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Finishing cables that join together neatly can be tricky. In all of our Mystery Knit-a-Longs Ann and I have developed tutorials to help with the trickier and new techniques. This years MKAL, Two Heads Are Better, is no exception.
Two Heads Are Better MKAL crown details
The cable pattern in the crown of Ann’s design has the cables coming together to finish neatly. The following YouTube video is the tutorial I put together to help work these. It makes a lovely centred cabled decrease.
Caffeic
This tutorial explains the technique of Purl When You Can technique and the accompanying pattern gives the opportunity to practice and perfect it.
Purl When You Can (PWYC) is a technique to work stranded colourwork from the cast on edge without having to make a cuff. When working in stocking stitch, a cuff is normally added to the top and bottom edges to ensure the edges do not curl when finished.
Meg Swansen introduced this technique and it is very useful for when you want the colourwork pattern to reach the edges of the knitting. I have used it in my Caffeic pattern and in the Neck and Neck! MKAL pattern.
The basic technique involves when working into as stitch of the same colour, purl it instead of knitting. If working into a contrasting colour stitch then knit it as usual. This only needs to be done in the first (or last) four or five rounds. The purl stitches act like ribbing does to prevent curling, but in a much less regular pattern than ribbing.
Caffeic is a free coffee cup cozy pattern that uses this technique. It can be downloaded here.
I recommend if using PWYC to use the German Twisted Cast-on technique. I would also work a purl row before starting the colourwork pattern to reduce curling.
The normal colourwork chart for Caffeic (without using PWYC) looks like this:
Caffeic chart without PWYC
All stitches are worked in knit. If this was worked as it is, the top and bottom of the cozy would curl up because stocking stitch is slightly longer on the wrong (purl) side than it is on the right (knit) side.
The next chart shows how it would look with 4 rows top and bottom using PWYC.
Caffeic chart with PWYC
As you can see, the purl stitches are in the main colour only, and only when the stitch below is also a main colour. I could purl all the contrasting colour stitches when they above another contrasting colour stitch, however only a few purl stitches are needed to stop the curling and so the contrasting colour is all worked in knit.
When working towards a cast off edge without a cuff, I normally work one purl row before casting off. If any of the stitches in the row below are a contrasting colour then I do not purl these but knit them. This stops the purl bump being in the wrong colour. Finally I cast off in knit, except the stitches that are knitted in the row below which are cast off in purl.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Purl When You Can and my free Caffeic pattern.
Happy knitting,
Sarah x
One of the two cast-ons used in part 1 of the Neck & Neck! MKAL is the Chinese Waitress Cast-on. This is a lovely technique that produces a reversible edge that looks almost like a 2 stitch i-cord.
In the video below I show how to do this cast on and it has been added to my tutorial webpage.
This is how the finished cast-on looks from the front:
Front view (right side) of Chinese Waitress Cast-on
And the back:
Back view (wrong side) of Chinese Waitress Cast-on
Happy knitting,
Sarah x
The above photo is from my next book, Beautiful Knits for Beautiful Sticks, which will be available to pre-order from the 12th September. The pattern is Elegantia, a jumper that has a braided empire waist shaping and zip fastening.
I have always been a little afraid of inserting zips into my knitwear, and yet I love wearing knitwear with zips. This has made me determined to find an easy way to add zips to my knits. I have looked at several techniques and this is the one I used to insert the above zip and was very easy.
You will need:
The first magical step is to block the knitwear. This makes sure that all edges are lying flat and have been pinned out to the correct size. If the zip is inserted before blocking, there is a risk that the zip will not lie flat after being sewn in.
Starting with the first side, the blocking wires are threaded through the knitwear. Elegantia has a two-stitch garter border edge for the zip attachment. The first blocking wire is inserted in the gap between the first (closest to the edge) garter stitch and the second garter stitch. Try to not push the wire through the yarn threads, but between the stitches. I weave the blocking wire in and out every 3-4 stitches.
The second blocking wire is inserted the same way but 3 stitches further in or the width of the zipper tape. When inserting the wires, try to keep the wire between the same column of stitches.
The blocking wires help hold the knitting flat whilst the zip in sewn in.
Then repeat the same process for the other side.
Next, put the cutting mat inside the jumper and line up one edge of the zip along the edge of the garment. The zipper teeth should be just visible, but not the zipper tape.
Pin the zipper tape to the garment between the two blocking wires all the way along. The cutting mat helps ensure the pins do not pin the tape to the other side of the garment.
Using the sewing needle and thread and on the wrong side, do a running stitch along the zipper tape. I found it easiest to sew along the teeth edge of the zipper tape first starting at the bottom of the zipper, and then back down along the edge of the zipper tape. Fold the top of the zipper tape over and sew into place just under the cast-off edge of the garment.
Try to make sure the needle comes up between two columns of stitches each time and then back down a row or two above so that when finished the sewing thread will disappear between the columns of stitches and not be visible.
Do not remove the blocking wires yet!
The back of the work looks like this after the first side:
Now repeat the same process for the other side. Put the cutting mat back into the garment, align the zip and pin the second side of the zip (with the zipper closed) to the other edge of the garment.
Sew the second side of the zip the same way as the first side.
The zipper should now be in place. For garments that need a coat-style zip (one which opens completely), you should now be done.
Elegantia uses a dress-style zipper that remains closed at the bottom end. If the zip is longer than the zip opening this will leave some zip hanging below. Usually these types of zips have a metal clasp at the bottom that stops the zip going down any further. My mum taught me to recreate these little metal clasps by sewing over and over the zip teeth with the needle and sewing thread. The excess zip can then be cut off.
And there you have it, an easy zip insertion. After learning this technique I am not going to be frightened of adding more zips to my knits.
Grafting ends together to create a seamless fabric is one of my favourite knitting techniques. I use the Kitchener stitch to graft sock toes together all the time, and a few of my patterns use it for seamless seams, such as joining the applied i-cord in Nórui and underarm seams in Maethor. I thought a tutorial on how to do Kitchener stitch might be useful.
Kitchener stitch is used to graft two pieces of stocking stitch together and it creates a seamless join that is invisible from the rest of the stitches. That's why it is so great for sock toes - no seams to rub and cause blisters!
You will need a tapestry needle for this technique.
To set up for Kitchener stitch there are a couple of preparatory steps that stop the end stitches from being loose.
Arrange the stitches so that there are equal numbers of stitches on both needles and the wrong sides of the fabric are together. This gives you a front needle with stitches and a back needle with stitches.
Cut the yarn leaving a long tail (at least 3 times the distance to graft plus a 15cm/6in sewing in end) and thread a tapestry needle.
Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch of the front needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through (not too tight) and leave that stitch on the needle.
Next, insert the sewing needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit it. Pull the yarn all the way through and leave that stitch on the needle.
The above 3 steps are preparatory and only need to be done once.
Now we are ready to graft the stitches together. This is the fun part! Do not pull the yarn through too tight on the next steps. It is easier to adjust the tension of the stitches when you have grafted a few together.
Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through and then slip this stitch off the front needle.
Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the front needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way but this time leave the stitch on the front needle.
Now insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through and slip this stitch off the back needle.
Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the back needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through but leave this stitch on the back needle.
Graft the next stitches together by repeating steps 1 to 4. After a few stitches have been grafted it is worth using the tapestry needle to tighten up the stitches so they are at the same tension as the stitches in the fabric being grafted.
Once you have grafted a few stitches it becomes quite rhythmic. I often remember the steps by counting: front knit off, front purl on, back purl off, back knit on - as in front needle knit the stitch and slip it off the needle, front needle purl the stitch but leave it on the needle etc.
Continue to graft the stitches together by repeating steps 1 to 4 until after step 4 only 1 stitch remains on both the front and back needle, then move to the finishing step.
The finishing steps are similar to the preparatory steps in that they tighten up the edge stitches.
Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through and then slip this stitch off the front needle.
Now insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl. Pull the yarn all the way through and slip this stitch off the back needle.
Finally, use the tapestry needle to adjust the tension of all the stitches to match the tension of the stocking stitch fabric, then weave in the yarn end.
There you have it, a grafted stocking stitch fabric with no visible seam. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If there are any other techniques you would like help with please leave a comment.
Fancy crocheting a cute pink pig cozy for your phone? This free pattern is very simple but I have added some hints and tips below to help you get going if you are new to crocheting. The pattern has been updated to include 3 sizes to fit different sized mobile phones. It is available for free here.
English crochet terms are used throughout this article.
The body part of this cozy starts with a simple chain and then double crochet (dc) stitches into the chain itself. Once you get to the beginning of the chain, the last stitch has 3 dc stitches into it.
You then need to turn the chain upside down and dc into the bottom edge of the crochet chain (it often looks like a little bar along the edge of the work).
Once you have joined the dc stitches in the round, this gives a flat bottom to the cozy. Then the body of the pig cozy is made up of rows of dc stitches into each dc of the previous row.
The two little ears are made by changing to a darker pink yarn. The light pink yarn will not be used for the moment. To stop it unravelling, draw through a large loop of the light pink yarn and leave it hanging for the moment.
To rejoin the dark pink yarn in the correct place, miss the number of stitches the pattern gives for your size of cozy and then in the next st, put your hook under the top of the dc and draw through a loop of the dark pink yarn.
Work the ear stitches as described in the pattern with the dark pink yarn. After the first ear is complete, break the yarn and fasten off.
Repeat the process for the second ear following the instructions for placement in the pattern.
To finish around the top of the cozy a final row of dc covers all the stitches with decreases at the corners which narrows the opening slightly, keeping the phone securely in place.
Using the light pink yarn which was left hanging, pull the yarn back to a normal sized loop and place on your hook ready to go. One dc stitch is worked into each stitch of the ears except for the double treble crochet (dtr) stitch which has 2 dc in it - this is the centre stitch of each ear.
The nose is worked flat so there is a right side and a wrong side. The nostrils are made using an intarsia technique.
To create a neat colour change, work to the stitch before the colour change occurs. Start the stitch as normal but do not finish the stitch.
The stitch is finished by using the colour yarn of the next titch.
The process is repeated for every colour change across the row. Do not break the yarn between the colour changes but instead leave it on the wrong side of the nose and pull it up to use again as needed.
When working the wrong side rows make sure the yarns always keep at the front (wrong side) of the work to stop them showing on the right side.
When you have finished this step the back of the nose will look a bit like this.
The final round of the nose is a dark pink dc edging. The dark pink yarn is rejoined to the last dc worked as before by drawing a loop through the top of the stitch on the row below.
Work one dc into to top of each st along the top row, one dc into the side of each st of each row down the sides, one dc into each st of the bottom edge of the foundation chain and again one dc into each st of each row up the other side. Join in the round with a slip stitch into the first dark pink dc and break yarn and fasten off.
Use a running stitch in the light pink yarn to sew the nose to the front of the pig cozy in the centre. Use small stitches so they cannot be seen and sew just underneath the dark pink edging.
The tail is just one row of decrease stitches (double crochet 2 together) into a foundation chain which gives it a characteristic curl.
To attach, thread the tail of yarn from the slip knot and the tail of yarn from the last fastened off stitch either side of one dc stitch on the back of the cozy in the centre about 4 cm (1.5 inches) from the bottom and pull through to the inside of the cozy. Weave in both ends securely.
Finally to finish, block your cozy by soaking it in water and then pinning it out to dry in the correct shape and size.
Pink Piggy Phone Cozy is a free pattern that is available on this website. Please check out my other patterns, including other free patterns here. Like my work? You can sign up for email updates and exclusive offers here.