View Post

Blocking Uneven Ribbing

Knitting nice uniform, even-looking, ribbing is a big challenge for me.  I realize it has to do with the varying tension of my knits and purls when ribbing back and forth, but the nature of some yarns make it difficult to get uniform ribbing even when ribbing in the round. At the moment, my best option is to fix the …

View Post

Reinforcing a Steek in Bulky Yarn

This is by no means my first steek… but I still consider it new territory, because it is my first steek in BULKY yarn (Alafoss Lopi). a) I chose not to machine-sew these steeks as I sometimes do with small 2-3 stitch steeks.  My walking foot doesn’t lift high enough above the thick fabirc, and the double-layers of yarn through …

View Post

Fairisle Mittens: Crochet Weave-In

Since I had to re-knit my mitten due to my dissatisfaction with the original result, I also got to retry my attempts to weave-in the ends using a crochet slip-stitch. Last time, if you’ll remember, I reported that my attempt was inconclusive.  This time, I can conclusively say:  This method is THE method.  Forever. 1. Pull all the ends down …

View Post

Shetland Mittens… Starting Over!

Well mitten #1 is complete, but I’m not happy with it.  I’ve re-designed it and re-charted it and am ready to start re-knitting it.  I think I have EXACTLY enough of the “Dewdrop” colourway left to make 2 mittens, based on what my scale says I used for the first mitten. Things that didn’t work: 1. I don’t like the …

View Post

Fair Isle Concept Development

If you like fair isle and you like knitpicks you are most likely familiar with the drool-worthy centrefold that comes in most Knitpicks catalogues: I have been struggling for some time to come up with the best way to choose fair isle colour schemes.  I’ve played with excel… and with copying colour swatches off of websites…  All too slow and …