Archive for August, 2009
31
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 31st, 2009
Wool, a natural yarn is the probably the most popular yarn around today. In this complete guide to wool passionate wool expert Clara Parkes translates the vast world of sheep and their wool into the language and context of knitting.
The Knitter’s Book of Wool: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding, Using, and Loving this Most Fabulous Fiber
takes you from the basics of what is wool, who makes it, which type of yarn to use and what and how you knit with it. You’ll learn the fundamentals: what wool is made of, how it gets off the sheep, and how it is transformed from a jumbled mass of dirty fluff into a gorgeous yarn that so tempts us at our local yarn stores. You’ll be introduced to how to best knit with yarns made from wool fibers.
If only there were a way to read a skein to know how it would behave and what it wanted to become. Now there is. The Knitter’s Book of Wool: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding, Using, and Loving this Most Fabulous Fiber demystifies the generic (non-breed-specific) wool yarn you’ll find at your local yarn shop, showing you how to best determine what every yarn longs to be.
The book also includes 20 patterns that highlight the qualities of specific types of wool. The Knitter’s Book of Wool: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding, Using, and Loving this Most Fabulous Fiber teaches you everything you need to know about wool – and its journey from pasture to pullover. The next time you pick up a skein, you won’t have to wonder what to create with it. You’ll just know.
Technorati Tags: book, clara parkes, Knit, Knitting, sheep, wool fibers, wool yarn, yarn shop, Yarns
28
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 28th, 2009
Vogue Knitting wants you to cruise the Caribbean with them for 8 days, November 1-8, 2009. You are invited to visit at Belize City, Belize, Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico with very special authors/teachers, Debbie Bliss, Nicky Epstein and Carla Scott. Come and relax and enjoy their company while taking knitting classes and workshops where you will have the chance to learn new techniques, exchange information, and create beautiful knitting.
Bask in the magnificent tropical scenery with your yarn and needles and fellow knitting friends. For more information and details, click here.
Technorati Tags: caribbean, debbie bliss, Knit, Knitting, needles, vogue knitting, yarn
27
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 27th, 2009
Knitting can be done from almost any type of material. The latest in the craze for using things you have at home is making knitting yarn from plastic grocery or department store bags. It’s quite creative and initially may be a bit of work to cut the bags into strips; but should be a lot of fun once you’re done.
Technorati Tags: Knit, Knitting, knitting yarn, plastic grocery, shopping bags
21
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 21st, 2009
Most knitters arrive at the point of wanting to create their own original knitting patterns and designs for personal gratification, to give as gifts or to donate to charity. However, very few knitters submit their designs for publication or enter them in knitting contests. Creating an original knitting pattern for contests is not as intimidating as it sounds. Just remember these basic “Dos” and “Don’ts”.
DO
- The knitting pattern must clearly be your own creative work from start to finish.
- It can be a combination of two or more patterns taken from different sources and combined to make something completely new.
DON’T
- Making a simple color or texture change but using someone else’s pattern is not considered original creative work.
- Using embellishments to slightly alter a knitting pattern from another source is not considered by most contest rules to be unique work. The actual knitting pattern must be altered for it to be considered original.
Technorati Tags: contests, creative work, Donate to Charity, embellishments, knitters, knitting pattern, knitting patterns
18
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 18th, 2009
Knitting looms are very popular and are an easy way to make hats, scarves, socks and other knitted items. If you like do-it-yourself projects and want to make your own knitting loom, check out this project. Most of the things you need you probably already own.
Technorati Tags: hats scarves, Knit, knitting loom, knitting looms, socks
17
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 17th, 2009
Looking for a special pattern to knit socks, sweaters, afghans or other items to donate to charity? Lion Brand Yarn recently announced that all knitting (and crochet) patterns on their website are absolutely FREE. This means that over 3400 patterns, of which 700 were previously for sale, are available for download with no monetary strings attached!
Lion Brand Yarn has the largest online pattern library from a single design source. Its Pattern Finder® helps knitters sort through the free patterns to find exactly those that meet their project requirements. Since the Pattern Finder® has been online, over 350 million patterns have been downloaded.
It’s quite easy to get the FREE knitting patterns. All you have to do is put in a few keywords or search terms to find available patterns. Check out the Pattern Finder® and start downloading those knitting patterns you’ve been admiring but haven’t purchased yet.
Technorati Tags: afghans, charity, Donate to Charity, FREE Knitting Patterns, free patterns, Knit, knitters, Knitting, knitting pattern, pattern library, socks, sweaters, yarn
16
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 16th, 2009
Whether you have just started knitting or been knitting for years you will love Leisure Arts Beaded Ornaments To Knit
. Each of the 12 designs cradles a clear glass ornament inside and each knitted creation is highlighted by dozens of beads.
Use yarn enhanced with a metallic thread to make your knitted orbs glow with reflected light. Display them near a window heap them in bowls or vases or hang them on ornament stands.
These decorator items are beautiful year-round and they make wonderful gifts! Each is knit of light/sport weight yarn using size 5 double-pointed needles.
Technorati Tags: beads, charity, clear glass, double pointed needles, glass ornament, Knit, Knitting, leisure arts, light sport, metallic thread, needles, ornaments, sport weight yarn, yarn
15
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 15th, 2009
Stress Relief Gloves alleviate pain without restricting your movement. They are lightweight and fingerless with the comfort of support to the vital areas of the hand and wrist.
Made of tightly woven spandex/nylon fabric they help keep your hands warm enhancing blood flow and massaging muscles. Package contains a left and right glove.
Technorati Tags: blood flow, charity, gloves, Knit, knitters, muscles, nylon fabric, spandex, stress relief
14
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 14th, 2009
Since the bind-off edge should be the same tension as the knitted piece, stitches should be bound off evenly and according to pattern.
While most stitchers understand this rule as well as what to do if you bind off too tightly or loosely; trying to figure out how to keep the last stitch from becoming a shapeless loop can be elusive. Here are a few recommendations from experienced knitters.
Work the last two stitches together; pull the third stitch from the end over it and finish off.
Slip the last stitch; pull the next to the last one over it. Cut the yarn and pull through the slipped stitch and adjust the tension.
Bind off until one stitch remains on the left-hand needle; slip it to the right-hand needle and pick up the loop of the stitch one row below the slipped stitch. Return the slipped stitch to the left-hand needle and work the loop and the last stitch together.
On the row before the bind-off row, work the first stitch, give the yarn a tug and finish the row. The last stitch of the bind-off row will be tightened.
Technorati Tags: bind off, Knit, knitters, Knitting, stitch, stitches, tension, yarn
13
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 13th, 2009
Increases and decreases are used to shape knitted pieces. Increases make pieces larger; decreases make them smaller. For ease of working, increases and decreases are often worked on right-side rows either within the knitted piece or at the side edges. Here’s a summary of basic increasing and decreasing to shape a knitted piece.
Increasing
The simplest increase technique is the make-one increase (M1) which most knitters usually learn to do first. Because it makes an invisible increase, it’s very effective when making increases within the middle of a row or the body of a piece. To do this increase, with the needle tip lift the strand between the last stitch knit and the next stitch on the left hand needle and knit into the back of it. One knit stitch will have been added. At the beginning of a row, to increase you knit twice in the same stitch to form two distinct stitches.
Decreasing
By working a specific decrease, you can slant the stitches to the right by knitting two stitches together (k2tog) or left (ssk) by slipping the next two stitches knit-wise, one at a time, to the right hand needle, inserting the tip of the left hand needle into the fronts of these stitches from left to right; and knitting them together. One stitch has been decreased. This is valuable to know when working pieces with shaping such as raglan armholes, where the slant of the edge is important. When the slant is unimportant, you can work either type of decrease. But the k2tog decrease is simplest.
Use these techniques for adding or subtracting one or two stitches at a time. When increasing or decreasing several stitches, you will need to use casting-on or binding-off techniques.
Technorati Tags: charity, decreases, Knit, knit stitch, knitters, Knitting, m1, needle tip, shape, ssk, stitch, stitches
12
Aug
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 12th, 2009
From the moment you pick up your first pair of knitting needles and start to knit you acquire a skill rating. Everyone starts as a beginner but only a few knitters make it to the Experienced/Expert level. To determine your current knitting skill rating, consider the following explanations.
Beginner
Ideal first projects that help the new knitter learn the basics. Basic knit and purl stitches are used throughout with minimal shaping required.
Easy
Includes knitting projects with basic and repetitive stitch patterns, simple color changes, and basic shaping and finishing.
Intermediate
Projects on this skill level have varied and more complicated stitch techniques like cables, lace, and simple intarsia. Knitters are introduced to double-pointed needles and knitting in the round. Mid-level shaping and finishing are learned.
Experienced/Expert
These are usually challenging projects with complicated patterns that use advanced techniques and stitches such as short rows, Fair Isle, more intricate intarsia, cables, lace patterns. There are usually numerous color changes, involved shaping and finishing.
Technorati Tags: cables, expert level, fair isle, intarsia, intermediate projects, Knit, knitters, Knitting, knitting needle, knitting needles, knitting projects, lace patterns, mid level, pointed needles, purl stitches, skill level, stitch, stitch patterns, stitch techniques, stitches
