If you want to add stitches to your project without forming any holes – even the tiniest ones – use twisted lifted increases. This method forms increases that slant to the right and ones that slant to the left, and, of course, we can combine these increases to form neat raglan lines or vertical darts, […]
It is not easy to manage two strands of yarn when we knit stranded colourwork, especially when we are beginners, or when we are new to Fair Isle and other types of stranded knitting. For many years, I used an approach described as tip #2 over here. The idea is very simple – we always
Stitch markers are very helpful. They keep us from losing our place in the project,. They remind us when to switch stitch patterns, make increases/decreases, when the current pattern repeat ends, or when we get to the end of a round. But. They also tend to slip off the needles and disappear. They can hurt
Sometimes we want to show off the place where we add stitches to our project. We use decorative methods to increase stitches (like centred double increase, for example), and we stack the increases on top of each other to form distinct lines. But when we’d rather draw attention to the texture, colour, or construction of
This method is a fusion of two basic ways to add short-row shaping to our knits – yarn over short rows and turn and slip short rows. When used separately, each way has its drawbacks – loose stitches or visible holes. Combined and enhanced by a few adjustments, these methods form practically invisible short-row shaping.
When we bind off stitches in the middle of a row, as we do when we shape a neckline, we inevitably form a gap at the right-hand side of the bind off. This gap makes the shaping look sloppy, but more importantly, it often results in a hole when we pick up stitches from that
Knitting is an amazingly sustainable craft. We can unravel a project and reuse the yarn to make another project. When we make a mistake, we don’t cut out a section of a project and discard it. We “frog” or “tink” and reknit that section. When we accumulate some leftover yarn, we use it to make
The hardest thing about knitting lace is keeping track of the pattern and making sure the number of yarn overs is the same as the number of decreases. Both these difficulties are easy to overcome with the super easy stitch pattern described in this tutorial. Some sources call this pattern a “Witch’s Ladder Stitch”, others
Some knitting methods are amazingly versatile. With or without minor adjustments, they can help us in many different ways. Tubular cast on (and its simplified variation – Italian cast on) is one of those methods. It is perfect for casting on stitches for regular 1×1 ribbing (here’s a tutorial that shows how exactly it happens),
There are stitch patterns that form a texture like nothing else in knitting. Loop stitch—also known as fur stitch—is one of them. Both names, “loop stitch” and “fur stitch”, describe this pattern well. We use loops to create a fur-like texture that looks great as an all-over pattern or as a decorative element, for example,
