One question I ponder frequently is whether I’d knit as much or in as varied a fashion if I didn’t blog. It’s a bit of a conundrum: Do I blog because I knit, or do I knit because I blog?
You know the story of my stumble upon the knitblogging scene, with the now quaint notion of continuing to knit garter stitch scarves and maybe the occasional felted bag while I borrowed this platform for my scribblings. We all know how that worked out, these 7 short months later…
I think the answer to my question is, YES. I have found a craft that I absolutely love in knitting, and writing about it for people who are interested and who cheer me on is incredibly motivating.
Besides, I never, EVER would have attempted most of what I’ve knitted so far without the help of my blogsistahs. It’s like having a 24-hour helpline, with great customer service.
Which brings me to my latest new trick – lookie here:
Thanks to all of you who sent tutorials, video, and helpful hints to get me to finally understand the short row toe. The pictured book also helped, as did this very helpful tutorial. Now that I’ve done it, it makes perfect sense.
I have to ask, though, about undoing the crochet chain – I haven’t found any detailed discussion of that. The idea of “unzipping” it seems ridiculous to me – for me, it was more like a painful picking out and unknotting of each little crochet stitch, and I used a small crochet hook and fingering weight yarn for the waste yarn, so things were fairly tight. Maybe bigger, and more acrylic, yarn and a larger hook? But then the knit stitches would wind up ungainly, no? Please to provide your thoughts about this – it’s the only part I struggled with, and there has to be a better way.
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One of my LYSs was having a big sale last week – 20% off everything in the store, 30% if you bought all of one color. If you followed the link, you saw that the hours of this store are not very convenient to the working girl. But I made it there before the sale was done. I managed to control myself, although I did come home with a couple of goodies. While I was there, I was vaguely aware of a young woman consulting with the owner about what yarn to use for a pattern, but I wasn’t paying much attention. When I checked out, the owner naturally asked about my plans for my purchases. I said I’d be more likely to use the yarn – especially the lovely Alpaca Sox – for shawls than socks, since it was too nice to walk on. The other customer perked up at that, and said she was looking for shawl yarn and hadn’t thought about using sock yarn. Turned out she just took an intro to lace class, and is now addicted. And she wants to knit this, which I had just printed out the day before. We had a lovely chat, and she found her yarn.
Sock toe! It looks marvelous. I can’t help you with the crochet chain stuff, though. Icarus is looking super!
When I do the crochet cast-on I use #10 crochet thread. It works just fine for fingering wt or lace wt yarn, plus it has the benefits of being easy to see and non-graby.
The trick to un-zipping is to pick up stitches in the bumps on the back of the crochet chain. Try looking down at the chain on edge – see the bumps sticking out the back? Finding that perspective was the hardest part for me. Once you pick up stitches that way, you can unzip them later.
I always have trouble unzipping that chain, too! I’ll be reading your comments on this one eagerly.
Barbara-Kay beat me to it, using the ‘bumps’ to pick up and knit into… it will ‘unzip’.
Look at you… short row toe!
It’s supposed to unzip easily if you select the right end (easy enough to check) and you didn’t split the yarn in the chain when you picked up the stitches (not easy to fix). That’s my personal bugaboo. I saw someone actually crochet the chain around the knitting needle, so the stitches were already on the needle to begin with, and it’s worked much better for me. I don’t know of any online tutorials on the subject, though.
I thought I was the only one who couldn’t unzip the crochet chain! I remember seeing a different provisional cast-on on “See Eunny Knits” blog. whether she still keeps that blog live now that she’s the editor of IK, I don’t know.
And I actually made a shawl out of alpaca sox yarn. I made a healing shawl for my Mom (diagnosed with melanoma last year) and it turned out great. I think they yard wouldn’t wear well as socks but I haven’t tried it.
I definitely blog because I knit (I’d never read any blogs, much less considered having one until I started knitting again and discovered the blog world). But like you I definitely wouldn’t be knitting the things I do without the influence and encouragement of fellow bloggers and commenters! If I spot something I really like, I’m not at all intimidated about casting on; someone out there will help me if I need it.
Wow – thanks for the advice so quickly – just so’s you know, I did indeed knit into the bumps, and attempted the “unzip” from the last crochet stitch created (which I believe is what the tutorials say to do). No go. The waste yarn was woven throughout and had to be unpicked. It still worked, it was just tedious as can be.
I did just find this: http://bellaknitting.typepad.com/bella_knitting/2007/10/provisional-cas.html. Hmm. I’m going to try later, with the suggested glass of wine!
I find this crochet cast on much easier when you need to use a provisional. http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=48
I personally tend to use a different provisional cast-on, and now that I have discovered Judy’s Magic Cast-on (see knitty or youtube videos) may well use that most of the time.
What others said, though, are what I’ve run into when I have done the crochet cast-on: unzipping from the wrong end, or not knitting into the right bumps are where I’ve not had it work. I crochet a few extra chains before and after, and tie knots in the one end so I remember how to unzip. But if you catch fibers/split stitches, there’s no remedy. A smooth yarn for the provisional cast on is all I can suggest if that’s what made it painful.
What yarn are you knitting Icarus in, again? I think I remember you decided to forgo laceweight? It’s possible that it may be big enough already to fast forward and skip charts . . . remembering it will grow with blocking significantly. . . .at least 25%, quite possibly more. If you can without risking it coming off the needles, take one edge and stretch it firmly; this will be the approximate blocked size. Then decide how much more you really need/want to go. I’d hate to see you knit an 8 foot shawl if you didn’t want to!
All the bumps look the same to me.
I’ll be checking these tutorials. I usually pick it out… unless I get frusterated and just cut. Because I roll like dat.
YARN!
the last time I undid a chain like that was on the bottom of a fair isle jacket and boy was it a pain. Snip. Snip. Snip. All the bloody way. I’d like to know a better way, too. Sigh.
What a lovely encounter in the yarn store. I love those little moments.
Oh and there’s little chance I’d have attempted the stunts I have attempted since blogging. It was the ‘oh I want that too’ part of me that got me doing some of the crazy stuff (for me) that’s happened so far! But what a ride!
Who knits?
I use a J hook and sock yarn for my provisional cast ons. Crochet more stitches than you need, and pull the last one tight. When you’re done with your toe, go back and pull that last stitch out and pick up your stitches. It’s something that takes a couple of tries, but is totally worth it.
I have that book! What do you think it? Anything jump out at you?
Ya know, I think listening on what people are talking about at yarn stores is part of the fun. There’s always something to learn or some little trick to pick up. Or gossip to catch up on. *L*
♥
Want to see some pretty lace? Check out the 6/8 entry for handspun yarn and lace scarves. Gorgeous!
http://www.mamaliz.org/blogs/pinktea/