Tips & Tricks: Smoother Cast Off Corner

Another one from the "I couldn't have said it better" columns. Today in Robin Hunter's blog, Robin talks about 3 methods for creating a smoother cast off corner.

I know I often end up with a little bump (I think the technical term is 'sticky-outy part') on my cast off corner. Next time I cast off I'll be trying one of her suggestions.

Tips and Techniques: Cables

At knit night last week, I learned a handy tip for making neater looking cables. I was going to post it here, but the friend who passed along the tip has blogged it perfectly, complete with photos. So if you're into cables, check out her post: Obsessed with Cables.

I couldn't have said it better - Lace

Once again I've found a blog post which says exactly what I would have said about a certain knitting technique. This time it is Robin Hunter, talking about knitting lace in her post: 20 Tips for Knitting Lace.  Excellent tips for those new to, or nervous about, knitting lace.

Coincidentally, just like Robin, I too spent some time this summer working on some lace shawl designs. In fact, I'm knitting one right now for my mother. On our recent trip to British Columbia, we stopped in at the Sweet Georgia headquarters. Mom spotted a lovely skein of Cashsilk Lace in a soft lilac color.

After Mom subtly commented it would go perfectly with her winter coat and asking if it would make a good scarf, I offered to knit her something with it.

The Cashsilk Lace is 45% cashmere and 55% silk. With 400 yards in a 50g skein, I should be able to make a nice triangular shawlette for Mom to wrap around her neck and keep her warm this winter.

Tips and Techniques: I couldn't have said it better myself

On days when I ponder what to blog about next, I think "Add value!", "Demonstrate techniques!" - all stuff I see well-known knitters doing. It's the logical thing to do from a business perspective. You need to keep providing content that keeps people coming back to your site, because presumably that's how you sell them things. Or something.

But then I look at all the content that's already out there, at one's Google fingertips. And I think - what can I really say about knitting that hasn't already been said in many ways, in many places - and said very well already. Why add to the "noise"?

I'm a trained technical writer. As part of my training I learned a few guiding principles of writing that I apply to all my writing (and life in general, sometimes). The one I always come back to is this:

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Just because you can write something in a fancy or cool looking, blinky font - doesn't mean you should. Just because you can add neat effects to a photo in Photoshop, doesn't mean you should. You need to think about what is going to be visually appealing, clear, and understandable for your audience. You don't need to distract them with cool things just because you can.

So, just because I can talk about knitting techniques, I keep telling myself I shouldn't re-invent the wheel when others have made such darn awesome wheels.

Like Tin Can Knits. They've put together The Simple Collection - a series of free, simple patterns designed to highlight basic knitting techniques. Each pattern is gorgeous, yet easy enough for beginners. And TCK provides wonderful tutorials for the techniques used in each pattern.

Today, their Rye Sock pattern is featured on their blog, along with the perfect step-by-step explanations of sock anatomy, techniques and tips for knitters new to socks. Their photos are beautiful. Their sock schematics are clear and easy to understand. And they make it easy for people to learn to knit not just socks - but anything.

So, if you're looking for the perfect entry-level sock pattern go check out Tin Can Knits' Rye Socks here.

As for me, I'll be over in my corner trying to reconcile myself to the fact that while I enjoy designing, want to be successful at at, and know that I should be emulating successful designers - my personal style is different. I want to share my love of knitting (socks), I want to share the great resources which have helped me over the years, and I want to create designs that are fun, beautiful and enjoyable to knit.

But I don't need to present myself as an expert with new & definitive things to say. I'm pretty sure wiser people than I have already said it and said it well. I think my personal style is more of an aggregator and sharer of useful information. And coincidentally, this is what I've always done in my professional life in the tech industry. I've always said, "I may not know the answers, but I know how to find the people who have the answers and connect you with them."

So go connect with Tin Can Knits' Simple Collection - they've said everything beautifully.

Pucker up, Winners!

Thanks everyone for leaving your comments and tips in the Fish Lips Kiss Heel post. I'll send the pattern to you right away!

Picture someone puckering out their lips
ready to give you a kiss. Well, this heel,
when off the foot, looks a wee little bit like that.
Photo courtesy & (c) Geri Inglis

Our winners are....
LakeviewChica (Ravelry ID)
marmelineravel (Ravelry ID)
Nhsarab (Ravelry ID)
su3385 (Ravelry ID)
QueenDBW - please contact me
 for your prize (maureenfouldsdesigns AT gmail DOT com)

Bonus round:
DKA (Ravelry ID)
knithemiptera  (Ravelry ID)
calendarfish (Ravelry ID)
Woolytanis (Ravelry ID)

Tips & Techniques: Fish Lips Kiss Heel

A couple weeks ago I was checking out one of the sock forums on Ravelry. That's when I noticed a post by one of the members, Sox Therapist about something called a new sock technique called the Fish Lips Kiss heel, which she'd invented.

I was intrigued.  I'm always on the look out for new sock techniques. And the creator promised that this new heel eliminated gaps, results in a guaranteed fit and can be worked cuff down or toe up. The last part really caught my attention since I constantly stumble over finding a good toe-up heel.

I mentioned it to my knitting buddy Geri and within a few days she'd tried it out and blogged about it (here). (Spoiler: She loves it!) And she's not the only one. In just under a month, 112 sock projects have been recorded in Ravelry. The Sox Therapist group on Ravelry is filled with pictures of the heels along with rave reviews. The Sox Therapist is there to answer questions and share suggestions. She also has a couple Youtube videos demonstrating her short row method.

I have to admit, I haven't tried it myself - yet. But I was intrigued about the technique and wanted to find out more. So I contacted the Sox Therapist who kindly agreed to do an interview. I have to admit, her enthusiasm about socks is evident.

Picture someone puckering out their lips ready to give you a kiss
Well, this heel, when off the foot, looks a wee little bit like that.
Photo courtesy & (c) Geri Inglis

In fact, her enthusiasm is so contagious, that I've decided to do a giveaway (even though I just finished doing one). I'll give away 5 copies of the Fish Lips Kiss heel to winners chosen by a random number generator.

To enter:  Leave a comment (make sure I have some way of contacting you, either a Ravelry ID or your email - which isn't published). For a second contest entry, in your comment include your favorite sock tip or technique. Don't worry if someone's already mentioned yours. Comments don't have to be original. I just want to hear a helpful sock tip or technique.

Deadline: Contest closes Wed, Sept 4th, 2013. Winners announced Sept 5th, 2013.

So, here's what I asked the Sox Therapist and how she responded:

1. So what is the FLK heel?

The Fish Lips Kiss Heel is not just a heel -- it's a totally new method for making pretty socks that fit!  I devised a method for making and using cardboard sock templates with critical markings that allows you to knit perfectly-fitted socks easily and without math.  Then there is the heel design -- simple, yet innovative.  There are no wraps, gaps, or holes (anywhere!!).  Also no gussets or flaps, no counting, no math, no changes in number of stitches, (so absolutely no getting lost!), no knitting around the front of the sock before the heel is completed, no disruption of front-of-sock patterning to create the heel. Just a beautiful, easy heel that fits every time, no matter who you knit it for, even if you never once tried the sock on the actual foot while you were knitting it.  I knit socks for people who live across the country, and whose feet I have never even seen.  I mail them their socks, and when they pull them on, they fit!

2. What inspired you to come up with the FLK heel?

I am insatiably curious.  I am also a math and English major.  I love to teach. (Knitting, yes, but lots of other things, too.)  I learn things very easily, but I've noticed that not everyone has a strange brain like mine.  Lots of people hate math, for instance.  Lots of knitters who have tried to knit wrap-and-turn short-row heels have lost their place, couldn't see the gaps, and gotten into a whole mess of trouble with their stitch counts.  I see many published patterns where even the sock photographed in the pattern was loose under the foot and had "interesting" things happening above the heel.  I am a passionate toe-up knitter, but it was beyond irksome that it took too much effort every time I knit a sock to make things work.  If I knit socks for a different person, or with a different weight yarn, or with a different stitch count or different sized needles, it was near-impossible to figure out where to start the gusset, and things just got more complicated from there!

The Fish Lips Kiss Heel - Photo courtesy & (c) Sox Therapist

So one day a few years ago I just got sick of it all and threw up my hands.  After all, it occurred to me, people go to stores and buy socks all the day long, and they fit!  So why then, I asked myself, is there all this difficulty when sock knitters encounter a high instep or socks that bind at the ankle hinge?  I figured that if flap and gusset heels really did fit most people better, then industry would be using them. But nope, the industry doesn't!  Puzzled, I went to my sock drawer to seek out answers to these vexing questions.  I pulled out a store-bought white sock with a gray heel knit into it, and stared that thing down, oh yessiree, I did.  I even counted the teeny tiny rows and heel turn stitches to figure out exactly what was happening there.  

It was my light bulb moment.  It started my "I will solve this mystery!" process, and I haven't looked back.  The day I stared down that sock, I sat down with paper and pen, and first wrote out a list of everything I observed about the store-bought sock.  Next I made a (very long!) list of all the angsty things that annoyed me and others about hand-knitted socks.  For the past 2+ years I have worked my way through that list, determined not to publish my design until I had crossed off every single "ugh!" that made knitting socks sometimes not so much fun.  At one point I was almost there!  The heel was beautiful, the socks always fit and never had gaps or holes, etc., etc. But... the pattern/design wasn't simple to memorize.  My heart sunk, because "must be able to knit from memory without a pattern" was on my must-have list, and I just couldn't let that one go.  I literally chucked the design and started over, simply not willing to compromise on a single element of my ultimate sock method.  

The Fish Lips Kiss Heel eBook is the happy result.  There are lots of pages in the eBook, but it's a fun, easy read.  And believe me -- once you've knit a pair, you will toss the whole thing aside and not need to pick it up again!

3. How is the FLK heel method different from other sock heels?

Simple answer:  It's blindingly easy to knit, and it fits!  You can choose any pattern you like, and plunk this method/heel into it.  The sock will look beautiful and will fit the recipient, cuff-down or toe-up.  I encourage knitters to click on the pattern page to learn more, but briefly, I use an unusual short-row stitch, an innovative heel construction, and a foot template to get a perfect fit.  The eBook comes complete with high-quality photos that more easily show what stitch is what, (different-color yarns so you can see what is happening, there).  But even simpler, you can just use my videos and knit along with me as you learn to knit the new short-row stitches.  I also created a math algorithm that enabled me to devise a simple formula for drawing guideline markings on your foot templates, (plural, because you're going to now be knitting well-fitted socks for everyone you know!).  Knitters don't have to figure out anything complicated, because I have done that for you.  Just measure where I tell you, drop the numbers into the formula, and presto!

My new heel method and foot template, when combined, are quite unique.  And yet you end up with a beautiful heel that just plain looks like a simple store-bought sock that fits properly.  You might think you've seen this "pattern" before, but I would assert that all together, you haven't seen this until you've seen it.  And for only a dollar, that's a happy surprise.

4. Does it work every time?

Yes, every time.  I have knit over a hundred pairs for many dozens of different people.  I taught the method in retreat classes and my students had the same experience.  There is an ever-growing number of Ravelry projects with surprised and happy knitters who now have a way to knit socks that fit, when many previous patterns and attempts were unsuccessful, or spotty at best.  The pattern is currently rated 5.0 of 5 stars because, knitters say, "It's easy, it fits, and it's pretty!"

Photo courtesy & (c) Geri Inglis

5. Why not make it available for free?

My personal experience on Ravelry has been thus:  Click on a cool pattern and see that it is free. Yippee!!! Click on a cool pattern to discover that it is $6, (or much more).  Heart sinks.  Knit cool free pattern and wish that there was some easy way I could thank the designer monetarily, but within my budget, (and not look cheap or ungrateful).  I decided to charge a dollar, which is far less than the average pattern price because, to be perfectly honest, it was important to my husband that he not "lose me" to my passion without at least minimal compensation.  Now when he sees me knitting with a notebook next to me, or responding to Ravelry forums and private messages, he says, "Oh -- I see you are working!"  It seems to be a Y chromosome thing for husbands to want others to value their wives' time as much as they do.  I don't need the money, but FLK knitters are so excited to be able to afford the pattern and also are thrilled at how much they are getting for that dollar.  I won't get rich charging a dollar for my patterns, but if it was free, I wouldn't enjoy designing and supporting patterns as much as I do.

6. Any other innovations up your sleeve?

Oh , yeah!  Knitters can follow me on my www.Ravelry.com group, Sox Therapy, where I will announce upcoming and new release patterns, as well as share in KALs, Q&A, finished project pictures, etc.

7. Tell us a bit more about yourself.

I have been happily married to my wonderful husband for almost 30 years, and we have four great kids, two of them married, and one grandson (so far!).  I come from a very long line of innovative knitters and crocheters, and all of our kids, (even our son), know how to knit.  I own my great grandmother's historic spinning wheel.  She invented and patented the process of turning milk casein into fiber, and would spin it, weave it into cloth, and then sew fine men's tailored suits with the resultant cloth.  She took that wheel and traveled around the country to state fairs demonstrating her methods at a time in history when women just didn't do such things, (get patents and travel without their farming husbands).  I have articles about her, and a treasured photo of her on the Vermont family homestead porch, spinning with that wheel.

My grandmother and mother taught me many, many skills, and I started knitting,crocheting and sewing at age five. When I was a few years older, Grandma taught me to spin, first with my hands while she treadled  and then we traded.  When I had each separate skill mastered, (relatively speaking -- I was very young!), she set me to spinning on my own.  She also taught me to sew, quilt, do all manner of needlework, to garden and preserve food, and to cook.  She shared a voracious passion for reading with me as well, pointing me to many an interesting book.  She only had a 4th grade education, but was one of the most brilliant women I have ever known.  Her passion was civic and political activism, (again, at a time when women didn't do that sort of thing -- guess she learned that from her mother!).

Music and instruments were and are also a big part of my life, and I have passed that love and those skills to our four kids.  My husband is a "doer" as well, and the two of us have enjoyed sharing our passions with our kids as they've grown.  The kids have helped us roof our house and out-buildings, rebuild a 1929 Model A Ford, grow and harvest our orchard and gardens, raise chickens, and oooohhhh, how we love to make music together!  Hubby and I feel very blessed to have young adult kids who are close to each other and to us, and who enjoy being a part of each others' daily round.  Oh... And they're proud as punch of their Mama's new-found little bit of knitting glory.  Life is very, very good!

Tips and Techniques: Magic Join

Just a short post as this video really explains it all. I found this while browsing Ravelry the other day.

I have one of those mitred square blankets I'm knitting with various colorways of Noro Silk; the blanket has been languishing in the time out corner for ages because of all the ends to weave in. It sounds like this might be the perfect technique to eliminate weaving in all those ends!

Tips and Techniques: Fit, ease, body and drape

While attending the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival (affectionately known to knitters as "Rhinebeck", for it location), I had the pleasure of attending a class by Lily Chin, knitting legend and possessor of so much knitting knowledge that she's a walking encyclopedia.

Most of the information she covered is certainly available in other locations (or in her books), but she has a knack of putting that information together, like putting puzzle pieces together to finally see the whole image.

Reviewing my notes from her class recently, I decided that a few things bear sharing.

Simply by picking out and lining up class participants in a specific order, Lily easily demonstrated the concepts of fit and drape. At one of the spectrum was a curve hugging t-shirt and on the other, a loose-hanging cardigan. When it comes to fit, the knitting industry as a few standard guidelines, although no general consensus, as anyone can tell when comparing pattern sizings.

However, I now use these fit guidelines when deciding how much ease I want my finished product to have. Ease being the extra inches of fabric added to the size of the garment over your actual body measurements.

Tight fit = -2" of ease
Close fit = 0"-1" of ease
Standard fit = +2" of ease
Loose fit = +4" of each
Oversized = +5" of ease or more

It is ease which defines the fit of your garment. For example, if your actual bust measurement is 38" and you want a tight fitting garment, following the pattern size that is closest to -2" of ease. That is to say, the size closest to having a 36" bust. But if you want a standard fit, choose the size closest to a size 40" bust.

A mistake I've made in the past was to look only at the extra inches of ease and think "That's too much!" But, as Ms. Chin explained if you're adding 2" of ease, that's 2 inches over the entire garment. Or in other words, half an inch (.5") on each side front and back. When spread out over the front and back side seams of a garment, it really doesn't seem like that much.

Back to drape. Drape can be defined as how much a fabric conforms to your shape. Does it hug your curves? Or does it fall stiffly in a straight line off your curves? Body is the opposite of drape. Heavier yarn creates a denser fabric that creates body.

Putting these all together can help you decide which size to knit. You need to consider:

• your bust size
• what kind of fit you want
• the fabric size (this is where your swatch comes in)

Then find the size that is closest, according to how you want the garment to fit. Of course, these aren't the only factors. You have to consider your other measurements, like shoulder width, waist and hip width. But generally you pick the size based on bust measurements and can do any customization for other measurements from there. And the type of yarn certainly affects drape and fit. But those are topics for another day.