T-Top KnitAlong

Edge Finishing

2004-07-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Spent a little time this morning weaving in all the loose ends. I left the one at the center front because I will start my crocheted edging here and I left one that was at the bottom of one of the arm holes because I will start picking up stitches here.

My favorite way to hid ends is to thread them onto a yarn needle and duplicate stitch with them on the wrong side of the garment. They really become invisible.

Here are some instructions for duplicate stitch:
Craftsmen Studio
Northtipton

Next I added a border of single crochet around the neck opening. Choosing a crochet hook a little smaller than the size of my knitting needles, I attached the yarn to the bottom of the v-neck and single crocheted my way around the neckline.

TIP: I like to go under at least two threads for my single crocheted edging. Your goal should be to have an edge that is flat and not too tight - if you pick up too many stitches, the edge will ruffle, not enough and the edge will loose its stretch.

Three Needle Bind-Off

2004-07-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Darcy - it was so funny - I came up stairs to scan my bind -off in progress and picked up your note about wanting to do the same thing - so here we are!

Step One - determine how many stitches you are going to bind off - the pattern said about five inches worth for my size. You want to have a large enough opening to get your head through comfortably.

Step Two - I decided to bind off 30 stitches for each shoulder. The stitches for my back are on a spare (smaller) needle. I am going to leave them on the smaller needle - it won't make any difference. My right front stitches are on my working needle (the fat light-colored one in the photo.)

Step Three - I have the INSIDE of the garment on the outside (wrong side out) because I want the ridge this bind off will create to be on the inside. Now I take a THIRD needle - in this case, it is the other end of my working circular needle and knit through the first stitch on the front needle and the first stitch on the back needle AT THE SAME TIME. I am knitting the two stitches as if they were one (put the tip of the needle through the front stitch, then through the second stitch, then wrap the yarn and make a knit stitch, slipping BOTH stitches off the left needles.

Whew!

Step Four - I am going to continue doing this maneuver, but as soon as I have two stitches on my RIGHT needle, I will bind off one by taking one of the left needles and slipping the right stitch on the right needle over the left (closest to the tip) stitch on the right needle, leaving only one stitch on the right needle.

Whew again!

Step Five - Continue to knit two stitches at the same time from the left needle followed by binding off one stitch on the right needle until you have bound off the number you determined in Step One. The needle with fewer stitches is holding one of the fronts - those stitches will form the fold down collar.

Step Six - Drop the needle holding the back stitches and finish binding off only the stitches on the front section. I always work the last two stitches as one - it seems to make a neater edge - try it both ways and decide for yourself :-)

Step Seven - Cut the yarn leaving a foot or so...fold back your collar and admire your work.

Step Eight - do the same thing on the other side. The stitches you have left in the center of the back will be worked when you crochet an edge around the neck opening. I put mine on a little stitch holder so I could move on to the sleeves.

I don't know about you - but this is where I stop and try it on - the body is finally completed except for the details so this is really the first chance to see how it fits -Success! The back is hanging lower than the front - I'm a happy camper.

Here is a video of the Three Needle Bind-Off.

My favorite resource for techniques is Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley. It was republished recently and I think you can get it for around $20. It covers EVERYTHING and has at least five ways to do anything :-)

What are your favorites?

Shoulders and Joining Yarn

2004-06-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

The back is complete and the instructions say to bind off the stitches. After you finish the fronts you will be told to sew the front and back together. Once again we will deviate from the written instructions here. I put my back section on a stitch holder (otherwise known as a spare, smaller circular needle) because I am going to do a three needle bind-off when I am ready to attach the front and the back.

Why on earth would I bind them off and then have to sew them together???

It is MUCH easier to do a three needle bind-off and it gives you about the same amount of stability. Excellent photos of how-to here. If I wanted an invisible flow over the shoulders I would do the Kitchener Stitch, but it doesn't provide any support.

Next the instructions tell me to attach a ball of yarn to each side of the front and work both sides at the same time. As a lazy knitter, there is no way I am going to mess with two sets of needles and four balls of yarn (because I am using two yarn together.) I am going to work each side separately and COUNT to make sure I have the same number of rows.

To join a new yarn for working on the fronts I simply take the end of the ball and start knitting with it. You may tie it to the side with a loose knot if you like - not tight because you will find later on that the place you tied itis much looser than you thought and you will want to redo it, not to mention, when you are done, you will want to pick out the knot and weave the end in.

In my experience, the best way to weave the end in is to use it to duplicate stitch on the BACK of the garment. It is truly invisible this way.

And re: the problems people are having with the Comments and Links - it is definitely an issue with Mozilla - I can see that it is happening but I have no idea why. Mozilla appears not to be able to "see" that type of file.

Back to Progress

2004-06-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

First - Congratulations to Mimi C. who has finished TWO T-Tops - one for her daughter and one for herself, with a third in the planning. Big round of applause - Way to go, Mimi!

I've been working on the back of mine:

Perfect front porch knitting for listening to all the summertime fire news coming from DH :-)

FYI - if you are having trouble with the comments, they are run in Javascript which is not supported by all/older browsers. It seems to work fine in IE and not in Netscape.

Checking In

2004-06-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

How are those T-Tops going? What yarn are you using? Spill!

I have about six inches knitted and the next thing I need to do is decide how long I want my top - Never, Never just knit it the length specified in the pattern!

Pull something out of your closet that is the length you would like your T-Top to be. Measure from the bottom of the armhole to the hem - this is the length you will knit NOT the length specified in the pattern. Note - this may cause you to use MORE or LESS yarn depending on how your sweater is going to differ from the pattern.

If I were to knit the length given for my size, the bottom will be about four inches below my waist because I am very short waisted - there is no right or wrong length - it is just a good time to THINK about what length you want :-)

The Magic of Short Rows

2004-06-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Short Rows are used to create dimensional knitting - it can add either curves to flat knitting or depth.

The human figure is not flat, even though our clothing often is - to shape clothing and make it more flattering (or just plain more comfortable), short rows can be used to add roundness for the bust, stomach, and upper back of a garment while maintaining the same distance at the sides. In other words, a piece might have 20 rows at the edges and 30 rows in the middle - Huh?

This photo has three sets of short rows:

The are 18 MORE rows in the center than on the sides, causing it to arch. See how we get short row heels on socks - we knit a little pouch like this for the base of the heel. This is only one of many shapes you can create with short rows.

The Short Row Exercise

I really want you to do this little sample so you will understand short rows - it won't take long - I promise :-)

With smooth yarn and appropriate needles - my samples are done with dishcloth cotton - cast on twenty stitches.

1. knit across the row - 20 stitches. Turn and

2. purl across the row - 20 stitches. Turn and

3. knit 18 stitches. Stop - breath - you have two stitches left unknitted. They will be staying right where they are.

4. Turn your knitting around so you are holding it facing the purl side. There are two stitches on your right needle and 18 on the left. The little gap between the right and left needle is where a hole "may" develop as you work short rows. This little opening is what people are trying to prevent by wrapping or using yarn overs while short rowing. We are not going to worry about it - this is my We Don't Need No Stinkin' Wraps Method of short rowing. So - slip the first stitch purlwise - tighten the yarn around the neck of this stitch as much as you can. Knit the next stitch. Stop here and look at your work from the front (knit) side.

The picture shows the two unworked stitches on the left, then the little gap, then the slipped stitch, then a knit stitch. Flip back to the purl side (we were just visiting the front, not doing anything.) Purl 14 stitches - stop. You should have two stitches remaining on the left needle. They will be staying right there. Turn your work and

5. Slip the first stitch (purlwise so it stays seated on the needle the same way), knit 13 stitches - stop. We are going to turn again. Notice you have four stitches on the left needle. We will be leaving two more stitches behind each time we turn. Two stitches is an arbitrary number - it could be five, it could be ten - it depends on how steep you want your curve to be.

Note: In the T-Top pattern I want to hide my turn between a knit and a purl (we are doing k2p2 ribbing) because the stitches are often a bit looser there anyway. YOU decide where you want to position them because YOU will always be the one adding them to a pattern.

6. Turn, slip the first stitch purlwise. Tighten the yarn. Purl 11 stitches. Stop - there are 4 stitches on the left needle. Turn.

7. Slip the first stitch. Knit nine stitches. Stop. Turn.

8. Slip one, purl seven. Stop. Turn.

At this point there are six unworked stitches at each end of the row. Having done enough short rows for our example, we are returning to regular knitting.

9. Knit all 13 stitches, pulling your yarn as tightly as possible as you knit across the last seven stitches. You should have all 20 stitches on your right needle. Turn.

10. Purl across the row, knitting tightly across the last seven stitches. You have purled across all 20 stitches.

Turn and work an additional four rows in stockinette - knit on the front, purl on the back.

Notice the loose/larger stitches where I turned . . . I can fix them the same way I fix ANY loose stitches in my knitting - by pulling up the looseness and distributing it across the row (washing and blocking will further hide any looseness.)

I've hooked the loose stitch with an extra needle and pulled the loose yarn up into a loop. Next I will follow the path of the yarn and move the looseness toward the center of the row by pulling on part of a stitch a little further to the right.

In the next picture, I have "fixed" all the stitches that looked loose. You can clearly see the crescent of short rows - and I don't see any gaps.

Having tried the various short row wrapping methods and acknowledging the difficulty of finding/seeing/picking up the wraps - I would much rather spend a few minutes tightening some stitches than fiddling with when and how to wrap. Not to mention - even with wrapping, there are still loose stitches that need to be tightened. Here is a comparison of all three methods:

Top - Zilboorg's yarn over method from the Knitting Anarchist.
Middle - My No Stinkin' Wraps method.
Bottom - Standard short row wrapping.

All of them had loose stitches tightened to improve the look.

To learn how to do traditional short row wrapping - check your favorite knitting reference book :-)I did not find a lot of great photo/instructions on the net for short row wrapping but here is one - scroll down the page.

Back to our T-Top

Why all this talk about short rowing? I don't like to always be tugging on the back of my sweater so I usually put some short rows at the bottom of the back. When I was ready to do the short rows, I worked half way across the piece until I reached my side marker - because I looked at the pattern and figured out that the first half of the stitches was going to be the front and the second half was going to be the back. Going a few stitches past the marker, I turned the work and did six short rows, moving over two stitches each time, just like the example (only the rows were longer :-)

The back of my sweater is now longer than the front. I will probably do a couple more short rows up near the top of the back. If you have more of a chest than I do, you will want to put your shorts rows at the widest part of your bust. Lily Chin did a great article in one of the knitting magazines a few years ago on adding short rows to make sweaters fit better - maybe one of you knows which magazine?

Some people love to play with short rows - if you ever run into the Queen of Short Rows - Heather, she will tell you all about her adventures with them.

Questions?

News Flash!

2004-06-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Lorna Miser, the designer of the Lapel T-Top is joining us - Whoo-hoo! She is a talented designer - see her work here. We're happy to have her on board :-)

A Peek at Short Rows

2004-06-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

An extra six rows added to the bottom of the back of my sweater should keep the back of my waist covered without tugging!

I did my cheaty version of short rows with no wrapping and no yarn-overs - I'll tell you how I do it Friday (in my usual exhaustive detail.) Tomorrow we are going to The Great Indoors in Phoenix - day trip into the blistering heat. I love it - the Phoenix news stations are saying things like "Record Heat! When will it end?" I'm thinking October.

Anyway - here are some articles on short rows to wet your appetite. Remember, short rows are used to add fullness to an area of the body is rounder (bust, stomach, upper back) on one side and flatter on the reverse.

How to knit short rows on a neckline.
A great article from Knitty
Some fancy uses for short rows - just pictures.

I'm planning on showing you some samples on Friday - hopefully the new DSL modem will be up and running by then.

Remember - you can join us anytime - we don't have a lot of rules or deadlines!

Casting On

2004-05-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

Normally I use two balls of yarn and the twisted German cast-on. But this ribbon yarn is slippery so I thought I would cast on in the easiest possible way by crocheting a chain and picking up stitches through the back of the chain.

I use plain white string for my crocheted chain and chain the number of stitches I need to cast-on PLUS ten stitches. The extra stitches allow me to skip any chains that might be malformed plus not have to use the beginning and ending chains. The knot is at the end of my chain where I cut the yarn and pulled it through the last loop. This is a reminder of which end is the one that will zip off when I am ready to remove it.

No matter what size yarn I am using, I use the same string for my chain - what varies is the size of the crochet hook. I use one a few sizes larger than the needles I am going to knit with so the first row will be loose (because I usually knit it twisted.)
Turing my chain over, I use my knitting needle to pick up one stitch through every purl bump on the back (skipping the first and last few bumps.)

We will be knitting in rounds on our circular needle and the instructions alway say to "Join, being careful not to twist the stitches." It can be difficult to see if your stitches are twisting around the needle especially in a furry or fancy yarn so I am going to work the first row FLAT. In other words, I am going to turn my work and work one row in pattern before I join the round.

Note: If you knit this row so the base of the stitches is twisted, you will be able to take off the crocheted chain immediately and the edge will have a looped finish. This is a light, loose edge suitable for scarves and shawls. If you knit the first row so the stitches are formed normally (not twisted), the loops will be "live." In other words, I could slooooowly unzip the string, placing each stitch on another circular needle and then knit them in the opposite direction. Try this for yourself on a little practice swatch - you can cast on ten stitches and do a little sample of each. HOW you knit the stitches to either twist them or not depends on how you picked them up through the chain - you will have to experiment to see what works for you.

The open or live edge is very handy if you want to work cuffs of a sweater or ribbing later. I did a Dale sweater where I cast on at the base of the yoke, did the fancy part and then worked the live stitches downward for the nice long boring part of the sweater. Conventional wisdom will tell you your pattern will be off one stitch on the pick-up-and-knit-in-the-other-direction part but it is not a big deal :-)

Back to our T-Top - once you have knit the first row in pattern (k2p2 ribbing)you will want to stop and count the stitches. Count them twice - it is critical have the correct number for your size at this point. I put a marker at the halfway point because I will need to find it later and I may as well get it marked now while I am counting anyway. Paperclips make good markers when you are counting because you can clip them on anywhere in the row.

TO JOIN the knitting into a circle - straighten the stitches on your needle so the cast-on edge is hanging down. My cast-on edge is easy for me to see because it is white against the orange yarn. The image on the left is what you DON'T want - a twist.

This a good place to double and triple check that your knitting is not twisting around the needle. If you have lots of stitches on a relatively short needle (I have 160 stitches on a 24 inch needle) it is easy to get twisted. If you are using a longer needle, you will find it much easier to see if the cast-on edge is circling the needle or not. If you start knitting and you DO have a twist,the only way to fix it is to rip back (unless you are making a cardigan in which case you could cut it open and untwist it because the place where you join your round is the center front of the cardigan.) But I know you don't want to cut today so check carefully.

To join - Instead of turning and knitting back, knit the first stitch on the left needle, going right across the gap. You will notice I left my starting tail nice and long - this is so I can sew the gap formed by working the first row flat - later. The tail also acts as my start-of-row marker. You can see the paperclip at the bottom of the right hand picture that marks my side seam.

WHEW! We have finally reached the fun part - knit in pattern until you reach the length specified for your size. This will be the bottom of the sleeve opening - you may want to measure something you already own to see if this is the length you really want. I am short waisted so I will probably make mine shorter than the pattern.

Next - Short Rows or How do I adjust for a larger bust/tummy/back?

It is a holiday and I have the day off so I am going to go knit now - see you later

Questions answered and my swatching ends

2004-05-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

Answers to a couple of questions:

Marcy said "The amount of stretch determines fit. The more you have to stretch it to get it to measure the required number of inches, the tighter it will fit against your body."

YES - you are absolutely right! A combination of stretch and measured size will give you the fit you want. The swatch I am going with has very little widthwise stretch (swatch #2) so I will need to be conscious of the finished measurement to insure it has the fit I want (not too tight.)

Someone else ask "Does it matter if we swatch for this in the round or flat (back & forth)?"

Good question - it usually recommended that you swatch the same way you will knit - that is, swatch in the round if the finished garment will be knit in the round. In this case, because the garment will be the same on the right side (RS) and the wrong side (WS), you can swatch flat. On a sweater done in the round where you are knitting every round, if you swatched flat (knit the front and purled the back), your gauge might be different for the knit rows vs. the purl rows so it would be a good idea to swatch in the round.

If any of you want to send in pictures of your swatches, I can post them here (keep the size to under 50K.) I will add a list of the yarns we are using to the sidebar later today.

The yarn I have decided to go with is the slippery orange ladder yarn - made bearable with the addition of a single strand of orange cotton flake yarn. Also, I switched from metal to bamboo needles for less slipping.

I'll be back later to talk about casting on.

More swatching and the "real" yarn

2004-05-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Filomena was kind enough to send along a link to the yarn used in the pattern. Looking at the photo in the magazine, there was no way to tell it was a tape yarn - I have always appreciated magazines that showed a length of yarn next to the pattern - not that I ever use the suggested yarn :-)

Did a bit more on my second swatch:

Notice how the railroad/ribbon yarn does not pull in as much as the cotton swatch did - this tells me it would make a boxier sweater. The gauge is 5 stitches to the inch on the same needles (unstretched), which makes it a bit too big. On the plus side, it would be a shiny, glamorous, certain-to-be-noticed sweater. On the negative side, notice the big, messy pile of yarn that fell off the ball while I was working with it. And the needles fell out five or six times because the yarn is so slippery.
And the yarn is so shiny it was difficult to see the difference between the knits and purls so I had to keep redoing (OK, I was watching a tape of Starting Over this morning while I was working on this...)Definitely not fun yarn to work with - but I wouldn't mind using it up just to get rid of it before it falls off the balls.

Switched to another swatch - this is a ribbon called Marbella by Trendsetter. It has a bit of body so it is MUCH easier to knit with. Unfortunately, it also does not have any stretch to the ribbing...

Guess it is time to get some shut eye and see how I feel about my swatches in the morning. See you later!

Swatching - Or How I spent my lunch hour :-)

2004-05-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

Until today I had been mentally swatching - thinking about which yarn I wanted to use. The only rule I had in mind was that it had to be a yarn I already had - since I DO have lots of yarn. Because this is a short-sleeved summer top (and I live in Arizona where it will be good and HOT any minute now) I knew wool would not be a good choice even though it is what I enjoy using.

My second choice was cotton - I have lots of little thin cottons that I can mix together to get the right gauge. And this was as far as I had gotten in the process until this afternoon when we decided to drive down to Cottonwood for lunch (no Mexican food in Jerome.) Quickly grabbing a US 7 circular needle and a couple of balls of cotton, we hit the road and I cast on 21 stitches for a swatch. As a lazy knitter and infrequent swatcher, I was more interested in getting a fabric weight I wanted than in worrying about measuring the gauge.

According to the pattern, the gauge is "18 sts. = 4 in. measured over 2x2 ribbing, slightly stretched." As Marcy so aptly put it "How do I know if I'm stretching it too much or not enough? Argh."

Looking at my swatch, you can see how the ribbing is pulling the sides in - this is the feature that is going to give this T-Top some shape, making it just a bit body-hugging. If I measure one inch of my swatch without stretching it, I get five stitches to the inch and if I stretching it Ever-So-Slightly, I can match the pattern gauge of 4.5 stitches per inch. Marcy's right - this part of the pattern stinks.

Here comes the MATH part of the planning process - and I'll list it in steps because you will need to substitute YOUR figures:

Pick a size to make - I was thinking about doing the smallest size (listed as a Finished Bust size of 36") which is an inch larger than I am - the pattern is form fitting. You may want a size with more ease.

Check the number of cast-on stitches for your size. If I divide the CO number for my size by my STRETCHED gauge (4.5), I get a finished measurement of 35.6 inches.

Will that fit me? Walks to closet, takes out a close fitting t-shirt and measures the width - 26 inches. Answer - yes, it will fit fine. Again, everyone's preference in ease is different. Think about how the measurements of the garment you already own compare to the garment you want to make. If I was making a loose, comfy Hoodie, I would pick a bigger size.

If I divide the CO stitches by my UNSTRETCHED gauge(5 sts. per inch), I get a finished measurement of 32 inches. Based measurements of the garment I already own, I know 32 inches will work.

Measure and count thoughtfully - if you are off half a stitck on your gauge swatch counting and you are making the largest size, you will be waaaaaay off when you are done.

OK - the yarn would work, but in the final analysis, it is really to heavy for the hot weather sweater I am envisioning. It would make a great cardigan or hat - but not a hot weather tee. So I have started a second swatch in a double railroad yarn - Lana Grossa's Viale Print.

It has potential - but it is late and I am off the bed. Will be working in the shop tomorrow and it should be a busy holiday weekend.

Happy Swatching!

What is a KnitAlong and How Do I Join?

2004-05-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

A KnitAlong is a group of people working on the same project at the same time. It is an opportunity to discuss the minutiae of a project with a roomful of interested companions without boring the rest of the knitting universe. Possible topics of discussion would be: yarn substitutions, problems with understanding the directions, alterations, and finishing.

Knitalongs generally have a definite start date (but you can start early or late :-) and then proceed something like an all-ages 5K race with some sprinting to the finish line, others strolling and chatting, with yet another group wandering off into the forest pursuing other interests rather than finishing. Pretty much the only rule is to stay on topic. And some just join and listen without any intention of actually knitting. I am currently in the Ingeborg Knitalong that Wendy is sponsoring but I am doing a different sweater, Frogner (and since I originally posted this to KnittingNovices, it has gotten even MORE different). They both have a diagonal pattern so they look alike to me.

There are LOTS of Knitalongs (and quiltalongs and beadalongs, etc.) going on all over the Internet. It is a great way to get motivated to start something that would be daunting without a support group. In fact, someone recently compiled a page of current Knitalongs.

How do you join the T-Top KnitAlong? Just let me know you are interested. The easiest way to do that is to make a comment. Click on the Comment link at the bottom of any of the pages. You can comment without signing in, but I need to know your name if you want to be added to the list on the side bar :-)

I want to keep most of the KnitAlong chatter here at the blog to avoid driving people on the list nuts with it - you don't have to "join" anything to read the posts here at the blog and you may knit or not - feel free to comment!

Official Start of the T-Top KnitAlong!

2004-05-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Join us as we work through the T-Top in the August 2004 edition of Knit 'N Style magazine. It is a simple boxy tee-shirt that uses ribbing to give it some shape. Worked in the round, the front is split in the center to create a fold-over collar. Cap sleeves are worked from the top down using short rows (they aren't hard - really :-)

See it here - Lapel T-Top, about half way down the page on the left.

You will need a copy of the magazine to knit along with us - it can be found at knitting shops and bookstores or you can order it directly from the publisher.

To ask a question, click on the Comments link at the bottom of this post. I will put answers to the most frequently asked questions on a FAQ page after we get rolling.

Here is a little button you can add to a web page or blog if you are knitting along:

A few thoughts before starting:

The gauge is 18 sts = 4 in OR 18/4 = 4.5 stitches to the inch on size US 7. The yarn used in the pattern is Aurora/Ornaghi Filati Giglio. You may use any yarn and needles you want as long as you get THE SAME GAUGE. If someone comes across a link to the actual yarn I would be happy to post it here but I know I will be using something I already have, probably a combination of little 5/2 cottons since this is a summer top.

4.5 stitches to the inch is worsted to heavy worsted weight like Cascade Sierra, Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, Noro Kureyon, 1824 Cotton, or Reynolds Saucy. I got these names from the Patternworks catalog but again, you can use any yarn you want as long as you get the correct gauge.

How do you find out what gauge you are getting? Here are a few articles on gauge:
EarthGuild I happen to like this one the best.
KnitaBit
Martha Stewart :-)

Enough for now - I'll be back!