Greenhorn (plus giveaway)
So if you've been here any length of time at all, you know I'm a firm believer in top down socks with a heel flap. But...every once and a while, the urge to do something a little (but let's be real...only a little) bit different strikes me. Greenhorn was one of those times! These are actually a very mellow way to depart from traditional top down heel flap socks. The leg is the same, the foot is the same, just the heel and gusset are handled a bit differently. Instead of working flat over half the stitches to make a [...]
Joining on
So remember the terribly dreary and grim hat? The somber and surly one? The one that's a little storm cloud on your head? Yeah...most cheerful yarn you'll ever meet in your life. But sometimes, due to the intervention of kittens or an error in judgement or some other mishap, you may find you need to join on more yarn. With a yarn like this, where there is a Very Distinctive Color pattern, you need to be careful how you do that. If you want to keep that progression you've established (and I assure you, you do, that's the whole point [...]
Blocking 201 – Flared Cuffs
So, I've given this lecture before, but everything you knit can benefit from being blocked. Everything. And if you've been around long enough to hear that lecture, you've been around long enough to know about my love for flared cuffs. So of course I have a way to block them too! Let's break this down. You've got a few goals here. One is to stretch the lace out evenly so you can see the pretty stitches you worked so hard on. Another is to make sure the wrist is nice and straight. And the final one is to have the [...]
Option one
So, I hear from a lot of you that you're scared of blocking or that it's hard or that you just don't want to do it. And I sympathize...but I sort of need you to get over it. If you have the skill to knit the thing, you have the skill to block it. And your knitting will look so much better if you do. I promise. Remember, at its heart, blocking is just 'get the thing wet...let it dry in the shape you like.' That's it. That's the minimum necessary requirement. You can get all fancy and use pins [...]
Toldya they were quick…
First one's done (yay)! And the second one's on the needles. Now, please note that 'done' in this case means 'done being knit' not 'done being worked on.' It's still going to need some attention when I block it. Because wow will it look different after it's blocked. Promise. And yes, you can assume there's a 'block your knits' lecture coming up shortly (complete with props). [pextestim pex_attr_set="looking-for-this-pattern" pex_attr_autoplay="false"][/pextestim]
A little distraction
A pipe in my basement is doing something gurgly and distasteful. Qualified adults have been summoned, and I'm sure they will handle the problem. But I need a little distraction. And as is the tradition around here, the distraction of choice is teeny tiny cuffs. The yarn is Yummy 3-ply from Miss Babs in the color quicksilver. I found myself in posession of a little 100 yard skein of it and thought I'd see what I could do with it. This is the part in the proceedings where I mention how lace Always Looks Crumpled on the needles. Don't worry, [...]
A sickness I tell you
So when last we left the hat it had gotten pleasantly tall. But it whispered to me that we weren't quite done...it needed one more little thing... Yes, it's true, I've fallen prey to the dread pompom sickness. From what I can tell there's no cure. Luckily, with the right treatment, it's a fairly manageable condition. And the symptoms aren't even that bad when the yarn is this pretty! For anyone wondering, the purple one is Entrapment, the pink one just came out this week and is called is Misprision, and the blue one should be out later this summer, [...]
Misprision (plus giveaway)
If you've been around for a while you know I'm scared of proper colorwork. The sort where you use two (or more, eep) colors in one row. But I don't want to be left out of all that multicolored fun, so I've started playing with ways to use two different yarns, but keep it to one yarn per row. Misprision is one of the results of my experiments (and through Friday, it's 10% off with the code POMPOM)! It's also more fun than it has any right to be. The background is just lovely, mellow stockinette (can't ask for anything [...]
Tall enough
So we've talked about this before, but it's helpful enough it bears repeating. If you're doing a hat with fast decreases (and a lot of mine use those), my favorite way to know if it's tall enough is to get all the stitches on two needles and try it on. Fast decreases distort the fabric (and that distortion uses up some of the fabric you've made), and arranging it like this does a good job of mimicking that distortion. If it's tall enough on two needles, it will be tall enough when you've done the decreases. Here I needed a [...]
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