tutorial Archives - Page 16 of 19

tutorial: knitting rick-rack rib

To finish a sweater, ribbing is obviously the preferred choice: its fabric does not roll and it gives quite an elastic finishing. Sometimes, however, I find knitting yet another 2×2 rib or variant thereof just so… boring. For giving your project that tiny bit of “je ne se quoi” instead of regular ribbing, try the rick-rack rib.

The nice zig-zag texture that is so characteristic of this stitch is obtained by the knitting the stitches in a different order than they appear on the needle. In this post, I’ll show you how to knit this variation on regular ribbing when knitting it flat. Pointers on how to knit this stitch in the round can be found in this tutorial.

Rick-rack rib worked flat is knitted as a multiple of 3 + 1 stitches. For this example, I have cast on 19 stitches.

In short, the instructions for this stitch worked flat consist of the following 2 rows:

Row 1 (RS): Purl 1, *skip the first stitch, knit in the back loop of the second stitch (do not slip this stitch off the needle), knit into the front loop of the first stitch and now slip both knitted stitches of the needle, purl 1; repeat from * to end of the row.

Row 2 (WS): Knit 1, *skip the first stitch, purl the second stitch (do not slip stitch of the needle), purl the first stitch and now slip both knitted stitches from the needle, knit 1; repeat from * to end of the row.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 to the desired height.

Knitting rick-rack rib flat step by step

Row 1
1. Purl 1 stitch.

2. Skip the first stitch and knit the second stitch on the needle in the back loop. Do not slip this stitch off the left-hand needle just yet!

3. Knit into the front loop of the first stitch that you skipped in step 2. Then slip both knitted stitches from the needle.

4. Purl 1 stitch.

5. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to the end of the needle.

Row 2
6. Knit 1 stitch.

7. Skip the first stitch and purl the second stitch on the left-hand needle. Do not slip this stitch off the needle just yet!

8. Purl the first stitch that you skipped in step 7. Then slip both knitted stitches from the needle.

9. Knit 1 stitch.

10. Repeat steps 7 to 9 to the end of the row.

On the right side of the work, it will look something like this:

And this is how it looks on the back:

In case your project ends with rick-rack rib, you can bind-off after row 2 by binding off in purl 1, knit 2 pattern.

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tutorial: knitted-on border – turning the corner

Knitting on borders, around the corner - a tutorial by La Visch Designs

In an earlier blog post, I’ve already shown how to apply an edging to your project. In this post, I will focus on how to turn your border around the corner.

The special feature of knitting on borders is that such a border is knit perpendicular to the body of the project. The stitches of the border are connected to those of the main body by knitting or purling them together. This is not only very decorative, but also a highly elastic finish of a project. Much more elastic than with a regular cast off!

Last time I have shown you the basics of how an applied border is worked. In this post, I want to show you how to apply such an edging around a corner.

To “turn the corner” you need a slightly different approach than with the rest of the border. And what, exactly, depends on how wide your knitted-on edging is. You can probably imagine that going around the corner is similar to driving a car in a race: the inner corner of the race track gives a shorter distance to cover than the outer corner.

If you don’t take this difference into account somehow, the fabric will pull at the corner and deform in a way that really can’t be fixed by blocking your project. The wider the edging, the more important it is, therefore, to plan in advance on how to approach the corners in your work.

When you knit on an edging, you work 2 border rows for each stitch of the body of the project. This makes the solution is actually quite obvious: Make sure to knit more than two rows for each body stitch to give the fabric more slack! This is in that respect, very much like knitting a variant of short rows.

For a relatively narrow edging of about 5 to 9 stitches wide, it is usually sufficient to add 2 additional times of knitting back and forth at the corner point. For wider edges, more rows are, of course, needed. In this example, the edging varies between 10 and 15 stitches wide. Therefore I will be adding a total of 3 additional times knitting back and forth at the corner.

The border pattern used in this example is the “traditional scalloped lace” border. It can found on page 81 of the book “The magic of Shetland Lace Knitting”, written by Elizabeth Lovick.

Knitting around the corner step by step

1. Mark the 3 stitches at the corner of the body of your work. Knit the edging as shown in the previous blog up to the first marked stitch.

2. Now work according to the description given in the pattern for the next row that is knit from the outside of the edging going inwards, up to 1 st before the end of the row. Knit the last stitch of the row together with the first next stitch of the body as usual.

3. Turn the work and slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and work the next row of the border pattern as usual.

4. Now work next row according to the description given in the border pattern, until 1 stitch before the end of the border stitches. Now do not knit this next stitch together with the first body stitch, just knit it instead.

5. Turn work. Slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and knit the return row as usual. You now have knit 4 rows and have only used 1 stitch of the body of your project.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 twice, one time for each marked corner stitch. Doing so, you knit a total of 12 edging rows, using only 3 stitches from the body of your work. This looks something like this:

You can also see, that for each corner stitch there are 2 garter stitch ridges instead of 1.

7. After turning around the corner, continue to knit on your edging in the usual way with2 rows from the edging for each stitch of the body of the work.

And that is really all there is to it!

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tutorial: knitted-on border

In many patterns, it is common to first knit the body of the piece followed by a lace border that is knit perpendicular to the edge of the body. Such a knitted-on border is sometimes also called an applied border. You can see this for example in the traditional Shetland shawls, but also in patterns for knitted blankets. It is also a lovely way to give the hem or cuffs of a sweater a beautiful finish.

The beauty of the knitted-on border is that it is not only very decorative but also very elastic. With a regular cast-of, the bound of edge is the limiting factor in how far you can block out your work. And as you know, lace is at its best when the patterning is opened up. When knitting on a border you won’t have a problem with a tight-ish cast-of, because there is, in fact, no cast-of!

The starting point of such a knitted edge is that the stitches of the border are knitted perpendicular to the work. The stitches of the border are connected to those of the main body by knitting or purling them together. If you knit (or purl) through the back loop, you get a more solid connection. Depending on the type of project, for example, a lacy scarf vs. a sweater, you can choose the one you prefer.

In this post, I’ll show you how to knit on an edge to your work.

E-course on working an applied border
Of course, there is much more to learn and tell about working an applied border. More than I can put in this post! For that reason, I want to create a simple online course teaching the basics on applied borders for approx. € 25. If you’d be interested in such a course, enter your info below and I’ll notify you when it launches!

The form you have selected does not exist.

In the example in this post, I knitted a swatch in white. On this, I will knit a border in a contrasting color. If you want to make the border the same color as the main part of your project, you can, of course, continue to use the same yarn instead of attaching new yarn.

The border pattern used in this example is the “traditional scalloped lace” border that can found on page 81 of the book “The magic of Shetland Lace Knitting”. It’s written by Elizabeth Lovick.

Working a knitted-on border step by step

1. Start by casting on the number of stitches you need for your border, on the same needle that holds the body stitches of your project. I used the knitted-on cast-on.

2. Now work according to the description given in the border pattern for the first row that you knit from the outside of the piece inwards, until 1 st before the end of the border stitches. Then knit the last border stitch together with the first body stitch.

3. Turn the work. Next, slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. We do this to make sure that the connection is as flat as possible. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and work the next row of the border pattern. This row is knit outwards from the body.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all stitches are worked. For every body stitch, you basically knit two rows of the border.

On the right side of the work it will look something like this:

And this is the result on the wrong side of the work:

In part 2 of “Working a knitted-on border” I show you how to turn the border around a corner.

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tutorial: a two-color cast-on

Perhaps you have seen them, those beautiful patterns by Nancy Marchant or Stephen West. Both designers often use two-color knitting in the brioche technique.

To be able to start such a two-color project, you would of course need a two-color cast-on. The “two-color brioche cast-on”, also known as the “two-color Italian cast-on” is of course an obvious choice. However, this particular cast-on method fights me all the way!

Fortunately, I also found another two-color cast-on method, which gives an elastic result. This method is for me a lot easier to use. In this post I will show you how this alternative two-color cast-on technique is done.

Two-color cast-on step-by-step

1. Start by making a slipknot holding both colors of yarn together to make the first stitch on the needle. Make sure you leave about 15 cm (6 inch) of yarn at the beginning, shorter lengths I find a bit tricky to weave in correctly.

2. Place the tip of the right needle between the two loops on the needle, make a yarn over with color 1 and pull up a loop.

3. Put this loop twisted on the left hand needle.

4. Now place the tip of the right needle between the front two stitches on the left hand needle, make a yarn over with color 2 and again pull up a loop.

5. Again put this loop twisted on the left hand needle.

Repeat steps 2 to 5, alternating the two colors, until the required number of stitches has been cast-on. The slipknot that you started with, can now be dropped. This way you avoid a very noticeable knot in your work.

Now you are ready to start your two-colored knitting project!

This cast-on is not only useful for brioche projects. It also lends itself very nicely for starting double-knitting projects. I also sometimes use it just to have a nice two-tone edge to my project, because I find it very decorative on its own.

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tutorial: crochet lobster stitch cord

Lobster stitch cord tutorial by La Visch Designs

Being it for handles of bags, bracelets, necklaces or other things, crochet cord often comes in handy. Personally, though, I don’t really like making a cord by doing single crochet stitches in a chain because it always so finicky to do. A good and attractive alternative is making a lobster stitch cord.

This type of cord is a tad thicker than a cord made from a chain and single crochet, and therefore also somewhat firmer. Really a good attribute when making bag handles! Of course, if you make lobster stitch cord of a thinnish yarn, the resulting cord will also be finer and thinner than when made from worsted or heavier weight yarn. And best of all: besides being rather decorative, a lobster stitch cord is started with only 2 stitches! You can determine how long to make it as you go.

In this post, I’ll show you how to crochet lobster stitch cord. These instructions are written in American English crochet terminology.

Lobster stitch cord step by step

For this example, I’m using Zeeman Super Soft yarn and a crochet hook size 4 mm (US G/6).

1. Start by chaining 2 stitches, followed by 1 single crochet in the second chain from the hook.

The result will look like the picture below. You can see that the stitch you have just created is pointing down on the side of the hook. This is indicated by the arrow on the right.

2. In this step, you turn the work towards you, as indicated by the left arrow pictured above. The stitch just made is now facing you, make sure the thread of yarn stays behind the work. In the picture below, the arrow indicates the very same stitch after rotating the work.

3. Insert your hook in the stitch and make a single crochet by pulling up a loop, wrap the yarn around your hook and pulling it through the two loops on the hook.

4. After the stitch you just made, you see two loops on the underside of your work (see arrow). These are indicated by the two white lines. Now turn your work towards you, similar as in step 2. Next insert the hook into the two indicated loops and make a single crochet by pulling up a loop, wrap the yarn around your hook and pulling it through the two loops on the hook.

Repeat step 4 until your cord has the desired length.
And that is all there is to it!

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tutorial: making your own yarn display

You probably recognize this: All those beautiful skeins of yarn in a lush variety of materials and colors and no way to enjoy it all because it is all tucked away in the stash. It really is a shame to have to put it all away to protect it against the effects of UV light, odors, dust, pets and vermin. It makes it pretty hard to enjoy the woolly splendor….

Why not make a rotating exhibition of your favorite yarns on your favorite spot in the house? Regular “tossing” of the wool stash also has its advantages. It discourages moths and makes it possible to nip an infestation in the bud. Also, doing this we can enjoy all the yarn, even if we are busy with things other than crochet and knitting.

Therefore, I want to show you in this post how you can make an etagere yourself for superb display of your favorite skeins of yarn.

Materials

3 plates / dishes in varying sizes
2 cups, glasses or ice cream sundaes
A sealant gun with Polymax (DIY store)
Ruler
Bowl with soapsuds
Some paper towels

In this tutorial I use plates and cups I bought at the Hema. However, if you want an etagere with a more vintage or romantic appearance, a thrift store can be a good place to look. Often there is a great variation to get some lovely plates with flowers, gold edges and fine glassware for friendly prices.

I like to use Polymax glue instead of the glue from a regular glue gun. Polymax has the great advantage that you can get the glue loose again if it does not go right the first time. Also, with this kit the glue joints can be smoothed after applying similar to silicone sealant. This makes the result very nice with less effort!

Step by step

1. Start by properly washing your plates and cups. You want to have them really clean and free of dust and greasy spots.

2. Grab the biggest plate and measure accurately where the exact midpoint is. Mark this on the plate with pencil, the markings can be brushed off later easily.

3. Grab a cup and apply your glue on the top edge.

4. Turn the cup and put it upside down on the big plate. Make sure you put it right in the middle. If necessary, use the ruler to measure whether it is indeed in the middle. At this stage you can still push the cup around a little to position it correctly if necessary.

5. Press the cup lightly.

6. Make your wet finger with a little of the soapy water and smooth down the connection between the cup and the plate while continuing to press the cup to the plate. Use paper towels to wipe your fingers.

7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for the plate in the middle size. Allow the glue to harden at least 2 hours. After 4 hours the Polymax has fully cured, but you can proceed before that time if you’re careful!

8. Now we go on to finish our etagere: Take the smallest plate, turn it over, and measure at the bottom exactly where the middle is.

9. Take the medium-sized plate with attached cup and apply glue to the bottom of the cup.

10. Turn over and position the cup in the center of the smallest plate. Gently press down and smooth the adhesive seam as previously if the shape of your cup permits. In my case that is not possible, but it doesn’t matter much because it will be hard to see anyway.

11. Repeat steps 8 to 10 to join the largest size plate-with-cup on top of the medium sized plate.

12. Let the glue harden now for at least 4 hours. After this you can turn it around: your etagere is ready!

Tip

It is not a disaster if there gets some glue somewhere else on your plate or cup. Polymax dries up as a kind of transparent rubber. Because of this it is possible to simply scratch it off with your nails once dried, if it is in places you do not want it to be.

And here is mine, filled with some colored beauties that would otherwise have been put away in some drawer…

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tutorial: crochet the bullion stitch

Bullion stitch tutorial by La Visch Designs

One of the many special crochet stitches is called the “bullion stitch”. This is a very decorative stitch, which can also be used to crochet flowers, jewelry or beautiful edges to projects.

In this post, I’ will show you how to crochet the bullion stitch. Please note that American crochet terminology is used.

The bullion stitch step by step

For this tutorial, I started with a small swatch in half double crochet (hdc).

1. Wrap the yarn loosely around your hook. How much time depends on how high you want the bullion stitch to be. Here I am making the bullion stitches in a hdc fabric, therefor I am wrapping the yarn seven times around my hook. When making bullion stitches in a double crochet fabric, wrapping 10 times may be better. It really depends on your individual gauge, though.

2. Insert the hook into the next stitch and pull up a loop.

3. Make a yarn over …

4. … and pull the yarn through all the loops on the hook. You will notice that this can be rather difficult when you have wrapped the yarn too tightly around the hook in step 1. This completes your first bullion stitch.

And this is how it looks when you’ve made multiple bullion stitches in between normal (in this case) half double crochet stitches.

Tips

As you may have noticed, it can be tricky to wrap the yarn loose enough around the hook in step 1. It can help to hold a thin knitting needle, crochet hook or yarn needle next to your hook while wrapping the yarn. Wrapping your yarn around both automatically means a looser wrap!

Also, use the right type of crochet hook! As you can see in the picture below, the tip of the green hook sticks out relative to the shaft of the hook. This makes it more difficult to pull a loop of yarn through multiple loops on the hook. With an in-line shaped hook like the bamboo one pictured below, both tip and shaft have the same thickness. This makes this type of crochet hook much better suited for making bullion stitches.

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tutorial: Estonian lace knitting – gathers

In a previous post I told you about nupps, that special textured stitch that originated in Estonia. Another distinguishing Estonian feature in lace knitting, is called a “gather”. These gathers are clearly visible in the photo pictured below.

This photo is from a very interesting website: New lace – Old traditions. On this website the authors focus on modern lace knitting in the Estonian tradition, building on and inspired by the famous Haapsalu shawls. Definitely a must-read for lovers of lace knitting, also due to the many free stitch patterns that can be found there.

What exactly are “gathers”?

Gathers are made by knitting a certain number of stitches together (“gathering” them), after which they are increased. The resulting number of stitches may be the same as the original number, for example, “2-in-2”, “3-in-3”, “5-in-5”, “7-in-7”, etc. It is however also possible to increase to a different number of stitches, the end up with more (or less) stitches. For example “5-in-7” or “3-in-5”. The result consists of small lacy textured buttons in the knitted fabric.

In this post I want to show you how to knit gathers.

Knitting gathers

In this example, I will be making “3 in 3” gathers on a surface of stockinette stitch. I’m using a relatively thick yarn, because it is easier to photograph than lace yarn.

A 3-in-3 gather is made by knitting 3 stitches together, then slipping the newly knitted stitch back to the left hand needle and knitting [ktbl 1, k1, ktbl 1] in the same stitch.

Gathers step by step
1. Knit 3 stitches together.

2. Slip the last knitted stitch back to the left hand needle.

3. Knit 1 stitch through the back loop, but do not slip the original stitch off the needle.

4. Knit one stitch (insert the needle as usual in the front loop), but again do not slip the original stitch off the needle.

5. Knit 1 stitch through the back loop and slip the original stitch off the needle to complete the stitch.

6. This looks something like this:

7. For this example, I knitted three 3-in-3 gathers in the same row:

8. And this is how it looks after I knitted 2 more rows in stockinette as well as another round with three 3-in-3 gathers:

Of course the gathers look very different on a stockinette base and with this thick wool than in lace weight yarn.

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tutorial: Russian bind-off on the purl side

In a previous post I have shown you my favorite method of binding off: The Russian bind-off method. This is a very elegant way to bind-off your knitting project to get a very elastic edge on your piece. This is often important to me, because I knit a lot of lace shawls. Knitted lace usually shows its beauty best when it has been gently washed and blocked out. This is only possible if the edge has plenty of stretch.

But what if you need to cast off from the wrong side of the work? Think of a situation that you don’t have enough yarn to knit another row before binding off. In such a case, it is nice to know that you can also bind-off the Russian way on the wrong or purl side of your work!

In short instructions for a Russian bind-off on the purl side may look like this:
Russian bind-off on the WS: *P2tog, slip stitch from right-hand back to the left-hand needle; repeat from * to end.

The Russian bind-off on the purl side step-by-step

For this tutorial I have prepared a little swatch to bind off:

1. Purl the first 2 stitches together.

2. Slip the new stitch on right hand needle back to the left hand needle.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all stitches have been worked. On the wrong side of the work this will look as follows:

And on the right side of the work the Russian bind-off on the purl side will look like this:

Looking good, right?!

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tutorial: Estonian lace knitting – nupps

Maybe you are already familiar with them: Those funny little buttons that give beautiful lace shawls texture. Take for example the beautiful Luule shawl pictured below. A nupp (rhymes with “soup”) is a characteristic of lace as traditionally knit in Estonia.

The special thing of Estonian lace knitting is that besides the openwork it also contains a lot of texture. As a result, in lace knitting in the Estonian tradition there are many stitches that you will probably encounter (almost) nowhere else.

History of lace knitting in Estonia

The tradition of knitting lace shawls in Estonia, began about 200 years ago in the city Haapsalu. From the early 18th century until about 1918 Haapsalu was a popular destination for Russian tourists. To benefit from this tourism the women of Haapsula started selling their knitted lace shawls.

The story goes that these shawls were sold by weight. And because nupps consume a lot of yarn, a pattern with many nupps increase the weight of the resulting shawl considerably. This is the reason that the characteristic Estonian lace patterns have been devised in such a way that they combine the so popular delicate appearance as well as many nupps.

In this post I want to show you how to knit nupps.

Knitting nupps step by step

Knitting nupps is actually a 2-step process: first stitches are increased and in the following wrong side row all these stitches are decreased back to 1 stitch by purling them all together.

1 . To start knit 1 stitch, leaving the original stitch on the left hand needle. Make sure to knit loosely.

2. Make a yarn over on the right hand needle.

3. Again knit 1 stitch loosely, leaving the original stitch on the left hand needle.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 once more (for a five-stitch nupp), and then slip the original stitch of the left hand needle. You know have 5 stitches where there originally only was 1. The result will look something like this:

5. For this example, I set up several nupps in the same row:

6. On the following wrong side row the nupps will be completed. The clusters of five stitches look like this from the wrong side of the fabric:

7. Insert your needle in all five stitches at the same time to purl them together. This works best if you have made the new stitches for the nupps loosely and when using sharp knitting needles.

8. Once purled together it looks like this:

And this is how it looks on the right side of the work:

When knit in a thin yarn nupps will of course look very different from the ones in the worsted weight yarn I used for this tutorial. Depending on the effect you want to achieve you can make 5-stitch, 7-stitch or even 9-stitch nupps. Just repeat steps 2 and 3 as desired.

And don’t forget:

Knit loosely.
Use sharp needles.
Use a crochet hook to purl the nupps stitches together if you have to.
Don’t sweat it if they don’t turn out the way you want at first: it is only yarn!

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