Tag: magazines

Cardi Decisions

Originally, I made the title of this post “Cardicisions”, which looked like I was trying to choose a vehicle, and then “Cardecisions”, which looked like I don’t know what.  So in the end I decided to discard all unclever word mushing and be a little more clear.  There!  Aren’t you glad?

The point of all this is, I’m trying to decide on a cardigan to knit – I just lost my favourite one (shop bought, never fear, but still!), and even though it was a very plain v-neck raglan in fine yarn, I’ve decided to knit a replacement rather than buy one.  Needless, I hope, to say, I won’t be knitting a direct replica!  I have:

  1. A kilo of black 100% wool DK. I’m not sure what the yardage is, but I would hope it’ll work out to “plenty”.
  2. Rowan #40. There are also lots of free patterns on Rav, but I’d like to actually make something from a mag I’ve paid out money for!
  3. a size 18-20 upper bod (so don’t want anything that’ll make me look even chunkier!).

Unless anyone knows any free DK-weight patterns that are knit in one piece1 and have some kind of interest to the fabric2, I’ve narrowed my choices to either Lichen3, Sadie4, or Autumn Leaves without the applique leaves, because, wtf?!  Orrr, there’s Celtic, but my Mum thinks it needs the tweedy type yarn and the cables would be lost in plain black.  Opinions?  I also completely adore Juno, but I’m not sure if it’d suit my body shape, and hadn’t been planning on making a fitted cardi this time. Maybe one day!

Anyway, because I’m indecisive as ever, it’s poll time! (Or leave a comment, etc etc).  I’m actually going to crosspost this entry to LJ and DW (I know!  Crossposting twice in as many days!  What is the world coming to?) so if you’re reading this there, you’ll have to come over to my blog to vote in the poll.  Should you want to, of course.  Participation entirely voluntary, refunds cannot be guaranteed.

[poll id=”4″]

All opinions much appreciated.  I’ve got other knitting to finish, so I won’t be casting on straight away (probably).  So I might even see if I can get this into the sidebar so it’s showing up for a few days.

ETA 7/11 – Eeeek! The lovely Noxie has let me know that non Ravelry members can’t see those links.  Sorry about that – I thought the pattern info pages were open to all.  So I’ve added photos of the various cardigans.

1 Because if I’m going to knit something from elsewhere then I want it to be for a really good reason.  Like no seaming!  Mmm, seamless construction…
2 Like I said, not a plain replica. I don’t want to pass out from boredom while knitting. Some kind of cables or texture.
3 All over cables might end up rather bulky, of course. I suppose I could always knit a (dun-dun-duuuuuh) swatch?
4 Maybe a bit lacy for the winter though? On the other hand, bound to be a faster knit…

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…