tutorial Archives - Page 6 of 15

tutorial – working a p3tog

Working a p3tog decrease - a tutorial by La Visch Designs

In a previous post, I already showed you how to work the right-leaning double decrease, in which 3 stitches are reduced to one: the one abbreviated with “k3tog”. This stands for “knit 3 stitches together”. It’s a very easy and very common way to reduce the number of stitches in your project and make it narrower. It’s also often used in lace knitting.

But what when your lace also requires decreases to be worked on the wrong side of the fabric? This is where the purled decrease p3tog comes in! This decrease is worked on the wrong side and looks just like a k3tog when the result is viewed on the right side of the fabric. It’s a pretty straight-forward decrease to work; purl 3 stitches together, to decrease the total number of stitches with 2. It is just like making a regular purl stitch, but you work through three stitches instead of one.

Below you can find how to work this decrease step by step, so get your materials and follow along!

Materials

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 155 Vintage pink.

Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.

Working a p3tog step by step

Work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the decrease.
In this case, I want to work the decrease over the 3 stitches in the middle of the swatch.
Insert the needle
Now insert the needle purl wise through the first 3 stitches on the left-hand needle
Now wrap the working yarn around the right-hand needle….
… and pull the yarn through the 3 stitches…
To complete the decrease, slip the 3 stitches worked off the needle.
The result
When viewed from the right side of the fabric, this decrease looks exactly like the right-leaning k3tog decrease!

Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.

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tutorial – working a tubular CO in the round for 1×1 rib

The tubular cast on creates a rounded edge of your knitting project, as well as being very stretchy. This makes it a very good cast on for edges that are prone to wear and tear. And, of course, where the stretch is useful. Think, for example, of top-down socks, and the start of a bottom-up hat. In this example I’m casting on for a top-down sweater.

Of course, there are many ways to work a tubular cast on. This particular version is for working in the round in k1, p1 rib patterning.

Materials used

Yarn: Shetland Lambswool from De Schapekop, a yarn very similar to Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight, and no. 5 crochet thread or other smooth waste yarn.

Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 2.5 mm (US 1 1/2) and the 3.5 mm (US 4) size. Both with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Other materials: a crochet hook, and a stitch marker.

Working a tubular CO in the round for 1×1 rib step by step

First, using the larger size needles, the smooth waste yarn and the provisional cast on of your choice, cast on half as many stitches as you need according to your pattern.
In other words: if you need 80 stitches, cast on 40. I used the crochet provisional cast on for this step.
Now, using the smaller size needle and the working yarn, work (k1, yo) across all provisionally cast on stitches.
After this row is finished, as shown below, it’s time to join into the round.
The last worked stitch is a yarn over, so make sure it stays intact when joining into the round.
Here I’ve rearranged my stitches to continue knitting in the round, magic loop style.
Before joining, I made sure that my stitches weren’t twisted, and I’ve added the stitch marker to indicate the beginning (and end) of a round. Also, do you see that the yarn over is still there, behind the stitch marker?
In this step, work (knit 1, slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in front) to the end of the round.
In other words: knit every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and slip every yarn over. Below, is how it looks after this round is completed.
Next, work (slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in the back, purl 1) to the end of the round.
In other words: slip every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and purl every stitch that was slipped. This is how it then looks:
In this step, work (knit 1, slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in front) to the end of the round.
In other words: knit every stitch that was slipped in the previous round, and slip every stitch that was purled.
Now we repeat step 6: work (slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in the back, purl 1) to the end of the round.
In other words: slip every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and purl every stitch that was slipped.
In this step, it’s time to unravel the provisional cast on
Starting at the end that you indicated when doing the provisional cast on, undo the knot and gently pull the cast on loose.
This is the cast-on result, ready for further knitting (k1, p1) rib in the round (using magic loop) as described in your pattern!

A comparison

I thought it would be useful to compare the tubular cast on with a regular knitted on cast on one. So, I continued the piece above with another few rounds in (k1, p1) rib until it measured 1.5 cm / 0.6″.

Now take a look at the following picture. The lower neckband has a regular knitted-on cast on, followed by 1×1 rib for 1.5 cm / 0.6″. The one at the top has the tubular cast on in the round with 1×1 rib. Both pieces are worked in the same yarn, and with the same needle size.

I think the neckband with the tubular cast on looks much better, with its rounded edge. It is also much less likely to give issues with wear & tear, because there are no single strands of yarn right at that edge. What do you think?

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tutorial – cabling without a cable needle

Most of my projects are about knitting lace, not cables. The reason? I find that with cabling, my flow is very much interrupted. First by getting the cable needle. Next, by manipulating all three needles I have in my hands at that moment while working the stitches. Followed by laying the cable needle aside again. All of this to repeated multiple times in a row, depending on the patterning, of course.

For complex cables, I see no way around using a cable needle. For the simple twists only involving 2 stitches, it’s another matter, though! Cabling itself is nothing more than working in another order than the one they originally appeared on the knitting needle. So, if we’re talking about simple twists only involving 2 stitches, we can easily change the order around without using a cable needle. And, of course, without having a big risk of dropping a stitch.

In this tutorial I show you how to go about it!

Materials used

Yarn: Wayfaring Yarns Arcadia DK, a 100% extra fine, non-superwash merino in the color Portobello Road.

Needles: Addi Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4.5 mm (US 7) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Cabling without a cable needle step by step

In this example, I’m working on my Mossy Cables shawl that involves various types of cables. The ones that can easily be done without a cable needle, are the following ones:
1/1 LPC – a left cross cable over 2 stitches: Slip next stitch to cable needle and place at front of work, p1, then k1 from cable needle.
1/1 RPC – right cross cable over 2 stitches: Slip next stitch to cable needle and place at back of work, k1, then p1 from cable needle.

To start, we knit to the point where a cable has to be worked.
See those 2 stitches on the left-hand needle? I want to reverse the order of that purl and knit stitch, to make it seem that the column of knit stitches curves outwards from the center cable. To do so, I want the knit stitch to cross in front and to the right of the purl stitch. In other words: I’ll be working a 1/1 RPC or right cross cable.
To start, I grab the work directly below the 2 stitches, as shown in the picture below.
This way, I can remove them from the knitting needle without having the risk of them running down and ruining my work.
Here I’ve removed the 2 stitches from the needle.
Keep squeezing that fabric, we don’t want to drop one of these stitches!
To change the order of the stitches, I first place the stitch on the right (the purl stitch in this case) back on the needle.
While doing so, keep your fingers underneath the other stitch to keep it from running down. Please note that if I was working a left cross cable instead of a right cross cable, I would have held the remaining loose stitch at the back, instead of at the front of the work as pictured.
Now use the working (right-hand) needle to catch the remaining loose stitch from the front and also put it on the left-hand needle.
For a left cross cable, I would have caught the remaining stitch from the back of the work.
Now the order of the stitches has been changed, ready to work!
This is how it then looks in the case of the right cross cable:
For this right cross cable, I have to work 1 k, followed by 1 p.
This is how it looks when done:

And that’s all there is to cabling without a cable needle!

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tutorial – working slip stitch (as edge treatment)

Tutorial on workign slip stitch as an edge treatment

In my previous tutorial, I showed you how I went about fixing my mr Greenjeans cardigan to make it more wearable. As part of the fix, I also worked slip stitching along all outer edges of the cardigan, to tie the new contrasting yarn together better with the original elements of the garment. For this reason, I worked the slip stitch with the right side facing. Doing something similar with the same yarn as used in the rest of the project, could be done to make the edges look a tad neater.

Another application for slip stitching as edge treatment would be to work it on the inside (wrong side facing) of the garment. In particular, along the edge of the back neck, and possibly also the shoulder seam. Doing this with a non-stretchy yarn can help prevent stretching and sagging of these edges, if the garment is prone to that.

So, let’s get started!

Working slip stitch step by step

Insert a crochet hook into the stitch at the edge of the fabric.
On both cast-on and bind-off edge, each stitch looks like a little “V”. Insert the hook underneath both strands of the V.
Wrap the yarn around your hook…
… and pull it through.
You now have 2 loops on your hook.
To finish, pull the loop that is nearest to the tip of your hook through the other loop.
Repeat steps 1-4 until you run out of edge to work!
Note that you may want to work 3 slip stitches in the stitch that sits right at the corner of the fabric, to “turn” that corner.

This is the result when viewed from the right side of the fabric:

Neat, isn’t it? Below, you can see the very same piece of fabric, viewed from the wrong side. The horizontal line of stitches in the contrasting pink is almost invisible.

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tutorial – fixing my mr Greenjeans

This project has quite the backstory, so I’ll get started to get you up to speed. Back in 2011 I bought 2 batts of Texeler wool, each a whopping 200 g. One was cyclamen pink, the other more pink & purple. I spun each of these into singles, and twined them into an (on average) 2-ply DK-weight yarn. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the resulting yarn to show you.

Anyway, I decided to use this yarn to make myself a Mr Greenjeans cardigan, which is a pattern by Amy Swenson, available for free on Knitty. When I started the project, it was just after my youngest was born, and I was still breastfeeding. I expected to lose some weight because of that, so I aimed at a size to end up eventually with a garment with approx. 0 cm / 0″ of ease. Things going as they go, I didn’t finish the project until sometime in 2013. By then I had lost so much baby weight that my mr Greenjeanshad a whopping 14 cm / 5.6” of positive ease! Nevertheless, I put it in my closet and wore it from time to time.

Below you can see how I wore it at the time. I didn’t even make the effort to sew a button on, I just closed it with a shawl pin.

Fast-forward to July 2021: Looking back, I really haven’t worn this garment that much. You see, it turned out to be very warm. So warm, in fact, that I only wore it on the coldest days of the year. That combined with the 3/4th length sleeves made it rather unpractical to wear for me. But, I realized that the pink yarn I bought in Greece a couple of years ago, is a lovely match with this cardigan!

So, long story short, I hatched the plan to fix my mr Greenjeans by undoing the bind-off, work in stockinette until the hand spun is finished and then redo the cuffs with the pink yarn. And I made pictures of what I did!

Fixing my mr Greenjeans step by step

Undoing the bind-off and unraveling the cabled cuffs.
The original yarn tail was, of course, woven in. However, with some smart and careful snipping, I managed to unravel the bind-off and then rip back the knitting to the point where the stockinette stopped.
Re-knitting the hand spun yarn.
I put the stitches on a tiny circular needle, and continued the stockinette section of the sleeve until I couldn’t work another round. And yes, I kept track of the number of rounds to be able to duplicate it for the other sleeve.
No more round possible!
I made a total of 18 extra rounds of stockinette in the hand spun yarn.
The next step consisted of re-knitting the cabled cuff in the somewhat matching pink yarn.
Here I made 29 rounds to arrive at a cozy long sleeve length.
Repeat steps 1 to 4 for the other sleeve!

And this is the result of foxing my mr Greenjeans!

As you can see, I found a button in the very same pink as the contrast yarn, and actually sewed it on. To tie everything together, I also did some slip stitching along all outer edges of the cardigan. In my next tutorial, I’ll show you how to work slip stitches as an edge treatment!

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tutorial – preparing alpaca for spinning

Recently I learned that the mother of an acquaintance of my mom has a small flock of alpacas, and piles of unused freshly shorn fiber. So when, the question came if I would be interested in taking some of her hands, I was delighted! I’ve never worked with raw alpaca before. I got a big bag of white and another one in brown, the pictures below really don’t do it justice.

And, of course, I had to prepare this raw alpaca to be able to spin it into yarn! In this post, I’ll show you how I went about it. Please bear in mind that I’m new to processing alpaca, so this very first batch really was a matter of trial and error for me.

Differences between alpaca and wool

Before going into detail about how I prepped this fiber for spinning, it’s good to talk about the differences between wool from sheep and the fiber from alpaca’s. Off course, there are many differences in fiber even within both sheep and alpaca’s, due to breed, age, nutrition etc. A very basic difference, however, is that alpaca fibers are hollow, where sheep fibers are not. Because of this, alpaca fiber repels water and retains heat, making it warmer than wool. Also, in general, alpaca will have better drape and less elasticity than sheep wool.

From a fiber prep perspective, the main difference is that sheep wool contains lanolin and alpaca fiber does not. However, alpaca’s just love their dust baths, so a wash before spinning is absolutely advised to prevent locking in dirt.

Ok, let’s get started on this fiber!

Alpaca fiber prep step by step

Since I’m very new to preparing raw alpaca for spinning, I’ve started with only a small amount of fiber. My aim is to prep enough to spin a shawl-amount of yarn.

Picking through the yarn to remove the short bits.
This fiber was not shorn with the hand spinner in mind and contains quite a lot of vegetable matter and shortcuts that will have to be filtered out. In the picture below, you see on the right the pile of shortcuts that I’ve already removed from this handful of alpaca.
After, picking each handful of fiber, I put it into this laundry bag.
This particular one has compartments, which is a good thing, since it reduces the amount of movement possible in the bag, and thus possible felting/
One bag completely filled!
There fits much more fiber into the bag than one might think. The pile in front of it are all the short bits I filtered out.
Next step is washing the fiber.
Here I used some wool wash and warm water. Not to remove lanolin from the fiber, since alpaca doesn’t have any, but to get some of the dust and dirt out. Take care not to agitate or squeeze the fiber, because it doesn’t take much to felt it.
Do you see how filthy the water turns?
The fiber itself didn’t look as dirty, but looks can be deceiving!
The grit remaining in the sink after washing.
I really didn’t expect this much dirt to come out.
After washing, I rinsed the fiber in a new bath with hot water.
Again, take care not to agitate the fiber to prevent felting.
Next, I’m removing as much water out of the fiber as possible, without squeezing!
Because this is a tiny amount of fiber, I used my dedicated fiber salad spinner. For bigger quantities, a centrifuge would be best. Please note that the centrifuge in your washing machine is only advised if you can use it without any rinsing water, because that would cause the fiber to felt.
The next step is to dry the alpaca.
I filled up my laundry bag twice and agitated the second batch even less than the first one. You can see the difference in this picture: on the left is the first batch, and on the right the second one. This stuff really felts as soon as you look at it wrong! I use a flat perforated crate for drying fiber, to promote air circulation. (Also, Donut is of the opinion that wet alpaca smells funny.)
After drying, which took a couple of days, this is what I ended up with.
It looks a tad felted, despite handling it as lightly as possible.
Fortunately, the fiber fluffed up quite nicely!
On the right, you see some more shortcuts that I found and separated out.
Below, you can see the result of all the washed alpaca fluffed up.
Doesn’t it look wonderful?
Next is carding all the fluffed up fiber into batts for spinning.
I ended up with 5 batts total. For those who’re interested: my carding machine is an Ashford drum carder, with a 72 point carding cloth.
During carding, I again removed any shortcuts that I found.
The dirt pictured, is what I found underneath my carder after I was finished.

And that’s everything I did to prep the raw alpaca for spinning!

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tutorial – working the Turkish cast-on

The Turkish cast-on is a way to invisibly cast-on for projects to be worked in the round. Think, for example, of toe-up socks. This cast-on can be used for a wide range of projects and not just for socks. It can be used for anything that requires knitting in the round and a neat, seamless start. In other words, for anything you’d use Judy’s Magic Cast-On for, this cast-on is a good alternative. And, to be honest, I find this one to be much easier and less fiddly to work!

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working the Turkish cast-on step by step

In this example, I’m casting on 20 stitches, as one would do for toe-up socks.

To start, we make a slipknot, and place it on the needle.
Next, arrange both needle tips as shown in the picture below.
Place both needle tips parallel to each other, with the slipknot-holding needle below the other one, and the working yarn behind and above the top needle.
Now wrap the working yarn around both needles. Make as many wraps as half the total stitches you want to cast-on.
In this example, I want 20 stitches total, so I wrap the yarn 10 times around the needles.
Next, pull out the bottom needle (the one with the slipknot).
It helps to keep the wrapped yarn in place by holding it close to the needle with your left hand.
Now use the pulled-out needle tip as your working (right-hand) needle to knit into the first stitch on the main (left-hand) needle.
To do so, first insert the needle knit-wise into the stitch…
…, and wrap the yarn around the needle.
To finish the knit stitch, pull the yarn through en let the loop fall off the left-hand needle.
This is how it then looks:
Repeat steps 5-7 until there are no more loops on the needle.
This is how it looks:
To work the other 10 stitches that are on the cable, we have to rearrange the circular needle.
First, orient the work in such in a way that the row of stitches with the slipknot is on top, as shown below. Now push the needle in, so they no longer rest on the cable, but on the needle tip instead. For the other row of stitches, pull the needle tip out, so the stitches rest on the cable.
In this step, I’ve slipped the slipknot off the needle, because I don’t need it as a stitch.
Just gently pull the yarn tail to pull the slipknot loose. Next, knit all the stitches on the needle as described in steps 5 to 7.
This is the cast-on result, ready for further knitting in the round (using magic loop) as described in your pattern!

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second sock (or sleeve) syndrome

For anyone who has ever made socks, a sweater or cardigan, this will probably sound very familiar: You’ve finished your first sock or sleeve, and it’s just great. The fit is good, the length is exactly how you like it. And then you realize you HAVE to make another one. And you really want to cast-on something new, instead of doing that thing again. That, my friends, is second sock (or sleeve) syndrome.

I’m not really into sock knitting, although I’ve made a couple of pairs in the past. But I am into a me-made wardrobe, and have been knitting quite some sweaters, tees and cardigans for myself over the years. So yes, feeling bored and stranded on sleeve-island really is a thing, and carries the risk of having a growing pile of one-sleeved sweaters (or single socks) instead of things you can actually wear. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with second sock (or sleeve) syndrome. In this post, I’ll tell you all about it!

1. Working two-at-a-time (TAAT)

This is the method I usually go for, using circular needles with a cable length of either 80 cm / 32 inches or 100 cm / 40 inches. The basic premise with this approach is to work the sleeve or sock magic loop style, but instead of putting the stitches of only 1 tube on the circular needle, you put the stitches of both tubes (or even more!) on the needle. This forces you to work one round of each tube, before you can proceed with the next round. This also has the advantage that even if there are differences in tension from round tot round, they will at least be the same for both socks or sleeves.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to the TAAT technique. For one, progress seems to go very slow when compared with working on only one sock or sleeve. Also, you’re continually adjusting the cable and juggling the balls of yarn to prevent them from tangling. For me, this really breaks the knitting flow.

That said, getting both done and exactly the same is the main reason I often do choose this option.

2. Using two circulars or sets of DPN’s and knit simultaneously

With this option, you’re working each sleeve or sock on their own needle. For this, it really doesn’t matter what your preference is for small-circumference knitting, being it DPN’s, tiny circulars, or longer circulars for travelling loop or magic loop knitting. The main take is, that each sock or sleeve is worked on individually, but that you switch back and forth between them in regular intervals. You can, for example, first work ribbing on both tubes, then the same number of plain rounds plus 1 shaping round etc. etc.

With this method, it is important to keep track of where you are, and that you end both tubes at the same point. Or, of course, keep good track of any differences to correct when starting a new knitting session.

3. Embrace the differences!

This option is, depending on design, possibly better suited for socks then for sleeves. That said, it really is a good option. The main issue with second sock (or sleeve) syndrome is the boredom associated with knitting the exact same thing again. So, if you make sure there are differences, this may be enough to keep your attention on the project.

You can think, for example, of different stitch patterns or textures. For me, self-striping or gradient yarn never fails to want to work another round to see what happens next. Alternatively, you can really embrace the differences and go for mismatched socks on purpose. This is what I did with the socks pictured below for my youngest. I used up various odds and ends of fingering weight yarn for wildly unique socks. The pattern is No-Heel Spiral Socks by La Maison Rililie.

Let me know if there are more ways with dealing with second sock (or sleeve) syndrome. I’m happy to expand on the options already mentioned!

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tutorial – the standard knitted bind-off

This particular bind-off is the one most knitters learn first, and with good reason: it’s a very versatile bind-off that can be used in both knit and purl variations. This makes it my go-to bind-off when a pattern instructs me to bind-off “in pattern”. That said, in this tutorial, I will focus only on the knit variation, to work this in purl, just replace all knits by purls!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The standard knitted bind-off creates a lovely edge, that is perfect for seaming, picking up stitches or doing “pick up and knit” for further finishing. Think for example of knitting a button band for a cardigan. That said, while this bind-off has some elasticity, it can be hard to get the tension exactly right. It’s not advised to use for edges that need a lot of stretch, like the ribbing of toe-up socks. If you know you’re a tight knitter, it may be a good idea to go up a needle size when doing this bind-off. Likewise, if you’re a very loose knitter, you may want to drop down a size.

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 125 Spearmint Green.

Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.

The standard knitted bind-off step by step

In patterns, you may see the following instruction for this bind-off:
K1, *k1, insert tip of the left-hand needle into first stitch on the right-hand needle, pass this stitch over the second stitch; repeat from * to end.
Below, I’ll show you step by step how this looks like in knitting!

To start, take the piece of knitting you want to bind-off.
In this case, I’m using the swatch I made for the Double Lace Rib stitch pattern.
Knit the first stitch on the left-hand needle.
Next, knit the new stitch nearest to the tip of the left-hand needle.
Insert the tip of the left-hand needle into the second stitch on the right-hand needle….
…., and pass this second stitch over the first one.
You have now bound-off a stitch!
Repeat steps 3-5 until all stitches have been bound-off.
Midway, it will look something like this:

And here also a picture of the resulting edge. Pretty, isn’t it?!

The Standard Knitted Bind-Off - the result

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tutorial – working a k2tog tbl

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to work the k2tog tbl decrease. The abbreviation stands for “knit 2 stitches together through the back loop”. Basically, it’s the twisted version of the k2tog decrease. However, while the k2tog is a right-leaning decrease, k2tog tbl is a left-leaning decrease. It’s similar in appearance to the skp and ssk decreases.

Knitting the k2tog tbl decrease step by step

First, take your project and work to the spot indicated in your pattern, where the decrease is supposed to be made.
In this case, I’m working a stitch pattern in which I have to work a k2tog tbl directly after a YO, over the 2 stitches near the tip of the left-hand needle.
Next, insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the first 2 stitches at the same time as if to knit through the back loop of these stitches.
This can be a tad hard to get right, I find it helps to pull the fabric down a bit.
Wrap the yarn around the needle…
…, and pull it through the stitches you inserted the right-hand needle in.
To finish the decrease, slip the original stitches of the left-hand needle.

And this is how to work the k2tog tbl decrease!

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