BLOG: Knitting

Giveaway: "Mini Knitted" Book Series + Interview with Sahiyo Ishii

October 12, 2017

I have an amazing opportunity for you today! Search Press (the publisher of the adorable Mini Knitted series) is giving one reader 5 books, including:

Keep reading for details on how to enter! Sachiyo Ishii is the author of 4 of these books, and she’s joined us to tell us a bit about herself and her process!

Each book is packed with projects (more than 25 patterns per book), using a variety of techniques with simple knitting stitches.

Interview with Sachiyo Ishii

Sachiyo is the prolific author of 4 of the Mini Knitted books, and I was delighted that she took the time to come talk to us! Welcome, Sachiyo!

How did you begin knitting? And when did it take a professional turn?
I took up knitting in my 30’s after my second son was born. I could not knit a stitch until then. I thought dressing my boys in my handmade clothes was trendy and very Yummy Mummy, but soon discovered that knitting requires skill and patience. With my friend’s help, I did achieve my very first piece, but the stitches were messy and uneven, and the sleeves came out in different lengths.

It seemed to me that I had a very long way to go until I would be able to knit a decent garment. I almost gave up knitting altogether, however, I discovered that you can make small toys with basic skills. I practiced published patterns for some time and then, I started creating my own to add personality. I knitted many animals and proposed my current publisher, Search Press the idea of the knitted animal park. It is great to find a channel that I can put my effort into.

You’ve written so many books! Where do you find your inspiration?
I get inspiration from everywhere. When I walk in town, looking through books and magazines, shop windows, everywhere! I am constantly thinking of new designs no matter where I go or what I do. Illustrations and cartoons, felted work and sugar craft are a good source, too. They are already in simplified forms and it is easy to make them into my craft projects.

What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy attending fitness classes and swimming. When I get stuck with a project, swimming can be the best solution to get a fresh idea. I don’t do enough but I like visiting craft shops and fairs. I guess I cannot completely be free from crafting.

What is your favourite yarn/knitting needle/craft supply?
For many years, my favourite yarns are Rowan. I love felted tweed especially. It is such a delight to knit with quality yarn.
I have been using bamboo needles since I took up knitting. They are less slippery and keep stitches well and the best of all, they feel great in hands. If you are still new to the skill, bamboo needles are must. I have been using Clover Takumi needles.
My favourite is Clover products. My mother loved them for many years and recently I inherited them all. Some are bought over 30 years ago but still in very good condition.

Is there a favourite piece you’ve made? Perhaps for yourself?
It is hard to say since I have many favourites, but I love the knitted carousel. I have a whole set of amusement park in knitting and would love to do a book someday. Most of my creations are for myself except occasional gifts to my friends. It is great to be an author. You get to keep all samples!

Thank you, Sachiyo!

Find Sachiyo!

Website: www.Knitsbysachi.com
Instagram: knitsbysachi
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KnitsBySachi/
Ravelry: sachiyo-ishii
Pinterest: knitsbysachi
Twitter: Knitsbysachi

Variegated Yarns: swatches in knitting, crocheting and weaving

April 25, 2017

It’s always so mysterious how a pretty little skein will work up, isn’t it? Especially with variegated yarn!

I dyed up a little (well, BIG) skein and made swatches in knitting, crocheting and weaving! And they’re SO different!

Here’s the skein I dyed (if you want to try it, check my tutorial on how to dye yarn with Wilton Icing Dye):

Knitted Swatch

Here’s my knitted swatch!

The factor that’s relevant in how variegated yarn will work up is how long each color repeat is and how much yarn each stitch uses. Although skeins vary, most are about 3-4 feet in circumference, and a variegated yarn will break this length up into a few colors. So, most color repeats are a few to several inches.

Here’s how to calculate how much yarn each stitch uses.

You can see here that each color lasts several stitches before switching to a new color.

Crocheting

Crochet stitches, in general, use more yarn than knitting stitches, so a color repeat will last over a fewer number of stitches.

Here’s my crochet swatch

This swatch is done in single crochet, and most of the colors last for a few stitches before changing (as compared to several with knitting). This results in a ‘splotchier’ looking fabric.

You might be interested in reading about the latest craze of Planned Pooling.

Weaving

Totally different from knitting and crochet, because there isn’t a ‘stitch’, the color repeat goes for as long as it actually goes on the yarn. In most cases, a color lasted for an entire row on my scarf.

Also, weaving uses two directions of yarn, the warp and the weft.This results in a really lovely plaid-like fabric. Here’s my swatch:

All together now!

They’re all so different, right?

It just goes to show that when you find that dream variegated skein, you still have choices to make! You’ll want to select a project (and craft) that will result in the colors working up the way you want!

Best,
Stacey

Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook: Review

February 14, 2017

This book. Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. Drool.

I saw it. And I bought it.

I don’t buy a lot of craft books. (Seriously, all of my books fit on one shelf!)

But I bought this one and love it. And I added my old cable stitch dictionary to my ‘Spring Cleaning’ pile. Because I don’t need it any more.

(does this inside cover give you an idea of all of the amazingness inside?)

I had read a lot of amazing reviews about this book, but I’m a bit of a skeptic. I thought, ‘oh, they’re probably just saying nice stuff because Norah Gaughan is really famous’. (geesh, that makes me sound really awful, doesn’t it? It’s just that in my job, I see a lot of books.) And the cable on the cover is nice, but it didn’t make me pass out from the amazingness.

But once my book arrived I discovered that my skepticism was unwarranted. It actually IS really amazing.

The introduction isn’t very long, but it’s packed with pretty juicy information. The topics covered include:

Using a double point needle as a cable needle
Left vs. Right slants
How to slip stitches onto a needle & how to work the held stitches
Cable terminology
How to read cable charts
Tips for keeping your place on a chart
A full explanation of Norah’s own Stockinette Stitch Equivalent System (SSE), so you can swap different cable stitches into different patterns
How to fix a mistake in a cable
How to count cabled rows

I read the introduction and felt like, ‘Wow. That has everything I need to know.’

The cable designs (many not previously published) are just stunning. Look at this one.

What?!?

Very few are this complicated… most of the stitch patterns are two notches above ‘simple’, but stunningly beautiful and hovering significantly below ‘crazily complex’. Which is exactly what you want in a stitch dictionary.

I fell in love with the Seed Rib Half Drop (#84 in the book) and cast on for a scarf immediately.

Isn’t it gorgeous? (The cable pattern, I mean… not my knitting!) It was so enjoyable to knit… I felt like each cable was a little piece of knitter’s candy. I just kept wanting to get to the next one!

The book also contains 15 projects, which are all quite lovely and creative projects using cables, in addition to the more than 150 stitch patterns in the book.

Whoa. This book is just plain fabulous. Treat yourself.

Those links are affiliate links. That means I earn a tiny commission if you buy after clicking through. 🙂

Children’s Books with Knitting (and Yarn!)

December 12, 2016

It’s gift-giving time! And I LOVE giving books as presents!

So I’ve compiled a list of Children’s books that contain knitting (or spinning or weaving or yarn… but it’s mostly knitting)! Not all of these books is about knitting, but yarn gets either a mention or an illustrated appearance!

Some of these we already own… but I’ll tell you, I added quite a few to Maddie’s Wish List! Thanks so much to everyone who chimed in on Twitter and Facebook to contribute their faves!

This post contains affiliate links to amazon.

Books for Small Children (to 3 years)

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd
Penguin in Love, Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
Squid and Octopus, Friends for Always by Tao Nyeu
Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dewdney
The Mitten and The Hat by Jan Brett
Don’t Worry Hugless Douglas! by David Melling
Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat by Emily MacKenzie
Knitty Kitty by David Elliott
Noodle’s Knitting by Sheryl Webster
Hank and Gracie Save the Day by Stacy Klaus

Books for Bigger Children (4 – 8 years)

Henry’s Hat, Phoebe’s Sweater, and Freddie’s Blanket by Joanna Johnson
Milo Armadillo by Jan Fearnley
Edmund Unravels by Andrew Kolb
The Truly Horrible Sweater… That Grandma Knit by Debbie Macomber & Mary Lou Carney
Extra Yarn by Matt Barnett
Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski
Knitting Nell by Julie Jersild Roth

The Mitten String by Jennifer Rosner
Kiki’s Hats by Warren Hanson
The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool
Shall I Knit You a Hat? by Kate Klise
Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf by Alana Dakos
Ned the Knitting Pirate by Diana Murray
A Hat for Mrs. Goldman: a Story about Knitting and Love by Michelle Edwards
Leave Me Alone! by Very Brosgol
Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tomie dePaola
Martha Moth Makes Socks by Cambria Evans
Zadie and Plain Vanilla, the Rainbow Alpaca, Save Christmas by Barbara Blount Ziek

More Lists!

I’m not the first one to put together a list of books of children’s books featuring knitting! Check out these other lists!

Best Knitted-Themed Books for Kids by Knitted Bliss
Knitting in Kid’s Books on Goodreads

Any I’ve left out? What’s your fave?

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How to use 9" circular needles for any pattern!

June 9, 2016

You know I love my 9″ circular needles. I think they’re the easiest way to knit socks and sleeves.

But, because they’re fairly new, there aren’t a lot of patterns written specifically for the 9 inch needle. I’m often asked how to translate your favorite sock pattern into one that can be used on a 9″ circular.

Here’s how to do it! And good news, it’s easy!

In this blog post, I’m going to show you a simple little example of a piece of knitting with 10 stitches. The green string is our yarn!

Step 1: Place your End of Round marker

If you’re familiar with knitting on circular needles, then you are probably already doing this step. The end of round marker is an interestingly-colored marker (different from all the rest!) that tells you when you’ve hit the end of your round.

Place stitch markers where the double points would be

Now, here’s the real trick. You want to place stitch markers on your work to note where would have been between the double point needles (shown in the image as orange).

Using our little example, let’s say the pattern told you to cast 3 sts onto one double point, 3 sts onto another and 4 sts onto a third needle. You would place markers to section off 3, 3 and then 4 sts.

This trick works whether you’re instructed to use 3 or 4 double point needles.

If the pattern called for 2 needles (such as when you knit socks on 2 circular needles), then you can do the same trick, just using fewer markers!

That’s it! Now you can knit, and easily follow the instructions as they refer to double point needles. If you want a bit more help, you might want to find stitch markers that contain numbers (to remind you which ‘needle’ would have been which.

You can now use 9″ circular needles on socks and sleeves… now that you know how to ‘translate’ the pattern! Happy knitting!

How to Knit or Crochet Using an Exact Amount of Yardage!

April 22, 2016

We’ve all done this, right? You have a ball (or partial ball) of yarn, and you want to know how much you can knit/crochet until you run out. How do you calculate this?

I’ll show you!

How to calculate how many stitches you can get from your yarn

I’m detailing each of these steps, below!

Calculate how many yards of yarn you have
Calculate how many stitches you get per yard (using your gauge)
Calculate how many stitches you can get from your yardage!

How to calculate how much yardage you have

If you have full skeins of yarn, this step is easy. Just read the label.

But, if you have partial skeins, you’ll need to do some calculating. The best way to do this calculation is by using weight. Read this blog post for step-by-step instructions!

You’ll need a digital scale and a calculator!

How to calculate how many stitches you get per yard

You’ll need to do a little gauge swatch! This technique works for either knit or crochet. Read this great blog post on how to measure yarn.

This blog post has some typical measurements for crochet.

Calculate how many stitches you can get from your yardage!

Let’s put it all together now!

To begin, multiply your yardage by 36 to get the length in inches.

So, if I have 110 yards, that’s 3960 inches.

Divide this number by your inch/stitch measurement (that you got in step 2), which for single crochet with a worsted weight is 1.8″.

3960/1.8 is 2200 single crochets!

That’s your number! A good pattern will contain stitch counts at the end of each row, so you can add them up and determine how many extra rows you can sneak into a cowl, or whether you’ll need so skip some rows of sleeve length to get your sweater to work!

Best,
Stacey

How to knit anything with STRIPES!

February 25, 2016

I am completely in love with rainbow yarn!

I love rainbows. I want to knit everything in rainbows.

But I’ve been asked… what pattern do you use? I’m not seeing a lot of patterns with stripes!

Well, let me tell you: you can knit almost any pattern in stripes! I’m going to share my tips with you, and show off a darling little sweater as an example!

Tips for knitting almost any pattern in stripes!

This adorable little sweater is Gramps by Tin Can Knits, and the sample is in two colors, not stripes. But no worries!

Here are some tips!

Calculate your yarn usage (total amount of yarn divided by the number of colors you have) to make sure you have enough yarn of each color. You can supplement with one ‘main’ color (as I’ve done for the collar)
Select a pattern that’s fairly simple, like stockinette. For example, a lace pattern would get lost in the stripes.
Change colors at the end of a row (and not the middle) for the cleanest stripes.
Keep in mind that changing colors on a purl row will create a bump of color, so aim for a changing on a knit row.
A ‘make 1 increase’ draws up yarn from the previous round, so avoid changing colors on this type of increase. For the sweater below, I started a new color on rows that were just plain knit.
Read the pattern in advance to plan out the number of rows each color should be to avoid the increases/purls/etc mentioned above.

Have fun! There’s no right or wrong way to do it!

I like to organize my stripes in color order (all rainbow-like), but it would be equally awesome for you to plan your colors randomly. Or have different stripe widths. There are no rules!

Free Bulky Hat Pattern + Bulky Rainbow Samplers!

December 11, 2015

Stitch up a quick and easy rainbow hat using bulky yarn!

Free Download: Easy Bulky Hat Pattern

I wrote up a quickie pattern for you that shows off the wonderful texture and colors in this yarn!

It’s a free pattern, and you can download the pdf, here.

You can knit the entire hat with one 16″ circular… no need to switch to double points!

The hat is sized to fit a woman’s medium (21″ head circumference), but is pretty stretchy, so you can probably fit it on a slightly larger one!

Ready for some rainbow fun?

Download your Easy Bulky Hat pattern. I can’t wait to see yours!

Have you heard about the Red Scarf Project?

November 17, 2015

This post originally appeared on November 20th, 2013. But it’s such a great cause, I’m reposting it with additional information!

What happens to a child in the foster care system when they turn 18? They’re ‘adults’, and are set out into the world alone, and without a network of family or social resources.

Sad, right?

If those kids are awesome enough to get themselves into college… who sends them care packages? Who do they call if they need an emergency $50 for a surprise textbook?

In most cases, they have no one to turn to.

Makes you sniffle, right?

That’s why I love Foster Care to Success, an organization that supports foster care children who have ‘aged out’ of the system. The organization collects money for emergency funds and runs other great drives to support this often-overlooked population.

I particularly love the Red Scarf Project. I read about it in Craft Activism.

The Red Scarf Project collects scarves from September 1st – December 15th every year, and then distributes them to a foster student on Valentine’s Day.

Isn’t that sweet? Can you imagine how special you’d feel if a handmade scarf with a sweet note showed up on your door? And what a boost that would give to your semester?

That’s why I’m knitting one!

I didn’t feel like I had the time: the Kit Club packages, hosting Thanksgiving dinner, planning for the holidays… and then I told myself “Balarky! You can make the time! These college students don’t have families!”

And surprise… I’m finding the time!

Join in!

Can you spare the time?

Nothing fancy is required, just a simple red knitted or crocheted scarf. Check out the guidelines, here.

This link tells you where to mail the scarves, as well as the not-too-hard guidelines (basically is red, gender neutral and about 60″ long). Pattern suggestions, too!

Sweet extras, such as a hand-written note, are welcome!

Want to try 9 inch circular needles?

October 27, 2015

I absolutely love knitting socks on 9 inch circular needles.

Most people think I’m crazy when I say that my favorite knitting needle is a 9″ circular. But I can’t help it. I’m in love.

When you knit with other techniques (double point needles, two circulars or magic loop), there’s always a join that creates the potential for laddering (those icky loose stitches) as well as costs you some time maneuvering them around.

With the 9″ circular, there’s none of that! You just knit around and around!

A little video for you!

Are you a bit nervous about knitting with 9″ circulars? Don’t be!

I made this video a little while ago:

And it’s pretty good, but felt like I could give you a better idea of what to do my knitting a miniature heel flap, where I could also show you how to pick up stitches. So, I made you this one:

(sorry, the manicure isn’t as nice… but that’s okay, right? I filmed the first one while I still had fancy nails from filming my Craftsy course!)

The heel flap is what most people think is the scariest part of knitting on a 9 inch circular… and I hope you can see that it’s really not hard!

Don’t you feel like giving it a try?

Pick your favorite pattern!

Almost any pattern can be converted to 9″ circulars!

If you’re a newbie, I recommend Churchmouse Yarn and Tea’s Basic Sock pattern. If you’re looking for a more advanced pattern, I recommend the book Sock Knitting Master Class.

There are no patterns that I know of that specifically call for 9 inch circular needles. So, you should feel comfortable with knitting on a circular needle before beginning a pair of socks, as you will need to do some ‘translating’ in terminology.

Give ’em a try!

I’ll be honest, if you have big hands or like a lot of ‘space’ when you knit… the 9″ probably isn’t for you.

But if you like to knit socks, and are tired of losing a double point, getting ladders in your work or having trouble tossing your knitting into your bag and going… then you might love these guys! Try them!

Happy knitting!