July 29,2005

Yes You Can!
Knitting Small Round Items Without Double Points

I love to knit hats! But the first time I tried, I discovered a problem. I was cooking along on the body of my hat, using a circular needle that was just the right size. It worked fine--until I got to the decreases. Soon, there were too few stitches to fit comfortably around my needle.

Most knitting patterns tell you to switch to double pointed needles when you start to have fewer stitches than will go around your circular needle. This was a disaster for me! I don't like to use straight needles or double pointed needles because often when there are only one or two stitches left on a given needle, said needle will slide out of the stitches and clatter to the floor. EEEEWWWW how I hate that!

Then I found this website: How to knit small circumferences using one long circular needle. This was the answer! I didn't need the dreaded double points at all. Instead of using a cable needle with a cable just long enough for my hat, I could use one with a really long cable, and knit a circular object of any size. I studied that website above for a long time, and finally understood the technique. I love showing people how to do this! It's one of those things you have to see to understand, so at long last, here are my photos of the process.

1. Using a long,circular needle (I like them 40" for most projects), cast on the number of stitches you will need to begin your project.

2. When you have cast on the number of stitches you need, slide them to the cable portion of the circular needle.

3. With all of the stitches still on the cable, count until you reach the halfway point in your total number of stitches and bend the cable to pull a section of cable out between the stiches as shown. (You don't have to divide your stitches in half... for example, if your pattern makes more sense to divide them some other way, that's ok, too.)

4. Continue pulling the loop of cable as you slide the divided stitches onto each needle. In this picture, the excess cable is pulled out in between the divided stitches and each half of the stitches are on a needle.

5. Join the stitches to form a ring, being careful that they are all oriented around the ring so that the bottoms of the stitches are on the inside of the ring. This will ensure that the ring is not twisted. I'll explain my favorite join here, though you might prefer a different method. To join, I slip the first cast on stitch from the right to the left needle, then I slip the last cast on stitch from the left to the right, passing it over the first cast on stitch. For some reason, this is the only method that has enabled me to keep from having a gap in my circle (also called a "ladder").

6. Pull the right needle through so you have some cable on your right needle with which you can make a second loop. At this point you will see that the stitches that had been on the right hand needle are now on the cable.

7. Knit the first half of the stitches from the left needle onto the right.

8. When you have completed the first half of the stitches, your left needle will be empty and you will see the excess cable that used to form the loop on the left side.

9. pull the large loop (shown at the right of the picture) to slide the second half of the stitches up to the left needle so you can knit those. Be careful not to pull the needle all the way out of the stitches!

10. Pull the right needle out so that you have some cable to form the second loop (as in Step 6). Now you can knit the other half of the stitches of the first round. When you get to the end of this half, pull the cable loop and slide the stitches around and start again. There! It's that easy!!

I should mention that Fiber Trends has put out an excellent booklet on this technique, called, The Magic Loop. This booklet is very helpful for explaining the technique in detail, and gives you a couple of patterns to get you started. I strongly suggest that you get one as a handy reference guide. I have to say that this method of knitting is a "techniqe," not a pattern, and you can use this method for virtually ANY circular knitting. If your pattern calls for double points and instructs you to divide your stitches in a specific way among the needles, you can place markers on your circular needle to indicate where those divides for the double points would have been.

I hope these pictures have been helpful! If I can improve my explanation in any way, please let me know. (My e-mail address is at the bottom of the page.)

Retailers Who Sell the Magic Loop Booklet

(in no particular order)

KnitPicks
The Knitting Zone
Jimmy Bean's Wool
Handknitting.com
Inspirations Yarn
Woobee KnitShop

July 21, 2005

Inch By Inch...

Well, as you can see, my baby blanket is getting bigger! I'm still not quite to the halfway point, but I'm already wondering if I actually have enough yarn to make it big enough. Oh well, I guess it will be as big as it gets, and that's it! Isn't it pur-dee?

My Knitpicks Simple Stripes sock yarn arrived this week! On the left is the color "Sweet Tarts" and on the right is "Snapdragon." Those of you who know me, how many times have you heard me say that I would never knit socks? I guess someday soon I'll eat my words! I also got a book called, "Simple Socks : Plain and Fancy ," by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I've only begun to read her method but so far, I think it makes sense. But alas, I have a few other projects to get through first before I can tackle these.

Last, I bought a couple of balls of Wool of the Andes in the color "Night Sky." A few months ago I bought a couple of balls of "Stream, thinking it was a dark teal color, but to me when I saw it, it read more sort of forest green. So I bought a couple balls of the blue to hold together with the green when I make one of my next felted hats. Hoping it will turn out to be a lovely blue-green. I guess I'll find out, but then again, I do like surprises.

Until next time...

Being Good to Myself!

Yessir, I do believe in being good to myself! Yesterday was my birthday (The BIG 4-0, and I'm not liking it!) and it was pretty much an ordinary day at the office, except it wasn't a day at the office -- I was telecommuting from home.

My Beautious ebony needles arrived today! My indecisive self could not settle on what sizes I wanted most, so I got them all! I only bought the ones with the 40" length, though, because I enjoy doing all of my round projects with the Magic Loop technique. These needles are beautifully crafted from piano keys and are a lovely black color and very smooth. The size of the needle is painted on the barrel (in mm) so that will make it easy to tell which ones I'm using, provided, of course that the paint doesn't rub off. Time will tell, of course, and I can't wait to cast on with them! Here's a closeup of one of the needles:

My dear friend Carrie sent me these lovely roses yesterday, too. (Did she know that yellow roses are my favorite, I wonder? I don't know, but they sure did brighten what would have been an otherwise ordinary afternoon. Here's a closeup of one of the most beautiful blooms:

Ok, so 40 isn't wonderful, but I've had a not bad couple of days. Baby blankie is also coming along but not a lot different visually from before so I won't post a pic tonight. Tomorrow is the big Birthday Dinner!

Until next time...

July 12, 2005

It's Gettin' Bigger... Can You Tell?

Well, as you can see, I'm buckling down a bit on the blankie! I do so want to get it done and move on! The colors are wonky in this photo but I think the stitch detail is showing amazingly well, so I wanted to share.

My birthday is comnig up on Thursday and yes, it's a biggie! So, I've been going nuts with treating myself this week. My friends at Knitpicks always have something new to explore! This week, it's socks! They've finally made a nice looking self striping yarn that is quite affordable. So I got four balls of Simple Stripes, two each in the Snapdragon and Sweet Tarts colorways. I also bought myself a sock book, "Simple Socks : Plain and Fancy ," by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Hopefully I'm on my way!

But of course, I didn't stop there! I have been wanting to buy myself some different knitting needles, and these have caught my eye: Susanne's Ebony Knitting Needles. Of course I couldn't decide which ones I needed most, so I totally splurged and got them all. Ok, so that was going totally overboard. Don't ask me why I did it. But I am looking forward to having them! Can we say midlife crisis? :-) I do hope I will enjoy having them!

Last, I leave you with an up-close look at the stitch pattern in my Cabled Eyelet Baby Blanket:

July 8, 2005

Still Knitting...

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've done an update on my latest project, the Cabled Eyelet Baby Blanket, by Nancy Hearne. I am enjoying the pattern very much and it is holding my interest fairly well, as it seems there is always something new and different to do with every row. (Ok, so not really... but the pattern is done in alternating blocks of cables and eyelets, and the cables repeat every 8 rows while the eyelets repeat only 4, and then after you've done that for a while, you alternate the blcoks and switch it up, so it's really kinda fun!)

The major drawback for me of course is that since it is a large project, it is taking forEVER! At this rate (going on nearly two months now), the poor baby boy recipient will be attending university before I get it finished. I am SO dying to do something else... I'm sort of wishing for my next project to start already. I think this should be a lesson to me that I need to stick to small stuff, like hats and scarves, because no matter what, it seems as if I am just never DONE! And then of course, what is supposed to be fun can feel like never ending drudgery, because I've never felt like I've accomplished anything. Ah, the plight of the whining, world's slowest knitter!

For those of you who are just now joining me in this project, I will recap that I am using Knitpicks Shine yarn, and I am liking it very much. It feels very much like Rowan Wool Cotton, though admittedly the content of the yarn is not the same, but it is a fraction of the price! I've been holding the yaern in my hands a lot over the last couple of months and it is wearing well through the knitting process (I hate yarns that pill up before I'm even done knitting with them! This one doesn't do that.), and I think it will be a new favorite for making medium weight baby items.

While we're on the subject of Knitpicks, they've just added a new pattern to their site: the Winter Cable Trio Hat Pattern. I love hats and I love cables, and for $1.99, this pattern is very high on my list at the moment.

All for now...