Needles
I get the same two questions about needles over and over again. One has a super quick answer, the other takes a bit longer. Let's start with the quick one! Do I have to use DPNs Nope! If you don't care for DPNs, you can absolutely use one or two circular needles instead. And if you've found something that's some sort of hybrid between the two, you can use those too. The only thing I ever care about is that you use needles that let you knit in the round. I happen to love DPNs and have [...]
Ends
Weaving in your ends can feel a bit daunting under the best of circumstances. And on a lot of the tiny things, you don't have access to the back of your fabric once you're done knitting, so it can feel extra tricky. But don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds! Minimize ends The first step is to minimize the number of ends you have to weave in on the front of the fabric. To do that, be sure to weave in your cast on end (and any other ends you can) before you close up [...]
Stuffing
A lot of my patterns are for tiny things that need to be stuffed before they're finished. I've tried a lot of different materials over the years, and I've talked a bit about how I stuff things in individual patterns. But I wanted to put everything in one place so it's easy to point folks to if they have questions. Plastic pellets Plastic pellets are my very favorite way to fill tiny things. I got a big bag of the weighted pellets and have filled an astonishing number of projects from it. They give my knits a [...]
Blocking
I truly believe that just about everything you knit will benefit from blocking. And yes, yes this totally includes tiny things. The tiny things block pretty much the same way as bigger things (just faster), but there is enough confusion out there over how to block stuff in general that it's worth taking a bit of time to talk about. I'm more or less obligated to start any discussion of blocking with a disclaimer right up top that says blocking doesn't always involve stretching/pinning. Sometimes it does, most of the time, especially for small stuff, it does not. So I'll break [...]
What are the chances
Hey Brain, what are the chances you remember how to do brioche? Not good, Fingers, not good at all. But Brain, you LIKE brioche. You find it soothing. You find it pleasant. Well yes, Fingers, I did. But I haven't done a lick of it in at least two years. And it's been a rather eventful two years. Like, the bad kind of eventful. The trauma kind of eventful. The kind that makes you forget all sorts of shit. And brioche was a newly acquired skill, which means it will have faded fast. Neither you nor I remember how to [...]
Impractical
Look, I FULLY admit it would be wildly impractical. I absolutely cannot store all of my scraps on knitted spools. My scraps fill two sizeable plastic bins, and storing them like this would substantially increase their volume (not to mention that knitting that many spools would quickly become tedious). But oh. Oh there is a small part of me that very very very much wants to see such a thing. Please send common sense and good judgement. Or, failing that, at least some sort of ability to reasonably assess my own attention span and patience. Because I seem to [...]
Whose turn
Whose turn is it to supervise me and make sure I don't get up to nonsense if left unattended? Because you see, I find myself thinking 'there's no particular reason *not* to knit a little thimble to go with the spools.' Now, to be perfectly frank, I probably won't do this right now. I have too many other things to do right now to have time to do that. But there is a danger of doing it later.
Luminous
I mean yes, sure, you CAN wrap the tiny spools with scraps of leftover yarn (or thread, or ribbon, or whatever). And that's what I did at first. But if you happen to maybe just *have* a bit of gorgeous silk embroidery floss just kind of lounging, casually, over on the shelf there, you might as well use it. This is Molly Girl Yarn's Legato, and yes, yes it really is that luminous in real life. Some day I will sew with it I'm sure. But until then, I might just gaze at it. I'm sure you understand.
Urges
Am I still besotted with the little spools? I mean it would seem so. Do I have an unreasonable urge to knit enough of them to have a whole rainbow of thread colors? Alas, also yes. Will that make the urge subside for a moment? Your guess is as good as mine. Anyone wanna guess how many I'll end up with in the end? Standard bits apply! Yes it will be a pattern, no it's not out yet. The plan right now is that it will be the first pattern to come out under the Shiny New Thing and that [...]
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