Things I didn’t know

In which there are some useful instructions
by

In which there are some useful instructions

Right, here is how to do a tubular cast on, I’ve been putting off writing it down because it involves a small amount of thinking but now I’m supposed to be doing some work updating the website so that is perfect motivation…

This cast on looks really nice – the knitting doesn’t really have an edge, it looks like it rolls underneath and goes up the back which is because you end up making a little hollow tube all the way along the bottom of the knitting. I think it looks really professional and since learning it I realised that most of my shop bought knitted clothes use this cast on and I never really noticed before. There are several ways to get the same effect and I reckon most of them look really complicated and fiddly but this method is really easy, it gives you 1×1 rib. (I think it may be possible to do something for a 2×2 rib but I haven’t tried that yet.)

Hopefully this is all ok, I’ve read it through a couple of times but if anybody spots any errors or needs any more clarification let me know.
You need a little piece of spare yarn, something thin and smooth like sock yarn is ideal and preferably in a colour that contrasts with what you are using for the knitting so you can see where it is to remove it afterwards. Also you should use needles that are two sizes smaller than you intend to use for the ribbing.
Casting on 005
In the round (even number of stitches)
With your waste yarn cast on half the number of stitches needed for your pattern plus one (e.g. if you need 90 stitches, cast on 46) using whatever method you like.
Turn. Change to your main yarn.
Round 1: *K1, yo, repeat from* to last st, K1 (e.g.91 sts)
Join in the round –  Make sure your stitches aren’t twisted and slip the first cast on stitch purlwise from the left to the right needle, place marker for beginning of round.
Round 2: * slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, K1, repeat from * to last 2 sts K2tog (e.g. 90 sts)
Round 3: *P1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in back, repeat from *
Round 4: * slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, K1, repeat from *
Round 5: As round 3
Continue with larger needles in size for ribbing with P1, K1 rib for required number of rows.

Flat (odd number of stitches)
With your waste yarn cast on half the number of stitches needed for your pattern rounded up to the nearest whole number (e.g. if you need 91 stitches, 91/2 = 45  ½, cast on 46) using whatever method you like.
Turn. Change to your main yarn.
Row 1: *K1, yo, repeat from* to last st, K1 (e.g.91 sts)
Row 2: * K1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, repeat from * to last st K1
Row 3: With yarn in front slip first stitch purlwise *K1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, repeat from *
Repeat rows 2 and 3 once
Continue with larger needles in size for ribbing with K1, P1 rib for required number of rows.

Flat (even number of stitches)
With your waste yarn cast on half the number of stitches needed for your pattern plus one (e.g. if you need 90 stitches cast on 46) using whatever method you like.
Turn. Change to your main yarn.
Row 1: K2 *yo, K1 repeat from* to last st, K1 (e.g.90 sts)
Row 2: * K1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, repeat from *
Repeat row 2 three times
Continue with larger needles in size for ribbing with K1, P1 rib for required number of rows

What you are actually doing is working half the stitches on one row and the other half on the next row so although you have worked four rows at the end of the cast on you will have the equivalent of two rows of knitting with half the stitches on the front and half the stitches on the back
Casting on 006
Now either unpick the provisional cast on or cut it really carefully and remove it in sections, it is magic and the knitting won’t unravel. Scout’s honour.
IMG_0224
Now you should have a lovely stretchy edge and no visible cast on. Oh, and it will look tiny until you’ve done a few more rows but it is super stretchy and will loosen up a little as you go along.

And I promise it won’t unravel, not that I was ever a scout but it really won’t. One time I tried to unravel something from the bottom, I can’t even remember why, maybe that end of the wool was easier to find or something but knitting just doesn’t unravel from the bottom up. All my happy childhood memories of cartoons where people got a thread snagged on something and then walked around and carried on oblivious to the fact that their jumper was merrily getting shorter and shorter were shattered. Until I learnt you can knit jumpers from the top down, in the round, like this one:

IMG_9878IMG_9877

Hurrah for silly unravelly things! And I still have lots to learn about knitting.

The jumper is Julia Blake’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes‘ with a little added colour and extrapolated into a smaller size for Small (Hmmm, vague memory of GCSE statistics – extrapolation results are a bit hit and miss and not always a good idea – the sleeves are really too tight compared to the rest of the jumper, but never mind, he loves the spider…) Sorry the photos aren’t great, I didn’t know I was going to need a good one without pyjamas when I took it.

 

by

In which there is more than one way to knit

Sorry for the break in transmission, I have mostly been feeling sorry for myself with some horrible cold lurgy kind of thing, I’m still feeling pretty rough but alive enough today to realise that the house is a tip because I’ve not done any housework all week and I live with two mobile whirlwinds who make mess faster than I can pick it up at the best of times. So am I tidying up? No, I am writing on here while the mess carries on increasing…

I have been very good and not done any more of jumper number three (which is actually a cardigan) before doing jumper number two although I did accidentally cast on some socks (I am determined to make some that actually fit somebody but I will save the story about sock disasters for another day) but seriously, who could argue with the fearsome beast that was guarding jumper number two?
IMG_0074

I have done a sleeve and a bit so it is coming on slowly. The other reason I keep putting it off is that I am knitting it back to front.  I used to think I knew a lot about knitting but the more I learn, the more I realise there is that I don’t know. A few months ago a friend asked me to remind her how to knit – she had learnt before but was a little rusty, I’m not great at explaining things anyway but she was holding the wool in her left hand and I couldn’t work out quite what she was doing so we didn’t get on very far. She worked out what to do anyway without me interfering but it made me remember something I had read about continental knitting and it turns out that’s what she was doing. I was taught the English/throwing method where you tension the wool with your right hand and kind of flick it around the right needle to make a stitch but with the continental method you tension the wool in your left hand and scoop it up with the right needle instead. The bit of me that is vaguely an engineer (very, very, very small bit) can see that that this should be quicker just because things are moving less far for each stitch so I tried to teach myself and made an experimental jumper. Experimental because I knit the whole thing with the wool in my left hand and also it was the first time I had knit a big thing in the round and it is a great pattern because it taught me a bunch of other techniques that I didn’t know existed. I would show you a picture of it but most of the photos have got my grumpy Christmas face in so I won’t. If you want to learn more about the different techniques then stick it into Google, there are loads of tutorials and this is waffley enough already without me trying to explain properly.

I promised my friend a jumper for her birthday last year, she was supposed to be choosing a pattern, I was supposed to be nagging her to choose a pattern and eight months later she saw my jumper and said she would like one like that. The size I did first time round fit her ok so I am making one the same which means the tension needs to be the same which mean I don’t dare knit it with the throwing method in case it turns out a different size. I am still quicker at throwing anyway but also I have super bendy thumbs which go more or less from -90° to +90° (I did contemplate showing you a picture of that but I thought you probably didn’t need to see) and the way I grip the needle for continental knitting means my thumb bends the wrong way, it’s not uncomfortable but if I do it for too long my thumb seizes up (which is sad) so that is my excuse for putting off jumper number two, that and the cat.

IMG_0055

In other knitting news, I finished the rainbow hat but I haven’t written it down yet, I really should do it before I forget what I did. And I put the other hat pattern onto Ravelry where it has been downloaded over a hundred times already. That’s probably not very many in the scheme of things but it’s enough to remind me how terrifying the internet is.