Timing
The hat is now ready for the decreases. How do I know? Well, in this case, it's because of where I am in the pattern repeat (this one has a lot of rows, so there are only a couple of set points where it makes sense to do the decreases). But on a less constrained hat (say one with a two row repeat or a four row repeat or a six row repeat), it can be a little tricky to tell. The best method I know is to lay the hand of whoever is going to wear the thing on [...]
Train your eye
It's become clear that some of y'all can't tell the difference between twisted and untwisted stitches (which is fine, no one is born knowing that, we all have to learn it somewhere!). And before we can talk more about the nifty decrease thing, you've got to to have a good handle on that. So let's take a look! Because you can train your eye to see them, and once you do, you'll understand what's going on with your fabric so much better. (There's a video of this over here, it's on a public post so anyone can see it.) Look [...]
Magic trick
Either you already know this, or you're going to be mad no one told you sooner. You know how there are a bunch of different directions for left- and right-leaning decreases, and twisted left- and right-leaning decreases, and left- and right-leaning decreases on the wrong side, and twisted left- and right-leaning decreases on the wrong side? And how it's hard to keep them all straight? And how they're different if you mount your stitches differently? Yeah. You don't ever ever ever need to think of them again. You just need to know one thing: Whichever stitch your needle goes into [...]
Don’t yank
Ooooooh, ok, so this is a sneaky thing that sometimes happens when you run a column of stitches down. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the yarn. It's just a thing that happens sometimes. All you do is clip it and set the strands free. Clipping works better than yanking. Yanking makes things even fuzzier. So just clip it and keep on going, it'll all come out in the end.
Cables are sneaky
Cables? Cables are gorgeous but sneaky! They will shrink your fabric. There's a video version of this over here, should you wish to watch me flop them around and point to things and listen to me talk. Now, admittedly this is a particularly dramatic example! (The cabled panel and the ribbed panel are the same number of stitches, but the ribbed one is nearly twice as wide.) But all cables will shrink your fabric at least a little. The bigger the cables and the more densely they're packed, the more they'll shrink your fabric. So a four by four cable [...]
Minimize the disruption
Remember how I said I set aside a little ball of yarn to do the thumbs with when I'm using a gradient yarn? That's because it minimizes the disruption in the color progression. Now, the truth is the progression on this one is gradual enough I could probably have gotten away with not doing it. But it's easy enough to do so why not! There's a longer post with more details about what I do and how it works back a few weeks, should you wish to know more.
The Opposite of Suspense
Remember how I said I used yesterday's yarn math all the dam time? Yeah, it's how I knew I totally had enough yarn on hand to do a second version of this hat. And yeah, spoiler alert, if you look at yesterday's picture you can see I totally did and said hat is indeed already finished. But wow was it nice to work on it knowing, deep in my truest heart, that I would not be running out of yarn half an inch from the end of the hat. Because I'm sorry. Life in 2023 is stressful enough. I do [...]
Yarn Math
I know math isn't everyone's favorite thing, but there's one Very Tiny Math Nugget that comes in super handy pretty much every time I knit something, so I want to make sure you have it in your bag of tricks. There's a point in pretty much every project where I find myself wanting to know 'how much yarn is that?' Sometimes I want to know 'how much yarn did I use in this hat?' Sometimes I want to know 'how much yarn is left in this ball?' Sometimes I want to know 'how much yarn do I need to make [...]
Cursed Victorian Lampshade
Cursed Victorian Lampshade 101, aka how to block a cowl! So, the new cowl is lacy, which means you want to block it under tension. And a lot of times that would mean pinning your fabric out on a blocking mat. But a cowl is a tube, so if you pin it out, you'll end up with creases along the sides where the fabric is folded. But there's a better way! If you run a wire through the top and bottom of the cowl, use those wires to push the fabric out in a nice big circle, then make a [...]
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