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About Me!
My name is Trish, and I love knitting! No, I’m not particularly good at it, but not being particularly good at something has never stopped me before, so why not? My father’s mother taught me to crochet when I was probably about 6 years old. I made the world’s longest chain stitch snake, until I got bored with that, then made tons of uneven doll blankets after that. (I was even creative enough to realize they were uneven, so I started making “triangle doll blankets” on purpose. Yeah, right.) Within a few years I was making real projects and enjoying myself immensely, and fast forward to about five years ago when my carpal tunnel and arthritis suddenly made it impossible to crochet anymore. Then about two years ago in 2004 I could no longer stand my yarn-less lifestyle and I became determined to learn to hand knit. (I won’t talk about my brief foray on the Bond Incredible Sweater Machine, where the biggest thing I learned was how much I hate to sew sweaters together!) I figured any book called Knitting for Dummies would just about be written at my level, and off I went! So now what have I…
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Resources
On this page you’ll find my collection of knitting-related resources. The list is constantly growing, so do check back often! Links Trish’s Knitting Library Patterns and How-to’s
Knitting Links
On this page you will find lots of my favorite knitting related links! Check back often, as this page is likely to grow on a regular basis!! [caption id=u0022attachment_814u0022 align=u0022aligncenteru0022 width=u0022435u0022 caption=u0022balls of yarn in various colorsu0022][/caption] Learn to Knit KnittingHelp.com Basic Knit Instructions Learn to Knit Norwegian Purling (video demo) Knitting Stitches from Knitting Pattern Central Knitting Stitch Library — by Barbara Breiter Techniques General KnitList Tips Index Random Stripe Generator The Yarn Harlot Demonstrates Irish Cottage Knitting Shaping Mirrored Increases Nice Tutorial on Knitting Set-in Sleeves on Seamless Sweaters Casting On Judy’s Magic Cast On and here’s a fabulous demonstration by Cat Bordhi (YouTube video). Emily Ocker’s Circular Cast On — for when you want to knit in the round from the center out Casting On Two Socks on One Circular Needle Belly Button Cast On for Circular Knitting Circular Knitting/Magic Loop Circular Knitting at Knitty.com The Circular Knitting Wiki Knitting Small Round Objects on One Long Circular Needle The Jogless Jog 2 Socks on One Circular Needle Turkish Cast On Two Toe-Up Socks on One Circular Needle Finishing Seaming Afghan Panels Weaving in the Ends Applied I-cord Afghan Seaming Techniques — from a crochet site, but applies…
Trish’s Knitting Library
Welcome to my Knitting Library! I hope you find this part of my site to be useful and informative. I’ll be adding titles constantly, so do check back often! In the interest of full disclosure, I will let you know that I participate in the Amazon Associates program. I run another website that provides resources and support for parents who happen to be people with disabilities, Parents with Disabilities Online. I have cerebral palsy, use a wheelchair, and I have two beautiful children. There are more than 8 million families in the United States alone that have at least one parent with a disability. If you happen to click on any of the links on this page to order a knitting book, any proceeds will support my effort to provide expanded resources to parents with disabilities. Thanks so much! Library Items by Topic Upcoming Releases Learn to Knit Stitch Dictionaries Special Techniques Pattern Collections General Hats Scarves/Wraps Mittens Socks Sweaters Knitting for Men Plus Size Knitting Babies and Children Afghans, Blankets and Throws Home Decor/Accessories Kids Knitting Knit Lit Knitting Magazines and Periodicals Upcoming Releases It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons–by Franklin Habit. This author of the famous blog,…
Patterns and How-to’s
On this page you’ll find my own small (but growing!) list of designs and tech tips. These are free for personal use and may not be included in any other collection or used for commercial purposes. Enjoy! Patterns Fancy Cabled Braided Scarf Cables and Eyelets Scarf How-to’s Knitting Small Round Items without Double Pointed Needles
Fancy Cabled Braided Scarf
I’ve been playing with this pattern for a while now, as in, for about a year and a half or so! I started it when I was a beginning knitter, but it is only now that I was able to figure this out so that the two sides on either side of the cable mirrored each other. And by jove, I think I’ve finally got it! I’m so excited that I thought I would share it now, even though my scarf, as you can see, isn’t even done yet!! Here ya’ go! Cast on 35 stitches. Rows 1 and 5: (RS) K3, P3, K3, P4, K9, P4, K3, P3, K3 Row 2, 4, 6, 8: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K2, P9, K2, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 Row 3: K3, P3, K3, P4, Front Cross (Slip next 3 stitches to cable needle and hold in front, knit next 3 stitches, then knit 3 stitches from cable needle), K3, P4, K3, P3, K3 Row 7: K3, P3, K3, P4, K3, Back Cross (Slip next 3 stitches to cable needle and hold in back, knit next 3 stitches, then…
Cables and Eyelets Scarf
I started working on a new scarf design recently and I thought I would report on my progress. I spent a couple of weeks playing with some new design ideas, and nothing much was working for me, until I stumbled on this stitch combination, and I love it. Right to left (since that is the direction in which we knit, we have an eyelet, a left over right crossed cable, a 12-stitch panel in mistake rib, a right over left crossed cable, and another eyelet. Here’s the pattern *corrected 1/17/08* (in bold, with thanks to Stephanie for finding the error): Cast On 36 stitches. Knit 2 or 4 rows of garter stitch to make a firm edge. Begin pattern: Row 1, 3, 7: K2, yo, K2tog; P1, K6, P1; K2P1 (four times); P1, K6, P1; SSK, yo, k2. Row 2, 4, 6, 8: K4; K1, P6, K1; K2P1 (four times); K1, P6, K1; K4. Row 5: K2, yo, K2tog; P1, RC Cable, P1; K2P1 (four times); P1, LC Cable, P1; SSK, yo, k2. Repeat Rows 1-8 until desired length is achieved. Finish with the same number of garter stitch rows that you chose to do in the beginning. BO loosely.…
Greenleaf Center Christmas Scarf
[caption id=u0022attachment_2849u0022 align=u0022alignrightu0022 width=u0022339u0022 caption=u0022Greenleaf Center Christmas Scarfu0022][/caption]Project Name:Greenleaf Center Christmas Scarf Source: My Own Design (yay!) Yarn Used: Caron One Pound Needle Size: U.S. 9 Date Started: July 15, 2011 Date Completed: September 24, 2011 Notes: (This scarf was knitted as a donation to the Greenleaf Senior Center in Washington, DC.) Ok, so you know how everything old is new again? Well, it’s kinda that way with this scarf. I didn’t invent anything about this pattern. I just did a sort of knitting mash-up of several things I already know how to do. I bet you do, too. So, let me explain what I did. The scarf is in three parts. It starts with 8 rows of 2×2 rib, then transitions to a basic seed stitch pattern, with a plaited cable in the center, and ends with 8 rows of ribbing again. All of these stitch patterns can be found in Barbara Walker’s “A Treasury of Knitting Patterns” (the blue one). But I will describe them in my own words, below. Yarn: Heavy Worsted Weight Yarn. (In my example I used about half a skein of Caron One Pound. Wool would be nicer, but it’s what I had that…
Yes You Can! Knitting Small Round Items without Double Pointed Needles
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…
Other Links (Not Knitting!)
Disability Rights/Advocacy The Trouble with Jerry ADAPT Media How’s Your News? BBC – Ouch! Disability and Parenting Parents with Disabilities Online Center for Rights of Parents with Disabilities Through the Looking Glass Family/Parenting Books How to Talk So Kids Will Listen u0026#038; Listen So Kids Will Talk Humor/Fun I Can Has Cheezburger My Other Sites Parents with Disabilities Online Beeb Birtles’ Official Website Non-Knitting Blogs I Like Stig McQueen’s Slot Car Blog Last Update: March 1, 2011
Writings
From time to time I have been known to write an article or two, or a few poems here or there. I had originally intended to keep this stuff up on my personal blog, but this is the blog that I update most often. So, I thought I’d share my writings here. Thanks for reading! Contents Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow This is an article I wrote while in college during the last weeks of the semester before Christmas Break. Seeing as it’s the holiday season at the moment that I am posting this, I thought I’d share it here, now. Enjoy! A Journey to Motherhood I wrote an article for now-defunct Horizons Newspaper, in Maryland, shortly after the birth of my daughter. Over the next several years the article was republished in excerpts or in updated forms. A couple of existing versions are linked from this page. What I Am Thankful For This is my blog post from Thanksgiving Day, 2008. I often struggle to remember the simpler things. Perhaps I need to read my own words more often. The Christmas Spirit I wrote this little story of Christmas in 1979, when I was just 14 years old. I remember…
A Journey to Motherhood
When my daughter was born, I wrote an article that appeared in a now-defunct disability newspaper in Maryland. The article was called “A Journey to Motherhood,” and after the initial publication in 1996, was picked up by several other publications over the next several years and published in different forms. Here are links to a couple of different versions. A Journey to Motherhood, as printed on my other website, Parents with Disabilities Online A Journey to Motherhood: My Pregnancy and Childbirth Experience, Edited and published in Abilities Magazine in Canada, 2000. Listen to this article
Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow
By Trish Humphrey (That’s me, in a former life…) (0riginally appeared in The Diamondback, December 1, 1987; University of Maryland, College Park) If you’re like me, you’ve spent the last two weeks hoping that someone would come up with a new month of the year — one that fits right between Thanksgiving and finals. It’s not like we haven’t known all along that the end of the semester was coming, but still we can’t figure out where the time has gone. Indeed, just today I was reminded that it really is December, in spite of the fact that even the weather seems to deny it. My mother called me on the phone and squealed, “I just bought the Christmas Tree!” “You bought the what?!?” I shrieked in horror. My worst nightmares were coming true. “The Christmas tree?” she repeated meekly, almost waiting for my approval. “I really didn’t think it would get you so upset.” True, Christmas trees, in and of themselves, are hardly a traumatic experience for me. It’s the 40-page paper that comes before the holidays that has me panicked. And then there’s this project for my public relations class, and oh, yes, the exams. Things wouldn’t be…
The Christmas Spirit
by Trish Humphrey December 1, 1979 I wrote this little story of Christmas when I was a mere 14 years old, so please forgive the childlike simplicity of the complex issues in the story. At 14, I barely knew how to sort these things out. I wrote the story not long after my parents’ divorce. They had each remarried other people by then, and my relationship with my father was tenuous at best. I both missed him terribly, and missed the idea of him, more than the man himself. I wrote this story as a way of expressing my feelings about him and gave it to him for Christmas. I don’t think he really got it, though he appreciated the story on some other level. At least the kid in me wants to think so. I don’t consider myself any more Christian these days than I do a person who embraces the principles of multiple faiths… and yet, I can appreciate the need for simplicity at Christmas. To me now, as someone who was 14 far too long ago, this story is more about the simplicity of Christmas. I hope you enjoy it. The Christmas Spirit [caption id=”attachment_999? align=”alignleft” width=”300?…
What I Am Thankful For
(Originally Posted November 27, 2008) Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to answer the big questions in life that I am always confronted with on Thanksgiving Day. What is it that I am thankful for, that wouldn’t sound to obvious or trite? The thing is, my list is long! Of course there’s the usual. I’m thankful for my family, and our relative good health this year. But really, there’s so much more: I’m thankful that even though so many in my country are facing hard times, we’ve still got our heads at least a bit above water. I’m thankful for our incoming president, and pray that his hopes for our Nation come true. I’m thankful that my husband’s family will all be together this year for dinner, and wish we could do it more often. I find it sad that one sibling had not yet met the other sibling’s two-and-a-half-year-old son until this week, and hope we never allow so much time to pass among us again. I’m thankful that I have a job, even though I hate it sometimes, because I know so many people who don’t have a job that they’re lucky enough to hate. I’m grateful for…
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