Tag Archives: Knit

How many knitting days until Christmas?

Posted on September 25, 2009 | 11 comments

I don’t know. But this is what I was knitting in my “how to carry two colors in your right hand” video tutorial the other day.

It’s a shop sample for Twisted; I’m teaching a Christmas stocking class on Saturday, December 5, 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. The class is based on my pattern, which I finally wrote up this week! I made the first of these in 1996, but didn’t write it up until now. Here are all the variations at my house, made over several years.

The pattern is for the snowflake stocking; I wanted to keep things simple since it’s for a class. I dropped off the stocking and patterns this afternoon. Sivia Harding says that the stocking is perfect! That made my day. How could you not want to knit this pattern after such an endorsement? And yes, Sivia is now working at Twisted!

Patterns are available at Twisted and through Ravelry download; you can find more information on the pattern page.

11 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged christmas stocking, Knit

Sibling Socks, aka Coriolis

Posted on September 24, 2009 | 16 comments

I finished the second sock from my “”What I learned at Sock Summit” project.

Remember I said that I wanted to make the second sock different, so I wouldn’t have Second Sock Syndrome? The first sock was a spiraling Coriolis. On the second one, I decided to try Cat Bordhi’s Upstream sock architecture, and put the increases on the instep in the form of a diamond with lacy holes. Isn’t it funny how the pink/purple pooled in the diamond?

When I finished the diamond, I decided that I didn’t want lacy diamonds going all the way up the leg. I was curious what would happen if I took the spiraling line from the Coriolis sock and moved them in different directions. So I echoed the holey diamond with a snakey one.

I think I like the snakey diamond even better than the holey diamond! But I wasn’t going back to do it over again.

Voilà! Two socks that read pretty much the same at first glance, but are different enough to make knitting two socks remain interesting. I wonder why knitting two socks the same is a challenge to me, but I can make the same baby sweater or baby hat several times without a second thought? Go figure. Probably because I can multi-task and watch a movie or read at the same time I’m knitting that baby sweater or baby hat. Aha!

The details:
Variations on Coriolis pattern by Cat Bordhi, New Pathways for Sock Knitters (I took the information from Cat’s class and ran with it)
Socks that Rock Mediumweight, Alley-Oop colorway
Size 2 Sox Stix by Lantern Moon (love these needles)

I love Cat’s heel turn, but I need to fine tune the fit. The back of the heel is a bit too tall and loose for me; I’ll try fewer increases over the arch expansion next time. But I love Judy’s Magic Cast On and Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off; these two techniques have made toe up socks a lot more attractive to me. Especially since I still don’t like to close toes with kitchener stitch. I can do it, but I don’t enjoy it!

16 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged cat bordhi, Knit, sock

Knitting with two colors, right hand

Posted on September 21, 2009 | 23 comments

I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to make a video of how to do this, and I finally did it. Sorry for the slight blurriness; my arms aren’t long enough to get further in front of the camera! I’ll experiment with other set-ups some time, but this is my first video, warts and all. It was kind of fun.

I’m a thrower; I carry my yarn in my right hand. I took a colorwork class with Anna Zilboorg at Stitches some time in the 90’s. In preparation, I taught myself to knit continental style (hold yarn in left hand, pick with right needle) so I could carry a color in each hand. When I got to class, Anna showed me how to carry both colors in my right hand, which was a lot easier for me. Here it is.

Enjoy!

23 Comments

Posted in Knit, tutorial

Tagged colorwork, Knit, tutorial

The magic of blocking

Posted on September 15, 2009 | 20 comments

My friend Claudia knit a beautiful shawl. It’s Ene’s Scarf by Nancy Bush (rav link). She blocked it, but it was a bit small and didn’t wrap the way she wanted it to. I offered to block it more aggressively, since I have blocking wires and I’m not afraid to use them!

Pre-blocking, the shawl was 55″ x 29″. I didn’t take a picture; it was late at night when I was finally ready to attack it. I gave it a good soak with some Soak (love this stuff), and then blocked it out to 63″ x 33″. Wet wool is amazingly stretchy. I could have tried to make it even bigger, but it looks nice where it is now. I’m hoping the extra 8 inches across the top makes it wide enough to wrap the way she wants.

Here’s the shawl, now that it’s dry. I love how much airier it feels.

The lace is really pretty.

And the edge is gorgeous!

Nice work, Claudia!

Are you an intrepid blocker? It makes a world of difference!

20 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged blocking, ene's scarf, Knit, shawl

Knitty’s up!

Posted on September 11, 2009 | 9 comments

I mentioned Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off in yesterday’s post, saying that I couldn’t tell you more yet. It’s up today! I also found out that I’ve been spelling her first and last names wrong. It’s Jeny Staiman. And she’s brilliant.

Here’s the rest of Knitty. It’s a little slow today; I imagine they’re getting a gazillion hits. I’ll go back and look at it later…

Knit on!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit

What happens next?

Posted on September 4, 2009 | 10 comments

I finished spinning my first bit of fiber. What do you call that thing, anyway? It was in a pretty braid. My spinning isn’t very consistent yet; sometimes there’s a clump of almost roving, but mostly it’s a nice single. I’m getting to the point where I can feel if it’s doing what I want. I love it when the twist jumps up between my fingers and the fiber is nicely drafted and takes up the twist with a little zing.

Here’s Day 1.

And here’s where I ended; I think it was 4 sessions in all.

This is the sum total of it, on a small Turkish Delight. It’s a center pull ball, if I can screw up the courage to take it apart. Will it explode? There’s a lot of twisty energy in that little ball of yarn! It’s all new to me.

I’ve read that you should ply your singles to balance the yarn. There’s not a lot of yarn here, so it won’t amount to much. I think I can take the end from the inside and the end from the outside, and ply them with the spindle in the opposite direction that I spun it. How do I hold the ball, on a knitting needle maybe? And I’m guessing that I somehow need to keep it under tension so the twistiness doesn’t curlicue everything up? Any and all hints welcome!

10 Comments

Posted in Knit, spinning

Tagged Knit, spin, yarn

Blast from the past

Posted on September 2, 2009 | 19 comments

Courtney’s post on Retro Knitting reminded me of a booklet/magazine that’s been on my knitting shelf for what seems like forever.

This one is a 1965 reprint of a magazine originally published in 1952. It used to belong to my Aunt Vivian, who gave it to me when I was in high school. I remember knitting these slippers!

And check out this dress:

Aunt Vivian used to make clothes for our Barbie dolls. Does this look familiar?

The sash is long gone. I found this dress, along with some other treasures. The other items are from more doll clothing booklets, and I have those, too. Check out what a fashionably dressed Barbie was wearing in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. Styling sheath dresses:

Mohair winter coat, scarf, hat:

A sequined shell:

And this half of a skater outfit. I love the mohair edging on this. I wonder where the fabulous flared skirt went? I’ll have to check with my sister; she has the other half of the doll clothes!

Check out this elegant skirt.

Especially the waist shaping!

Aunt Vivian loved to knit and crochet. She made lots of clothes for our dolls, and vests for us. In her later years she knit many, many hats for the homeless. How lucky was I? Two knitting aunts, one on each side of the family.

Oh, by the way, I’ve been backwards sleuthing: Aunt Rose must have taught me to knit the summer I was 14, not 16. Beginning the summer I was 15 almost 16, I worked in a salmon cannery in Alaska during the summers, to earn money for college. Hey, I’ve just gained two years of knitting history!

19 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Barbie, Knit

Toe-up? Lessons from Sock Summit…

Posted on August 27, 2009 | 22 comments

I’m knitting away on my Coriolis sock that I started after my class with Cat Bordhi at Sock Summit, Dancing with Socks. I made the baby Coriolis in class, very cute. (It’s the one on the right.)

I came home and decided to make Coriolis(es?) (Corioli?) for me. I’m using Socks that Rock Mediumweight; the color is Alley Oop.

I usually make my socks from the cuff down. This toe-up thing is a pretty new trick for me. I think I’ve mastered Judy’s Magic Cast On. This makes a very tidy toe.

I like the kfb increases on the sides. Again, very tidy.

And this is the nicest short row heel turn that I’ve tried so far. It doesn’t make the diagonal line; the heel looks very much like a flap and gusset heel. It’s also nice and deep, the way that I like my heels.

I”m knitting on the leg now, but it’s not compelling. Part of what kept me plugging away at the heel was the anticipation (dread?) of wondering if the stripe would run into the heel. It did, but it’s no big deal. Cat suggests a star toe in her book, New Pathways for Sock Knitting, so the foot can be rotated to avoid this issue, but I didn’t read the book before starting. I was working from class notes. No worries, it doesn’t bother me.

But now that I know how the story turns out, I’m not sure I have another of the same sock in me, even if the stripe rotates in the other direction. I may go for fraternal twins, and do a different pattern with the other half of the yarn. I want to play with Cat’s Riverbed sock architecture. Who says a pair of socks have to be the same? Second Sock Syndrome, I laugh in your face!

Do you have issues with doing the same thing over again? Apparently I do.

Knit on!

22 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged cat bordhi, Coriolis, Knit, sock summit

The winner, and the distracted…

Posted on August 24, 2009 | 8 comments

Thank you all for sharing your “how I learned to knit” stories. I really enjoyed reading them. Now for the payback: the random number generator at random.org has chosen the number 20, so the 20th commenter is the winner of the Cherry Mallow sock yarn. The 20th commenter is (drum roll please)…rustyfingers! Congratulations, Carol! PM me your snailmail addy, and I will pop the yarn in the mail.

Hmmm. What can I show you, to avoid showing you that I don’t have any knitting to show you? Oh, yes. Twisted‘s Single Skein Club offering for August. If you haven’t received yours yet, you must be even further behind than I am! Look away, if you must.

August’s Single Skein Club package is a seriously fun kit for either bottle cozies, can cozies, or coasters. Choose your own adventure! The patterns are by Michelle Molis, of Japanese Vines fame, and the yarn is the ever popular color wonder, Noro Kureyon. This skein is shades of green, blue, purple, and brown. There were other colors available, but this one is pretty much me, all over again.

Of course, I haven’t even cast on, since this kit came just before Sock Summit. But let me show you how far I’ve gotten on June’s project.

Oops. Look at that pattern. It says it’s April’s project! I think it’s a typo, but that doesn’t change the answer : not far. This will be the the Seedling Sampler Scarf. It’s my first beaded knitting. The cast on went well! The rest? Well, I’ll get to it, some day.

April’s project was a toe-up sock by Chrissy Gardiner, but I was pretty toe-up averse before Sock Summit, so that one hasn’t been cast on yet, either. Perhaps I’m not cut out for the pressure of being in a club with timed offerings! Yikes.

There are so many beautiful patterns and yarns to knit, and I just can’t knit them all. I’m still working on the stealth Noro/Mini Mochi project (no final verdict on which yarn is the winner of that contest), my blue ruffle tank, and, a Coriolis sock that I started after taking Cat Bordhi’s Dancing with Socks class at Sock Summit. More on that in another post, though; it’s too dark to take a decent picture tonight.

Knit on!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit

Luminary panel musings

Posted on August 20, 2009 | 49 comments

There were some interesting questions put to the Luminary Panel at Sock Summit. One that I found particularly intriguing was, “Why are there no knitters of color here?” I found it interesting on a couple levels. One is that I *am* a person of color, just not the color that the questioner meant. (I’m Asian-American, and I saw many other Asian-American knitters at Sock Summit.)

The discussion by the panel first delved into socio-economic issues; if food and housing is insecure, knitting is not going to be high on your priority list. Race is often tied to socio-economic status. Knitting in the US is primarily a recreational activity, and it can be quite spendy if you let it be! But I ran into an acquaintance right after the panel discussion, and she commented that she doesn’t have a ton of money, and that you don’t have to have a ton of money to knit. Another idea explored by the panel was that knitting isn’t a part of all cultures around the world. One could extrapolate that we should evangelize knitting and spread the word, but I don’t think all people should be forced to consider knitting for their leisure activity. It’s supposed to be fun. I think we should just say, “Here’s something I like. If you want to knit, I’d be glad to teach you.”

Who taught you to knit? Did you ask to be taught, or did someone offer to teach you? Or did you just find it intriguing on your own? As a child, I wanted to learn to knit because I was heavily into the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Deep in my heart, I wanted to be a pioneer girl. (Pretty funny for a Chinese girl.) In fact, part of the reason I still love my cuff-down socks on dpns is the whole pioneer sticks and string schtick; pioneer girls didn’t have two circulars or magic loop! (This reminds me of the “You can’t use the pedal when you play Bach because he didn’t” argument, although in that case I’d say, “He would have if it had existed!”)

I’m still knitting along on my ruffle tank, and swatching my colorful stealth project. And I think I’m going to start one of Cat Bordhi’s toe-up socks, just for review. And I’ve fallen in love with Lorelei from Twist Collective, but I don’t think I’ll start that right now! Just dreaming. I’ve noticed a good bit of start-itis in other bloggers that were at Sock Summit. Too many creative ideas all at once?

Besides start-itis, Sock Summit has had another effect on me. I had to buy another box to store my increased stash. Although the stash is growing, I’m still not a stasher at heart, so I’d like to share a skein from my Sock Summit goodies. This is from Deb Accuardi’s pre-summit lunch. The colorway is Cherry Mallow by CraftsMeow. It’s 100% superwash merino wool fingering weight yarn, 400 yards.

If you’d like to play, leave me a comment telling me who taught you to knit. I’ll do the random number thing and pick a winner after August 23. Good luck; I’m looking forward to some wonderful stories!

49 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit

Tagged contest, Knit, luminary panel, sock summit, yarn