Author: debgemmellmods

Christmas is coming soon and I can’t do much else now but work on finishing up the projects that I planned to make. This year it’s socks. I wanted to make 4 pair. I started quite a while ago, I’m not crazy enough to think I could get these done quickly because that would take all the fun out of them and I intended to have some fun. Why not?!

In September I made my first pair in my regular sock way: Toe Up with a Star Toe and a short row heel. That’s my standard, no-thinking sock method.

Next, I had a second ball of the same self-striping wool and thought to add in another colour and work stripes-on-stripes to see what would happen. What could go wrong? They would still be wearable socks, right?

I worked Spiral stripes (check out the link for my other diary-type blog where you’ll see I knit Spiral Striped socks for Christmas 2015 using 3 colours). This time I worked them with two colours and picked one spot at the side of the foot to change colour every round. The trick here is not to twist the yarn but to pick up the new colour from the round below and continue to knit the next round without twisted the colours around each other.

These two socks are worked using the same Toe-Up knitting method and the same main colour self-striping yarn but the second pair has a navy contrast colour added (different size for a different person).

I’m so pleased with how these striped socks turned out. I have several 50g balls of sock yarn to use up and this works wonderfully well.

Next pair, same stripes because now I’m smitten. Cuff down this time just to mix it up.

Confession time, I’m getting a little bored. Time to try a new-to-me heel.

This V at the back of the heel takes the place of a gusset. Work increases on either side of the centre two back of leg stitches every other round until you have doubled the number of back of leg stitches minus 4 sts.  Work the increases into a stitch pattern if you wish just like I did. I learned of this method from the Vanilla is the new Black pattern.

Now work the regular V-heel turning. Knit to the centre of back of leg stitches, K2, SSK, K1, Turn. Slip first stitch, P5, P2tog, P1, turn. If you are a sock knitter you can take it from here and finish your heel turning when you have reached the original number of stitches.

This gives you a deeper heel turning which I think is a real advantage.

I’m in love. I think I can have some more fun with this heel. Maybe cables or twisted stitches on the back of the heel worked in with the increases or … maybe work the increases radiating out in a V instead of on either side of those centre sts.  Or maybe …

Stop, stop, stop! I have to finish these socks first. Now I have the carrot of trying something else dangling in front of my needles. Good incentive to finish.

If you are knitting for Christmas, good luck. May the knitting fairies favour your efforts.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and thanks for reading,

Deb

https://www.ravelry.com/stores/cabin-fever-patterns

http://cabinfeverknittingdesigns.blogspot.ca

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sewpatterns

Deb onInstagram

I’m working on a new project made up of triangles that join together as you work. You’ll be seeing some of it soon but I have to tell you that I’m bored.

This is a good sign. To me it means that I have the fundamental parts of the construction figured out. Once I’ve figured things out I get bored.

When do you get bored? Maybe there is too much stockinette stitch in your pattern. I can hear my friend Jen saying “that’s what a knitting machine is good for, all that stockinette stitch”. You may or may not agree with her but it does free her up to do all the interesting bits. What do you do when you get bored?

I think boredom can improve your knitting. Let’s say you intend to knit a dozen hats for charity or for everyone on your Christmas list. You start with your favourite hat pattern. Now knit another, maybe in a different colour. Cast on for the next and the next. Are you bored yet? Where would this take you? You still have 9 hats to go. Would you buckle down and just get them knit, grinding your teeth? Would you cruise through ravelry and buy a new pattern for each hat? Would you buy variegated yarn to jazz things up so you have something pretty to look at? What are you going to do?

Now let’s pretend you only have one pattern. The desert island scenario. Your internet is not working, your car is in the shop, you are stranded with your yarn stash and one hat pattern. Now what do you do?

1.  Work some colour blocks or stripes into the hat. Not too hard and kind of fun.
2.  Introduce some cables, lace or textured stitches into your hat. More of a challenge. Remember that cables will pull your work in and make the hat a smaller size. Lace will stretch and make a larger size. You can adjust for this by working increases for the cables or decreases for the lace work above the brim treatment and then adjust back to the original number of stitches before working the crown.
3.  Knit the hat in the opposite direction. You might have guessed that this is where I would go. I love playing with the construction of garments. Knit a standard brim-up hat from the top down. Read the directions for the cast off backwards to the beginning. Cast on the number of stitches you previously cast off. Increase for the crown instead of decreasing. Here is a stretchy bind off for the brim of your top down hat . It’s important that it is stretchy: Knit 2 sts, *insert your Left needle into the fronts of the 2 knit sts on the Right needle, from left to right, and knit these 2 sts together (just like an SSK), K1 so there are 2 sts on Right needle; repeat from *.
4.  Knit the same pattern in a different weight of yarn. You do have your stash with you. This is a challenge and if you know my Cabin Fever books you know I’ve already done this in the Need A Hat book where all the hat patterns are written for all gauges. Here are two ways you can do it yourself. Decide on the size of hat you want, say a 21″ hat, and multiply it by your new gauge (#sts = 1″) for a new number of stitches to cast on, example: 21″ x 5 sts = 105 sts. Feel free to adjust to an even number if needed and knit your hat from there.  OR since your desert island hat pattern probably comes in several sizes, take the stitch count for each size and divide it by your new yarn gauge (#sts = 1″) for a new set of sizes. Follow the instructions and stitch count for the new size you need, examples: 104 sts in worsted weight yarn makes a 21″ hat (104 sts divided by 5 sts = 1″),  104 sts in DK weight yarn makes a 19″ hat (104 sts divided by 5.5 sts = 1″).

Snowshoe Hat in Aran & Fingering weight yarn, Need A Hat book

If you have done any of this, you are designing. Yes, you. Did you enjoy the excitement of experimenting?

There is always uncertainty about the results. Was that difficult?

I can’t wait to hear about your adventures and experiments. Thanks for reading,

Deb

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns

Deb on Instagram

Do you have a blouse or shirt that you love but hesitate to wear? Is it that shirt where you need to contort yourself to place a safety pin at the bust line because it wants to gap there? If you wear it without the safety pin you have to hunch your shoulders forward every time you notice. In fact you can probably hardly move once it’s on but it’s the greatest blouse so here we go again with the d#%* safety pin.

Then there is that blouse which is not so great but is soooo comfortable to wear that you reach for it quite often. This blouse might have princess lines – those vertical lines that run from the bottom of the blouse, over your bust to the shoulder. They allow the front of the blouse to widen at the bust and then narrow back down at the shoulder. They fit really well for those of us who are somewhat busty. This style of blouse doesn’t gap at the bust line.

Can this be duplicated in knitting? Yes. Especially easy when working from the BOTTOM-UP.

You can add vertical darts. Widening the fabric at the bust area on the front only means the sweater will not be overly tight across the bust and pull the front of the sweater up at the bottom. The extra width relaxes the front so that it can fall properly at the bottom edge.

Starting above the waist, place a marker 1/4 of the width in from each side seam. As you knit up the front, work an increase before the first marker and after the second marker, creating two lines of increases which will widen the front.

I tried to find some clear photos of vertical darts on sweaters but had very little luck. Guess what? They don’t show that well. So no worries about adding the increases since you’ll have to look really closely at this photo to see them. They are there, I checked.

This is Amy Herzog’s Petrea pattern. If you knit from the bottom up and are looking for expert advice on bust shaping, she is your go-to person. I would recommend her Fit to Flatter book for more information.

Now back to the nitty gritty details. How many extra stitches do you need? That depends on how much extra width (in inches) you want on the front. See Do I Need Bust Darts?

How often do you work the increases? That depends on how many increases you need to work and how much vertical room you have between your waist and your underbust.

You want to work the increases starting 1-2″/2.5-5cm above your waist to 2-3″/5-7.5cm below the largest part of your bust. Use a measuring tape to check. I barely have 4″/10cm of room but I am very, very short. You may have more room than that.

Let’s say you want to add 3″ to the width of your front and you are working in worsted weight yarn with a gauge of 5 sts = 1″/2.5m. You want to add 16 sts and since you are working them in pairs (2 increases worked on every increase row) you need 8 Increase Rows to achieve this.

Work an Increase Row, then [3 Straight Rows & then an Increase Row] 7 times = 29 rows.

For worsted weight yarn your row gauge is 7 rows = 1″/2.5cm  so 29 rows is going to take approximately 4″/10cm vertically to work.

Do you have at least 4″/10cm of room between 1-2″/2.5-5cm above your waist and 2″/5cm below the largest point of your bust? If you have more room you could work 5 straight rows between increase rows and see how much room that needs. (1 Increase Row + [5 Straight Rows + Increase Row] 7 times = 43 rows = approx. 6″/15cm)

Would this be easy enough to add to your next bottom up sweater? I think with a couple of measurements and a few calculations you could be making a better fitting sweater.

The next question is how do we reduce these stitches above the bust line? The sweater front needs to fit at the shoulder according to the original pattern. There are several ways to do this and I will tackle that next week in Vertical Darts II.

Thanks for reading,

Deb

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns

Deb on Instagram

You’re sitting in your favourite knitting chair, frowning. This is supposed to be relaxing. This is supposed to be fun but … your project is not quite right. It’s bigger or smaller than it should be. You measure, knit a bit and measure again because this time it will miraculously be the correct size! What is the matter? Everyone else is knitting this and it’s working fine. Not True.

Lots of those “everyone else” knitters struggle to get their projects to work out to the correct size too. We can’t talk about knitting to size and dimensions, without talking about the G word. Yes, that one. If you struggle with getting gauge you are not alone.

What matters?

1. How you knit. Which method you use and how you hold your yarn.
2. The yarn you are knitting with: fine yarn to heavy yarns.
3. How crucial the dimensions of the project are. Sometime they just aren’t that important or only in one spot. Gotta’ love those projects.

Know who you are:

When I comment to knitters that they are a loose or tight they seem insulted. I am not making a judgement on their moral character. This is information you need to know. If you don’t know how can you work on accommodating it. Working with how you knit is what we all need to do.

Do Not Change how you knit.

Knit using the method you learned and are comfortable with. If you decide you are going to knit tighter or looser for a project, you know it’s going to last about 5 minutes until you relax, watch TV or speak to anyone.

Who are you?

1. Are you a loose knitter (not in the moral sense) or a tight knitter (not in the monetary sense)? If, when using the needle recommended on the ball band, everything you knit turns out large, your fabric is drapey and open and your stitches are loose or uneven, you are a loose knitter. If your stitches squeak when you move them on the needle, your fabric is very firm then you are a tight knitter. There is NOTHING WRONG WITH HOW YOU KNIT. You just need to know where you are on the continuum between loose and tight.
2. Notice the details. First of all, observe. Take a look at, or remember, some of your previous projects where the size turned out to be different from expected. What weight of yarn was each of these projects worked in? We are not necessarily consistent. I am a loose knitter but when I knit socks with sock yarn I’m right on target. I’m also pretty good with DK weight yarn. The break appears when I reach worsted weight yarn. I’m loose with all the heavier weights of yarn which I love to work with. I also struggle to get gauge the stiffer the yarn is. My ultimate frustration is that I simply cannot get gauge at all with boucle cotton (bumpy cotton aran weight yarn). No way, no how, even using 4 sizes smaller needles, not even close.

That’s what I know about how I knit. How about you? Are fine yarns trouble? Heavy yarn is a problem? Are there projects you just don’t tackle because of gauge?

Thanks for reading. Any questions?

Deb

ANY GAUGE and GAUGE-FREE patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever No-Sew patterns

Deb oninstagram