Technique Tuesday - A Lifeline

No knitter likes to have to “frog” (rip out) or “tink” (unknit) their work. Especially when it’s lace. Unknitting lace is quite difficult because you are often working with rather small yarn and have lots of yarn-overs to deal with. So, what’s a knitter to do?

This is when you need a lifeline. Every few rows, you use a needle and some smooth yarn or thread (some have suggested dental floss) and slide it into that row of stitches.  If you make a mistake from that point forward, it’s easy enough to “frog” down to the row with the waste yarn in place.  All the stitches are neatly held on that waste yarn and you can just slip them on to your needle and start back up again.

I’m working on a shawl with a 14 row repeat.  At row 14, I put in my lifeline.  If I get to row 14 on the next round, I just pull the lifeline and thread it in at this new spot.  Have I needed to use it?  Yes, indeed!  And I was thrilled to have it because tinking Cascade’s Baby Alpaca Lace yarn, while possible, is not easy.

Unfortunately for the picture, my lifeline is about the same color as the working yarn.  I labeled them, though, so I hope you can see that the lifeline is about 14 rows from the working yarn and the needle.  I’m about to pull out the lifeline and rethread it onto the current row.

The lifeline can be used in any type of knitting, but it’s particularly helpful with lace when going backward is so tricky.  If you have any questions about this technique or any other knitting, crochet, or fiber issue, don’t hesitate to call, ask on Facebook, or stop by The Knitting Nest!!  We’re here to help!

A Few of My Favorite Things–Knit Noro Accessories and Debbie Macomber Gerbera Print Yarn

Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Gerbera Print Yarn from Universal Yarn has to be one of my favorite variegated yarns.  It is 100% wool, single plied, worsted yarn, but the colors are what make it stand out.  Each colorway has several rich colors that complement each other and give a beautiful effect when knitted.

The Knit Noro Accessories book is full of beautiful patterns originally knit in Noro yarn.  However, they work up beautifully in many other brands of variegated yarn, particularly Gerbera Print yarn.  There are a variety of types of accessories in the book and the patterns are well-written and easy to follow.

I chose to use Gerbera Print yarn in color 204 – Lazy River – and the pattern Riverbed Rib Hat.  I’m immensely pleased at how it looks.  The colors are bright and beautiful and the hat fits very well.

The next time you are looking for a book of patterns for accessories, particularly for variegated yarn, you really can’t go wrong with the Knit Noro Accessories yarn.  And I really love the Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Gerbera Print yarn and I think you will too.

Come check out both items at The Knitting Nest!!  We’d love to see you!!

More Than Just Selling Yarn

Saturday at The Knitting Nest was a great day.  Not because I was there – I was actually at home with a migraine.  Not even because of the tractor pull on Main Street, although Patrick tells me that I missed some great small-town Wisconsin fun.  It wasn’t even great because we sold yarn, although Patrick did have several customers, which is always nice for a retail shop.

Saturday was great at The Knitting Nest because we got to be part of something bigger and more important than selling yarn (or even the tractor pull).  It started when Brandy, a friend and customer of The Knitting Nest, posted on Facebook that she needed a bunch of red embroidery floss for a project that one of the Girl Scouts in one of her troops is doing to help prevent bullying.  Girls are going to make friendship bracelets to give away while encouraging other girls to “be friends, not bullies”. 

Patrick thought this was a great project, so he offered to purchase the embroidery floss at our wholesale cost and donate a couple of boxes to the project.  He then posted on our Facebook page that people could purchase the embroidery floss from us at our cost and we would get it to Brandy for her project.  By the end of Saturday, The Knitting Nest had purchased 13 boxes of red embroidery floss for this project.

Thirteen boxes of 24 skeins of floss is only 312 skeins out of 1600 skeins needed, so we only donated 20% of the total for this project.  But, that is 312 skeins that weren’t donated before Saturday morning. 

Why am I telling you this?  To shout about how great The Knitting Nest is?  No.  You already know that!  My reason for sharing this story is to point out the importance of community brick-and-mortar retail shops.  The people who participated in this event are part of our community, just like the people who made chemo caps last month for our knit-a-long.

Community retail shops are invaluable parts of the local economy, but they are also part of the volunteer and charity work of the community.  The next time you stop in at your local coffee shop or other small business, look around; you’ll probably find that they are promoting one or more community and/or charity events or projects.  Supporting local businesses means more to your town or city than just a skein of yarn or cup of coffee – it’s being part of your community’s life.

 

A Few of My Favorite Things–My Kind of Saturday in Kollage Riveting

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have knitted items with that same comfortable well-worn feeling as an old pair of jeans?  You can!  Kollage Riveting yarn is made from recycled blue jeans (80% post-consumer content) and it feels amazing!!  Right now, we carry the DK weight in night denim, lava denim, forest denim, sand denim, and pebble denim.  You have to see and feel this yarn to believe it!

Kollage also sells the pattern “My Kind of Saturday” which is a one skein lacy cowl.  So, of course, I had to make one.  And it is just luscious.  We have had customers pick up the cowl and ask if it is silk!  No, it’s not silk.  In fact, after I was done with it, I machine washed and dried it!  The pattern is well written with the lace pattern both written and charted.  (And, it doesn’t use the whole skein, although it does use more than half, so you can’t quite get two cowls from one skein.)

 

Kollage is very clear that you need to swatch and block your swatch before you start your project.  Riveting is easy to care for once it’s knit up, but the row gauge tends to shrink on blocking so you have to take that into account before you start your project.

Stop in and check out this yarn soon!  We also have several more patterns from Kollage written specifically for this yarn.  We look forward to seeing you!!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime!

Summertime is just around the corner.  Before we know it, we’ll be going out to the lakes, enjoying the longer days, lamenting all the insects, and trying to avoid sunburn!

Some people think of knitting and crochet as solely cool-weather activities.  Perish the thought!!  While I agree that you would not want to have a heavy wool sweater or afghan on your lap when it’s 80 degrees outside and that sunshine and 75 degrees is certainly more suited to hiking and swimming than sitting indoors with yarn, there is a place for yarn crafting during the summer months.

As the day winds down and you’re sitting and enjoying some restful time with your family, it’s nice to be able to still be creative while letting your body recover from the activities of the day.  And knitting and crochet can be that creative outlet.

Cotton and cotton blends are great choices to for knitting during the warmer months of the year.  And you can make some very useful items.  Hats are one of the most popular things to make during the warm months of the year.  Bags and purses are another popular choice. 

One of my favorite things to knit right now is cotton sweaters.  I’ve already written about how much I love c2knits.  I’m loving the Zoe sweater I’ve already finished and I think I’m really going to love the Sophie when it’s done.

And, of course, you can always start early on your fall and winter knitting and work on some socks or a wool hat.  They’re nice and small and easy to work on even when the weather is warm.

Need more ideas?  Stop by The Knitting Nest and we’re happy to help you find some fun summertime yarn and patterns.

A Few of My Favorite Things–c2knits

Despite the recent temperature drop and threat of snow for us here in and around the Northwoods, spring really IS on it’s way.  And that means knitting short-sleeved sweaters, bags, hats, and other spring and summer items.  I’m especially excited about this because I really have very few spring and summer knitted items in my wardrobe.  How has that happened if I’m such a dedicated knitter?  Simple.  I give away much of what I knit.  This year, though, I decided that I wanted to make some sweaters to put in my own wardrobe.

My first sweater is a top-down short-sleeved raglan T-shirt made with Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton yarn using c2knits pattern Zoe.

I love the sweater and the pattern!  The pattern is easy to read.  It tells the knitter exactly where to put the stitch markers and how and why to use two different colors of stitch markers.  There is some flexibility in making the sweater a bit more fitted by casting on fewer stitches under the arms (which I’ll probably do next time), but that really doesn’t add complexity if you just want to work the pattern as written.

One issue I had was that the sweater turned out longer than I’d like, but that is because I was lazy and did the measurement while holding the sweater in my lap.  Next time, I will get up and measure the sweater while laying it out on the table.

The other issue I had is that the pattern called for the edging on the bottom to be done in reverse stockinette.  I have never had success with this kind of cuff on the bottom of a sweater – it always flips up unless you steam iron it every time you wear it.  I was very loathe to try it again, so I tried doing a hem, but that was flipping up as well.  I ended up switching to smaller needles and just finishing it in stockinette which made a nice rolled edge, which I also like.

Since I loved this pattern so much, we’re carrying several of the c2knits patterns in the shop.  I’ve got another sweater on the needles using Sierra (a cotton/wool blend) that I think is going to be lovely as well.

Stop by the shop and check out our new patterns and we’ll help you find a wonderful yarn to complement the pattern and give you a great new summer sweater!!

Thank You!!!

The Knitting Nest has had a great first quarter of 2012 and we have you, our customers, to thank for it!! 

• Thank you for showing confidence in a local business! 
• Thank you for keeping your business here in the town of Weyauwega and in Waupaca County! 
• Thank you for telling us what other products you’d like to see in our shop! 
• Thank you for just stopping to look and to chat with Patrick and Catherine! 
• Thank you for telling your yarn crafting friends about us! 
• Thank you for coming back again and again!

Thank you!!  And we look forward to serving you many more times as The Knitting Nest grows.