Technique Tuesday: Swatching I

Like I said yesterday I am a big advocate for swatching.  It is really important whether you are designing your own knit item or using a designer's pattern.  Everyone's gauge is different and swatching allows you to see if you need to make any adjustments to the needle size or stitch count. Swatching also lets you get to know the stitch pattern you are going to use and lets you experience your yarn and get to know it before you take on your project.

There are plenty of reasons to swatch and today I am only going to talk about one of those reasons, stitches per inch.  When you knit a swatch you want to make sure that the swatch is about 4 to 5 inches in width and height.  If you are using a pattern there will be a suggested gauge of usually 2 to 4 inches you want to knit about an inch to two inches more than this suggested gauge so that you can get an accurate measurement.  If you are looking to find a certain yarn's stitch per inch look at the ball band, there is usually a suggestion of an amount of stitches to 4 inches or to 10 centimeters,  this is a good place to start.  If a suggested gauge is 20 stitch to 4 inches when you cast on for your swatch you will want to cast on about 30 stitches.

  Here is a basic swatch in a worsted weight yarn on size US 8 needles knit in stockinette.  I cast on about 28 stitches for this swatch.  This gives me plenty of room to measure.

I like to measure from the 2 inch mark on my tape to the 4 inch mark.  Line up your tape so that you have a row of stitches between the two inches on the measuring tape.  Then count the stitches all the way across.  If a stitch is cut in half at the end of the tape it will be added into the stitch count as a 1/2 of a stitch.

Here's a better picture of the stitches I counted.  I got 10 1/2 stitches to 2 inches.  This means that my stitch per inch count is 5.25 stitches for one inch.  The quarter, half and three quarters of a stitch are very important and should be taken into account when trying to figure out your stitches per inch.  This is also why you measure across multiple inches, it makes it easier to find your true gauge. 

Now if you were using a pattern and you had too many stitches per inch you would go up a needle size till you got the right count.  Inversely if you had too few stitches per inch you would go down a needle size till you got the count you were looking for.  It makes a big difference if you are 5 stitches to the inch or 6 stitches. 

Technique Tuesday: Tips for Knitting in the Round

I love knitting things in the round.  Mostly because this mean no seaming which is a great reason to knit in the round.  Although I didn't always start out loving circular knitting.  This was because I am a self taught knitter I had no wise experienced knitter who could let me in on tricks and helpful hints.  Here are some of my tips for knitting in the round.

1. Always make sure your circular needle/dpns are the right circumference for what you plan on knitting.  I thought that a 24" circular was the perfect needle size for my first hat in the round so I filled it with as many stitches as it would hold, needles to say my hat came out huge, which was more of a gauge problem.  So I then cast on the appropriate amount of stitches and there were too few to make it around the needle and I was pulling and stretching my stitches which made it hard to knit anything.

For a hat a 16" circular with do you good for baby hats all the way up to large adult size hat.  With item that are smaller than 16" in circumference think about useing DPNS, magic loop, or two circular needles.  Items such as sweaters you want to think about the smallest part of the sweater, I like to start on a 16" and then move up to a 24" or 26" when I need too.  Depending on th esize of the sweater you may want to use a 36" circular. 

2. Always use a stitch marker to mark the beginning and end of a round.  This way you are never confused as to were you are to start and end which comes in handy if you are using a stitch pattern or are increasing or decreasing in a pattern.

2.2.  Never stop at the end/beginning of a round.  Your stitch marker will fall off your needle.  Always try to stop with one stitch after or before your stitch marker.

3.  Be careful not to twist your stitches.  I read this all the time in patterns.  Before you join your work take the time to make sure your cast on edge isn't twisted around your needle.  An appropriate length needle is helpful, but you just have to suck it up and make sure that the cast on is oriented the same way before you place your maker and join your work.

4. Use a Long tail cast on.  I know it's a pain when you miss judge the amount of yarn you need in your dead end, but this cast on tends to be more elastic and creates less of a jog where you join. 

5. To help with the jog situation where you join your work cross your last and first stitch over and place your maker between them.  This way your first stitch is now your last stitch and your last stitch is now your first stitch.  This makes a tighter neater join.

These are all of my tips are there any more that others use?

Technique Tuesday: How to Wind a Center Pull Ball

One of my favorite techniques is knitting two socks at a time on two circular needles, and while I won't be talking about this techniques today it does require me to wind my yarn into a center pull ball of yarn.

There are a few pros to a center pull ball:
1.) You can pull yarn from the inside and the outside at the same time
2.) Your yarn stays protected inside more yarn
3.) your ball of yarn will roll around on the floor less keeping your yarn clean, and it won't become tangled around furniture.

How to start

first you want to find a place to hang your hank of yarn. If you don't have a swift or a willing partner to hold the hank the back of a chair or your knees will suffice.


Next take the dead end of the yarn and making sure it is about 10-12 inches long. (Your dead end it the end of your yarn and the live end is what leads back to your hank of yarn.)


Wrap the dead end around your thumb, making sure that the extra inches are hanging down the length of your arm.


Now you will take the live end of the yarn and begin to loosely wrap it around your index, middle and ring fingers or how ever you winding a ball of yarn.

Continue to wrap the yarn around your three fingers until you see a ball start to form out of the wrapped yarn. Slip your fingers out of the ball of yarn and continue wrapping the yarn around itself, being mindful of where the dead end of the yarn is attached to the ball.

when you are finished your ball of yarn should look like this:

Ta-Da! A center pull ball of yarn.

Technique Tuesday: Beginner Guide to Knitting Part V, Binding Off

The final step in learning to knit is binding off your knitting, or casting off. This takes your live stitches and secures them from dropping and unraveling all you hard work. It is as simple as the knit stitch.

1. Loosely knit two stitches, you want to make sure that you are not pulling your stitches too tightly while you are binding off.


2. Insert you left hand needle into the 1st stitch of the row.


3. Next you are going to slip the first stitch over the second stitch. Leaving the second stitch on the right hand needle. The First stitch will now be secured around the second stitch.

4. Remove left hand needle from stitch. You have know just bound off 1 stitch.

Continue with this process by knitting one and passing one over the second stitch till you have no more stitches left.


Now you can wear you newly knitting Item!

Binding Off Resources
Learning to Knit: Cast Off, Video Tutorial
Knitting Bind Off, by theknitwitch, A great example of binding off and English style
Binding Off with Stitch Diva