Author Archives: lauren

Knitting Technique sites

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I found myself adding sites to my bookmarks list, and then thought, how silly. It's not much more work to blog them, and then others might be interested as well. So here is a listing of a few web sites with knitting techniques of various sorts. The order is reverse alphabetical.

Techknitting
Technique discussions and illustrations for more advanced knitters. Good if you want to know the pros and cons of different techniques, could be a little overwhelming. Best read with knitting pins (needles) and yarn in hand, to try things out.
Sweaterscapes
I found this one when looking for a tutorial on shaping necklines with short rows. Tutorials on changing designs, intarsia knitting, i-cord, etc.
StudioKnits
This is a complete book, online or available on CD. There are over 38,000 words and 300+ custom knitted illustrations adding up to the equivalent of more than 190 letter-sized pages contained within. Lots of colour photos, which is good.
KnittingHelp
Lots of videos on all sorts of knitting techniques, illustrated in both continental and English knitting styles.

Of course, I have multiple books as well, but sometimes one of these sites puts things in a different way that makes more sense.

Jean’s Cardigan

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My mother-in-law, Jean, and I had a deal. She'd do some sewing for me, and I'd knit her a cardigan out of yarn she had bought. She crochets, but wanted something knitted this time instead. So I got her measurements and the yarn, designed a cardigan, and finally finished it on Christmas Eve Day, a couple of months after starting.

Jean’s cardigan
Jean's cardigan

I don't know what the yarn was but it looked like a worsted-weight, mostly wool, yarn, in a dark grey heather colour. The style is simple, a basic loose cardigan with about 10 cm ease at the bust, fitted sleeve caps, and a fairly high round neck. The overall pattern is a very simple lace repeat. The hems are folded stocking stitch folded hems on the sleeves and body. The front and neckline bands are double-knit bands as per Jen's instructions.

Lace pattern, in a 12-row repeat:
rows 1 and 3: knit
even rows: purl
row 5: *k2tog, yo, repeat from *, k1
rows 7 and 9: knit
row 11: *ssk, yo, repeat from *, k1

The ssk row produces a left bias that balances out the right bias produced by the k2tog row. When I was blocking the cardigan there was very little overall bias, and the little that was there was easily held in by the double-thickness hems and bands. The cardigan draped nicely in this stitch done on 4.5 mm needles, with the hem inner on 4 mm needles (purl row as fold line) and the bands on 3.75 mm needles (double knitting needs slightly smaller needles).

Homecraft

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For a change, the Ravelry group I knit with decided to go on a field trip, and it didn't take much for me to convince them to try Homecraft Importers. The web site is new, and obviously still has some problems, but I do like the store. It has yarns, threads, and other supplies for knitting, crochet, and needlework. Supporting that range of fibre crafts is rare here in Vancouver, most of the LYS really only have knitting yarns and maybe some crochet hooks. We had fun looking at the brilliant rayon and silk stitching threads, the different yarns, and tried our best to enable each other to buy more. I was quite restrained and only bought enough yarn (superwash merino, nice and practical) for some hats for the kids. Not that I know when I'll get to knit them, of course, but I have hopes.

And one day maybe I'll have an excuse to make something out of some of the more exotic yarns there. Bamboo, or maybe that Bouton d'Or Ksar, a really soft yarn with camel and wool. It was gorgeous!

Then down to Country Beads for all the people making the Ice Queen shawl (no, not me, I have enough on my project list right now), followed by coffee. We even got lucky in the weather - grey and gloomy of course, but no rain. Which is all you can hope for at this time of year.

Portland Knitting

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I'm sitting in a hotel room in Portland (the Vintage Plaza), listening to the rain and relaxing. Tim and I came down for a two-day get-away, time to relax and catch up on sleep without the kids. This morning we went to Powells and I added to my library with Deborah Newton's Designing Knitwear (Powells link, Amazon link) and Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting (Powells link, Amazon link) as well as looking at some others that I'll put on my Christmas wish list. We also added some non-knitting books to the library of course!

Lunch at the Rogue brewpub, followed by a visit to Knit Purl, lots of lovely yarns, friendly service. I got some Baby Ull for a cardigan for my daughter that I'll start after the New Year, it will be my first Fair Isle project - I've always been a little nervous of colourwork so I figured a size 3 cardigan was a good place to start. I also stopped in at the little needlework shop next door (The Playful Needle, no we address), also very friendly service, even though all I bought was a magnetic chart-holder for my needlework charts. Apparently they do blocking and make needlework into cushions, bags etc, so maybe I'll do that with some of the needlepoint I've had languishing around the house for years, to finally get it into a form where it's not just sitting in a cupboard.

Only one person knitting in the cafe where we had coffee; not many coffee shops around downtown apart from the ubiquitous Starbucks. And although I have nothing against Starbucks, I do like patronising the smaller places where possible. I must look on delocator before we go out tomorrow.

It's still raining outside, but even so it's time to venture out again.

Madrona 2007

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Yup, there were a few glitches in the Madrona Fiber Arts registration system, but they seem to be cleared up now and on the second time around I got most of the classes I wanted. I'm doing the classes on knitting different shapes on double-pointed needles, double knitting, and intarsia. The latter two are with Lucy Neatby, I have one of her DVDs and like it so I was glad to get into her classes. I know nothing about Margaret Radcliffe, the instructor for knitting shapes, other than what I've read on the Madrona site.

I'll hang around the rest of the time and watch people and go to the market etc. I've never actually been to a fiber arts festival before so I don't know what to expect; fortunately I'm going with a couple of friends. It should be fun!