Knitting Photos Extraordinaire!

Good Afternoon,

Ugh!  Hot! Hot! Hot!  But I'm still smiling because sitting right in front of me is the biggest vase of sunflowers.  My sweetheart brought them home from work yesterday.

This picture was edited in a new iPad App that my photographer suggested.  I have just started working with it this morning and absolutely love it.  The App is called Diptic, and this week it is the free App of the week.

The photo above is a class that I taught, Gauntlet Fingerless Gloves.  I had not used my student's photos before, guess I was waiting for this to come along. 

There are so many layouts, colors, etc, etc, etc, I just can't stop playing with it.  I am thinking this is a great way to create photo albums of all your great projects.  If you sell your things on your website or somewhere else, this could change for sure what your online shop would look like.

I put together photos of the boys this morning and emailed them off.  Without a doubt, they were well received. 

Here come the T-Storms, so want to get this out before I lose my Internet connection.

Have a great afternoon and Happy Knitting!

Student on My Mind

Good Morning,

Sunny and warm today and near 90 again.  But, there is a nice breeze right now, so only have windows open and no A/C on yet.

As I was taking my walk after work this morning, I work 12am to 8am shift, I was thinking about a topic for today.  My thoughts centered on one of my students.  She stopped by yesterday to pick up some socks that she was working on.  She knitting from one of my patterns for a sport type sock with a short row heel.

My student was having difficulty with the concept and we had discussed it this past Saturday when she came to class.  I know knitting on size US 2 Double Point needles are definitely not her needles of choice to begin with.  Maybe that combined with the sight learning curve is what stumped her. 

 In any case, this is  a rush project for her Dad, so I agreed to knit the heels so she could continue knitting the foot and the toe decreases, which she will have no problem with. I had to un - knit what she had already knit and begin again.  I also do not work short rows with the wrap and turn method.  I use yarn overs to execute the short rows.

Teaching, mentoring, and problem solving, is some of my favorite things to do.  I love it when I can see the sparkle in their eyes and the smiles that say "I got it!"  I try to encourage them to do as much as they can on their own, but in a case such as this, we will get another chance to work short row heels this time with worsted weight yarn and larger needles.

I would love to help you with a knitting problem or learning a new technique.  Even if you live too far away to attend a "live" class, we can certainly meet up on Skype or FaceTime.  Send me an email at dee@youandmeknit.com or drop me a line in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

I wish you all a wonderful July 4th.  I hope it is restful, stress - less, and give a thought to why we celebrate July 4th.  See you on Thursday, God Bless.  

Kitchener Stitch Revisited

Good Morning!

Cloudy and rainy here in NY again...with Hurricane Deb pounding up the coast.  I hope she calms down a bit by the time she reaches New York.  We will just have to wait and see.

I had a great class on Saturday.  It is a drop in class that Mary, the shop owner of yarnandteashop.com, calls my Drop-In Knit Fix class.  Two students came who needed help with Kitchener Stitch for their socks.  Both had attempted to work Kitchener on their own and became lost, with the toes of their socks looking rather sad. 

With a darning needle, I picked apart all the stitches that had been worked.  This was a somewhat lengthy process as the yarn tails had been worked in already.  Once the yarn was unraveled and the stitches released, I placed them on double point needles.  My student and I spent some time making sure the stitches were straight and not twisted and then carefully checked  to see that there were no dropped stitches.

Using a new piece of wool, the yarn tail there was pretty worn, we began to stitch.  There is a mantra that I teach my students that makes it really easy to execute the Kitchener Stitch:

Front Needle: Slip the first stitch as if to knit, take it off (the needle)
                       Slip the second stitch as if to purl, and leave it on (the needle)

Back Needle: Slip the first stitch as if to purl, take it off (the needle)
                       Slip the second stitch as if to knit and leave it on (the needle)

I worked the first sock and my student the other and she was amazed that with just a quick instruction on how to move back and forth between the front and back needles, she was able to complete the second sock. 

Kitchener Stitch has so many uses besides weaving sock toes.  There are sweater/vest shoulders, hats, sock feet to legs (as in my daughter's knee socks.) just to name a couple.  In the case of my daughter's
knee socks she wanted to knit, she had a deadline for them to be finished.  However, she had never knit socks before.  So I designed the top of her socks, ankle up, and I knit the feet.  When all the knitting was finished, I Kitchenered the feet to the legs...no one would ever be able to tell, after all, the join was at her ankles.

If you area still having some difficulty, please go to my website, youandmeknit.com, and click on the YouTube button.  It will take you directly to my videos (one so far) the first one being on Kitchener Stitch.  Leave a comment below or click on the ball of yarn on my Home Page and send me an email and let me know how the instructions worked for you.

Have a great day and Happy Knitting!