Here’s another week of tips for all you knitters out there. I’m still looking for any tips you might have! Feel free to either email them to me (mrhugzzz@gmail.com) or leave them as a comment on any of the posts (Tuesday’s Tips would be the easiest I think). Here we go for this week …
Purl instead – A lot of people prefer making the knit stitch over the purl stitch. I agree it may be a little easier, but the purl stitch get a bad rap I think. If you want more practice with the purl stitch, use it the next time you have to do a garter stitch texture. Purling all your stitches gives you the same texture as knitting all your stitches.
Use a chair – If you have a skein or hank of yarn and no swift, take two chairs without arm rests and place them back to back. Place your skein of yarn over the top of it and unwind it into a ball at your leisure. I know a lot of women like to make their partners suffer by using their arms, but if they ever drop, you could end up with a tangled mess!
The Thumb uses less – When you’re doing the long tail cast on, you have to estimate how much yarn you need. Try to always make sure that you have the end attached to the ball over your index finger, as this uses more yarn than the one over your thumb. This way you are less likely to run out of yarn with only 10 stitches to go. AAAARGH!
Plan ahead – Most sweaters are made in pieces and then sewn up after the pieces are blocked. I like to leave extra yarn when I cast on, cast off, and break the yarn for shaping the shoulders. This way I always have ample yarn for sewing my sweater together later on!
Slip it – When doing sequential cast offs for armhole and shoulder shaping, you will have a neater edge to seam if you slip the first stitch. This acts as a selvage stitch and gives you an even slope to work with later on.
Block the swatch – Since you’re going to block the pieces of your garment before you put them together, it’s a good idea to do the same for your swatch. Not only will it give you a more accurate (and easier) measurement, it will tell you how the finished pieces will behave once blocked. It’s better to get any surprises out of the way with the swatch than the finished pieces of a sweater!
That’s it for today. Be here next week, same knit time, same knit channel for some more tips!
Hugzzz 😎