What does a mirror have to do with left-handed knitting?

Recently Jen shared her knitting experience with me.  I found it interesting and thought you might enjoy it as well.

For years, Jen longed to learn to knit.  She took classes, and tried all the different techniques she could find.  Each time, eagerly looking forward to learning to knit, Jen left each course disappointed and feeling like a failure.  The classes just weren’t teaching her in a way that she could learn successfully.

Until . . .

One day she talked to the right person.  A knitter asked her one question that changed everything:

“Have you tried left-handed knitting?”

Jen’s response to the question came as a shock, and the resounding answer was a big “NO.”  Jen and her previous knitting teachers had never considered left-handed knitting, also known as mirror knitting.

Why?  Probably because most of the students were right-hand dominant.  Or, perhaps even if their left hands were dominant, they still could knit the traditional ways.

However, Jen is decidedly left-hand dominant. For her, the yarn and needles just would not work together using a right-hand method.  She’d felt defeated and alone, but many people that are left-hand dominant simply can’t adjust to right-handed methods.

Traditional knitting is designed by and for right-hand dominant knitters. If you watch a traditional knitter, whether she’s carrying the yarn in her left or right hand, usually most of the work is done by the right hand.

So what is mirror knitting?

• It’s a knitting method that is the mirror image of a right-hand dominant knitter. When you watch a right-handed knitter in a mirror, you’ll see the left-handed version in the reflection. And that’s how many lefties learn to knit.  How easy is that?

• In the mirror reflection, the stitches are formed with the left needle, and the stitches are moved from the right hand needle to the left: the reverse or mirror image of right-hand dominant knitting.

• Even the loops on each individual stitch are reversed. So, the left side of the loop is forward instead of to the right.

Does it make a difference?

Well, a mirror knitter following traditional directions exactly will knit a mirror image.  If the knitted article is symmetric, like how many scarves are made, it probably makes no difference.  On the other hand, if it’s asymmetrical—like the front of a cardigan—the right side will be knit instead of the left.

Similarly, motifs in color work and cables will be mirror images.  Mirror knitters are amazingly adept at “fixing” patterns.  That is, adjusting the pattern to compensate.  And, some prefer knitting only symmetrical items to avoid the mirror image effect altogether.

Jen is happily mirror knitting with help from her new teacher.

One of the fastest ways to begin mirror knitting is from a one-on-one expert knitting instructor.  So take advantage of the mirroring technique and experience success.  Here’s how . . .

You can have your own personal knitting instructor, Norma Jean, take you step by step through the process.  Watch her instruction at your convenience—as often as you want!  Buy now through Amazon: Beginning Knitting for Left-Handed Knitters.

Disclosure: I have a marketing connection to Amazon. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made. cmp.ly/5/kf4rlc

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Are lace knitting instructions more of a challenge than you think?

Lately, my projects involve lace knitting instructions.

About a month ago, I started a what I thought would be a quick project.

It’s a small purse originally designed for a bride. I thought it would make an elegant formal bag, perhaps for a prom or another formal.

I glanced at the instructions, and the degree of difficulty according to the publisher. I thought it would be within my skill.

Well, yes it is. I did learn a few things about knitting lace I want to share, though.

Knitting Tip #1: The “finishing” may take longer than the main section.

In this case, the main part of the pattern went quickly. The edging, though that was difficult challenging.

You see, the knitting graph supplied didn’t quite explain the pattern.  After knitting and frogging the same section twice, I decided to see if I could find the same — or a similar — pattern in another source.

And there it was: in the first book I searched. Not only a similar knitters graph, but also written instructions for the knitting. Yippee!

Knitting Tip #2: If you’re new to knitting lace from a graph, look for a pattern that has both the graph and written instructions.

The main part of the purse alternates a row of lace with a row of knitting in the round. So every other row is all knit stitches. It’s nice to have a “break” in concentrating on the lace pattern.

The edging, though, had knitting and purling in all rows. Plus, the knitting switched from circular knitting in the main section to knitting back and forth on two needles in the edging. To keep straight which row was right and which wrong side, I made notes on the graph.

Knitting Tip #3: If you own the pattern, it’s okay to make your own notes on it to clarify the instructions.

And there’s nothing like frogging to make one appreciate lace lifelines!

You can see the white crochet cotton thread running through the stitches on the needle. I like to take a large eye needle and thread it with the crochet cotton, then thread it through the live stitches on the needle. This works best if you’re using circular needles: the thinner cord part of the circulars usually leaves more room for the needle and thread.

Knitter’s Tip #4: Use lace lifelines, and use them often.

Here’s a video link for lace lifeline knitting instructions (scroll down to Fixing Mistakes to find the video “Using a lifeline.”)

I have more tips, which I’ll share in a later post.

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How can vintage knitting patterns help you?

Yesterday’s mail brought me a treat:

I first learned about Piecework Magazine’s annual historical knitting issue while reading this Peacefully Knitting blog post about vintage knitting, which convinced me to subscribe. I called first to be sure they were still offering the historical issue with paid subscriptions. Which they were. Phew!

Historical knitting is intriguing. It’s interesting to get a glimpse of how our ancestors dressed and lived. While they’re now silent, their knitting can still give us insight into their lives. I grew up with stories of one of my great-grandmother who supposedly kept all 12 of her children in handmade clothes, including knitted socks and stockings. She must have been very fast, very busy, or both!

Historical knitting is a new adventure, and I eagerly awaited my copy.

Which I’m happy to report did not disappoint me.

This issue of Piecework Magazine has patterns including: a new stitch pattern from Barbara Walker featured on the  cover. Inside there’s a treasure of articles on knitting. Perhaps you’ll also be drawn to the story of knitting in Jewish Lithuania during World War II. Once again, the resilience of the Jewish people and the “Greatest Generation” is inspiring. Today’s struggles with knitting become very small when compared to knitting in a forest while fighting — and hiding from — Nazis.

There’s a pattern based on a medieval mitten, and even an article on how modern theater companies use hand knitted items as costumes. There are more patterns and articles, which you can discover for yourself in the issue.

So, how do vintage knitting patterns help a modern knitter?

• Patterns can give insight into the lives of the folks who knit and used the finished piece.
• The stories behind the patterns — if you can discover them — can be inspiring, funny, or even just a brief respite from today’s news.
• Patterns can be used to create new knitted articles. One that reminds you of the story, or one to share — perhaps with someone for which it holds special meaning.
• Vintage patterns often use techniques not usually used by modern knitters. They can be a good way to practice something new, and to expand your skills.
• Patterns can be used as templates to create your own unique projects, like this example of a fleecy muff inspired by vintage knitting:
  

While I haven’t yet decided which project from this issue I’m going to knit first, I did finish my latest project:

More about this in the next post.

Meanwhile you can get your own copy of Piecework Magazine’s Fourth Annual Historical Knitting Issue here: Buy now.

Disclosure: I have a marketing connection to a brand, topic or product herein. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made. cmp.ly/5/kf4rlc

What are easy fingerless mitten knitting instructions?

I’m typing while wearing one fingerless mitten.

Why?

Well, my fingers were cold and I decided to experiment. I was curious to know how fast I’d notice a difference between the two hands, I decided to try just one.

In less than 10 seconds I noticed an improvement in the hand wearing the mitten. Wow! What a surprise! I always thought they’d warm the hands but not the fingers. Now if I could just knit that fast.

While I like mittens and gloves, fingerless ones are better sometimes. For example, when you’re working at a keyboard, wearing regular mittens make typing impossible. Most gloves are cumbersome — at best. If your fingers don’t slip off the keys while wearing them, gloves are often bulky or just don’t feel right.

Fingerless mittens or gloves solve these problems.  They allow you to use the keyboard or mouse on a computer comfortably and don’t get in your way.

What’s the difference between fingerless gloves and fingerless mittens? While I don’t have an official answer from the Fashion Gurus, my take is that fingerless gloves have four openings for individual fingers. Their length can be as short as one or two rows, or go all the way to the fingertips.  Fingerless mittens, on the other hand, have a single opening for four fingers. And they’re definitely faster to knit!

While fingerless glove knitting instructions can be complex and best suited for an experienced knitter, fingerless mittens can be quick and easy. Yes, for beginners, too!

So what are the steps for knitting Easy Garter Stitch Fingerless Mittens?

1. Check the gauge. The gauge for this pattern is 3.5 stitches per inch in garter stitch. I used Caron’s One Pound Yarn in Sunflower (yellow) and Royalty (blue). It’s a worsted weight acrylic and knits up soft. I used size 9 needles.

2. Measure your hand. Using a tape measure or even a piece of yarn, measure around your palm above the thumb.

3. Cast on:

• 6.5-inch hand = 22 stitches
• 7-inch hand = 24 stitches
• 7.5-inch hand = 26 stitches
• 8-inch hand = 28 stitches
• 8.5 inch hand = 30 stitches

Knitting Tip: Check the size as you knit. It’s amazing how many times the knitting can vary once you actually cast on the rows.  Although mittens are fairly forgiving, it’s still easier to make adjustments early in the knitting rather than after the mitten is almost finished.

4. Knitting pattern:

Row 1: Slip first stitch as if to purl. Knit across rest of row. Turn.

Repeat Row 1 for desired length from cuff to top of mitten.

Change colors to add stripes if you wish.  I changed colors on the wrong side after four rows of blue and two of yellow:

Slipping the first stitch as if to purl makes a slipped edge garter stitch, which I’ve explained further in my free video knitting instructions.

5. Bind off loosely with your favorite method. Break yarn.

6. Sew up the side seam, leaving an opening for the thumb. (Hint: Trying on the mitten after sewing up part of the seam helps you place the thumb opening, customizing its fit!)

7. Weave in the yarn ends.

While you can add color by knitting stripes, another easy method is called mosaic knitting.  You carry only one color at a time and can make interesting patterns with it:

This particular pattern makes a thicker mitten. Which is probably why I decided to make a pair!

My PDF pattern for Easy Two-Color Mosaic Fingerless Mittens is now available on Ravelry.

Disclosure: I have a marketing connection to a brand, topic or product herein. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made. cmp.ly/5/kf4rlc

What’s with the Long-Tail Cast-on knitting instructions?

As a child, I learned to knit.

My knitting was a mixture of: what my mother taught me, what I learned from a knitting pamphlet, and my own invention. Amazingly enough, it worked. Actually, it worked quite well. That is, until I attempted circular knitting and lace.

They were much less forgiving than knitting, purling, and even cables.

Over the past few years I’ve been seeking new ways (for me) to cast on. In retrospect my original cast-on either never made it to the knitting manuals or I remembered it wrong. Which is probably why it was so difficult challenging.

When I learned a two needle cast on by knitting the stitches on, my heart leaped. Now I could cast-on by simply knitting stitches on the needle. How cool is that?

Recently, I found the long-tail cast-on in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. Not only is it fast, it’s almost effortless to keep the stitches consistent and even. Once again, I’m in awe of Elizabeth’s knitting expertise.  Of course, she may not have invented this cast-on.

Its added bonus: with the cast-on, your first row of knitting is complete. Now that’s really clever!!

The pictures are a bit blurry, so the completed row may not be obvious. It’s there, though!

Here’s a video of the Long-Tail Cast-on knitting instructions.

And here’s a picture of a simple afghan square I made with the long-tail cast on:

Here’s the link for this simple afghan square’s free knitting instructions.

So, why are the long-tail cast-on knitting instructions popular?

• You can cast-on quickly.
• The stitches slip on and can be adjusted so all stitches are even without hours of practice!
• Once you finish your cast-on row, your first row is knit. So you can start with row 2: a real time saver!
• It can be started without the first stitch being a slip knot. Combined with the even stitches, this makes a very straight border.
• It’s easy to learn.

And yes, it’s already one of my favorite cast-on methods! My only question: Why didn’t I know about it before now?

Oh, and here’s my completed Log Cabin Afghan Square, and a second version.  It’s definitely faster to piece them for a quilt!

And these edges are all bind-offs, because the cast-on is for the center square.

If Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop isn’t part of your knitting library, you should seriously consider it. See if you also find this small book a treasure of knitting information.

Disclosure: I have a marketing connection to a brand, topic or product herein. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made. cmp.ly/5/kf4rlc

Knitting Instructions: What’s an elastic loose bind off (cast off)?

When ready to bind off my first toe-up knee sock, I nearly didn’t.

The knitting instructions for my socks said to “bind off loosely.”  With other projects, I’d been able to bind off loosely using one or two tried-and-true methods. A sock was different.

No matter which method I tried, it just didn’t stretch enough to get it on around my heel, let alone over my calf.  I searched all my knitting instruction books without help.  None of them have toe-up sock, top-down hat or finger-down mitten knitting instructions.

In reviewing this, it seems to be a fairly common dilemma.  Socks need to be snug enough on the calf to not fall down, and the usual loose bind-offs, often aren’t elastic enough.

So, just how do you bind off loosely?

1. Knit more loosely as you bind off either by adjusting the tension or by substituting a larger needle for the right-hand needle. Neither gave enough stretch for socks.
2. Use a sewed bind-off, such as Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Sewn Casting-off  from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac.   While she suggested using it for top down sweaters, again it just wasn’t quite elastic enough.
3. Knit with an elastic bind off method.  An Internet search led to Slip Slip Knit’s Miraculous Elastic Bind Off Knitting Instructions. And voila, it worked!  The link even includes nice pictures.

This bind-off has now become one of my favorites. And I can hardly wait to try it on other projects.

These socks were made with Wendy Knits’ Sprucey Lucy free knitting pattern.

For a great inexpensive reference for knitting, check out Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. It’s full of projects for every month of the year, and manages to be both charming and informative.

Combining knitting instructions for a knitting project

A couple of days ago, my cotton worsted yarn was calling.

Instead of the usual dishcloths, I decided to knit  washcloths. You know, the kind that are often referred to as spa washcloths. Many patterns for spa washcloths use garter stitch, which makes a good scrubbing surface.

However, it’s not as fancy as I wanted.

I like the two colors of a Ballband dishcloth. And making one the opposite or negative of the other economically uses 2 small balls of cotton yarn almost completely.

In looking closely at some of the dishcloths I’ve made from the Ballband knitting instructions, they looked unfinished. This one is a dish towel adapted from the Ballband knitting instructions.

The top and bottom have a nice border, but the sides look irregular and unfinished.

The knitting instructions give an option for crocheting a border. Part of me has always wanted to find a satisfactory knitted border option.  Somehow the crocheted border still looks unfinished to me. Or maybe sometimes I just like to make a 100% knitted item. Just because. 

I’ve been reading Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. And her I-cord instructions seemed just right. She even provides instructions for how to turn an outside corner!

So, I combined the knitting instructions: putting an I-cord border on a Ballband dishcloth.

And the result is a spa washcloth:

What do you do when knitting instructions don’t work?

A few days ago, I started two knitting projects, with patterns I haven’t used before.

Only one had a knitting gauge; the other one’s knitting instructions were well — pithy.

I think of myself as an intermediate to advanced knitter. Usually I can figure out the knitting instructions as I go. This time, however, both patterns presented challenges. And after a few inches, I realized they weren’t going well. Time to restart.

So, I frogged the knitting. You know, ripped out the stitches. [Everyone say it quickly: rip it, rip it, rip it! ]

And the result is:

At one point I would have grieved for the lost stitches. Now, I look at the yarn as recyclable, and ready for the same project, or a new one.

With time, I’ve become convinced that sometimes the instructions are wrong. And sometimes the designer just doesn’t knit the same way I do. Which is okay, after all we’re all individuals.  Which I suspect is one reason knitting is so comforting. In a world that wants to make us all fit into round holes, it’s nice to find a place where the square peg can, well just be a square peg.

And you know, it could easily be me. It’s just possible with the recent extreme weather we’ve had, and some personal and professional distractions that I didn’t concentrate enough on the knitting instructions to get them right. And you know, that’s okay too.

Knitting can be challenging, but it should always, always be fun. When it stops being fun, that’s the time to put down the knitting needles and do something else. Whether you come back in a few minutes or a few days or longer, it doesn’t matter. I suspect though that once you find the rhythm of the needles —what some call “the zone” — you’ll be back.

Just make sure it stays fun.

have you grabbed your free knitting bag pattern yet? If not, why not get it now while you’re thinking about it? Just subscribe on the right sidebar of TheKnittingYarn blog. And please, let me know how you like or don’t like the instructions!

Kool-Aid and Food Coloring Adventures

I used Kool Aid and food coloring for a nontoxic dye, and am happy with the results:

Dish towel knitting instructions: Where are you?

While I prefer to let dishes air dry, sometimes I still need to dry them by hand.

The other day, as I used a dish towel, it left the water untouched.  I tried a second, then a third. All of them refused to wipe the dishes dry.

The best drying towel seemed to be one that’s probably at least 15 years old. Unfortunately, it also has a large hole in its center.

Have you noticed most if not all the dish towels lately in the stores are manufactured outside the USA?  The ones I’ve had the most problems with are new. Perhaps it’s the yarn, the dyes, or even the manufacturing process?

After exhausting the available dish towels, I reached for a knitted cotton dishcloth. Surprisingly, it did a nice job of drying the dishes. Perhaps a bit small, but the pattern could be easily enlarged.

Have you noticed there aren’t many knitting patterns for dish towels?

Oh, it’s easy to find dishcloth knitting instructions online. Knitting Pattern Central has 277 dishcloth patterns, and 1 dish towel pattern. Even Ravelry lists 46 patterns for dish towels, but it appears only 25 or so are actually towels. And they have over 3000 patterns for knitted dishcloths listed!

Some are for dishcloths, just mislabeled as dish towels.

Three possible reasons for the scarcity of dish towel knitting instructions:

• Maybe they’re less popular because they’re a larger project?
• Maybe many folks don’t hand dry many dishes any more?
• Maybe designers just assume knitters enlarge dishcloth patterns themselves to make dish towels?

Making a dishcloth larger makes sense. An all-over pattern is easy to enlarge by simply adding more stitches — by keeping to the pattern repeat — and by adding rows to make a rectangle rather than a square.

You can see the dishcloth I enlarged by adding additional “bricks” to make a dish towel:

I found the ballband dishcloth knitting pattern inside the label of the Peaches & Creme blue denim cotton yarn. This link will take you to the online knitting instructions. Peaches & Creme cotton yarn is made in the USA from American materials.

When you want to hang the dish towel on a handle in the kitchen, you may want to customize the top, making it easy to hang or tie on the handle. Here’s a link for knitting instructions for topping cotton woven or terry cloth towels from Lion Brand Company that can be adapted for hand knit dish towels.

Of course, if you’re adventurous and don’t mind ripping and re-knitting if needed, you could try to make a top without knitting instructions.

You may find knitting dish towels with and without hanging tops easier — and faster — than you think!

If you’re looking for more specific instructions for a dishcloth and towel, check out my pattern for:  Garter Ripple Kitchen Set.

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