To Knit or Un-Knit!

Good Morning!

It's another cloudy and soon to be rainy day here in New York. Our laws are lush with green and mushrooms.  Wish we could share the wealth with some of our drier states.

Yesterday I had mentioned that I had taken a class this past Saturday.  Always a fun thing to do if you can attend one, not only for the learning in the class, but all the great tips that you can glean from other knitters.

I have been knitting for a very long time and I picked up two knitting terms that just hit my funny bone. They are perfectly descriptive and relevant and whoever came up with them must have an extremely creative mind.

The first one involves ribbing.  SSHH!  If you know the answer to this please don't tell!  Anyway, there are so many ribbing styles:

• 1 X 1
• 2 X 2
• Twisted
• 3 X 3
• And on and on, almost as many as you can imagine

The word of the day was "Frogging." Yep!  "Frogging" ----> Ribbing ----> "Ribbit!  Ribbit!"  Okay, maybe it wasn't that funny, but my morning class had a good laugh.  Guess we were still tired.

The next one is relevant to ripping. I know that every one of us rips, some more than others, but just the same, we all do it. There is an up side to ripping that I must share because it sometimes helps to know that there is a positive result from the negative. If you look at ripping, or un-knitting, as a learning tool, especially as a newer knitter, it may take some of the frustration away.

I define ripping as taking your knitting off the needle, pulling out the offending rows and then picking up the live stitches again.  These are a few techniques one can learn from ripping:

• Above all, this teaches Bravery!
• You also learn how to pick up the loose stitches, and get them back on the needle.
• There might also be a few stitches that come un-done which will have to be worked back up again.
• And then there are the twisted stitches.  My main focus when picking up stitches is to get them on the needle.  That means that some of them are straight and some twisted.  Learning the difference between the two comes easily this way, believe it or not.

The other type of ripping, is un-knitting.  This method un-knits one stitch at a time, and is mostly used when you only have a few stitches to undo.  Sometimes it is also used when working a more complicated pattern and need to keep more careful track as you "back up."

What is knit backward?  TINK!  So...now when you have to rip or un-knit, you can use the term TINK!

Have fun with your Frogging and Tinking!

What's in a Hat? Another Hat!

Good Morning!

The photos you are seeing is an old design but a recent knit.  The hats are really one with two designs.  It is great for kids, seeing as how they love to change up their colors and designs depending on  what they are wearing.  I wish as an adult I had that same abandon....stripes with prints, plaids with paisley, two different socks; no thought at all about someone else's opinion.  Just when did we lose that anyway?

The hat was started with a crocheted provisional cast on, just above where the ribbing goes.  Knit your hat in the usual way, this one was done on circular needles.  Finish as normal and add whatever "topping" you would like.  In this case I used a pom pom, for the first one on the needles.

Then came the embellishment.  I love to use lazy daisies, they are so girlie.  No offense guys.  Now, pick up the stitches from the provisional cast on and knit the ribbing.  Then knit the other hat.  Once you decrease the top of the hat, you won't easily be able  to add embellishments, so I like to use this hat for interesting stitches and color work.  It does make for a great contrast between the two.  I finished this one with an I-Cord pig tail.  So much fun!

The pattern will be finished soon and will be available on my site.  Just click on the "Pattern" button.
Hats have been a special passion for me for many years.  My very first design while in Jr. High School, now called Middle School, was a hat knit without the benefit of a pattern.  It was a 2 X 2 rib and was able to figure out the decreases.  Hats are quick knits and great for using up bits of yarn in your stash to make room for more stash. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Pick up those needles and get knitting.  Remember!  Christmas is only six months away!  Did I say that!?!

Long Tail Cast On 'n Cats

Good Morning!

The last few weeks I have been knitting hats getting them ready to upload to my Etsy site, which isn't quite ready yet. During the process, I have been experimenting with the cast on. I have used mostly a "knitted on" cast on as well as the "cabled" cast on. But, let me back up just a bit, say about 45 years or so.

I was taught the "thumb" cast on by my Mom. My Great Aunt taught me to knit, but she always cast on for me. Mom eventually broke down and taught me how to do it by myself as she got tired of casting on all the time. I was a prolific knitter. I didn't have much for fiber, so would rip out and use the same yarn again and again. I even resorted to using butcher's cord and even tried baling twine, which I couldn't rip out because it was too hairy.

As my knitting progressed and I learned new techniques, my cast on changed as well. There were no knitting classes available at that time, but I read whatever I could to learn anything new about knitting. My "thumb" cast on evolved to a type of knitting on. Instead of just slipping the loop on my needle, I would insert the needle into the loop on my thumb then take the working end and wrap it on the needle as if I was knitting a stitch. This is similar to the "long tail" in that you had to have enough yarn to wrap the thumb each time. The edge of the cast on was bulky, and not very neat.


 The "knitted on" cast on was next one I tried and that worked very well. Then on to the "cabled" cast on, which I have used for years and still do today. In the mid 1990's, I was taking some classes locally, and learned the "long tail" cast on. I really loved that one, but trying to figure out how much yarn to allow to get the required number of stitches made me crazy, so I went back to my "cable" cast on.

A couple of years ago, while working at Amazing Threads, http://www.amazingthreads.com/ , I was talking to the owner, Susan DeRosa, about the "long tail" and my inability to come close to estimating the "tail."
She said to my astonishment, that you don't have to...just use both ends of the ball. Duh, no one was sharing this information before? What an incredibly simple solution.

That technique sat on the back shelf for a while until recently. Playing with some two color cast ons, the "long tail" became a perfect solution. Holding the M/C over my forefinger and the C/C color over my thumb,it was just what I was looking for. I had a single strand of color at the very bottom edge of the cast on. It certainly turned out to be a great edging.

Now, the correlation between the cat and the "long tail" cast on. When I was trying to figure out the right amount of yardage for the tail, it generally pooled on the floor next to me and as a long tailed cat does, gets under foot. BTW my cat would always seem to get it and by the time I tried to use it, the yarn ended up slightly frayed in some places. Cat tails and yarn tails, don't know which is more of a problem. They both are cuddly, like to be close, and, well, let's leave this for another post!

Knitting on Etsy



Good Afternoon!

I am so behind the eight ball today.  Here it is 1:30 Eastern Time, and I am only posting this now.  My morning has been so taken up with the boys and trying to combine it with my work....not always a good blend.  Mason is climbing so fearlessly, I believe that he thinks he has bungee cords attached to him.  That is, if he even knew what they are....wish he did have them, I would feel better.

Beyond that, I have been working on setting up my Etsy Shop on etsy.com.  First I spent most of the morning reading up on all of the procedure and policies, the where and wherefores and the whys and why nots.  Phew!  So much to digest all at once.  So I said to myself, just get to it. Get started. You don't have to finish it today. There is such a thing as a SAVE button.

I dove in and edited my profile and then on to the store itself.  I have learned to not answer any questions or give additional information if it is optional, at least right now anyway.  The reason being, is that you get side tracked, forget that you didn't save the latest information that was added and now you are starting again.  Dang. Side tracked is not good.  Staying focused and on task is so much better, but sometimes this gal just needs a set of blinders to keep that focus.  Keep your eye on the goal.  My short term goal is to get my Etsy shop finished. 

Time for me to get to my Nanny chores.  The dishes are calling me and then I will have some lunch and then back at my new Etsy store for some more data entry. BTW, the hat above will be in my Etsy store.   Hope everyone has a wonderful afternoon and Happy Knitting!