Needs For New Knitters

Good Afternoon,

I would like to focus on the new knitter.  This person has a stirring interest in knitting but not sure where to start.  Here are some suggestions:

• Visit you LYS (Local Yarn Shop).  There you will find everything you need to get started.  You will know if it is the right place for you if the shop oozes friendly.  Check out the yarn selections.  You want good quality, but you also do not need to start out on a luxury fiber either.  Check out the class schedule, usually you will find beginner classes at different times to accommodate most schedules.

• Investigate libraries, community colleges, churches, etc., these organizations often have knitting groups that welcome new knitters.  The draw back is not having supplies to purchase.

• What if there isn't a LYS within a reasonable distance?  There area a huge amount of knitting websites that sell supplies and there are also teachers, mentors and coaches that can interact with students online as well.

Purchasing your supplies can be very overwhelming.  What exactly will you need to get started?
Well, your first project should be simple, able to be completed quickly, so there is that feeling of "instant gratification".  You don't want a project that goes on and on.  Interest is lost with a long repetitive, non stop knit.  So, your supply list should be short and sweet too.  Appropriate fiber for your project...you wouldn't want to use 100% wool yarn for a washcloth, you would rather choose a cotton or cotton blend.  Your needles should be specific for your project as well.  View these as tools of the trade.  They will be reusable for many projects to come.  I have encountered potential knitters who look at needles as just an expense, but better to view the purchase as an investment.

After your first couple of knitting successes are under way or completed, you might also consider some of the wonderful knitting needle kits that are on the market now.  They come in a host of price ranges from the more expensive Addi Turbo Clicks to the very reasonable Knitter's Pride.  These are circular needle sets that contain a variety of sizes within a set.  It is always better to buy a set when possible because in the long run they are more economical. 

Speaking of needles, as a long time teacher, knitting coach and mentor, I recommend to my students to invest in circular needles instead of straight needles.  The reason being, you can knit flat on circulars, but you can't knit circularly on straight needles, also more cost effective.  If you have never knit on circulars before, there really isn't much of a learning curve at all.

If you are a member of a knitting group, there are usually as many needle brands as there are members.  Bring some yarn to swatch with and ask a member if they like their brand of needle and see if they would be willing to let you give their brand a try.  It usually only takes a few minutes or so of knitting to make an informed decision...yeah or nay.

Once you find out the knitting notions that you prefer, perhaps your LYS or your online knitting supply source has a wish list that you can print out and post in a strategic place.  That way at gift giving time, it can be used as a valued tool for the gift giver.  Include web info, LYS info, pricing etc.  The more information provided, the more likely it will be used.  Also, be sure to add books to your list as well.

I hope that this information is helpful for you and that getting started will become the beginning of a long association with the world of knitting and all it's groups and members.  We are a friendly bunch of people who love to share what we are knitting, finished or unfinished.  It is a great way to get ideas for future projects and expand your knitting experience.

My current projects are, Hemp Face Cloths, ongoing, French Beret, Layering Shrug, Little Girl's Dress, pattern writing and organizing for my classes.  I'm sure I have left out a few things as well.
I would love to know what projects you are working on.  As always, if you get stuck or have a question, post in the comment section below, or email me:  dee@youandmeknit.com.  Skype and Face Time are available as well. 

I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!

Yarn Joins

Good Morning!

JT and I are on the porch on this beautiful sunny day, he mowing and me writing.  I have recently found out that I will be a Great Aunt, and it looks like he/she will be a winter baby.  What a great time to knit warm baby clothes!

When I first started out with my needles and yarn, the one thing that always caused me some discomfort was joining a new ball.  The information that I had at the time was to tie the ends together and keep on knitting.  That did do the job of joining the ends, but almost certainly, that ugly knot would migrate to the front of my work no matter how many times I would pull it to the back and anchor the ends.

Since then I have learned many more techniques, but in some cases it depends on the project, the type of yarn you are using and whether you are at the end/beginning of a row or in the middle somewhere. The type of join also depends on your dye lot as well.  If it is the same, no problem.  If it is different, then there is a slight adjustment to make.  I will explain this one a little farther on.

My preferred method in flat knitting is to join at the edge where the ends can easily be woven in totally unnoticed.  When you are getting close to the end of the ball, check to see if you have at least three times the width of your knitting to get you back across to the other edge. If not, stop now and join in the new ball.

Adding in a new ball in the middle or in the case of circular knitting now depends on the yarn you are using.  If you are using an acrylic or something similar to cabled or ribbon, you can put the ends together thus,<-------- = end of the first ball and ---------> = end of the new ball.  Hold them parallel and knit a couple of stitches with the doubled yarn and then drop the yarn tail of the old ball and begin knitting with the new ball and in the case of a plied yarn use the Russian Technique below. 

If you are working with 100% wool, fulling the ends together works well.  Hold the ends as in the illustration above and wet the yarn.  When I have been without a water bottle or a sink, have used, pardon the expression, spit.  You are going to wash and block your piece when done, so this doesn't pose a problem.  Briskly rub your hands together and the yarn will begin to full together....new yarn join.

If you are using something that won't felt as in a super wash, I like the Russian Join.  Break the end of the old yarn, do not cut.  Thread a tapestry needle and run the tail up through the center  of the strand within the plys for about two inches.  Leave a small loop at the end.  Then with a broken tail on the new ball thread the tapestry needle and pull through the loop at the end of the old ball and weave the new tail up through the plys of the new ball.  This is really easy to do and not easily noticed.

Now for bulky wools.  I like to taper the ends of the old and new for about 2 inches or so.  Then holding the strands parallel as above and full them together.  It is important to place this join in an inconspicuous spot just due to its sheer bulk.

In the case of working with two different dye lots, you will use one of the methods above, but leave enough of the old ball to knit several rows.  You will want to alternate the old and new dye lot thereby tricking the eye to not see a tell tale sign of color variance.  Work this method for a few inches or so knitting a couple of rows of each dye lot before switching to the other.

Now, change up those yarn balls fearlessly!  Have a great day!

Playing With Lace

Good Morning!

The day is now sunny and the breeze is blowing away the rain clouds of yesterday and last night.  My buddy JT is having a morning snack of crackers while sitting with me at the table.  He has his hands over his ears complaining that the train whistle is too loud.  Poor boy!

Because of the time of year, lace is in the forefront of many knitters' to do list, the perfect summer knitting.  I must say, I'm in the same boat.  I have always used a commercial lace pattern to knit from mostly due to my thinking that lace is to difficult to chart.  I do prefer charts to the written word. 

I was reading a craftsy.com class schedule and found a class advertised as Lace Shawl Design with Miriam Felton.  After watching the class preview, I think that this will take away my hesitation. Now I can pick up my needles and start swatching with the yarn I just purchased just for this purpose from Craftsy as well.  It is a beautiful single ply 50% Merino and 50% Silk in a simply luscious Raspberry color.  It was an incredible bargain too!  The deal was two skeins of this beautiful lace weight for $18.40 and shipping is free!  I just got it yesterday and it is definitely Yummy!

The project on the needles is lace but this one is a free form lace.  It was in my Summer 2001 Interweave Knits Magazine.  I don't know about you, but I will put a sticky note a page that peaks my interest, and then due to so many projects on going, the magazine is set aside.  I came across it again on the knittingdaily.com web site galleries.  What splendid timing!

I had some "Pashmina Cashmere" that I received from a dear friend who was sharing her stash.  In this stash were a few balls of Pashmina left over from one of her projects.  Perfect!  So, I took the elements from this gorgeous sweater "Coral Cardigan" by Nancy Eiseman and charted up my own  "Scribble Lace." 

Out came the graph paper and I started charting some basic lace stitches.  No two rounds are the same and that is what gives it a "coral" look to it.  I took the needle size up a little bigger to make my stitches more open.  I am very happy with the outcome. 

So put your Brave on, click on the links above and try your hand at some lace stitches.  You will be surprised at how easy it really is.  The trick is marking your place and graph paper and counting your stitches to make sure you have the correct number.  Have fun with this, I certainly am.

As a side note, my website is coming along.  Feel free to stop by for a look,  youandmeknit.com. 
Follow my blog on my site by clicking the Fiber Space button or go to knitnanny10@blogspot.com.

Happy Knitting!

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!

The "Wiggle" Hat

Good Morning!

It's another mostly cloudy day today with rain again this afternoon, perfect knitting weather.  I just love settling in with a good book on my iPad or a movie and my knitting.  It's those kinds of lazy-ish days that "mindless" knitting seems to imply.  Although, with the boys to keep me company, that usually won't happen until the afternoons when JT and Mason go down for their naps.  It's nap time right now for Mason, and snack time for JT and so a perfect few minutes to write. 

One of the first patterns that I did was the "Wiggle" Hat.  I had mentioned the hat in one of my  posts of last week and how it got it's name.  If you missed that post, JT named the hat.  I had made one for each of the boys and one afternoon when my daughter got home from work, she asked JT to get the "Wiggle" Hats.  I was surprised at that, since I didn't know that they had been named.

The sample hat that I had made for The Perfect Blend, yarnandteashop.com, was double sided.  I had embroidered a flower on one side and a frog on the other side.  By doing this I didn't have to knit two hats.  Anyway, it is a very simple hat to make, but the advantage to that is once it is knit, there is a perfect opportunity to teach the Kitchener Stitch. There are quite a few more stitches on the hat than on the toe of a sock or the shoulder seams of a sweater.  Therefore, more practice time gain an understanding and the ability to memorize the process.

My friend Carol Cypher, a beading teacher, used to teach her classes using mantras for learning.  I loved this method of teaching, and adapted a mantra for the Kitchener Stitch.  It is as follows:

Front Needle
Slip one (stitch) as if to knit, take it off
Slip one (stitch) as if to purl, leave it on
Back Needle
Slip one (stitch) as if to purl, take it off
Slip one (stitch) as if to knit, leave it on
And Repeat

Here is the link to view video on YouTube. 
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQi2DrdG0jIxOZp1SeKebQ?feature=guide

It's Elmo time.  JT hasn't seen Elmo since last week and he has washed his hands and is already for me to get him set up.  Have a Great Day everyone!

You Have Permission to Change the Pattern

Good Morning!


The new week has started and here in New York it is a grey and drizzly day. All the better to knit my dears!
All of those daily chores can wait while we take some time to knit a few rows. Grab your beverage of choice, shut off the phone and computer and enjoy the silence. The only sounds heard is maybe the ticking of a mantel clock and the gentle "click" of needle tips as they touch one another.


I wanted to talk about making changes while knitting a comercial pattern. Yes, it is allowed and as a writer of patterns, I would encourage you to do so. There are many reasons why it is a good idea. First, it gives you the opportunity to make it yours. You also might know a better way of doing something that makes more sense to you.
There is also the learning aspect as well. What I mean by that is, maybe you need to have more or less shaping in that sweater you are knitting. This "need" might require you to do some research in order to execute these changes.


This is a good thing. Do what you fear and courageously pick up your yarn and needles and make the leap of faith. What have you got to loose? I don't know about you, but I find myself ripping out stitches or rows because the change I planned didn't work or maybe I didn't think it through enough. Whatever the reason, ripping is not a totally a bad thing.


Let me give you an example of a simple change. I recently finished a baby blanket for a co-worker who is expecting. It is a log cabin style blanket which is similar to a log cabin quilt. I'm sure most of you have seen one. I did purchase a pattern on line, so I didn't have to think, just knit. I also like to support other people who sell their things on line as well. Anyway, I didn't even read it, just went to the yarn shop The Perfect Blend, yarnandteashop.com and picked up some wool and jumped in.


The pattern was written to bind off stitches and then pick them up again. I chose not to do this because this method will create a bump or ridge that really doesn't need to be there. I gathered up some extra needles 24 inches and longer to hold the stitches that were to be bound off. That way when I came back around to them, I had only to knit them off their "holding" needles with no stitches to pick up.


The second change I made was to add a border all the way around the blanket. The resulting frame really looked like a quilt block. These were small subtle changes that made my work a little neater, but also, so much faster. Let's face it, binding off and picking up stitches is time consuming.

JT is getting ready to have his mid morning snack, toast with cream cheese. I put it in the toaster oven and he turns it on "by mines self!" Got to go, toast is ready!