How to Join a New Yarn
There are many ways to join a new yarn to your project without tying knots in your yarn. In this tutorial, I’m going to cover the ones I use most often.
Foundational Skills
How to Change Needles In the Middle of Your Project
Changing knitting needles in the middle of your project is a snap if you know how!
Researching Patterns on Ravelry
A little Ravelry research before beginning your pattern can save you time and eliminate frustrating “surprises” in the pattern.
Knitting & Crocheting with Hand Dyed Yarns
Hand dyed yarns require a little extra attention when you knit or crochet with them but using them produces truly beautiful one-of-a-kind garments.
Reading Your Knitting
Reading your knitting is the ability to identify the stitches you’ve completed. This is an important skill, and can save you time and frustration once you’ve mastered it. This series of blog posts by Felicia at The Craft Sessions is an excellent introduction on how to read your knitting. One of the best ways to …
Advanced Swatching: Adjusting Your Size
Swatching is absolutely necessary before knitting fitted garments. There are many reasons to swatch, which are covered in our basic swatching tutorial, Calculating Gauge in Knitting. In this tutorial, we explore how to use your swatch to customize a garment to your size. Customize Your Garment Knowing how to make simple adjustments to your patterns …
Lifelines are Lifesavers!
A lifeline holds a row of stitches so that if you make a mistake, you can simply drop the stitches off your needle, unravel your work back to the lifeline, and pick up the stitches that are held in place by the lifeline. Lifelines can be used with any type of knitted project, but they …
Using Stitch Markers in Knitting
Stitch markers are a valuable tool for knitting, and your use of them will vary depending on your personality, knitting ability, and how hard you like to concentrate. I use them a lot because I want my knitting to be as relaxing and easy as possible. There are 2 basic types of stitch markers: ones …
Reading Knitting Charts
I love knitting from charts! A Knitting chart takes up much less space than written directions and it is a visual representation of what the pattern looks like. In this article, I’ll cover the basics of reading standard knitting charts. Color work techniques such as fair isle, intarsia, and double knitting are usually done in …
Calculating Gauge in Knitting
How to Knit a Swatch & Calculate Gauge Swatching and calculating gauge is ESSENTIAL to make sure your garment fits! It is also a great way to: Test yarns to make sure they will produce a fabric suitable for the garment Practice pattern stitches used in the pattern Size Matters! 🙂 Make a swatch that …