Ask The Knitbro

dudesthatknit: Knit Tutorial: How to Knit The Horizontal...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:30:44 -0600

Knit Tutorial: How to Knit The Horizontal Herringbone Stitch (by newstitchaday)

Have you ever tried using thrift-store sweaters as sources of cheap yarn? If so, how do you get all the kinks out once it's unravelled?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:30:45 -0600

it’s a lot of work, but if you enjoy unraveling great swaths of knitting — and who doesn’t? — you should definitely give it a try. there’s a cute tutorial about recycling yarn here.

as for getting the kinks out, wind it into a hank — which is gonna look goofy as balls —

— and then soak it in warm water and hang it up to dry. its own weight will relax some, but not all, of the kinks. enough that you can knit with it without it trying to eat your face, anyway. whatever you make with it will look a little lumpy, but it will smooth out with time and washing.

how do i shorten the sleeves on my cardi without it being a whole re-knit job? I am hoping i can undo and fix from the cuff ? Is this possible or is it too hard to attempt?

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:31:03 -0600

yep, it’s possible! there’s a handy tutorial here. something they don’t mention, but which you might like to do for extra insurance, is running a lifeline through the row you want to work from before you start cutting. that saves you having to worry about things unraveling farther than you expected.

and since you want to shorten rather than lengthen, you don’t even necessarily need to re-knit the cuff. You could just remove the length you want to remove, then graft the remainder together.

I am ambidextrous, and usually work left handed. My mum is exclusively a southpaw, and is trying to teach me how to knit, but this is probably the one instance where my brain will not process the left handed way of doing things, even though it usually prefers the left hand. What do?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:30:44 -0600

the good news is: knitting is essentially an ambidextrous activity. you’re going to be doing stuff with both hands anyway. and being ambidextrous is going to be a big help if you get into, for instance, stranded colorwork, where holding one color in each hand is really, really useful.

it’s generally said that there are two ‘styles’ of knitting, english and continental. they’re distinguished by whether you hold the yarn in your right hand or your left, and since you’re moving loops from the left needle to the right needle either way, the position of the working yarn dictates the motion you use to get it on the needle. that’s why knitters will sometimes ask each other, “do you pick or throw?” in continental, you pick up the yarn with your needle, and in english you ‘throw’ the yarn over the needle with your fingers.

videos of each method here.

one might assume that continental is left-handed and english is right-handed, but like i said, both hands are doing stuff. i’m right-handed, but i find continental a lot faster. and i was able to train myself to do both, so i can do colorwork faster.

oh yeah, and just to complicate things, there’s such a thing as knitting back backward, where you’re moving stitches from the right needle to the left instead of the usual left-to-right. it produces the same fabric, it just means you have to reverse your charts. i haven’t learned that trick yet, but i swear i’m gonna. :D

What are some of the methods that you use to cast on? I was crocheting with my fingers and then threading the loops to the needle, but was told I was doing it wrong? Is that a way at all to do things or am I overcomplicating things for myself? I don't really know any other ways to cast on though so I guess if that's wrong how am I supposed to cast on?

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:30:45 -0600

anything that gets loops on your needle so you can work into them is a viable cast-on! next time someone tells you you’re Doin It Rong, administer a savage drubbing with a sock. i’ll back you up.

there are a squillion cast-on methods out there, and they all have different pros and cons. here’s a nice big selection, and that’s not even all of them. what you’re doing sounds like a variation on the provisional crochet cast-on, where instead of doing it in a different yarn and pulling the crochet row off later, you do it in your main yarn and leave it in. sounds legit to me!

my personal favorite is the long-tail cast-on, which is the first one on that page. it’s stretchy without being loose, not too bulky, and just generally versatile. the downside is having to pull out the right amount of yarn for the tail, which gets tricky when you need to cast on a lot of stitches, but you can get around that by pulling from both ends of the ball.

experiment, see what you like, and don’t let anyone police your fun. if you’re enjoying it, you’re doing it right. :D

I found the pattern anon was asking about. It's a decrease before starting the heel turn, and all it's asking is for the knitter to decrease either two or four stitches before starting the heel. They have 21 or 27 stitches and need to get down to 19 or 23. Decreases should be worked evenly in the knit sections, on the last wrong side row before starting the heel, with k2togs. It's translated from German, which is why it's a bit odd.

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 12:54:00 -0600

awesome, thank you!

hope this helps, anon!

I am knitting a pair of socks and following a pattern that I am not quite understanding. Right now I'm working on the heel and have been nitting 27 sts in a rib of K3/P3. Then the pattern asks me to do this: 1 st in each of the K4-section by K2 tog I just don't understand what it want done.

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:30:35 -0600

i… don’t know either. that’s very puzzling.

if you give me that section of the pattern as it’s written, with the original formatting, i can try to puzzle it out. i warn you, though, i’m pants at written patterns. also, sometimes the designer just messes up.

in general, though, it’s never a bad idea to just take a guess, try something, and see what happens. if it looks really wrong, at least you’ve eliminated one possibility. you can run a lifeline through the last row you’re sure of, so ripping back isn’t a nightmare.

I cast on with a slip knot, or at least, I'm trying to make it a habit. What do you do when you get to the end of a row? Do you just stitch into the slip knot?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:30:45 -0600

i do, yeah. i’ve seen some patterns that say not to count it in your cast-on number, and slip it off the needle and pull the tail so the slipknot vanishes — or, in something circular, to knit it together with the first stitch of the joining row — but when i’m designing for myself i don’t bother. once you’ve knit into it, it won’t come undone.

just don’t yank the tail hard when you’re about to sew it in, or it’ll bunch up that corner.

Yo knitbro! I just toe-up socked for the first time and then promptly destroyed all my hard work by using a bind off that was too tight. Is there any way I can fix that and salvage my work, or should I just learn to stare mournfully at what could have been? Also, so I don't make this mistake again, do you have a favourite bind off you use for socks? I defer to your wisdom in these matters. Thanks a bunch!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:30:37 -0600

shoosh, bro. you didn’t destroy jack. you’re just gonna have to pick back your bindoff row, and one row below that so you have enough yarn to work with, and bind off from there.

i just recently answered a question about tight bind-offs, so look back a couple days and you will see some options for stretchier bind-offs. personally i prefer to use the ‘knitting off’ method, or rather, to bind off in pattern using ‘knit off’ and ‘purl off’ to match my ribbing. there are some help videos here.

if that’s not stretchy enough, you can try something like this; i tried it, and it is, indeed, surprisingly stretchy. it tends to flare, though, and knitting-off in pattern turns out to be stretchy enough when you get comfy enough with it to relax.

Ok. When knitting a knit 4 purl 4 and you come to the end of your stitches with a purl stitch, when turning to go back down do you then start with a purl stitch so that all the stitches run the same?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:31:02 -0600

i assume you’re doing ribbing? if so, you’re going to start with a knit stitch, because now you’re on the other side and the purl you just did is a knit to you now. purl is knit’s backside.

when ribbing, you always want to do the same stitch as the one just below it. rather than trying to keep track of all the P’s and K’s in the pattern, it’s simpler to just look at your work, see what type of stitch you’re about to work into, and do the same type of stitch.

if you’re not doing ribbing, i’d have to see the pattern to know what it wants you to do.

when i bind off the cuffs of a sweater the bind off row is always too tight how can i get it to expand like the k1p1 cuff

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:30:48 -0600

there are a few things you can do.

thing one: practice binding off loosely. it’s surprisingly hard to do, especially if you tend to knit tightly. my first few pairs of socks were ankle-strangling devices.

thing two: use a larger needle for the bind-off row. two sizes should do it.

thing three: bind off in pattern. i don’t know why this makes the bind-off looser, but it really really does.

I can't use circular needles and have an afgan pattern with 145 stitches - on a size 7 needle - medium weight yarn -- if I use a different size needle would they all fit or should i use less stitches?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:34:00 -0600

well, what determines whether your stitches will fit on the needle is the needle’s length, not its gauge, really. since i don’t know how long your straight needle is, it’s hard to say whether you have a lot of options. the longest straight needles i’ve found are 14”, which is going to be pretty scrunchy for making an afghan on.

it’s possible you could work out whatever the problem is with circular needles. for instance, if they’re hard on your hands, try finding a way to support the weight of the work on your lap, and look for circulars with longish needle bits; the interchangeable-cord type have short enough needle ends that they can be kind of awkward to use for anything heavy, but fixed-cord ones are often longer. if you find your yarn catching on the join, try one of the high-quality brands like knitpicks harmony or addi turbo — they are schmood like butta.

but if you want to stick with the straight needles, i’d say use 14” ones and just go for it. knitting does scrunch a lot, and 145 stitches in dk or worsted isn’t astronomical. you’ll want one of those rubber point-protector doodads for when you set the project down, so the stitches don’t shoot off the end like a spring.

and if it’s just not gonna work, look for a pattern you can do in pieces instead. mitered square afghans, for instance, can be done almost seamlessly if you work it in strips, only changing yarns at the outside edges.

(edit: i originally said to work it across the diagonal, and found an image where someone is doing just that, and that was a brainfart because obviously you end up with a tail on each square that way. it’s when you’re working it in horizontal strips that you can chain each square off the last and only have a tail to sew in at the end of the strip.

anyway! there’s no seaming in either method, which is a bonus if you hate seaming afghan squares. :D)

Is this blog still alive?

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:20:21 -0600

not dead, only sleeping!

sorry bout the long hiatus, folks. winter eats my brain and i got in the habit of ignoring inboxes. i’m queueing up some answers now.

submission from makingtriangles: Thank you so much for the tips on changing colors in the round!...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 15:29:51 -0500

submission from makingtriangles:

Thank you so much for the tips on changing colors in the round! That method worked out so much better than the other way I did it. So much neater looking. Tada:

====

that looks fantastic! doesn’t seem to have messed with your tension much, either, which was my main concern over the technique. after blocking it’s going to be perfect.

dude. now i want to make a god tier hat! my pile of WIP’s, it doesn’t stop from getting taller…

I'm experienced with colorwork, but - I'm doing some hats in the round (god tier hood hats, heh!) with symbols on the front. With these, since the different color is only on the front, and it's in the round, I can't work back and forth across it like I usually do. Is there a better way to do this besides dividing it up into sections and using four different strands? The only other potentially viable alternative I can think of is to cut the alternate color after every row and agggh I hate that D:

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:43:00 -0500

you are in luck, my friend. i just ran across this extremely clever tutorial for doing intarsia bits on a piece you’re knitting in the round. i haven’t tried it yet, but i’m itching to.

the concept is basically like so: you knit around in your background color like usual, but when you come to your foreground color, you knit that bit across and back, slipping any stitches that would be in the background color. then you go through and knit your background color bits, leaving long floats that you’ll tack down with the tail of the foreground color.

that looks a lot easier for pieces with a small area of intarsia than the usual method, which is to knit it flat and seam it, or knit it back and forth twisting your yarns at the turns (which is seamless but fiddly).

if any intarsia at all is too much (and i know how that is, i have to be feeling pretty sassy to tackle it myself), you could knit the hat plain and then add your motif in duplicate stitch. here’s a pretty good tutorial for that — and let me just add that the author has a fine, ironic sense of humor. i wonder if the followup project was a hat labeled ‘head’. :D

How do I socks? O.0

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:28:00 -0500

sorry it took so long to get back to you, anon. life happened. but i’m here for you now!

knitty’s universal toe-up sock formula is a great place to start. if for some reason you’d rather work cuff-down, you can do the same stuff in reverse, ending with the toe and grafting the open side to the bottom of the foot.

in fact, the way i make socks now is almost exactly the way they show you in that article. there are only a couple things i do differently: i only wrap my turns once, because wrapping them both coming and going gets a bit bulky for my taste, and i use the backward loop cast-on instead of the crochet cast-on. after the first stitch (which you have to knit into the front of the loop or your stitch will just vanish) knit your first row into the back of the loop, and when you’re done with the toe and come back to pick up your stitches for working around, you’ll find these easy slanting strands to pick up from. it ends up being nearly invisible.

once you get comfy with short rows — and it really does get intuitive after a bit of practice, the wraps make it easy to see where you are — they come in handy for a lot of other stuff. hats, mittens, toys, shoulder shaping in sweaters, anything where you want to add a little non-Euclidian sass to your fabric.

if you’d rather work a tab heel, knitty has a great tutorial for that too. i’m no tab heel expert myself; i prefer the smoothness of a short-row heel. but i hear they’re more durable and easier to reinforce, so it’s a skill worth learning! i should do that. i should totally learn that skill.

So I got started on the hat, and I am using alpaca for the first time, and it is making me make gurgly noises of happiness. It is like petting a small, clean kitten that smells like lemon and mint.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:14:37 -0500

awesome! i love alpaca. it’s super warm, too.

My dad has requested a rib-knit watch cap for Father's Day, and I'd like to oblige, but am flailing over finding a simple pattern. Do you have any recommendations?

Fri, 04 May 2012 17:28:00 -0500

i went ahead and hunted up a handful of free patterns for you, and i’ll also give you some tips on how to do it without a pattern.

http://tiennieknits.typepad.com/tiennie_knits/ (‘ribby hat’ in the sidebar, pdf download)

http://blog.headlynz.com/2011/07/04/basic-knitted-stocking-hat-pattern.aspx

http://www.numei.com/knittingpatterns_hat_troops.htm

http://www.loopknits.com/2011/11/18/five-great-hats-for-men/ (slightly less basic, but still not too complicated; i especially like the ‘botanic’ hat, i’m a big westknits fan)

if you have some yarn you particularly like, though, and it’s not the same gauge as any of these, or you just want to launch away from the pattern pier and become a knit pirate like your humble knitbro, hats are a great place to start designing your own. it goes a little something like this:

take your fave yarn, and experiment with needle sizes and types of ribbing until you find something you like.
knit a couple inches of your swatch in that ribbing with those needles.
measure how many stitches are in 2 inches.
multiply that by 10, and that’s how many stitches to cast on for the average adult head.
cast on that many on the same needles — you can either work in the round, or work flat and seam it.
knit for at least 6 inches (more if you want a turn-up) before starting your decreases.
decrease 6 stitches every other round until you’re down to 6.
thread the yarn through those stitches, pull it tight, and sew it in. if you knit your hat flat, leave a nice long tail and use that to sew up the seam.
HAT GET! LEVEL UP!

it’s that easy, anon, so pick the yarn you know your dad will love and get ready to see him smile. ^_^

This is dorm room anon, just wanted to clarify that I wanted to block the sweater before sewing it together, because everything says that makes it fit better or easier or something. Does that make any difference?

Wed, 02 May 2012 20:55:48 -0500

it makes things a bit easier, since you don’t have to block all the pieces at once. :D

I've just started knitting a hat in the round, what kind of cast-on would be best to start out? Long tail is what I usually cast on using. Thank you so much! :)

Wed, 02 May 2012 01:18:29 -0500

i think that’s a good choice. it does sometimes make a slight flare when you use it just before ribbing, so if you don’t like that, the backwards loop cast-on will be less visible. personally, though, i like how it looks.

here’s a handy example of how backwards loop looks with ribbing (most obvious in the front there):

and here (at the bottom edge) is what it looks like when long tail with ribbing does that little flare:

long tail is stretchier, also, so there’s that. but either one works, so it’s your call, bro.