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!

Lace lifeline

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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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.

Striped fingerless mitten

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:

Closeup of stripe pattern in knitting instructions

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:

Mosaic knitting fingerless mittens

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

Close-up of right side

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

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.

Sprucey Lucy Knee High Socks

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.

When you buy enough yarn to finish a project, there’s often some left over.

The alternative, however, is to not have enough yarn.  Which can be even more frustrating … especially if you’re trying to match dye lots.  Or, if you’re blessed with hand-dyed, maybe there is no more of that dye lot.

After a project, sometimes there’s just not enough of a ball left to hold its shape.  Leaving it unwound invites all kinds of tangled messes before you can use it.

For years, I rewound yarn the way I was taught as a child.  You may have been taught the same way: wind around three or four fingers, and then slip it off and wind a ball.  You’ve probably noticed the problem with this method: when using the yarn from the center, the center tends to pop out in a clump, sometimes with more yarn than you want … and sometimes with a tendency to tangle.

Of course, a ball winder will alleviate this problem: sometimes though it’s not convenient or in the budget.  My sister, who spins, has a short dowel she uses to wind her yarn.  She makes lovely yarn balls with it.

However, I keep forgetting to look for a dowel in my infrequent trips to the hardware store.  So, I decided to improvise.

With a pencil!

Here’s the technique:

First, you wind a strand down and around the bottom.  Since this is a small ball of yarn, I didn’t use the whole length of the pencil.

Wind horizontally next …

Then just wind your ball …

The yarn will slip off the pencil (or dowel), with the center loose enough to easily use.

The pencil was fine for small balls of yarn, but I needed something larger for bigger balls …

Next I tried a highlighter. Checking first to be sure it wasn’t leaking!

Not quite ideal because the diameter was larger than optimal, and it’s a bit difficult to pull off the highlighter.

A tapered end would work better, and the ball would slip off more easily. And, inspiration struck!

One of my size 15 tips from my Denise Knitting Needles from Alpaca Direct! It’s the right diameter — more or less — and its tapered ends make sliding the ball off smooth and easy. Instead of wrapping the yarn around the end of the needle tip, I just made a U shape to start, then wound the ball.

And voila …

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