knitting techniques – Enchilada Sunrise

Knitting meme, redux

I’m nicking this idea from Welshmillie – I also did this back in May ’07, so it’s fun to see what changes there are since then.

The meme says: “Edit the list, bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.” I am also adding bold & italic for things I planned to do previously and have now done, and bold and underlined for things I’ve done now that I hadn’t planned to do before. Oh, and italic & underlined for things I’m planning on now that I wasn’t before.

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockingette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn [O.o – I still haven’t come across this]
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch pattern
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn [but I have spun with merino/soy fibre!]
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards [OK, I know what this means now! Maybe one day!]
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewellery
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO [Is this on or off? I’ve done a tubular cast off…]
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair [But I knew a woman who did]
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

I don’t know if that’s much of an indication of my knitting progress or not. I suspect how well I’ve knitted things is more to the point. But then again, this meme is about trying techniques. There must have been some that are left off of it, though. I just can’t think of them.

Z is for Zips

Even though I haven’t started sewing up the Menace jumper [Ravlink] yet, I’ve been thinking about the other Unfinished Object that’s been sitting around for ages and ages, and that’s my Chunky Zipped Jacket [Ravlink] which is knit from Sirdar Bigga yarn. The main thing that’s keeping me from finishing this is the zip, although I’m also not quite sure whether to sew the seams with the Bigga yarn (which is “Super Bulky” weight), or with a thinner yarn of the same colour. I do have a thinner yarn, and that would make the seams less bulky, I think. But would it show up or be less stable, too? I don’t know! Help! I also suspect that this might not be the best project to try attaching a zip to, when it’s the first time I’ve ever done that. Again, the bulkiness is an issue. What do I sew the zip on with? Thread or yarn? This stuff is hard. Time to get advice from wiser heads, I think. I’ll cart it along to KnitJam next week.

Otherwise, today has been more of a knitting day than a tidying up one, though I have got some of that done. But good news! I’ve finished my Clapotis [Ravlink] at long last. I still have to weave in the ends, and block it (probably… I might leave it, I haven’t decided yet) but otherwise I’m done. Woohoo! Pictures will be coming soon.

Conquering entrelac

Or so far… not. Heeeeelp! I’ve been going backwards and forwards on the first half-inch (the setup triangles) of the entrelac sock pattern that is the second pair for this year’s Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon. I was getting great big gappy gaps between the triangles and after I looked at this tutorial / pattern [Ravlink] for an entrelac scarf that someone on the mailing list recommended, I came to the conclusion that it was because of the extra two rows at the top of the triangles in the sock pattern – they didn’t ‘attach’ to the sock cuff. (The triangles were made by knitting increasing short rows, using one more stitch from the cuff every time until you get to six. I don’t think I can describe it any better than that, but the scarf tutorial has pictures.) The scarf tutorial, which starts the short rows with knitting one stitch instead of two like the sock pattern, solves that problem. So that’s what I’ve now done with those.

[thumb:1122:l:l=d:t=]Pattern: buttercupia: Noro Entrelac Socks. [Ravlink]
Yarn: Posh Yarn Emily in ‘Troubadour’.
Needles: 2.75mm DPNs
Ravelry Project Page: SKP09 Pair #2

However! Now that I’ve done all the triangles, I’m a bit stumped. I have to pick up stitches to start the rectangle / diamond section, and it says to work left to right. But I’m not sure if I’m sposed to turn the work before I do that, or go “backwards” on the right side, or what. Aaaaaaah, confusing! I think I’m just going to have to experiment and see what happens. I should have knitted a swatch first. Oh well!!

Other than the entrelac socks, I’ve been doing some spinning, actually remembering to keep up with taking Project 365 photos (I’ll post those soon), and… um… also doing other stuff? Oh, I know – I have new glasses which is great because now I can see what I’m typing (always helpful), and I’ve also been reading a fair bit. In fact, I’m thinking of doing Dewey’s Read-a-thon, although I should probably make my mind up soon if I am going to join in. If I do, I don’t think I’ll commit to the whole 24 hours because I don’t want to mess my sleeping patterns up again just as they seem to be improving, but I could do 12 hours easily. I would say more, but it starts at 1pm BST (the site says GMT, but they mean current UK time by that, not actual GMT) and that would make my finishing time too late. And in fact, since it’s just past 1am right now, I think I’d better go to bed and get some kip! Night.

Casting off and on again

I’ve been working away on Christmas presents again today, and I got to the casting off part. Only I managed to do it too tightly the first time. D’oh! So I dug out some online tutorials to help me decide which technique was going to be easiest to use instead. Ta-daa:

Knit Wiki: Binding Off Techniques (text instructions)

Techniques with Teresa: Binding Off at Knitty – various techniques for flexible bind offs, including the sewn bind off. (Instructions with photos)
Techniques with Teresa: Binding Off, Pt 2 at Knitty – decorative bind offs. (Instructions with photos)

Tubular Bind-Off in K1 P1 rib (Instructions with photos)

k1p1 invisible bind-off tutorial – a lovely flexible bind off that I’ve used for toe-up socks when I’ve done them. Has similarities to the Tubular bind off. (Instructions with photos)

In the end I went with the sewn bind-off, and it came out perfectly. Plus, it’s dead easy – always a bonus.

Now to go and cast on the next thing…

Project 365 #8, Days 52-67: 1st – 16th March

Stiiiiiiiill catching up: here are days 52 to 67 of my Project 365 photos – the first half of March. I’m going to post them in chunks of half a month at a time until I get caught up, now. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album. Or for the most up-to-date version, try my Flickr set.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #8, Days 52-67: 1st – 16th March”

SP11 Package #3 – at last!

Due to mania, server crash and my sieve-like memory, I hadn’t posted my final SP11 package squee-ing. So here it is now. I did mention on 3rd December that I’d received it, but that was as far as I got. (In that post I also mentioned that I’d been delayed in sending my final package out to my spoilee. Well, it’s still here – my money situation has meant I haven’t been able to find the postage yet. But it belatedly occurred to me that some virtual gifts were possible, and I’m putting a bit of cash by each week to send the non-virtual things! Also, I said that I had a new design for this site. As you can see, that’s not in place yet either. Hopefully soon, though!)

Anyway! Even though the package arrived at the beginning of December, it was all Christmas themed and wrapped. Hee!

Not that I let that put me off opening everything right then, of course. I did think very briefly about saving it all for Christmas, but… nah. So what was inside all that shiny wrapping paper? The best SP package ever, that’s what!

Continue reading “SP11 Package #3 – at last!”

Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th – 20th Jan

Here are the next five days of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Continue reading “Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th – 20th Jan”

Three Needle Bind-off: sort of how-to.

Gina left me a comment asking how the three needle bind-off was done (I’d been talking about it, if you can’t be bothered to click back to the post), so I dropped her a mail hopefully explaining how it worked. And she just mailed back to say that she understood me perfectly. Hoorah! :-)

So then I thought, hey, I might as well post it here, too. Someone else might find it useful … plus it’ll be a handy resource thingy for me to come back to in future, perhaps. I might start doing this for other new things that I learn. Anyway, here it is:

I’m not an expert at this since this was the first time I’d tried it, but it worked out fine for me so here goes! To start with, the pattern I was working from was Coleen, and I’m pretty sure I also looked up the technique in the Stitch and Bitch Handbook or a similar book.

First of all hold the two needles with the ‘live’ stitches on together in your left hand, work hanging downwards, and the ‘right’ sides of the work together. So, if you’re making a stocking stitch piece, then the knit sides are on the inside and touching each other, and both purl sides are facing out. Effectively, the work is inside-out – that’s because the resulting cast-off edge will be the seam and will form on the top edge of the work as you should now be looking at it.

The points of both needles should be facing to the right. Then use the third needle to knit the first stitch from each left-hand needle together, making one stitch on the right needle. Repeat that step, and then pass the first stitch over the second one as with a normal bind-off. Continue like that to the end.

And that’s it! I hope that made sense. There are also good video tutorials at KnittingHelp.com, although I haven’t watched the one for the three-needle bind-off myself so I can’t tell you exactly what it’s like. Personally it always helps me to see a technique as well as read about it, though, whether it’s still pictures or video.

In other news, the new issue of Knitty is out. Some great patterns as usual – I’ve added a couple to my Ravelry queue. I think I have enough knitting lined up to last me at least the next couple of years…

“BP” and the Three Needle Bind-off (part two)

I’m now at the very last stages of “BP”. So here’s a little preview of it, since I can’t put up any proper in progress pictures, just in case. I’ve done the edging for the sleeves, the button I was waiting for has arrived – and yay, it’s perfect. All that’s left is the weaving in, sewing up, and then the main edging, which I’m now quite happy about tackling. Having done the sleeve edging, I know that going up a needle size for the different yarn is the way to go. See, these things all work out in the end!
Anyway, I did make a decision on the three-needle bind off, and it was actually largely from necessity. BP was knit on 3.5mm needles, and I realised that, oh, I only have the one set of those. Not even a circular or DPN extra. So I had to use a size up for the third needle, and I think it came out very well. Hoorah! It was a bit fiddly to start with, getting the stitch back through both loops, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t so bad at all. Must remember to take a picture of how the seam came out.

The Three-needle bind off

I should be going to bed. Instead, I’m contemplating the three needle bind off. Or cast off. I can’t even remember which is the British term and which is the American any more. The internet homogenises us all! Anyway.
The main project that I’m working on at the moment – we shall call it “BP” for “birthday present” – calls for me to do two lots of three-needle binding off, which I’m now ready to do. In fact, I need to do it, or I can’t go any further. All the main knitting is done, there’s just the finishing and then picking up to do edging. Plus sewing on the button, which hasn’t arrived yet (eep). I’ve never actually done a 3-needle bind off before, so I’ve been wondering a few things about it. Might it be better to use a size smaller needle as the binding off one? Or a size larger, even? Although smaller makes more sense to me, since you’d usually bind off normally then sew a seam with a large sewing needle. Maybe it depends on whether you want a tight seam or a more flexible one? Hrrrm.
I think I’ll sleep on it.