Knit for Brains dot Net

Archive for the ‘Techniques’ Category

I’ve been doing a little experimentation and designing for some minor pattern ideas that involved doing some i-cords, but they required a DPN of a certain size that I didn’t own. I popped in at Joann’s with one of my trusty 40% off coupons that blessedly rain from the sky these days and browsed the needle aisle. (By the way, do sign up for their email coupons at knitpicks.com)

A set of 4 Clover DPNs in the size 11 I was looking for would set me back about 12$ before the discount. That’s a lot to spend on an experiment, I thought, especially since I don’t use DPNs for anything, having nice sets of Options nickel and acrylic Zephyr circular needles. they have a nice taper at both ends…. Wait a second.

And there I realized I have all the DPNs I need. Without a cable these neat knitpicks.com circular needles sets can double for DPNs for my i-cord needs. they are a bit short for real DPN projects, but again, I don’t need them for that. So use your Options! Whether nickel plated tips, the  Zephyr acrylics or the Harmony wood needles, make use of your resources!

Saved my coupon, saved my money. End of story.

You can easily knit past the threaded holes when they are playing left needle.

A video posted on youtube by aephemera

“A quick little tutorial on making “plarn” -- plastic yarn made from grocery bags. You can crochet or knit with it to make environmentally responsible upcycled trashion items. Woohoo! Visit http://www.aephemera.net to check out the blog that this video is to be featured in.”

This is a curious technique. It looked worth trying. I had heard that in Peruvian knitting style the yarn was put around the neck, but not here, and I haven’t found any more info on that. You might want to look at this and give it a try. I experimented with it myself and find it seems like a fast variant of English throwing. I’m not crazy about it. The problem I had was in keeping the working yarn where I needed it near the tip of my middle finger, and I also found I needed to use my right hand to tension the yarn around the right needle tip when pulling the loop through.

What I love about the Portuguese style is that it keeps the tension on the yarn automatically, and I don’t need to balance the working strand on my finger. This answered the first big problem I had when I was just learning to knit, where I felt like I needed to be an octopus or have suckers on my fingers to control the yarn. I honestly wanted a third arm to handle the working yarn. I even thought of running the working yarn through a stack of books to keep it where I wanted it. And I even gave up on knitting briefly, and then I found exactly what I wanted in the Portuguese style.

Again, I’ve heard that there is a Peruvian style that is much like or the same as Portuguese, so this may be just another style they have down there. If you know of any video of the yarn-around-the-neck style they use in Peru (that isn’t done in this video), please let me know.

Thanks for stopping by. -- Eric

I was talking to my cousin Leigh about knitting one day and she mentioned she had not yet tried Portuguese Knitting (PK) yet, not having decided what to do about the pin/hook situation. She lives in hot, humid Tampa and doesn’t tend to wear garments that have much fabric up high where one would pin the PK pin for the yarn. So I suggested she use the little sock hanger idea, maybe from a short chain around her neck or a choker or such.

So today I tried that myself and it works great. Maybe better than a regular pin in that the chain I’m using has a set of beads on it that give it a little weight. So with the yarn on the sock hanger (you could use a j-hook or something more decorative, even make it a jewelry-like pendant) it kind of is suspended in the air, and hangs there on the weight of the beads as I knit. It seems to keep a nice, light tension on the working yarn.

I’ve seen Andrea on her DVD where you can hear the yarn vibrate almost like a guitar string as she flips it with her thumb. I get that as well, but when I knit with a hook or pin sitting in a fixed position on my shirt or vest there is no give or springiness to keep tension on the yarn in a flexible, self-adjusting way. I have to keep the work at the right distance and watch how I’m keeping my yarn tensioned with my right hand and arms. With the hook on a chain with beads for a little weight the tension is “managed” nicely for me by the springiness in the setup.

The one problem I’ve had with Portuguese style is that my knit stitches were always rather tight. I would have to deliberately pull the loops I was creating a bit more to open them up as I formed them. THIS HAS BEEN SOLVED by this trick with the hook on a weighted chain. I just did a few rounds on my speed practice swatch and find that now I must be sure I don’t give an extra pull when making a knit stitch or it’s too loose. Now my knit and purl stitches are all evenly tensioned and I can slide my stitches on my needles. I feel normal now. See #4 below on how to change the tension.

Here’s a picture of my first setup:

And it occurs to me that with a sock hanger you could use the second hook for a second color for color work knitting. And they are cheap! Not elegant, but cheap.

That said, I fashioned one that is more wearable as a pendant/necklace (see below). The possibliites are endless but the weight of the pendant is important, I find (see below). You could do one with a nice sterling j-hook and some cool beads on either side, or in anticipation of two color work, two hooks with beads keeping them apart.

There are a lot of nice j-hooks at www.silverenchantments.com and other places.

By the way, last night I was knitting with the sock hanger in the placket opening of my golf shirt. Turns out I wore the shirt to bed and woke up with the hanger still in place! I also accidentally wore it out to a restaurant. Oops. I think the pendant hooks necklace will be a lot less strange looking.

Notes added late 9-21-09:
More on the Portuguese knitting pendant idea:

A great thing about the knitting pendant is that as long as the pendant or beads are kept hanging in mid-air the tension on the yarn and your stitches is kept pretty much constant. I also find that the little bit of bounce from when you flick the yarn over the needle helps to advance the working yarn as you knit.

If you want something more elegant you can easily make a pendant or add a j-hook to something you have on a chain. I found an old rune pendant that I have and added a j-hook that I bought at Michael’s. It weighs 14 grams – I have a small digital fisherman’s scale I use for weighing balls of yarn. The beaded necklace you saw with the sock hanger on weighs 15 grams.

Here’s the one I made with a metal pendant:

IMPORTANT: You can experiment and see what weight produces the best tension for you. I tried a pendant weighing thirty grams and found it made my knit stitch tension to tight again. Twenty grams also made knit stitches tighter than I like on bamboo with acrylic yarn but might be okay on metal needles.

After more research I’ve found the critical elements are:
1. Pendant weight of about 15 grams. Mine is 14 grams.
2. Chain/cord length of 24 inches.
3. When knitting, keep the angle between the cord and your yarn between about 150 degrees and 170 degrees, meaning its closer to a flat angle as you work so the weight of the pendant can have full effect and “bounce”. This keeps your loops on your needle tips and draws the loops on the needles closed.
UPDATE:
4. If your resulting tension is too tight, as it tends to be for me on knit stitches, allow the pendant to be closer to your chest (let it hang lower so the angle is smaller, more toward 90-120 degrees). This will reduce the pull on the yarn. If your tension is too loose, keep the pendant higher in the air and this will effectively increase the pull a little to tighten up the loops. Totally adjustable tension!

On that note you might want to make a pendant set with easily removed charms or such so you can vary the weight as you experiment to find the right weight. If you don’t have a digital scale note that for reference a USA nickel weighs approximately five grams.

And here is my version for stranded knitting:

This is what I made for fair isle work.

I don’t have the exact weight of the pendant but it felt about the same as my single strand version. Worked great. Those are carnelian beads. If you make one with such beads be aware that with all the bouncing that over time the wire cord you use will wear through and the strand is likely to break, so this is not necessarily the best design unless you want to periodically restring your necklace to prevent surprises.

Added 10-13-09: And here’s a budget version you can make. I bought a pair of flipflops to day and they came on this plastic clip. It could be used in a similar way. Just hang it on a chain or string with a loop to keep it centered. You will need to add some weight though, as this is very light. Here’s the pic:

Flip-flop sandal clip from store.

(May I suggest you subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog as often update it with new discoveries, as I have above in this post about the Portuguese knitting pendant.)

- Eric

One oddity about Portuguese Knitting (PK) is that as you knit you use up the yarn coming from your pin or from your neck. Gradually your WIP rises and rises and ends up closer and closer to your face and you have to pause to pull more yarn into the space between you and your needles. We would rather keep the work flowing smoothly and at a comfortable distance. So as you practice PK you will want to spend some time focusing on how to advance your working yarn.

One thing I do is build in a little tug with my left thumb while I’m flicking the yarn over the needle. In my right hand I control the yarn by going under my index finger, over my middle finger, under my ring finger and over and fully around my pinkie to help keep the tension. When I need to advance the yarn just lifting my pinkie up a bit loosens the brakes on the strand and if I do this when I tug with my left thumb it works out fine.

Experiment and practice and you will find a way that works for you to make your PK flow smoother.

If you need videos on PK check out the links I have in the Information box on the right. Thanks for stopping by.

- Eric

Learn to avoid the dreaded Portuguese Tug-o-War!

In perusing the ravelry.com cable knitting groups I found a thread “defending the lowly cable needle”. I have no doubt each of us will have our preference for working cables. Some are adept and doing it with an old fashioned cable needle as instructed in the patterns, to “let the cable needle hang to the front/back” while knitting the other stitches. Some people are scared of cables, but I’ve found there are other ways that may be easier and a lot less scarier. I really like the look of cables so was very frustrated trying to do it the more common ways, so I kept looking and thinking, with good results.

One way I came up with recently is outlined in the post A New And Better Way To Knit Cables. It uses a crochet hook in the right hand along with the right needle, and can be used with any knitting style. While posting to groups about this discovery I found the thread mentioned above and in it Lynne from Great Britain, who goes by the ravelry.com name Mini-mum, tells about her way of doing cables. She has been knitting for over 40 years and is quite adept at cables. Her techniques is also great, and it will work fine for English and Portuguese styles of knitting but it won’t work for continental or eastern/combined knittiers as it requires you to hold a third needle in your left hand while knitting, and that’s where they hold their yarn. If you use continental or eastern/combined (or English or Portuguese) then try my way with a crochet hook, or try the pinch methods.

Lynne says,

“I normally use slick nickel plated needles for knitting with. I love them. However, I find it helps to use a bamboo (third needle) as it clings to the knitting better and doesn’t slip around ‘without permission’.

Definitely use a bamboo needle. Lynne uses a spare dpn herself. I went to Joann’s and got a set of #4 straight knitting needles by Clover for use with most of my cable knitting. I figure that size will be easy to get into loops for several sizes upwards of that, and the smaller size doesn’t matter relative to the needles you are knitting with as your right needle determines your gauge. I’ll probably get a set of #1s for when I do socks, now that I see this method works fine, although considering the tight workspace of sock knitting I may go with my crochet hook method. I’ll have to do some tests.

HOLDING THE THIRD NEEDLE

Lynne writes,

“The (third needle) is not exactly parallel as my left index finger is in between the two needles to keep them apart, otherwise it would get in the way of knitting.”

“The (third) needle is held in my left hand, parallel to the left hand needle. I don’t move it unless it’s to roll it over the LH needle to the front (for a right twist cable) rather than the back (for a left twist cable). I don’t drop it, I don’t put it down, I just flick it out of the way, between other fingers, but bear in mind that I enjoy cable projects that have a lot of cables in them, not just every few rows.”

This pic shows how I tried holding the third needle. It also shows Max noticing the bamboo needle.

Experiment with holding the third needle while knitting. I have it under my middle and ring finger, with my index and pinky under the third needle. As you can see in the picture the knob end of the third needle is up toward my pinky knuckle, and the tip end is beyond the middle joint of my index finger. You need to be able to bring it in to where your loops are to take them off. How you hold it will depend on comfort and how you work out the functional best for you.

Max, part panda apparently, attacks the bamboo needle. How ever you decide to hold the needle, don't hold it too near a bamboo-eating cat.

Lynne again:

“I take the stitches off the LH needle with my RH needle and then just pass them to the (third needle). I then knit the next stitches off the LH and then knit off the (third needle) needle. I don’t pass the stitches from the (third needle) to the LH needle, I knit them straight off.”

I, however, find that sometimes it’s not difficult to just take the stitches off the left needle directly to the third needle and it saves a step. Just insert it from the left. This is easier if your third needle is a few sizes smaller than your primary needles. You may want to guard the left tip with a right finger to keep from pushing them off the left needle into thin air.

Here are pictures of the technique mid-process for left- and right-twist cables:

For a left-twist cable leave the third needle in back while knitting the second set of loops.

For a right twist, after transferring the first set of loops to the third needle, reposition it in front of the primary needles. Then knit the second set, then knit off the third needle.

Says Lynne:

“I do tend to push the cable/dpn a bit further through than is usual in order that when I knit the stitches off the LH needle I don’t accidentally push the cable stitches off too.”

Push your third needle in an inch or so to give you a good safety margin while knitting the inner set of loops. Knit the inner loops from the left needle, then move the third needle so the loops are in knitting position and knit the outer loops directly from the third needle in your left hand.

“Once the stitches are done, then the cable/dpn remains between other fingers so that it’s not in the way of the plain knitting, but the key thing is that it’s not put down all the time.”

Again, Lynne says she likes patterns with a lot of cables in it so she keeps the third needle in hand. It’s not uncomfortable, but you can make your choice based on your need to use it.

Another thing to like about this method is it seems you don’t have so much of the tightness typical of doing a cable crossover. It really was pretty easy.

Lynne adds this regarding more complex cable work:

“I use a smaller sized circular for double cables and hold the stitches on the cord so that a needle isn’t in the way if it’s not being knitted off. It’s a breeze to pull the needle back through the stitches when you’re ready to do the second part of the fancy cable. Magic.”

Lynne’s way is a great method. I haven’t used it extensively, so I can’t say fully how it works out, but I like it and will give it a try in the scarf I’m working on.

Visit Lynne’s site at http://www.mini-mum.com/ to see her work.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Eric

I have been learning to knit over the last two months. When I first really looked into knitting and found some great books at the stores I was very excited about cables, for one thing. Cable knit garments looked so odd – not that I had never seen them before. It was just cool that you could do that with knitting, what with all the patterns you could make moving the cables left and right.

Then I tried doing cables. Not so much fun. Using a cable needle was a bit cumbersome. A couple of times, with my slippery nickel plated Options needles I have lost loops off my left or right needle in the process and had to restrain my panic as I prayed to the knitting angels that I could retrieve them. Maybe cables should be done on bamboo by default, I thought. No.

Then I discovered, as in a recent post, that you can do cables without needles in a sort of pinch and switch method. I’ve experimented with this and while it sure looks easy on video, and maybe is easier with larger needles, for a tighter knit on smaller needles it is more precarious than using a cable needle. I thought there had to be a better way.

I had come across a cable thimble on another web site and wondered if that would be a useful tool, but found no instructions on how to use it. I tried making one myself with wire, but still couldn’t figure it out. Plus, the little cable thimble sells for about 10.00 USD and that wasn’t worth it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am starting my Fountains pattern scarf in red superwash by Cascade. Well, after all the above experimentation, struggling with the pinch and switch method, I just about quit last night. I all but ripped it out. I even decided on another pattern called “lighted torches” that doesn’t have any cable crossovers.

Then an impression came into my mine, and image from the Angels of knitting: use a crochet hook held in the right hand along with the right needle to temporarily hold the outer loops while doing the swap with the inner loops. So I tried it this morning with a crochet hook and it worked! It was much easier to manage the switcheroo of the loop sets. No struggling with the tightness of the loops, no fear of losing loops, and it seemed quicker to do.

Here’s how to do cables this way. You are ready to do your crossover. Let’s say it is a three plus three crossover. I chose a crochet hook to give me the extra security for the loops in limbo, and it keeps the loops from closing down. Use a crochet hook that is a size or two smaller than your knitting needle – this makes the loop transfers a bit easier. I used a size 5 hook with a size 6 needle. Hold the crochet hook along side the right needle. If your instructions say to hang the cable needle in the back, then put the crochet needle in back of your right needle and in front if it says to hang the cable needle in front.

The switcheroo with the loop sets on the right needle and hook, ready to be moved back to the left. And Max makes an appearance as well at the upper right. I was using his needles.

Use the crochet hook to pick up the first three (outer) loops off the tip of the left needle. Then slip the next three (inner) loops from the left needle to the right needle. Now slip the outer loops from the crochet hook back to the left needle, and lastly use the left needle to pick up the three loops you slipped to the right needle. Now you are ready to just resume knitting.

Summary of the switcheroo:

1. Slip first set of loops from left needle to crochet hook at the back or front of the right needle per your pattern instructions.

2. Slip second set of loops to the right needle.

3. Slip first set of loops from crochet hook to the left needle.

4. Drop the crochet hook when it’s empty.

5. Slip second set of loops back to the left needle. All loops have been returned to the left needle.

6. Knit the loops.

7. Get up and dance around.

As you can see, it’s a good bit different from using a cable needle. The hook is used to rearrange the loops before knitting them and is not let go of until the loops are rearranged. Then you drop it and knit all the loops for the crossover without interruption. With a cable needle you transfer the first half to the cn, knit the other half, knit the first half off the cable needle. In any case, this way seem less clumsy and more secure as I don’t ever loosen my grip on the left needle. I’ve had my left needle slip out of loops while working with the cable needle.

So now the world is a better place. We can cable without fear. I just knew that scarf was not going to be fun until this idea came to me. I just hope it makes cables easier for some as it has for me.

There’s a fine book called Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi. As you can tell, I disagree with the sentiment. Sorry. Socks Suck on Two Circular Needles.

As of this writing I have just begun my first sock. I thank God there is more than one way, and especially that there is the magic loop method that uses one circular needle.

The idea of knitting a sock with a hedgehog of dpns was never attractive to me. Frankly, it also looks like bad feng shuei, what with all those needles pointing at everyone. So I never gave that method a thought. My cousin Leigh was going to try them but I’m urging her to use magic loop.

So I did at first test the method with two circular needles. For some reason I avoided the magic loop at first as it sounded too magical. Complete ignorance there. Anyway, the two circ method is done with one at the back of the sock and one at the front, with half the loops on each. In all honesty it was visually confusing to see both needles hanging there. Also, the weight of the back needle caused that half of the beginning of the sock to hang strangely and that only got me more confused.

Again, at first the magic loop seemed really alien. How could that even be possible? But having given up on the two circular method I had to try magic loop and it really is the best. It’s very easy to tell what you are doing, where you are, and repositioning the needles for the turn to the next half round is a snap. On two circs I was confused at that point also. I kept getting mixed up about which one to move in which direction. With one circular needle it’s very clear. There’s only one thing you CAN do. You just slide your filled up working needle out of the loops and your emptied left needle back into the other loops. The working end of your circular needle stays the working end, going round and round, chasing the other needle as you knit. Turn the work, move the needle tips to the start position and start the next half round. It is so easy! Good thing. I was running out of ways to knit socks!

I was also happy to see that there was not even the slightest sign of laddering at the turns, even without me pulling the yarn tight for the first stitch.

Here's my test tube. Even with this space between the left needle and the back cable there were no ladders.

There’s a little more to doing socks on one circular needle. This probably applies to using two circs as well. The best pictures of sock construction for this method I found are in How to Knit Socks: Three Methods Made Easy, by Edie Eckman. Apparently, there are ways to position various sections of the stitches for different parts of the sock, so do look into it before starting off.

I have the Sweater Workshop book by Jacqueline Fee which calls for dpns to knit sleeves and collars, so I did buy a set, but now that I’ve tasted the magic loop I think I can use it for that as well, so I ordered a sixty inch cable for my Options needles and will use that.

So there you go. I hope you enjoy, and if you use the other two methods or gave up on them do try the magic loop. I think you will be glad. Use a 40 inch circular to give yourself enough room.

And someone has a book on how to do two socks on one circular needle. I can see that would work as well, but you would have to contend with two sources of yarn, or more if you are doing multiple colors.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

- Eric

RE-EDITED ON 8-28-2009

Hi there,

The other day I was pleased to find out how to do cables without a cable needle, but the more I experiment with it the less excited I am about the technique. The rest of this post introduces that technique and there is a link to a video that shows how, but I have a better way that came to me this morning, a gift from the knitting angels, Knitatron and Perlael. (You can take that tongue in cheek.) Read the post A New and Better Way to Knit Cables.

When I first got into knitting I discovered that cables were strangely exciting to me. I had to restrain myself from buying cable pattern books. (I was unable to do this with sock books). I still long for the gray cable vest I saw in one book. They just look, well, “hot,” not just warm.

I’ve only been knitting a couple of months now and after learning and practicing the basics I’ve settled on my first two real projects. On is a practice sock, primarily to test the Sock Wizard software, and the other is a scarf in dark red super-wash wool by Cascade. The pattern I picked is called Fountains, and I got it out of the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns by Sterling Books. It’s a complex mix of little cable crossovers and lace (a guy would say it has holes in it. It’s NOT lace!). The pattern doesn’t look feminine to me, and has a great multi-level effect. Here’s a picture.

Yeah, I know it’s pretty advanced for a beginner, but one reason I’m doing knitting is to develop concentration. This should about do it. Anyway, on my first attempt I didn’t know how to do a cable without a cable needle and it was very clumsy working with and around the cable needle and left needle. It also introduced the risk of my left needle slipping and me losing some loops from it.

The fountains pattern has a twenty stitch wide repeat by twelve rows. In that block there are nine crossovers! Trying to do it with a cable needle I gave up after the first three. Then on the very next day I was browsing around the web and found a video on doing cables without a needle in Portuguese knitting style. The no-needle cable technique is better watched than explained, so I won’t bother here. And even though it is Portuguese style the trick works for all styles of knitting. Here’s the video:

Portuguese Knitting Lesson – Left Twist

So, that video is useful in demonstrating this method, but in practice it’s not much easier than using a cable needle. I’m sure with more practice I would get better, but honestly it wasn’t fun to work this trick. I tried this on worsted weight wool with #8 needles and it was very precarious. I nearly lost loops a few times, and the tightness that is inherent in the process of crossing stitches like this made it more difficult.

I almost gave up on my Fountains scarf again. Then this morning I tried an idea that came to me when I was trying this no-needle trick, and my idea was much easier. It uses a crochet hook. I have complete instructions in the post A New and Better Way to Knit Cables.

So I’m back to the fountains pattern and very happy to see I’ll be able to work cables with greater ease in the future. For a while there I thought I would just have to give up on them again. I’m saved!

By the way, I have a book called Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch that has some cool patterns of cables with the cable winding around yarnover holes! Very cool. Built-in ventilation! And like I said, I’m starting my first sock. I will have a post or three on that soon. I’m using the magic loop technique with one circular needle, which is great. After a test sock I will try something with cables or something.

Thanks again.

Eric

(To learn more about Portuguese knitting follow the link to the youtube videos in Information box on the right, further down the page, or visit andreawongknits.com to order her DVDs.)

Hi,

As I practice more with Portuguese knitting, becoming more aware of the rhythm and movements and reading my stitches, I’m finding ways to refine my knitting technique. I also found I was getting into a bad habit of “nursing” the yarn as I work a stitch, meaning using my index fingers to secure, hold and manipulate the yarn and loops rather than trusting the right needle tip to move the yarn. I realized part of this was due to a flaw in my technique where I was pulling the yarn to the right for purls and left for knits, trying to keep the right needle in front of the left, and this left the yarn at an insecure position, so I felt I needed to hold it with my fingers.

Fortunately that was easy to remedy. In Portuguese knitting you do insert the right needle through the front loops and bring it up between you and the left needle to pick up the yarn. My error was thinking I had to push the right needle to the left or right and then up on top of the left needle – my side of it – to finish the stitch. Again, this is the wrong trajectory and doesn’t hold the yarn securely. So I forced myself not to use my index fingers to stabilize the yarn and loops and this forced me to discover how to do it right.

For purling, you insert the right needle from the left and up in front of the left, then flick the yarn around the needle with your left thumb, then PUSH the right needle under and back and slightly to the right – diagonally away to the right as if toward where your right knee would normally be. Moving in this direction keeps the yarn on the needle tip and there’s no need to use your fingers to secure it. For knit stitches it’s the reverse direction you want to go. Pull the new loop you are making toward your left bicep, more or less.

(Remember that the essential difference between knit and purl stitches is that in a knit stitch you pull a new loop toward you and in purling you push a new loop away from you. Knowing this also makes it easier to read your stitches and know what you need to do next or how to fix what you just did!)

By refining my technique in this way I find it’s not only easier but my knitting fluidity and speed have increased significantly.

Thanks for stopping in to the blog today!

- Eric