A Fiber Arts Studio | Weaving & Knitting | Teacher & Purveyor
I have been a busy bee lately and didn’t realize it had been so long since I had posted. I have taught 6 classes since the last post. I have pics from a couple of them, but forget during the class to snap a couple of shots. I have another class tomorrow, and will try to remember to take some and to post after. Meanwhile, the crochet bug bit me last night, so a happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!
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.
In 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.
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.
We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground here and its still coming down. Today is about 40 degrees warmer than the -12° we started out with yesterday, so really, it’s not so bad. I have a beer braised brisket in the oven, a nice chardonnay chilling in the refrigerator and soft, chunky, luxurious kettle-dyed, merino wool to knit with so I am happy as a clam. I also sat down and ordered a bunch more of this yarn online in about 4 different colorways that can warm you and brighten your day. Every time I wear mine, people want one. I’ll post when I have some for sale.
I have been having quite a busy month teaching classes at Silk Road Textiles and at the WGGC. This post is to show is the work of some of my students in progress.
This is from my houndstooth scarf class at Silk Road Textiles. I forgot to take other pictures, but there were four in the class. Some of the other color combinations were light and dark brown and blue and black.
One of my favorite combinations is a purple green,
or red and black
Next is a set of photos from my class on faux ikat. In this class we use handpainted yarns that are dyed in a particular way. These yarns have to be dyed across the skein or “palindrome dyed” where the dyer paints the yarn across the oval of the skein.
I show them how to make the colors “pool” for a faux ikat effect in their scarves. You have to be willing to work with the yarn and let it determine the length of the scarf.
I love this treadling variation. (4,3,2,1,4,1,2,3) I may do the 4th towel with it rather than the 4th variation included in the book. (4,3,4,2,1,2) I want to finish by tomorrow morning for my guild study group meeting. I have caused myself a time crunch because I spent some unweaving time yesterday. I had made 2 treadling errors in towel #2 and contemplated keeping that towel for myself and leaving the mistakes in. But, I decided to heed my own advice, I would rather keep a towel that didn’t have a mistake, so bit the bullet and unwove. I wasted time over the weekend not weaving most of Saturday and all of Sunday because I couldn’t make myself go on with the mistake in, and I didn’t want to unweave. It only took me about 20 minutes to unweave the 4 or 5 inches yesterday and much less than that to reweave. I should have done it right away. The towels would be finished by now if I had.
I need to leave to teach a rigid heddle class soon at the LYS and that will cut into my weaving time tonight. Its a good thing I get up early with my son in the morning. Hopefully I can push through and finish then before I need to leave at 9:30. I used fusible thread in my hems, so a quick iron on the ends and I can take the cloth along to study group with out fear. Washing, cutting apart and hemming of the towels can wait until after the meeting.
I was there this morning teaching a knitting class. I love my knitting classes. It is so gratifying to see how successful people feel the first time they use increases and decreases to make something shaped like a hat in the round, rather than a rectangle or square. Many people knit for years without going beyond the rectangle. In my hat class not only do they use shaping, but they learn to knit on a circular needle and a set of 4 double pointed needles. Such a simple project that creates skill and confidence when they complete it.
Everyone in the class wants to make a sweater now, so that will start in two weeks!