This week, Greta shows us exactly what it means when a pattern says, “Block over a plate.” Now you’ll be able to block your berets and slouchy hats perfectly!

Have you ever knitted a slouchy hat pattern and reached the finishing instructions only to find this strange little tidbit, “Block over a plate”? Now, I absolutely love knitting slouchy hats and berets, but when I saw this for the first time I was a little confused. After trying this blocking technique many times, I finally got it down and thought I would share what I’ve learned.

Materials:
A dinner plate (about 10” in diameter)
A bowl or pitcher, something that balances nicely
About 1 yard smooth scrap yarn
A tapestry needle

Step 1: Using some smooth scrap yarn (about 1 yard) and a tapestry needle, thread the scrap yarn loosely around the brim of your hat getting as close to the edge as you can manage. Technically this step is optional, but I like it because it gives the brim a more finished look and helps open up any lace work in your hat.

Step 2: Block as usual. I wet blocked my hat to soften the fibers and really let those stitches bloom.

Step 3: Place the hat around and over the dinner plate. I arrange it so the crown of the hat is over the bottom center of the plate.

Step 4: Gently and evenly tighten the scrap yarn and tie it in a slip knot. Make sure everything is arranged nice and evenly on the plate.

Step 5: Place the plate brim-side down on an upturned bowl. This keeps your project from getting dirty and helps it dry faster.

Once the hat is dry you are good to go! Wear that slouchy hat with a smile knowing both you and it look awesome!

(Pattern is Crooked Paths by Melissa LaBarre; Yarn is Madelinetosh Vintage in Flashdance)

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This week’s tip comes from Amy G, one of our store staff team members. She finds you can take the 2-at-a-Time skill generally used for socks, and apply it to other projects too, like the sleeves of a sweater.

“I often find the sleeves to be the most boring part of knitting a sweater, so I do them at the same time on a circular needle using two balls of yarn. Of course it only works for set-in sleeves, not sleeves picked up and knit from the shoulders, but it helps me finish my project instead of getting distracted and starting something new!”

Dena, our Ecommerce Marketing Manager, loves this technique. It can definitely get a little confusing though, so she adds a locking stitch marker to join the two pieces together. She finds this helps keep her from turning her work too soon.

Do you have any tricks to keep yourself from leaving a project half finished?

 

 

When Kristin knit Flow by Norah Gaughan, she was presented with a problem. The yarn, Berroco Seduce, is absolutely lovely but the slippery fibers made it hard to get the yarn ends to stay put.

To deal with unruly ends, Kristin uses crazy glue or super glue to tack then down after she’s woven them in for an inch or two. She also likes to use a patch of one sided fusible interfacing and iron it on to of the wiggly end.

Yarn made of slippery fibers like rayon and silk can be tough to keep in place. This tip will help keep your finished project looking clean and polished!

 

 

Kristin from our Customer Service team shared a simple, yet very useful tip with us!

When working on a sock or any knitting project on double pointed needles, there is always an extra needle leftover at the end of a row.

To keep this extra needle in place, and to keep the stitches from falling off the needles, try using your yarn to secure both ends of the needles.

1: Fold your project so the needles lay flat.

2: Then, lay your extra needle alongside the others.

3: Wrap your yarn around both ends of your double points.

This little trick will keep your extra needle together with the rest of your project, and secure it!

 

Marion works in the store and is an incredible knitter. She shares with us her story of how she got her inspiration to knit stripes in a collection of projects.

Many of us use the wonderful hand-painted yarns to give color to garments. However, I have always loved to knit stripes. I think of it as painting with yarn and it can be fun. There are many patterns written with stripes as an element, but you can stripe any plain pattern with a little planning.

I have a walk-in cedar closet that has allowed me to save many of the knitted garments made over the years. One favorite is a red, tan and grey striped sweater I made my son over 30 years ago. When he asked me to knit a light weight sweater for him, I thought of that as an inspiration.

To make my son’s striped sweater, I used Valley Pattern B1, which is a basic pull-over in different weights. I was making the DK weight and it gave me the approximate amount of yarn needed. I knew I wanted it to have red as the main color and then selected grey, gold, black and tan to match his earlier sweater. Cascade 220 Sport had the perfect shades and was the weight yarn I wanted. It is difficult to judge the amount when buying yarn for striped garments because not all colors will be used equally. To make this sweater I only needed one skein of each color (other than red).

When you knit stripes you can form a repeating pattern (8 rows color A, 2 rows color B, 3 rows color C and then repeat order) or you can change colors randomly which I did in his sweater to give it a contemporary look.

I had no set sequence but planned to put the red between each color change. I carried the yarn loosely up the side when the color was going to be used 2-4 rows later. If as in the case of the red it was not needed until 15 or more rows later, I ended it and then reintroduced it. I tried to keep the colors evenly balanced as I worked up. The black and light tan were strong colors and I used them carefully.

You can be creative when you select your colors. Unless you are knitting a garment using left over yarn, select no more than 3-5 colors or you can use shades of one color. A great resource to help combine colors is Gail Callahan’s Color Grid.

In the past I have made a few sweaters that totally use left overs. I put all the colors together and just stripe away. I really do feel like I am painting. There can be different textures and some weight variation.

Since my 11 year old granddaughter Roley was going inherit my son’s original sweater, I wanted to make a companion for three-year old Beatrice. The pattern is also a basic one made from Ann Budd’s Book of Sweater Patterns. The book allows you to make a sweater for any size and weight of yarn. (Ann Budd will be teaching here at WEBS this summer. Don’t miss out on your chance to take a class with her!) The yarn is Plymouth Dream Baby. I decided to make the stripes in a repeating order with red as the main color. I used a slip stitch with the yellow and black to combine them. I reminds me of a bee’s stripe. Beatrice is used to that theme for her. She loves the sweater. It was a fun project and went quickly.

Finally, I wanted to knit something for Paula, my daughter-in-law and I saw the Henning Cowl by Megan Goodacre in Interweave’s 2012 Holiday Issue. I modified it to be smaller but still used the stripe pattern set up.

I am happy with all the garments and can’t wait to make another striped project.

What are your feelings on striped projects? Some love them, others do not. Do you have a favorite striped project?

One of the most challenging aspects of a project is selecting the colors. It can be difficult to tell which colors “go” well together. Frequently, I spend hours knitting only to discover I don’t really like how those colors I chose came together in the end. In today’s post, J shows us how we can select colors easily by using black and white photographs. He recently knit the Color Affection Shawl, so we asked him to share what he learned.

“Affection for Contrasting Colors or What Do You See in Shades of Gray?”

Every now and again as fiber artists we are tasked with choosing colors. The Kangaroo Dyer’s Color Grid is a great tool for picking colors and we make use of it regularly. For the purpose of this color exercise, we’re going to focus on the properties of color in relation to one another, specifically contrast and we’ll use the broad color palette of  Cascade 220 as an example. (And not just because it’s less than $6 a skein for the rest of April and May, but it is!)

Step One – Grab a skein of each of the colors you are considering (2 or more)
Step Two – Take a picture
Step Three – Make it black and white.
That’s it, three steps! Repeat as necessary with different color choices to your heart’s content.

When viewing your skeins in black and white, if two colors are close in their representation of gray, there will be little, to no, contrast. If the skeins can be distinguished in their representation of gray – TA-DA contrast! Below are some examples that will help illustrate this concept.

Group A: White #8505, Cotton Candy #9478, and Magenta #7803. Notice that the black and white photo shows white, gray, and black. We can see strong contrast between the skeins in both images. This means the colors won’t get lost when used together, and each will stand out in its own way.

Group B: Black #8555, Peacock #2447, and Purple Jewel Heather #7811. See what happens in the black and white version? These skeins show as three similar shades of gray -not good for showing off any of these colors. They don’t look terrible together, but they have similar tone so each gets lost in the other.

To compare these first two groups, with Group A you could stand far away and easily tell the differences in color – great contrast. In Group B the difference is so minimal that none of them take a prominent place – great if you want colors to blend, not so great if you want contrast.

Group C: Christmas Red #8895, Silver Grey #8401, and Blue Hawaii #9421. When viewed as black and white, two of these are similar, but the third stands out –  great for when you want a single color to pop. The light gray and aqua are similar in tone to each other leaving the red to take a more prominent place in your project.

Group D: Christmas Red #8895, Charcoal Grey #8400, and Blue Hawaii #9421. See how just changing the shade of gray makes a difference? It now stands in stronger contrast to the other two, helping to highlight the aqua, while still having more brightness than the red.

It should be noted that “true color” is difficult to represent on a computer screen, so this is just a guideline as color will  vary relative to your settings, the manufacturer of your screen, and the effects of the light that surrounds your screen. This is why sometimes the “color you thought you saw”, looks different when the skein is in front of you. (I love Franklin Habit’s yarn-shaming tumblr because it helps us to laugh at just this sort of thing.)

Do you like making multi-colored projects? How do you pick your colors?

April is a big transitional month here in New England. We’re moving from Winter, through mud season and into Spring!  It can also be be a big transitional time in terms of project choice. Big projects tend to give way to ones that are smaller and more portable.

This is the perfect time of year to start work on a larger project made from smaller parts or to experiment with something small and fun.

Square motifs, like Granny squares, are the perfect vehicle to use up leftover bits of yarn from previous projects or pair them up with other square motifs to practice new stitches and pull them all together into a blanket. Here you can see my Summer Squares Blanket using Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky and 13 different square motifs from Jan Eaton’s wonderful book 200 Crochet Blocks.

For quick easy ways to join granny squares as you go check out Kathy’s favorite join here and mine here.

Motifs are also a great way to spiff up your summer jewelry selection. Choose a few motifs and a finer cotton thread yarn and make earrings or a pendant.

These motifs are from another great book by Edie Eckman: Beyond the Square.

And sometimes you just need a quirky little gift,  motifs can make great picture frames!

What’s your favorite use of motifs?

Today’s tip is from Kirsten Hipsky, designer for Valley Yarns. She has some great suggestions for selecting the perfect size to make for your next garment. 

To help figure out which size to make, I recommend measuring around your chest at its widest and choosing the closest size to that measurement, making the larger one if you’re between sizes.

Another helpful exercise is to measure the bodies of your current favorite sweaters or sweatshirts just underneath the sleeves. This will help you see ahead of time which size sweaters you like wearing the most.

We try to design all of our Valley Yarns sweaters so that they could be worn with zero inches of ease. That is, a person with a 40″ chest should be able to wear the 40″ finished chest measurement sweater without the sleeves or neck being too tight. But if you prefer looser sweaters, you could easily make a larger size.

Most of the sweaters could also be worn with a couple inches of negative ease if you like tight-fitting sweaters. The Kohl Lace Pullover, for example, has a stretchy, lacy stitch pattern and a roomy, straight sleeve that could probably be worn with up to 4″ of negative ease. But I would measure your current sweaters first to make sure that’s what you would like.

The sweater shown in the picture is Valley Yarns 464 Bittersweet Pullover knit in Valley Yarns Sheffield.

Lise works in our store and warehouse. She has shared this piece with us about how she is a process knitter who knits for the love of the project and what she does with the finished items. She also has some great easy-care selections from the Anniversary Sale. 

A few years back, I was introduced to the idea that there are differences in the types of knitters there are. Dori, who was one of the most knowledgeable knitters I have ever been blessed to take classes from, asked me the question. What did I think I was in regards to the types? Stephanie Pearl-McPhee actually has a test you can take in her book Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting.

It did not take me long to answer…PROCESS…of course! Every time I see a new pattern, my first thought is construction. Did the designer attach that border or was it knitted on? How did they work those cables in the decrease section? Is this shawl complicated to knit, or does it just look complicated? Most of knitting is done as a gift and not something I keep.

Then there is the whole mystery shawl craze! Being a puzzle maker, I absolutely love getting involved in mystery knit-a-longs; shawls especially. Crochet is just the same. It goes faster so it is usually my go-to for a quick shawl when needed.

Of course there are also all the beautiful patterns that are designed by our own designer Kirsten Hipsky, and more recently our beautiful crochet selections designed by our crochet expert, Sara Delaney. I am always amazed at the quality and beauty of the pieces that they design season after season.

Being a Babci (grandmother in Polish) I have had to succumb to washable wools and acrylics. It is amazing what you will do for your grandkids! So, my stash does include some acrylics…large bags of some acrylics. Working at WEBS will put you in contact will some of the most amazing yarns at unbelievable prices and yes…. the stash grows and grows.

This year’s anniversary sale has been extremely tempting with yarns like Plymouth Encore, Berroco Vintage, Cascade 220 Superwash, Cascade Heritage Paints, K1C2 DungarEASE, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, Plymouth JelliBeanz, Plymouth Merino Superwash, Regia Hand Dyed Effect, Rowan All Seasons Cotton, Valley Yarns Longmeadow, and Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK! These prices make giving to others an affordable option for many.

Maybe you can afford to purchase the yarn but do not knit or crochet. I am sure you can find someone who cannot afford the supplies and would gladly knit it for you.

In an effort to not have a stash that I only collect and don’t dig into, I have set two goals for 2013: First, to knit only from my stash and not purchase new yarns for myself. NOTE: this does not mean that I will not purchase yarns for others as gifts. Second, I have started at Prayer Shawl Ministry at our church. Our congregation consists of many that are aged 70-98 and with that comes many hospital visits, sicknesses, and of course, deaths. I have brought all my stash of anything that would make a shawl to the church and placed it in a cabinet. It was so freeing to get it there and have women help making shawls.

So, back to the process vs. product knitting. If you are like me and have made all these shawls, yet find yourself only wearing a few, find a prayer shawl ministry near you and donate them.

I cannot tell you what a blessing it is to see someone received one of these works of art and how thankful they are.

I mentioned the ministry while teaching my crochet class and one of my students, Corki, brought in a large bag filled with shawls. You have no idea how thankful I was to immediately be able to start giving them out.

So if you find that you are now collecting a stash of finished objects and not wearing them, know that you can contact me at babcipsm@gmail.com and I will put them to good use.

 

J, an amazing member of our store staff, has walked us through the creation of the Color Affection Shawl, and the lessons to be learned along the way. His stunning finished project and choice of colors are inspiring!

I chose Valley Yarns Charlemont to knit Color Affection by Veera Välämaki. It is actually a fairly mindless knit over all; garter stitch (not one purl) with easy short rows and M1 increases. These two design elements along with the color changes make this a great knit to practice some techniques.

Lesson One: Color
The striping is thin with the only large blocks of color at the neckline and along the bottom edge. Even a tonal variation like that of Charlemont Kettle-Dyed may take away from the impact solid colors will have.

I chose to use Charlemont, not because it’s a Valley Yarn, but for its look and feel – the softness and slight sheen, as well as the color palette. I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It really softens after blocking and there is something quite nice about a wool/silk blend, especially for shawls. (The colors I used are soft grape, purple passion, and dusk.)

It’s always a great idea to take black and white photos of the yarns you want to use when selecting colors. I can’t recommend this enough, especially for this knit. It makes it much easier to see if your shades are light, medium, and dark, which helps determine contrast. Also, every now and again pick a color that you think you shouldn’t, sometimes you’ll be surprised. 

Lesson Two: M1 (Make 1)
This pattern calls for many M1L and M1R increases throughout. While these are not a favorite of many knitters, this shawl provides a great chance for practice. (Click here to see the video of this technique.)

Parallel lesson: kfb (Knit into the front and back)
Go ahead and read the notes on Ravelry. There is a lot of debate! In mine, I did both types of increases, and good luck telling me where each is. The bottom line is to choose whichever works best for you, but practice and try. (You can’t get better if you don’t try!) June Hemmons Hiatt and I talked about making mistakes being how one really learns. (Did I mention that I met her the other day and she was amazing! She signed my copy of Principles of Knitting, I have pictures.)

Lesson Three: Easy short rows
What do I mean by easy short rows? Wrap and turn without picking up the wraps. The Wrap & Turn (W&T) is a good technique to learn, and it may come up again in your knitting queue, especially in sweater patterns. This particular pattern does not have you “pick up wraps,” so it’s a great primer. The short rows also make this knit quick in the middle, when it really needs to feel like you’re making progress. When you get to the border edge you will realize just how many stitches you created.

Lesson Four: Two and three colors at once.
Carrying the yarn up the work is fairly trouble free in this pattern. To carry up the colors, I slipped the first stitch off the left hand needle and onto the right, then I wrapped the two non-working colors around the left needle and placed that first stitch back on the left needle. I worked the first stitch, skipped those carried yarns, let them fall off the needle and continued working the row. This helps to neatly trap the carried yarns.
Note: Appropriate tension on the carried yarn is key, neither too loose nor too tight. I did not do a slip-stitch edge, mainly because I forgot, this will add a little to the complexity of carrying up the colors, (consider it advanced technique!)

Lesson Five: Blocking unique shapes.
There also seems to be a minor debate among Ravellers regarding whether this is a crescent shape shawl or a half-circle shawl. Put simply, if you follow the advice of making and dropping yarnovers to loosen up the edge, it will be easier to block a straight neckline which will create a half-circle shape. However, if you keep with the way the pattern is written, it makes for a tight edge and eases blocking it into a crescent shape.

What the pattern says: “block in shape using wires and pins.” So I say, the shape is in how you place your wires. She never really specifies a shape in the pattern and honestly I don’t think she should. Either way it will turn out lovely. It’s also kind of enormous! I blocked mine on our futon/giant blocking mat, measuring about six feet across and nearly three feet at its largest depth.

I loved working with Valley Yarns Charlemont and I’m so happy I have quite a bit left over from each skein for other projects.