A nostepinne is a great tool for winding yarn by hand. It's compact, easy to store and easy to use. But how to use a nostepinne may not be immediately obvious. So, read on to discover how to use a nostepinne, how to pronounce the word and what it means, how to find...
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase using one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I bet you already know the answer to this question! Or do you? Oh skeins*, beautiful skeins. We all love them,...
While creating stitches is an integral and important part of the knitting process, so is undoing stitches; whether you undo one stitch at a time (tinking) or undo several rows or rounds at once (frogging). Understanding how a stitch is formed helps to better...
Superstitions are everywhere. What knitting superstitions have you heard? Which ones do you believe? Some defy explanation and others are borne from a nugget of truth. Either way, if you believe in these superstitions (or should I say, superstitch-tions?),...
Knitting words that begin with the letter E. This is just one part of a comprehensive knitting dictionary of terms knitters want to know. Words include ease, edges, edging, end, entrelac and errata.
There are many reasons people take up knitting and many of those reasons are the ways in which knitting improves your life. Meknitations is a whole series of posts that encourage think about your knitting, the tools and materials you use and how it all affects you and...
Do you have lots of knitted gift ideas, but always end up knitting late into the night or giving “Knitting IOUs” instead of the beautiful hand-knit creations you imagined? This post can help by outlining how to start your own gift giving journal. Just after the...
We've all been there. You carefully measure the long tail for your long tail cast on or any of its cousins (eg. Twisted German or Old Norwegian cast on, etc) and you run out of yarn with just a few stitches left to go. What do you do? Actually, you have a number of...
You LOVE to knit. You have a huge stash. But . . . you've run out of people to knit for. What now? You have several options and I cover a few of them below. Some ideas are very run of the mill while others are less so. Click on any section title to jump directly...
The warm weight of your project sitting on your lap can be comforting. It can be like a balm to sooth you as you relax into your knitting. Focus on and enjoy the sensation of your project growing heavier and coming closer to completion as it sits on your lap. Notice...
Knitting words that begin with the letter E. This is just one part of a comprehensive knitting dictionary of terms knitters want to know. Words include ease, edges, edging, end, entrelac and errata.
Use as many senses as you can when you interact with your knitting. While I don't recommend you taste your yarn, you can use all four other senses: look at your yarn, feel your yarn, listen to the yarn as you Take a moment to really smell your yarn, particularly if it...
When we knit, we rarely pay attention to all that your needles and the yarn do as you make even a single stitch. We just make the stitches automatically as our minds think about other things. Instead of doing that today, slow your knitting right down and pay attention...
How your knitting needles sound may not have a profound effect on your knitting (unless you are knitting in an otherwise silent room), but that sound is a part of the whole knitting experience. When you pay attention to the tiny details of life and of knitting, you...
How your yarn feels makes a big difference in your knitting experience so it's important to explore it. This is your chance to explore how the yarn feels as it moves through your fingers as you knit. This MeKnitation is one of a series of short knitting meditations to...
Knitting words that begin with the letter F. This is just one part of a comprehensive knitting dictionary of terms knitters want to know.
Knitting words that begin with the letter E. This is just one part of a comprehensive knitting dictionary of terms knitters want to know. Words include ease, edges, edging, end, entrelac and errata.
A Knitting Dictionary—The Letter D is part of a series of posts that will eventually make up the Complete Knitting Dictionary a comprehensive knitter’s resource! decrease A manipulation of stitches that reduces the number of stitches in your fabric. This can be used...
A Knitting Dictionary—The Letter C is the another in a series of posts that will eventually make up the Complete Knitting Dictionary a comprehensive knitter's resource! This post contains affiliate links, if you purchase items through my links I earn a commission...
Why you want to weigh your yarn. How to weigh your yarn. How to find the perfect yarn scale. Plus, why you need coins in your knitting kit.
A Knitting Dictionary—The Letter B is the second in a series of posts that will eventually make up the Complete Knitting Dictionary a comprehensive knitter's resource of knitting words! This post contains affiliate links, if you purchase items through my links I earn...
Trying to find out what a knitting term means? Check out the online knitting dictionary with A to Z answers to “what does this mean?”
As more and more jurisdictions close all physical non-essential businesses due to Covid-19, knitting supplies are hard to find. Knitters and people who want to learn to knit, may find themselves with lots of time on their hands but in need of knitting supplies. They...
A Knitting Dictionary—The Letter A is the first in a series of posts that will eventually make up the Complete Knitting Dictionary. Right now, it's part of the "Incomplete Knitting's Dictionary", but stay tuned . . .. To get to the other posts of this series, go to...
It is the holiday season! And no matter what holidays you celebrate or don’t celebrate, you cannot help but be inundated with Christmas carols. As someone who loves to knit, I am proposing a new tradition of Knitter’s carols. Come carolling with my husband and me with...
When I first met Sultan Alrasheed, founder of the Fiber Community Fund and by met, I mean on Zoom, I was totally entranced by this engaging, personable and kind man. It was an excellent start to my very first interview for this blog. Talking with Sultan was like...
You see a gorgeous pattern, a lovely model rocking the gorgeous knitwear. You click download and you are off. . .. Like most of us, even those who create patterns on a regular basis, you may not think about the many people who have contributed their time, effort and...
You want something warm and snuggly. You want something elegant too. AND you don't want to have to struggle with the pattern. You want something that will be easy to knit and impress the heck out of your friends. You have found it! The Plumed Cowl has a stitch pattern...
This beautiful drapey yarn deserved something special. When I had originally looked at the delicious hand-dyed yarns that Blue Mule Fibers creates, I fell in love with the “Lonesome Dove” colourway. It is an amazing variegated colourway that just makes me smile....
This design for this wrap started with the yarn as do so many designs. My delightful introduction to Blue Mule Fibers A designer friend suggested Blue Mule Fiber's beautiful yarn. She was right. I went to their website and fell in love with the Lonesome Dove colourway...
See who the superheroes of the knit designer and of you. Faster than a slowish knitter. More powerful that typos and errors. Able to ensure accuracy in a single bound. Look! In the knitting chair! It’s a knitter! It’s a hero! It’s . . . read on to find out.
Stop doing things that drain the joy out of knitting. The less we do of these, the more joyful our knitting is and the better off we are as knitters. You've spent weeks knitting the perfect sweater, but when you try it on it hangs shapelessly off your shoulders and...
This shawl is not a Shetland shawl.
This shawl does not use any mosaic knitting in it
I know, I know.
Why the heck did I call it Shetland Mosaic . . .
Your gaze sweeps the stark landscape of the Shetland Islands. Beautiful, small Shetland sheep dot the fields, grazing. Being a knitter, instead of sheep, your eyes see potential shawls.
Imagine pulling a whole shawl through an average woman’s wedding ring. Imagine intricate lace unfurling as the shawl is released from the constriction of the ring.
Learn to do the centred double decrease on the purl side row with 4 variations!
Look what I got! Yes, this is Pretty Strings' amazing yarn advent calendar. When Karin, the inspired dyer, told me this year's advent calendar is made up of five fading sets of five mini skein fades, I got all excited. Options for those mini-skeins The question is:...
Have you ever wondered how your yarn feels? Or perhaps what it gets up to when you are looking? Here is a glimpse into one of the possibilities.
A tutorial for a super-stretchy cast on. It is easy to do, strong and sleek (includes description, photos and a video). My two favourite types of projects to make are lace shawls and socks. Depending on how you work them, either project may require a stretchy cast-on....
OK, the title of this post sounds like a directive to knit this Mod Squares Blanket (and please take it as such if you are inclined to do so!) but is actually meant as a description. I am thrilled that my pattern for the Mod Squares Blanket is included...
Weave in the yarn ends as you work to save time and sanity!
This two color bind off finishes off a project that has icord edging sides beautifully! If you start with the 2 color icord cast on (https://youtu.be/mc4xHQTmLhE), do the icord edging as you work and then end off with...
See how to go from a marled, two strand garter stitch background into double knit sections and then transition back to the marled garter stitch background. This technique is used in the Dancing Circles Scarf pattern by Magda Stryk Therrien (MagdaMakes).
I am thrilled to announce that the Grasker Hat is live on Raverly. That’s right, you can go to Ravelry right now to buy and download your very own copy of this eye-catching Icelandic-inspired hat. It is such a fun hat to knit and to wear. The extra warmth from the...
In my last post I wrote about the amazing test knitters that helped to make the Grasker Hat pattern better. But they are not the only people who make my designs and my life better. There is my ever supportive family, my son and especially my husband, who hears about...
We all know that knitters in general are amazing people. Almost all the knitters I know are so generous in very many ways: they are generous in spirit, in giving of their time, their knowledge, their yarn, their cookies, their sense of humour and their friendship....
Summer is a wonderful time to knit with thinner, cooler yarns. I love knitting with fine lace weight and fingering yarns throughout the year and in the summer, I rarely knit with anything else. But as the weather gets cooler, I get the longing to knit with thicker...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyMc1GwLCrY This video shows how to do the long tail cast on. First is a very quick refresher for those who already know how to do it, followed by an in-depth discussion of how to do the long tail cast on effectively. In Brief Leave a...
Yarn comes in an almost infinite variety and making yarn choices can be overwhelming, especially when you are just learning to knit (and sometimes, even when you are an expert knitter). Yarns vary in their fibre composition, their thickness, number of plies, how they...
Knitting needles come in a variety of types, sizes and materials. Remember that knitting usually compacts easily and a larger knitted project will easily fit on a shorter needle. Straights (Single point needles): These are the archetypal knitting needle seen in most...
Over the last year or so, I have become interested in random lace, that is lace knitted without a planned sequence of stitches. I have a couple of random lace projects on the go. One, I started months ago, where I did a yo and accompanying k2tog every time any...
Today, I finished labelling and sorting the 50 scarves for the staff at the retirement home that my father-in-law lives in. Many of the scarves were made by my mother and a friend even donated a scarf to the cause. What amazing people! The staff where my father-in-law...
Here is the second in the one row lace series of scarf "patterns". This a basic faggoting done across the width and the length of the scarf. You can use any yarn, though wool yarns will block the best. Use needles that are larger than those recommended on the ball...
This is the first of a series of super easy lace scarf patterns. Well, the word pattern is a bit grand for what these are really. Perhaps "idea" or "concept" might be a bit more appropriate. This lovely scarf is just about the easiest lace in the world. You just cast...
December is a time of frantic gift knitting, at least for many of us! During the first part of December, I will share some patterns for quick and easy lace knit scarves. Each Aran weight scarf takes less than a day to knit (really!) and I am not a particularly fast...
Recently, I purchased some square cross-section needles and I love them. There are two brands available (that I know of): Kollage Square® and Knitter's Pride Cubics. I got mine from the ever delightful Simply Socks Yarn Co. These are lovely to work with: they are...
Cut a 6 inch (15 cm) piece of heavy card. Wrap the yarn around the card. Slip the wound yarn off the card. Slip two toothpicks into circle made by the yarn. Hold one toothpick steady and while holding the yarn taut, twirl the other toothpick until the yarn starts to...
It is that time of year when we have or are in the midst of buying and making gifts for everyone on our list. Then, we take a deep breath of satisfaction for having bought them all, and the wrapping panic begins! Personally, I don't get that panic anymore. Over the...
Creating yarn from old t-shirts is a great way to give new life to old clothes and to get free yarn in the bargain! Look for t-shirts with little or no printing as the printing usually interferes with the making of the yarn. In the picture at right, you can see...