Since the start of the month all the UK knit classes are up for sale at
http://www.britishyarn.org.uk/
I’m so looking forward to teaching at this camp, I’ll be teaching two full day classes and two half day classes and you can find them all here. To book them you need to go to here and can book them by day. So go check them out!
I’m happy to let everyone know that we have rescheduled our knitting classes from this weekend. They will now take place on the 5th of December at the same time as before. You can see the full details at classes above.
I think that everyone was very relieved that they didn’t have to go out in the weather last weekend. As it turned out it never ended up getting as bad as expected over t he weekend which I was very happy about.
See you all in two weeks!
Due to very bad weather conditions we are postponing our class that is due to take place this morning. We are working on rescheduling it for two weeks time and details will be posted as soon as it has been arranged. If the new day does not suit anyone who has booked let me know and we will issue a refund.
I’m sure this will come as no surprise to anyone who is living in Cork. For anyone outside the city, there was sever flooding (and now also contaminated water) and the rain has started with a vengance again this morning. More on the flooding.
I am still planning on writing that new post on customizing your shaping, but it’ll be a few days. I’m currently buried in projects and pattern writing. Not that I’m complaining.. I actually really enjoy the maths end of pattern writing, I guess even if I haven’t been working as an engineer for many years it’s still buried there somewhere.
I knit a top for my sister for Christmas that I just finished last night. It was in sock yarn at a looser gauge than standard (like with Ziggy Zag) and I was fairly curious how it was going to work out. I’m really happy with the way it looks on so hopefully it will get some use. It is this very vivid turquoise color with a large drapy neckline and gathered sleeves. Most of the pattern is written up so hopefully I’ll get it up for sale in the new year. No photos, don’t want to spoil the Christmas suprise!
I wanted to send a reminder to anyone close by (or within driving distance) that the classes I’m running with Sue in Wilton are happening fairly soon. We’ve still got some spaces, so if you are interested get booking!
When I started knitting I was very eager to knit myself a cardigan. I bought expensive wool, had a pattern I liked and I even knit a gauge swatch. I choose to knit the medium size, as I usually wear a small or medium from a shop.
I knit all the pieces, seamed it together and it was horrible. The sleeves were like tents and the shoulders caps hung inches off my shoulders. I was gutted. Does this sound familiar? Now looking back I know exactly what I did wrong but at the time I was baffled. Now to really illustrate my failed attempt I should really include a photo…but I’m not sure I’m that brave!!
There were a couple of main point where I went wrong. The first was gauge. Now I did knit a gauge swatch that was correct. However when knitting the complete piece my gauge went from 18 to 16 stitches over 4 inches! Now as a novice knitter your gauge is more likely to vary over a large piece and as you relax into your knitting. To take this into consideration for garment knitted in pieces I would suggest starting with a sleeve and rechecking your gauge as you go. Sleeves can be left a little larger if it is just a slight gauge difference or reknit if it looks like it will make a big difference. If you are knitting in once piece from the top down or the bottom up you will need to keep a close eye on your gauge and make adjustments if necessary as you go.
In addition to my gauge was the issue of fit. When you walk into a shop most people know roughly what size will fit. Often you need to compromise, maybe the shoulders are just right but it’s a little tight across the chest, but if you go up a size the chest is right but the shoulders are too wide and baggy. The beauty of hand knitting (that I think is often forgotten) is that it is customizable. It will fit YOU. However this does take a little knowledge on your side.
The pattern
When I (and any other designer) is designing a garment we have to create it to fit standard dimensions. Generally this entails using standardized tables (probably with some modification from personal experience) to create a range of sizes. If you are created with standard proportions that is great for you but what happens if you are large busted, have narrow shoulders, high waist, short arms? None of these are wrong or right, just different than the average. When you get a pattern and you want it to fit you I would first examine the schematic. Most, but maybe not all, dimensions will be on this. If some key dimensions are not there, calculate them (count rows to get waist height, add shoulders and neck together for total shoulders, etc.).
Measure yourself
Now this is the hard part – you need to know your own dimensions. You only need to do this once, draw them on a little stick figure of yourself and put it somewhere you can find them the next time you need them. If you have a friend that will do this with you that is great but if not you can also do it yourself. Get a snug fitting t-shirt that fits well, mark your widest bust point with a pin and measure around yourself at that point. Repeat this for your waist and hips. If the shoulder caps fall exactly where your shoulder curves then this measurement will give you your shoulders (if it is off, measure the difference and make the adjustment). Now you can take off the t-shirt and measure the distance from the shoulder to your fullest bust point, your waist and the widest point of your hips. Take the measurements from the armhole shoulder height as this is lower (you can see how the shoulder will slope towards the neck).
Now put all the measurements on your little drawing and put it somewhere safe.
What’s my size?
Now that you have all of the dimensions you need to know what to do with them! This part is dependent on what type of garment you are making, the yarn gauge and of course personal preference.
Ease is the basis of all your size decisions. For a close fitted garment you will have little to no ease (if your bust measures 36 you knit 36 inch size). A very fitted t-shirt style may even have negative ease (for a 36 inch bust size you may knit a 34 inch chest size). For a heavier outer wear jacket or heavy sweater you will have positive ease (for a 36 inch chest you would knit a 38-42 inch size).
The weight of your knitting yarn and they type of pattern comes into this decision as well. A thick yarn and a very elaborate cable will create a thick fabric, possibly with a little less stretch. This means that you have to add extra inches to the finished size to make sure it will fit.
Finally, personal preference. A good way to see what kind of fit you like is to look in your wardrobe. Find a top in your wardrobe with a similar weight yarn that you like how it fits. Measure the bust size and use this as a guide.
Now armed with this information you have the tools available to help you avoid the complete disaster that was my first sweater! If you relative proportions are non-standard your next step is to customize your garment.
In my next post I’ll give a basic outline on how to do adjustments to suit your shape.
When I first began knitting I remember having a very hard time of keeping track of patterns where several different things are happening at once.
Maybe you are working a pattern with an eight row repeat, when you reach the armholes you need to decrease at the armhole and after a certain length you must also began neckline shaping. How do you keep track of all of these things at once? This is especially relevant if you tend to have several projects on the go together, so your project might be put down for a week or two and you will need to know where you left off.
I find the best way for me to keep track is to make out a chart. If I’m being very organised I print a spreadsheet out (like below) but more often than not I just scribble a little chart on a sheet that I keep with the pattern.
This graph might give you an idea of what I mean. This would be for a pattern with an 8 row pattern repeat (so I have 8 rows listed). I always put in whether it starts on a RS or WS so I won’t forget.
Next I put in the different shaping with either different colors or symbols. In this example I use green for the armhole shaping; decrease 1 st each end every row twice and then on every RS row 4 times. You can see the green cells where you have your armhole decreases.
Next I also want to put in my neckline shaping. In this case the neckline shaping starts when 4 rows of armhole shaping have been worked. I’ve marked them with an X so they stand out and won’t be forgotten.
I always make out a quick chart like this before I begin shaping, that way I know how many increases or decreases I have worked and it is very easy to go and check that you stitch count is correct. It only takes a few minutes but it can save you days of reknitting!
It has been a very busy week and this is the first chance I’ve had to post since running the knitting workshop in Vibes and Scribes. I had so much fun teaching this class, all of the knitters were beginners or almost beginners and everyone caught on so fast! They all walked out of the shop with the basics and really happy.
If there are any of you out there that were at the class – well done you!
If there are any of you in Cork who know of someone who would love to get started knitting but doesn’t know where to begin maybe you’ll let them know about a free workshop I’ll be doing in a few weeks.
Have you always wanted to knit but don’t know where to get started?
Come join us on Sunday 27th September from 3-4 pm to learn the basics of knitting.
We’ll show you how to cast on, the basic knit stitch and how to bind off. With these three simple steps you can knit your first scarf!
You can practice what you learned from 4-6 pm where Carol and other knitters will be available to help you along. If you’ve got the knitting basics and have some other questions come join us for this informal session where refreshments will be served.
This workshop will be held by Carol Feller a knitwear designer based in Cork (www.stolenstitches.com) at Vibes and Scribes craft shop, Lavitts Quay, Cork.
I am organising a knitting workshop with Sue Cullen for Saturday the 21st of November. We will be teaching two classes, Finishing Touches – Edging with a difference and Knitting Socks from the Top Down. The classes will be taught in both the morning and the afternoon and if you want to take both classes there is a reduced price (€30 for one class and €50 for both).
We want to keep the classes fairly small so numbers will be limited, please get in contact early if you are interested.
For more details on the classes see http://www.stolenstitches.com/classes/
I’m really looking forward to teaching this class, I get to teach one of my favourite subjects – edging! The two edging techniques that I’ll be focusing on create very professional and clean finishes and with can be achieved without much difficulty by all knitters.
I’ve just had another pattern published in the latest issue of Yarn Forward, issue no. 15. I just love the color of this yarn (Rowan summer tweed) – ‘Mango’. I had a hard time giving this top up to the magazine! It is a little less fitted than a lot of styles I design and it was really easy to wear. There are slits at the sides of the hem with small twisted stitches in the ribbing at the waist. I can see this being a top that would get a lot of use in the summer evenings.
You can see a preview of this issue here. For anyone who can’t easily get a hardcopy of the magazine I believe that the will have the digital version up again in the near future. The last digital provider that they were using went under a few weeks ago.
I haven’t seen a copy of this magazine yet but I believe a photo tutorial of the crochet cast-on that I did for them was in this issue. It’s one of my favorite provisional cast-ons. It is easy to do and you can clearly see the stitches when you remove the crochet chain afterwards. (Plus as an added bonus all of your stitches are in the right direction!)
