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?

 

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.

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.

 

It’s happened to all of us. You spend countless hours working on your project, only to snag it on something. The usual culprits of these pulled stitches include car keys, corners, and pets. But don’t worry, there is a way to fix it!

If your project gets a pulled stitch, you’re going to see that one of the stitches has gotten very long and all the stitches next to it have gotten very tight from being pulled.

It’s a lot easier to see these tight stitches from the purl bumps. Locate which purl bump the problem stitch is, and work your way down the row, gently pulling out each of these loops. This will slowly even out the tension. Once you’ve pulled your yarn through all the way down to the end, you can reblock your project and that should hide any inconsistencies in your tension.

Check out the video below to see this tip in action!

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Guest: Kathy talks with Donna about her path into the knitting world, she began as a computer tech writer and at the prompting of a friend began to transfer to writing about something she loved – knitting! She now writes books and teaches as well as tech editing for independent designers and translating German knitting books into English. She has a new book in the works on knitting in Lithuania with history, culture and telling that culture’s story through knitting; similar to her book Arctic Lace.

  

Donna has also worked to develop 2 different apps for iPad and iPhone. First there was the Knit Companion app and her newest is Travel the World of Knitting with embedded stitch video tutorial and a collection of new patterns.

Steve’s Yarn Picks

39th Anniversary Sale Highlights

• Berroco Blackstone Tweed
• Grignasco Merino Silk 25
• Regia Hand-Dye Effect
• Valley Yarns 8/2 Tencel

• Plymouth Yarns Trabajos del Peru
• Classic Elite Pirouette Discontinued Colors
• Classic Elite Seedling Discontinued Colors Solids and Handpaint
• Classic Elite Sprout Discontinued Colors
• Classic Elite Yarns Fresco Discontinued Colors
• Liberty Wool Discontinued Colors Solids and Prints

You’ll find that many sweater patterns are knit in pieces from the bottom up. Most of these patterns instruct you to start knitting the body first and then move onto the sleeves.

Recently when I cast on for the Playful Stripes Sweater, it wasn’t until I was nearly done with the body that I wished I had started knitting the sleeves first. I was straying from the pattern and trying a different cast on method. It would have been easier to test the cast on with only 38 sleeve stitches compared to the 144 body stitches.

There are a few reasons you might want to start with a smaller number of stitches on a sleeve before knitting the body.

• Trying out a new stitch pattern or technique
• Testing color combinations in your multi-color project
• Straying from the instructions in the pattern and not sure you’ll like the changes
• Hate swatching so a sleeve essentially becomes your swatch so you know if you’re using the right needle size.

If I was going to start my sweater over, I probably would have done something a little differently on the cuffs and hem. It wasn’t until I was too far into the body that I realized I wanted something different. But I felt I was too far along to make it worth ripping out and starting over. But if I had started with a sleeve first…I wouldn’t have hesitated to start over and get the cuff/hem I really wanted. Live and learn.

Are you a strict pattern follower? Or do like to use a pattern as your guide and change things up a bit?

Not all knitters crochet, and not all crocheters knit, but both compliment each other beautifully in projects. Adding a crochet border to your knitting is a fantastic way to incorporate both mediums. I find crochet borders much easier to work than picking up and knitting around a project. Around the Corner Crochet Borders is filled with great ideas on embellishing your project with a beautiful border.

To pick up stitches to crochet on a garter stitch project:

1. Insert your hook in the space between the ridges.

2. Yarn over and pull your stitch through, making sure your hook is only going under two strands of yarn.

3. Your stitches will sit in between the garter ridges. On the next round, the gap will be hidden by the stitch above.

To pick up stitches to crochet around a stockinette stitch project:

1. Locate the edging stitches. They’re going to look like v’s going up along the side of your project.

2. Insert your hook into this edge stitch only. Make sure you are only going under two strands of yarn.

 

Do you like to mix things up by incorporating both knitting and crochet into your project?

Sometimes when you start using brand new circular needles, the cords can be a little unruly. They can get very curly and twisted from being in the packaging, which makes it hard to keep your project flat and can be frustrating to work with.

All you need to remedy this is some warm water. You want the water to be hot, but not boiling. I use my teakettle on the stove and wait until I see some steam, but warming up even just a mug of water in the microwave would work too. Dip the cords into the water for a few seconds, then stretch out the needles and give a gentle tug.  The warm water will relax the plastic enough to release the curl. Only do a few seconds at a time! You don’t want to accidentally melt your cords.

Today’s tip comes from Heidi, one of our creative and talented store staff. She tells us about the benefits of shank buttons, and how to sew them on the right way so they stay put.

If sewn on properly, shank buttons are great for babies and children, because they are more “wiggle proof.” Any button with holes can be used as a shank button.

Here’s how to make a button with holes into a shank button: 

• Start with a length of heavy duty thread about 24″ long.
• Thread through the needle and knot the free ends together.

• With the right side of garment facing you, pass the needle through to the wrong side. You want the knot on the right side next to where the button will go.
• Pass the needle through to the right side and then through the button holes.
• Pass the needle a few times through the holes and the knitted/crocheted fabric.You should leave a space between the button and the fabric so the button can still move and fit into the button hole.
• On the right side of the fabric, wrap the thread around the the space between fabric and button until the button doesn’t move easily.
• Pass through to the wrong side of the fabric, tie a knot then sew through some of the fabric, and then cut the thread.

Here’s how to sew on shank buttons: 

• Start with a length of heavy duty thread about 24″ long.
• Thread through the needle and knot the free ends together.
• With the wrong side of the garment towards you, pass the needle through to the right side.
• Thread the button onto the needle and pass the needle through to the wrong side.
• Then thread the needle between the 2 strands of the knot and tighten.
• Continue sewing button, passing through the shank of the button then pass through to the wrong side, pass through some of the fabric, and then cut and knot the thread.