(Knitting) Project Management

     I have been focused this month on wrapping up the multitudes of projects I started within the last few months. I've also been working on making progress on some non-knitting projects, including latch hooking (a 3D penguin when it's done!), cross stitch (tiger pool project I've been working on forever), and I've picked up weaving and am taking a class for it!
     With Mercury in Retrograde, it seemed like a good time to finish rather than start things. And the great news is that Mercury goes direct on Friday, and then there is a New Moon Sunday, so I'm probably going to set my sights on starting all these yummy new projects then.
     In other news, I have had a bit of an identity crisis with my 'brand' that I am continually trying to develop. I'm in the process of reformulating my whole approach and I expect this blog to morph as well! So stay tuned for more about that.
     The main project I've managed to complete is the blanket for my friend who is due with her first in a couple of weeks. I started it back in April and even worked on it at Jazz Fest! I'm excited to deliver it, though not sure if as excited as she is to deliver! (haha).  In the process of making that blanket, I fell in love with the yarn, Mushishi, which is a 95% wool/5% silk blend. Verigated and a little uneven in weight, but only to a charming degree. Plus, everyone LOVES the color green that it is. I'll have a picture up soon.
    Earlier in the month I wrapped up the hand dyed tubular sweater that I made for a class I had on the schedule. Unfortunately the class did not happen (no one signed up). But I am glad to have finally made something out of that beautiful hand dyed yarn that I've had for a couple years.
     For now, trying to finish these fishnets .... :O()

Mastering Tension

The most difficult thing that my beginning knitters usually run into is mastering their tension.  When I refer to tension here, I’m not talking about gauge (though that is the European term for gauge), although your tension will surely affect your gauge. J  Tension is the natural flexibility of the knitting piece based on your hands, and how tightly you knit. Yarn and needles can also affect tension, however. For example cotton does not stretch as much as wool, so you will have less flexibility in the knitted item when using cotton vs. wool, no matter what your tension is.
    Getting to a point where you knit with consistent tension is all about practice and time. Over time you will generally hold the needles and the yarn the same way, and thus develop your natural tension. But it is important to develop some proper technique as you develop your tension, to avoid challenges later. It’s true that some people tend to be tight knitters, and others are loose. But your mood can also affect your tension. If you are tense, you will probably knit tighter.
    I mostly see beginner’s struggling with how to hold the working yarn in their hand to knit. The problem with teaching tension is that everyone's knitting style is different. In the same way everyone holds a pencil differently when they write, so will they hold the yarn slightly differently when they knit. Continuing with the pencil analogy, you can hold the pencil too tight (and that hurts your hand!) or push down too hard on the paper, and break the lead. Working with yarn while knitting is the same. If you wrap the yarn too tightly around your hand, or pull the yarn too tight when you wrap, your tension will be too tight and your knitted piece may pucker. Or it could make it simply a pain to knit, as you have to keep wrapping and unwrapping the yarn around your fingers. But if you don’t wrap the yarn at all, then your knitted piece won’t have enough form to be consistent and it will be difficult to wrap the yarn at all.
    The key to finding the balance point, as I often try to demonstrate to my students, is to wrap the yarn just enough so when your fingers are closed around the yarn/needle, the yarn doesn’t move. Then when you open your fingers, the yarn slides easily. For me this means I wrap the yarn once around my ring finger, and then rest it over my index finger. When I grip the needle, my fingers close and hold the yarn tight. When I open my hand or release the needle, the yarn will slide easily over my fingers. Harder to explain with words than demonstrate, but hopefully you get the idea.
    The best advice I can give is to try wrapping a) not at all; b) around your fingers once; c) around your fingers more than once. Pull on the other end of the yarn with your hand both open and closed and see how easily the yarn moves. 

Knitting tips – never counting higher than 10

     Crocheters sometimes say they prefer crocheting to knitting because there is too much counting in knitting.  I believe they are just not making use of all the tools that knitting provides. Here I intend to let you in on some tips to how to never have to count higher than 10 when you are knitting. In addition, these tips will help you feel more relaxed while knitting and offload much of the brain power required, which will help knitting become more relaxing and fun for you!
    To start, you should never have to count higher than 10 when casting on. When I cast on, I place a stitch marker every 10 sts. That way when I have to cast on 100 or so sts for a large hat for example, I place a marker after every 10 sts cast on, and then I just have to count 10 of those sections of 10 sts. Then on your first row/round, you can remove the markers.
    Next make sure you are making use of your row counter. Depending on what you are knitting, and what the pattern is, you may use your row counter in different ways. You may even need to use more than one row counter on a project! I do this when there are two different things going on, for example, a pattern that repeats every 6 rounds, and a decrease that happens every 4.  Yes, you have to remember to click your row counter every row, but this will otherwise keep you oriented in where you are in your work. This is especially helpful for when you set your work down and pick it up later. My rule of thumb is, I set my row counter to the number of the row I am working on. That way when I come back to it later, I can see exactly which row in the pattern I am on.
    Back to stitch markers, another great use is to set them around different pattern elements, or between repeats within a row. It depends on the complexity of the pattern you are working, but it would be nice to only have to look back to your last marker rather than the beginning of the row to check your number of stitches in a complex pattern.
     If you have another place in your knitting that you find yourself doing too much counting, let me know and I will help you never count higher than 10 ;)

Keeping track when you get back

     In my last post I provided some tips to help you reduce your thinking while knitting, and thus be able to relax and enjoy the craft. In this post I hope to provide some more useful tips towards that end. One challenge a lot of my students have is forgetting where they left off on a knitting project when they set it down and come back to it later.  The best thing you can do is to get to the end of a row or round and make sure you have properly noted where in the pattern you stopped. Most of the time this can be done with either a sticky note on your pattern itself, or by using your row counter when you are working a pattern that has repeating rows. 
     Unfortunately you can’t always make it to the end of the row, and sometimes you get interrupted in the middle of what you are doing, and then need to reorient yourself to your pattern.  This can be challenging for newer knitters, who may not be familiar with what knit and purl or other stitches look like after they have been worked.  If that is the case, look back to the beginning of your row or round, and start counting the stitches along with the pattern. For example, if I am working in 2x2 ribbing, and I started my row by knitting 2 stitches, then purling 2 stitches.  If I am on stitch 36, then I know it is a knit stitch. I can start at the beginning of my row and count, knit 2, purl 2, etc. up to where I am.
     With lace patterns this could become much trickier as the yarn-overs (yo) are increasing the total stitches and knit-2-togethers (k2tog) are decreasing. If you are in the middle of a row, the easiest thing is to start at the beginning of the row and review each worked stitch to see what it was. If the pattern is something like: *K1, K2tog, yo, k1*, then I need to count my stitches in groups of 4. Knowing what a yo looks like and what a k2tog look like will help. A yo doesn’t have anything connected to it on the previous row. Be careful because sometimes these stitches will get cozy with a stitch next to it and hide. K2tog’s have two stitches hanging off them on the row below. The best way to learn what any stitch looks like after it has been worked is to work that stitch, and look at what has formed on the right hand needle. 

How to adjust gauge

   Although gauge could be considered the most important thing when it comes to knitting, choosing patterns, and producing wearables that fit, it is often misunderstood or neglected altogether. Many patterns will tell you ‘make sure to check gauge!’  Gauge is also important when it comes to picking out the materials for a particular project.  New knitters often get confused by the gauge listed at the top of the pattern.  Here I hope to elucidate some of the mystery surrounding gauge.
    First of all, gauge is usually listed on patterns as a sts and rows value over 4”.  The reason they don’t just list stitches per inch, is that the gauge of a pattern is an average of stitches per inch over four inches. When you knit a gauge swatch, you should knit it four inches by four inches and measure your stitches per inch in several places to get an accurate measurement. [I will admit that I am far too anxious to actually knit a gauge swatch this big, and I usually knit a 2”x1” rectangle. However, since I have been knitting for awhile, and have fairly consistent tension, I know that this will generally be a good measure of my gauge.]
    The most confusing thing about gauge is what to do when your gauge does not match the gauge of the pattern, with the prescribed needle size. Despite how counter-intuitive it seems, the way you adjust is as follows: If you have more stitches per inch than the pattern calls for, you should try knitting with a larger needle. If you have less stitches per inch than the pattern calls for, try a smaller needle. The logic works as such: A larger needle produces larger stitches, and less of these fit into an inch than with a smaller needle. So if you want to decrease your stitches per inch, user a larger needle. Similarly, a small needle produces smaller stitches, and more of these fit into an inch than with larger needles, so if you want to increase your stitches per inch, user a smaller needle. It is basically an inverse proportion. J
    Your other options for adjusting your gauge are changing the thickness of the yarn. Thicker yarns are going to produce less stitches per inch no matter how small of a needle you knit them on, because the stitches produces by thick yarn are just large stitches. So if you have dropped 5 needle sizes and still can’t get enough stitches per inch, you may need to switch to a finer weight yarn.