A Normality Sweater

I love inventing ways to do things--the invention process is often so much more intriguing than actually knitting the object. Once I've worked out the principle, I find myself wishing for an apprentice who could just follow my notes so I don't actually have to knit the darn thing.

Alas, I have no apprentice (applications are being taken now!), so after figuring out how to work this sweet little sweater, I had to produce a finished object, otherwise nobody could figure out what I was babbling about.

What?
In this post, I will demonstrate the principles of sideways seamless construction, which can be applied to all sorts of useful and non-useful things--toys, hats, doorknob covers, whatever. Pithy directions follow all the picture stuff.

Why?
Sideways construction has several things to recommend it.

First of all, most people look, um, not so wonderful in horizontal stripes. But knitting a regulation sweater with vertical stripes is about as fun-filled as, say,sleeping on golf balls. Each stripe requires a different ball of yarn just waiting to tangle up with all the other balls of yarn dangling from the needle. If you forget to twist, you get a hole. Face it, you don't see a lot of striped intarsia sweaters. But knitting a vertically striped sweater sideways requires only that you change yarn color after each stripe. And you can decide on-the-fly just how wide you want the stripes to be.

Second, some types of yarn are inherently droopy--cotton and silk for example. Sideways construction can alleviate the tendency of these fibers to stretch and sag.

Thirdly, you can easily try on the sweater as you go along, as demonstrated by Larry in the accompanying picture essay.

And lastly, it's just fun to do things at a 90-degree angle. All sorts of interesting problems present themselves to be solved with incredible cleverness or brute force, depending on your attitude and and/or Clever Quotient.

So, onwards to the lesson.

How?
Here we have a perfectly normal little sleeve knitted in the round on two circular needles. Anyone who has knitted a tube will know how to do this. (If you don't, the Internet is full of information about this technique.) From this tiny acorn, we shall make a sweater grow.



First, we cast on the stitches for the front and back using my beloved Turkish cast-on. This fancy and exotic name just means: Wrap the yarn around two needles--couldn't be simpler.


The yarn is at the bottom front of the sweater, so I turn the needles over so the knit (right side) of the garment is facing me and knit back. I am putting a moss stitch band at the bottom edge. Alternatively, you could knit the entire garment plain and pick up the stitches later for a ribbed bottom edge.

You have to be a bit careful here to pick up the correct needle to knit back. If you do it wrong, you'll find you will get up to the sleeve and suddenly, the purl size is facing you. Whoops--better start over.

The sleeve stitches are now shoulder stitches.

As I cruise over the shoulder, a lovely sight greets my eye, namely, all the back stitches just waiting for me to knit up.


And so I do. Now I am at the lower edge of the sweater back.


I turn, and purl back to the front again.


Basically, I am knitting a U-shaped object. The curve is the shoulder and the legs are the front and back sides. Here we are a bit further along.


Continuing on, I finish the shoulder area. Here's a side view.


And then, the back and front must part ways for a while, because we do need a hole for the head. If you forget the hole, I suppose you could steek it, but that's way beyond my area of expertise. You are on your own if you decide to cut and sew.

For the neck area, instead of knitting back and forth over the entire garment, we shall knit the front back-and-forth and the back forth-and-back. Um. How about: The front and back are knitted separately to accommodate the neck area. The shapings are the same.

Once we have finished with the neck, the back and front have a joyous reunion at the shoulder.


When the second shoulder area is complete, I carefully isolate the sleeve stitches with markers because I tend to daydream and do stupid stuff like bind off the entire side, thus producing an inventive one-armed sweater. Do not ask me how I know this.

The yarn is at the bottom edge of the front. I turn the garment inside out and do a 3-needle bind-off up to the sleeve stitches.

And whipping out my trusty second circular, I finish off the second sleeve.

And finally, I pick up the neck stitches and do an inch of ribbing.


Here is the garment shown flat.


I used four colors of a weird yarn (Stampato Color Baby) that I found in a teeny yarn store somewhere. It's a nice 100% merino fingering weight and the garment needed about 300 yards with size 3 needles (size 2 for the ribbing). I changed colors every 12 rows, but if I were to knit a second sweater, I would use self-striping sock yarn, because weaving in all those ends were way too much trouble for a lazy knitter like me.

Pithy Directions

Using smaller needles, cast on 36 stitches and join in a circle.

Rib for 9 rounds (K2P2).

Knit 1 row.

Increase 4 stitches evenly across the next row. (40 stitches)

Change to larger needles and knit 1 row.

Increase 1 stitch at the beginning and end of every other round 9x. That is, increase 18 stitches. (58 stitches).

Cast on 39 stitches by wrapping the yarn around the needles 39 times. The 9 stitches at the bottom edges in the sample are worked in moss stitch. Alternatively, cast on 30 stitches and when you are finished with the rest of the sweater, pick up 96 stitches across the bottom and knit 9 rows of K2P2 ribbing.

Work 36 rows for the shoulder area.

Split for neck (front and back are worked identically):

Decrease 1 stitch at the neck edge 6x.

Knit 24 rows.

Increase 1 stitch at the neck edge 6x.

Join front and back by knitting without turning at the neck.

Knit 36 rows for the other shoulder.

Place markers for the sleeve--the easiest way is to count 39 stitches from the bottom edges of the front and back.

Turn the garment inside out and do a 3-needle bindoff of the body stitches. Or graft the 39 stitches together, if you like.

Place the 58 sleeve stitches on 2 circulars and decrease 1 stitch each side every other row 9x. (40 stitches)

Knit 1 row.

Decrease 4 stitches evenly across the next row. (36 stitches)

Change to smaller needles and knit 1 row.

Rib for 9 rounds (K2P2).

Pick up 96 stitches around the neck area with the smaller needles and rib for 9 rows.

Bind off really loosely--babys' heads are larger than you think they are.

Yarnival, December 15, 2007

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope the next few weeks bring you delicious food, presents filled with knitterly happiness, and the stamina to face yet another year of casting on, frogging, and staring hopelessly at Internet pages crammed full of expensive yarn.

Some Yarnivals have themes, but I couldn't come up with brilliant, cohesive topic. Consequently, this Yarnival is basically a little bag of stocking stuffers. I had a wonderful time compiling these entries, and I do hope you have an equally entertaining time reading them.

Tooling Along

I read this incredible story a few months ago, and still can’t believe that anyone could be so driven to produce the perfect, complete, set of Hybrid Mutant Ninja Interchangeable Knitting Needles. I am profoundly envious--my father was a man of many talents, but he had trouble differentiating one end of a screwdriver from the other.

Most of us cherish Colourmart with their mouth-watering range of inexpensive cashmere, but the cones of yarn can be awkward to work with. Z’s Momma solves this problem by inventing an inexpensive cone holder and posted instructions on how to make one for about eight bucks.

Like many knitters, I tend to scratch directions, tips, and modifications into a little notebook, where they promptly lose themselves amidst a forest of similar scribblings. For those of us with less-than ideal note-making skills, Kathryn Ivy presents well-organized, handsome journal templates for both knitting and crochet.

One of the standard items in my knitting bag is a crochet hook—invaluable for picking up stitches, binding off, making picots and bobbles, and snaring little onions out of mixed drinks. Girl On The Rocks is never without one, thanks to her nifty keychain crochet hook.

Don't put away the needle-nosed pliers quite yet. After you've finished making the mini-hook, you can wander over to Turtle Girl's blog, where she shows you how to make a customized row counter, using a few beads and an hour’s work.

Like sewing? Have a disorganized straight needle collection? Craftster shows you how to convert a used hardback book into a handsome needle holder. She used an old physics textbook and the results are unquestionably unique. The fact that you cheerfully tear the book apart makes me wish I had saved my much-despised organic chemistry text from college. Who knew?

Hate sewing? Have a disorganized circular needle collection? Check out pieknits’ no-sew circular needle holder. It’s cute and easy to rig from empty thread spools. Of course, if you hate sewing, you might not have any empty thread spools...

Like sewing? Need something to hold your knitting and all the other stuff you just made? UHandbag shows you how to make a pop-open/spring shut 14” tote with a useful little accessory pocket.

Photographing your work, be it proto-kitting, knitting, or a finished piece, can be difficult. A lightbox makes it a lot easier to take accurate pictures of your stuff. Professional light boxes are expensive, but LollyKnittingAround explains how to make a portable lightbox for less than $20.

Strobist uses a similar light box and explains how to use it for taking exquisitely detailed macro photographs.

A Few How-To's

The Experimental Knitter gives us a new, simple, elastic cast-on particularly appropriate for Guernsey sweaters. Best of all, it doesn't require a long tail.

Now that you've cast on, perhaps you want to embellish the fabric a bit. FluffyKnitterDeb’s wonderful beading tutorial shows you how to easily add beads with a crochet hook, so you don’t have to string trillions of little tiny beady things before you actually start knitting.

BadCat also has a wonderful beading tutorial on the same topic, complete with clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

And if you have finally completed your fabulous shawl, well, somebody actually submitted one of my own posts! How could I not include it, seeing as how this is my Yarnival? My faithful readers will already have blasted past this entry. The rest of you (fleegle who?), especially those to whom grafting is either a mystery or a nightmare, can check out my incredibly frothy description of Grafting for Dummies, complete with visuals of goofing up.

If you have a teeny-tiny doily pattern you adore and want to see it Writ Really Large, The Doily Underground gives an exhaustive analysis of doily-to-afghan conversions.

And speaking of lace (but also applicable to any knitting), MimKnits has a superb set of lessons on directional decreases. She shows numerous examples of yarnover/decrease placement, so you can see the visual effects of the variations. And once you finish reading Part 1, do go through the rest of her tutorials. They are all terrific.

Those who read my blog will understand that Harry, the Giant Knitting Spider, couldn't help but contribute a post about mending webs with yarn. Harry was also thrilled with Nina Katchadourian's Advertising Kit for Spiders, which allows him to integrate ads for karaoke machines and spicy cocktail onions (his favorite snack food) into his remarkably sloppy web.

Great (and Not So Great) Yarns

Fiber Fool clearly spends a lot of time knitting socks, and she has written an excellent, detailed comparative review of eight popular sock yarns. The sample socks are a bit of eye-candy, too!

Want to recycle an old sweater? Neauveau tells you how here. Frogging can be fun, especially if you use your future ex's knitted clothing!

Tired of knitting with ordinary yarn? Yearning to dabble in new media? Knit some marzipan, for a change. The results are amazing! And edible! First check our VeganYumYum's incredible cupcakes here, then motor on to her how-to tutorial here.

If you don’t have a sweet tooth, be aware that Ramen noodles make a splendid substitute for yarn. Watch the video and entertain yourself and your friends the next time you are in a Ramen restaurant.

Entertainment

If you are bored at work (or anywhere, for that matter), you can indulge in a bit of Knitting Boggle, courtesy of The Purloined Letter.

Double Helix obviously spent a lot of time defining variations of the humble swatch. Her lexicon is hilarious.

There’s no pattern here, but as the wife of a retired police lieutenant, I did enjoy this bit of knitted eye-candy.

And finally, if you are getting older and grayer by the second, rejoice! Go Knit In Your Hat has designed the retirement community of your dreams: Purlin’ Acres. Please do not apply for a few months, while I work my application over. Frankly, I wouldn't mind moving there now.

Seams to me...

...are an incredible bore. Invariably, when I see a pattern I like, my eyes flow first to the bottom of the page. If I see the dreaded words "Sew seam..." or worse, "Sew seams..." I examine the pattern carefully to see if I can alter it so the last line reads: "Weave in ends."

Thus, when I was bitten by the Bootie Bug and plowed through dozens of adorable patterns, all of which ended with "Sew seams...", I figured there Had To Be A Better Way.

And of course there is. The techniques are adapted from my toe-up sock pattern and will work for many patterns that require endless (and useless) seaming. Any pseudobag-shaped object can be adapted to the Fleegle Seamless Method (FMS for short). For example, I have an adorable pattern for a Shaun the Sheep mobile. Every sheeplet requires at least one seam, but by applying the FMS to these objects, most of the seams are history.

The two examples I will present are both booties, but once you have tried it once, FMS is obvious and you can gleefully apply it to all sorts of things. The directions given here use two circular needles, but of course DPN fans can adapt it to five sticks.

The first pattern is for my seamless bottom-up bootie. I know I promised you guys this pattern last summer, but other things took precedence (translation: Writing patterns is not my favorite thing.)

Fleegle's Seamless Bottom-Up Booties



Cast on 36 stitches using the Turkish cast-on. You will have 18 stitches on each needle.

Knit the first needle. You are now at the beginning of the rounds. You can place a marker, or just use the yarn dangle to indicate the beginning of the rounds.

*Purl 1 round
kbf (Knit in the back and front of the stitch), knit to last stitch, kbf*

Repeat these two rounds 5 more times--60 stitches, 30 on each needle.

Work 10 more rounds of garter stitch--K 1 row, P 1 row.

On the last purl row, place a marker 5 stitches before the end of the first needle and another marker 5 stitches after the beginning of the second needle as shown here (click on the picture for clearer text):



Rearrange Stitches

Sorry to go all Cat Bordhi on you here. This step isn't absolutely necessary, but you will find it easier to work the toe-turning business if you rearrange the stitches.

We will designate the first needle as the instep needle and the second needle as the heel needle.

Place a different colored marker at the beginning of the second needle (now the heel needle) to mark the beginning of rows.

Move the first 12 stitches from the first (instep) needle to the heel needle.

Move the last 13 stitches on the heel needle to the first (instep) needle.

The instep needle should have 13 stitches, a marker, 10 stitches, a marker, 13 stitches.

The heel needle has 12 stitches, the beginning-of-round marker, 12 stitches.

Your bootie should now look something like this:



Notice that the working yarn is in the center of the heel needle. Knit across the 12 remaining stitches on the heel needle, then knit 23 stitches on the instep needle. You are on the far side of the instep.

Turn Toe

k3 tog tbl (through the back loop), turn, sl (slip) 1
p9, p3 tog
turn, sl 1

* k10 k3 tog tbl
turn, sl 1
p10, p3 tog *

repeat from * to * 4 more times

k10, k3 tog tbl
Do not turn. continue knitting across heel needle.

When you get around to the instep needle, k3 together, then knit around to beginning marker.

Your bootie should now look something like this:



Uppers

Booties are notorious for falling off tiny feet. You can help them stay on by knitting an eyelet row, through which you can thread a ribbon, I-cord, string, rubber band, or tiny handcuffs.

Optional eyelet row:

*k1, YO, k2 tog* repeat from * to * end.

At this point, you can do anything you like. In the example shown here, I used the following pattern:

Rounds 1 and 3: Knit
Round 2: * K2, yo K2, pass the yo over the 2 stitches just knitted* repeat from * to end
Round 4: * yo K2, pass the yo over the 2 stitches just knitted, K2 * repeat from * to end

And here are two delicate little ribbing patterns that I also use frequently:

Little Ribbing #1

rows 1-3: k2 p2
row 4: k2tog, O, P2

Little Ribbing #2

R1: p2,k3
R2:p2, sl1k2 psso
R3: p2,k1,yo,k1
R4: p2,k3

In my next post, I will give you the pattern for fleeglized Sartjee booties. These were a bit of a challenge, but they were so cute (and had so many seams and ends to weave in) that I just couldn't resist simplifying the pattern.

Grafting for Dummies Continued--With Pictures!

Bubble Bath Directions (Incredibly Frothy)

Okay, here we go for the folks who couldn't picture what I was talking about in the last post.

Let us recall that I suggested you select a simple row in your border pattern as the one you will both begin and end with. The reason I said to do this is because the graft you will create replaces both these rows with a single row.

Here we have the two ends of a border that was knit around the edge of a shawl. I am afraid that you will have to imagine a shawl connected to the right side of these two edging bits. Much as I love my readers, I refuse to knit an entire shawl to illustrate this process.


The border segment on the top is the beginning of the edging. I knitted the last row (labelled row 578,985), first. Please note the "5" at the end of the number. It was knitted in purple waste yarn. This is the row that I decided would be the final row of the border. I chose this as the simplest row in my border repeat.

I then knitted the rest of the border, carefully calculating repeats so that when I finished the entire border, I was back at the same row I started with, which, as you recall, is row 578,985.

On the bottom, you see the end of the border. Row 578,985 is knitted in pink. Note that the ending segment is still connected to the ball of yarn with which you knitted all 578,986 rows. That is, 578,985 rows plus the extra row you knit at the beginning.

When you do the graft, you will be following the paths of the two waste yarn rows. Instead of going around the needle, you will be making a continuous path between the two segments, ending up with a single row 578,985 that is the graft.

Three Important Notes

• To see really big pictures, click on the smaller ones shown in this post.
  
  
• I positioned the end and beginning segments arbitrarily. You can flip everything over or rotate everything 90 degrees. It doesn't matter. You do not need to identify purls, knits, or yarnovers.
  
  
• Be incredibly careful that you run the needle cleanly through each stitch. Do not catch the waste yarn with the needle! If you do, you will not be able to withdraw the waste yarn. Also be incredibly careful not to catch any strand of the live stitches with the grafting needle. I will, unfortunately, show you what happens if your needle catches other threads.
  

Step 1
Leaving a long length of yarn to perform the graft, detach the working yarn from the ball. The usual amount given is 4 or 5 times the width of the graft. If you are nervous, make the length 10 times the width of the graft. You can always make it shorter, but it's not so easy to make it longer if you run out of yarn before you have completed the graft.

Step 2
Thread the working yarn into a needle.



Step 3
Someone recommended that you clean your glasses at this point. If you do not wear glasses, have a cookie, instead. Or, clean your glasses and have a cookie (I said these were Incredibly frothy directions.)

Step 4
Examine the picture below for a sec. The white working yarn is partially out of the photo. The orange dotted line shows where it would have been if I hadn't cropped the photo so closely.


The green dotted line is following the purple waste yarn as it goes through the white stitches. Notice that the needle is also following the green dotted line that is following the purple waste yarn.

The purple yarn now goes around the upper needle, as its current job is be be a live knitting stitch. Knitting stitches go around knitting needles. You can cogitate about this concept later, but now, it's time to do the first stitch on the lower needle.

Step 5
As above, the orange dotted line represents the working yarn and the green dotted line is following the path of the pink waste yarn as it wanders through the live stitch on the bottom needle.

We see that the pink yarn then goes around the lower needle, so it's back up to the upper section with the grafting needle (whose job is not to go around knitting needles, but between them).

Step 6
The photo below shows the working thread going up to the top fragment, following the purple waste yarn back down, and then entering a stitch on the lower needle. If you are actually following along, you will suddenly discover that each grafting stitch enters each live stitch twice.


Step Seven
Now we follow the pink waste yarn down through the live stitch, across to the next live stitch, and up through that.


Etcetera

And So On


Notice how the white working thread follows along the paths of the pink and purple waste yarns.

Here's a picture with the working yarn snugged up a bit.


Almost Finished!
The row is done. All that's left is to remove the waste yarn and knitting needles, then adjust the tension of the grafted stitches.


Well, It Is a Sample...
Here's the finished product, complete with an example of what not to do. Notice that when I pulled out the waste yarn, it I completely ruined the tension of the stitches on the right. That's because the grafting yarn caught a bit of the waste yarn, so when I yanked on it, thrilled to be finished with this exercise, some of the graft squirrzled as it tried to follow the waste yarn home. Oops! It's not so difficult to fix, so don't panic. Or, panic if you want to, then come back and readjust the tension of the grafting yarn.


And now, go have an entire box of cookies!

Grafting Lace Borders for Dummies

Before I started the Spider King edging, I spent hours reading all about how The Experts Did It. Line up bumps, Line up Vs. Go up through the first stitch, down through the fourth one on the third needle purlwise, being careful to maintain an even tension, clean your glasses, turn off karaoke machines, and so on.

Deciding to follow one particularly detailed explanation, I carefully knit a full repeat in a different-colored waste yarn, then knit another row in a differently colored waste yarn. At the end. I spent 20 hours trying to figure out what the heck all those waste yarns were supposed to be grafted to and in what order. Ultimately, knitting the first repeat was not only a waste of time and waste of waste yarn, but turned out to be so confusing that I finally just snipped it out.

I put everything aside and spent some time with more waste yarn in a different room than the original waste yarns, shawl, needles, glasses cleaners, and Xanax.


Pithy Directions
1. When you are ready to begin the edging, chose a simple row as the ending row and knitted it first with waste yarn.
2. Knit the border and then knit last row again with waste yarn. Using a different color from the first waste yarn will make step 3 easier.
3. Follow the path of the waste yarns with a blunt needle threaded with a nice, long length of the working yarn.

Frothy Directions
1. Inspect your edging repeat and choose the simplest row. In my case, every other row was plain knit, so selection was a no-brainer. My border had peaks and valleys. I chose the knit row at the bottom of the valley.

2. This row is both the starting row and your ending row.

So:

1. Take a piece of waste yarn in a contrasting color and work the chosen row. You are knitting the last row of the border first, yes you are.

2. Then continue knitting your border with your real yarn.

3. Time passes. For some of us, it's a lot of time.

4. When you get to the end, knit the last row in a contrasting color waste yarn. Using a different color from the first row will be helpful.

5. You will notice that, having finished the shawl, the edging is still connected to the yarn ball.

6. Sorry, but you will have to break the connection--but leave yourself a nice long piece to do the graft.

7. Thread the end into a blunt needle.

8. Give the shawl and the threaded needle to a Boy/Girl Scout who can follow a map.

9. Explain that he or she needs to follow the path of the waste yarns. If the working yarn is on the bottom needle, then the working yarn must go up to the other needle, follow the path of the upper waste yarn as it meanders through the live stitches, until the waste yarn starts heading back down to the knitting needle.

At that point, the working yarn moves back to the bottom needle and follows the waste yarn until it heads back up to its knitting needle.

It doesn't matter which side you start on, or whether the shawl is facing up or down. There are no bumps or v's to line up. You don't need to understand knitwise or purlwise. You don't need to drop stitches from needle. You can go get a cold drink and come back when the Scout is finished.

10. Remove the knitting needles, slide out the waste yarn, and adjust the tension of the grafting yarn if necessary.

Don't forget to give the Scout a cookie.

Presto Change-o!

A long, long time ago I acquired a full set of Holz & Stein ebony dpns. With the advent of flexible, pointy circulars, I have zero use for dpns, no matter how lovely. These needles are really beautiful--smooth and richly dark--and I have both 4" and 7" sets.

The other day I was rummaging in my stash closet and rediscovered them tucked forlornly inside my needle roll. The little brain cells began crunching possibilities. A bit more rummaging turned up some Clover circulars that I never use.



A bit of twisting, a bit of glue...and presto, a handsome ebony circular!


In other news...

I am now wending my way down the third side of the Black Widow Spider King and am on row 71 of Lyra. I haven't been setting my needles on fire lately, as there have been some distracting personal issues taking my attention.

Not one to whine about personal problems inside a knitting blog, I do think, however, that everyone can enjoy a laugh at my expense.

Last week, our Japanese orthopedist and his wife paid us a four-day visit, which, among other strenuous activities, included a whole lot of cooking. After heaving gigantic, heavy pans filled with gigantic, heavy turkey and spare ribs, in and out of our awkwardly placed ovens, I managed to herniate three cervical disks.

There is no doubt in my mind that if I ever find myself cooking for my American orthopedist, the meal will include featherweight dishes such as a single potato chip accompanied by a neatly sliced olive. Low calorie, too!

No Sock Holes For You

Well, I have finished writing a new non-Harry fairy tale, but I have to wait for some strong sunshine to take the photos. Maybe tomorrow, if the weather cooperates.

In the meantime, I have a solution to a problem that has plagued me and like-minded footie folks since first the wad of algae crawled out of the primeval slime onto a snowbank and immediately began knitting warm socks for its pseudopodia.

The solution turned out to be so simple I whacked myself upside the head. So will you, after you finish reading this post.

This solution applies to my own Fleegle sock design, (worked on two circulars) but I imagine it can be applied to any heel that is knit back and forth, such as a short-row heel. I don't think the trick, if you can call it that, can be used for flap heels, but perhaps someone might be able to adapt the concept.

Basically, the reason you get holes when connecting the heel to the instep is because (in the case of the Fleegle sock) the completed heel is one row taller than the instep. So the solution is to omit the final turn for this type of heel. I shall demonstrate.

I start by knitting across the heel needle 2 stitches past the center stitch, then K2tog, K1, turn, and slip the first stitch. Then I purl back to 2 stitches past the center again, P2 tog tbl, P1, turn, slip 1. Now I knit to the gap, knit the stitches before and after the gap together, K1, turn, slip 1 etc etc. [I actually don't turn and purl back. I knit backwards. Easier, I think.]

The first row of the heel.

Here's a picture of the heel midway through so you can see where this is going.


And here's a picture of the almost-completed heel. I have one more row to finish.There are 2 stitches on each side that have not been incorporated into the heel.



If, at this point, I knit across the heel needle and do the K2tog, K1, turn, slip 1 thing, well, the heel will be one row taller than the instep, so after I finish the purl side decrease and knit back, hello, there will be a gap waiting to be filled by picking up stitches between the heel and the instep needle.

So, instead of turning, I finish the last row of the knit side with K2 together, K1, and then continue on to the instep needle.

Look! No hole!

On the right, is the completed heel needle.
In the center, you can see five stitches of the instep needle worked.

I knit across the instep needle, then, when I get back around to the heel needle, I begin with a K1, K2 Together/Left Slant. (I knit in the front of the first stitch and the back of the second stitch to slant a decrease to the left, but you can use any other variation that pleases you.)

Here I am doing the final heel decrease
at the beginning of the heel needle.

In the case of the Fleegle heel, there are two more stitches on the heel needle than I started with, so I knit across to the end of the heel needle, do a decrease, knit across the instep needle, and do a counterpart decrease at the beginning of the heel needle.

And I am now ready to motor onwards to the top of the sock without bringing any holes with me. Here's a picture of the finished heel as we proceed onwards and upwards to the finish line.



Whack! Whack! Whack!

Simple Ring Beginning for Circular Shawls

I was so taken by Jane's Lyra (actually Neibling's Lyra, but Jane alerted me to the pattern's existence, so she gets my credit), that I dug out the magazine and some black Zephyr to swatch it. I was astounded that the pattern has lain, dust-covered, for years amidst a large stack of Anna magazines. I subscribed to Anna a long time ago when I was in my sweater phase and, after 10 years of staring at ugly sweaters, I stopped my subscription.

After I saw Jane's post, I unearthed them from underneath a pile of old notebooks and nearly fainted with delight. They are FULL of Neibling designs. I found about 20 of them, including the gorgeous Lyra design.

I am a disaster with a crochet hook and DPN's are not my favorite,* so I spent an hour inventing a nice, simple way to begin circular shawls.

This is picture-intensive and I hope I can explain it so everyone can give it a try.

Basically, you make a loop and knit into it. When you have the correct number of stitches, you can arrange them on either DPNs or, as I did, two circulars and start knitting. After a few rows, or whenever you feel like it, you just pull on the end to close the circle.

Aside from not having to find or use a crochet hook, tatting shuttle, or any other esoteric object, the advantage of this method is that you can make the central loop nice and large. Doing so makes it easier to manipulate the multiple needles you need for circular beginnings.

I have never seen this method anywhere, but if someone else invented it already, my apologies for restating your elegant technique.

Here we go:

Flop the yarn over your hand thusly:


Flip your hand over...



...And make a loop.


Insert the needle into the loop..


...And bring the yarn over the top. One stitch made.



Now go under the needle and wrap the yarn for the second stitch.


And then over...


..and under as many times as you need stitches. End by going under, not over. You'll see why when you start to knit. The exact number isn't important, because you can slip off the excess stitch(es) later.


Start knitting. I use two circs, but DPN fans can begin juggling their needles of choice:


Here I am starting the second circ.


And I am at the end of the round, ready to start the second one.


Three rounds finished.


Pull on the end of the yarn to close the hole.


I love those 99-cent bamboo needles, too!

*I loathe, hate, and detest DPNs.

The End Is The Beginning

I am frantically trying to do 80 things at once as I prepare to leave for the US next Tuesday. I won't have time to work up the bootie pattern until I get home and unpack. But thanks for all the begging and pleading! It got me motivated.

In the meantime, I thought I would post this cool, extra-stretchy bind-off that I used to finish off the booties.



This neat trick was published in a recent Moonrise newsletter, written by Sandy Terp. If you like lace, I strongly urge you to subscribe. There's always a useful hint in there and sometimes a discount code for needles or yarn.

I've tried all the K2 or P2 together/return to left needle, blah blah techniques, and didn't think they were particularly stretchy. This one, however, is truly excellent.

K1, *then return it to the left needle by nosing the left needle into the front of the st. (sort of the way you would do so for a SSK).

K this st thru the back (you are already in position to do so). Drop the discard loop off the left needle.

Now return the st again in the same way but, this time pull the right needle out just a little bit so you can put it into the back of the next st on the left as well. You are in position to K2 tog thru the back loops.*

Repeat * to *.

As Sandy said, this is also surprisingly fast, once you learn how to do it. She recommends it for doilies as an alternative to the usual crocheted chain bind-off, but it works just peachy on socks and booties.

Lifelines 101

For those who drew a blank when I babbled about lifelines in the previous post, here are some helpful links.

The Lifeline Explained

A Lifeline Video

The Mysterious Circular Needle Hole for Lifelines

Basically, a lifeline is a temporary thread carried through the row of live stitches. If you make a serious mistake and have to rip back, or you drop a stitch, the lifeline is a lifesaver.

You can use any smooth yarn for a lifeline. I like silk buttonhole thread myself, but some people use dental floss, nylon thread, or ravel cord, among other choices.

While I was searching for lifeline information, I discovered KnitWiki. Clearly, it's just starting up, but could become an extremely valuable resource for all of us.

99-Special Continued

Someone asked for a photo of the pin/lighter process. Here you go.


First, stick the pin through the cable.
Second, heat the tip of the pin with the lighter for about 5 seconds.

Let everything cool (about ten more seconds).

Note: Do not touch the pin during the heating process or you will get an uneven and ragged hole. Wonder how I discovered this result.

Superimposed Knitting Explained

Blogless Susan posted a wonderful explanation of superimposed knitting, but she pinned it as a comment to another, much later, post. So, for those of you who missed these entries the first time around, I am combining my original blog posts with her how-to description.

By an amazing coincidence, the book I reviewed in another post, Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace, also contains written instructions for using this technique on a set of baby clothes with pretty lace edgings.

From Blogless Susan

In short, the technique is similar to, but different from, double knitting. For the shell motif I cast on 15sts using a strand of both yarns. Purl 5 using both strands, then the fiddly bit.

Separate the yarns for the next 5 stitches. Put the colour to be patterned on a dpn at the front, and the pattern background sts onto the left needle. Then, using the pattern colour and right needle, pattern across the 5 stitches.

Drop the pattern yarn, pick up the background yarn and using a dpn work the 5 background stitches, pick up the other yarn and work the remaining reverse ststs with both yarns.

So, you need 3 needles, or two longs circs (but I hate circs). It becomes obvious pretty quickly when to change yarns and needles.

When you need to incorporate one of the edge sts into the pattern you just separate the strands (ie row 3), or knit two together with two strands when you need to decrease the pattern number (ie row 9).

Working more than one motif across the row is a bigger pain. You really need to use 2 circs, as there is very little flexibility when using straights. I put all the pattern background onto one needle at the back, and the patterns and reverse stst on the front needle. Lots of fiddle working across the row - needles and yarn all over the place. But the finished product looked good.

---------------------
Original Posts

I found this pattern (and several others like it) in a Japanese pattern book. Look closely at the picture. You'll see that there are two layers of knitting here. What? How did they do that? Any ideas?


Here is another example of superimposed knitting that I talked about yesterday.


Both of these are from the book 1000 Knitting Patterns. The book is in Japanese, and available here. Like all Japanese knitting pattern books, it is lavish and full of unusual, elegant patterns. There's an entire section on multicolored cables, something I've seen only one other knitting book ( a really old pattern book that I am too lazy to go look for right now).

1000 Knitting Patterns weighs a ton, and costs the earth ($60). I hauled it back to my apartment in Japan on the train, in August, so I know how much it weighs.

As with all Japanese knitting books, everything is charted, so rarely will anyone have trouble following the patterns provided he or she has invested in a Japanese knitting symbol dictionary. For those still searching for one, go here.

Shawl Border Pickup Lines

This morning I wasted in inordinate amount picking up stitches along the sides of the Black Widow Spider King center. I read the directions about sixty times until I got the hang of the Polka Pickup (no kidding, that's what the directions called it). You are directed to pick up the stitches using a rhythm of 1, 2, 3, HOP. That is, you pick up stitches in three rows and skip the fourth row.

Depending on your dance skills and Dignity Quotient, you could also pick up stitches to Chubby Checker's Twist (1, 2, 3 TWIST), or a stately waltz (1, 2, 3, PAUSE).

I went with Chubby, but puzzled about picking up bumps or valley threads. The original directions seemed to be valley thread, yarnover, valley thread, hop, which produced a remarkably ugly line of uneven yarnovers.

In the end, I found the bump, valley thread, bump, hop/skip/jump/pause/twist rhythm gave the most even result.

I had to do an experiment, of course, to see what would happen if I picked up only bumps or only valley threads, as might be the case if I were picking up exactly one border row for every two rows knitted. This was alas, not the case for the BWSK, where I had to pick up three rows for every four knitted.

The photo below is a lovely Fleegleland lace shawl center consisting of 10 stitches and 20 rows of garter stitch with assorted holes in the center that simulate lace of astounding complexity.



On the right side, we have the bump pickup--10 bumps exactly, for 20 knitted rows. This technique produces an even, unobtrusive edge.

On the left side, we have a valley pickup--again 10 stitches. I picked up one thread in the valley, which is also called a "bar" in some lace instructions. This side came out one stitch short, so I had to fudge it, with rather mediocre results. This method also produces a row of unattractive holes on the two border sides.

I guess I am a bump fan. Hop Hop.

Shawl Borders: A Third Method

As I begin the design of the Black Widow border, I am also thinking about the general construction. There are several ways to assemble these shawls, but the two methods under consideration are:

1. Pick up all the stitches around the four sides and knit circularly. This method requires purling every other round to keep the garter stitch background correct.

2. Pick up all the stitches and knit around, turn and knit back. This method requires grafting the fourth corner upon completion of the border.

As I wandered around the Web this morning, I found this very interesting post describing another method of working a Shetland border. The author of these posts works the fourth corner with a clever trick, so the entire border can be knit around, but there is, in fact, no grafting required.

There are two links: here and here. The first has the description, the second, the pictures.

Tell me what you think. I may swatch this in heavier yarn and see how it works.

Software for Knitters: Part III: Image Editors

Most of us now own a digital camera, right? Some of us might even own two. Or three. And a scanner. Or two. Don't start. There's a reason I own all this stuff and most of it has to do with work. Really!

Even the most economical scanners and cameras ships with some sort of software to tweak your pictures. And, regardless of your operating system, there are an astounding assortment of free or really cheap image editors available, many of which can be downloaded from the Web.

For example, this site lists freebies and you can find a list of budget programs here. If you don't like any of those, a short session Googling "Image Editing Shareware" will keep you busy for a week or two.

Image editors are wonderful for virtual knitting. Save yourself some time (and money, too) and learn to use one for designing, recoloring, expanding and fixing charts, and compositing.

I use Photoshop almost exclusively as my primary image editor, although I occasionally fool around with both Corel PhotoPaint and PaintShop Pro. My examples are described in Photoshoppy talk, but most of these sorts of edits can be performed in virtually any image editor.

My most common task for Photoshop is inverting and compositing charts. Some people can read charts backward and forward with equal facility, flipping increases and decreases at will. I can’t. So when I have a lace chart that tells me to work from left to right to the center point, then work from right to left, reversing decreases, I scan it, then make a copy, flip it over, and match it to it’s other-handed clone. This quick and easy maneuver produces a lace chart I can actually follow without my head exploding.

Here's a quick example (it's only a fragment of the actual chart) The bottom chart was just horizontally flipped. When I knit this item, I worked the top chart, then instead of trying to work it backwards, I merely shifted my eyeballs to the lower chart and continued to work from right to left.

Mountain Ash, a shawl of exceptional loveliness, has been on my To-Do list for months now. Getting started with it has been fraught with difficulty. First, the pattern is in Japanese. Second, one of the graphs is missing a big chunk. And third, the printed graph is so tiny that it needs an electron microscope to even see the teensy-beensy type.

So, the first thing I did with Mountain Ash was scan in the graphs and enlarge them for human eyes over 40 years of age.

Then I cut and pasted sections of the chart together into something that I could actually read. The decreases are fetchingly reversed so I don't have to think about it.


I also use Photoshop to composite lace designs, that is, cutting and pasting specific areas of charts and rearranging them to suit. Image editors make it easy to produce new lace patterns in a flash, once you know a few basic techniques. In the case of Mountain Ash, I wasn't happy with the arrangement of some of the elements, so I modified the graph, cutting and pasting the little flowers at the top into a more pleasing arrangement.

Image editors can also be used as colored glasses. Don’t like the color of the sample project? It’s easy enough to change the hue in a program like Photoshop. I often use it to see what effect overdying will produce on a yarn whose original color wasn’t exactly what I’m looking for (translation: The color photo on the Web store was wildly different from the actual yarn).

Here’s a perfect example of using Photoshop as rose- (or any other color) glasses.

First, of course, I scanned in the picture from the book.

Then I selected the background using the Select/Color Range command and deleted it. Before I deleted the background selection, though, I inverted the selection, so only the shawl is selected, and saved the selection so I could reuse it later.

Now I have a nice, off-white shawl to play with. You can fill the selection with paint or brush it on and use the History panel to undo and redo.



Here are some Mountain Ash variations.

And you can change the background to black to make light colors more contrasty:




There are several other ways to accomplish the same thing. For example, you can use the Color Balance panel to add or subtract color. Or, you can use the Hue/Saturation panel. This panel is especially useful, as you can slide through all the colors of the rainbow, while adjusting the color intensity and lightness. Or you can grab a brush and start painting on color. And you can even apply a gradient if you want to see if your handpainted silk will obscure the pattern:


Finally, because this post is becoming longer than most people want to read (and I wanted to write :)), you can use an image editor to virtually design and knit something. For example, you decide you want to knit some flowers and plop them on a sweater. You don’t have to buy yarn or knit either the sweater or flowers to see a finished result.

Here is a plain pink sweater that I scanned out of a yarn catalog.



And here we have a pink flower that I scanned out of a book:

Put them all together in Photoshop....



Do a resizing and rearranging:


And in 20 minutes, you can have a really good idea of what the final result will look like, all without leaving the comfort of your computer room.

Invest in an inexpensive (or expensive) image editor and you will find a multitude of knitting experiments suddenly become easy to do. Of course, you can also use the software to add a moustache to your mother-in-law, see what your least-favorite politician would look like wearing a dress, and other engaging pastimes. Not, of course, that I do things like that. Much.

Spider Queen Color Variations

I just love Photoshop! With a quick whisk of a wand and brush, you too can visualize your knitting in any color you like. For example...






This is soooo much easier than actually swatching. I am in love with the dark blue, which I think might work for the Unst shawl, The Next Lunatic Project.

Let me know if there's another color you would like me to, erm, virtually swatch.