Uncharted Territory

A Tutorial on Chart Reading

A number of the patterns I have released recently include knitting charts. Charts are a useful tool for knitters because they can compress a lot of written information into a small “picture” of the written text. Over the next few newsletters, I will be presenting the basics of chart reading. Hopefully, these will help you better utilize this wonderful knitting tool.

The first thing to understand is that knitting charts start at the bottom and work toward the top. This is completely backward to the way that you normally read, but is perfectly logical if you think about the order that you knit the stitches on your project. You build from the bottom of your knitting (cast on edge) to the top (bind off edge).

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The long awaited…Because I Felt Like it – A tutorial (Part 4)

Seems like ages ago when I posted the rest of the felting tutorials. This one was a bit delayed because the photos came out fuzzy and had to be retaken so please ignore the multiple backgrounds. And now for the long awaited conclusion to the continuing drama of As the Wool Shrinks.

Lesson 4 – Felting isn’t the last step. Or Blocking is Important. Really, really important.

One of the first things you will notice when you finish felting your knitted piece is that it sometimes looks very little like the desired finished product. That is because most felted items also require blocking to look the way they should.

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Because I Felt Like It – A tutorial (Part 3)

Thank you for joining me for today’s adventure in the continuing drama of As the Wool Felts.

Lesson 3 – Felting time is unpredictable.

My third lesson learned is that it is difficult to predict exact felting time. Some yarns felt relatively quickly but others take a bit of effort. Here are the times that it took to thoroughly felt my samples.

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Because I Felt Like It – A Tutorial (Part 2)

Welcome back to continuing saga about lessons learned while deliberately shrinking wool.

Lesson 2 – Yarn doesn’t felt evenly.

My second lesson learned from my felting adventure is that yarn doesn’t felt evenly. You probably noticed from the results of the first part of our felting adventure that yarn generally felts more lengthwise than widthwise but again the amount of difference varies from brand to brand. For example, the blue sample had a marked decrease in length (29%) but an almost negligible decrease in width(6 %) while the yellow sample had a more even shrinkage with 36% loss in length and 28% loss in width.

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Because I Felt Like It – A Tutorial (Part 1)

I have been fascinated by felting since I first started to knit. I love the bit of surprise that results when you put your knitting in water. The results can be surprising sometimes. To help you sort out some of the mysticism and magic that is felting, here are a few things I have learned in my experiments with shrinking wool.

Lesson 1 – All wool doesn’t felt the same.

Different fibers, different brands and even different colors of the same brand will felt at different rates. Annoying, confusing, logic-defying but sadly true. To be certain of results, it is advisable to, and yes, I know you are going to hate me for saying this, knit and felt a swatch. This is recommended for every yarn that you work with and wouldn’t hurt for each individual color since dyes used can affect the felting rate.

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Afterthoughts – A tutorial

In the course of getting Aragorn Gloves pattern test knit, a number of questions arose about the thumb I used for the glove. Elizabeth Zimmermann dubbed this method the “afterthought” method. She used it for sock heels as well as thumbs. The general idea is to knit the stitches needed for the heel or thumb onto waste yarn, then continue knitting your project and come back to the thumb or heel after you have finished the project. This method is super-fast, convenient for travel and doesn’t involve transferring stitches onto stitch holders then back onto needles like gusset methods do. Though perhaps not as elegant as the gusseted thumb, I find the speed and ease of knitting more than makes up any difference in overall look. Without further ado, here is my little photo tutorial of the afterthought thumb as used in Aragorn gloves. For reference, I am knitting the left glove.

Work until you get to the point in the pattern where you will add your thumb. Drop the working yarn. Picking up a piece of scrap yarn, knit the stitches for the thumb with the scrap yarn. I just held one tail of the waste yarn with my left thumb as I knit the first my stitches.

Once you have knit the desired number of stitches (in the case of Aragorn it will be 6 stitches), transfer the stitches back to the left hand needle by slipping them purlwise one at a time.

Picking up the working yarn again, rework the stitches that you knit onto scrap yarn. You will have worked the same six stitches twice.

When you have completed reworking the stitches your glove should look something like this.

Continue working in pattern for the rest of the glove. When you have completed it, you will have something that looks like this.

Arm yourself with a set of double pointed needles and prepare to knit the thumb. You will begin by carefully removing that piece of scrap yarn to reveal the live stitches.

As each live stitch is revealed, you will pick it up onto one of two needles. This is a bit difficult to see because of the dark yarn but the process will make complete sense as you try it yourself.

When you have completely removed the scrap yarn, you should have one less stitch on the top needle than on the bottom. In the case of Aragorn gloves, you will have 6 stitches on the bottom needle and 5 stitches on the top needle.

Next, pick up your yarn and knit across the stitches on the bottom needle. Please forgive the quality of the photography. Princess Buttercup is still learning.

Using a new needle, pick up and knit two or three stitches from the gap between the top and bottom needle to fill the space.

Knit half the stitches from the top needle onto this needle. Now picking up another needle, knit the remainder of the stitches from the top needle and pick up and knit 2 or 3 stitches from the gap between the top and bottom needle. I generally pick up three stitches on the palm side of the hand and two on the top side.

Once you have picked up all your stitches, you should be back to the first stitch on the bottom needle in a position to reclose the round. Knit or work the next round in pattern. I find that if I work the stitches that I picked up through the back loop, there is less chance of a visible hole at this point. After knitting one round to reclose the round you should have something that looks like this.

There you have it. The Afterthought Thumb. EZ as pie or was that pi.

Happy Knitting.

Twisted (a tutorial)

This is a short tutorial on how to do the twisted stitches used in my soon-to-be-released Aragorn scarf pattern. Several of the testers have asked for help on how to do these stitches without a cable needle. My method is not the way you will normally see it executed, nor is it the only way to do cabling without a needle but this method was easiest for me to wrap my thick skull around.

T2R (Right twist stitch)
Here is the standard definition of the stitch

Slip first stitch onto cable needle, hold to back. Knit the next stitch through back loop then purl the stitch on cable needle.

Now here is how to work that stitch without the cable needle.

Slip both of the stitches involved in the twist purlwise onto the right needle.
(I know that most tutorials do not do it this way. This is just the method that works best for me. Feel free to use whatever method works for you)

Place the tip of the left needle into the back of the first of the two slipped stitches.

Place your thumb under the two slipped stitches, lightly pinching the stitches to prevent any runaways.

Now for the scary part. While pinching the base of your stitches between your thumb and forefinger, remove the right needle from these two stitches.
Don’t panic, keep breathing. No need for hyperventilating. Your thumb will keep the free stitch from escaping

Quickly catch the live stitch with the tip of the right needle.

Slip this stitch back onto the left needle. Now your stitches are rearranged and you are ready to knit.

Knit the first stitch through the back loop. And purl the second stitch.

You have now completed the T2R without the aid of a cable needle.

Are you ready to try the left twist?

T2L (Left Twist)
Here are the standard instructions for the stitch.

Slip stitch onto cable needle, hold to front. Purl next stitch then knit stitch on cable needle through back loop.

Now here is how I do it without the aid of the cable needle
(Same caveat as before: I know that most tutorials do not do it this way. This is just the method that works best for me. Feel free to use whatever method works for you)

Slip both of the stitches involved in the twist purlwise onto the right needle.

Place the tip of the left needle into the front of the first of the two slipped stitches.

Place your thumb under the two slipped stitches to prevent any runaways.

Now for the scary part. While pinching the base of your stitches between your thumb and forefinger, remove the right needle from these two stitches.
Don’t panic, keep breathing. No need for hyperventilating. Your thumb will keep the free stitch from escaping

Quickly catch the live stitch with the tip of the right needle.

Slip this stitch back onto the left needle. Now your stitches are rearranged and you are ready to knit.

Purl the first stitch. And knit the second stitch through the back loop.

You have now completed the T2L without the aid of a cable needle.

A couple of tips that will help you out. You might want to place your finger on the second stitch of the pair when you work the first stitch. This helps keep the second stitch from slipping off your needle while working the first stitch.

You can actually work the first stitch of the combination without ever removing the right needle after repositioning of the stitches if you have your yarn on the proper side of your work.

One final photo, if you happen to need to rip back, here is the proper orientation for those twisted stitches to be on the needle.

Notice that the stitch is crossed at he base instead of being open as a normal knit stitch would be.

The Mystery and Miracle of Blocking

Lace, especially the effect of blocking on it, has always been a source of fascination for me. I am amazed that such puckered and puffed knitting can be turned into a wonderful piece of lace by wetting and stretching. I thought you might be interested in the journey of a lace shawl from the needles to wearable art.

In my last post I mentioned Lotus Blossom shawl that I started over a year ago.
Here is what it looked like on the needles

Not much to see, I admit. But I had faith in the power of the block so I persevered.

It was cast off on Sunday. Here is what it looked like right off the needles.

Nice color but rather puffy and puckered, don’t you think?

Now to submit it to a little torture. First, I toss it into a bit of soapy water. I used tepid water and a little bit of Eucalan for my soak.

While it is soaking, I collect the torture devices and set up the torture chamber.

Here are the necessary supplies

A cheap cardboard cutting board, some stainless steel welding wires, pins and towels.

First I spread the cutting board on top of my patio table.

Can you tell I have had this cutting board for a while?

Next, I covered the cutting board with thick towels – to protect the cardboard not the shawl.

Notice that I lined up the towels with one of the grid lines from the cutting board to give myself a straight line reference.

Now that the blocking table is set up, it is time to take the shawl out of the soak.

And gently squeeze out the excess water.

Notice that the yarn bled a little. Most of the darkly colored wools that I have used will bleed a small amount on the first wash.

Then roll the shawl in a towel to remove some of the excess water.

Don’t try to wring it too much because you want the shawl nicely damp for the blocking.

Here is where the fun starts. For the top edge of the shawl, I inserted two welding rods to get a nice straight edge.

To insert the wire, I wove it in and out of the stitching along the first row on knitting.

It is a tedious process but using the wire makes a much straighter edge than pinning.

I used two wires because one was too short.

They are crossed in the center back. Notice that the stitches are flatter and the design is starting to show already.

Time to start the stretching. Working from the center outward, I stretched the top edge of the shawl and pinned it along my straight edge.

Again working from the center down, I gently stretch and pin the shawl.

The process of stretching and pinning continues – always working from the central line outward toward the edges.

Once the center is pinned, you continue the stretch and pin process for each of the points of the shawl.

Notice how visible the design is becoming as the shawl is stretched.

The process is not a fast one. And it will require the occasional readjustment of a pin once the lace is fully stretched but do you see that miracle happening?

Shawl pinned, I realize that I need to make a couple of adjustments to the pinning.

Here is the shawl fully pinned.

Quite a difference from the way it looked right off the needles, huh?

Here is a close up of the center back motif.

Amazing the difference a little stretching makes.

Now allow it to dry for a couple of hours, remove the pins and wires and your beautiful lace is ready to be properly photographed.

Lighter weight yarns – this one was light fingering – dry pretty quickly. But do make sure it is completely dry before removing the pins. It might be tempted to pucker if you remove them too soon.

Gratuitous lace photo.

More gratuitous lace. Bear with me. This took over a year to get it off the needles.

The pattern by Dorothy Siemens and available from Fiddlesticks Knitting. It was a fun knit and I am very pleased with the results. The pattern is fully charted. The charts are big and easy to read. No need for the highlighter tape on this one.

This pattern was my first that was charted to the center stitch only. This required you to read the chart one way for the first half of the row and then read it in reverse for the second half of the row. This took a little getting used to – especially at the center back when you reverse the order of the stitches. But once I got the hang of it, the charts were really easy to follow. I found writing the row numbers on the left edge of the chart really handy.

The yarn was Schaefer Anne, a light fingering weight wool-mohair blend. It took under 560 yards to knit the shawl. I love the vibrant colors in this yarn and am very glad that this gorgeous skein became a shawl instead of socks that were originally planned.