September 2015

It’s time to Knit Socks!

stargrace September 26, 2015 No Comments

This weekend I decided to take the plunge, and start learning how to knit in the round on my way to learning how to knit socks. I’ve said this a few times (and I’m sure I’ll say it a few times more) that socks are my ‘end game’ and have been for years now. I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit them, but I’ve never been brave enough and I didn’t have the right know-how.

I know there are quite a few methods to learning socks, involving dpn (double pointed needles), and circular needles. I decided I would go with the traditional method and learn on dpn, not only because my instructions are for dpn, but because I’d rather work with this method for now. I purchased some wooden dpn from KnitPicks a few weeks back and so far they’re perfect. The yarn doesn’t slide off my needles, which I think helps most of my frustration.

Until now I’ve mostly done crochet. Crocheting in the round is COMPLETELY different from knitting so learning how to do this has been quite the learning experience for me. Working with dpn is a bit awkward, but not nearly as awkward as I thought it was going to be. I’m working on 4 needles and using a 5th to knit onto, rotating my stitches. I’ve got 68 stitches on size 2 needles in sock weight yarn, and I’ve split the stitches between the needles. I’m working the ribbing in a k1 p2 k1, k1, p2, k1 pattern as you can tell by the image, and it’s nice and stretchy. I tried the sock progress so far on my foot to see how it fit, and I think for my next pair I may go down a size in needles, I’m knitting a bit looser than I had done on my gauge swatch. For my first pair I think things are moving along at a comfortable pace. So far I’ve only worked the cuff, next will be the leg, and then the heel flap. Then I’ll have to turn the heel. That’s when things start to get tricky. I’ve been following along with a class on Craftsy, and that has helped a lot. I’m really excited about potentially finishing my first sock. It will take some time and I’m trying not to be impatient about it while I go through each step. Of course this is also only one sock, and I’ll need to knit the second. I know some people like to knit both pairs at once because they don’t want the tension to change between the socks, but I think for my first sock it’s probably best if I just knit them one at a time.

I’ve also been looking at some lacework shawls as perhaps a side project. I don’t own a shawl but I do work beneath the AC and it can get sort of chilly. I usually end up wrapping a blanket around my shoulders, but a shawl would be much better. I haven’t settled on a pattern yet, but one ‘easy’ one I was looking at is this one from Ravelry. It’s a pretty easy pattern to follow, and still looks pretty and delicate. I haven’t decided yet, but I imagine I’ll pick one pattern sooner or later and then do the project in the royal purple yarn I purchased a bit ago.

In the mean time, wish me luck with my socks!

Stranded Colourwork

stargrace September 25, 2015 No Comments

I have a lot of 4 ply yarn. This is also known as fingering weight. When I say I have a lot of it, I mean I have giant spools of it from Greece and other European countries, donated to me. They used to be used for a knitting machine (from what I was told) but it’s no longer in use, so all of this fantastic yarn came my way. I have a feeling I’ll be in yarn for a very long time to come. The trouble of course comes from deciding what I should do with such an enormous amount of yarn. Fingering weight yarn is perfect for things like baby items and socks. It’s great for Fair Isle patterns, and shawls with some weight. Ravelry lets me sort patterns by yarn weight, so I’ve got a few ideas in mind already. I would really like to knit a shawl but of course I don’t know the faintest thing about that (yet).

In the meantime I wanted to play around with this yarn. It’s beautiful, and I settled on making the hat over on the left hand side. I used some self striping yarn that gave this beautiful effect, and I made my very first stranded colour piece. Stranded colour is pretty simple, the strands just get carried along the inside of the piece. It actually served to bulk up the hat nicely, tonight I went for a walk wearing it and my ears were toasty warm. The hat itself is very light, but since winter is quite mild I think I’ll still have lots of opportunities to wear this. I may even knit up a matching scarf. Actually the more I think about this the more in love with the idea I become. A nice long scarf that I can wrap around a few times. You don’t always need to have really heavy yarn in order to keep warm. While I continue to decide what I want to do with this new found collection of yarn, I’ve been working away on the cable scarf. It’s a pretty easy pattern and I don’t really have to pay any attention while I work on it.

I also tried my hand at double knitting. This is where you knit with two strands at the same time, and not only that, you knit and purl at the exact same time. In essence you create a double sided piece. I learned I am absolutely no good at this, at least not when there’s a pattern involved. I tried a really simple heart pattern, and used two colours. How the pattern was supposed to work was on one side it would be colour A as a background with colour B as a heart, and then the other side should have been colour B as the background with colour A as the heart. Nope. Somehow I constantly messed up. I’m not sure if my mind is just unable to grasp the concept of the pattern or what it was, but it just would not click. I tried a number of times before growing frustrated and moving back to the scarf. At least that I’ve got down pat.

What do you make with your fingering weight yarn? Have any simple patterns that you think I should try out?

I really enjoyed doing the stranded colour work. I’ve heard a lot of people complain that it caused their piece to become too tight, you really have to watch your tension so that you don’t shape the piece as you work along. I didn’t have that issue at all, and in fact I’m quite proud of the tension that I’ve had throughout my knitting so far. I don’t know if I just pick it up by instinct, but it’s something that hasn’t been an issue (yet). Of course now that I’ve said that I’m sure I’ve jinxed myself.

I do want to find another project or two to work on along side the scarf. I just don’t think that’s going to hold my attention well enough. Shawl? Another pair of socks? Scarf with colour work? We’ll just have to see!

Teaching Myself to Knit – The How To

stargrace September 21, 2015 No Comments

Like I mentioned in my introduction post, I first learned how to knit from my Dad a long time ago, but I couldn’t get very far with it. Determined to actually complete a piece or two, I picked it up about a month ago and started refreshing myself with the very basics. That meant casting on, and the knit stitch (also called garter stitch) where you just knit every row. Once I was comfortable with the knit stitch I started adding purls to my work, and I experimented with a few well known patterns to create some dishcloths that were not just done in garter stitch but also had some design to them. Dishcloths are great because not only can you always find a use for them (they’re not just for dishes, they work great in the shower too) but you can never have too many, and they make great gifts. They’re also very fast to knit up, so you don’t feel like you’re stuck on one giant project.

Ravelry is a great place to find patterns. There are free ones and paid ones. You can favourite the ones you like best and then print them out (or in my case, write them out) for later. So far everything I’ve practiced has been knit flat, and I have no experience knitting in the round. I do own circular needles, but I’ve only used them for large pieces like blankets. Learning how to knit in the round is something that I hope to attempt soon (and of course I’ll continue to document my progress here). For now knitting flat is a good way to practice my skills and to familiarize myself with the basics (again) (and again and again). It’s really important to keep practicing even when you find it frustrating. Even now I can see the progress that I’ve made in a very short time. Starting with knit stitches, up to purl, and now I’ve started experimenting with lace stitches (which I really enjoy but they’re very easy to mess up. I’ll go into more details about this later). I’ve got four little dishcloths all knit up that I’m going to send to a friend this week (along with the baby blanket and a baby sweater I knit) and I hope they get some use out of them. It helps me practice my hobby, and keeps it from all collecting in my home. After all what’s the point of knitting if you’re not going to share it with everyone else!

Now that I’m comfortable with knits and purls as well as YO (yarn over) and Sl (slip) with a few other terms tossed in there (psso; pass slip stitch over) I think the next thing I’d like to practice is knitting in the round. In order to learn the previous terms I watched a lot of YouTube videos. It’s amazing what you can find on there these days. I’ll link them in another post, because they’re just incredibly handy to have, especially if you just need a refresher on what a particular term means. I’m wondering if I’m ready for socks yet. The hardest part (I believe) from what I’ve read is turning the heel. Socks are made up of different parts, and I think the cuff and the leg I could do easily enough, as well as the heel flap. Then you turn the heel and knit the bottom of the heel or whatever that is called (is there a technical term for it?) the rest of the foot, and the toe. I do have three different Craftsy classes on knitting socks for beginners, as well as some beginner patterns from Ravelry, but I still find patterns incredibly daunting. I just got my first set of dpn (double pointed needles) last week, and I’m eager to break them in. Maybe I’ll practice knitting the cuff / leg / in the round first until I’m comfortable with that, and then when I think I’ve got it down I can move on to the rest of the sock. Thoughts?