Provisional cast on--knitting up vs. knitting down

Back in December '06, TECHknitting featured provisional crocheted cast on. That post promised a future trick to get around a long-standing problem--that there is ALWAYS going to be one fewer loop working down than working up. In October '07, this blog showed another method of provisional cast on: the COWYAK method. In the comments to that post, a reader touched on the same issue, writing...

"When I unzip my provisional cast-on, why are there one fewer stitches going "down" than going "up," AND, what can I do about it?"

Look at your hand. If you are like most people, you have five fingers. But how many spaces do you have between your fingers? For 5 fingers, there are only 4 spaces between your fingers.

The same thing happens in knitting when you work the other way from a provisional cast-on. If you cast on a certain number of stitches and work "up," when you "unzip" the provisional casting on, you'll have one fewer live stitches to knit "down."

In other words, if you provisionally cast on 10 stitches and then undo the cast on, there will only be nine stitches waiting for you to pick up to knit "down." It's not a mystery--it's just the same thing as your fingers--ten stitches knitted "up" leave only nine spaces between them, and that's what you're picking up with the provisional cast-on--the nine spaces.

Of course, the "spaces" analogy is not perfect--we obviously have loops on the needle, not spaces when we catch the live loops from a provisional cast on. However, like the spaces between our fingers, these loops are the bars between the stitches, they are the stitch TAILS, not the actual loops themselves.

Below is a view of what this would look like in real life if you removed the provisional cast-on, took the needles out, and could make the fabric lie flat. See that complicated business on the right and the loop on the left? That's what happens when you pull out the provisional casting-on: The half loops of the rightmost and leftmost tails get pulled upwards to the next row, leaving only the full loops of the tails between the upwards loops: 5 upward loops make 4 downward tails, 9 upward loops make 8 downward tails. In other words, the pattern remains the same: always one fewer downward loops than upward loops.


Now, the upside (har!) is that there are at least two elegant ways to solve this problem. Actually, there is a very good third method which involves an alternative to provisional casting on, and a link will be placed here when that post goes live. For now, however, the two techniques...

TECHnique #1:
Let's say that you want to knit on 8 stitches. Try this trick: provisionally cast on 9 stitches. On the first and second row, knit all 9 stitches. On the third row, knit 2 stitches together (k2tog) where you think they'll be least obvious. In plain stockinette, see if you like the k2tog right in the middle, or if you find an edge less obvious. I vote for the middle of the row, but you must make up your own mind. On the illustration below, the needles and the provisional cast off have been removed, and the fabric has magically been made to lie flat. As you can see, the k2tog is in the middle of the row, picked out for you in green. There were originally 9 stitches cast on and worked "up," leaving 8 tails. However, after the k2tog, there are a matching set of 8 live loops at the top and bottom of this work.


To summarize this technique:

• Provisionally cast on one extra stitch
• Row 1 and 2: Knit every stitch going "up"
• Row 3: Somewhere along the third row, wherever you think it will be least obvious, k2tog to get rid of the extra stitch going "up."
• Rows 4 and following: knit normally
• when the time comes to "unzip" the provisional casting on, you will have the correct number of stitches to knit "down."

TECHnique #2:
If the trick of REMOVING an extra stitch going "up" doesn't grab you, here's another alternative which has you ADD an extra stitch going "down."

Provisionally cast on the correct number of stitches, and work all the stitches "up" normally. Unzip the provisional casting on, catch the live loops on your needle, and on the second or third row knitting "DOWN," add a stitch by the "invisible increase" method (click here for instructions).

To summarize this technique:

• Provisionally cast on the correct number of stitches
• Knit every stitch going "up"
• When you come to unzip the provisional casting on, you will find one fewer loops going "down."
• Pick up the stitches going "down" and knit for two rows.
• On the third row, add a stitch by making a nearly invisible increase.

Provisional cast on makes a 1/2 stitch discontinuity--a jog-- between where the stitches go "up" and where they go "down."

Not only is there always one fewer stitch going "down" than "up," but the offset between the tails and loops causes another problem, also. Specifically, when we knit "down" on the tail loops, the downward knitting is 1/2 stitch off the upward knitting.

Through an act of heavenly mercy, it turns out that stockinette is so symmetrical that this 1/2 stitch difference is very nearly undetectable in stocking stitch. To prove this is so, take any piece of stockinette fabric, look at it closely, then turn it upside down and look again. You will see that stockinette looks the same upside down and right side up. The only way you'll see the offset in stockinette is at the edge of the fabric, where the 1/2 stitch jog shows as a tiny bump on each side.

Other knit fabrics are not so forgiving. A continuous ribbed fabric would show a 1/2 stitch discontinuity between where the stitches are knit "up" and where the stitches are knit "down." To minimize this, provisional cast on is usually used along a border where the fabric pattern is going to change anyway: the classic location is at the border between the bottom band and the body of a sweater, or at the border between cuff and sleeve. Because the bottom band or cuff is likely to be made in ribbing, while the garment body or sleeve is likely to be made in a different pattern, the discontinuity -- the jog -- of the provisional pick-up line is disguised.


A quick aside: Do you wonder why you'd want to put the cuff on a sleeve via a provisional cast on? There are at least two good reasons to do it: 1. It makes it easy to replace the cuff, important for children's clothing. 2. It makes it easy to adjust the cuff length after the main garment has been knitted and can be tried on. You might want to put the bottom band on a sweater via the provisional cast on method for the same reason: picking up the bottom band and knitting it last would make it easy to adjust the final sweater length after the sweater body has been knit and can be tried on.

If you were making a garment with just one fabric pattern -- a pattern which would look bad with a jog -- you would have to arrange matters so that at the line of the provisional cast on, there would be several rows of plain stockinette stitch.

A common example is lacy scarf worked in a directional lace pattern. Specifically, in order to have the two lace patterns match at the lower ends of the scarf, you might want to start the scarf in the middle with a provisional cast on, and work first towards one end, and then towards the other. However, you might not want the 1/2 stitch jog to interfere with the continuity of your lace pattern. A classic solution is to design the scarf with a stockinette panel, as shown below.

Because the provisional cast on is in the middle of a stockinette fabric, there will be hardly any visible discontinuity where the provisional cast on lies--there will be a 1/2 stitch jog at the edges, but none in the middle of the fabric. Also, the shape of a scarf with a narrow stockinette pattern lies very well on the neck--the narrow bit goes around the back, adding no bulk behind the neck, while the pretty lace panels show in all their glory on the front. The best part about a scarf like this is that the narrow stockinette band has the same number of stitches as the lace panels--no increasing is required. The secret is that lace (pretty nearly any lace) is much wider than a stockinette fabric on the same number of stitches, due to all the yarn overs.

There is a scarf like this somewhere here at Chez TECH, but one of the little TECHlings has it hidden away. When found, a photograph of it will be added to this post...

(Some time later) Oh here it is!--TECHknitter

You have been reading TECHknitting on: "Provisional cast on --one extra stitch going up, one less stitch going down; 1/2 stitch off in pattern"

Sigh...

As must be obvious, there is no tech editor at Chez TECHknitting. Accordingly, this blog sometimes gets disorganized. I thought we were heading for garment shaping, I've even knitted up a bunch of samples, but when it came time to write and illustrate all the tricks in the shaping, it turned out that there are still lots of techniques to cover first.

Accordingly, I've axed the previous post with its false promises about socks and garment shaping. Regardless of whatever was stated earlier, this blog simply hasn't progressed as far as garment shaping: not socks, not sweaters, not yet. Instead, for the foreseeable future, TECHknitting will be taking up the old torch again and concentrating on the TECHnique of making knitted fabric.  

Specifically, we'll start tomorrow with a post concerning provisional cast on--what to do about the fact that when you take out the provisional cast on, you'll have 1 less stitch heading "down" than you had heading "up."

Until tomorrow--

--TECHknitter

Sabbatical

Sabbatical-- Any extended period of leave from one's customary work, esp. for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc. 

Hi All-I'm still here, but not a lot of blogging is happening (obviously).  The next topic is to be garment shaping, but it's such a large topic that it's hard to tell where to begin.  There have been several false starts, but no approach has yet proved satisfactory.  

In the meanwhile, however, it has been fun working on projects. There's been a knitting drought for several years at ChezTECH as the blog has been all-consuming.  Now it is as if a dam had burst, and I am churning out projects.  It is fun knitting with yarn again, rather than pixels.  

Evidently, TECHknitting is now officially on a sort of a sabbatical break--a substantial period of time off while my thoughts get reorganized and fresh energy is generated to post further.  Sorry to have been incommunicado for so long, but TECHkntting will be back--eventually--and I really hope to tackle garment shaping at that time. 

Thanks for your continued patience, and we'll hopefully meet again in the not-too-distant future.

--TECHknitter

Goodbye until September...

Dear Readers:

TECHknitting has come to that part of the year when summer travel shuts down the blog. This blog will be on summer vacation until the first week of September -- I am actually leaving the US for over a month, and will have no computer access during this time. (Guess I'll just have to knit -- darn!!)

Before the summer hiatus, however, TECHknitting will undergo its first real housecleaning since its founding. Between now and July 25, all the posts are to be re-examined, new links inserted where needed, and old links updated. Some illustrations will be replaced with corrected versions, and some nagging typos will be corrected. Also, all the indexes will be brought up to date.

If you subscribe to TECHknitting by way of an RSS feed (such as through Bloglines or Google Reader) you may see a flurry of activity that looks like lots of new posts, but this is just false signals being generated by re-posting corrected versions of previous entries. In other words, please ignore any "new post" messages: they are due to this upcoming period of maintenance. No new posts will be forthcoming until September.

Before we part ways for the rest of this summer, dear readers, I thank you for making TECHknitting a stop on your travels through the internet. We'll meet again in September, and when TECHknitting returns with new posts, the first topic will be PICKING UP STITCHES.

Have a good summer, and keep knitting!

P.S. One last thing: I will not be able to read comments, nor read or respond to e-mails at the TECHknitting@hotmail.com address between July 25 and September 7.

--TECHknitter

Matching 2 pieces of knitting without counting

click any illustration to enlarge
One of the most tedious routines in all of knitting is counting rows or stitches when you have to match two pieces. Is the sweater front as long as the back? Have you knitted both sleeves the same length? Are your two sock tops the same number of rows before the gusset starts? Here is a little trick to avoid all that endless counting and losing track and re-counting. Also, with this trick, you process both pieces at once (twice as fast!)

You will need:

• a small-gauge circular needle (or two small regular needles or dpn's)
• some safety pins or bobby pins
  

TO MATCH ROWS
without counting

In the illustrations below, two pieces of stockinette, one green and one purple, are being matched to make sure they have the same number of rows knitted. The illustrations all show the matching proceeding from right to left--the same way as knitting. However, there is no science to this--you can proceed from left to right just as well.

First, fold both pieces to be matched so that one column from each piece is just at the fold line, then hold the folded pieces pressed together. Pick the plainest possible columns in the work, a column with as few pattern complications as possible--ideal is a column of stockinette stitch in each item.

Per the illustration below, use one point of the circular needle to poke through both arms of the first stitch of the chosen column in the front piece (green), then poke the same needle through both arms of the first stitch of the chosen column in the back piece (purple). The first point (illustrated in black) is fully inserted under the first stitch in the folded column of the green fabric AND the first stitch of the folded column of the purple fabric.
With the second point of the circular needle (illustrated in yellow) poke through the next stitch along the row on the folded column of each piece. As shown below, you now have two needle points poking through two stitches on each of the two pieces of your work.
As shown by the red arrow in the illustration below, the next step will be to remove the black needle and poke it through the third stitch along the folded columns. In other words, you are going to leapfrog the first needle past the second--moving the black needle from the first stitch to the third stitch in the folded column of both pieces.
As shown below, you now again have two needles poking though the work. The reason I prefer a circular needle for matching is because it is harder to drop one needle as you do the leapfrogging part of the trick. However, if you do not have a small-gauge circular needle, small thin regular needles or dpn's will also work well.
As shown below, you continue in this manner, leapfrogging each needle one additional stitch up the folded columns, moving each needle in turn.
When you reach about 15 or 20 rows, run a safety pin (more secure) or a bobby pin (much, much faster) through a matched stitch. There is no particular science to the placement of the pin--the idea is to place pins often enough so that if you DO lose track, you don't have to go very far back to re-start the matching process.

When you get to the top of each column, you will easily see whether your two pieces match--does the last needle inserted go through the top stitch of each column, or does one column extend further? If so, either pull out the excess rows of the longer item, or knit extra rows on the shorter item.

IMHO,

• Matching is EASIER than counting--in both counting and matching you have to identify the next stitch but counting requires you to keep track the number of stitches, whereas matching does not. Obviously, you CAN count while matching--if you ARE counting, insert pins every 10 or 20 rows exactly to ease your double-check when you re-count--but the point is that with matching, you don't actually NEED to count--"losing count" is no impediment.
  
• Matching is FASTER than counting--because you are poking both items at once, it goes twice as fast as counting each item, one at a time.
  
• Finally, matching is MORE ACCURATE than counting because you are less likely to make a matching mistake than a counting mistake...

• matching is mechanical--easier to do in a distracting environment (TV anyone?)
• even when one needle is moved, the other one is pinning the work, making it harder to lose track
  
• placing pins make it easy to go back to double check--simply repeat the "poke-two-columns-at-once" procedure, and make sure all the pins are, in fact, inserted in matching rows of the folded columns
• matching by this poking method gives you a pointy tool in hand to explore any dubious stitches--helps avoid double counting one stitch or mis-identifying two stitches as one

If you have made beautiful, regular edges (by a chain selvedge or any other method) you can match along the edges, rather than along a folded column. However, experience dictates that in many cases, matching along a column is more accurate than along an edge, and this is especially true if there has been shaping along the edge.

TO MATCH STITCHES
without counting

The above illustrations and instructions show how to match length, row by row. The same procedure also works to match width, stitch by stitch (checking the width of two sleeves as they are increased, for example). Simply fold the two pieces so that there are two adjoining rows, then poke matching stitches along the row to count stitches.

--TECHknitter (You have been reading TECHknitting on: the easy way to match 2 pieces of knitting without counting)

Fully lining hats with polar fleece

click any illustration to enlarge
Lining handknit caps with polar fleece is a good trick to know. (Click here for further information about polar fleece.) Lining with polar fleece can make too-big hats fit, and it eliminates wool itchiness from sensitive foreheads.

TECHknitting blog has already shown how to line knitted hats with polar fleece headband style; today's post shows how to fully line a hat. Basically, with this trick, you make another hat of polar fleece, then sew that inside your knitted hat. With a lining in a heavy weight of fleece, the hat will be suitable for arctic expeditions--excellent where I live (Wisconsin)--but in more temperate climates, you may want to search out a thinner fleece for your lining so the hat won't be impossibly hot.

Step 1 (below): Polar fleece stretches more from selvedge to selvedge than along its length. Cut out a strip from the "wide" way on the fabric (as shown by the "direction of stretch" arrow). The strip should be approximately 10 or 11 inches high and 24 to 26 inches wide. This strip will become the inner lining hat.
Step 2 (below): Wrap the strip around the intended wearer's head with the "not-so-good" side facing out and pin it shut. It would be wise to wear the pinned strip around the house for some time--what seems comfortably snug on first pinning can come to feel ear-numbingly tight after extended wear.
Step 3 (below): Sew the tube shut as pinned. If you have a serger, use that. With a sewing machine you can sew a simple straight seam. If you are sewing by hand, use the back stitch.
Step 4 (below): Trim the excess from the seam. The illustration shows pinking shears, but you can trim with ordinary scissors. Polar fleece does not unravel, so you can trim closer than with woven cloth. An approximately 3/8 inch seam allowance is good, but bold souls can trim as close as 1/4 inch, while nervous sorts can trim to a standard 5/8 seam allowance. If you do have a sewing machine, you might wish to re-sew over the cut edge with the machine's zig-zag or overcast stitch, but this is not necessary.
Step 5 (below): Have the intended wearer try on the tube. Pull the tube down well over the forehead so that you don't accidentally make the lining too shallow. Pin shut the top of the tube so that it comfortably conforms to the shape of the wearer's head. Below is an illustration, and at this link is a photo of the process in real life (Ravelry link).
Step 6: Just as you sewed the back seam of the tube in step 3, so now you will sew the top of the tube shut. Let the actual sewing of the seam be approximately 1/2 inch above the pins, and this should allow plenty of wiggle room.

Step 7: Just as you trimmed the excess from the seam allowance in step 5, so you will trim the excess fabric from above the top seam. Use the same width of seam allowance as on the back of the tube--somewhere between 1/4 inch and 5/8 inch.

Step 8 (below): OPTIONAL Have the wearer try on the sewn-shut tube. At this point, if you like, you can adjust the shape of the tube to be more anatomically correct by flipping up the front of the hat until the tube sits comfortably on the head. Once the comfortable amount of front flip has been determined, mark the flip with a line of pins.
Step 9: If you did step 8, then in this step, you trim away the excess fabric from the front of the lining by trimming along the pinned line. You want to flip up and trim from the front, rather than the back so that you are not cutting through the back seam--cutting the back seam could possibly encourage that sewing in that seam to run out, while cutting in the front creates no problems at all. Remember, polar fleece fabric does not unravel.

Step 10 (below): You have now created a custom lining which will fit the wearer. At this point, you want to sew the lining into the hat. A polar fleece lining is sewn into a hat ONLY AT THE BOTTOM EDGE of the hat. There is no reason to sew it in along the top. By having the lining free-floating in the hat (attached only at the bottom edge) the hat will lay far smoother on the wearer's head than if the lining were attached at the top of the hat too.

Here is the how-to trick for pinning the lining evenly into a hat (or should I say--for pinning the HAT evenly inside the LINING!?)

Begin by turning the hat INSIDE OUT. Fit the lining OVER the hat, with the sewn seams of the
lining facing the inside of the hat. In other words,

• the hat will be encased, inside-out, inside of the lining
• the good side of the lining will be showing, and
• the not-so-good side of the lining (the side with the seams) will rest against the inside fabric of the hat.

Align the back seams.


(If you think you may have seen this diagram before, you have! This is the identical diagram from the post on headband-style lining, and, in fact, the two methods are the same!)

a: Holding the hat (gray shape) inside the lining (blue shape), S-T-R-E-T-C-H the hat and the lining with both forefingers into a long shape which can be stretched no further. This automatically centers the hat inside the lining. Pin the lining to the hat in these two spots.

Do you wonder how you can pin in the lining while your hands are inside the hat and band, stretching everything smooth? You can ask someone to help you, of course, but if you are alone, you can take a shortcut by pinning in one contact point BEFORE you start the stretching-out process, then pinch the hat and lining together where you find the second contact should go. Just be sure not to prick yourself with the pre-set pin, which would go right against one of your stretching fingers.

b. along one side, divide the length between the two pins in half by again stretching the hat and the lining until they can stretch no further. Pin this third contact point.

c. along the other side, repeat step b. Four points are now pinned.

d. again stretching between two contact points, set a fifth contact point at the half-way mark between two already-set pins.

e. repeat the "stretching to find the half-way point" 3 more times until a total of 8 contact points are securely pinned down.

f. the perfectionists among us may want to again halve each side length for a total of 16 contact points.

Do not be alarmed if the lining is larger than the hat OR if the hat is larger than the lining. Once you have sewn the lining in place, the hat and lining will fit one another very well. The larger item, whether hat or lining, is eased to the smaller one by means of stretching out the smaller item as you sew, stitch by stitch, with the pins in place to divide the sections equally so all the ease does not wind up in one big lump on one side of the finished hat.

Thus, a too-large hat can be eased onto a smaller lining by stretching the lining out as the hat is stitched to it. When the sewing is done, the excess fabric of the hat will be distributed in tiny little bite-size pieces all around the lining. As the lining is released from stretching--as it shrinks back to near its original shape--it will take the too-large hat with it. Similarly, hats made of heavily textured fabric (ribbing, cables) will "draw in" much more than the smooth lining. Accordingly, the hat must be gently stretched to fit the lining.

To explain in different words: "Ease as you sew" is sewing jargon for stretching the smaller item (whether hat or lining) to match the larger item (whether lining or hat) as you sew the two together. When you have sewn the garment and the lining together and you take your hand away, you will see that they both lay smoothly together, regardless of the fact that the smaller one has been stitched into a new, stretched position.

As to which stitch to use, you can follow these instructions for the overcast stitch. I highly recommend sewing linings into knit garments by hand, rather than by machine: the end result is nearly always nicer, and the hand-sewn overcast stitch allows for a flexible and comfortable connection between the lining and the hat.

--TECHknitter (You have been reading TECHknitting on: "How to line a knitted hat.")

Knitters have to eat, too (no-mess muffins)

Somehow, the recent lovely summer weather had put knitting out of mind. It may be heresy, but working with fiber has temporarily lost its appeal. Yet even when you put down your knitting, you still have to eat. Here is a recipe for no-mess banana muffins. There is hardly any clean-up and you can prepare ahead so you can pop these in the oven with very little delay.
The following recipe makes 12 standard size muffins.

Step 1: ZIPPER BAG

The trick to making these muffins no-mess is to use a zippered plastic bag.

step 2: GET READY

Put muffin papers (aka "baking cups") into your muffin pan and pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

Step 3: MIX DRY INGREDIENTS

Into your zipper bag, put
*1 3/4 cups of flour (white is tastiest, whole wheat pastry flour is a good runner-up)
*1/3 or 1/2 cup of sugar (avoiding white sugar? substitute the same amount of maple syrup BUT add the syrup to the wet ingredient in step 4)
*2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1/4 teaspoon salt.
Seal the zipper, check the seal, then shake the bag until all dry ingredients are well-mixed.

step 4: BLEND WET INGREDIENTS

Into your blender, put
*1 banana (can be a super-ripe one you no longer care to eat)
*1 egg (vegan? substitute 3 oz tofu)
*1/2 cup milk (diary milk or soy milk, makes no difference)
*1/4 cup oil (avoiding oil? substitute 1/3 cup applesauce for the oil)
Whirl this mixture around until smooth. If substituting maple syrup for sugar, add the syrup in this step.

step 5: COMBINE WET and DRY INGREDIENTS

Open the zipper bag, pour the blender contents in, and re-seal bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Mash the mixture together, working the dry ingredients out of the corners. TIP: Radically reduce your clean-up time by taking a minute to fill the blender body 1/3 full of water, add a few drops of dish soap and run the blender at high speed until it fills with suds. Then, let the blender sit there soaking until you have the muffins in the oven.

Step 6: PARTIALLY FILL MUFFIN TINS

Work the muffin batter into the bottom the zipper bag by repeatedly drawing the bag between thumb and forefinger. When the mixture is at the bottom, open the zipper to allow in air. Reseal the zipper, test the seal, gather the top of the bag in your non-dominant hand and twist it several times, then tilt bag and squeeze gently so the air bubble is pressing the batter into one corner of the bag. With a scissors, cut the tip off the corner, lopping off about 3/4 inch along the long edge of the cut. Gently squeeze a small amount of batter into each of the muffin papers.

step 7: ADD YUMMIES

Lay the bag of batter aside, cut tip up, so it does not ooze batter onto the counter. Into the batter in the bottom of each muffin paper, press whatever yummies you think would be good--walnuts, pecans, raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried blueberries, diced dried apricots, whatever.

step 8: FINISH FILLING MUFFIN PAPERS and BAKE

Press equal amounts of the remaining batter into each muffin paper, then bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees until done (about 12-15 minutes). If unsure, test with a cake tester or a toothpick. Let the muffins cool in the tin. If you insist on eating them hot, the bottom crusts will stick to the papers, but once cool, the papers can be drawn off without too much loss of muffin.

RECAP:

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees
*Line muffin tin with muffin papers (no need to grease them)

INGREDIENTS:
*1 3/4 cups of flour
*1/3 or 1/2 cup of sugar
*2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt.
*1 banana
*1 egg
*1/2 cup milk, adding a couple of tablespoons if either the banana or the egg is small.
*1/4 cup oil

OPTIONAL YUMMIES:
*chopped nuts, any kind
*raisins or dried fruit

METHOD:
* mix first 4 ingredients in a plastic zipper bag--these are the "dry ingredients"
*blend together banana, egg, milk, oil --these are the "wet ingredients"
*combine wet and dry ingredients in the zipper bag, exclude air from bag, then mash dry and wet ingredients together until fairly uniform
*work mixture to bottom of bag, open bag and let in a big air bubble, then reseal the bag
*cut one corner off zipper bag, and, using the zipper bag as a pastry bag, squeeze small amount of batter into each prepared muffin paper
*add optional ingredients (nuts, raisins, etc)
*finish filling muffin papers

*Bake at 400 degrees until tops are brown and cake tester comes out clean (12-15 minutes).
*Let cool for easiest unwrapping.

As you can imagine, it is possible to mix together the dry ingredients the night before, so all you have to do for breakfast muffins is pop the wet ingredients into the blender, then pour those into the bag in the AM. Heck, you can keep several ready-made bags of muffin mix in the pantry, so you can have muffins any time you like.

At clean-up time, your muffin pan isn't usually messy because you didn't grease the papers, and the squeezing trick helps avoid dribbling batter onto the tin. The zipper bag gets tossed. The blender is a very quick wash-up if, as soon as you empty the blender, you take a minute to fill the blender with a little water, a few drops of soap and then a quick whirl to fill the blender with soap suds. In fact, with this pre-soaking method, there is usually no wash up of the blender at all--just a rinse.

--Good appetite from TECHknitter (You have been reading TECHknitting on: "no mess muffins")

Knitting helps science

Ladies? Next time someone looks down on your knitting? Just send them here.

How to make tassels

Tassels are very similar to pom-poms. They are a good trick to know because they use substantially less yarn than most pom-poms, and go quicker, too. Shown here are basic tassels, but you can really jazz these up quite a bit--you can put a bead or a bit of stuffing in the top part, you can wrap two or more "top parts," the variety is endless, and tassel-making is actually a fine and ancient fabric art in its own right. However, basic tassels look swell too, and make a very fine hat topper in just a few moments.

step 1 (above) get 2 pieces of straight cardboard and sandwich a yarn between (red in the illustration). The height of the cardboard corresponds to the overall height of the tassel. Although the illustration shows two pieces of cardboard, one double-height piece, folded over, works nearly as well.

step 2 (above) Wrap yarn (can be scraps) around and around the cardboard. The more yarn you wrap, the bushier the tassel will be. Yet, sparse tassels have their own charm so even if you have very little yarn left, a tassel is a good way to use it up.

step 3 (above) This is where it would be good to have an extra set of hands. You must pull the tie-yarn up from the middle of the cardboard, and cut the bottom of the tassels free. Lacking extra hands, pressing the works against the tabletop while cutting helps prevent the cut yarns from springing about and showering the room with stray ends. If you are using the lazy-knitter trick of folded cardboard, you pull the tie yarn to the open edge and cut the tassel open along the folded edge.

step 4 (above) Take a length of yarn (pink in the illustration) and wrap it around the nascent tassel FIRMLY. The illustration shows two wraps, but 5 or 10 wraps is more common (although harder to illustrate!) Most common is to use a yarn of the same color. A contrasting color yarn (as shown) is more for illustration.  If you like, you can do step 5 before step 4, which gives you more control over all the loose ends.

step 5 (above) Tie the center cord tightly, and use the tails from the center cord to attach the tassel. Some folks like the tassel to swing on the end of its own little cord, in which case you sandwich in a L-O-N-G center cord in step 1. After tying the center cord to make the tassel, you can chain-crochet or repeatedly knot together the two ends of center cord to the desired length before attaching the tassel to the hat (scarf, afghan, lap robe, sweater tie, etc). If you find that the tassel-ends are unraveling, you can knot the ends, as shown in the last illustration of this post.

One last thing: It is also possible to make tassels from I-cord, which follow the same basic principle, but result in a different look. Click here for more details.

--TECHknitter (You have been reading TECHknitting on: "How to make a tassel")

How to make pom-poms

Includes 8 illustrations, click any illustration to enlarge
A couple of days ago, a knitter on a community board asked how to make pom-poms. Immediately, the little voices in my head led me to sit down and illustrate this subject.

1. (above) The traditional way to wind pom-poms: Cut two cardboard doughnuts of the same size. Sandwich a yarn (illustrated in red) in between the two layers.

2. (above) Wind yarn (illustrated in green) over the doughnut, around and around, working the yarn through the center hole on each pass.

3. On illustration 2, you can see that the center hole is small. As you can imagine, it is something of a pain to wind the yarn through that center hole again and again. When I was 10, I had to make dozens of pom-poms for a project. Being as lazy as the next 10-year old, I figured that, per illustration 3 (above), if one-quarter of the circle form is cut away, it is MUCH faster and easier to wind the yarn around the resulting three-quarter pom-pom form, and the pom-pom comes out just as well. As shown, with a three-quarter form, as with the original full circle form, you begin by laying a yarn in between the two layers.

4. (above) As with the full circle form, wind the yarn around and around whole length of the three-quarter form, making sure that the center yarn does not get lost inside the form. The more yarn you wrap around the form, the bushier your pom-pom will be.

5. (above) Lay the form on a table and press it down firmly. Insert a scissors between the two layers of the form and cut the strands of pom-pom yarn where they pass over the outer edge of the form.

6. (above) Working carefully, pull up the center yarn tightly, then remove the form and lay it aside. Tie the center yarn in a very tight knot--this knot is what holds your pom-pom together. Refinements are possible: for example, you can wind the center yarn several times around strands once they have been cut free, knotting with every re-wind, or knotting just once at the end.

7. (above) Fluff the finished pom-pom into a three-dimensional shape. Trim off any oddly long strands. Remember not to pull on any one strand, or it will pop loose of the pom-pom. The ends of the center yarn can be used to attach the pom-pom to the hat top (or whatever else you are decorating). In real life, of course, your center yarn would be the same color as the pom-pom, and it will therefore be invisible.

8. (above)
a. Some yarns want to unravel when cut. In a very bushy pom-pom, this will not be a problem, because the yarn has not the room to unravel, but in a sparse pom-pom, you may face this issue.
b.& c. You can solve this problem by tying a little overhand knot (granny knot) in the end of each strand of the pom-pom yarn. A sparse pom-pom of perhaps 10 or 30 strands with each strand topped with a knot is quite charming--the knots give the strand ends a little heft and they swing about charmingly when you move and look like a little fountain, or a spray of fireworks.

One final note: You do not need to use a continuous strand of yarn to make a pom-pom. After all, you are going to cut the yarn into lots and lots of little pieces in step 5. You can wind little scraps of yarn over the form just as well as longer pieces--even if the scrap goes around the form only a couple of times, you can still use it--simply anchor it in place by overlapping its end with the next scrap. A pom-pom made of lots of scraps may shed odd bits where the center yarn did not catch the tail end of the scrap, but that is no particular problem--just comb out the pom pom AFTER you tie the knot, and these uncaught bits will fall right out.

Related posts:
How to make a tassel
How to make an I-cord tassel

--TECHknitter (You have been reading TECHknitting on: "pom-pom how-to.")