Tag Archives: how-to

n00b Hat, Part 3: the Purl Stitch

Have you got your garter stitch brim done? Awesome! Send me a photo, if you like. I’d love to actually see it, instead of just pretending to see it.

So, your hat should look something like this:

If it’s a little longer or shorter, no worries. If it’s a little lumpier, also no worries.

Today we’re going to start working on the middle part of the hat, which we’ll work in stockinet stitch. Stockinet stitch is a simple knitting pattern where you alternate knitting one row, and purling one row. When you imagine a basic knit sweater, the smooth-looking parts are stockinet stitch.

You already know how to do knit stitches, so I guess it’s time to learn how to do purl stitches. The purl stitch is worked very similarly to the knit stitch, except that it’s mirrored (don’t worry… it sounds worse than it is).

Just like before, you’re going to start with your knitting on your left side and your empty needle on your right. Take the tip of your right-hand needle, and poke it through the back of the first stitch. Keep your yarn in front of your knitting. (See how it’s backwards from working a knit stitch?)

Then, wrap your yarn around the tip of your right-hand needle.

And pull the new stitch through the old stitch, from front to back.

And, just like before, you slip the old stitch off the left needle.

Does that make sense? Let’s try it again.

Keep your yarn in front of your knitting. Insert the tip of your needle into the back of the stitch. Wrap your yarn around the tip of your needle, and pull the new stitch through. Drop your old stitch off the left-hand needle.

Keep going! Purl the whole row.

Now that you’ve purled a whole row, do you see how knitting and purling are very similar? For both, you insert your right-hand needle, wrap your yarn around, pull the new stitch through, then drop the old stitch off. Here’s a quick summary of the differences between knitting and purling:

Knitting: Insert your needle into the front of the stitch, keeping your yarn behind the knitting. Wrap your yarn around the needle tip, and pull the new stitch through from back to front.

Purling: Insert your needle into the back of the stitch, keeping your yarn in front of the knitting. Wrap your yarn around the needle tip, and pull the new stitch through from front to back.

OK, so, since we’re doing the stockinet stitch pattern, it’s time for another knit row. (Remember, knit one row, purl one row.) So, turn your knitting around and knit back.

Then purl a row.

Then knit a row.

Then purl a row.

Simple!

But, what if you have to (I don’t know) sleep or something? How will you remember what to do next? Easy; just “read” your knitting. “Reading” your knitting means that you look at the stitches you’ve already worked to figure out what to do next.

After a few rows of stockinette stitch, you’ll see that your hat has two different textures. The bumpy and squishy garter stitch at the bottom, and the smooth stockinet at the top.

Stockinet has two different sides. The “right side” is the side with the little V-shaped stitches. When you see this side facing you, it’s time to knit.

The “wrong side” is the side with little bumps. When you see this side, it’s time to purl. (You can think of the bumps as “pearls,” if that helps. Get it? Pearls=purl. Clever clever.)

Keep going, knitting one row and purling one row until your whole hat measures about 5 inches from the cast-on edge. If you have a smaller head, you can make your hat a little shorter, if you have a bigger head (or lots of hair) you can make your hat a little longer. I like to err on the too long side, since you can always roll up the brim, if it’s too big.

Next week, we’ll make the crown of the hat, and I’ll show you how to do decreases.

n00b Hat, or Learning to Knit: Part 1

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So, I heard that some of you don’t know how to knit (yet). If you’re interested, let’s fix that.

This is a pattern I created years and years ago. I was part of my college club the “Knitting Illini” (at the University of Illinois, hence the “Illini”). We had to teach a new crop of people how to knit every year, and we didn’t want to scare them off with great big scarves, or boring washcloths. I thought a hat was a fun, useful, and small enough project for new knitters. And, you end up with a hat at the end of a couple of weeks. Win-win.

It’s a basic beanie with a garter stitch brim. It’s knit flat and seamed up the back. It’s pretty much one size fits all, and is super cozy. I have a couple I’ve made over the years and I wear them all the time.

I’m going to be posting small chunks of the project every Friday for the next couple weeks. That way you can play along at home. As you work on the hat you’ll learn how to cast on, knit, purl, decrease and finish a project, skills that constitute about 90% of all knitting. And, if you keep up, you should end up with a pretty nifty hat by the time truly cold weather kicks in.

“Yes!” you say. “I want to do this! What do I need?”

Well, dear reader, you don’t need much:

-1 skein of worsted weight yarn. You can go luxurious or cheap, or somewhere in between. If you want to go the cheap route, Red Heart SuperSaver costs about two bucks and can be found literally everywhere. If you want to go the luxurious route, find an independent yarn store and ask the clerk to get you something fancy for a worsted weight hat. May I recommend Malibrigo?

-1 pair of size 8 knitting needles. Whatever kind you like. I recommend straight needles for ultra beginners. Wood or metal, doesn’t matter.

-1 tapestry needle. I forgot to take a picture of this. It’s a big sewing needle. Sometimes they are metal, sometimes they are plastic. You’ll use this at the very end to finish your hat.

-1 pair of scissors (or really strong teeth, I suppose). You won’t need these until the very end.

Dying With Food Coloring, Part 2

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Let’s start at the beginning, and make us some semi-solid yarn. I’m going to try to make some black yarn. Now, when you shoot for black yarn, you usually end up with really really really really dark purple or blue, but I’m OK with that.

The process is really similar to dying yarn with Kool-Aid, with a few small differences.

When you go to make up your dye bath, fill your non-reactive pot with plenty of water and a good glug of vinegar. I’ve probably got about a half gallon of water, and about a tablespoon of vinegar. You don’t really have to measure.

Then, add in your food coloring. Add as much or as little as you want. I’m trying for a really dark color, so I probably added just under a teaspoon. If you’re going to try to get a couple skeins of the same color, you’ll want to measure carefully. But, I’m just making the one, so I can play loosey-goosey.

Soak your yarn in warm water. When your dye bath is steaming and just on the verge of simmering, turn the temperature down to medium/medium-high. Add the wet yarn all at once and give it a gentle stir with a spoon.

Let your yarn hang out in the dye bath until all the color is taken up. I used a TON of food coloring for this yarn, so it probably took a good half hour to take up the dye. (Also, it’s almost impossible to take a good picture of yarn in a dye bath. This was the best one of about 15 photos. Frustrating.)

When the water turns clear, tip the yarn into a clean colander in the sink and rinse it out thoroughly with clean, warm water. Make sure you get all the vinegar out.

Hang your yarn up to dry!

Skein Rhymes With Pain

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Before we get started dying your yarn, we need it in a skein. A skein of yarn is basically a nice neat loop of yarn held together in a couple spots by scrap yarn. It’s good for dying , since it lets your dye get to every little bit of your yarn, but prevents your yarn from becoming the world’s biggest knot.

Sometimes you can buy yarn already in a skein (usually from knitting specialty stores), but usually it comes in balls when you buy it from JoAnn’s or something like that. Putting it in a skein is a bit of a pain, but it’s worth it.

So, how’s it done?

First, wrap your yarn around something. I’m using the backs of two chairs sitting next to each other. You could use a really big book, or the hands of a very patient friend. Keep wrapping until you have it all wrapped up. (I’m actually splitting my ball of yarn in half, and making two even-ish skeins of wool. This way, I can dye them separately and have two different colors of yarn.) Tie the ends of your yarn together to keep everything neat.

Then, using scrap yarn or embroidery floss, add a couple ties around your skein. Hold the embroidery floss behind the yarn, while it’s still wrapped around the chair back (or whatever). Split the yarn in half with your thumb.

Take the bottom end of the floss, and loop it behind the middle of the floss, in between the two halves of the yarn.

Knot the ends of the floss together. Make sure the tie is secure, but loose around the yarn. If it’s too tight, you’ll end up with white spots in your dyed yarn. And no one wants that.

Add a couple more ties around the skein.

Slip the skein of yarn off the chair back, and you’re ready to start dying. (The yarn, that is. Don’t actually die. That would suck.)

Dying with Food Coloring, part 1

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I’ve been getting requests to do a dying with food coloring tutorial for a while now (Hi Mom!), so let’s do it. Dying with Kool-Aid is fun and all, and leaves your knitwear smelling fruity fresh, but there is a very limited color selection with it. And, unless you’re six years old, you probably don’t want a “Blastin’ Berry Cherry” colored sweater.

Here’s what you need:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

-Food Coloring. I like the gel concentrate stuff from Wilton. It’s super concentrated, so you can use just a little bit and still get really bright colors. And, it comes in approximately a million shades. I bought this box of 12 colors for about $10 (with a coupon from JoAnn’s), and it’ll last me years. You can use the regular liquid colors from the grocery store, but you’ll have to use a lot more volume to get brightly colored yarn.

-Vinegar. To set the color into your yarn, you have to add an acid, and plain white vinegar works best. It’s dirt cheap, and you probably have a bottle of it in the back of your cupboard. (We didn’t use vinegar when dying with Kool-Aid, since it already has citric acid added to the powder, so you don’t have to add any more. Science!)

-Yarn. Just like with the Kool-Aid, this kind of dying only works with animal fibers (wool, alpaca, angora, silk). It has to do with the protein makeup of the yarn, but I don’t know all the science behind it. I just know that if you try it with acrylic or cotton, it’ll never take up the color. I’m using Paton’s Classic Worsted. It’s a 100% wool yarn, and it’s easy to find at your local Jo-Ann’s/Michael’s/Hobby Lobby.

-Water. Duh. From the tap is fine.

-A non-reactive vessel. (Just like with dying with Kool-Aid) Stainless steel, enamel, glass or non-stick/Teflon work well.

Collect up your gear, and meet me back here next week when I’ll show you how to dye semi-solid and variegated yarn. And (if the time management gods smile upon me), I’ll give you a pattern to use your newly dyed yarn!

It’s too pretty out for a real post

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If the sun’s out in Seattle, you’re pretty much required by law to spend your day outside. So, I decided to sit out in the yard with a nice iced coffee and a pile of granny squares and sew them together. Not a bad afternoon.

After an hour or two of work and a few chapters of my most recent audiobook…

And I’ve whip-stitched my squares together:

They’re nowhere near an entire blanket yet, but they’re a start. It’s going to end up being possibly the tackiest blanket ever (since I’m using up all my sock leftovers from over the years, and I tend to knit brightly colored socks), but I’m kind of OK with that. It’ll be a nice project to work on a little at a time, whenever my bowl of sock yarn leftovers gets too full.

Granny Squares

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Want to make your own blanket like Chummy’s? It’s super easy (and satisfying) to make granny squares from your scrap yarn.

I made you a video! (I even figured out how to and sound and a title! I’m still not sure about editing and stuff yet. Next time, I’m thinking special effects, background music and unicorns. Some day, I will become the Steven Spielberg of knitting/crochet videos.)

Sock week: Sock Block Rock

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There’s been a heck of a lot of sock talk around here lately. So, I have some more!

Once you’ve finished your second sock, you could just say “Hey! I’ve got some socks. Yay!”

OR, you could guild the lily and go one more step and block the suckers. Your socks will fit just fine without blocking them, so if I’m just making socks for myself, I won’t do it. But, if I’m making the socks as a gift, I’ll block them. Blocking just makes the toes and heels lay nicely and fixes all those little weirdnesses that happen during knitting.

Here’s what you need:

1 pair of socks.

A clean bowl (or a clean sink) filled with bathwater-warm water.

A couple clean towels

Sock blockers (optional)

Drop your socks into the bowl of water, and let them soak for about 20 minutes. They need to be completely saturated. Don’t scrub or squeeze them or anything, just lay them nicely in the bowl of water. If you mess with them too much, they’ll start to felt, which is not ideal. You can poke them a bit until they go underwater, if you feel it’s necessary.

After your socks are thoroughly saturated, take them out of the bowl and squeeze them gently to get rid of a good portion of the water. They should still be wet, but not drippy.

Then, lay out the towel (or towels) and arrange your socks nicely on top. Roll the whole mess into a damp towel-and-sock burrito. Squeeze it as much as you can, to get out most of the water. (I know, first I tell you to get them wet, then I tell you to dry them out… I can’t make up my mind. I’m terrible.)

Now you have two options. The easiest way to block socks is to use sock blockers (duh). Sock blockers are sock-shaped forms that you put your wet socks on to dry after you’re done knitting them. You can find them at your local knitting store, or you can buy them here. Basically, you put the damp socks on the sock blockers, and let them hang to dry. (My socks are a skotch too big for my blockers, so I use clothespins to keep them on the blockers.) If you don’t own blockers, not to worry. You can get out another clean, dry towel and lay your socks out nicely on the towel and leave them out to dry.

Now, your beautiful socks are completely, totally and 100% DONE! How exciting. And, just in time for summer (because nothing says summer, like wool socks).

Sock Week: Second Sock Syndrome

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It’s one of the most feared maladies in the fiber arts community. It strikes suddenly and without consideration for age, experience, or the general health of the knitter. It’s sent many a project bag to the back of the closet. It’s the cause of countless cold feet. It’s the one, the only,

Second Sock Syndrome-The silent killer (or rather, the cause of people getting bored with their socks and not making the second one of the pair)

Don’t fall pray to Second Sock Syndrome. Knit your second sock, and make sure your feet get the love that they truly deserve.

Here’s my pair of socks:

I made sure to follow the exact same pattern that I used to make my first sock, so that they match perfectly. Count your rows in the leg and instep, so that one sock doesn’t end up longer or shorter than the other one.

Also, in case you were wondering, I didn’t make a whole sock in two days. I’m fast, but not that fast.

Sock Week: Closing Time

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We’re in the final stretch! All we have to do today is to close up the toe and weave in the ends. Then you’ll have a beautiful new sock!

OK, when we left off on Friday, you had finished with needle 4 (your active yarn was at the bottom of the sole).

Knit needle 1, so that your active yarn is coming from the side of the foot (by where your big toe/pinky toe would sit if you put on the sock).

You’re now officially done with knitting the sock! Yay! No more knitting. Just grafting the toe closed.

To set up for grafting (also called the Kitchener Stitch), combine the stitches on needle 1 with the stitches on needle 4. And, combine the stitches on needle 2 with the stitches on needle 3. Cut your yarn, leaving a couple feet of tail, and get out your tapestry needle. Your toe should look like this:

Now, using the Kitchener Stitch, graft these stitches together. This is a great video tutorial, if you haven’t done it before.

When you’re done, your toe should look like this:

See how the knitting flows nicely from the top of the foot to the bottom of the foot? Very pretty.

Now, all that’s left is to weave in your ends, and your sock is done!

Congratulations! You’ve now completed your first sock!

On the Needles

Knitting isn't so hard… sometimes

Tag Archives: how-to

n00b Hat, Part 3: the Purl Stitch

n00b Hat, or Learning to Knit: Part 1

Dying With Food Coloring, Part 2

Skein Rhymes With Pain

Dying with Food Coloring, part 1

It’s too pretty out for a real post

Granny Squares

Sock week: Sock Block Rock

Sock Week: Second Sock Syndrome

Sock Week: Closing Time

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