My post in October 2017, seen here, invited you to follow along on my journey to design and knit a custom sweater for my brother, Bob. I am happy to report that all is going well, thanks to a bit of time off recently.
To make sure the sweater fits the way he likes, I measured one of his favorite sweatshirts.
This video shows you the key areas to measure.
Make sure you knit the swatch in the stitch pattern that you intend to use on the garment:
I cast on using 2 skeins of yarn for 238 sts:
joined in the round:
and worked a K2, P2 rib for 1.5″.
I’m not that fond of working K2, P2 rib for a long time.
I mentioned this to one of my sisters. It seems to take forever.
It can be a bummer. It is a necessary part.
She commented, “Just like puberty.” Exactly.
I chose a three-over-three left crossing cable and off-set
the cable twist every 12 rows for the front body.
The back of the sweater is stockinette stitch.
So now I am on my merry way. The following pictures show the progress
through the first skein:
The second skein:
And the third skein:
So there it is so far! Next time I post about this sweater,
One of my favorite cast ons lately is the German Twisted Cast On. (Don’t ask me why it is called “German”, maybe it originated there!)
This cast on is a variation of a long tail cast on. It is stretchier than a regular long tail cast on, so it is especially good for the top of a sock, the beginning of a mitten cuff, or a hat cuff.
If you find that your own regular long tail cast on tends to be a bit too tight (yes, you are out there!), try the German Twisted Cast On instead.
I have two ways of showing students how to do this cast on. Some people find this way of casting on a bit challenging, so take a look at these two videos which both produce the same German Twisted Cast On.
While this cast on takes a bit more time and practice, the result is worth it.
So many cast ons, so little time… Two of the MCCOs (Most Common Cast Ons): the Backwards Loop Cast On and the Long Tail Cast On.
Beginning knitters are usually taught how to do a “backwards loop” cast on first. Other names for this cast on are: e-wrap, thumb, half hitch, and loop. Whew. I am sure there are many more names for this easy cast on, depending on where you live and who taught you to knit, but I will leave it up to you to find more. I am slightly dizzy after thinking of just those few. A backwards loop cast on begins with a slip knot:
There are pros and cons to the backwards loop cast on. This cast on can become very loose if the needles are pulled too far apart during the first row of knitting. Consistency in the loops is difficult to maintain, but it is by far the easiest cast on to master, especially for young children learning to knit. Because the edge is likely to be loose, it is a good cast on for underarms or necklines with the knitting already in progress. Usually these areas are finished with a seam or edging, so the e wrap cast on will not be visible.
The “long tail cast on” is probably the most common of all cast ons. Other names for this cast on are two strand, thumb, and sling shot. It makes a decent looking edge, it is fairly stretchy and it can be done quite quickly once learned. It is a bit tricky for the newest knitters, and takes a bit of practice to get it even and loose. I have almost never seen a long tail cast on that is too loose; usually the problem with this cast on is that it is too tight. Because you are working with two strands of yarn, (the “working” yarn and the “tail”), this cast on cannot be done with the work in progress unless you are willing to add another piece of yarn as the tail, and that is just a bit silly, now, isn’t it?
The chief query among knitters is “How long should the tail be?” In short, nobody knows. Sorry about that. There are myriad tricks for estimating tail length, from wrapping the yarn around the needle, estimating 1″ of tail for every stitch and so on. Because I have been doing this a long time, I will confess: I just guess. If I waste some yarn by guessing too much, oh well. I usually only run out of the long tail when the yarn is very bulky. (Big yarn, big needles, more long tail is needed.) The thumb seems to use less yarn than the forefinger, so one tip is to place the tail over the thumb and the working yarn over the forefinger. You can also try estimating how many inches the cast on will be and triple that number for the length of the tail. So, a scarf that is 8 inches wide would need 24 inches worth of tail. You are welcome to experiment with any method you like!! Get back to me when you have the definitive answer! Finally, if you are casting on a lot of stitches, (say more than 90), and the yarn is precious, use two skeins of yarn, one as the “tail” and one as the “working yarn”.
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Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am not a big shopper. Especially for clothes. No malls, no boutiques, no online perusal of what’s hot to wear this season. I like Levi’s and hand knit sweaters!
Because of the vast variety of TV shows, movies and music that we have at our fingertips at any given moment, it feels like there are always many fashion trends happening at once. Downton Abbey fans are loving the 20’s and 30’s looks of sleek lines and really cute hats. Pop stars have their own unique brands and the stores are quick to fill our needs. What’s old is always new and designers just need to put their own twist into an idea to make it exciting again.
“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.” -Voltaire
How do knitters make what’s hot right now? Often, by the time a knitting magazine is on the shelves, the trend is sliding away. Thanks to Ravelry, designers can get ideas out there as fast as we can make the garment and write the pattern.
I design many of my own garments myself. For Southern California I like short sleeved cotton sweaters, but we do need the occasional warm sweater also. Often, a student in one of my classes will have a favorite store bought sweater that they would like me to write a pattern for. Most of the time I get ideas by looking at what other people are wearing, sometimes from TV and in shop windows.
So… when one of my students came in with a really cute commercially knit hat, of course I had to make one and write the pattern immediately! This easy, cloche-style hat is over-sized but stylish. It won’t smash your hair, and with the gathered tie, it can be tipped on your head any way you like! Peek out from under one side for a flirty look, or wear the tie in the back or front if you prefer. You can lace a ribbon or silk scarf through the eyelet holes for more variety.
Coming up with a name for a new pattern is always a challenge for me… This one seemed easy!
Here it is with a silk scarf woven through the eyelet holes:
I always have some beginning knitters in my classes. What to make? This hat is perfect for a beginner!
Use a long tail cast on
To get started knitting in the round, see my video.
Double point needles are necessary to close the top of the hat.
Of course, don’t forget to fix that little gap that happens at the cast on.
Making an I cord is easy and fun! According to one of my favorite knitting icons, Elizabeth Zimmerman, “I cord” stands for “Idiot cord”. Maybe because it’s easy? Maybe because it is repetitious? Either way, check it out.
A provisional cast on is a cast on that is meant to be removed later. According to Merriam-Webster, the adjective provisional means: “existing or accepted for the present time but likely to be changed”. This is the perfect definition for this cast on.
This type of cast on is used if you are going to work a border after completing the knitting, or you want to graft the beginning and end of the piece together.
Picture this: You want to make a sweater from the bottom up with a fancy lace border along the hem. You can’t decide which fancy lace border among the hundreds of possibilities, but your fingers are itching to start that soft ocean- blue sweater. Use a provisional cast on and fly away knitting on the body of the sweater, knowing with joy and glee that you can very easily add a lace border at the hem later without a seam or having to pick up stitches from the cast on edge.
Another scenario: You are making a scarf that may want to become a cowl. You can ask your scarf this while you knit: “Dear scarf, would you rather be a cowl?” Instead of seaming the beginning and end of the scarf, use a provisional cast on and either graft the live stitches at the beginning and end, or do a three needle bind off with those live stitches. Grafting, (also known as Kitchener stitch) makes a virtually invisible join, and the three needle bind off makes a nice, smooth non-bulky seam. If your scarf says near the end of completion, “No, dear knitter, I don’t want to be a cowl”, then you can place the provisional cast on onto a knitting needle and bind off from there. (Isn’t it fun to converse with your knitting?)
But wait… There’s MORE!
For those of you who are extra fussy about your knitted bind off looking different than your cast on, you can use a provisional cast on at the beginning of your project as it looks almost identical to a knitted bind off! Who knew? (Of course you have enough sense to use the working yarn, not waste yarn, and if you are being particularly correct today, we wouldn’t call this a “provisional” cast on now, would we? But I digress.)
There are a few different ways to make a provisional cast on. My favorite way is to crochet a chain around the knitting needle. Use a smooth yarn in a contrasting color to produce the provisional cast on. This is known as “waste yarn”. (Is there really such a thing as waste yarn?) When you have cast on the required number of stitches, cut the waste yarn and place a couple of knots at the end of it. This will tell you at which end you will eventually remove the stitches from. “Why?” you might ask, you clever knitter! Because the crocheted chain will only release from one end and not the other. Think of an old fashioned bag of flour with a string closure across the top. It only releases from one end to get that satisfying unzipping of the bag. Otherwise, you pick and cut and waste half a day trying to get that silly bag of flour open!
When your pattern calls for any special combination of stitches, such as ribbing, increasing, decreasing, lace, etc, you will always work a plain row before you commence the pattern. (Commence. Good word.) Work one row of knit or one row of purl before beginning a pattern. If you work in ribbing, or any combination of knits and purls directly from the provisional cast on, the stitches will not unzip, and you will spend half a day undoing the provisional cast on. Ok, maybe not half a day, but it is a real drag. Working a decrease or increase is also not recommended from the waste yarn as those will also unduly involve the provisionally cast on stitches.
When removing a provisional cast on to place it back onto the knitting needle, you will have one fewer stitch than you cast on. What? Ok, ok, I will explain. If you think of your knitting when it is right side up, the stitches look like a series of: VVVVVVVVV’s. It is not a series of VVVVVVV’s with an extra slash at the end \. When you turn the work to start the additional border or bind off, you are looking at the stitches upside down.Now it is a series of /\/\/\/\’s without a complete /\ on each end, merely a half stitch \ or / and you must work one of those half stitches to equal the cast on number. Those half stitches will not drop anywhere, so if it is not important for your stitch number, you don’t need to pick up that half stitch. Ok, you had to ask didn’t you? You really didn’t want to know all that, did you?
Once you have the provisional cast on removed to a working needle, you can knit in the other direction, or graft the two live ends together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE7lPJlwlt0
You can also join the two ends with a three needle bind off.
