Step by Step

This post is a link to the step-by-step instructions I made to help myself make a wrapped heel and toe on the CSM.  It is free to those crankers who are interested.  When I first started with my CSM I needed a detailed set of instructions to help be successful cranking out a wrapped heel and toe. I based it on the manual I received with my machine and watching You Tube videos.  I make no guarantees it will work for you or that it is error free.  You can also let the yarn auto-wrap around the latch instead of physically putting it behind the needle.  This has come to be know as the Sue-icide method.   Even when I make the auto wrap heel and toe, I still manually wrap the first and last increase needles around the back on each side as per the .pdf below

CSM Wrapped Heel and Toe Step by Step

CSM Wrapped Heels and Toes

The Imitation Game

There is a great debate in the knitting/crochet pattern designer community over selling finished objects made from patterns. Some designers even go so far as to try to put a “license” on their pattern to restrict the sale of finished objects made from the pattern or to charge more for a pattern that people intend to make for sale in a craft show or on Etsy.

This NPR story reaffirms a lot of what I have read; useful objects such as clothing are not copyrightable.  The actual words and drawings in a pattern are what the copyright covers.  No one should make copies of a written pattern and distribute the pattern without the author’s (designers’) permission whether the pattern is free or has a cost.  What a knitter makes from a pattern (the finished object) is theirs to do with what they will.  They can give it away or sell it.  They can make 10 of them and sell those items too.  The actual finished objects are useful objects  and they have every right to sell them just like any property they own.   Whether a design is patentable is a different story, but if you have not sought a design patent, the point is moot.  What about patterns for knitted toys?  If the toy is an original design and you want to license sales you  need to get a trademark. (Mickey Mouse anyone?)  If you make a pattern for a “Mickey Mouse” toy, maybe you’re the one in the wrong…

People who write knitting patterns make their money from the sale of patterns.  (Or they wanted to draw traffic to their website or sale of other patterns by offering free patterns). They are hurt if you make copies of their pattern and give them to your friends who want to make it too.  I have created a couple of free patterns over the years and recently made one for sale.  I have never tried to ‘limit’ the use of the pattern.  If you want to make items from my patterns and sell them, feel free!  (Just don’t copy my patterns or class handouts and give them away please!)

To KFB or not to KFB-that is the question…

In one of my knitting classes right now we are knitting a top-down sweater that has a increase stitch every other row/round at the raglan lines separating the shoulders from the back and front.  We start out the sweater by knitting flat; knitting one row, then purling one row.  It’s easy to remember that you only increase on the knit rows, and not the purl rows.  Since it is a pullover, after the V-neck shaping is finished, we join the flat piece of knitting into the round.  The first round after joining replaces a purl row, so there are no increases.  Then after that you make the increases on every other round.  If you look at the fabric you are making, as you come to the marker that reminds you to make a KFB (knit front back–sometimes called a bar increase) you can see whether or not you should increase in the current round by noticing the little bump or bar that you created on a previous round.

2015-02-25 09.47.15In the photo to the left (click on it to make it bigger), you can see I have reached the point in the round that I have “knit to within one stitch of marker”. This is where I have to decided to increase or not to increase.   If I didn’t remember if I was knitting an increase round or not, I can tell by looking at the stitch I am about to knit at the marker.  Look at the base of the stitch on the left-hand needle.  You can see a little bump or bar at the base of the stitch.  This means that stitch was the “back” of the “knit front and back” in the previous row, therefore I should just knit it this row, not increase in it.2015-02-25 09.54.26

This next photograph on the right show the same point of the knitting one stitch before the marker. This time the bar is in the stitch BELOW the one that is on my left hand needle.  The one I am about to knit on the left hand needle does not have a bar at the base, therefore was not an increase. When I knit that stitch before the marker, I should KFB to make an increase on it.

If you learn to “read” your knitting, it can help you to figure out where you are in the pattern and what you should be doing.  This comes from really looking at it as you are working on it.  Look at the fabric you created below the needles; when you see something that doesn’t look like plain knitting, try to relate that to the instructions you have followed to create it.  Decreases, increases, yarn overs and slipped stitches are all obvious if you look at them after you make them and notice how they have changed the stitches..

I don’t have to keep track if I am on and increase round or not, I just look at the stitches when I get to the marker, and let the knitting tell me what to do.  I will occasionally count my stitches so that I can be aware of how many stitches are in the back section of the sweater. The pattern says to stop increasing when the back reaches a certain number of stitches.

 

 

 

Four-Way Chilly

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This is my new hat pattern. It is knit from 100% bulky wool (superwash for easy care).  The ribbing is a double thick hem for an extra chilly day, but it could be knit as a single thickness as well.  It has four stitch patterns to give it interesting texture.   Hence the name, Four-Way Chilly. I am going to make up a  worsted weight version as well and will likely be offering the pattern on Ravelry.  Look for it as soon as I can write it up and have it test knit.