your knitting at all either. There’s also no way to do it such that it looks symetrical with another set of the same increase. This issue has bothered me to such a degree, that I would litterally find ways to substitute this sort of increase with a “make one (right/left)”, just for the sake of aesthetics.

However, today, I was working on a little baby girl sweater, and the sweater construction required the magic ability to transform a single stitch into two. I was about to grit my teeth and use the hated and less than refined increase technique when a bit of pregnancy perfectionism kicked in. I had to figure out how to make this thing look symetrical. So I played around with a couple different methods for about 20 minutes, and finally found the perfect solution. I was so excited by how wonderfully smooth it looked that I spent the next 45 minutes figuring out how to best document my success. Below is a tutorial, so that you too can implement this perfect little increase into your knitting.

Tutorial

This is what a normal inc1 or kfb looks like when its finished:

See that little bump that almost looks like a purl stitch on the right hand needle? That’s the new stitch that just got created with this technique. Depending on the application, this is very sloppy. You don’t want to look like you have random  purl stitches thrown into your knitting, it just looks amateur, unless you place it just right. It also isn’t centered over the stitch it was created from again throwing off the look of your knitting.

Here’s how you avoid that look…

1. Insert right hand needle into next stitch from the back of the stitch.

2. Pull out a bit of a loop and place it on the left hand needle so it looks like the following:

You now have essentially two sets of loops to knit through which will give you the two stitches out of one functionality that this technique is required for.

3) Knit into the back of the first loop.

4) Do not knit the second loop yet! Insert your right hand needle into the loop from the front and slip it onto the right hand needle.

5. Turn the stitch by inserting left hand needle into the stitch from the back, and slipping it back to the left needle.

6. Now you can knit this stitch through the front loop.

Voila! You have a perfectly symmetrical increase!

If this was a little confusing, I have a youtube video of this technique here.

It should make some of the maneuvers a little clearer.

I hope this was helpful!

I may have gone overboard

So… this is what I did today…

Remember, it’s just me and Chuck. No kids (yet!), no company, just us and about 10 dozen cookies. In my defense, I do plan to bring a good big batch to a party tonight, and I’ll bring a bunch to the in-laws in a few days too. So that should get rid of a lot of them. The thing is I could have totally gotten away with making one batch for tonight, and bringing none to the in-laws. So I really made about four times what I actually had to make.

I think it’s a bit of a psychological thing for me. Seriously, those cookies have a far better chance of them going stale than me eating every last one. It dawned on me during the last batch that I had no intention of eating more than a handful over the next week or so, and I wondered to myself what the heck I was doing.

Like I said, it’s a psychological reaction to a number of things.

1) I really, really miss my Mom and sisters when we don’t spend Christmas with them (and these were all the cookies she made).

2) Pregnancy has been a bit of a mid-life crisis at times. I just can’t believe how old I am (I know, I know, I haven’t seen anything yet, but compared to being 11, 27 is OLD). So I seem to be gravitating to things that put me in touch with my childhood, buying my favorite books for my little ones, making all my favorite cookies at christmas, you get the idea.

3) For some reason I haven’t had a lot to do for Christmas, Chuck and I already bought ourselves a large joint christmas present, and there just doesn’t seem to be the build up of anticipation that I’m used to. As a result I’m shocked at the amount of cynical, scrooge-ish thoughts that have been cluttering my christmas spirit. So I felt like I needed to do something to make sure that even if it doesn’t have the wonder that it did when I was 6 and got a doll I never ever thought I would get, I got in the christmas groove and even started developing the habits I needed to create the christmas experience for my kids that mom so wonderfully gave me.

Merry Christmas!

Baby Knitting!

This weekend I made these…

I’m enchanted by the boots. I discovered Julia Noskova over at Knitterella and I’m so glad I did. Remember when I said I’m being really picky about what I knit my little babies? Well, I really was hung up on the bootie situation for the boy outfits. I kinda felt like all the bootie patterns I was finding were kinda sissy looking. I’m sorry, I promise no offense intended, it’s probably more a reflection on me than any other knitter, you really have no idea how perfectionistic I’m being about the baby knitting. So when I discovered Julia’s work I was thrilled, most of her baby booties/shoes are decidedly boy or girl, which is something that was a must for me. So I now have a whole set of patterns to choose from for both my boys and girls outfits.

One issue I did have with this pattern was the sizing, the 0-6 month size is really big when knit to gauge. I knit them on one needle size down and fingering weight yarn instead of Sport or DK, and they still were a 3-6 month size, not even close to newborn. Since I really, really wanted these to be part of the home-from-the-hospital ensemble, I needed them to be a lot smaller. I made a few mods which I noted in detail on the ravelry page linked below. The mods made for a perfect newborn/preemieish size, since I’m expecting these little twins to be on the smaller side.

It’s so fun to finally be getting some real momentum on the baby knitting. So far, I have almost finished two boy cardigans in different colors, one pair of boots, and about to start on the second. I forgot the instant gratification factor with baby knitting. Sit down for 3-4 hours and you have a bootie!

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Raveled: Here
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingering
Pattern: Winter Boots by Julia Noskova