Knitting 101 - Part 3: Binding Off

This series is designed to help you learn the basics of knitting technique in a way that will smoothly transition your skills to future projects. To best use this guide, don’t try to make anything meaningful at first. Spend at least an hour making a few oddly-shaped bits of knitting about 10-12 stitches wide and 10 rows high (I call them gerbil coasters) before you dive into a real project. The key to even-looking knitting is developing muscle memory in your hands, so practice each technique several times until you get the hang of it. Remember that this is supposed to be fun, so if you’re feeling frustrated, take a break and come back to it later.

When you feel comfortable with the techniques in the series, I’ve designed a pattern, The Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty, specifically for brand new knitters. The Kitty is designed to be made up of several small parts, so if you don’t like the way a piece is looking, there’s no harm in tossing it aside and starting again.

More of a print than screen reader? The complete series (including the Itty Bitty Kitty Pattern) is available as a PDF, printed booklet, and complete kit to get you started off with high quality materials.

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Binding-Off

Binding-off secures the end of your knitting so it won’t unravel. Just as there are many cast-ons, there are many bind-offs, some more stretchy than others. Here, I’ll show you a basic bind-off that provides a firm edge.

1. Bind Off the First Stitch

At the start of a row, (a) knit two stitches as normal. On the RH needle, (b) pull the rightmost stitch up and over the other stitch, (c) dropping it off the needle. You should now have one stitch on the RH needle.

2. Continue to Bind Off

Continue as in Step 1: knit one stitch, pull the rightmost stitch on the RH needle up and over the new stitch. You should still have only one stitch on the RH needle. Repeat until there is one stitch on the RH needle and no more stitches to bind off on the left.

3. Secure the Bind Off

(a) Enlarge the final loop slightly and remove from the needle. Cut or break the yarn leaving at least a 6” tail (more if you intend to seam with it). (b) Pull the tail through the final stitch and (c-e) pull tight to secure. If not using the tail to seam, use a tapestry or darning needle to hide the tail on the back side of your knitted fabric. (For a helpful tutorial on various methods for weaving in ends visit https://www.purlsoho.com/create/weaving-in-your-ends/)

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With your knowledge of casting on, the knit stitch, and binding off (plus a little bit of seaming) you could make an endless number of square or rectangular objects from coasters and cowls, to scarves and ponchos. I’ve designed a simple, fingerless glove pattern to put your new skills to use!

Continue on to Part IV - Beginner’s Mitts (COMING SOON)>>>

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Knitting 101 & Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty

Sale Price:$8.00 Original Price:$12.00

Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty - PDF Pattern

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Knitting 101 - Part 2: The Knit Stitch (Continental Style)

This series is designed to help you learn the basics of knitting technique in a way that will smoothly transition your skills to future projects. To best use this guide, don’t try to make anything meaningful at first. Spend at least an hour making a few oddly-shaped bits of knitting about 10-12 stitches wide and 10 rows high (I call them gerbil coasters) before you dive into a real project. The key to even-looking knitting is developing muscle memory in your hands, so practice each technique several times until you get the hang of it. Remember that this is supposed to be fun, so if you’re feeling frustrated, take a break and come back to it later.

When you feel comfortable with the techniques in the series, I’ve designed a pattern, The Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty, specifically for brand new knitters. The Kitty is designed to be made up of several small parts, so if you don’t like the way a piece is looking, there’s no harm in tossing it aside and starting again.

More of a print than screen reader? The complete series (including the Itty Bitty Kitty Pattern) is available as a PDF, printed booklet, and complete kit to get you started off with high quality materials.

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The stitch from which knitting gets its name, the knit stitch (combined with the purl stitch) is the basis of all knitting. For now, we will focus on the knit stitch only. Something that is worked with all rows knitted (where the back and front look the same) is called Garter Stitch. There are two main styles of knitting Continental Style/“Picking” or English Style/”Throwing.” Both work equally well. I’ll be showing Continental Style because that’s how I knit (I also think knitting Continental makes it easier to keep an even gauge, and is more efficient and ergonomic, but that’s just my opinion).

1. Tension the Yarn

Make sure you have about 1 yard of yarn pulled out between the cast-on needle and the ball. (a) At about a hand’s width away from the needle, drape the end of the working yarn (the strand closest to the ball) over the pinky finger of your left hand with your palm up. (b) Flip your palm down so the yarn forms a loop around your pinkie and (c) scoop up the strand near the needle with your index finger so it rests on the back on the finger. (d) Pick up your cast-on needle with the thumb, middle, and ring finger of your left hand and adjust yarn around your fingers so it is slightly taut as it runs from needle to index finger to pinkie. The yarn should be BEHIND the left hand needle. Pick up the empty needle in your right hand.

2. Form a Knit Stitch

(a) Insert the tip of your right-hand (RH) needle into the front (from palm to fingertip) of the loop closest to the end of the left-hand (LH) needle. (b) Slide the tip of the RH needle out past the yarn strand running over your left index finger, then scoop the RH needle tip toward your palm, “picking" up the yarn strand and (c) pull it through that first loop. You should now have a new loop on the RH needle. (d) Using your right index finger to push the LH needle down, (e) slide the old loop off the LH needle and let it drop. You’ve just knit your first stitch!!

Repeat Step 2 until you’ve worked all the stitches on your LH needle. Move the empty needle to your RH and the full needle to your LH and keep going!

NB: To count the number of rows you have worked in Garter Stitch, look at the front of your work (the tail from the cast on will be on the RH bottom edge). Each row of “bumps” or Garter ridges (above the cast on edge) equals two rows knitted. In Figure 2f, there are 6 rows knitted

Continue on to Part III: Binding-Off >>>

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Knitting 101 & Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty

Sale Price:$8.00 Original Price:$12.00

Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty - PDF Pattern

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Knitting 101 - Part I: Casting On (Long Tail)

This series is designed to help you learn the basics of knitting technique in a way that will smoothly transition your skills to future projects. To best use this guide, don’t try to make anything meaningful at first. Spend at least an hour making a few oddly-shaped bits of knitting about 10-12 stitches wide and 10 rows high (I call them gerbil coasters) before you dive into a real project. The key to even-looking knitting is developing muscle memory in your hands, so practice each technique several times until you get the hang of it. Remember that this is supposed to be fun, so if you’re feeling frustrated, take a break and come back to it later.

When you feel comfortable with the techniques in the series, I’ve designed a pattern, The Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty, specifically for brand new knitters. The Kitty is designed to be made up of several small parts, so if you don’t like the way a piece is looking, there’s no harm in tossing it aside and starting again.

More of a print than screen reader? The complete series (including the Itty Bitty Kitty Pattern) is available as a PDF, printed booklet, and complete kit to get you started off with high quality materials.

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Materials

To start with, I suggest the following materials:

• US Size 5 or 7 (3.75 mm or 4.5 mm) straight (single point) knitting needles in wood, bamboo, or metal.

  • Wood and bamboo are the most “grippy”

  • Metal is more slippery, but solid

  • I do not recommend plastic, as it has a tendency to bow.

• A Worsted Weight Yarn in 100% Wool

  • Wool yarn is the most forgiving to work with at first. Some inexpensive options for 100% wool yarns are available from Brown Sheep, Lion’s Brand and Quince & Co. in the US. My personal preference is for Brown Sheep Nature spun Worsted, which is used in these photos.

  • Avoid cotton (it’s inelastic) and any hairy Angora/Alpaca/Mohair) or specialty yarns (hard to see stitches).

  • A wool/acrylic blend is preferable to straight acrylic, but either will work.

• Want to save yourself a shopping trip? Pick up my Knitting 101 Kit!

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The Long Tail Cast On

1. Estimate the “Long Tail” length

As the name indicates, you’ll need a long tail of yarn to work this cast-on. To estimate of the length of the tail, estimate 1-2” of tail for each cast-on stitch (the bigger the needles, the longer the tail). Over time you’ll get better at guessing the tail length. Better to have too long of a tail, which you can cut, than too short a one.

2. Form a Slip Knot

(a) Fold the yarn in half, forming the top of a loop, so the tail (the half of the loop that is not attached to the ball/skein of yarn) is the length you estimated in step one. (b) Wrap the tail around the folded yarn, and then (c) pull the tail through the loop you just made, forming a slip knot. (d) Pull on the tail, until the loop closes to a size slightly larger than your needle.

3. Insert your Needle into the Slip Knot

(a) Insert the tip of your needle into the slip knot and (b) pull until the loop is snug, but not tight.

4. Tension Yarn in Your Left Hand

(a) With the needle above your left hand, pinch the tail and the yarn attached to the ball (the working yarn) with the pinkie/ring/middle fingers of your left hand so they are lying parallel to one another, with the tail on the right side. (b) Slide your thumb and index finger in between the two strands (above your middle finger and below the needle), forming a diamond shape. The working yarn should be behind your index finger and the tail should be behind your thumb. (c) Pull the needle down toward your palm, forming a loop around your thumb.

5. Cast on a Stitch

Keeping your thumb and pointer finger in a firm “L” shape, (a) insert the tip of the needle into the bottom of the loop on your thumb, going from palm to fingers, then (b) coming from fingers to palm, scoop up the strand on your index finger and (c) pull it through the loop on your thumb. (d) Drop the thumb loop over the edge of the needle and (e) pull to secure – again, going for snug, not tight. You have now cast on one new stitch.

Repeat Step 5 until you have the desired number of stitches cast on. When counting stitches, include the initial loop you made with the slip knot. There are 10 stitches in Fig. 5f.

Continue on to Part II: The Knit Stitch: Continental Style >>>

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Knitting 101 & Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty

Sale Price:$8.00 Original Price:$12.00

Itty Bitty Knitty Kitty - PDF Pattern

$3.00

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Maine Handmade Fair

Virtual Maine Handmade Fair Tomorrow!

December 05, 2019

I’m co-hosting a virtual craft fair featuring 22 talented Maine makers. Friday, December 6th starting at 10 am we'll be sharing our handmade work, as well as some special discounts, peeks inside of our workspaces, and creative processes. We are a group of 22 different artists and artisans representing a wide range of handmade products and processes and different areas of Maine's creative community. 

What's a Virtual Handmade Fair?

It's a group of artists and makers getting together to share their work - just like a regular craft fair. Instead of meeting up in person, we're meeting up online and inviting you to join us on Friday, December 6th, starting at 10 AM to say hello, see our handmade work, and find some special discounts on handmade holiday gifts. We think it'll be a fun way to see new work, meet new makers, support and create connections within this creative community.

Organized by Eliza Jane Curtis of Morris & Essex and Leah B. Thibault of Ms. Cleaver - Creations for a Handmade Life, this event includes 22 Maine makers: 

• @Sperrygeneralstore Cards, shirts, dresses, onesies

• @beedandy_shop Bath & body products

• @earthangelarts hand stitched ornaments and pillows, paintings, printed products

• @Nailitartxo String art

• @Morrisandessex Hand-printed textiles and letterpress cards

• @sehallfurnituredesign Woodworking and Furniture

• @gdixon03 Jewelry for men and women

• @creationlabshop Water-Based, Hand Printed Apparel & Accessories

• @mermaidmeadow Illustrative artwork on barnwood, fabric and paper.

• @SarahCrawfordJewelry Jewelry

• @WildwoodOysterCo Handbags

• @annealexandersculptor nature-inspired sculpture, mostly in ceramics

• @thinkgreene Textile Designer and Screen Printer

• @APCuriosities Ceramics (animal bowls, travel cups, etc) and jewelry

• @DMGDesignsMaine Jewelry & metal wares

• @searosestudios Textiles, woodburning

• @lanaplantae Naturally Dyed Yarns

• @holmesandhudson Natural Skincare

• @Jamiepeaks Art prints & Children’s books

• @jeffreyliptonpottery Pottery

• @McFlyandCo Dog Collar Accessories

• @MsCleaver Embroidery/Knitting Kits

Please join us tomorrow morning, RIGHT HERE on Instagram, starting at 10 am we'll be sharing our handmade work together, as well as some special discounts, peeks at our studio and creative process, maybe some live video greetings, we'll see - each artist gets to choose what they want to share, so it'll be a bit of a surprise, and I think it'll be fun! Can't wait to see you there.

Class of ‘01

Ever since I moved to the East Coast, I’ve joked with my more westerly friends that I live in the future. 1-3 hours in the future, but the future nonetheless. I could tell them the finale of TV shows before they aired, I’d say, and I’d be sure to let them know when the flying cars first appeared.

So it was only appropriate that I when I went back west last week to celebrate my mother’s life that I was, in my own terms, doing a bit of living in the past. Yes, a lot has changed since I lived there, but much like my old high school, which had a new mascot and a new coat of paint, once you got past the exterior trappings it still felt familiar. It was still home. 

It was and it wasn’t. I am child of Napa and always will be, those sun-dried fields and river banks ready to flood are a part of me. The lines at the local doughnut shop and Oreo cookie cows on the hills felt comforting in their unchangingness, just as row after row of grapevines always look the same. But this time, as I stayed in a hotel, with no family, no house to anchor me, I was that thing we Napans depended on and despised in equal measure - a tourist. 

I longed to tell waiters, hotel guests, somebody, that I was from here, that I belonged, that we shared a kinship. Something I found, briefly, in the courtyard of the Napa River Inn, steps from an aging mosaic and overgrown plants I witnessed being installed during my time as an intern at the local Shakespeare Festival. A small white-haired woman mentioned the lovely weather and asked me where I was from. “I grew up here,”  I said, “Napa High Class of ‘01.” “‘42, when it was the only high school in town,” she replied, and we smiled and chatted some more before she joined her friends. 

And then there were the moments with friends I’ve known seemingly forever, the ones where the conversation never skips a beat, even if that beat is years long. And the evening surrounded by my mother’s family and friends, the ones who knew her when, gathered round a table in her favorite restaurant - the place where they’d pour her regular ice tea as soon as she walked in the door. There I felt less like a visitor and more like I belonged, until I drove down the street to a hotel where they only knew my name because the reservation told them what it was.

Perhaps this is what grief is - the being and not being. A daughter, but no longer somebody’s child. A familiar face and a stranger all at once. Liminality in the flesh.

The Book of the Dead in Ancient Egypt is full of gates for the deceased to pass through, an ode to a time of in betweenness, of thresholds. But those ancient texts were buried with the bodies, a roadmap for the dead in the afterlife. Where is the Book of the Grieving? Where are the guides to my gates?

I’d joke with my friends that I knew the near future, that I held the secret of which way we all were headed. But like everyone else, all I can be sure of is this moment, and even a future-dweller has to take it one day at a time.

What My Mother Taught Me

About a year ago, I was given the opportunity at work to talk about someone influential in my life, I chose to talk about my mother, who was far along in her decline from dementia by then. My mom passed away last week, and I can think of no better memorial than to share those words I wrote a year ago.

If you knew my mom and have stories to share, please do so in the comments.

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 One of my favorite Onion headlines reads as follows: 97-Year-Old Dies Unaware Of Being Violin Prodigy

 The article goes on to talk about how the woman spent her life completely unaware that she was one of the most talented musicians of the past century and possessed the untapped ability to become a world-class violin virtuoso, had she just picked up a violin once.

I’ve always liked that article, because in it’s typical satirical fashion, the Onion is highlighting that so much comes down to opportunity. This fictional woman could have been an amazing musician, if she was ever given the chance.

My mother was the person who put the violin in my hands, metaphorically speaking. Also literally in the 5th grade, but I didn’t turn out to be a violin virtuoso. I’m hardly a prodigy in anything, but most of the skills that I feel are so integral to my person today are things that she nudged me into.

My mother introduced me to the performing arts. We both took dance classes at our local studio and she fed me a steady diet of old movie musicals, introducing me to Shirley Temple, Gene Kelly, Vera Ellen and Ann Miller.  She got me a waiver out of health class, so I could take choir. She accompanied me to piano and then harp lessons. Because of her, I know the Good Ship Lollipop, Mozart’s Requiem, and the ballets of Tchaikovsky.

At eight years old, my mother put needle and thread in my hands and taught me to cross stitch. She took me to fabric stores and let me flip through the pattern books and glide my fingers across the rows and rows fabric bolts.  She demonstrated the magic of sewing by making me the best Halloween costumes on the block and she taught me that finish matters, even on pajamas. She loaned me her sewing machine and helped get me first job ever, at our town’s fabric store.

As our elementary’s school’s librarian, she gave me a sneak peek of all the new titles as they came in and let me draw new dust jackets to replace the damaged ones. My mother double majored in science at college, but she encouraged me in every creative endeavor I ever pursued. I probably had one of the few parents out there telling me I should take more art classes.

But the greatest thing my mother ever did for me, was not let her fears be mine.

My mother was always anxious. She had social anxiety that meant she hid in her room every time my friends came over to visit, but she let me have friends over as often as I wanted. She asked me to apply to the college closest to home, but didn’t say a word against it when I moved out of state. Once, after I had moved to Chicago to work in the theatre, she told me that she thought I was very brave.

 It struck me as a strange thing to say. Brave? To be brave you had to be up against something scary and there was nothing scary about it.  I only realized later, that for her, to go to someplace where you had no family, knew nobody, and were trying to make it on your own was about as scary as it could get. But never once did she try to talk me out it.  Time and again she tamped down her own fears to let me do it my way, giving me the space to pursue my dreams.

My mother gave me the tools to be the artist I am today, but the biggest influence she had on me can perhaps be summed up in the words of Shirley Temple in the film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, “I'm very self-reliant. My mother taught me to always be that way.”

Golden State

The year after I graduated college, I drove cross country with my high school best friend (highly recommended) from California to Maine in 2.5 days (the timeline is less recommended, but I had a scheduling crunch). During our journey, one of the things we decided we wanted to do was learn the nickname of every state we passed through - the road signs made it clear that Utah was the “Beehive State”, we asked a waitress in Wyoming to learn it was the “Cowboy State.” We passed though the “Hawkeye State” (Iowa) , the “Keystone State” (Pennsylvania), the” Empire State” (New York) and the “Bay State” (Massachusetts), among others before finally arriving in The Pine Tree State (Maine), but the land I left behind in 2005 was the “Golden State.”

Since moving out east, I’ve been a regular visitor to California about ever other year, but I’ve been thinking a lot more about California recently. 2019 marks the year that I’ve lived outside of California longer than I’ve lived in it. It’s the 15 year anniversary of my father’s death. It’s the year I went out to show Little Miss Cleaver my hometown for the first time and to see my mother for what is likely the last. I came back from my most recent trip with two shoeboxes full of family photos. I’m feeling a little nostalgic to say the least.

So, as is only natural for a creative, I’m digging into that nostalgia and reflecting on the Golden State in my designs. Exploring bits of my person history and the history of the state at large, considering how the 31st state in the Union shaped me and shaped the country. There’s a lot to mine there (pun intended!) and honestly, a lot of emotion, so instead of trying to pull together a collection with a set deadline, I’ll be working on this project over the course of the year, releasing things as they are ready and telling the story in bits and pieces as I go.

I’ll start with the first release in the collection - “All That Is Beautiful.”

When I chose to focus my next batch of designs on the Golden State, I knew that John Muir was going to show up somewhere.

My dad and brother, both Eagle Scouts, were/are outdoorsy people with a particular love of the Sierra Nevada, so I grew up well acquainted with the legacy of Muir and once visited his homestead when my brother was doing research for a school biography project. 

For those unfamiliar with Muir, he was a Scottish-American naturalist and writer who championed preservation, was instrumental in the establishment of Yosemite National Park, and co-founded the Sierra Club. Unfortunately, Muir also prioritized natural preservation over the native people who lived in those environments and the creation of Yosemite evicted the Ahwahneechee and other portions of the Southern Sierra Miwok from their native lands. An act that was repeated with other National Parks.*

Muir was a prolific and often poetic writer, and this quote from a state promotional brochure published by the California State Board of Trade, particularly struck me in several ways. It is important to examine the full impact, both positive and negative, of the people and places we respect. I look at this quote and it serves as reminder to me that there is beauty in all nature (which I take to include all life, including human and animal), but also that we can overemphasize an unrealistic idea of “wild” - since there are very few places not impacted by humans and that not all human impact is negative. It’s part of reason I chose a brown for the text rather than a sharper black, because not everything is black and white. It was only natural to pair the text with the California Poppy - the state flower that grows wild in profusion in the state.

The design is available as a complete kit, printed panel, or PDF pattern in my shop.

As a small acknowledgement that there were many other residents of California before the Americans arrived, a minimum 15% donation of profits from any Golden State collection item will be donated to charities that support self-determination and community/economic development led by and for Native Californian and Latinx peoples, including the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples and the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

*For more on the Native American History of Yosemite and the displacement and erasure of Native Peoples from National Parks, check out the following resources as a starting point:
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/special-reports/yosemite-at-150/article19521750.html
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/erasing-native-americans-from-national-parks/

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All That Is Beautiful - Embroidery Kit

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The Cakes My Mother Made

I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot recently.

It’s only natural. Back in February, I took a trip out to California, where (among other things) I took the time to say goodbye to her. My mother has dementia, and while she may have many months left to go, she is far along in the progression of that disease. Her memory has failed her, but I’m finding comfort in my own memories.

It was not surprising then, that a few weeks before I left for that trip, I thought of my mother’s birthday cakes.

Growing up, we had two cake-decorating books that I absolutely adored. The pages, I recall, had become a little loose with wear. In the weeks leading up to our birthdays, my brother and I would flip through the pages to pick out the perfect birthday cake. Then my mom would make it and even in the pre-Instagram age, it would be photographed for posterity.

The books fell out of favor as we grew older. The books were used for the last time sometime when I was pre-teen - my father and brother were out on a Boy Scout trip and it’d just be me and mom for my birthday, so in a fit of early nostalgia I requested a large tiger cake as a nod to my love of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Tigger. The cake was huge, and my mother was by then diabetic, which meant I largely ate the cake alone. I made it through the tail and hindquarters before throwing the rest away. Still, she made it, all I had to do was ask.

I didn’t think of the cake books much after that and it didn’t come to mind when I made a list of items I wanted from my mother’s house when my brother moved her from our childhood home. So I caught myself a bit off guard when they sprung to mind a few weeks before my trip.

I was struck by one of those late-evening obsessions. The original copies of the cake books were gone or buried deeply in my brother’s garage, perhaps I could find them online. A Google search for “1980s birthday cake book” gave me the titles I needed (as results one and two at that), then a few minutes of searching used book stores online and a $10 charge to my credit card later, both books would soon be mine.

They were waiting for me upon my return from California, about a month in advance of Little Miss Cleaver’s own birthday. I shared the books with LMC, who was a bit less enthused than I had hoped, (though in her defense photography and styling from 1980 doesn’t age particularly well), but in the end she did select a cake.

I did my best attempt at the Butterfly Cake from The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book for LMC’s 6th birthday, which just passed. A cake design that my mother had made for my own 4th birthday back in 1987. I think her version was a bit more elegant, but mine passed kid muster all the same.

LMC, as with most cakes, ate the frosting off her slice and hasn’t touched it since, so like that Tigger cake all those years before, this cake was mostly for me. And you know what? I’m okay with that and also I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last…

Knitting Vertical Pleats and Pintucks

It’s no secret that I learned to sew long before I learned to knit, and I still love them both, but while sewing is essentially the art of taking a flat piece of fabric and manipulating it into a 3-D structure, the magic of knitting is that you can work that structure into the very fabric itself.

The simplest example of this is knitting in the round - rather than knitting a flat piece and seaming it into a tube, you just make the tube to begin with. Similarly, increases, decreases, and short rows can be used to form curves and undulations. I love designing my stuffed animals in the round, because it forces me to think in three dimensions from stitch one. But when it comes to garments, I’ll admit to finding a bit of a thrill in translating traditional sewing techniques, like pleats and pintucks into knitted forms.

Just like with sewing, working a knitted pleat involves securing folds in the fabric. To work a horizontal pleat, like in my Bob & Wave Cowl (see bottom of post), you pick up and knit a stitch from several rows down together with every active stitch. The vertical pleat, as used to shape the hands of the Turning Leaf gloves, is worked across two rows and is a tad more involved, so I’ll walk you through the process step by step.

Here I use the the term “tuck” to cover pintucks (which are very narrow tucks) and any other vertical pleat.

The Turning Leaf Gloves (used as an example here) have a series of three tucks across the back of the hand. The tucks start at three stitches wide near the wrist, and then decrease to a two-stitch tuck, and then one-stitch tuck just below the fingers.

I’ll be showing the three-stitch tuck throughout, but the same technique can be applied to a tuck of any width. A tuck with more stitches being folded will be more visible and decrease more fabric.

In the image above, I’ve already worked four rows of the three-stitch tuck pattern. You can see the three tucks, and the four recessed “channels” that fall on the sides of the tuck. Worked over two rows, the tucks are formed by slipping the tuck stitches on every other row and pulling the working yarn very tightly across the back, which pulls the stitches on either side of the tuck closer together, essentially folding them and holding the fold together.

ROW 1

1. Knit to the start of your first tuck.

2. Slip the tuck stitches (here, three stitches) on to a spare double-pointed needle or cable needle held in front of your work. [NB: if your tucks are small, you can use the same spare needle for all the tucks in a row]

3. Tension the working yarn tightly as you work the first stitch post-tuck. The more snugly you work the stitches together on either side of the tuck, the more visible your tuck will be. Continue knitting normally until you reach the next tuck.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach the end of the tuck section.

In the example shown, the tuck section is 11 stitches wide: three tucks three stitches wide, plus one spacer stitch on either side of the center tuck. When you finish working your first row of tucks, you should have nine stitches (width of tuck x number of tucks) on your spare needle (or needles, if your tuck is very wide).

ROW 2

1. Knit to the start of your first tuck.

2. Pick up and knit the tuck stitches (here, three stitches) off the spare needle.

3. Knit normally to the next tuck.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all stitches are back on the main needle.

It will take a couple of rows until the tucks start to look like anything on the right side of the fabric. On the wrong side of the fabric, you should clearly see where the working yarn has held behind the slipped stitches. Try to keep that horizontal line the same length for tucks of the same width, and the short it is, the more prominent your tucks will be.

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GET KNITTING!

Try out the pattern below which incorporate tucks, horizontal pleats, or smocking!

Turning Leaf Gloves - PDF Pattern

$6.00

Bob & Wave Cowl – PDF Pattern

$6.00

Smocked Tank - PDF Pattern

$0.00

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Indie Design Gift Along 2018 - My 24 Top Picks

It's Gift-Along Time again! 

Every year a growing group of independent knitwear designs band together on Ravelry to host a knit-along to kick start your holiday gift knitting! 

This year there are 349 designers from 30 countries and 6 continents, with over 20,000 patterns eligible for the giftalong's 2,000+ prizes.

From now until midnight EST on Nov 29, over 6,000 of those patterns are 25% off with the code giftalong2018

But 6,000 patterns is a lot to look through, so I thought I’d highlight some of my personal favorites from the offerings -and hopefully introduce you to some wonderful new-to-you designers..

Clicking on any photo above will take you to a Ravelry bundle of my favorites where you can peruse and purchase any of the designs. (Note: not all patterns shown are on sale, but all are eligible for the KAL and prizes in the gift-along).

I've got 18 patterns in the sale,  specifically chosen for their gift-ability.  Not on Ravelry? The same patterns on MsCleaver.com are also 25% off for the same time/same code.

Happy gifting!!

Pattern Links

(all attributions for collages work clockwise from top left)

Shawls & Cowls

1. Sand Ripples Shawl by Stephannie Tallent

2. Chance Cove by Allison O’Mahony

3. Trailing Leaves Cowl by Sandra Nesbitt

4. Rugby Shawl by knottygnome crafts

5. Shh! Wrap by Jennifer Weissman

6. Majestic Shawl by Gabrielle Vézina

Feet & Hands

1. Leighton House Handwarmers by Ella Austin

2. Moving Forward by Tisserin Coquet

3. Card Game Mitts by Knitwise Design

4. Flower Garland - Blomsterkrans by Aud Bergo

5. Zippertooth Mitts by Clare Lakewood

6. Falling Petals Socks by Rachel Gibbs

Sweaters & Tops

1. Juniper by Ash Alberg

2. Mount Pleasant by Megan Nodecker

3. Wild Grass by Asja Janeczek

4. Valerian by Tonia Barry

5. Nest Pullover by Solène Le Roux

6. Winter Woods Pullover by Knitwise Design

Hats

1. Midterm Tam by Virginia Sattler-Reimer

2. Tracery by handmade by SMINÉ

3. Bramble Birds by Sara Huntington Burch

4. Taupe by AbbyeKnits

5. Great Ocean Road Beanie by Georgie Nicolson

6. CCC Hat by M K Nance

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