Emily Ocker’s Cast On tutorial

2 sts cast on

I first saw this cast on described in  Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac.

I really like it for creating centre-out designs like my Lady of the Canyon shawl. So, I put together a picture tut on the Tutorials page of the Impeccable Knits website. There is a ‘pdf picture’ version here on the blog as well.

Hope you find it helpful

Impeccable Knits’ news – Estonian Cast On (techniques page)

Estonian Cast On Step 1

There are some techniques that I use again and again so I thought I’d create a Techniques page on our new site as well. Keeping all the important stuff in one place, so to speak!

One of these techniques is the Estonian Cast On. I love the stretchiness and the lovely finished edge that it gives, especially to ribbing. For the full tutorial just follow the link above.

6 sts cast on.

The pattern migration is proceeding and you can see all of the completed ones on the new site Impeccable Knits.

Cable Knitting Resources

This is an ongoing project….collecting all of  my Cable knitting resources in one spot; I’ve made a start and you can find the beginnings on our new Impeccable Knits site. The current info includes:

- cable naming conventions and

- four (4) Free Cable Stitch patterns (2 ropes, a braid or plait and ‘the snake’).

The free Cable stitch patterns include a picture (like the one at the left), a chart and written directions.

Enjoy!

knitXpress Launched!

  All systems go! knitXpress is live and available for purchase.  We hope you love it as much as we do

An Example:
Just to give you an idea of the time-savings this program can generate — I recently processed the written instructions for my Margaree Harbour Shawl – 449 rows of written instruction — copied the written instructions from my charting program and pasted them into the Input window in knitXpress  – less than 10 seconds later my formatted, compacted instructions were in my pattern document!

Lots more info on the knitXpress website.

New Cable Knitting Resources

You know I love cables     So now there are some new cable knitting resources on the South Mountain ~Naturally website here.

There are a few free cable patterns shown with picture, chart and written directions so you can see how the whole thing fits together.

A discussion on cable nomenclature e.g. how does C4F compare to  2/2LC ? I think I will add to this at some point because the two methods I discuss don’t include the one the Barbara Walker books do.

Chart Elements

The one I’m hoping will be really helpful is the “How to read charts“.

It’s a work in progress:

Feb 22: I’ve added an example of lace charts that omit the WS rows and one on how to chart stitch combinations like “k2tog”.  Hope it’s helpful

Circular Needles: How many stitches will they hold?

Edit: As knitsnwovens‘ comment points out (thanks for catching my blip!), the table below actually lists the minimum number of stitches that each circ will accommodate, so I’m amending this post.

You know when you run across those notes on little scrap pieces of paper and you say, “Hey, I’ve been looking for that!”  And at the time you scribble them down, think, “I’ll remember where I got this!”

Well, I just ran across this one, and with apologies, I do not remember the source. If anyone knows who the original author is, please let me know so I can give credit here (I’m pretty sure it came from a book).

This table lists the minimum number of sts required for each of four circular needles at the stated gauges. It’s actually better to have more than that so that you don’t have to stretch the stitches too much as you are knitting. As knitsnwovens‘ comment mentions, circ’s can actually accommodate a surprising number of stitches before the sts become too crowded to manage.

Gauge sts/in	16″ [41cm]	24″ [61cm]	29″ [74cm]	36″ [91cm]
5	80	120	145	180
6	100	140	175	215
7	110	170	205	250
8	130	190	230	290
9	140	220	260	325

Knitting Graph Paper: a new resource

Raveller susiec1974 shared this great resource on Ravelry.com today — thank you so much! 

Knitting on the Net , already a wonderful resource, now has a great knitting graph paper generator — I’ve put the link on the Cable Knitting Resource page too.

I just tried it out and…..

Here’s what I found:

• Graph paper prints true (the printout measured exactly 20 sts and 26 rows over 4″ [10cm]),
• there are stitch and row numbers along the bottom and right edges (every row and stitch is numbered)
• a ruler on the left edge (in cm and inches)
• darker grid lines every 10 rows/stitches;

Things to watch for:

• be sure to select the proper paper size on the website and when you print the pdf
• make sure that Adobe isn’t shrinking the page to fit (this can skew the measurements)

Disadvantages:

• a small one: in the row numbering, if you like to have the wrong side rows numbered on the left hand side, that’s not an option

Pictures for Judy’s Magic Cast-on gone tubular

There are a couple of other pictures now on the original post as well.

I really like the rounded edge that this cast on gives to the garment — a hat in this case.

Designer Resources

As a budding designer you may be looking for information on how to get started designing knit-wear/crochet-wear, how to multi-size (grade) your knitting patterns, sources for knitting stitches, yarn information, etc.

My first advice would be — join Ravelry.com! The advice and sharing that is present in that knit and crochet community is just overwhelming.

All the links have been moved to the Designer Resources page.

New Knitting Font by Kauri

Whether you’re creating cables or lace and would like a knitting font for personal use, check out Kauri’s Knitting font.  There’s a little more info on the Cable Knitting Resources page (scroll about half-way down) as well. Be sure to read the restrictions/licensing for the use of this font.