Wendy Knits

Knitting Tips and Tricks

By Wendy on October 8, 2009

I received a review copy of the soon to be released book Lily Chin’s Knitting Tips & Tricks: Shortcuts and Techniques Every Knitter Should Know by (you guessed it) Lily Chin.

Psst! There’s a companion book of crochet tips & tricks by Lily Chin that releases on the same day — October 13. But as I’m not a crocheter, I’m not reviewing it.

This is a smallish size (7.5 x 5.5″) hardcover book and is 208 pages long — a good size to slip into a knitting bag.

In the introduction, Lily Chin talks about a very popular class she teaches — Knitting Tips & Techniques — that always sells out quickly. She envisions this book as this class in book form. The book contains solutions that Ms. Chin has come up with over the years to solve her own knitting problems.

The book is set up chronologically to mirror the knitting process: it starts with discussions of needles and yarn, then knitting basics, followed by chapters entitled “Getting Started,” “As You Work,” and “Finishing.”

The book is illustrated with nice clear line drawings:

This one depicts the differences between garter stitch, stockinette, and reverse stockinette.

There are also step-by-step “how-tos” for a lot of techniques:

Sure, there are other books out there that detail different cast-ons and bind-offs and other techniques, and more of them than this little book. Why would you want this one?

For me, it’s the “tricks” portion. (The “trick” for a coded swatch is, in my opinion, genius!) Also, the tricks in the cast-on section of the book are great. (If you’ve ever run out of yarn on stitch 280 of a 290-stitch longtail cast-on, for example, you will agree with me.)

Bottom line — this is a great little reference book for new knitters, as it outlines most everything you need to get started. Experienced knitters will appreciate all the little extras — the tips & tricks that Ms. Chin has gleaned from her many years of knitting.

Something for everyone. What’s not to like?

Off to Florida!

Tomorrow I head south — to Maitland Florida to Sip n’ Knit to hang out with knitters, sign books, and teach classes. Info specifically about the weekend is on the Sip n’ Knit here. I hope to see some of you Florida knitters there. But could you please arrange for a cold snap this weekend?

I won’t get home til late on Sunday, so no blog post til Monday. See you then!

Meanwhile, Lucy is doing her stretching exercises:

Isn’t she fabulous? Just look at that perfect form:

Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged companion book, garter stitch, knitting bag, knitting process, lily chin

Periwinkle

By Wendy on October 7, 2009

My new work in progress is being knit from Handmaiden Mini Maiden yarn, in the “Periwinkle” colorway. It’s a single ply wool/silk blend, fingering weight, with approximately 550 yards per 100 gram skein.

I bought two skeins of this somewhere along the way and rediscovered it in my stash room recently.

Here’s what I’m knitting from it:

It’s a shawl, and it’s another different shape. It’s based on a hexagonal shawl, where the shaping is done in 6 wedges that form a circle. I didn’t want to do another circular shawl, so I am doing fewer wedges and knitting back and forth instead of in the round. I didn’t want to do a half circle — I wanted it a bit bigger than that. So I decided on 4 wedges.

Here is a close-up of one wedge:

So far, I am loving this. The yarn is fabulous. I am particularly fond of wool/silk blends and this one is a keeper. I’m knitting it on a US size 6 (4mm) needle and love the look of it.

The pattern is my own, winkled together out of my fevered brain. I created a wedge chart in Excel and just started dropping yarnovers and decreases into it. I’ve revised it a couple of times so far as I knit, and may continue to do so.

Because it is 4 out of 6 wedges that make up a circle, it’s a Two-Thirds Shawl.

And that may become the final name of the pattern.

Meanwhile, Lucy is just lounging around. Ah, the life of a cat!

Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged different shape, fevered brain, gram skein, silk blend, silk blends

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

By Wendy on October 6, 2009

Not The Mothers of Invention, though. Totally different thing. Okay, who can name the title of the song these lyrics are from:

I saw your double knits
I thought they were the pits

Bonus points if you can name the album too.

If you stopped by here yesterday, you saw that I have something pink on the needles, and I showed you just an itty bitty corner of it cuz I am a tease. Here is what it looks like today:

This hunk o’ knitting is on its way to becoming a cowl. It looks a bit odd in the photo above because the top of it is smooshed up on the needle.

The bottom edge of it is a nice deep lace edging:

I knit the edging first, joined it into a round, then picked up stitches on the long straight edge of it and started knitting upwards from it, in the round.

The yarn is one of my new favorite sock yarns — Alchemy Juniper. The colorway is “Evening Pink.” I bout mine at The Loopy Ewe. I’m using a size 7 (4.5mm) needle to get a nice lightweight open fabric. My stockinette gauge is 4.5 stitches and 7 rows to an inch, so that’s a far cry from sock gauge!

Why a cowl? Necessity is the mother of invention.

Those of you who have seen me lately know that I’ve let my hair grow and I now have a metric ton o’ hair. I went all summer letting it air-dry. It occurred to me that it may get a tad chilly going to work in the morning this winter with wet hair. So I decided to knit a cowl — one that can be pulled up over the head while outdoors in the cold.

We’ll see how this works out.

Because I am now on the boring stockinette portion of this knit . . .

. . . I started something else, too!

Wheeeeeeee!

As you can see, Lucy is enthralled.

P.S. A bunch of you have asked what the rainbow-colored sweater is that Gwendolyn wears under the shawls she models. It’s Alice Starmore’s Lismore! My Ravelry project page for it is here.

Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged alice starmore, loopy ewe, necessity is the mother of invention, open fabric, sock yarns

All Blocked and Ready to Party

By Wendy on October 5, 2009

When I got up this morning, I noticed that Miss Lucy had placed one of her toys on the Stacy Shawl as it lay blocking.

I’m not sure what the meaning of this is — perhaps Lucy was staking her claim to the shawl?

Anyway, I released the shawl from its bondage today.

Gwendolyn looks very pretty wearing it, I think.

Front:

And a side view:

A close-up of the bottom edge:

Some Q&A . . .

Several of you asked how I came up with the name for my True Love Stole. The name came out of a private joke. And that’s all I have to say about that (I am apparently channeling Forrest Gump here).

Alexandra commented:

Wendy, I am so impressed by how fast you knit. It just took you 5 days, plus you were working on other things! Wow, that is fast knitting. I so wish I could knit that fast. Any secrets to how you get done so fast? Do you like knit night and day! I know that you talk about working so wow! do you work everyday and still get these projects done so fast? What’s the secret!!!

Yes, I have a “real” job — one that takes me away from home at least 11 hours each day. It’s quite the nuisance, let me tell you.

Yes, I knit the Stacy Shawl in 5 days. But 2 of those days were days off from work (I was off Friday for a dentist appointment, so got some good knitting time in then, as well as on Saturday). And it is a very fast knit.

I don’t really have a secret for fast knitting, except to knit every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. And knit during “stolen moments” — when you waiting in line for something, on hold on the phone, commuting on the subway, etc. On weekdays I knit for a few minutes before I leave for work in the morning, on the subway to and sometimes from work, during my lunch break, and for a couple of hours in the evening. It adds up!

Josie asked:

Could you describe the process you go thru when designing a triangular shawl?

I wouldn’t know where to begin. It’s different every time!

But I will tell you it involves a lot of playing around with charts on an excel spreadsheet.

In other news, I’m knitting something pink.

Lucy sez:

“Mine.”

Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged dentist appointment, lunch break, miss lucy, private joke, stolen moments

The Stacy Shawl

By Wendy on October 4, 2009

I finished the Stacy Shawl yesterday. Here it is unblocked:

The pre-blocking dimensions (unstretched) are 44″ across the top and 21″ down the center back.

And here it is pinned out and blocking:

After blocking, it is 66″ across the top, and 30″ down the center back.

It’s a more-than-a-triangle shawl — extra increases on the top/front edge make a shape that stays nicely on the shoulders.

It took 2 skeins of Tempted Yarns Luxe Grrl yarn (a total of 500 yards), knit on a US size 7 (4.5mm) needle. I started this on September 29, and finished it yesterday — so it took me 5 days. I was working on other projects at the same time, so as you can see, this is a very quick knit! And fun too — nothing difficult about it. If you can work a k2tog, an ssk, and a yarnover, you can knit this shawl.

The pattern will be available soon — as part of a shawl kit from Tempted Yarns. Stacy asked me if I would do a design for her Luxe Grrl yarn — that’s the yummy cashmere blend — so she could put together shawl kits. This shawl is the result. I think this would be a great item to knit as a holiday gift — it’s a quick and fun knit so you’ll be abe to whip it up in no time.

Stacy is busily dyeing up a bunch of colorways in the Luxe Grrl yarn, so the kit will be available soon. I’ll keep you posted here on its availability, and Stacy will be posting in her Ravelry group as well.

Lucy is worn out from supervising the blocking process.

Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged colorways, dyeing, skeins, ssk, triangle shawl

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Knitting Tips and Tricks

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All Blocked and Ready to Party

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