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.

Estonian Cast On

Estonian Cast On

 

Slowly the scattered info of my former blog-web life is coming together in its new home

A picture tutorial of the Estonian Cast On can now be found under the Techniques, Tips and Tutorials tab.  I love this cast on for socks, hats, mitts and legwarmers – it’s stretchy yet bounces back!

http://impeccableknits.wordpress.com/tutorials-tips-tricks/estonian-cast-on/

Traveling Loop (Single Loop) Tutorial just received its own page

As part of the ‘new’ face of Impeccable Knits — and because this is such a popular technique — I’ve given this technique its own page here on the blog. I really love this technique for hats!!

http://impeccableknits.wordpress.com/traveling-loop/

Pattern Writing Short Cuts

I use MSWord to create most of my patterns and like to save time by not typing the same thing over and over again. To begin with, I use a template for my patterns that contains the most common elements of the pattern:

• formatted titles
• logo
• standard headings (like Size, Yarn, Needles, Gauge, Method, Skills Used)
• abbreviations
• contact info

As I was once again looking up and typing in yarn information into a pattern yesterday – I thought, “Nuts!”  I can do this more efficiently. I talked earlier about using AutoCorrect in Word to enter knitting needle equivalents so, here I’m going to use the same Word feature to enter yarn information into my pattern.

I use the following format for listing yarn in my patterns:

Knit Picks Gloss Fingering (220 yds / 201 m per 1 ¾ oz / 50 g skein; 70% merino, 30% silk) in Robot

MSWord AutoCorrect

So, here’s how it I created an AutoCorrect entry so that all I have to do now is type 4 letters followed by a space and all of the above information is inserted into my document:

Click Tools, AutoCorrect Options…

MSWord Tools Menu

The AutoCorrections Dialog box opens.

Click the AutoCorrect tab.

AutoCorrect dialog box

In the “Replace:” box, type a unique short form for the yarn.
(I used kpgf – notice I used all lower case letters to make it easier to type in the short form.)

In the “With:” box, type (or copy from a previous document) the description for the yarn as you want it displayed in the document.
(When I copied the information from a previous pattern, I copied the information into Notepad first to strip any formatting codes that might?? cause issues.)

Click OK.

How to Use It:

In your pattern document type the short form and press the spacebar. Just like magic, the short-form text will disappear and all the yarn information you entered appears instead.

AutoCorrect result shown as "Before" and "After" screen captures

Hope it’s helpful

Estonian Cast On for Socks, Mitts, Hats, Gloves…

As I discover something new to me, sharing always comes to mind

So new to me this week is the Estonian Cast On — a lovely stretchy cast-on for 1×1 or 2×2 ribbing.  I’ve just added a picture tutorial to the PurpleSage Designs website; you can see larger pictures and download a pdf of the tutorial from the website. Here’s what it looks like:

Emily Ocker’s cast-on – for flat circular knitting

I’ve found this cast on very handy so thought I’d do a little picture tutorial to share. (I first saw this cast on described in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac.)

This is a great cast-on for objects knit in the round from the centre out — think hats, doilies, circular blankets.

Enjoy!

Short Row Shaping – an exploration – Part 3: Bust Shaping 2

Here’s my second example for bust shaping using short rows. This sample is much more rounded in shape than in the previous post. This is sample #6.

Short Row Bust Shaping beginning at bust and working out to side seam then back to bust again

Short Row Bust Shaping - side view

Short Row Bust Shaping - side view

Short Row Bust Shaping - profile

Sample 6:

Here’s what I did:

Cast on 30 sts.

R1: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R2: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R3: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R4: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R5: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R6: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R7: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R8: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R9: k
R10: k1, p to last, k1
R11: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R12: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R13: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R14: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R15: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R16: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R17: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R18: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R19: k
R20: k1, p to last, k1
bo

Short Row Shaping – an exploration – Part 2: Bust Shaping 1

Now on to bust shaping!

(Sample #5: again worked over 30 sts)   This example of shows short row shaping was begun at the side seams and worked toward the bust and then worked from the bust back to the side seam:

Short Row Bust Shaping from side seam to centre then centre to side seam

Short Row Bust Shaping seen from side

Short Row Bust Shaping seen from side

Short Row Bust Shaping - overall shaping

Sample 5:

Here’s how I did the sample.

Cast on 30 sts.

R1: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R2: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R3: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R4: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R5: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R6: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R7: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R8: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R9: k
R10: k1, p to last, k1
R11: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R12: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R13: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R14: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R15: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R16: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R17: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R18: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R19: k
R20: k1, p to last, k1
bind off

Short Row Shaping – an exploration – Part 1

Short Row Shaping Samples 1 - 4 Cast On edge pinned straight

Short Row Sample 1 - 4; Bound off edge pinned straight

Sometimes 3-D visualization is not a strong point and I need to knit a little sample.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get my “little gray cells” (as Hercule Poirot would be wont to say) to give me a true picture of how variations in short row shaping would look — what happens if you start the shaping in the middle vs beginning toward the outside of the piece, number of stitches between shapings, etc.

I used a chunky yarn and 5 mm / US 8 needles; wraps were not picked up to show the short row placement better.

30 sts were cast on for each sample;   there are close-up pictures below as well.

sts = stitches

w&t = wrap and turn to create the short row

bo = bind off

Close up samples below are shown with cast on edge pinned straight.

Short rows worked 3, 4, 5 and 6 sts from each end

Sample 1:

R1: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R2: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R3: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R4: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R5: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R6: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R7: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R8: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R9: k
R10: k1, p to last, k1
bo

Short rows begun either side of centre 10 sts; multiples of 3 outward

Sample 2
R1: k20, w&t
R2: p10, w&t
R3: k13, w&t
R4: p16, w&t
R5: k19, w&t
R6: p22, w&t
R7: k24, w&t
R8: p26, w&t
R9: k
R10: k1, p to last, k1
bo

Short rows worked 3, 6, 9 and 12 sts from each end

Sample 3:
R1: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R2: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R3: k to 6 sts from end, w&t
R4: p to 6 sts from end, w&t
R5: k to 9 sts from end, w&t
R6: p to 9 sts from end, w&t
R7: k to 12 sts from end, w&t
R8: p to 12 sts from end, w&t
R9:  k
R10: k1, p to last st, k1
bo

Short rows worked 2, 3, 4 and 5 sts from each end

Sample 4:
R1: k to 2 sts from end, w&t
R2: p to 2 sts from end, w&t
R3: k to 3 sts from end, w&t
R4: p to 3 sts from end, w&t
R5: k to 4 sts from end, w&t
R6: p to 4 sts from end, w&t
R7: k to 5 sts from end, w&t
R8: p to 5 sts from end, w&t
R9:  k
R10: k1, p to last st, k1
bo