Monthly Archives: February 2016

Q for You: What are your favorite podcasts?

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Q for You: What are your favorite podcasts?

I’m probably not supposed to confess this publicly, but I almost never listen to podcasts. I know they’re where it’s at these days; I just don’t live a life that leaves a lot of room for audio,* so I’ve never developed the habit. I did manage to listen to most of knit.fm while it existed, thanks in part to several solo daytrips to the Atlanta Ikea after our move. (And you should totally, definitely, 100% listen to every episode if you haven’t already — so much great information packed in there.) I listen to Woolful if I listen to anything, especially when it’s a friend being interviewed, as is very often the case. But I know I’m missing out on tons of other good stuff. A few newer ones recently added to my very long unlistened-to list are:

– Why Do We Have Things? from the American Edit blog

– The Seams from NPR (“dedicated to the human experience of wearing clothing”)

– The Stash Podcast from the crew at Stash yarn store in Oregon

– Morning on the Dock** from Elizabeth Duvivier of Squam fame

And again, those are just some of the newer ones. I have a list, a long list, but very little listening time — and I’m sure there’s all kinds of greatness I’m not even aware of. So that’s my Q for You this week: What podcasts do you find riveting, and when and how do you listen to them?

*I know the obvious answer is “listen while you knit!” but I knit in the evenings while hanging out with my husband, who isn’t likely interested in yarny podcasts.

**Coincidentally, as I was working on this post, I had an email from Elizabeth asking me to be on hers this spring, so I better get listening!

p.s. The yarn in the photo is some beautiful alpaca handspun given to me awhile back by my friend Rebekka.

New Favorites: Crochet goals

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New Favorites: Crochet goals

The Spring issue of PomPom has landed, and it’s a beaut. All 9 patterns are worked up in undyed yarns, which makes my heart go pitty-pat. But the big surprise is that two of my favorites from this batch are crochet patterns, which really makes me want to up my crochet game, quick!

TOP: Imitation by Judith Brand is a lovely pair of fingerless mitts in a mesh stitch

BOTTOM: Unfold by Yuliya Tkacheva is a simple cowl in an awesome geometric textured stitch

It’s baffling to me that these are crochet stitches!

I’m also particularly in love with one of the pullovers, Right Angle, but the whole collection is intriguing. We have copies available at Fringe Supply Co., along with a short stack of the winter issue, in case you missed out on that during the holidays. And while I’m at it: the handmade hand looms are back in stock, as are the sold-out fabrics of the beloved Bookhou tool pouch — the two waxed canvases and the immensely popular Veld print.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Mad hatting

First of the Best of Fall 2016: Hat hair

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First of the Best of Fall 2016: Hat hair

The many weeks of Fall 2016 Fashion Week have begun, and I love the Steven Alan collection just as much as I always do. It’s just what it always is: simple and classic with a tiny bit of an edge, always a little something unexpected. There’s really never anything I don’t like — and I like everything about this one. But what I like best here are the simple ribbed beanies; and this messy, loopy, off-center pony-bun; and most of all, the way the beanie looks on this pony-bun.

Goals.

Anna Vest KAL: How to knit inset pockets

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How to knit inset pockets

Hi, all — happy Anna Vest Knitalong kickoff day! As promised, today’s post is a tutorial on how to knit inset pockets, but just a few things before we get to that:

Please review the introduction before getting started on the knitalong, as there is some pattern errata and other important details. And please also read through the Techniques section at the beginning of the pattern, which contains all sorts of useful tips. Several people have mentioned this will be their first time knitting a garment, and I think it’s a great place to start. It is not a lot of knitting, not very complicated, but will teach you some very valuable skills, especially with regard to finishing. And you get to knit inset pockets! I also think it’s helpful that this vest is knitted in Andalusian Stitch, which is a really simple knits-and-purls stitch pattern, very easily memorized, that also makes it super easy to see where you are in the pattern and ensure you’re doing things on the right row, and so on. And if you post in the comments here and/or use the hashtag #annavestkal on Instagram, you’ll have me and the rest of the group to help you if you run into any trouble!

Ok, now about this tutorial. We’re working here with the Anna Vest pattern. Pictured above are the two front pieces. On the left of the photo is the right front of the vest, which already has its pocket. And on the right of the photo is the left front of the vest, which is ready for the pocket to be created, along with the pocket lining hanging out on a DPN. So those are the two pieces we’re working with below. Note that the pattern calls for the pocket to be knitted in stockinette stitch, which gives a very subtle contrast between the body and the pocket lining. For my black Anna (yarn is Fibre Co. Terra from my stash) and for this tutorial, I’ve opted to knit the pocket lining in Andalusian Stitch, same as the body. Hopefully that will make it even easier for you to see when we’re working with the front or back of the fabric as we go through these simple steps. You can knit your pocket in either stitch, your preference, or even knit the lining in a contrasting color if you like! So here we go—

STEP ONE: CREATE THE POCKET EDGING

How to knit inset pockets

This pocket has a ribbed top edge, so basically we just knit the front piece of the sweater until we get to where we want to create that ribbing. In the Anna pattern, on row 23 (a RS row) I have you place markers as you work across the row, delineating the 21 pocket stitches (pictured above, top left). For the next few rows, you maintain the body stitch pattern as established, while knitting 1×1 ribbing between the markers (above, top right). Then it’s time to bind off the top edge of the pocket, i.e., the stitches between the markers (above), which is done on a RS row. Drop the markers as you encounter them, and when you’re done, double check that you’ve bound off the correct number of pocket stitches by confirming that you still have the right stitch counts on either side. (I’m knitting the second size, so I have 12 sts on one side and 14 on the other.) Note that they’re all resting on the needle, with the bound-off gap in the middle.

The next row, the join row, is a WS row, so go ahead and turn your work — and that means both the body and the pocket lining. For the next step you should be looking at the back side of both pieces.

How to knit inset pockets

STEP TWO: ATTACH THE POCKET LINING

How to knit inset pockets

Here’s where it’s handy if you’ve knitted the pocket lining on a DPN and just left it there, ready to be worked with. At this point, all you do is purl across the first set of stitches on the working needle, then across the pocket lining stitches, then across the second set of stitches on the working needle. (Take care to pull those stitches tight when you’re jumping from the main needle to the DPN, and back.) And voilà, your pocket lining it attached! From this point forward, you just carry on with the body in the established stitch pattern. Here’s how it looks from the front after knitting the next couple of rows:

How to knit inset pockets

Easy, right?

Note that the pocket lining doesn’t become a pocket until you sew it down. Until then it’s just a flap, flapping around on the back of your knitting. To keep it secure and prevent any strain at the join, I like to take a few removable stitch markers and just pin it to the body (pictured above).

You can go ahead and attach it if you like or, to take the more cautious approach, wait until the pieces have been blocked, and then do the seaming. To attach it, you simply whipstitch one stitch at the edge of the pocket to the adjacent purl bump on the body, and do that on every other row. Then work across the bottom of the pocket in similar fashion. As noted in the Anna pattern, the Andalusian Stitch pattern makes it easy to identify a straight column of stitches to work with, but you might still find it helpful to slide a small-gauge DPN down through the purl bumps on every other row of the body, making it easy to see which stitches you’re whipstitching into. (Or Cocoknits has a good tutorial on this using waste yarn instead of a DPN.)

Ok, let’s get knitting! If you’re doing the knitalong, be sure to use hashtag #annavestkal wherever you post, so everyone can see!

(Stitch markers and pouch from Fringe Supply Co., of course.)

How to knit inset pockets

Elsewhere

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Yarny links for your clicking pleasure

This week’s list is more fun than meaty, but who can argue with fun? Here we go—

– Deargod I want this book — go read what Dianna has to say about it

– I would like to live in this room

– And have this sweater. And this one. And this one.

– And I want so SO badly to take this week-long class with Mary Jane Mucklestone at John C. Campbell Folk School. Sadly, my schedule won’t allow it, so you guys all please go and tell me all about it!

– Remember that “mola” Anna Maria gave me? Meet the Guna: Makers of Molas

– Felicia being astute about making for necessity vs. making for creativity. (The whole reason I cast on that Penguono, by the way.)

– And thanks to Christine for pointing me to this priceless video of the moment when Jimmy Kimmel interviews a knitter in the audience. That dude is too cool (and I don’t mean Jimmy Kimmel). And Elizabeth found the “after”. SO GOOD.

One other thing: If anyone needs a last-minute Valentine’s gift idea, might I suggest a Fringe Supply Co. gift certificate, available by email? I’m here to help!

Thanks for reading, everyone — have a yarny weekend. And tell me what you’re making if you feel like it! I always like to hear.

PREVIOUSLY: Elsewhere

 

Hot Tip: Weigh it

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Hot Tip: Weigh your yarn

Let’s say you finished a project awhile ago and need to know but can’t remember how many skeins of yarn you used. Or you want to wind one skein of yarn into three equal balls. Or you have most of a skein left over from your last project and think it miiiight be enough for that hat pattern you’ve got your eye on, but aren’t sure. How do you solve these problems and others like them? With a kitchen scale. Every yarn is labeled with the weight of the skein and the yardage, so with those two numbers, the weight of whatever you’re questioning, and a calculator, you can get to the bottom of anything.

Scenario 1 up there: Let’s say the yarn you used came in 50g skeins. If your sweater weighs 460g, you used 9.2 skeins of yarn. (If each of those skeins was 140 yards, and you have .8 of a skein left, you have 112 yards.) Scenario 2: Wind until your first ball weighs 1/3 of the skein, repeat for the next two balls. Scenario 3: That little nubbin of yarn in the photo above is all that was left when I finished Bob’s sweater! It’s O-Wool Balance which is 130 yards per 50-gram skein. I have 5g left, one-tenth of a 50g skein, so that’s 13 yards. (Enough to knit a new neckband if needed? Dicey! But more than I would have guessed from looking at it.) If you know what the yarn is but no longer have the label for the weight and yardage, consult the yarn company’s website or the Ravelry yarn database.

Although I can’t find any supporting evidence, I’m pretty sure the very first time I ever saw mention of weighing yarn was Jane Richmond (a role model where maximizing yardage is concerned) blogging about how to use every inch of your yarn for a Rae shawl, which is a long triangular shawl knitted from one wingtip to the other. She said to knit until your ball weighed exactly as much as your knitting, which would mean you were exactly at the halfway point of your skein, so that would be the exact center of your shawl (in this scenario). I was a brand-new knitter at the time, and the notion of weighing anything seemed like the most brilliant thing I had ever heard! No more guessing at how much yarn was used or left over when filling in Ravelry projects, or casting on with leftovers without knowing how far they would go.

PREVIOUSLY in Hot Tips: Mark your rows

The accidental V-neck

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The accidental V-neck

Last Wednesday night I cast on my quickie black raglan sweater, and I began knitting it in earnest the next day while stuck in a waiting room for a couple of hours. I knew I wanted to make the drop from the back neck to the front a little deeper than I have on improvised top-down sweaters of the past. And this is a crazy fast bit of knitting. And my mind was elsewhere. I didn’t even have a ruler on me, just a rough idea of how tall I wanted my little crescent of fabric to be before I cast on the front neck stitches and joined in the round. So mindlessly I knitted, and quickly it grew. Even when I was casting on only five stitches, it didn’t occur to me what I had done. Late that night, I pulled the little yokelet over my head and … duh! … I’d made a V-neck by accident. A sort of gentle V, since I had cast on 5 stitches and not none, but a V-neck nonetheless. Given how fast it was to knit that bit of yoke in the first place, it would have been nothing to rip it out and start again, but I pretty much instantly decided to live with it. As I see it, I have two options: embrace it, or take it as a design challenge. By the latter, I mean creating a little V patch like a sweatshirt (always my favorite thing), which could be knitted a few different ways or could be wool gauze sewn on, which would be a pretty marvelous little detail.

I’m not really a V-neck wearer, so it feels a little foreign to me, and it’s obviously unlike my original sketch, in the upper left corner up there. I still want that sweater, and will very possibly still want that sweater (and still want it to be black) if I finish this as a V-neck. On the other hand, maybe the universe was trying to tell me something. If I decide the V isn’t filling up that whole in my heart, I can always rip out whatever edge treatment I put on it and do the patch thing instead. So for the moment, I’m embracing it. But it did mean stopping to ask what kind of hem treatment and what shape of sleeve will work best with the V. After sketching it out (such a necessity for me!) I’ve decided the original shape and details are still best, so I’m headed for the lower right sketch. As fast as this is going, we’ll know how it turns out in about 10 minutes.

NOTES: There is no pattern for this sweater. I am improvising it, and you can too: There’s a whole top-down tutorial right here. This yarn is Lettlopi, worsted-weight Icelandic wool, knitted on US10.5 needles at 3.5 sts and 5 rows per inch.