Vertical Stranding

The most amazing thing about knitting is that there is always something else to learn. And I learned a new technique on Tuesday that is terrific: Vertical Stranding by Lorilee Beltman . I'm making the Unchained socks.

 Doing intarsia while working round and round has always been difficult but carrying these lines of one stitch down the sock is a breeze. Really, it's easy. There are a couple of tricks, of course.

Once you have knit the first stitch of each of the 4 lines of colour you need to make a butterfly of the 4 yarns and then shove it down the middle of the sock. That's two tricks. I wouldn't have thought of pushing it down the centre of my sock but it helps a lot to do this.

Then when you come to the spot where you're going to pick up the colour, place your main colour off to the Left, knit one stitch with the colour, drop it and continue on. The main colour always gets placed off to the Left when you knit the new colour. Do this and it all works. Keeping the yarn to the left means that continental knitters have an advantage since our yarn is always attached to our left hand. If you are a "thrower" you have to do a little more manipulation.

And the inside is so neat. A wonderful technique.

From the comments: Thanks t_a. I've been doing lots and lots of knitting lately. Nice to get some socks as a result.
-Deb
Books and Patterns on Ravelry;  Books and Patterns on Patternfish.com.  For Printed copies of books email: cabinfever.ca@gmail.com. Thanks.

YarnOverSleepOver Retreat

It's retreat time. This is the Yarn Over Sleep Over retreat that 9 needlework professionals, including Lyn and I, run together and teach at. We are being pro-active. Why wait to be chosen to teach when we could run a retreat of our own? This is our third year and the organization over the year leading up to this weekend is interesting, as all group work is, and very rewarding. Nine strong-minded entrepreneurial minds coming together, well you can imagine the sparks fly sometimes, all to the good. We have a wonderful weekend planned for our 43 attendees.

I've got all my samples for my two classes, a fashion show and for the Speed Dating Knitting.

What may you ask is Speed Knitting? Our first activity at the retreat is based on Speed Dating where one set of people, for example Women, sit in chairs along a wall and across from them sit those that came to date. Each person spends 2 minutes with the person in front of them and then moves to the next table. In our case, we're not looking for dates but for knitting know-how. A group of knitter sits at one table and tries a technique for 10 minutes then moves to the next table. It's quick, it's fun and hopefully educational. Our 4 tables this year are: Nupps, Garter Stitch Cast Off, Stretchy Cast On and Machine Knitting. As we all know, knowledge is power, power to the knitter.
Hope you have a great weekend, I am going to,
-Deb

Underarm Baby Vest Solution

After much pondering I think I have a solution to the Vest underarm quandary. With Baby sizes a top down doesn't need any stitches cast on at the underarm so at the Divide Row the Front and Back are being joined up as you work the row. I'd like the join between the Front and Back to be nice and tight and I also have to reduce the stitch numbers so the stitch pattern can continue across the entire body.

On the Divide Row, after casting off the stitches of the first sleeve, pass the last stitch of the Front over the last Cast Off stitch of sleeve. This will join the Front and Back together. It works. I hope the diagram helps to explain it in the pattern. What do you think?

-Deb

Contiguous

I'm looking for new top down constructs with set-in sleeves. We must be able to do this. Has anyone tried this one? Contiguous method by Susie M. You set up 2 shoulder stitches and work increases on either side of these shoulder stitches on both the Right side and the Wrong side until the Back of Neck plus the two shoulders are the right width for the Back. Then you work a set-in sleeve in the round. Very intriguing. There's a short sample you can knit to try it out on the Contiguous site. I'm making the Driftwood in Cotton Tweed Silver and Flannel to try it.

I'm doing some small alterations but it's working out very well.
-Deb

If you don't know much about curling, my cousin Dean (told you we're a curling family) did a short video Curling-how-hard-can-it-be?
P.S.:
Thanks Robin. We're very excited.
Brenda, I know you watch curling so that was partyly for you.
Sharon, TSN will be carrying the games so no CBC coverage any more. That's sad isn't it?

I-CORD THUMB

I couldn't make a video. Somehow what I needed wasn't coming up on my computer today (or lots of other days, it's just me). So here's the I-Cord Thumb in pictures. The instructions for this mitten and the Alternative Thumb are in the Need An Accessory? book

Knit your mitten as usual, putting the thumb stitches on spare yarn.

When you're ready to do the thumb put all the stitches on ONE double pointed needle. (Tip: If there are really loose stands beside the needle stitches, pick one strand up, twist it and put on needle.) Knit across the stitches.

Now SLIDE the stitches to the other end of the needle. Yarn from the ball is now attached to the last stitch on the needle. Pull the yarn across the back of all the stitches and Knit the first stitch. Knit across all the stitches on the needle. You can see the ladder that makes. All is well.

Again, *Slide the stitches to the other end of the needle, pull the yarn across the back of the stitches and Knit all the stitches; repeat from * for the length of your thumb. Work a couple rounds of K2tog to decrease the top of the thumb. You'll have a lot of ladders going up the inside of the thumb. Wonderful.

Now, get out your crochet hook and let the magic begin. With the crochet hook, pick up a leg of a stitch at the base of the thumb (this is a stitch in the fabric of the palm).

Pull the first ladder through this stitch. 

Hook up each ladder, one by one up the thumb.

Put the last loop onto the needle. Using a sewing up needle, thread the yarn through all the thumb stitches and pull tight. Sew in end. Use the end at the base of the thumb to tidy up the little hole.

Ta, da, ladders are gone. Thumb is finished. This photo has NOT been doctored!!

That's how easy it is. You can knit a thumb in minutes. Try it.
-Deb
P.S. Sharon in Surrey, Lazy, ha, ha! You have so many socks on the go. I just finished 2 pair this week. Now only 2 toques to knit. Good luck with the knee warmers.

Here's something I found on my Daily Knitter blog from Interweave. This is a new 'joining a new ball' technique. I'm going to try this out and see what I think. This was introduced for lace knitting so it must be close to invisible. I like the reference to tying flies for fishing. Sometimes the best techniques come from somewhere else.

 

 

Double Uni-Knot

The double uni-knot, used for tying flies, is surprisingly easy to make. One of the best features is that you can cut the tails right next to the knot.

Lay the two strands parallel to each other on a flat surface. Bring the tail of the lower strand back on itself to make a loop, then cross it over the upper strand (Figure 1). Wrap the short end around both strands three times, bringing it to through to the front of the loop on the third wrap (Figure 2). Pull on both ends of this strand to tighten the knot (Figure 3). Wrap the upper strand in the same manner (Figure 4), then tighten both ends (Figure 5).

—Kristin Omdahl, from A Knitted Wrapsody

Pretty good. Can you see it right in the middle of the orange?
-Deb