Bella Knitting

Combined Knitting: A Tutorial

Sarah

In my last post, I demonstrated how to knit backwards. Today, I'm sharing a tutorial on how to knit in the "combined" knitting method. The most well-known combination knitter is probably Annie Modesitt; according to her web site, this method is a combination of Western and Eastern knitting methods -- hence the name.

I'm not usually a combination knitter, but I find it useful to knit this way when I am knitting large pieces of stockinette flat, because this method gives me a more even tension and prevents me from "rowing out." My tension in combined knitting is much more similar to the tension I get when knitting in the round, so if a project asks me to knit stockinette both in the round and flat, I switch to the combined knitting method for the flat portions. Other times I switch up my knitting methods just to avoid the tedium of lots of plain stockinette. I also think that switching now and then -- provided it doesn't create obvious tension changes -- can be helpful in avoiding injuries to the hands and wrists, since you're then not using the same muscles in the same way over and over.

To knit combined, begin on the purl side of the work. To purl, insert the right-hand needle into the next loop on the left-hand needle as shown.

Now, bring the yarn under and around the right-hand needle, as shown.

Bring the yarn through the loop, creating the new stitch on the right-hand needle.

Let the old loop slide off the left-hand needle. You have now created a new purl stitch. It doesn't really look any different from your usual purl stitch on this side, but if you look at the right side...

...you can see that the stitches are sitting on the needle in a different way.

You can probably see it better in this photo. If you knit this stitch the "regular" way (inserting the needle from the left to right), it would end up twisted. We don't want that, so...

...Insert the needle straight through as shown.

Wrap the yarn around the right-hand needle and bring the new loop through.

See? New knit stitch.

Below is the finished knit row. In a loosely spun cotton yarn like this (Blue Sky Alpacas worsted weight cotton) I find it much easier to get even tension knitting using the continental method than my usual style. Even if you don't have tension problems, it's fun to try out different knitting methods -- you never know when you'll come across something that will help you to enjoy your knitting even more!

Store Bought Sweaters

Laura

This is my friend Susan (sans head as promised). We met when we both lived in the Chicagoland area. I moved west to the San Francisco Bay area while she headed south to Austin. All in all three fabulous places to live. We met for a brief time last week at the San Francisco airport. A bit odd, yes, but she had a three-hour layover on the way to Hawaii. So while I didn't get to go on the vacation I  ran up to have a bit of lunch in the plush surrounding of SFO.

Look at the cute sweater she has on! My knitter's eye immediately started dissecting it. The varying lace patterns, the solid band, cute hood. It would be fabulous in a nice light bamboo yarn. She told me it's a sweater by Cabi. They sell clothes via home parties, they're nice I have bought some Cabi things myself.  The thing is if I were to buy this sweater, I would forever be asked if I knit it. I stopped to think and realized that the sweaters I do buy are the ones that won't be confused with the ones I knit. I was especially careful of this when I worked in a LYS - no sense confusing customers. Am I the only one that thinks this way? Do you buy hand-knit looking sweaters or like me are you busy making sketches of what you see in the store to add to your project list?

Shhh, here's Susan. She's just too cute to have her head chopped off! Thank you iPhone camera.

Knit Backwards: A Tutorial

Sarah

Do you ever find yourself "rowing out" when knitting stockinette? Or have you ever knit a narrow piece of stockinette, and grown irritated at having to turn, turn, turn your work every few seconds? I was doing both on the sleeve of a little jacket I'm knitting to give to my friend who is expecting twins. You can see in the lower portion that my tension is pretty uneven.

Here is a view of the reverse side where I'm rowing out the worst: I've highlighted those areas so you can really see what I mean.

There are a few ways to fix this problem. One is to use two different needle sizes, one for each side of the knitting, to mitigate the tension differences created by the knitter when knitting vs. purling. I prefer to alter my knitting itself, and today I'm going to show you one way to do that: by knitting backwards. You see, when I purl across the back of stockinette fabric, my tension is different from when I knit across the front. But when I knit backwards, my tension is much more similar to my knit rows. Technically, you are still purling when you knit backwards, but you're doing it with the right side facing you -- meaning you never have to turn your work! This is a great technique to use when you are working on a very narrow piece of stockinette, such as a sleeve, one of those short-row ruffle scarves, or an entrelac project. And trust me, it's not hard to do!

After you have knit a row in the usual fashion, DO NOT TURN the work, but leave the right side facing you. You will be working from left to right across the row. To make a stitch, begin by inserting the left hand needle into the loop as shown, so that the left needle crosses behind the right one.

Now bring the yarn over the top of the left hand needle and hold it in place.

Using the right-hand needle, lift the stitch over and off the needle, leaving the new loop in place on the left-hand needle.

You have now created a new stitch. Repeat this procedure across the row. It will seem awkward at first, and even with experience you may not be as fast as with your normal knit and purl methods, but when you are knitting something fairly narrow in stockinette, it is often more efficient to knit this way, since you don't have to turn the work -- and I know that for me personally, it makes a huge difference in the evenness of my tension. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes!

Sports Fan Knitting

Laura

As those of you reading the blog for awhile may have noticed, I am a sports fan. I love watching football in particular but like many of you spend hours upon hours at my kids sporting events as well. When we went to Stitches West this year half the booth was dedicated to baby projects and half to sports projects. It was fun to see the wide variety of team that knitters (and their guys) attending this California convention supported. For the second year in a row the Midwest was well represented and we sold out of Green Bay Packers colors (last year it was the Minnesota VIkings fan in attendance).

With all this fun, we've spun off the sporting collections to a new sister web site --> SportsFanKnitting.com. We've have our favorite Karabella Aurora 8 in colors for all the teams pro, college and high school. We are working with out local high school for ideas for their dance team too.

Playing with Color

Laura

One of the things I like best about visiting my LYS is getting ideas on yarn and color combinations. That's why we like to add recommendations to our web site whenever we can.

Now that I have the store web site under control, I've been able to get to a few things I've been meaning to do. The top item on that list was adding Pima Tencel color combinations for our very popular non-garter Log Cabin blanket. With summer babies on the way it seemed like the perfect time to get this done and what fun we had  with balls of yarn spread all over the table shuffling colors this way and that.

The blankets use four colors, so we combined a little of this with a little of that, loving this one, rolling our eyes at that one. Trying the unexpected just to see how it worked. In the end, after some voting we picked ten options in three palettes; Bold, Pastel and Natural.

I fell in love with some of the pretty spring pastels, now all I need is a baby to knit for! With a bit of new nifty I was able to add a page showing all the related Flickr photos. Fun.

You may not be building a Log Cabin blanket right now but I bet you might just have a bit of stash around. You might be surprised at what works together - so take a peek.

Pre-finishing

Laura

I've been playing with a new yarn, Karabella Lace Merino Silk. I am really enjoying it (in spite of my little mishap with the pattern the other day).

I seem to be attracted to merino/silk blends first the Cascade Venezia and now this wonderfully soft yarn which is delightful to knit with and has the slight shine silk brings to yarn. I think it will make a lovely all season shawl.

I've only knit about a foot of my new shawl so far but I already steamed it to see how the pattern will look when done. I like to do a little finish work along the way sometimes; steaming part of the work and sewing in ends before I'm done. It gives me a sneak peek into the finished project and keeps me motivated.  Fewer UFOs that way.

Lemonade

Laura

I've been having a bit of trouble with my eyesight lately. It was interfering with a few of my favorite things like knitting, reading and blogging - no big surprises there. I looked upon this issue as an excuse opportunity to  start a brand new collection. Some women collect shoes, some purses (and there's nothing wrong with doing both). Me, I'm going to try reading glasses. It's a pretty harmless thing to collect, cheaper than a good shoe or purse and more limited in quantity than my yarn stash!

It's not as easy as it sounds. There are many many boring reading glasses available in your local drug store - those are not for me! But you never know where you will find the perfect pair. I'd love to tell you I'm browsing chi-chi boutiques but this snazzy red pair is from my local car wash. The vigilant shopper is rewarded with great finds. :)

I like that I can be much more daring in my glasses collection than I ever would in my wardrobe. I think a pair to match every knitting project is an admirable goal don't you?!

Thanks to CIndi for recommending ICU Eyewear (get it?). They actually make the red glasses above and sell lots of sets with matching glasses and case. Not sure why I find that appealing but I definitely do.

She is, however, feeding my addiction. I already ordered a pair - brightly striped sun-reading glasses. Who knew there were such things. Now I can knit outside in the sun. Summer here I come!

 

Ancient Knitting Proverbs

Laura

She who experiments with a perfectly good lace pattern in the middle of a project is foolish.

She who makes more mistakes trying to repair foolish choice is careless.

She who tries it all again gets what she deserves.

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Lovely tulips in my kitchen bringing me inner peace as I start all over again.

Knitting Virtues

Laura

When reading about Sarah’s sewing machine, I was struck by the comparison between sewing and knitting. I am a sometimes sewer, a so-so sewer, a sewer of squares anyway and the occasional Halloween costume. It’s really a practical thing; I love nice fabrics and refuse, absolutely refuse to spend a fortune on curtains made by someone else. I guess it’s kind of the way I’ll spend a bit of my yarn budget on cashmere but would never buy a $300 cashmere sweater.

The thing about sewing is that it’s not really all about the sewing machine. If I had to estimate the percent of time actually spent pushing the petal compared to time in preparation and finishing I would say it’s about 25%. There are yardage calculations, finding necessary fusing, ribbon or matching thread colors, reading the pattern, ironing the pattern paper, cutting the pattern out, ironing the fabric, clearing the kitchen table so you have room to work, laying out the pattern, pinning the pattern to the fabric, cutting the fabric, more pinning,  winding the bobbin, ironing the seams, sewing the seams flat, trimming seams, fitting, hemming and button sewing.  I use the iron at least twice as long as I use the sewing machine.

As knitters we seem to have endless patience when it comes to knitting but give us a bit of finishing and it’s all over. How we suffer through those few hours of steaming or blocking, sewing in ends and seaming all the time bemoaning the time spent not knitting our next project. What percent of time do you think is spent in knitting vs. prep and finishing … 90%? More? Although we all know better, many of us resent knitting even the stingiest of swatches firm in our belief that swatching is really important for other knitters.

Non-knitters assume knitters must be extremely patient, but surprisingly, that may not be the case. When knitting in public just this week, a woman commented to me that she would love to knit but lacked the patience. My response back was that I thought it might just be the opposite. I lacked the patience to sit with nothing to do in many of life’s waiting moments. That knitting filled a void in time and gave me an outlet for physical and mental energy. The comparison to sewing only strengthens this theory. While we're willing to spend both time and energy on our creations we quickly lose interest in the non-knitting aspects of our craft. Do sewers make better knitters because they approach the project timeline differently?

What if we were willing to spend as much time off the needles, in pre- and post-knitting, as we were on the needle? How might the quality of our finished projects improve? Would we, however, get less joy out of creating them resulting in a higher number of UFOs?

So what do you think? Are you patient or does your knitting mask a restless spirit?

The Hybrid

Sarah

A while back, I fell in love with the Elizabeth Zimmermann hybrid sweater as knit by Brooklyntweed -- but then again, who didn't? I planned on knitting one for Jason, so I chose my yarn (Plymouth Encore worsted) in a tweedy dark brown, plus a ball of tweedy camel for the contrast-color hems. Then, like a good knitter, I took Jason's chest measurement, swatched, and did the math.

Math isn't always all it's cracked up to be. I measured Jason's chest, thinking (I thought logically) that I would want to knit the sweater body to fit his body. What's the problem there? Well, Jason has a very V-shaped torso, so his waist is quite a bit smaller than his chest. Also, I aimed for a tiny bit of ease. Can you guess where this is headed? The fact that it's not Jason wearing the sweater in the photo, but my dad, has probably clued you in.

The sweater didn't end up being ridiculously large on Jason, but it was large enough on him that it looked sloppy. To be worn well, I think this sweater should be pretty fitted. Jason suggested that I "knit it smaller" and I must say that I laughed at him mockingly. Reknit the entire sweater at a finer gauge, or with a smaller number of stitches? No way. Not when I could tell that I could solve the entire problem by changing the designated recipient!

The sweater fits my dad perfectly, and he loves it! Of the four sweaters I've given my dad, this one definitely turned out the best -- so really, my miscalculations were a stroke of luck. I've got some ideas for a new Jason sweater, so he's not hurting. (Not to mention the fact that the weather has turned considerably warmer here -- it's not like Jason would have gotten much use out of it anyway.) I'm also quite pleased to have tried out this hybrid construction: I used the instructions in Knitting Workshop, but you can also find them in Knitting Without Tears. I think this version is called the shirt-yoke version -- the saddles are knit across the back and grafted together in the middle. For the neckline, I did a contrast-color folded hem as for the sleeve cuffs and hem.

Though overall I'm quite happy with how things turned out, I have to say that I am not planning to work with this yarn again. It's a blend of 75% acrylic and 25% wool, and it just was not that pleasant to work with. Supposedly it's easy-care, but I felt like it did not hold up as well in my gentle washing process as pure wool does -- it definitely lacked wool's resiliency. Oh well, my dad is such a great knitting recipient that I will happily knit him a replacement if it wears out!