My hat is too loose...

"My hat is too big!  How can I tighten it?" is a question frequently asked on community knitting boards.  Luckily, there are two good options, but today's post starts with two options which do NOT work, yet which are frequently suggested.

1)  Blocking the hat smaller  The idea behind this advice is that if you wet the hat and then block it smaller, the hat will stay that way.  It is true that thoroughly wetting a too-loose hat, then firmly yanking it lengthwise will make it both longer and narrower.  It is also true that pushing the fabric together and drying it in that scrunched-up position will make the hat look smaller. Yet, sadly, although blocking can do many magical things (such as make your knitting look more professional by evening out the stitches, or opening up lace) it cannot make things smaller.  Logic will tell you that any "smallerizing" you were able to achieve by blocking will be undone as soon as you put the hat on and wear it.    Plus, blocking really works best on wool, anyway, so if your hat is made of anything else, fuggedaboudit, as they say in New York.

2) Felting the hat smaller The idea here is to shrink the hat by felting it smaller.  It is indisputably true that felting will shrink woolens. However, imho, this advice is ill-advised.  Felting is a wild and uncontrolled process which goes very very fast when it finally happens, so getting the hat to shrink "just so" would be a matter of great luck.  A too-small, too-short, too-stiff object--a sort of a felt bowl--is just as likely to be the result of the experiment.  It is true that there are commercially felted hats, and even commercially-made felted jackets, but fitted felted garments are cut out of sheets of felted knitting and then sewn together. Home-made felted clogs are a popular exception, as are felted mittens, but clogs and mittens are meant to fit loosely--it is not necessary to have them sit "just so" around one's feet or hands, as a hat must sit around one's brow.

The one almost-exception to all this occurs with superwash wool. Of course, the whole POINT of superwash wool is that it does NOT felt, yet many knitters may not realize that putting this sort of yarn into a dryer helps it regain its bounce and size--a superwash hat laid out to dry will be much bigger than one machine-dried.  So, while throwing a superwash hat into the dryer is not felting per se, it is "shrinking" through using a clothes drier--an almost exception to the don't-felt concept.

Now we come to two ideas which DO work.

1. Lining the hat  This idea is 100% guaranteed to work 100% of the time.  The idea is to make a  lining--either a full lining or a headband style lining, which does fit your head exactly as you would like.  An excellent fabric to use for this lining is polar fleece. Polar fleece is stretchy, non-itchy, comes in various weights, and best of all, it does not fray (and so, does not need to be hemmed). The lining is then sewn inside the too-large hat, easing the excess fabric of the hat to the lining, one little stitch at a time.  Because the lining was made to fit your head exactly, the resulting hat must also fit your head exactly.  There are more complete details about the process in these two posts:
Lining a hat, headband style
Lining a hat, fully-lined style

2. Elastic Sometimes, lining a hat will not work, either because of its style--a slouch-hat, for example, with no real "band" around the forehead, or because a sewn in band is not a good fit for the style of the hat--a lacy cap, for example.  For such hats, you may wish to consider thread elastic, worked into the edge for several rows or rounds.  The how-to can be found in this post on tightening up socks--scroll down a bit and you will find thread elastic discussed.

Good knitting!

This post the fourth in a series on garment correction.  The other posts in this series are:
Part 1: My sweater is too wide
Part 2: My sweater is too long, my sweater is too short
Part 3:My sweater is too tight under the arms/at the bust/chest--the magic of gussets
Part 5: My sweater slips off my shoulders
Part 6 (still to come): My sweater is too small around my middle



--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on "my hat is too big!"

My sweater is too tight under the arms, or at the chest/bust--the magic of gussets

If the bust/chest area of a sweater is too tight, you can fix this by messing around with the armhole length.  Are you surprised? In fact, the fit of the upper body of a garment is very highly affected by the length of the armhole, and a great deal of the designer's attention is paid to the exact measurements in this complex, saddle-shaped area where many seams run together, and the arm meets the body of the sweater.

The great thing about the upper body/armhole connection is that the entire fit around the bust/chest can be eased by lengthening the armhole (and, of course, the fit around the upper arm can also be eased in this manner).  Although lengthening the armhole sounds like a project which would require re-knitting the upper part of the garment as well as reknitting the sleeves, this is luckily not the case IF (and only if) the garment was made in pieces (has seams).

To lengthen the armhole, and thus add ease to the upper body area (and to the upper arm area, as well) we are going to use a gusset.  A gusset is simply an inlaid piece of fabric specifically designed to add ease to the applied area.  Our specific gusset, an underarm gusset for a sweater, is a diamond-shaped piece of fabric knit from the same yarn as the garment itself, then inserted (sewn in) along the top of the side seam and the top of the arm seam.

This magic diamond-shaped insert adds ease where it is needed, and thus saves you having to reknit a substantial portion of the garment. Although the line drawings below shows a gusset set into a set-in sleeve garment, the gusset trick actually works with every shoulder style--drop-shoulder, raglan, etc. This is because it is not added at the shoulder itself, but under the arm at the side seam, and so creates no distortion in the shoulder style selected. (And for the historically-minded, a gusset is a traditional method of constructing ganseys.)

As to how large to make the gusset, you must first determine how total many inches of ease you want to add around the garment at the bust/chest (or around the upper arm, if this is where the tightness is).  You would then work each gusset until the total width at the widest point of EACH gusset is ONE HALF the total added ease desired, so that both gussets together add up to the total ease required around the circumference of the garment.

As to knitting the  gusset itself:
Prep step: cast on, then work two rows of 2 st I-cord.
row 1: k1, m1, k1 (3 stitches on needle)
row 2:  purl.
row 3: k1, m1, k to with 1 st of opp edge, m1, k1.
row 4, purl.
REPEAT rows 3 and 4 until the diamond is HALF as wide across as the total number of inches of ease you seek, as explained above.
row 5: k across with no shaping.
row 6: purl across with no shaping.
row 7: k1, SYTK (or any other left leaning decrease you prefer), k to within 3 sts of other edge, k2tog, k1.
row 8: purl.
REPEAT rows 7 and 8 until 5 sts remain on a purl row.
row 9: k1, work a three stitch decrease (scroll) on the middle three stitches, k1.
row 10: purl
row 11: k1, k2tog, 2 stitches on needle
finishing step: work 2 rows of 2 st I-cord, bind off

Below is a photo of a gusset knitted according to the above instructions, the widest measurement is 17 stitches.

When you come to sew the gusset inside the garment, pick out (remove) the seam in the underarm area of your sweater (top of body, top of arm) beyond what you will need to sew in the gusset--this gives you some maneuvering room. To make sure of your gusset placement, begin the sewing centered on the center two (no shaping) rows (i.e.: rows 5 and 6) as shown in the illustration two below.  Resew the body and sleeve seams above and below the gusset insertion and wear your remodeled sweater in health and good fortune.

Here are some tips:

1) As to the actual sewing-in of the gusset, the illustration shows an overcast stitch worked from the outside, but this is only to give the general idea of sewing, and to maintain the perspective common to all the illustrations, namely from the back of the right arm.  The overcast stitch worked from the outside would actually be a poor choice. Far better would be to sew (or slip stitch!) the gusset from the inside. (Aaaand--if you had slip stitched the seams, rather than mattress-stitched them, taking out the seams would have been easier in the first place!)

Click this (or any!) illustration to enlarge

2) The sewing (or slip stitching!) from the inside is done at the rate of 1/1 (one stitch of the gusset is sewn/slip stitched to one stitch of the body or arm)

3) The instructions included in this post for knitting the gusset result in a utility sort of a gusset which adds width in a relatively concentrated area--just at the underarm.  If the problem extends past this area, work the gusset relatively longer (i.e." a longer diamond) by adding more plain rows between increases/decreases.  This will add more ease in a longer stretch of both the body and the arm.  Of course, if the problem is mainly in the upper arm, you can make the gusset shorter at the body end while knitting it longer along the arm seam.  If the reverse is true--if the body is tight but the upper arm is pretty much OK in circumference, reverse the procedure--making the arm part of the gusset relatively shorter than the body portion to provide bust shaping with very little ease added to the arm circumference. In these ways, the gusset can be customized to your exact ease requirements.

4) For supergeeks: If you are a demon for symmetry, begin the gusset with a provisional cast on in the very middle of the gusset, then follow the directions for the decrease portion of the gusset. When the first half is done, remove the provisional cast on to re-gain live sts on your needle, then work the decrease portion of the gusset again.  As you can see in the photo of the gusset, above, the decrease portion at the top of the gusset looks prettier than the increase portion at the bottom of the gusset, so by working both ways from the middle, you'll get two pretty decrease portions while avoiding the increase portion altogether.

Finally we'll end with a note on gussets at the crotch, rather than under the arm. Crotch gussets are a great idea for adding ease in an often-tight area. These are quite common in eastern-style pants and leggings.  While not common in western clothing, they are slowly becoming available as a specialty item.  Those who knit longies (either baby-bottom leggings or children's/adult leggings) can add a gusset to the crotch area in the identical manner as shown in this post for underarms, thus easing the entire garment for better fit, as well as the side benefit of moving the seams to lower-stress locations.

--TK
Part 1: My sweater is too wide
Part 2: My sweater is too long, my sweater is too short
Part 4: My hat is too loose
Part 5 : My sweater slips off my shoulders
Part 6 (still to come): My sweater is too small around my middle

My sweater is too long, my sweater is too short...

Changing the length of a garment is actually fairly easy (at least conceptually).  The technical details are in a previous TECHknitting post called "length reassignment surgery."  The purpose of this post is really only to provide an updated link for folks (and they are many) who have not been able to find the surgery link through a search-engine search: the title of THIS post is directly on point, whereas the title of the surgery post was not very findable.

--TK
This is the second in a series on garment correction. The others in this series include
Part 1: My sweater is too wide
Part 3:My sweater is too tight under the arms/at the bust/chest--the magic of gussets
Part 4: My hat is too loose
Part 5: My sweater slips off my shoulders
Part 6 (still to come): My sweater is too small around my middle

My sweater is too wide...

TECHknitting blog is starting a new series on garment correction, inspired by a question on Ravelry. The first in the series is:  "my sweater is too wide, how can I fix it?"

There are two main methods for fixing a too-wide sweater.  The most obvious (although not the most knitterly) method of fixing this is to get yourself to a serger, and simply take out a whack of sweater.  This may seem like odd advice, but when you come to realize that many commercial sweaters are in fact serged together from flat-knit sheets or tubes of knitting, it becomes less odd.  Here is a link to a sweater "saved by the serger," knit by my friend and fellow-Madisonian, the Ravelry hall-of-famer Rududu.  You can see that Rududu narrowed the sleeves on a mohair garment by simply serging them smaller.

For a more knitterly approach, consider reworking the knit fabric.  As you know, the same number of stitches in ribbing are substantially narrower than the same number in stockinette, because ribbing "draws up." TECHknitting blog has already shown how to rework stockinette into ribbing in the context of rolling stockinette scarves, and the cure is the same for a too-wide sweater.  A panel or two of ribbing in the middle of a stockinette field will narrow the entire garment.

If, on a bottom-up garment, the neckband has already been put on, it must be taken off again, and the same applies to the need to remove the bottom band on a top-down garment.  Once the band is off, pick out the cast-off until you have live stitches again, then rework the stockinette into ribbing using a crochet hook to rehook-up the dropped down columns (again, instructions are here).  You can make a single panel in the middle of a garment pattern or two panels, with a strip of plain stockinette between, or any arrangement you might like.   Work a few columns per panel into ribbing and try the garment on again.  Still too wide?  Add more columns (or panels!) of ribbing. Of course, you can try on the garment as you rework the fabric into ribbing, so you won't overshoot the mark.

And, naturally, you can tighten up too-loose sleeves by this trick also.

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on: "fixing a too-wide sweater."

This is the first in a series on garment correction.  The others in this series include
Part 2: My sweater is too long, my sweater is too short
Part 3:My sweater is too tight under the arms/at the bust/chest--the magic of gussets
Part 4: My hat is too loose
Part 5: My sweater slips off my shoulders
Part 6 (still to come): My sweater is too small around my middle

Items started along a long edge--how best to cast on

A perennial question on community knitting boards is how best to cast on along a very long edge, such as a scarf made edge-to-edge (as opposed to top-to-bottom) or a wide afghan made all in one piece.  IMHO, the best way would be to provisionally cast-on the long edge, using  COWYAK or the crochet method.  Afterwards, when the garment is finished, take out the provisional cast-on and work a bind-off to finish that edge.  This has two advantages.

1. The tension of the edge can be adjusted afterwards to suit the tension of the garment
2. The two edges will match perfectly, both tension-wise and appearance-wise, having both been bound off by the same method.

(In fact, is my humble opinion that this is also the best way to cast on for pretty much ALL garment knitting--such as a bottom-up sweater.  In other words, cast on provisionally, work the body of the garment, and only afterwards add the bottom band.  You can then freely experiment with different bands--hems, ribbings, etc.  Also by this method, The top and bottom bands will thus match along their edges, and the tension of the whole bottom band can be adjusted once you have a better idea of how the garment fits, and how the bottom band should best be tensioned to best fit the knitting of the body of the garment.  A further advantage to this method is that it also allows you to fine-tune the length of the finished garment, as well as of the cuffs for bottom-up work; or the tension and height of the neck band on a top-down garment.) 


--TK

A beautiful method of picking up stitches for a second fabric layer

Here is a beautiful method of picking up stitches on the inside of a stockinette fabric, so as to create a second, inner layer of fabric for facings or the like.

Step 1: run a column of reverse stockinette (ie: purls) where you want to start the new fabric.  You can either create this column of purls as-you-go, or insert it afterwards (possibly easier) by dropping a column and hooking it back up. When you flip the fabric over, this has created a single column of KNIT stitches on the reverse stockinette face of the fabric.

Step 1: on the reverse stockinette face of the fabric, you will have 
created a single column of knit stitches (darker green in illustration)

Step 2: insert a small crochet hook SIDEWAYS into each stitch of this column and draw through a loop

Step 2: Using a crochet hook, draw loops through the column of
knits as shown  

Step 3:  Deposit each loop as it is made onto a knitting needle (circular or double pointed). You will now have a line of stitches picked up on the inside of the garment which magically seem to grow right out of the row of knits.  You will not believe how completely and utterly invisible the pick up is--invisible from both sides of the fabric. (I've drawn it in pink here so you can see it, but when this is worked in the same color as the stockinette fabric, it disappears.)

Step 3: Each loop is deposited on a circular needle or dpn
as it is created.  Although the picked up stitches are shown
in a contrasting color for illustration purposes, if the same
 color is used, the pick-up line is perfectly invisible from
either side of the fabric.

Once your stitches are picked up, you simply knit away.

In the wool: the fabric to the right (at right angles to the line of knits)
was picked up through the line of knits and created as described in this post

This trick can be used for many purposes, but a really wonderful use is to make a little knit facing for a zipper.  The zipper tape lies inside, between the two layers of fabric, for a very tailored look.

A note on gauge--
Obviously, this method involves picking up one stitch for each row. Yet, this might make the fabric sag and gap, as row gauge is smaller than stitch gauge in knitting (more rows/in than sts/in).  This is solved by using a smaller needle and knitting tighter, to bring the st gauge of the facing in line with the row gauge of the garment.  If your yarn is too heavy for this trick, such that the resulting fabric would be too stiff, use a thinner yarn in matching color.

Addendum: Have a look at this post, where this sort of facing is used to face a steek. There are some very clear photos of what the inside of the facing--picked up by the "beautiful method"-- looks like.  This also shows the gauge-reduction trick in action, so even if you are not interested in steeks, the photos at the steek post could shed light on this facing trick.

--TK

Evenly spacing increases or decreases on an uneven stitch count

Today's TECHknitting post shows two quick solutions to the common problem of placing decreases evenly spaced on a stitch count not evenly divisible--these tricks work for spacing increases, too.

For example, suppose you want to space 8 decreases, evenly spaced, on a hat top of 93 stitches.  93 stitches isn't evenly divisible by 8.  The nearest even multiple of 8 is 88, which would be 8 decreases spaced 11 stitches apart, with 5 excess stitches left over.

1) Random decreasing before you get to the decrease rounds

In this solution, in the last few rounds before the decrease rounds begin, the 5 stitches would randomly be decreased away by working two stitches together at five random points.  By the time you get to the decrease rounds, you would have 88 stitches: 8 markers placed 11 stitches apart. This is the most common solution, I think, and it works very well in garter stitch (use k2togs), reverse stockinette (on the k side, use k2togs, on the purl side, p2togs) and other bumpy fabrics.  However, in stockinette, especially in bulky yarns (relatively few stitches) this has the potential to show somewhat as a disturbance in the fabric.

2) Differentially beginning the decrease round

Perhaps better looking in an all-stockinette fabric is this trick: work the first decrease round in pattern, but don't work all the decreases--in this differential beginning to the decrease round, only the excess stitches are decreased away.  In our example of 93 stitches and 8 decreases, place your markers in the last round before the decreases as follows: 3 markers 11 stitches apart (light blue on diagram, 33 stitches accounted for) and 5 markers 12 stitches apart (dark blue on diagram, the remaining 60 stitches accounted for).  On the first decrease round, decrease only on the 5 markers at 12 stitches apart by k2tog'ing the green stitches--this makes each set of 2 green stitches into 1 stitch, which gets rid of the 5 excess stitches.  You would then have 8 markers, each of which is 11 stitches from the next marker, and can go on to decrease evenly on each following decrease round.

click to enlarge

In my analysis, this trick-of-the-eye works because when the decreases are in the correct column, there is no clue to the eye that they don't all start on the same row. You can see it if you look closely, but since the decrease pattern is undisturbed, the eye assumes symmetry.

the decreases on this hat top start on a different rows

I find that this works not only on hat tops (as shown above) but also on raglan decreases, sock gusset decreases and so on. Also, differentially beginning works for increases, also.  With this trick under your belt, it is not necessary to cast on evenly divisible multiples for hats, sweaters, etc., freeing you to make garments which fit better.

ADDENDUM, 2014: There is a new TECHknitting post which has more tricks evenly space decreases on an uneven stitch count--the tricks are part of a pattern for a scrap tam.

--TK

PS:  For hats with a seam, put the excess stitches in the back for slightly greater fullness where it is needed--the (rounder) back of the head, rather than on the (flatter) forehead.

PPS:  8 evenly spaced decreases, worked every other round (one decrease round, followed by a plain round) is the default decrease rate for a hat top.  It doesn't always yield a perfectly flat top, however.  Switch to smaller needles in the last few rows (as was done in the illustrated hat above) and you'll have more a chance to avoid "knipples" at the hat top.

Respite knitting

My adopted home state of Wisconsin has been rocked by political unrest I would have thought inconceivable a few short weeks ago.  The Japanese earthquake was bad, the tsunami worse, and the nuclear ramifications have me glued to the computer, with three or four news windows open simultaneously. The unrest all over the Middle East brings to mind high school history texts and the year 1848--"the year of revolution" in Europe.

What can I do, as a small person in this sudden upheaval, this messy world?  I read carefully, try to send donations where they will do the most good, maybe volunteer for whatever might make a small difference.

Yet I think the most important thing for me personally is to try to shield my children from this news--one is taking an important math final at University as I write this, one is basking in recent acceptance to the college of her choice, the little one is aiming to aim higher at his next science Olympiad event.

These kids will have the weight of this world on their own shoulders soon enough, soon enough. No need to burden them with all this now--boiling nuke rod pools, the possibility that household income will be substantially cut among their friends and neighbors, the effects on their friends' college choices.

Life is uncertain. On your way to the supermarket in Cairo, the revolution erupts. You wake up on a workday in Tokyo and the ground slips out from under you. The bus going downtown in your quiet Midwestern hometown is rerouted because 75,000 people--nurses, firefighters, plumbers, professors, teachers, DMV clerks--are out demonstrating, and the next day, 100,000 are out in the wind and winter weather. Modeling calmness is hard. I feel like a fake.

Thank goodness for a project in hand, for mohair and beads and lace and yarn.  For community boards and e-mails and questions about the best way to cast off. Thank goodness for knitting.

TK

Going to Yarnover? I'll be the one in a sweatshirt

a sweatshirt...

Process knitting

I spend the summer in the garden, but in the winter, I spend a great deal of time knitting--not wardrobe knitting, you understand, but test knitting--knitting to try out ideas.  

Most of the test knitting starts OUT as project knitting, yet test knitting and garment knitting don't intersect around here as much as they should.  Once a technical problem has been worked out, the solution tends to turn into a TECHknitting blog post, while the garment which birthed it tends to fall into the UFO pile.

Few items larger than a hat have escaped the gravitational pull of the UFO pile in years--not since TECHknitting blog started in the knitting season of 2006 and gave its process knitter author (me) an excellent excuse for never finishing anything.  Worse than that even.  The blog gave me the excuse to start lots of new things to see how they'll work out.  Thus adding to the pile.  Sometimes on a daily basis.  Of course, I can't pull the needles out of a work in progress, or re-purpose the rest of the yarn bought for the garment.  That would be against the rules.  That would be admitting defeat.  Consequently, not only do I have a black-hole for garments in my UFO pile, but the pile also eats knitting needles.  Meanwhile, its gravitational twin is developing from the ever-increasing stash of no-go yarn.

open loop boucle--what was
I thinking? 

Sometimes, the UFO pile grows because I've made a poor choice.  I'm now working with a open-loop boucle mohair, and must have been insane to buy the yarn.  Not that the result isn't lovely--it is, very.  Yet open-loop boucle is a very bear to knit (the needle keeps catching in the loop, rather than around the strand).  And of course, mohair of any kind is a very bear to unravel.  Since test knitting requires plenty of both, there is no combination I could have chosen less suitable.  Beautiful as it is, this one is clearly headed for the UFO pile, and sooner rather than later.

Sometimes, test knitting goes so well that I'm tempted to recreate the garment several times--the pocket hats were like that, I think there were 7 in a row, and innumerable little felted purses have been worked up around here.  Then I'm reminded of a study I once read.  Turns out that making faster and bigger lawn mowers didn't reduce the time folks spent mowing.  No indeed.  Instead, their lawns got bigger, and they spent the same amount of time mowing, or even more. Faster knitting and better patterns translates to 7 pocket hats rather than one or two; a fleet of little change purses waiting to be wrapped as gifts, but no more progress on the UFO's, alas.

Project knitting

At the end of April, I am going out to teach my first knitting class in over twenty years--Yarnover in Minneapolis, a project of the Minnesota Knitter's Guild.  All my existing wardrobe sweaters are ratty and are themselves experiments--no two arms of any one sweater have the same kind (or even same rate!) of increasing, no two socks in the for-wearing fleet have the same kind of heels, my wardrobe features mostly not-fully-successful garment designs (prototypes of sweaters either improved--long since knit and given away) or abandoned after the one prototype.  In short, my wardrobe consists mainly of ratty experimental remnants--great for the supermarket, not so good for my first professional knitting outing in two decades (Lord, where does the time go?)

It is clear, is it not, that I must have a new sweater for the occasion?

I've been rummaging the UFO collection, looking for a sweater pretty near completion. Yet while there are three leading candidates, I don't hold out a lot of hope.

I-cord edging by some method
already half-forgotten

The lead contender is a giant gold/green sweater-coat, missing only a bottom trim and a zipper.  This was put aside while I cogitated on zippers and trims--I got zippers figured out, but am still messing around with new ways of attaching I-cord to fabric.  Attaching I-cord to the live loop edges was a snap, but I'm still messing around with a new trick for attaching to bound off edges.  If I just edge it and wear it, I'll forget how I did it--I've pretty much forgotten the live-loop method already.  Since spring is sort of coming, as well as sample knitting for Yarnover, there is no time for that kind of knitting/ illustration/ blogging project now. That sweater is probably going to be on hold for a while longer.

prototype of pleating

The second garment is a green alpaca sweater lacking only a collar and sleeves--beautiful silky material knit at 7 (seven!) sts  to the inch (!!) on which I am messing around with pleating.  However, the first few pleats aren't as pretty as the pleats made last, and I suspect that there might be yet an altogether better way of doing this by a completely different method than any yet tried.  The idea of wearing this experiment in front of my fellow teachers and eagle-eyed students, well... What I should do is pull out and re-do, but what I will do is probably let this wallow on the UFO pile a while longer.  Or forever.  As a perpetual UFO, it'd earn its keep being a pleating prototype. Some version of this pleating will probably emerge some way, some day, but the sweater? I wouldn't lay bets on it.  And, do you know, I'm not worried about "wasting" the yarn either--it's so pretty that some day it's sure to earn a spot in the "better yarn" box at the estate sale.  Just think how happy it will make some knitter yet unborn.

prototype of beading

The third garment is an experiment in beading by a variety of methods. The first beads put in aren't nearly as nice as the end of the job, and again, I expect there may be an altogether better way of doing this, anyhow.  It's the learning curve made visible, it's dejavu all over again.

Franklin Habit on his Panopticon blog featured an imaginary conversation between Albert Einstein and the Queen of England, neatly encapsulating a nearly-circular dialog between a knitter and a knitee.  I can go Franklin one better in concept, if not in execution.  My internal dialog in the matter of actual project knitting--of actually declaring that I'm done messing around with a technique and it's time for finishing sweaters? That's a dialog between the Red Queen, so logically illogical, and the Mad Hatter, so stuck in time, with no resolution in sight and an ever-growing UFO pile.

Bottom line: if you'll be at Yarnover, and you see a knitting teacher in a sweatshirt?  Stop and say "hi" to me, OK?

* * *

Disambiguation:

• This is a "humor-style posting" of the "exaggeration type."
• I expect to arrive at Yarnover in a sweater.  
• Probably. 

--TK

When two strands of yarn wound together work up unevenly

(A random Ravelry discussion triggered this post...)

PROBLEM 1--Two different fibers which feed at different rates

When two yarns of different fibers are wound off together, they might be the same LENGTH but not work up at the same RATE. A classic example is a woolen yarn wound together onto a ball with a slippery yarn: silk, perhaps. On the ball, the two yarns look fine--they are the same length, after all. Yet, once the knitting begins, so does the trouble. The wool sticks to itself as woolly wool does, while the silk is, well, you know--silky, and does not stick to anything at all.  Excess silk sags throughout the fabric, and pretty soon, a whole length of the silk yarn is sagging to leeward, between the work and the ball.

PROBLEM 2--Fibers which feed at the same rate but are wound at different rates

When two strands of yarn are wound off together but come onto the resulting ball at different tension, it causes the same problem.  The two strands may feed off at the same RATE, but they are not the same LENGTH.  Stated otherwise, they feed off at the same rate but were not put on at the same rate, making one longer than the other.  Result? The shorter strand puckers, the longer strand twists and writhes and sags.

Loose yarn throughout the fabric (loose lengths in pink)

Both problems result in similar fabric, shown above.  The pink lengths and dots highlight the looping and twisting and writhing of the longer/slipperier yarn (thinner in the illustration) throughout the fabric, as well as the uneven feed of the running yarn--an unevenness bound to get worse with every passing stitch. (Click on this or any picture to enlarge.)

SOLUTIONS

If winding were eliminated in the first place--if each yarn were knit each from its own ball--then each yarn would feed at its own natural rate and length, so creating an even fabric.

But what do you do when you already have such a ball of two yarns together, either because it was wound together at a knitting shop that way, or because it came from a manufacturer that way?

You could carefully pick apart the two strands and wind each on a separate ball.  Although this works, it takes forever.  Before going to such lengths (har!) consider the two below options: in the right situation, these might save some hours.

Option 1--Stranding and solo stitches

Remove the excess by looping it up into a solo stitch, stranding the shorter yarn behind.  The loop of this solo stitch has further to travel than the stranding running behind it, so the two yarns catch up to one another.  This is the same sort of idea as stranded or Fair-Isle knitting.

Shorter yarn stranded behind solo stitch of longer yarn

On the illustration above, the thinner yarn is again the longer/slipperier one causing the trouble.  At random places in the fabric--wherever an excess loop of the thinner yarn forms in the running yarn--the shorter thicker yarn has been stranded behind the thinner yarn, and the excess thinner yarn has been concentrated into a solo single-stranded knit stitch. Concentrating the excess of the longer yarn while stranding the shorter evens up the yarns, leaving the other stitches of the fabric even. The thicker yarn, stranded behind, has been colored bright green to make visible how much shorter is its path behind the concentrated excess of the pink loop.


The actual mechanics of creating the solo stitch is simple: grab a loop of excess with your right (working) needle out of the excess longer yarn sagging between the work and the ball and knit one stitch with this excess only.  The shorter yarn will automatically strand behind when you knit the following stitch out of both yarns, although you may have to separate the two with your fingers to adjust the tension.

If a single solo stitch using the excess doesn't do it, alternate this trick with ordinary 2-strand stitches along the row until the two yarns feeding in off the ball are evened up. Alternating gives better tension (and looks better) than stranding the shorter yarn behind 2 or 3 solo stitches of the longer all in one spot.

Option 2--Twisting

Remove the excess of the longer yarn--again, the thinner yarn in the illustration below--by twisting up an extra backwards loop of this yarn onto the needle. This is the same sort of idea as a loop cast-on.  However, since you don't want to actually increase your stitch count,  place a pin or stitch marker at the excess loop to keep track of its location. On the next row or round, eliminate this excess loop by joining it back together with its "mother stitch," using the same sort of idea as a k2tog.

Excess yarn twisted up onto the needle

The illustration above shows that at random places (wherever a loop of excess forms in the running yarn), the excess--colored pink--has been removed from the fabric and concentrated in one spot by twisted up into a loop and placed on the right needle.  On the next round, this excess loop is knit together with its own "mother stitch."  Each of two lower pink excess loops have already been knitted together with their respective mother stitches, while, the new live pink excess loop just formed will be knit together with its mother stitch (the double-stranded stitch at the arrow) on the next round.

The actual mechanics of this trick involve grabbing a loop of the excess out of the running yarn with your fingers, twisting it, placing it on the right needle and marking it.

Twist variations 

The marker is shown as a safety pin, but IRL, far quicker would be several knotted loops of thin yarn kept by, each quickly caught onto the working needle when needed and constantly recycled as each excess loop is eliminated in its turn.

One easy variation to avoid having to making the stitch at all is to simply pass the twisted-up loop over the neighboring stitch to the LEFT as soon as that neighboring stitch is formed. On the downside, this uses up less excess and causes a bump, on the upside it is quick, and in many "art" yarns the bump would pass unnoticed. Passing over is pretty much the equivalent of wrapping the excess yarn around the neck of the newly formed stitch, and you could try it that way, too: passing a newly formed stitch from right needle to left needle, wrapping it with excess yarn, then returning it, wrapped, to the right needle.

A geek variation on the twisting option is to substitute an analog to the "nearly invisible increase" (NII) for the twisting, working the NII with the (pink) excess only. The NII-analog actually gets rid of more excess in each pink stitch than the twist because each excess stitch is longer. Again, though, mark the new loop to avoid inadvertently increasing the stitch count.

Which option when?  

I bought 8 cones (!!) of wool, custom-wound of three thin yarns together.  Although each yarn is the same fiber, the winding machine occasionally skipped, leaving one yarn either protruding or puckering. Stranding is the better choice in this smooth yarn because twisting would have created a lump. Yet, stranding might look odd on a reversible garment, depending on the yarn and stitch.

On an "art" yarn where the manufacturer had wound two different kinds of fiber together,  both options worked.  In fact, there were some places where the feed was so uneven that both options were obliged to be worked at the same time--the shorter yarn stranded behind a combo of a solo-stitch PLUS twisted stitch, and this combo repeated sequentially on every alternate stitch for several stitches in a row, several times a round.

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on: "uneven yarn feed"