11.12.08
Posted in Sock Club, Tuesday Tips at 12:43 pm by Sue
Well, I’ve finally caught my breath after the International Quilt Festival… it ended over a week ago, but it probably won’t surprise any of you who met me there that I both lost my voice (must have been too many demos of Flat Feet and the Swirl Shawl!), and subsequently pulled some tiny, but apparently very important, muscle in my back while packing up at the end of the show. But I’m pretty much back to normal now, and catching up on things again. Whew!
The Quilt Festival was a HUGE event, hundreds of vendors, and thousands of attendees… we stayed busy the entire time, and met many wonderful knitters and quilters. Were you there?? Leave a comment to let us know how you liked the show!
I had wonderful helpers too – MANY thanks to Laura, Danuta, Elisa, Vicki, and Karen, not to mention my DH (who one customer nicknamed “Ruler Man” because he was handing out Great Yarn Company gauge rulers with abandon…), my own Mom, and my mother-in-law. Neither of the Moms knits, so it was especially fun to see both of them jump in and start demo’ing items!! Aren’t they cute?
Here’s my sweet mom (in the pink top) helping at the Flat Feet table:
And this is my very supportive mother-in-law (on the right), demonstrating Flat Feet yarn!
In knitting, I have made a lot of progress since the last time I posted about my Wrap Me Up Shawl – it’s almost finished, and I’m working on the dragon tooth edging now. I hope to have it fully completed in a few days, just in time for the little bit of cooler weather we get down here in Texas.
And I finally, FINALLY, finished my DH’s “Eternal Socks” – that’s what I nicknamed them because it seems that I’ve been working on them forever. When I gave them to him, he put them on immediately, sighed, and said, “AAhhhhh….!” Okay, maybe I’m a softie, but that made it all worthwhile! I don’t recall the exact yarn, I think maybe it was Trekking… here’s a look at the finished socks:
Tuesday Tips – knitting tips you can USE!
I know, this is Wednesday, but it’s been so long since my last tip that I thought I’d sneak one on in you!
Do you have trouble with “ladders” when you knit socks on either DPNs or circulars? Ladders are little lines of stretched-out stitches running down the length of your sock, right where you change needles, and they are caused by inconsistent tension when you move from one needle to the next.
Many people try to fix this by tugging the yarn tightly when they make the first stitch on the new needle, but that tightens the last stitch on the previous needle, which does not eliminate the ladder. (Don’t believe it? Try it and watch which stitch gets tighter.)
A better solution is to tug the yarn more tightly on the SECOND stitch on the new needle. Just knit (or purl) the first stitch as usual, then after you insert the needle into the SECOND stitch, give the working yarn a good tug, and complete the stitch. See? It snugged up the first stitch on the needle, and there should be no sloppy loose stitch now. This works no matter which method you use for knitting in the round – DNS’s, two circulars, or one long circular.
And a quick note to our GYC Sock Club members: Your Winter Sock kits will be shipping very soon – they’re all put together, just waiting on one last item, and then they’ll be on their way to you! Get ready for some sock-knitting fun!
So glad my voice has returned and that I can MOVE again (ouch!),
Sue
Permalink
08.26.08
Posted in Sock Club, Tuesday Tips at 10:09 pm by Sue
Tuesday Tips – knitting tips you can use!
What on earth is this? Can you guess? It’s one of my favorite knitting tools. I made it myself, and you can too.
I call this my 1-2 marker, and I originally got the idea from a sock knitting book, but I can’t recall which one.
So what is this and how do you use it? It’s designed to keep track of something that alternates, like an increase row and a non-increase row, where you increase in one round but not the next, over and over again. A good example is when you’re knitting the gusset area of a sock. One row has increases (or decreases, depending on whether you’re knitting toe up or toe down), and the next has none.
To keep track of this, I would place one of this marker’s rings as a stitch marker on a non-increase row. The rest of the marker just hangs straight down. Then when I get back around to the marker, I’m on an increase row, so I slip the second ring right next to the first one, using the two rings together as a stitch marker. Now I’ve got two rings on the needle, where I had only one before, and the marker hangs in a loop with both rings on the needle.
When knitting, you “read” the marker by counting rings. One ring = no increase. Two rings is MORE than one ring, so that signifies an INCREASE row. How simple is that? You could define your own method for using this, just decide that one ring means one thing, and two rings means something else. If you’re alternating between two kinds of rows, this is a very simple tracking method.
I have never seen a marker like this in shops, so I made my own with a few silver beads, two jump rings, and some monofilament line. Took all of about 5 minutes to make, and I totally love it. Hope you love it too – email me photos of yours when you make one!!
And in SOCK CLUB news – Sock Club Sign-ups begin TOMORROW!!! I can’t wait!!
Working hard to get everything ready for the onslaught when sign-ups begin tomorrow,
Sue
Permalink
07.15.08
Posted in Tuesday Tips, What's New at 2:40 pm by Sue
I recently finished the Branching Out scarf, from Knitty, in Silky Wool from Elsebeth Lavold, the yarn the pattern called for. It’s a gorgeous scarf, and I am totally in love with Silky Wool – I love the soft/crisp feel on the needles, and I especially love how it softens up as you handle it. My scarf’s color is Verdigris, which we’ll have in stock very soon!
Here’s my Silky Wool scarf, still awaiting blocking (What can I say? I love knitting very much, but I love blocking somewhat less…) Do you ever get stuck at this point? You knit it, you love it, but you can’t quite work up the energy to block it?
What do you do? Just wear it as is? That’s my favorite “solution”, and that works beautifully with socks, which don’t really need blocking to look good. But maybe I could be a wee bit more disciplined about blocking things like scarves, don’t ya think? How do you motivate yourself to block your finished items?
We’ve also added Hempathy, another Elsebeth Lavold yarn. It’s a summery blend of hemp (no, not THAT kind of hemp), cotton, and Modal – and it’s available in a pretty range of summer colors.
And ON SALE now: Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome and Lily Chin Chelsea yarns – check them out!
Tuesday Tips — knitting tips you can USE!
Tired of chasing yarn balls across the floor? I love this tip! Use a clean plastic container, maybe an empty food storage container or plastic box, large enough to hold one (or several) balls of yarn, several inches tall, with a fairly wide mouth, so it’s easy to reach your hand inside, and large enough to not tip over easily.
Drop in your ball of yarn, set it on the floor at your feet, and you can knit without worrying about the yarn running away. The yarn stays put and stays clean. Here are two of my containers – nothing fancy, but they work.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you could cut a small hole in the lid, feed your working yarn up thru the hole, and put the lid back on the container to restrain that wayward ball even more, but I’ve never needed to use the lid, the open containers work fine for me.
Trying not to think about how many finished projects still need blocking…
Sue
Permalink
07.01.08
Posted in Sock Club, Tuesday Tips at 3:21 pm by Sue
Wow, you guys really like contests! Competition’s hot and heavy to be mentioned in the most comments and win a $15 store credit at Great Yarn Company! Don’t forget – everyone who comments by midnight on July 4th will be entered in the random drawing for a second $15 store credit!
Looks like most of you are sock-knitters (YEA for socks!!) – me too! And guess what’s coming soon? The very first GYC Sock Club. It’ll be a quarterly club – four sock kits per year, in seasonal colors. Once every three months, you’ll receive a new sock kit. We’re matching up the patterns and yarns, so all you gotta do is knit ‘em! And we’ll tuck some fun goodies into every package. More details and registration coming soon!
Tuesday Tip: How to prevent scissors from poking holes in your knitting bag. 
This one’s so simple! I use a needle point protector as my “scissors-point protector.” Since I usually knit on circulars, I don’t get much use out of my rubbery point protectors, which keep stitches from slipping off the ends of straight needles. So I “re-purposed” one of them, and it now lives on the end of my little knitting/embroidery scissors in my knitting bag.
With visions of sock yarns in my head,
Sue
Permalink
06.17.08
Posted in Tuesday Tips at 9:20 pm by Sue
Well, did you do it? Did you get out there and KIP (Knit in Public) for International Knit in Public Day on Saturday? I did! I met a whole lot of knitters at the mall, and boy, did we ever knit! There sure are a lot of knitters in Houston… Everyone had a good time, lots of stitches were accomplished (and a few were dropped… ask me how I know). I had a great time handing out our new Great Yarn Company gauge rulers. If you don’t have one yet, don’t panic! We’re tucking them into every outgoing order (while they last), so if you didn’t get one yet, look for it in your next package from GYC!
I hope you got to spend some quality time with your family on Father’s Day. We stayed in, and I made a special dinner for my dear hubby. We’re not originally Texans, but we’re getting the hang of it – he requested chicken-fried steak – something this New Orleans girl had never cooked before, but I rose to the occasion, and ya know, it was pretty darned good. (Note that I didn’t say healthy… because you can’t say healthy and chicken-fried steak in the same sentence!) We ended with Boston Cream Pie, another of his favorites. I wasn’t quick enough to photograph the chicken-fried steak, but I did get a quick pic of the dessert, just before it disappeared.
Tuesday Tip:
Now and then, but always on a Tuesday, I’ll share some of my favorite knitting tips. I’ve been doing this one for a long time, and it saves me a lot of headaches. I usually knit 2 socks on 2 circulars, with two balls of yarn in action at once, so tangles are a frequent problem. The tangles are caused by turning the work the same way over and over again, which wraps the working yarns around each other. The solution is to attach a split-ring stitch marker, safety pin, or bit of waste yarn to the outer edge of one sock. I usually put it on the edge where my round starts. When you turn the work, turn it so that the marker always passes either on the edge of the work closest to you, or farthest from you (doesn’t matter which, as long as you do it the same way every time). So now you’ll turn your work clockwise one time, and counter-clockwise the next. No more tangles!
Happy Knitting,
Sue
Permalink
