Non-roll stocking stitch edge?

I think I have it, the non-roll stocking stitch edge. Well its not stocking stitch but it looks pretty much like stocking stitch, and it doesn't roll - it is twined knitting. This edge is the start of a new project, so today - I'm talking most about twined knitting, I've got a new video showing how to knit the middle section of this non-roll hem, and a little intro about a new project in a new yarn.

First the non roll edge, this is a twined knitting hem on a swatch for a new project. I've had the book Twined Knitting : A Swedish Folkcraft Technique for a while now. Ever since I borrowed a copy from a friend I've been absolutely fascinated by the textured look of twined knitting, so much so I had to obtain my own copy. Nearly all the patterns in the book are for items entirely in twined knitting - which I wasn't ready to attempt. Recently I borrowed The Complete Book of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting from the local library. Sheila McGregor has a few little illustrations of cardigans and jackets where twined knitting was used for hems and for bands to decorate otherwise plain garments. I thought this would be a great little subtle feature for my next sweater so set about swatching.

Wow - not only is it is a nice little subtle hem, it doesn't roll up! In a way the non-roll-stocking stitch edge is elusive in knitting, almost a mythical quest for those adverse to ribbing. Oh we have the faced hem in all its forms, plain, purled turning row, and picot, and we have rib, and garter and moss stitched edges - but for me this twined hem is a new favourite and I can see many many sweaters and cardigans with this edge in my knit future. On the swatch edge above, I have used a three strand cast on, two complete row sets of a chain effect (crook stitches) and a center panel of twined knitting. Below I have posted a video showing how I knit the twined knitting section. You can see the twisted yarns on the 'wrong' side of the swatch. Can't you just see this hem on all those items which can't be 'fussy', boys and mens things?

So Twined knitting, what is it? Simply - it has been described as colour work without the colours, each stitch is knitted alternately from ends yarn from the same ball. Importantly after each stitch the yarns are twisted around each other, producing a thick, firm, slightly elastic fabric. Most importantly for me - the result is stable enough not to curl, and simple enough to be used on plainer sweaters. In this video - I knit with the yarns in my right hand, because to knit twined knitting you need to be able to twist the yarns over and over each other. I have not worked out a way to do that with knitting continental (yet). I do have a video of the chain effect to post soon, and plan on of the 3 yarn cast on. The only catch is that with all the twisting - the two yarns do get seriously twisted around each other - but there is a neat solution. Secure the yarns around the ball with a half hitch and let the ball dangle and untwist - as easy as that.


And the new project? Well I want to knit the baby alpaca I have in stash into something for me - but still don't quite know what to knit with it, so ... I've cast on a simple sweater for Toby. The yarn is Touch Yarns Merino Possum and is heavenly soft. This could be the softest yarn I have ever felt. I've done the swatch, washed and measured the swatch, done the math, and cast on the hem. I've completed the hem and am now working on the body section - but more about that next time. Today I visited a spinner - who gave me a few pointers, and some home work hone my technique. She was rightly concerned that I was developing an ability to spin only fine dense yarns. I'm so glad to have a little guidance, so over the next few weeks I will finish up the merino and work on my spinning practice as instructed.

Yesterday my faithful Minolta Dimage Z1 fell from the coffee table onto the carpet floor and broke. The photos and video in this post were thankfully made before that - but with the blog, I feel some urgency to replace the camera soon. We have good insurance, but it all takes time to sort. A long winded way of saying - please bear with me while I find and learn how best to use a new camera.

Take care
Stella

"Before, during, and after" or "you'd never know"

First - thanks for the comments, I guess I was calm about this, the sweater wasn't going to be worn as short as it was so something had to happen. I went for the cut and extend fix rather than the add on the bottom fix. What didn't show up in the photos was the tapered shape of the body of the sweater, adding a band to the bottom would have made it longer in the wrong place. This sweater needed length around the chest where it was wider.

I did have a clear back up plan if the adding an extension section at chest level didn't work. That plan was to pick up and knit a few rows of garter stitch as a kind of separation band, and then knit a stocking stitch body down, replacing the lower body section entirely.

The fix for Bears sweater was surprisingly quick, I had estimated it would take 3 days or so, but in less than 24 hours it was cut apart, extended and put back together.
Here is how it went: first I snipped and unraveled a single row of stitches just below the front placket opening. Because the yarn was sticky - I didn't thread them on a needle, or safety line as they were freed, I just left them hanging around.


I continued all around the jersey until the top and bottom were separate entities. Notice that with a little ribbing, the top would make a cute short empire waisted shrug - design idea for latter perhaps? I put the live stitches from the body back on 5mm needles and knitted an extra 10 cm on to the body. I put the live stitches on the yoke onto a 2mm circular needle - just to hold them. I know the sweater looks long here, but Bear is one of those humans with short legs and a long torso. He buys extra tall shirts and I shorten his jeans - it all evens out.



Next day, working at the dining room table, I grafted the two sets of live stitches together. I made sure the underarm increases lined up before I started. I put both sets of stitches on 2mm circular needles to make it easy to thread a needle through them while they were on the needle. Grafting the whole sweater took more than an hour, but less than two hours. I attempted to work the kitchener in pattern, two knit and one purl - but I just kept confusing myself. So to keep thing simple and achievable, the KISS principle, I grafted all stitches as if they were knit stitches. The only tricky bit was making sure the knitted ribs lined up correctly, by the end I had one extra stitch - as you always do, but I fudged it in just fine.


After the join was grafted, it wasn't invisible, I warned Bear it might look like a fold line after it was blocked. This was always intended to be "a weekend, evening, at home warm outdoor sort of work jersey", so I think we were both prepared to live with that for now. You can see the 'rough' knit section of added length quite clearly - it was quite interesting to feel the different textures of the washed and unwashed yarns. Washed was much softer, floppier, unwashed had a more pronounced rib effect and felt harsher.



Here is the finished lengthened sweater after a quick block wash, and air dry in the back yard. Wet blocked at 2pm, dry at 5pm, gotta love warm summer days for blocking knitwear.

Look - you would never know! I promise more formal Finished object photos and details when the clasps arrive.

Stella - off to plan a new project :-)

finished - officially but ...... and then there is the nice surprise

Today - I've got good news which resulted in a bit of a disappointment, then a nice surprise. So lets start with the surprise. In December I signed up for the post Christmas gift exchange on Knitters Review. My exchange partner was the lovely Rena, aka Highdesertrose, who sent me this amazing stash enhancement with two sorts of sock yarn, and accessories. Tea, biscuits, Libris stickers, and needle huggers in the shape of cute little sweaters.

Rena also sent me new sock needles by Lanternmoon, which are just exquisite. It was so nice to get the package today, a prefect day for it as by mid afternoon I needed a bit of a lift. I only hope that the package I sent was as delightful for Rena as this was for me.

.... and yes the project monotony ... ops monogamy (little Freudian slip there) worked and the garter ribbed sweater is finished - sort of. I had a day or two of mild panic when I asked Bear to try it on after knit night on Thursday and it was tight, firm and far to small. I checked the maths and it was all correct, but the sweater was small and tight. Remembering that the swatch bloomed magnificently when washed, I pinned my hopes on that same bloom to solve the fit problem with this sweater.


Fast forward to today, I finished up the saddle neck shaping, and cast off. Even though I was planning to pick up and knit a collar, I cast off the neck edge to give stability and stop it stretching later when in use.

I'm always impressed by the simple yet effective shaping EZ came up with for this sweater, I do like the way the back neck is raised by reversing the saddle decrease lines. Here is a peek before the collar was added.



Today was wash and block day, and yes - Bears sweater grew sideways as it relaxed by a full 10 cm(4")! The sweater now fits sideways - what a relief - but it is much to short. No - it didn't forsake length for width - it is the same length I knitted it to, but more about that later.

First lets just enjoy the saddle shaped shoulders which do fit well, and the steek, my first in 'sticky yarn', but my forth steek or thereabouts. All my previous steeks have been in merino or superwash. This sticky yarn made the steek even more secure, but just in case, I worked two rows of machine stitching before cutting.





After cutting the steek edge was very stable. That is one bonus of using sticky yarn.



I picked up 3 in 4 stitches around the steek, on needles one size smaller (so 4mm not 5mm), and one stitch for every cast off stitch around the neck, and garter knit four rows. Then I cast off along the steeked edges and continued the garter around to make a small collar. I cast off the top edge of the collar with a 3 stitch i-cord cast off. Finally I catch stitched/ herringbone stitched the cut steek edge down. This probably wasn't needed, as the steek seemed stable, but should tame any little fluffy cut ends that emerge after the next wash.




So after all that, I have a finished sweater that is 6-10 cm (3-4" to short). How did that happen you ask? Well I asked also. Turns out EZ sweater shaping has quite a high arm hole, with a short distance from shoulder to under arm. I based the measurements for this knit on a commercial sweater that Bear wears a lot, and measured from arm hole to hem. We have all read or heard that advice - measure a sweater that fits well and use those measurements to shape your hand knit sweaters so they will fit properly.

Bad move, bad bad move. The measured sweater has a much longer yoke, from arm hole to shoulder - a full 6cm (3") longer. Bother! It never occurred to me to check the overall length of the sweater, and without knowing how much shorter EZ yoke was I couldn't have allowed for this earlier. I hang my head in shame - I should know better. I do now.

I have a few history of fisherman's sweater books around the house, and did try to convince Bear that it was traditional to wear sweaters short - but Bear wasn't buying that argument in any way, shape or form. He was very polite about it, pointed out it wasn't pre 1900 Europe but 2008 NZ. He did retreat to the lounge with one of my library books for a closer look, but didn't change his mind, so the sweater needs to be longer to be worn by Bear. Besides -he has ordered pewter clasps for it and they will be here soon.

So I think it best to split the sweater just below the under arm and knit an extension bit and graft it back together. 3-4 days knitting max. My other solution is to cut, pick up and knit down a stocking stitch lower section that is longer - boring and probably more knitting. I can't knit down in the the garter rib, the sweater was knit bottom up and and the rib wouldn't match if I added a section knit top down, so it would have to be plain stst. All I can say is it must be love (of Bear or knitting or both?) to contemplate this kind of fix. My third solution is to gift this to a similar girthed but shorter Bear (don't know any - do you?), and knit a new one for my Bear - but I want to knit pretty things - so that option is a very last resort.

If any of you have any other suggestions - please do say, although I plan on cutting and picking up tonight - just to get it out of the way. Do return soon for the predictable horrific pictures of this newly knit sweater cut apart at its very middle.

Stella (the apparently ditsy blond knitter)

monogamous knitting

Oh how I would have liked to title this one something else, but no - right now I am just knitting one thing, the garter ribbed cardigan for Bear, so Project Monogamy is where I am at. Spinning doesn't count, right? We are just talking about the knitting here today, with a small spinning update, and a mini book review and update section

It should be boring, but because I am knitting only this progress seems quick. Not only that - but because it is quick, well, it changes, there I was knitting the second sleeve, then quick smart, I was slotting both sleeves into place with the body. One inch of knitting latter and the yoke decreases started leaning towards the body, a mere 10 rounds latter and the decreases switched and started eating up the sleeve stitches. It just keeps changing, and yet it stays the same, one row K2P1, next row K, repeat many many times. If I get really bored, I have the not merino lace socks to retreat to, and I could graft the underarms before I finish knitting.

I'm using EZ's saddle shoulder shaping, and I do like the way she calls the decreases 'eating' up the stitches, they really do get eaten. The shaping is detailed in the Knitting Workshop, in the 7 seamless sweater shapings chapter. I have used this shaping before, for my PB Cabled Zippie cardigan.

The Saddle shoulder provides a nice balance between KITR (Knit-In-The-Round) and the formality and flattering fit that comes from having arm hole seams. At the knit-to-fit workshop, raglans were described as giving the body a 'frown', something that stuck. It was suggested raglans suggested more shoulder slope than most people had, so tended to make people appear more slouched or round than they actually were. Further it was claimed raglan lines drew the eye down away from the face, much like frown lines draw the eye down the face, and smiles are said to draw the eye up to the eye. It was even suggested that the raglan line mimicked a frown or sad face and that it wasn't flattering. I know that Raglans can emphasize a large bust, right now I'm rambling - because Bear most definitely doesn't have a large bust or a small one, and this sweater is for him. But Bear is rounded, so the vertical lines of this sweater shaping are selected to flatter and correct for his roundness.


Here is a closer look at the shaping, This will probably be a jersey with a neck opening closed with pewter clasps rather than a cardigan. We are keeping out options open right now. I could also steek the front open and put in a zip.

Right now my only allowed fiber distraction is spinning more merino, white, 2 out of 3 bobbins filled, nearly ready to 3 ply. I got a few new books this past week, PGR Spinning in the old way, and N & J Fournier's In sheeps clothing : a hand spinners guide to wool. And Knitting School: A complete course, an English translation of an Italian technique book (Thanks Suzanne for telling me about this one). This one has rather special hand drawn illustrations in great detail of all the steps of the various techniques covered. Spinning the old way is about using the High Whorl Spindle, and I finally mastered how to use it by rolling it down my thigh - PGR claims using a high whorl spindle is as efficient for production spinning as a wheel. I'm not sure about that but she explains her nomadic life and non-material attitude as reasons for preferring the spindle to the wheel. In Sheeps clothing, is a little over my head for now, but in time, as I learn to relate breeds to fleece/fiber and yarn characteristics, it should prove useful.

So now I am just waiting for Knitting for Anarchists, Knit to fit, Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book, and The Art of Fair Isle Knitting: History, Technique, Color & Patterns, which I sucumed to only this morning. In a thread on Ravelry - it was said to have a good section on various ways to hold the yarn for colour work. Somthing I am interested in. I'm also waiting for the rest of my christmas presents, Kelly is bring me a knitpicks package and some more addi turbos back for me from the states. But she won't be here until next month.