As I was knitting with the Fibre Company Terra, I realized that it felt a bit more rough than I remembered the first time I used it.  Wondering if the fiber content had changed, I went looking for my little swatch (they are all over the house, mostly being used as coasters) and found that my swatch was just as soft and wonderful as I remembered the yarn. Like a good wine that needs to breath a bit, many yarns change after they have been knitted up and blocked. Noro Kureyon is another example of this. When you work the fiber, the oils on your hands transfer to the yarn, changing how it feels. In addition, the process of putting the yarn into little stitches affects how it feels to the touch. Lastly, and most importantly, blocking or washing the fiber can dramatically change its drape and feel. With Kureyon and also Terra, the fiber softens up and relaxes after being washed, making it a much more satisfying yarn. Using a wool wash like Soak is another way to enhance the fiber even more. So before judging a fiber in the hank, be sure to check out a swatch of the yarn. If the store doesn’t have one, ask if they have a partial ball that you could play with. Try it out, block it and then decide if you like the fiber.

Photo courtesy of Interweave Knits

Knitting is knowledge that is built up with time. You may leave knitting and go back to it, but the beauty of it is that muscle memory of your hands will always remember. There are multiple methods of working color work: intarsia, fair isle, Bohus knitting, Armenian knitting- they all incorporate the stranded method, that actually makes it look complex, but speeds up the process significantly and helps you to produce and wear your garment much sooner. Adjusting to tension and constantly switching threads, consulting your chart for the color switch – these can all be obstacles for new knitter in their first colorwork conquest. But not to fret – nothing like doing a crossword puzzle, short-term memory is your best friend.. and to start your Fair Isle exploration I have chosen Enid – gorgeous design by Veronique Avery, that is minimal and simple, yet classic but with a zest of Fair isle around the yoke reminiscent of Bohus knitting.
One would ask what is stranded knitting? Imagine yourself holding yarn of two different colors in different hands and knitting at the same time.. not that it is complex, it is doable and you can do it! There are multiple tricks that you will learn: knitting continental, combined and steeking. This design has wonderful options: you can choose to cut the finished garment (steek) and knit the borders for a cardigan or omit steeking and leave it as a pullover.
As any knitter I have built up my knitting knowledge through experience and various projects over time, but the need for constant advancement is natural. Or one can call it being curious. The more chances we have to build on the base of conventional knitting, the further your knitting adventures will go. So let’s start knitting! At that point – anything is possible and we can show you how!

~Olga

Read more information about or sign up for Olga’s Enid Cardigan class here.

This is the chart for the Fair Isle Mittens that I am working on this month. The chart tells me which color to use because I am working with two colors at the same time. Because these mittens are worked in the round, every row of the chart is read in the same direction as we work: right to left. If the mittens were worked flat, on the wrong side rows or every odd row I would read the pattern in reverse.

To help keep track of what row I am on, I purchased a neat little metal board and magnet set, made specifically for this purpose. The magnets both keep my paper straight on the board and also help me to mark where I am. I place the magnet over the rows that I haven’t knitted yet, revealing the row that I am currently knitting as well as the previous rows. I find that this helps me to match up the current row with the previous row. If I can see the along the edges of this specific pattern, there are entire columns of red and green, it helps me to know to simply keep them matched up in the current row.

I also recommend printing your charts as large as possible. Often designers shrink charts to help them fit on a pattern page, which can make them hard to read and follow. Blowing them up on the copier makes a huge difference.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend printing on green paper…just happened to be the only color I had at the time

If you have taken my beginner knitting class, you know that I do harp about posture while knitting. Beginner knitters (and even a few advanced) are notoriously tense, putting a great deal of stress on their hands, arms, neck and shoulders, not to mention the needles and yarn. Experienced knitters tend to get repetitive stress injuries because they become obsessed and can’t stop knitting even when their body is telling them that they should. (I don’t know anyone like that. Not at all)

When you are new to knitting or even if you aren’t, it is important to be aware of your posture. Try to keep your knitting project as close to eye level as possible and use a pillow to prop up your arms if you need to. (it helps to not have to look at your knitting at all, but we know this takes some serious experience). Do that “yoga shoulder roll thingy” where you roll your shoulders back. Stop frequently and roll your head around, up and down and from left to right to help loosen up the upper back and neck muscles.

If you are experiencing pain in your hands or elbows, stop knitting! Take a break and try out a few exercises. One of my students makes a few hilarious figures with her hands: crap claw, fist, duck bill, and something else that I can’t remember. These will all help to stretch out the fingers and loosen up the joints.

Lastly, choose good tools. Your knitting needles can do a great deal for your comfort, particularly on large projects. If you are using silk or other slick yarns, don’t use metal needles. You will tend to tense up, trying to keep the stitches from flying off of the needles when a birch or bamboo needle would do the trick. If you are knitting a blanket or other heavy large project, use circular needles instead of long straight needles. Those giant metal Boye needles that grandma gave you are out of fashion for a reason! The weight that they put on your wrists is unnecessary. Use a circular instead, and the weight of the project will fall in your lap and below your hands rather than pulling down on your wrists and hands from the sides.

My final words of wisdom: don’t commit yourself to knitting all of your holiday gifts. This will land you in physical therapy by January and its just not worth it. In the end, only about 20% of your relatives will really appreciate the gesture anyway

It is day two of my “lack of full time employment,” and I am still looking for time to work on Knit-a-Gogo. The online registration system is getting a complete overhaul and there will be a full schedule for September through December available late next week or early the week after. I started a part time consulting gig this week as well, so lots happening here!

The Central Park Hoodie is moving along, and I have almost completed the right front. The left front and back are complete. You might notice in the photo that there is a section where my cables twist more frequently. I added this to the waist area to add to the waist shaping by making the waist look cinched in addition to the decreases that I added to the edge of the back and the front sections.  Be sure to check the errata for the pattern. The ribbing on the left front is wrong in the pattern (use your common sense and it will be fine).

Is anyone having any other issues with the project so far? Any photos to share with the rest of us? I will be at late night at Knit Happens again if you want to come knitalong with us!

The third Thursday of every month will be Knit-a-gogo Knitalong Night.  We will meet at Cheesetique (specialty cheese shop and wine bar) on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Del Ray, conveniently located between Old Town and Arlington. This is a completely free  community event open to any Knit-a-gogo student, past, present or future. While there will be a theme for each month, you can bring whatever project you want and work on anything (or nothing at all!)  It’s a great way to meet other fabulous knitters while sipping some wine and munching on the wonderful menu that Cheesetique has to offer. If you haven’t tried knitting with wine, I would highly encourage it.

There is ample parking behind the shop at the free lot. We will start around 6 p.m. and will hang until 9 p.m. or later. The shop is small, so if you want a seat, be sure to get there early or have us save you a spot! We aren’t reserving the cafe, so if you are coming late, be sure to let me know.

For the month of August, I will be featuring a Ravelry tutorial. If you aren’t already a member or are but haven’t really been using the site, this is a great time to see just what it can do for your knitting life.

This is your first installment of what will be a weekly or bi-weekly guide to fixing mistakes, difficult stitches and other things “knit-related.” The Central Park Hoodie project should provide lots of opportunity for these!

At least once in this project, I realized that I had twisted a cable the wrong way. My first word of advice with cables and charts is to label or color code the cables. I like to write a “B” or “F” on the chart to indicate whether I should bring the stitches to the front or the back when working the cable. For those of you who don’t know how to cable, that might be my next “knitting guide” post.

Anyways, since I often knit and watch television, knit and drive or even knit and read (the David Sedaris is just too good to put down), I often ignore charts and miss a cable entirely or find that I have been twisting it in the wrong direction. When this happens, the novice knitter would find the closest bottle of spirits and begin frogging inches, if not feet of work. Instead, learn to drop down and fix the cable!

Step one: Work the fabric until you reach the offending cable (I realize that none of my cables are wrong in this photo…but lets pretend)

Step two: In the CPH pattern, the cable is six stitches wide. I then drop all six stitches off of my needle and begin to unravel them down to where the cable began to go off track. *Note, it is helpful to mark the row where the cables belong so that you don’t have to figure that out later when reworking these stitches. It is not necessary to use diamond earrings for this.

Step three: Catch the last row of stitches with a spare needle. I find that double pointed needles work best for this.

Step four: Treat these six stitches as if they are the only ones that exist right now. Use another double pointed needle as the “working needle” (thicker wood needle in the photo) and rework the cable the right way, placing the first three stitches on a cable needle (thin needle at the back in the photo), holding to the front or back (check the pattern this time, silly) and then knitting the next three and then the three from the cable needle. To work each stitch, put your working needle into the stitch and grab the horizontal bar, pulling it through the stitch and creating your new stitch.

What yarn do you use? Use the closest horizontal strand that was created when you dropped all of your stitches. Knitting continental style works better for this.

Step five: Transfer these stitches to the left hand and repeat for the next row. This row, in my photo below, is worked normally and doesn’t require the cable needle.

Continue to work each row up the ladder until you reach the next cable row (which was marked with a diamond earring). Work this cable correctly this time and move on. Eventually you will reach the top again. Put the live stitches back on the left needle and complete that row that you started awhile back, before you had some alcohol and decided to try my method of fixing mistakes…

Now if the thought of doing this makes you sweat, pick up the phone, dial 202-669-8282 and schedule a private lesson!

The question I ask myself every time I have an exciting pattern and delicious yarn: why do I have to start with this stupid gauge swatch?

There are several answers to that age-old question:

Fundamentally, when I don’t swatch it’s because I think I’m smarter than the yarn, the pattern, the designer, or all three. I have a huge ego to go with my tiny self-esteem, and I love to pretend I am smart enough not to have to walk before I run. “Gauge swatches are for sissies,” I tell myself, and then I end up with a sweater that is somehow wrong and will not fit a human being without surgical intervention.

I’m sorry to say that this has happened several times.

When people design patterns, they knit up the item using the needle size that they feel is the best for the yarn, in terms of drape and stitch space. Then, after they have finished the item, they knit a gauge swatch using the same yarn and needles, and that’s how they figure out the gauge for the project. So when you are knitting a gauge swatch you are trying to find a way to compensate for the differences between your natural style of knitting and theirs. Me, I knit tight, but I think I knit loose. Doubly dangerous.

“But, look,” I used to think, “if I don’t quite match the gauge I’ll just have a [sweater/hat/sock] that’s a little [larger/smaller] than I expected.” Sadly, this is not always true, and here’s why:

For me, not knitting a gauge swatch meant the two sweaters pictured in this post (rav lnk1; rav lnk2) were much wider than they were tall. I looked like a snowwoman who wanted to show off her belly. Not a good look for me. Not a good use of my time. [Let's not talk about my yarn choice for that second project; it's like a Cosby Sweater!]

So — here endeth the lecture. Hope your swatches are coming along well; we cast on tomorrow!

Kathleen

I thought it might be nice to tell you about a few of my favorite knitting related things..needles, yarn, patterns, etc. I’ve had more than one student ask me what type of needles I preferred or what yarns I like to work with. So here it goes:

Interchangeable needle sets:

Best for the price: While the Denise Knitting Needles are affordable at roughly $60-65, I am not a huge fan of the transition between cord and needle and I have definitely broken more than one of the plastic connections that lock the needle to the cord. They are a good back up set or starter set.

All around favorite: KA Exchangeable needles. These things are fab. The transition between the bamboo needle, brass connector and the nylon cord is amazing. The set even features a different set of cords for the largest and very smallest needles (three sets in total) so that needles are matched well with the connection size of their cord.  The best part is that unlike the Denise set, they are compact and able to be easily carried around.  The downside is the price. They retail for $95.  I am still able to order these wonderful needles, if anyone would like to order them.

Pattern Books: 

I posted a few weeks ago about the knitting help books on my shelf. Now it’s time to share two of my favorite pattern books.  The first is Weekend Knitting, which has so many different types of easy to knit projects, that I find myself going back to it all the time.  The book features everything from a flower shaped washcloth to a tote bag that unfolds to become a checker board.

My second recommendation for every knitter’s library is Last Minute Knitted Gifts. If it is not obvious enough from the title, it is a wonderful source of quick knit projects, which is great for someone who can’t seem to finish anything. The hourglass sweater (shown here) might be the most knitted sweater ever. Seriously, I think that I am the only one who doesn’t have one! (I look quite awful in most raglan sleeves) Other favorite projects include the angora baby booties, felted yoga mat carrier, and silk camisole. This book is great for clearing out stash yarn!

So tune in next time for my favorite yarn companies, designers, and other random bits of information.

Over the weekend, several of you asked me how much of a particular yarn you should buy, when there wasn’t a project in mind. Its also helpful to have some general guidelines when out of town and visiting the LYS in that area. You may have found the most amazing hand dyed cashmere but without a particular project in mind, how much do you buy? During the upcoming Knit-a-Gogo sponsored trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, we will focus on learning how to buy hand dye and hand spun yarns when you have no idea what you might knit with them!

Interweave Knits published this great folded and laminated guide to help buyers decide how much yarn is needed, in general, for different projects on each gauge of yarn and at several sizes. This guide can be found at almost any yarn store (for purchase and for “borrowing”). It would  be good to know your “numbers” and memorize how much yarn a sweater in your size would require at dk, worsted and chunky weights.

In general, the following are some rough guidelines to help you through the next sale (I know it can be overwhelming to see all that great fiber for so cheap!)

Lace yarn: this stuff usually comes in giant hanks that are enough for a wrap, so just buy one and go from there. If it is lower on the yardage, you can at least make a scarf from it.

Sock yarn: typically a pair of socks requires one 400-450 yard hank or two smaller hanks.  If the yarn is absolutely gorgeous but there is only one small hank, you can always make a pair of wrist warmers, baby socks, or baby hat with it.

Sport and DK weight yarns: I wouldn’t buy less than 200 yards (typically two balls) of this yarn, as a baby hat or other infant garment will require at least this amount. If the yarn is particularly cheap, refer to the guide above, as a sweater in this gauge could require between 1000-1500 yards or more.

Worsted: now here is a versatile yarn. I have been known to buy only a hank (200 yards) of a very beautiful and very expensive worsted while traveling because I know that this amount will make, at the very least, a skinny scarf. I know that in my size, 600 yards will make a sleeveless sweater or camisole (quite safely) and that 1000-1200 yards will make most long sleeve pullovers or cardigans. If the yarn is a solid color, wonderful and cheap, I will pick up 1200 yards of it to be on the safe side and then worry about what I am going to do with it later

Chunky: chunky is just as versatile as worsted, although it just doesn’t work for baby garments. Given this, I tend to buy a bit more of chunky weight yarns. I love making sweaters from this gauge because it is so fast, so I keep my “numbers” handy so that I know just how much to buy.

Superchunky and bulky or thick and thin yarns: As you know, my beanie hat pattern is made from a superchunky yarn and requires only one ball (aprox. 70 meters) of yarn. One hank of the thick and thin Neighborhood Fiber Co yarn can make a hat or neck warmer or even a funky pair of mittens. Sweaters in this gauge tend to look awful on anyone larger than a size 6, so the majority of knitters won’t buy bags of this gauge.  I would say around 150 yards is a good amount to be on the safe side, as this will make a scarf and is plenty for mittens and hats as well.

So there you have it… Your next step is to buy the guide above or memorize some yarn requirements for the following in your size:

cami / vest in dk and worsted weight yarn

sweater in dk and worsted weight yarn

shawl or wrap in worsted weight yarn

That and the hints above should provide you with plenty of information for your next giant sale!

With a few sweater classes coming up in the Spring semester, I wanted to give some pointers on gauge and swatching for those out there who may not have yet done this.

What is Gauge? Gauge refers to the number of stitches wide and rows tall that you need to knit to reach a certain number of inches. In general, gauge is given per inch or per 4 inches (10cm).

Examples of  gauge: A ball of worsted weight yarn might say “16sts = 1 inch on US#8″ This means that if you use US#8 needles and knit 16sts in this yarn, you should get a one inch wide piece of fabric. The back of most ball bands will reveal the suggested gauge of that particular yarn, when knitted in stockinette stitch with the suggested needle size. This site gives a great overview of the differences in yarn weight and gauge. It’s also linked from the “Community” section of my site.

Why swatch? A pattern will tell you exactly what gauge you should get with the yarn and needles they recommend. If you know the gauge, you can then substitute other yarns with similar gauge or change the needle size up or down to help get gauge. Because every knitter knits differently, you MUST knit a test swatch with your selected yarn and needles to determine if your gauge matches that of the pattern. If it doesn’t you could end up with a sweater that is too big or too small (and that is just a waste of time and money).

How do I swatch?  First, use the needles indicated in the pattern and your selected yarn.  Lets assume that our pattern calls for a gauge of 20sts per 10cm. I would cast on 25 or 30sts, so that I have plenty of space to measure four inches across. then work in stockinette stitch for five inches. Cast off and then block the swatch so that you are able to measure what the fabric will do after it is washed or blocked.

*Some fabrics expand or stretch after they are washed so it is important to know what your fabric is going to do after it is blocked. (Cabled fabrics in particular get much larger after then are blocked)

Below is a gauge swatch. To measure gauge, put a ruler over the swatch.

Now count the “V”s or stitches that span a one inch and then two inch or four inche span of the swatch.

This swatch shows a gauge of 5.5 sts per inch.  Since we are getting 5.5 sts per inch, our gauge is 22sts per four inches. It would appear that we our gauge is off, as we have more stitches per four inches than the pattern calls for. To adjust, I could increase my needle size up one number, knit another swatch and measure again.

*It is also important to measure the rows per one or four inches, particularly if the pattern also gives this gauge.

Rick at tonight’s sock class mentioned that it would be great to know what I have in my knitting library that I find useful. In the category of “reference” or “guide” to knitting, I have the following:

The Reader’s Digest Knitter’s Handbook. I find that if nothing else references an obscure knitting technique, this book has it. It’s not always the most helpful for describing how to create a certain stitch and the diagrams aren’t as good as what you may find on the internet, but its certainly the most comprehensive guidebook I have encountered.

The second on my list of favorite knitting guides is definitely Interweave Press’ Knitter’s Companion. Not only does it fit in your purse nicely, its incredibly comprehensive for its compact size. I find myself pulling this out when I need a reminder on how to graft the toe stitches of my sock together or when I can’t remember what those silly symbols on the yarn label mean. (The little iron symbol with one dot means “cold iron,” by the way) Anyways, its an excellent book and everyone should own a copy!

Then there is Stitch n Bitch. This book has been credited with creating the current knitting craze, although I think that might give Debbie Stoller a bit more credit than she deserves. This book, which is both instructional and full of simple funky patterns, certainly contributed to the recent rise in young professionals who have picked up needles as their new hobby. It has a unique and entertaining way of describing the basics of knitting and the patterns at the back of the book start at the very simple and work up to more advanced skills. I keep a copy of this around to pass on to whatever friend of mine has just started knitting. They usually return it in a week because they have purchased their own copy.

Now as for the pattern books in my library, that could take some time… I might have to check my ravelry account, ponder my favorites and get back to you Rick.

Have questions about your project? post it here!