Technique: Cable Cast On an Knitted Cast On

This is by far my favorite Cast On for stockinette, garter stitch or even lace. It's extremely easy and you don't need to guesstimate how much yarn you'll need. It creates a strong edge that stretches as much as the knitting above it - at least it does for me. I've come to realize that the stretchyness of Cast Ons and Bind Offs varies very much with the knitter.

You'll need:

• Your working yarn
• Your working needle

 You'll start with a slip knot on your needle.

Then, simply knit into the slip knot.

Slip the new stitch onto left hand needle.

For a knitted cast on, simply continue knitting into the last stitch and slipping the new stitches back on the left hand needle. For a cable cast on, insert your right hand needle between the last two stitches on the left hand needle from front to back - I usually already stick my needle into that space before tightening up the last made stitch - this gives me a nice and even spacing and prevents the Cast On from getting to tight.

Catch yarn and pull through between the stitches, then place it back onto the left hand needle.

Continue casting on like this until you have the required number of stitches on your left hand needle. Here's a pic after a few stitches cast on.

If working flat, this Cast On gives you a right side row for the next row. If working in the round, you're having a wrong side round.

Will - O - Wisp

It's getting colder, the sky is dull and grey, and we all settle to nest in an knit... But it's also the time where leaves are starting to fall, the sun breaks through and you go on a stroll througth the beautiful changing forests. It's not cold enough to take out your warm winter jacket, but cold enough for an additional layer.

Will - O - Wisp is perfect for the changing seasons. It can be worn around your neck, but it's also big enough to wrap around all of yourself for that additional layer of warmth when the wind picks up. And I do mean all of yourself - as the pic shows below, it's even big enough for me. And I'm not a tiny person.

The lacy triangles remind me of the little, playful wisps of wind that swirl around you on those breezy autumn days. Wisp from Dream in Color is a gorgeous laceweight in silk and wool that's just wonderful to snuggle up in. I love the subtle shine of the silk content, and it's just heavenly soft. And yes, the pun is intended.

I'm really happy with this shawl. I'm even tempted to knit it again in a slightly heavier yarn. And by the way, the pattern includes a little variation paragraph - if you follow my blog, you probably already know I love versatility in my patterns.

Klick on the tab designs above to see all of my works.

Kite shawl!

I finished my new Kite Shawl for Stackpole Books! As I've written before, this is my first pattern going to be published in print and I'm really exited about it. There's no need for secrecy, so I'm able to show you a few pictures!

This is me wearing the shawlette in front of my mess workspace

And here's another one that "really" shows the shawlette. It's an extremely easy intarsia design, perfect for beginners, but also a fun knit for more experienced knitters. The pattern includes an inspiration page with possible variations. Also, it can be done with literally any kind of yarn. (perfect stashbuster!)
The current version will stay online on ravelry until the book gets published in February! Check the link to see more versions from other knitters. Full disclosure: There will, of course, be edits for the book. And having a nice patternbook is always nicer. I'm already really curious about the other designs in the book!

And here, for comparison, my original shawlette done in worsted weight yarn! I don't know which one I like better... I love them both!

Kite Shawl goes print!

I'm so exited, my first pattern is going to get published in print! Stackpole books accepted my Universal Kite Shawl/lette for their new Beginner's knitting book "Basic Knitting and Beyond". I'm really exited about this. I've always been quite proud of the Kite Shawl, and I'm so happy that it'll get published in print!

Funny fact: My first pattern ever is also going to be my first published pattern in print.

This is the original Kite shawl, a warm and cushy version of the pattern.

For the book, I'm going to knit a lighter version using the gorgeous Malabrigo sock. Here are my chosen colors in Cote D'Azure and Archangel:

And last but not least, I feel a little bad that I've ignored this blog a little in the last couple of weeks. Sadly, I'm working on two patterns that I can't share here right now, but now I've got another project I can update you with regularly!

Damien Rice

God, I love this guy and his music. He's such a great musician, and there's so much passion in every one of his songs. I love this one especially - I just can't stop listening to it. It's so calm and beautiful at first, and then bam! The second part suddenly is violent and dirty and loud - but full of the same passion that you've heard in the first part. Like two sides of a coin - or two sides of a person. Just listen to it, and you'll know what I mean. But now I won't type more since I'd rather try to figure out how to play this song!

Monogamous knitting + designing? Impossible!

Designing knits totally messed up my way of knitting. I was knitting along happily on one project after another - and I still try to do that. But designing totally messed up my scedule. Now all is sorted in priorities, sceduled, and one project often has to wait a while otn. But that also means I can share my progress on several things! Remeber those socks that I talked about last time? Yeah, they are now in time-out, and will be a while. While pondering about the pattern, I started the long planned reboot of the strings, freaturing armwarmers, and a second color-placement option.

So, this is how far I got with one armwarmer - one is almost done. As you can see, there's quite a lot of shaping - and all happens in the area of the main chart, which is why it looks a little extreme off the arm. But it looks perfectly nice when worn! In case you haven't participated yet - I'm still collecting data on forearm measurements for perfectly fitting armwarmers.

 

And I started on my shawl design for DIC. The darker color, called "Indigo", is stronger variegated than I expected - but I love it. After all, that's the fun of hand-dyed yarns, right?

This is the first wedge knitted up - I'm going sideways, and there will be fun, lacy short row sections in a lighter blue. Can't wait to see how the lighter color will knit up - I'm sure it'll fit great with the Indigo. I'll share more pictures with you as soon as I'm further into the pattern.

And another design in progress - but here, I can show you nothing more than two finished cuffs which I have to rip and reknit. This will be another heavily cabled sock pattern, quite similar to my T-socks; The yarn color is not my first choice, but it has a really nice shine thanks to the silk content. My stepmom requested socks in a dark green or grey to go with her Tracht, and this yarn is the perfect match for that and I'm sure she'll love the color. This pattern is already a special first for me - I had some time today, and this is the first design that I have finished writing completely before cracking into the knit. It's so much easier if you have a similar patten to work from.

Shawl love

Let me start this post by saying: I was never a shawl person.

No, seriously. I never even remotely considered buying a shawl. Then why, you might ask, was your first design ever, of all things possible, a shawl?

Yeah, well, I needed to get deep into knitting to discover how great shawls can be. Things you can knit, you just can't buy. You can't hang around in ravelry as much as I do, and not notice how much people rave about shawls. So I had to try it. And I really loved the art-deco look of all those multi-colored shawl patterns. Thus, my Kite shawl was born. And really, I love it. I wore it every day in winter.

Despite that, a long time, I totally ignored lace shawls. I just didn't see the appeal. Yes, a lot of the lace patterns are really beautiful, but not something I'd wear. But again... you can't hang around ravelry without hearing people rave about lace shawls. So naturally, because I'm a curious person, I had to try, and started swatching. And what you don't see in the pictures - how cushy and nice garter stitch in lace weight actually is! And when I saw that Dream in Color offered to work with designers for their new yarn base wisp, the deal for me was sealed. Looking at the gorgeous DIC colors always inspires me.

Yesterday, my DIC yarn arrived! Look at the gorgeous Wisp - and so soft! Now I only need to choose which one to use for CC. I've already wound the MC.

And this is my current comfort-knit. (Easy, second knit for those times when you're tired and/or don't want to mess with complicated details) Do you believe this is my first pair ever of vanilla socks?

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!