Swing scarf

"You walk, it swings"

Swingy cords with little weights on the bottom adorn the most ancient garments ever found, and these retain their allure right up the present day.  Swing scarves are made entirely out of I-cord, with various weights on the bottom of each cord.  The weights make the cords swing when you walk--very pretty.

You can knit the I-cords by hand, or with an old-fashioned spool knitter but I recommend using an I-cord mill. With the mill, you can make a whole scarf in a single afternoon--very good for wardrobe additions or last minute holiday gifts.  The I-cords are not sewn together, but attached by a new method called "interweaving."  Interweaving makes a fine flat seam which does not show on the outside.  Interweaving is also very quick.

Any sort of sock-weight yarn works well, and Swing Scarves are a great way to use up odds and ends.  If you're buying yarn to make these, long-color-repeat yarns, like Crystal Palace mini-mochi, make lovely color-coordinated scarves: each cord features a gradual fade from one color to another, and so brings out the real beauty of these yarns.  Another way where Swing Scarves really shine is hand-painted yarns with colors which look SO lovely in the skein, but just don't play nicely together when knit up.  Because the I-cord is so thin (4 stitches per row) the colors can't pool and make icky designs. Swing Scarves are a truly good way to use up that hand-painted sock yarn which just can't seem to find a home in other patterns.

There are a great variety of little weights you can put at the bottom: beads, buttons, old subway tokens, shells, silver rings, Oriental coins--anything with some holes and a little weight.  Because of the pretty weights, swing scarves are a little bit like jewelry.

• You can see more projects made with this pattern on the Swing Scarf Ravelry page.
• The pattern has 7 pages and costs $3.50.
• 
• Here's a peek at the cover and the pattern:

I hope you will have as much fun knitting and wearing these as I have had inventing them and writing the pattern.

Good knitting!
-TK

Addendum:  A lovely commenter, Lynne, found this you-tube video, showing how to make industrial quantities of I-cord using a power drill to spin an I-cord maker. If a person wanted to make all their holiday gifts in a day or so, or make tons of scarves for an art fair, this would be the trick to use!  Check this out:

Thanks to Lynne for the link, thanks to Dutch Hollow Acres for the video!

Fringes--how to wash knitwear so the fringes don't get tangled

Say you have a scarf or other knitted item with a fringe (tassel-style or continuous-style), and the item needs to be washed.  How do you protect the fringe while washing?

Scarf with tassel-style fringe

Scarf with continuous-style fringe

Here are several tricks:

If the fringe-strands are long enough, protect them from tangling by tying them in one or more loose overhand knot(s).  After washing and drying, undo the knot(s).

If the fringe is too short to tie in a knot, snap a hair-tie around the fringe.  If the item is wide, make several hair-tie bundles, side by side, as shown below.

Before washing, snap fringe
into bundles with hair ties
(this works for continuous-style fringe, also)

No hair ties handy? Bundle the fringe using scrap yarn, instead.  If the fringe is super-long, tie the bundles together in a couple of places along their length.

After knotting or bundling, the yarn of the fringe might have a kink where it was tied, especially if it was tied tightly.  Lay the fringe on the ironing board and LIGHTLY steam the kinks out. In other words, hold the steaming iron ABOVE the fringes, steaming until they are damp and hot.  Pat flat. Do not actually iron the fringe. If working with acrylic, steam very sparingly or the texture of the yarn will change.

Here's another alternative:  instead of fussing around before washing, just wash and dry however you like.  At the end, re-wet the fringe and slap the strands against the side of the tub.  Smack the fringe hard enough and the wet strands--whether they make up a tassel-style or continuous-style fringe--will magically untangle.

In addition to any of the above alternatives, you might like to consider knotting off the end of each strand with a simple overhand (granny) knot.  This prevents the strands from un-plying during washing or drying (or wearing).  Knotting ends is a wonderful occupation during a dull lecture, boring meeting or any kind of bus ride.

One final option: you can make fringes nearly tangle-proof by tying them off into knotted patterns along their length, as shown below.  If your fringe is continuous, the first row of tying is used to knot up tassel-style bundles of fringe.  Once the fringe is tassel-ated, the knotted pattern is worked as per the illustration.

Fringe tied into knotted patterns

To further research knotting/tying patterns, type the term "macrame fringe" into your browser's search window. You'll get a wide variety of quite lovely fringe options, some an art form in themselves.

'til next time
--TK

You've been reading TECHknitting blog on "washing a scarf with fringes."

Skimming in ends with a knitpicker

Are you looking at an almost-finished project and dreading working in all those dangling ends?

Dangling ends waiting to be worked in
on the back of a stockinette fabric.
Look familiar?

You COULD have worked your ends in as-you-go, you know! Then you wouldn't face the problem of how to work them in at the end of the project. But if you didn't work them in as you made them, and you're now staring at a lot ends waiting to be worked in, here's a whole new, much easier way than anything I've come across previously.

But before we get to the new way, let's look at the old ways of dealing with the problem--I believe that will best show when to use the new way.

THE OLD WAYS

There are two main methods for working in dangling tails of yarn: weaving-in and skimming-in. Weaving-in is a fine old method, very well adapted to projects with both sides showing (scarves, for example.)  Weaving-in is brilliant: just fine as it is.

It is the other old method--the skimming-in method--which is the subject of today's update.

Unlike weaving-in, skimming-in shows.  Therefore, it is used for garments with an inside and an outside. To skim in, the dangling tail is threaded onto a sharp needle. Starting near the root of the tail, the needle is pushed through the back face of the fabric, piercing through the stitches along the way, thus drawing the tail behind it. When the needle is withdrawn, the excess tail is snipped off and the part you've parked is buried, hopefully forever, in the thickness of the fabric-back. Adding a zig-zag (a change of direction) as shown, helps the tail stay buried even when the fabric is stretched and stressed.

The old way: Skimming the end (red) into the back 
of a stockinette fabric along a zig-zag path, 
using a sharp needle

Today's post is about a new way to do skimming-in.  The great thing about this new method is that it does not involve threading a needle. Instead a "knit-picker" is used to do the job faster, better and easier. And did I mention? Faster. Also? Better.

KNIT-PICKER

A knit-picker is a teeny-weenie latch hook.  Its original purpose in life is pulling snags in  commercial knitwear to the fabric back, there to hide: a knit-picker has saved many a snagged polo shirt to live another day. But knit-pickers can do so much more.

Extreme close-up of the knit-picker showing the hook and latch.
In real life, the hook and latch assembly of a knit-picker are
very very small

Knit-pickers, you see, exist to draw loops of yarn through fabric.  Since hand-knitting is nothing but an endless series of loops, the knit-picker's ability to put loops where you want them opens worlds. In the immediately previous post, TECHknitting blog showed how to pull loops through a zipper tape using a knit-picker, thus studding the tape with loops.  Loops lined up in a row can then be treated just like any other row of live stitches, so a loop-studded zipper can be KNITTED into a garment, rather than sewn in. For this ability alone, every hand-knitter ought to have a knit-picker in their tool kit.

But adding loops to zippers is not the only trick a knit-picker can do. The knit-picker's ability to draw loops through fabric also lets it substitute for a needle when skimming-in ends. Yup--we now have skimming-in ends without the hassle of finding, threading, and handling, a very sharp needle.  Snow White's mother can prick her fingers all she wants: with a knit-picker, those days are over!

SKIMMING-IN WITH A KNIT-PICKER

This loaded and locked knit-picker is ready to pull the tail
through the fabric

• Working from the fabric back, and holding the knit-picker's little latch-gate open with your thumbnail, insert the knit-picker into the fabric, pointing towards the dangling tail.  
• Wiggle the knit-picker through the thickness of the fabric back, splitting right through the yarn of each stitch you come to.  Once the knit-picker gets moving through the fabric, the little latch will stay open all by itself, so you can let go of it. 
• To prevent the tail from showing on the front, as you wiggle along splitting through plies, keep the knit-picker pretty close to the surface of the fabric back. 
• When you've wiggled the knit-picker's little head to a spot very near where the tail emerges from the fabric-back, shove it forward so that the hook and the latch assembly pop out of the fabric, thus exposing the hook and freeing the latch.
• Catch the tail under the hook, then latch the hook shut with your fingernail. 

The illustration above shows the knit-picker at this stage: wiggled through the split plies of the yarn, then shoved forward until the hook and latch both popped free, then the yarn caught under the hook. Amazingly, even though the hook is extremely tiny, most hand-knitting yarn is lofty enough to compress under the hook--it's like a magic trick, really. Once the tail-yarn is caught, the latch is closed around the yarn tail. The closed latch prevents the yarn from escaping or shredding as the hook pulls the yarn through the fabric. This knit-picker is loaded and locked.

• Gently withdraw the loaded hook, thus drawing the tail-end through the thickness of the fabric-back. Keep tugging until the tail-end pops free. (See "geek notes" below for more info.)

Knit-pickers have a relatively short stretch of insert-able handle, meaning you can't work in a very long stretch in any one draw-through. Therefore, after the first draw-through, you probably ought to repeat the operation to draw though an additional stretch of tail.

I usually draw through two or three times, each time in a different direction, with the idea of really burying the tail and making it much harder for a stretch from any one direction to pop the tail loose. This is called "zig-zagging the tail." (The illustration of needle-skimming, above, shows an example of this change of direction.)

BETTER THAN A NEEDLE for SLICK or THICK

Not having to thread a needle makes skimming in both faster and easier. But where the knit-picker really shines is when it comes to burying the tails of slick yarns (acrylic, linen, cotton) or thick yarns (worsted-weight or heavier).

Work plies in separately--spiderwebbing a tail

The fibers of slick yarns (acrylic, cotton) don't want to stay parked in the fabric.  The fiber is so slippery that the friction between the tail and the surrounding fabric is simply too low to hold the tail firmly.  Every time the garment stretches, the end slides.  Eventually it pops free in the most annoying way. Zig-zagging slows this process.  Yet in a really slick fiber, even zig-zagging may merely delay the inevitable.

With a knit-picker, you can go one better. Not only can you zig and zag in a different direction with each quick pull-through, but you easily separate the strands or plies of the tail, then work each individual strand along its own zig-zag. The overall effect is like a spiderweb of ends in the fabric.

Spiderwebbing with a knit-picker

By spiderwebbing the split tail into your work, the chances of the tail popping loose is less (although some fibers--I'm looking at you, Caron Simply Soft--want to pop loose no matter what). True, you COULD spiderweb the split ends with a sewing needle, but then you'd have to thread the dratted thing three or four times.  The knit-picker is so much faster that you'd be more likely (or at least, I'd be more likely) to actually do it.

In thick yarn, too, you can spiderweb the tail.  The advantage in thick yarn is bulk-reduction: rather than one thick tail, you have several thinner strands radiating away from one another, all neatly buried with a knit-picker.

Easily work in too-short tails

One final trick where the knit-picker shines:  if your tail is too short to thread onto a needle, the old way was to use the dressmaker's trick for threading, shown in a previous TECHknitting post.  But with a knit-picker, you can work in any length of tail, even the shortest, no awkward maneuvers required.

GEEK NOTES

1) After each zig, adjust the tension of the tail in the fabric before setting off on the next zag.  Zig-zagging or spiderwebbing makes it harder for the tail to pop loose, but it also makes it harder to adjust the tension at the end--best to adjust as-you-go to avoid puckering.

2) The illustration of a knit-picker skimming shows the knit-picker catching the tail close to its root, where it protrudes from the fabric.  In fact, it's easier to pull the loaded and locked knit-picker back out of the fabric if you catch the tail closer to the other end--the cut-end, tensioning the loop between the knit-picker and the root of the stitch with your fingers. The illustration shows catching the root because that makes the most visual sense, but in practice, catching the tail further along reduces friction because the tail-yarn doesn't have to slide through the "eye" of the closed latch as you withdraw the knit-picker: all that has to be dragged is the (gradually shrinking) loop of yarn you are tensioning. 

Good knitting --TK

Zippers in knitwear, the no-sewing way

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2016: there's a new Dritz zipper which is DESIGNED for knitting into garments.  Somebody over at Dritz was really thinking smart!  As you read the below, realize that if you had one of these new zippers, the whole project would be SO much easier, as you could pick the stitches straight up through the band, ignoring the whole knit-picking process.  AMAZING!!!  One downside: it seems to only come in tan, and in two lengths, but wow, what a great start on a new product.

Ahem....now back to the original article, below...

* * *

This article about installing zippers was featured in the winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits.  TECHknitting blog has had a few posts which refer to this technique, but the details have never been actually published to the internet. The copyright has now reverted to me, and TECHknitting blog is publishing all the details for the first time, complete with illustrations.  There is also an accompanying video in which Knits' editor, Eunny Jang, demo's the how-to.

* * *

Do you avoid making zippered knitwear because of the sewing involved? Here's a way to install zippers with no sewing at all. Instead, you literally KNIT the zipper in. To prep the zipper to perform this magic trick, we'll borrow a tool used in rug-making and machine knitting--the latch hook.

INTRO TO LATCH HOOKS (KNIT-PICKER)

Latch hooks come in many sizes, but the one for us is a miniature version called a "knit-picker" or "snag-fixer." Available in fabric stores for a couple of bucks, these are meant for pulling snags to the inner surface of industrial knits such as polyester polo shirts. We, however, are going to use this mini-latch hook for our own hand-knitting purposes: to pull yarn loops through the fabric tape of the zipper--perfectly spaced loops which can then be picked up and knitted (or bound off). 

In essence, a latch hook is nothing more than a foolproof crochet hook--foolproof because the little latch can swing open to catch the yarn, then swung shut, trapping the yarn under the hook.  Once the yarn is safely caught under the hook and the gate latched shut, the loaded hook can be drawn through even the tightest hole without any danger of the yarn fraying or splitting, because the latch locks the yarn in.

Close-up of knit-picker, with latch open (L) and shut (R)

Specifically, in our use, the latch is going to be swung open, then the hook is going to be poked through the zipper tape at a pre-marked spot, shown by red dots on the illustrations below. Next, the latch will be closed to lock the yarn onto the hook. The locked, loaded hook is then drawn through the zipper tape. Once drawn through, the latch opens and the hook is removed, depositing the yarn loop neatly on the front of the zipper tape.

KNIT-ABLE OBJECT

As you know, any two pieces of knitting COULD be attached by sewing, but there are also NON-SEWING ways of attaching knitting together. For example, if two pieces of knitting have open (live) loops, the three needle bind-off can be used to seam them together.  To seam together a line of open loops to a line of closed loops, or to seam together two lines of closed loops (closed loops=bind off edge, or cast-on edge, or side selvedge) you can use slip-stitching.

By using the knit-picker to insert loops (open OR closed) onto the surface of the zipper tape, you're turning the zipper tape into a knit-able object.  Once the zipper is knit-able, it can be seamed or attached to a piece of knitting just as easily as any other two pieces of knitting could be, with no sewing necessary.

INSERTING OPEN (LIVE) or CLOSED LOOPS via the KNIT PICKER

There are two basic methods for inserting loops into a zipper tape--open (live) loops or a chain of closed loops. For open loops, you can simply pick up loops as you draw them through to the top surface of the zipper tape, then deposit them onto a knitting needle, as shown below.

Creating open (live) loops

In order to get a line of closed loops (a chain of loops on the surface of the tape) you pull loops up, each through the previous loop, leaving a chain of slipped stitches on the top surface of the zipper tape. These chain stitches provide the anchor for further manipulation.  As indicated above, the open-loop method is analogous to a line of live loops, while the chain method is more like a bound-off or cast-on edge, or a side selvedge.  Choose the method of drawing through loops depending on what your planned method of attachment will be.

Creating closed (chained) loops

NOTE: In the illustrations above, the latch hook is not to scale: in real life the hook and latch assembly is FAR, FAR SMALLER than shown. The head of a real knit-picker is tiny!

In both the open-loop and the closed-loop illustrations above,

• "a" indicates the position of the latch hook--open to insert, closed to withdraw; 
• "b" indicates the loops pulled through: looped over a knitting needle for the live-loop method, or chained onto the face of the zipper tape for the closed-loop method; 
• "c" indicates the method of inserting the latch hook--directly through the zipper tape, then lifted onto a knitting needle for the live loop method; or through the previous loop and the zipper tape for the closed-loop chain method. 

In both illustrations, the green dotted line indicates the path of the yarn running under the zipper tape--both methods yield what looks like a neat row of running stitches on the back of the zipper tape

With the loops pulled through the zipper tape via the
live-loop method, this closed-bottom zipper is ready to be installed,
perhaps in the top of a purse, for example

SPACING

Once you determine the finished zipper length needed (more on zipper length below) you count the number of rows or stitches along the garment edge where you will install the zipper. Mark off dots, one for each loop wanted, evenly spaced. 

Keeping the marks in a straight line is easy. Zipper tapes are usually woven with sewing guide lines right on them--a sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious pattern running lengthwise up the tape, shown as light gray dotted lines in the illustrations.

LOOP SIZE

In the open (live) loop method, each loop will necessarily be the same size because they are caught around the barrel of a knitting needle. In the closed loop (chain) method, however, it is a bit more difficult. Because the barrel of the latch hook is tiny, drawing up each loop snug around the hook's barrel would over-tighten the loops. You can proceed freehand--drawing up each loop just so, as shown in the illustration, or for a more sure thing, you can temporarily insert a dpn of appropriate size into each loop as you make it, then snug up the loop over the needle barrel, then remove the dpn.  This makes each loop the same size, as long as you're careful to not over-tighten the slack away as you draw up the next loop. 

ADJUSTING ZIPPER LENGTH

Zippers rarely come in the exact length wanted. To shorten a non-separating (closed bottom) zipper --the kind you'd install in a purse-top, for example--shorten it by working from the bottom, as shown:  First, sew a new stop.  Then, snip to length.  The snipped end is hidden inside the purse.

Sew a new stop (top picture) then cut 
(bottom picture) to shorten a closed-bottom
(non-separating) zipper

For a separating zipper--the kind you would use for a sweater front, for example--you can sew a new stop at each top in a similar manner, then snip away the excess zipper tape. Alternatively, if there's only an inch or so of excess at the top, simply fold the excess zipper out of the way at a 90 degree angle to the top of the garment, then sew the excess along the garment edge with the teeth pointing down. If you cut a nylon or polyester zipper tape, consider lightly heat-sealing the edge with a match: for safety, work over a sink with the water running, just in case the tape flares.

TROUBLESHOOTING and TIPS

*Latch hooks take some getting used to. To control the latch's tendency to poke and tangle, use your thumb to flip and hold it it down (open) for insertion and again for yarn-catching, then snap it shut once it's loaded with yarn and before withdrawing through the zipper tape.

*Because of its stiff and inflexible nature, nylon or polyester zipper tape will fold over on itself along the line of the pick-up. With use and wear, the tape will eventually soften.  Washing first might soften an excessively stiff zipper tape.

*Although tiny, the latch hook can pull along yarns up to and including most chunky-weights. However, the thicker the yarn pulled through the tape, the more zipper-buckling you will get. To reduce buckling, create the loops on the zipper tape using a thinner color-matched yarn: sock yarn is perfect because it is both thin and strong. Alternatively, you can catch one loop through the zipper tape for each TWO stitches wanted. This reduced buckling by halving the amount of yarn inserted into the zipper tape. With this two-for-one trick, you must double the stitch count in the next row, perhaps by inserting a backwards (or forward) loop increase alternate with each loop on the tape, or working each loop as a kfb. 

*Whether you are working with a closed-bottom (non-separating) zipper or a separating one, it's best to pick up stitches with the zipper opened or separated: makes the work go easier.

*Poking the latch hook through a tightly-woven zipper tape goes quicker if you've used a large sharp sewing needle or small awl to pre-poke the holes.

*An INGENUOUS method of poking holes and getting perfect spacing at the same time involves using a sewing machine--but not to sew the zipper in.  Instead, you run the sewing machine blank (no thread) adjusting the stitch length to the gauge you want, and thus punching a line of perfectly-spaced holes in a straight line down the tape.  Putting a huge (like for sewing leather) needle into the machine makes the punched hole bigger and easier to see.  Thanks to reader Valsew for this tip.

* * *

Coming up: Knit-pickers aren't just for adding zippers.  They can be used to work in ends, also.  The next post shows how. 

Until next time, TK

Stuffed Mittens

Today's post is just showing off a little: as promised last summer, TECHknitting has a new pattern published in a nationally distributed magazine. Specifically, Interweave Knits Holiday Issue contains a TECHknitting pattern for stuffed mittens, made a new way.

These stuffed mittens are loosely knit in the main color, using worsted weight yarn.  Once the mittens are finished being knit, they are turned inside out for stuffing.  Although these look like thrummed mittens (which have the tufts knitted in) adding the tufts afterwards makes it easier to add more of them: unlike when they're knit-in, tufts added afterwards don't interrupt the knit fabric's structure. Made extra large to accommodate all that stuffing, they are offered in sizes C,W,M (child's small and medium, as well as women's and men's).

inside and outside of the stuffed mittens
(inside out--at right--they look handy for dusting, don't they?)

The child's medium mittens featured here and in the magazine are knit from Brown Sheep yarns: the main color is Lamb's Pride worsted Mulberry M162, the contrast color tufts are Lamb's Pride bulky Prairie Goldenrod M240.

The fuzzy mitt to the right in the bottom picture is inside out, to show what the tufts look like once they've been fastened into place.  As you can see, stuffed mittens are massively insulated.  For kids, they would be perfect for a snowball fight.  For adults, these would be handy to keep in the car for when you have to scrape the windshield or touch the freezing metal of the gas pump--good for yourself and a great gift for anyone who drives in the cold.

Interweave Holiday Gifts magazine is currently on sale nationally until December 10, 2012, and is also available in a digital version. The copyright will revert to me by next year, at which time TECHknitting will publish the pattern (all four sizes).  However, if you don't want to wait that long, you might like to check your local newsstand or library for the instructions.

Here is the Ravelry link to see other photos of these mittens.

 * * *

Coming up next post, more in an Interweave Knits theme.  In the winter of 2010, Interweave Knits published an TECHknitting article on installing zippers in knitwear, a new non-sewing way. Although this blog has referenced that article and the accompanying video, the full text has not been reprinted until now.  The copyright has reverted to me, and the very next post will have the full text and illustrations of that method.  Free on the web at last.

Until next time, happy knitting! --TK

A museum of knitting and crocheting

Welcome to the 7th season of TECHknitting blog!  Summer's over, the garden has been put to bed and the knitting season has begun. This year's installment of the blog begins with an important public service announcement about a possible museum in the works.  Read on...

* * *

If you could wave a magic wand and set up a museum of knitting and crocheting, what would you include?  Fair Isle or yarn bombing? Bohus or math knitting? Irish lace or hyperbolic crochet? How would you organize it--profit-based or non-profit?  Would it include a conference center? Classrooms? A yarn shop?  Or would it be part of another museum, a historical museum, say?

Or how about something new? What would you think of an on-line museum?  A searchable digitized data base of knitting and crocheting through the ages? How about a K/C swat team of experts trolling through garment collections languishing in museums all over the world, sorting through, then putting knit and crocheted garments on-line with high resolution images of the front and back?

A flight of fancy, yes, but it might not be...someday.

The idea of a knitting museum, real or virtual, is the brainchild of a knitter named (in a delightful bit of nominative determinism) Karen Kendrick-Hands.

Karen is thinking about these issues and more, and she's put together a symposium, taking place in Madison WI November 8-10, 2012, and open to anyone who has an opinion or an interest (and can come up with the registration fee, or is willing to volunteer in lieu of fee).  Karen's ideas have been found worthy of support by TNNA, which gave her a grant to run this symposium and by the Wisconsin Historical Society, which is a co-host and site-provider.  Some VIPs from the world of knitting and textiles have also been attracted to the idea--Trisha Malcolm (Vogue Knitting) as well as Jack Blumenthal (Lion Brand Yarn) will be part of the panel discussion, along with with museum and textile experts.  A keynote speaker will be Susan Strawn (author, Knitting America).

Are you interested?  Here's the link for further info, and thanks to Karen for taking the lead on this exciting project.  Maybe one day knitting and crocheting will have their own museum.  And maybe it's not so fanciful after all: if the quilters can do it, why can't we?

PS:  If interested, hurry.  Registration closes soon.

Resuming October 15, 2012

To those who have asked when TECHknitting will resume with the promised new material,  the answer is October 15.  See you then!

-TK

Summer vacation, SEE YOU IN THE FALL

SUMMER VACATION

It's summer vacation time around chezTECH. As has been usual for the past few summers, the blog remains on line, complete with indexes, but no new posts are put up for a couple of months.

The garden calls and I must answer.

* * *

PREVIEW: FALL 2012

Summer flits by so very fast, and before you know it, TECHknitting blog will be posting new material!  For fall 2012, I've planned:

• a pattern for sale--men's socks featuring dyeing, a chart-chart adapted for color knitting and a wicked undercover alter-ego;
• a new technique booklet for sale: a fabric on the border between knitting and weaving (amazing color combinations are possible, fabulous scarves are within easy reach) and 
• a pair of mittens coming out in a nationally distributed print magazine: uber-warm and lined a whole new way.  

As for the blog, we'll start with a unit on picking up stitches: new tricks to avoid puckers and jagged edges, as well as other tricks to make picked-up stitches lie smooth and professional-looking, whether along a horizontal or sloped or curved edge. Cables and further information about smoothly installing zippers are also on the horizon, so stay tuned.

* * *

Take care until next fall! Enjoy the summer weather!  --TK

V-necks--that loose stitch at the bottom and how to get rid of it

On a community knitting board recently, a member wrote that she can never divide for a V-neck without getting a loose stitch at the division point.

Here are several cures to avoid the problem, plus a couple of after-the-fact corrections if you already have this problem.

First trick: TECHknitting blog has already shown one trick for getting rid of that loose stitch by crossing stitches from one side of the division to the other. This works splendidly, but has the minor drawback of leaving a little pucker.

Second trick: try to avoid adding a new yarn at the center neck. Instead, on the division row, work across the ENTIRE garment, then work half-way BACK for the division--thus making the R front first.  To create the L front, add the yarn at the armhole edge, rather than at the inside bottom edge of the v-neck. This hides any possible loose stitches in the sleeve seam, rather than having them front and center. This trick is illustrated below. (Click illustration to enlarge.)

Try not to add yarn at neck.  Instead, work across the entire row, PAST
the division point, then work back to create the division, making the
R front first. To begin L front, add yarn (red dot) at the armhole, as shown.
This prevents loose stitches at the division point of the "V."

Third trick: Patterns often call for you to place, not only the sts for the second front on a holder to work afterwards, but also to include on the holder, the center stitch(es).  Once the second front has been transferred off the holder in order to knit it, these center sts remain on their holder.  Finally, when both fronts have been worked, these center sts form the base for the center column(s) around which the neck ribbing is decreased.  The problem is, as these center sts hang on their holder and get pushed around, they tend to accumulate whatever slack is around them.  By the time you finally come to knit these center st(s), so long neglected on the holder, they have often grown larger, and sometimes much larger.  So here is a little trick to prevent growing.

The idea behind this trick is to put less yarn into that location in the first place.  See, when you make an ordinary knitted stitch, its size is determined by the diameter of the knitting needle around which the st has been formed.  What if we could make a st without wrapping it around the knitting needle?  That st would be smaller and tighter than the others around it. Here's how.

When you come to these center sts in the row in which you're going to make the division, knit the first (blue) then skip knitting the second (black).  If there is only one center st, skip that one.  Instead, bring the running yarn (red) to the back, slip the skipped st (black) and then continue knitting.  When the time comes to put the center st(s) on the holder (shown as a safety pin in the illustration below), the holder goes through the blue and the black stitch, while the red length of yarn remains loose, behind the black st.

When you finally come to knit these two center stitches (usually, as part of the neck ribbing) you would first take a crochet hook and draw the slipped red yarn though the black stitch, thus making a knit stitch without having wrapped it around a knitting needle.

In other words, by drawing the red strand through the black stitch, you are, in effect, knitting the black stitch with the short length of slipped red yarn, and this stitch is therefore formed out of a shorter length of yarn than would have been possible had the st been formed around a needle. Because this stitch is created with less yarn than a normal stitch, the new red stitch pulls excess yarn from its neighbors.  This forces the center stitches to be nice and tight, and reduces the possibility of loose loops at the center bottom of the v-neck division.

Have you seen this slipping trick before?  It is a variation of a trick for avoiding loose yarn where a purl column and a knit column come together, solution 4 (scroll). 

* * *

If you already HAVE a loose stitch at division of your v-neck then, with your knitting needle, pick away the slack, losing it in the neighboring stitches on both sides (actually, this is a wonderful trick for tightening any loose stitches, however formed and wherever located).

If there is SO much slack that it is not possible to lose it in the neighboring stitches, pull the slack up into a loop.  If the loops is truly ginormous, you can actually just thread the doubled yarn at the top part of loop itself through the eye of a sharp needle  (use this trick to thread such a short length) and skim in the upper end of the loop, thus stretching it out and permanently removing the excess slack yarn.  If the loop is too small to skim in the top of the actual loop itself, then thread the sharp needle with a length of matching yarn and tack (tack=sew lightly) the top of the loop down to the inside of the fabric in a stretched position--this tightens up the loose stitch permanently and will not show from the outside.


Good knitting, TK

"Oops! I forgot a buttonhole!" (part 6 of a TECHknitting buttonhole series)

Forgetting a buttonhole
In this post, the sixth* in a TECHknitting series about buttonholes, we turn to correcting errors--what to do when you forget to make a button hole, but the buttonholes were supposed to be made "as you go."

Typical instructions for as-you-go buttonholes might look like this:

• "...continue to decrease every 6th row at armhole edge, also remembering to work buttonholes as previously directed, and remembering also to work the six front edge stitches in garter stitch."

The trouble is, you might be so busy remembering about the armhole shaping and the garter stitch for the edge that the buttonhole might escape your notice.  Suppose you finish the whole front before you realize the error:  replacing the missed buttonhole now means a whole lot of unraveling followed by a whole lot of re-knitting. Discouragements like this are one reason why projects get abandoned, I think.

"I missed a buttonhole!"

Well, take heart! There are pretty good ways to fix this problem.  In this post we'll look at four variations on a trick for solving the missed-buttonhole problem without having to unravel anything. 

The heart of the trick
Underlying all four variations in this post is the same simple trick: sew a button down over each of the buttonholes already made, as well as over the spot where you missed making the buttonhole.*

The result will look just as if you had never made a mistake in the first place.  The buttonholes you did remember to make will be completely closed and completely covered up, so they'll become invisible, while the missed buttonhole is also covered up with a button, just like all the others.

Sew a button over the buttonholes you remembered
to make, as well as over the spot where you forgot to make one

However, as neat as this trick is, it leads to an obvious problem, namely, how to make buttonholes--or their functional equivalents--on the other side.

Variation 1: Decoration buttons with snaps beneath.
In this variation, the buttons you sew on are non-functional (decoration) buttons.  Best to use shank-less buttons (the kind with the holes through them, rather than the kind with a little stem or "shank" on the back).  Sew these decoration buttons on flat. Next, sew snaps UNDER these buttons.  Finally, sew the matching part of the snap on the OTHER front. Voilà--problem solved!

Decoration buttons sewn on over the already-made
buttonholes, as well as over the spot where the buttonhole
was missed.  Snaps then sewn under each button with
the corresponding snap-half sewn onto opposite front

On the upside, this is a very easy fix.  On the downside, snaps aren't usually very pretty, and can be seen when sweater is worn open. However, you can minimize this problem by using clear plastic snaps. (The snaps at the link are jumbo snaps, better suited to knitwear than the smaller snaps more commonly available.) Or, if you're feeling crafty, you might want to consider making cloth-covered snaps, which also look very well.

Variation 2: Functional buttons, switch sides for buttonholes
If you have not yet knit the opposite front, you can sew buttons on over the messed-up side, then knit the buttonholes when you do knit the other side, hopefully remembering all of this this time!  Remember that in this variation, the buttons are actual, working buttons, so don't sew them on flat.   Instead, use a shanked button, or a flat button sewn on with a thread shank.

If you haven't yet knit the other side of the garment
you can go ahead and sew the buttons onto the
messed-up side, then simply make the buttonholes
on the other side, instead

On the upside, this is an easy fix.  On the downside, switching sides changes the convention of button-placement-by-gender (men's garments traditionally have the buttons on the right band, women's on the left). This might be an issue for some, so heads up (!) on this potential problem.

Variation 3: Anchor buttons, hidden buttonholes
This variation is used under the same circumstances as variation 2:  when the opposite front has not yet been worked.  Like variation 2, the buttonholes are made in the as-yet-unworked front.  The difference between this variation and the one before it is that, when you sew each decoration button onto the messed-up side, you sew another button on underneath it.  Stated otherwise, each decoration button has a functional "anchor button" sewn onto the back of its band, shown in red on the illustration below.

It is this red hidden anchor button which does the actual buttoning through the buttonholes on the opposite band.  When the sweater is buttoned, the buttonholes are completely hidden.

 Each decoration button (green) is sewn
with an anchor button (red) underneath as shown
in the inset. It is this anchor button which is to
be pushed through the buttonholes made
on the other front of the garment.

On the upside, this preserves the gender orientation of the button placement. It also lends a mysterious couture sort of look to the garment: the button band appears to float because the method of closure is not obvious.

On the downside, it's awkward to button a hidden button into a buttonhole which lies under it.  You have to put your hand inside the garment to insert or release the anchor button from the hidden buttonhole.  Another downside is the bulk caused by stacking together the decoration button, the fabric of the buttonband itself and the anchor button.  Using very slim buttons, such as mother-of-pearl shell buttons can minimize this problem.

Variation 4:  Loop buttonholes
If variation 1 does not appeal to you because you don't like the idea of snaps, and if it's too late to use variations 2 or 3 because the other front has already been knit, a last variation remains available. In this variation, you again begin the cure by sewing buttons over the messed-up band.  Then, you make loop buttonholes along the edge of the other front.

There are two ways to make such loops buttonholes (shown in red below). You can either slip stitch a "chain" or use an I-cord attached along the edge.

Loop buttonholes (red) added along the opposite edge

The idea behind both kinds of loop buttonholes is the same: when you get to a position opposite where a button is sewn on, you detach the chain or cord to form a loose loop big enough to fit over the button--one loop per button.

Real life example of slip stitched chain loop-buttonhole
To see how to work a slipped stitch edge, have a look at this illustrated post (the post shows slip stitching along a garter-stitch edge, but the technique is the same regardless of whether the fabric edge is garter stitch or any other stitch). Remember to make a loose loop in order to create the buttonholes, whenever you get to the matching position opposite a button.

Below is a photo of a chain buttonhole in action, looped over a pretty little glass-rose button, on a lacy cotton jacket.

Slip stitched chain-loop buttonhole in action

As you see, the looped buttonhole was slip stitched onto a garter stitch band. (For a fuller view and description of this entire garment, you can go to its project page on Ravelry.)

Real life example of I-cord loop-buttonhole
Below is a photo of an I-cord looped buttonhole in action,  This particular I-cord was slip stitched on (same idea as the slip stitched edging, but the slip stitch was worked through both the I-cord AND the garment edge, from the front).  However, if the idea of combining I cord with slip stitch makes your head want to explode, you can attach the I-cord any way you like--sewing would be one simple way.

I-cord looped buttonhole in action

 Just remember to leave the I-cord loose of the edge, wherever the loop-buttonhole should go.

_______

*Does the trick of sewing a button over a buttonhole look familiar to you?  It's actually a variation on a trick for baby sweaters, where you make buttonholes on both sides of a baby sweater, then sew the buttons down over the unneeded buttonholes once you know whether the new arrival is a girl or boy (scroll to third paragraph at link).

Good knitting! --TK

__________________

*
(Posts in this series)
.Buttonholes in hand knitting, part 1: lore and tradition plus some nifty tricks 

.Buttonholes in hand knitting, part 2: Button lore 

.Buttonholes in Hand knitting, part 3: Sheepseye aka yarn-over buttonholes.

.Buttonholes in hand kniting, part 4: Vertical buttonholes

.Buttonholes in Hand knitting, part 5: Horizontal and Tulips buttonhole, with diagrams

.Buttonholes in Hand knitting, part 6: "Oops! I forgot a buttonhole!" 

 (Related posts)

.Buttonhole alternatives

.How to sew on a button without the spacer sandwich

.Tulips buttonhole: the video (and an interview on Knitting Daily)