My on going quest for indestructible socks
So I really do mean it when I say I mend my socks. Every time I take them off, I check for thin spots. If there's just a little thin spot, I'll wash them first and then mend them. If there's an actual hole, I'll fix them before I wash them because washing them with a hole can make the hole bigger (which is maybe gross? but whatever...it's just socks...you can wash your hands after). I strongly prefer catching it while it's just a thin spot because then you can just duplicate stitch over it. (This is the bit where [...]
I got distracted
I should...I should be talking to you about the speckled hat and all its pom-pomy goodness. And I will. For it is coming out in just a second here. But...well...somehow I'm distracted. I don't think you can blame me. Yes, there will be a pattern (really, I can't remember the last time I knit something and didn't' make a pattern, so it's pretty much always safe to assume there will be a pattern). And the little gizmo down below lets you hear from me when it comes out if that's your jam! Won't be long now at all... [pextestim pex_attr_set="looking-for-this-pattern" pex_attr_autoplay="false"][/pextestim]
And now we start actually knitting
So, after all those swatches, it's time to actually knit the thing! I'm doing a rolled brim (in part because I like how it looks and fits, but also in part because I want to get to the color change bit as quickly as I can, and plowing through a solid brim in the colorful yarn lets me get there quick). And I generally cast on over two needles (not to make the cast on stretchier, it doesn't do that, but it does make the loops of my first row of stitches a better match for the rest of my [...]
Can blogs have birthdays?
So some time in the last few days, two very unlikely things happened. The blog turned 10 (how...how can that have happened), and I realized I had 50,000 followers on instagram. My first thought was "I so totally deserve a cupcake." Well no, my first though was "how in the name of all that's woolly is that even possible?" But it was quickly followed by the cupcake thing. So I knit one (and then a few more because who wants just one)! And then a moment later I realized I sort of wanted to have a birthday party. Now I can't [...]
The Progression of a Swatch
You know how I'm always telling you to swatch? How I'm telling you that like 75% of knitting questions/problems can be addressed with a good swatch? Yeah, that's today's theme once again. I want to walk you through the swatching that happened for my next project. Keep in mind this is just for a hat (that is, a small project, with no weird fit stuff...about as easy a situation as you could hope for). It started with this (way back last summer...like I think last July). I was futzing around, trying to figure out how a stitch I saw in [...]
Snip snip snip
Ok, so if I've convinced you to make your pompoms with much more yarn than you would expect (and if I haven't go read the previous post again), then the next step is to get you trimming them. There's really no secret to this other than practice, persistence, and patience. That and maybe seeing that ALL pompoms look like a shaggy mess when they come off the form. No really all of them. Every time. Every single time. You just need to trim them into submission. I do it in a few passes, shape first, tidy up second, and a [...]
You were warned…
I warned you we were going to talk about pompoms this week. I fully realize that this is ridiculous. There are actual problems in this world and the last thing we should be spending time on is fluffy yarn balls. And yet...somehow here I am...full of opinions about pompoms. Perhaps it's a distraction technique. Alright, first things first, I really like working with a pompom maker. You can technically do it without (something about forks or circles of cardboard or even your fingers), but I've never been able to make a pompom I like that way. So given that I make [...]
The inadvertent hat
So this hat wasn't supposed to be a thing. The plan I had originally was 'I want to write every single thing I have to say about pompoms down in one place and be done with it.' But then it turned out that, in order to put something on ravelry, it sort of has to be a proper pattern (you know, one that actually results in a knitted or crocheted thing at the end), and pompoms don't count. So I figured I'd just do a plain as can be hat...you know, cast on...knit for a while...decrease for a while...done and call [...]
Darn
So The Boy knocked on my office door, brow furrowed, injured socks in hand. Now these socks are old...like nearly ten years old. And they've already been mended once. But they are still in surprisingly good shape, and I'd much rather darn them than knit a whole new pair. So I fixed them. For a hole like this I need a couple of locking stitch markers (I use these (as always, amazon links are affiliate links), love them to bits) and a tiny crochet hook (I have this set, which comes in handy more than you might think for someone who [...]
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