Tutorials • Blog Posts
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Tutorial: Knitted Flower Buds (worked in the round)
The Frida Tee is a hybrid top-down tee with flower bud cable panels that frame the top and bottom. The knitted flower buds are worked in the round over two rounds. You make the flower bud on first round and then close the flower bud on the second round. Here I’m sharing a quick photo…
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Tutorial: LLD (left-leaning decrease)
The Prairie Fire Shawl uses this left-leaning decrease (LLD) in place of the traditional ssk. This is a new-to-me knitting technique so I’m sharing this quick tutorial of the process for knitters. In the pattern abbreviations, the LLD (left-leaning decrease) reads “worked over 2 sts, Insert the right-hand needle as if to knit into first stitch leaving…
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Tutorial: Picking Up Necklines
Picking up necklines is a topic that comes up fairly regularly with test knitters and during pattern support. A lot of sweater patterns direct knitters to come back to the neckline at the end of the project. In my designs, the main reason for this practice is to stabilize and strengthen a neckline. As with…
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Alternating Skeins of Hand-Dyed Yarn in Projects
This Spring I’ve worked on my first two garment-size projects out of small batch hand-dyed yarn from an Indie Dyers. Both yarns are a joy to knit. Since I’ve never worked on larger projects out of hand-dyed yarn, I’ve been learning as I go and thought I’d share a little about that process here. I…
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Travel: Fiber Trails of the Upper Rio Grande
Last week I went on my first solo adventure in more than 17 years!!! I’ll admit to being a little bit scared walking out my front door since I wasn’t sure I still remembered how to travel alone, plus 1500 miles is a long road trip. I went on a fiber tour of the upper…
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Knitting Bags
My go-to knitting bag for years has been the heavy duty clear plastic kind with zippers and purse-like handles. I’ve got them in multiple sizes from small sock-sized projects to huge sweater-sized and larger projects. Recently I decided it would be fun to branch out and try other kinds. So I spent my birthday fun…
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Knitting Needle Storage
I know I’ve mentioned “the tiny cat” before. And I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about the kinds of trouble she can cause. So you might be concerned when I tell you that the tiny cat recently noticed my circular needle storage. It definitely worried me. It worried me enough that I’ve just changed the way…
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Tutorial – Brianna Cloak Hood Simple Tuck Method
My Brianna Cabled Cloak pattern uses an optional simple tuck method to avoid a pointed hood. The initial instructions can be confusing but the process is really pretty simple. Here is a quick look at the hood at the completed hood with the normal point at the back after it is seamed together at the…
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Fixing Cables
There are two small mis-crossed cables on the sample garment for my Amelia sweater. I didn’t notice them right away and once I did I had moved on to other projects. So, the Amelia sweater went into storage with the other sample garments until this fall when I pulled it out to update the pattern for 2018. …
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A Closer Look at Knitting Charts
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here and there are already many great resources available for reading knitting charts. Two of my favorites for covering the basics and beyond are from Knotions and Tin Can Knits. Here are links to both: https://knotions.com/knoted/tutorial-read-knitting-chart/ and https://blog.tincanknits.com/2014/06/06/how-to-read-a-knitting-chart/ Or this video is a very clear look at beginning chart reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytbcX5R6G98 For…