Forearm survey

I love knitting armwarmers. But I've always been disappointed in the sizing and shaping - or lack thereof. I didn't find one single pattern that would fit if I just knitted it without any mods.

I want to find out now if I'm really outside of the norm, and if there is a market for a larger range of sizes for armwarmers. Please help and fill out the survey below! I'll post the results in a couple of weeks.

Please round to the nearest  full centimeter.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

the crazy finishing streak!

Back when I started knitting, I was, what is called a "monogamous knitter". I never had more than one project on the needles, and I was happy with it.

That was... well, a while back. Still, I like to work on only one project at a time... but sometimes, there are reasons to put things in time out! And that happened a lot to me lately. But last week, I was suddenly able to finish all my wips, and suddenly I had not a single one left! Oh, that great feeling of accomplishment! That feeling of freedom! I can now cast on something new!

First was this cardi that had accompanied me for more than a year now. I'm so happy it's finally over and done with. It had many names - the never ending cardi - the cardi of the many bobbins - and some other that I don't really remember anymore. This was not the most complicated, but surely the most tiring knit I ever had otn.

A look into the innards of the cardi - you can see the bobbins carried up and the wrong side of the berry stitch.

Second where the stockings I had otn for my Papa. This was a Christmas present. I was running late on Christmas and couldn't find any of the weird and obscure CD's he wanted, to I just packed three skeins and draw a fun "instruction manual" on a little piece of paper. How to use this present? Choose a skein, give it to the master of needles, and get a pair of socks. And then, my "evil" stepmom had one ingenious idea. "Why not knit stockings instead? You could use some!" she said to my dad. I really love her, but I really wanted to strangle her at that moment. But yeah, she was true, my Papa has only one old ugly worn-through pair of stockings, so I had to knit some.

Ever knit a man's pair of stockings? Not fun, I assure you. This pair is the equivalent of two really tall socks for me, or 3-4 normal pairs of socks for normal feeted women. Over 800 m of yarn!!!

In between waiting for fitting on these two projects for other people, I had time to work on a third project. And still being a little bit of a more monogamous knitter, I just couldn't bring myself to cast on another project. And that was good, because I finally had a reason to pick up some wips! I'm really not bad - I had only two wips in hibernation. The first one was another pair of stockings for me, and I really found my love back for them. And although they were stockings - compared to the two projects above, they really were a fast knit. ;)

And after those three were finished, I was so happy with clearing out my wips that I took another sip (sock in progress). This one was a test knit, and I never made a mate for the first poor, lonely sock. This first sock is now happily ever after with it's mate!

And then I thought I'd go back to my monogamous knitting ways. Well... that didn't work so well. I knitted two toes for another pair of socks - then swatched the cable pattern and had to put it in time out since I couldn't decide immediately. Then I cast on a shawl. And one day after I cast on a shawl, the needles arrived that I need for my first big design. And since the sweater design has the highest priority, I started swatching for that.

But know what? I'm not even feeling bad about it. I have it all sorted in clear priorities, and I'm getting some progress on all. And maybe the sock toes won't grow in a while - but I know they will as soon as I'm not knitting on the other two for whatever reason. I'll never be a project hoarder, having dozens of lone socks lying around. My urge to knit on the things I have otn is just too big. And that feels good.

But now, how about some more pictures? The little swatch of the stitch pattern for my sweater design. I absolutely adore this texture! And it's easy to work, too!
(sorry for the bad pic. Sometimes the light situation just doesn't allow me to get good pics)

And the shawl in progress. It still looks boring at that stage, but the finished shawl will be constructed of several wedges in different angles, which looks really cool. I'm already loving this knit, and the yarn is heavenly! A mostly merino with some silk and cashmere from Dye for yarn. This yarn is really to die for! Or should I say dye for? They also have funny color names, this one is called "memory of a fearsome tale". It's purple in reality, but I must admit I was too lazy to edit the photo. My camera never gets purple right...

Technique: Turkish Cast On

There are millions of different ways to cast on socks. Even as experienced sock knitter, you might run across a new way you've never seen before. And I like to try out all possibilities. I've recently discovered the Turkish Cast On - also called Straight Wrap Cast On, Eastern European Cast On, Eastern Cast on or Mediterranean Cast On. I've been a fan of Judy's Magic Cast On for a long time, but now I'm not so sure anymore... I might like this one a tad bit more.

You'll need:

• your working yarn
• circular needle

It can be done with dpns, but I find it much easier to work with a circ. This time I'm working with Dream in Color Smoothy.

Hold both needles parallel to each other. Leaving a few inches tail, lay the yarn over the bottom needle and bring it down between the needles, wrapping it under the top needle. In the picture shown below, the yarn tail is on the left bottom side. The tail I left for this tut was way too short - I'll explain why you don't want a too short tail a little later. Alternatively, you could also start with a slip knot on the top needle.  Then, wrap the yarn around both needles as shown in the picture below.

Continue wrapping the yarn around both needles until you have the desired amount of stitches on your needles. I like to cast on 24 stitches for my toes, so I did 12 wraps. After the last wrap, bring it up between the needles to secure last wrap. I just noticed that there are 13 wraps on the needles in the two pictures below - my mistake. I must have dropped the last wrap while knitting the first round.

This is the point where it gets really awkward to work with dpns. As you see, I've pulled the bottom needle to the right and am now starting to knit into the loops on the top needle.

Be extremely careful when you get to the end of the first needle! The yarn tail likes to slip away and unwrap the stitches. You can avoid that by using the slip knot, but I don't like starting with a slip knot as it usually gives me a diminutive hole. Yes, I can be a perfectionist. (It happened to me that the yarn slipped and I had to rewrap the last stitches. Which is a good thing in this case since I had a wrap to much. Obviously someone here cant count to 12.)

My Cast On, Bind Off book now tells me to twist the yarn tail around the working yarn another time. But I don't really like this. For one: it also gives me a diminutive hole - again, the perfectionist. Second - at this point, I don't see the helpfulness anymore. The trouble we had with the yarn tail was at the step before, and as soon as we knit the first stitch of the second needle, the yarn tail is secured and we only need to tug on it to tighten up the stitches. Anyway, I showed it here, you might like it more than I do.

Continue knitting all the stitches on the second needle and start with your toe increase rounds and pattern.

This is how the the Cast On looks with the toe almost done.

Questions, comments, suggestions, requests? I'd love to hear from you!

Technique: Duo-Colored Lateral Braid

Last time, we talked about how to do a lateral Braid. And this little detail just asks to be done in a contrasting color. Problem is... if you just take a CC, and work it like shown the last time, this is what you get:

Not exactly what we wanted, right? But there is a way to make it look neat. It's harder to work, especially if you are, like me, a tight knitter. But it's possible.

You'll need:

• your working needle
• your working yarn
• CC yarn
• darning needle

 First off, we start with a M1r - just like last time - but this time, it's the first stitch done in CC. Place it back onto the lhn (left hand needle).

Insert your rhn (right hand needle) into the back loop of second stitch as if to knit. But this time, we are not knitting it! This stitch is the one that would form the next round of stitches, which we are trying to avoid this time.

Swing rhn around to the front, without dropping stitches from the lhn.

Knit into the front of first stitch on lhn, using CC.

And drop both stitches from the lhn.

Place CC stitch back onto lhn and start on the next pair of stitches with inserting your needle into the back of second stitch.

This is how it looks like after we have done a few stitches... Tricky, but worth the effort, isn't it?

Work braid until one stitch before end of round. 

Now, the end of round is a little more complicated than shown last time, but not really hard to work. If you don't mind cutting your yarn, you could also close a monochrome braid this way - and get a perfectly seamless join.

 

We need to drop the last braid stitch from the needle, cut CC and pull on the dropped loop until the end slips through. Thread yarn through darning needle.

Thread the needle under both loops of the first CC stitch of round.

And then back trough the last stitch of round.

Tighten up. As you see, we now have a perfectly seamless, duo-colored lateral braid! Don't forget to sew in yarn tails .

Questions, comments, suggestions, requests? Just leave a comment and I'll get back at you!

Gotta love beautiful yarn!

Yarn. It's not only working material. It's a joy to look at, a joy to pet, and oh so cushy to cuddle into, once your knitting is finished. Of course, I also own that one odd duck of yucky yarn... it happens to all of us. Or more than one, of course more than one! ;) If you are following my tuts, you are already acquainted with ACK-rylic.

But this yarn is different - it's of the stuff that makes you dream about cushy softness, joyful knitting - and lets be honest. I totally squeed when the package arrived and I cuddled the 6 skeins in my hands.

It's a high quality base from Atelier Zitron (a german yarnie), custom dyed by the fabulous Faerbulous, who I found on dawanda. Check out her store!

Since this color is extremely hard to capture in pictures, it wasn't so easy for me to tell exactly what I wished. But she knew exactly what I meant and I'm so happy with those skeins!

Also, surprise! Stitch markers are a pleasant surprise. They are cute! I actually like using the little plastic rings, so I've never bothered to buy or make some - but those are cute and I'll try them the next time I need markers! I suppose that's Faerbulous' way of saying "thank you for doing business with me"

I'm planning to design a lightweight sweater with this yarn. I love worsted weight sweaters - but I often have a problem wearing them. I'm not a person who gets cold easily. And always when it's getting cold, I'm having the same old problem - too cold with just a shirt, but too hot with a sweater. Sigh... I figure a thin sweater will be the perfect solution!

And since I need to challenge myself, I'm going to work with a zipper for the first time. I'm kinda afraid and exited about this at the same time! But I know it will totally be worth it in the end. Stay tuned!

Technique: Lateral Braid, aka Vikkel Braid

I've loved the lateral braid ever since I first discovered it. It's such a neat, decorative detail, and really fun to do. It's also called Vikkel Braid - but I have no idea where that name comes from.  But without further ado, here's the technique!

You'll need:

• your working needle
• your working yarn

and nothing else!

We are starting with a m1r, and put it back onto the left hand needle. We will always be working a pair of sts - the second st on your lhn (left hand needle) will form the next row while the first st on your lhn will form the braid. This first m1 creates an extra st that we need to keep st count consistent and get a nice start for our braid.

 Knit into the back of your second stitch, and don't drop the stitches from the lhn!

Without dropping any sts from the lhn, swing rhn (right hand needle) back to front and knit into the front of the first st.

Now, we can drop both stitches from the lhn!

But we are putting the outmost st from the rhn back onto the lhn. See the first sts of our braid? Now we can start with the next pair of sts by knitting into the back of second st, as shown in the second pic above.

This is how your braid will look after you've worked a few sts.  Not so hard, is it?

Now we've worked our way all around and are back at the start. We need to close the round and get rid of the extra st we made at the very start.

And that's done fairly simple - slip the first st onto the rhn...

... and simply slip the last braid st over the first st of next round. Slip first of next round back onto lhn and resume knitting whatever the pattern tells you.

As you can see, the jog is not perfectly hidden, but you're probably the only one able to notice. If you use darker, or variegated yarn, it's pretty much invisible.

Next one in the series: a two colored lateral braid! Also look at the link if you want to learn a perfectly seamless way to close the lateral braid.

Technique: Provisional Crochet Cast On

This is, by far, my favorite provisional cast on. It's quick and easy, the cast on edge stays nice and secure until you need it - and then, you just need to tug at one end and the cast on unzips - voilá! Live stitches. Another plus: Worked in the round, it will give you exactly the same stitch count as you initially casted on.

And trust me on this one - if you don't have a crochet hook, get one. You will totally thank me later. (There are also a lot of other knitterly uses for a crochet hook!)

But now, on to the technique!

You will need:
- Your working needle
- Waste yarn
- A crochet hook

First, make a slip know and put it onto your crochet hook. Chain a few stitches. This might not be necessary, but I like doing it anyways.

Now, take the crochet hook into your right and the knitting needle into your left hand. Loop the working yarn around your left index finger as if to knit. Your knitting needle should be held above the yarn strand. Now, reach over your knitting needle with the crochet hook, catch yarn, and pull trough the loop on your hook.

As you can see, the back loop of the crochet chain formed around your knitting needle. Now you just need to move the yarn behind the needle, and you are ready to chain the next stitch. When you are finished, you can simply knit into those loops on your needle. Neat trick, right?

Chain as many stitches as you need to cast on. Little extra tip: I'm notoriously bad at counting many stitches. I always put a stitch marker every 20 stitches or so to keep track of how many stitches I have.

When you have reached the stitches needed for cast on, chain a few more stitches without the needle in between. Cut waste yarn and pull out the last loop to secure the end.

Finished! Grab your working yarn and knit the first row or round into the chain. Now you are ready to start the pattern!

When you are ready to unzip the cast on, simply snip the last stitch of the dangling chain, find the right end and tug on it. The chain should unravel automatically.

I hope you found my instructions clear and helpful - this is the first technique tutorial in a series. I will post more tutorials like this in support of my patterns that explain the advanced techniques I use.