Posts Tagged ‘Free Patterns’
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How To’s Day.. on Thursday: Knit Yo-Yo’s
Well I was asked by Kathy Z. how to make yo-yo’s on the knitting loom so here goes.. it’s easy!
For my example I used a blue Knifty Knitter loom and I used a worsted weight wool yarn.
Cast on all stitches and started working in the round. You can do the twisted knit stitch (aka, e-wrap) or the flat stitch if you like. In my example I did 12 rows.
Take the tail at the cast on end and string it through the stitches on the cast on edge and pull it to gather.
It should look something like this:
The next row, purl the entire row. This will be the outer edge of the Yo-Yo
Knit an equal amount of rows as you did before the purl row, in the example, 12 rows.
Bind off using the gather bind off method.
Secure the ends and then poke your yarn end through the center to the other side.
It might look something like this. Go grab your pins!!
Give it a little wash.. pin it out and let it dry! Check it out.. you can turn it into a square…
If your #of stitches is divisible by 4..or an octagon if they are divisible by 8!
Just make a bunch, seam them together along those edges and make a blanket, placemat.. or whatever you can dream up!
Use them alone, they make a great coaster!!! Just be sure to use natural fibers like wool, or cotton because if you put it under a hot cuppa cuppa you don’t want your creation to melt!
Gotta have my eggnog!
Here are some more ideas of how to join those little yo-yos and what to make with them!
Some tips and recommendations:
- I do recommend use of wool or cotton etc.. as you can block these and mold them to the shape you want more easily than an acrylic yarn.
- you will want to play around with the number of rows used to make the yo yo, especially if you are using a different size loom, or different weight yarn. The rule of thumb seems to be that you knit about half of the amount of rows as there are pegs on the loom. That gives a good place to start.
- HAVE FUN! It’s only yarn! You can unravel it, and try again till you get the results you are looking for.
Don’t forget to send me some pictures of your creations!!
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How To’s Day: Corkscrew Fringe on the Knitting Loom
Kathy Z. and I got to talking about the scarf I finished last week and the subject of those curlie Q’s came up. I knew I had put how to make them in the blog somewhere a loong time ago so I thought I would put it in an easy to find spot on my tutorial page.So you can pop over there.. the link is up there at the top and see it any time you want!! And there is a pdf you can download and print out for personal use! Enjoy!!
Betcha thought I forgot How To’s Day!!
Keep those 3 sentence summaries coming!!! I had too much coffee, and I have been dealing with a brain draining situation.. so I really need help!!
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Back in the Saddle again.. and almost famous!
The cable guy came, he saw, he conquered even though our steps nearly killed him.. an now we have a nice new faster modem!! Back in the saddle again! This has been a busy week!
The two oldest were at camp so it was also a pretty quiet week as well. I got some knitting done on my Pi shawl the lace is working out so far with only pulling back a few rows so far. Then I had to get started on a test knit so the shawl is back on hold again. The mail this week brought two new knitting boards! One to replace my old one that had an untimely end… and another fine gauge board that was a surprise.. Thanks Lynn!
Isela had a big week too with her Knitty Gritty episode airing on Monday. And it took till the second time I watched it (with Azia after she got back from camp) for me to notice that my vest is in it as set dressing!! I had sent a few items along for them to use at Isela’s request, and hadn’t noticed it when I watched it the first time! But there it is just over Vickie’s shoulder my Bolero vest!
They make it look so good! That was a pleasant surprise! It was so fun watching the episode with the kids they made all kinds of funny comments.. like “Yeah it is easy!” and ” Isela looks different than when we met her!”
Anyway I am trying to wrap up the editing for the episode of Yarnival due out tomorrow. Some fun and interesting posts!
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How-To’s Day: Recycling Yarn from Sweaters
Today’s tutorial is a little different! It’s up on Loom Knitters Circle! Yep! you guessed it the new summer issue is up! So for now I will simly link you to there! My article is about recycling sweaters you would find at a yard sale or a thrift shop into usable yarn! It’s a question that comes up alot, so I thought I would address it! While you are there do enjoy the other articles and the patterns in this issue! It’s a good one! Here is a sneak peek of what you will see:
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How To’s-Day: Darning Socks!
You spend hours and hours knitting a sock, you wear them,love them, show them off with shoes chosen specially for their’ hand knit sock showing off qualities and then BAM! They spring a hole! What is a person to do? You could use the Yarn Harlot method.. shouting loudly DARN SOCKS as you stand over the trash can and dramatically toss them in.. or you could darn them.I have a pair of felted slippers that I made that sprung a hole! I love these slippers they are warm they are comfy and really they are not all that old and I was not ready to part with them so I went out and learned a bit about darning socks!
There is a great tutorial on the HJS Studio site, and that is what I generally went by to get the job done. Here is what you need:
- A sock or other piece of knitting with a hole in it.
- Sewing thread of matching or close to matching color of the item to be darned.
- Sewing needle.
- About a yard of yarn that matches the item.
- A tapestry needle.
- A darning egg, or a light-bulb.
Basically what you do is to make a framework with the sewing thread, and work duplicate stitch on it until you have fixed and filled in the gap.
I am very glad that the slipper I was darning was felted, I am not that great at the duplicate stitch and so it didn’t look too hot. Not bad for a first try but certainly not perfect. But if it gets my slippers off the injured reserve pile and back into play? What do I care!
The tutorial I used can be found here. There is a text only tutorialat eHow, quite an interesting site.
Annie’s Attic has a little duplicate stitch tutorial, and Lucia ‘The Knitting Feind’ has a more detailed tutorial here.
If you happen to have alot of socks to darn, or just really want a darning egg they have them at Lehman’s. I love that place! It’s sort of local and they have all kinds of non-electric gadgets. (not to mention a cute quilt store that has a small cache of interesting yarns across the way!)
Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks’ How To!! Don’t forget to stop by next week when we answer the question.. just how do I use this flower loom thing.. and why oh why do those pegs keep falling out of it???
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How-To’s Day: Knitting an I-cord edging on as you go!
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Welcome one and all! I hope you are back and eager to learn a new trick today! It was fun figuring this one out and I hope you find it useful and enjoy it too! We can solidly blame the development of this method on Elizabeth Zimmerman. I bet she never imagined that her ideas for knit on I-cord would ever be applied to the knitting loom. I can say though that I have had a definite spark of interest in reading up on her works to learn more! So let’s get to it!
Included in today’s tutorial are and I-cord cast on, I-cord edging knit on as you work the peice. This can be done on both edges, or one edge as you need it, and an I-cord cast off so that the edging goes all the way around the peice.
Here is what it looks like:
(Click on Photos for larger view.)
This method can be used on any knitting loom or rake, (*or needles) you simply need to use yarn appropriate for your particular loom. I have made the samples with a garter stitch pattern in the center, this really brings out the I-cord edging and makes it loom nice. I am sure it can be done with stockinette stitch, however the edging will not be as pronounced. My thought is that it will help with curling found when doing stockinette a bit as well, but I have yet to try it. If you are using self striping yarn, the stripes will just go along for the rid right up to the edges and blend right in, unlike an edging applied after the fact!
So please try it out and let me know what you think! Just click here!
THE KNITTY GRITTY:
I understand that many of you will want to use this technique in patterns that you write. I encourage this, however please follow these simple rules:
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Please do print out a copy of the tutorial for your personal use, if you are teaching a class and wish to print out multiple copies simply email me and ask.
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Do not copy and paste the tutorial into any document, or post it on any website or blog without my permission, again a simple email request will suffice.
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If you wish to use this techique in a pattern, I prefer that you refer the users of your pattern to this tutorial, rather than requesting to reprint it.
*For my needle knitting friends: this works as well by just bringing the working yarn to the front of your work and slipping your stitches as if to purl on the right edge of your work and the opposite on the left edge! So you all try it too!*
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Paying the bills…
Coming April 13th
