When finishing your project or a portion of your project, this is how you get the live stitches off your needle and prevent the work from unraveling. When binding off during a knit row (right side of the fabric facing you), hold the knitting in your left hand, and use your right needle to knit two stitches. Now pass the first stitch on your right-hand needle over the second stitch and off the needle. Continue this pattern of knitting a stitch from the left-hand needle and passing the first stitch over the second stitch on the right-hand needle until only one stitch remains on your right-hand needle. Then cut the yarn, leaving about a 6-inch tail, and pull the yarn through.
Blocking is a way of setting finished knitted items or pieces after they are completed. In this book, we primarily wet the fabric either by washing or rinsing with a conditioner bath, then gently remove the water by rolling in a towel before blocking. The knitted item is then placed on a blocking board (we also use a pillow covered by a towel) and pinned in place so that it dries without the curling, uneven texture that sometimes appears in hand knitting.
There are various ways to cast on the foundation row of knitting. In the single-yarn method (also called the knitted cast-on), a slipknot is made in the yarn, about 6 inches from its end. The slipknot is placed on the left-hand needle, and then using the right-hand needle you begin to knit the slipknot. Just before the knot would be slipped off the left-hand needle during knitting, the loop created is transferred back onto the left-hand needle instead. This is repeated until the desired number of stitches appears on the left-hand needle.
In the double cast-on method (also called the continental or long-tail cast-on), the slipknot is placed a yard or a few yards from the end of the yarn (depending on the number of desired stitches), and only one needle is used. A good rule of thumb is to pull about three times the width of the piece plus a little more. The slipknot is placed on the needle, which is held in one hand while the two dangling strands of yarn are held in the other hand with the cut end of the yarn looped over your thumb and the yarn attached to the ball looped over your index finger. Stitches are cast on by taking the needle up through the thumb loop, over the index finger loop, and down through it, then pulling the new loop back through the thumb loop. Drop the loop off your thumb, and pull the two strands taut. At this point a stitch has been cast on. This is repeated to get the desired number of stitches.
Crocheting is a method of creating fabric using yarn and a single hook. A foundation of chains (or existing knitting) is used as a base. The hook is simply inserted into a chain or knitted stitch, then a loop is wrapped around the hook and pulled through one loop to begin a single crochet. Finally, a loop is wrapped and pulled through the two loops to complete the single crochet, and in that way a stitch has been crocheted. A stitch can be single crocheted (one loop of yarn is wrapped), double crocheted (two loops of yarn are wrapped), or triple crocheted (three loops are wrapped). A combination of these stitches and many others is used in crochet to create lacework. In this book, it is primarily used to join seams and for some very basic edging.
A decrease is a way of reducing stitches on a row by knitting two together or purling two together. We recommend knitting together the second and third stitches in from the edges of the work instead of the first two stitches on the edge in order to maintain a smooth and clean edge.
When a stitch accidentally falls off the needle, it begins to unravel the knitting, working down a vertical ladder. This can be fixed with a crochet hook, looping the steps of the ladder up and back to the knitting needle. In this book, we’ve dropped stitches on purpose to create a distressed look.
To make a duplicate stitch, a darning needle and yarn are used to add contrasting color to an existing item knitted in stockinette stitch. Holding the item with the right side facing you, you will notice a pattern of V shapes created by the stockinette stitch. Focus only on the V’s and not the upside down V pattern you will also see between the columns. Insert your darning needle from the wrong side in the point just below the V you intend to duplicate. Then go one above the V you intend to duplicate, pull your needle and yarn through both legs of that V above, and pull the yarn through. Finally, insert your needle down and through the original point of entry. Your needle will once again be on the wrong side of the fabric, and a duplicate stitch mimicking your knitting will have been completed.
In knitting a two-color design, this is a method where only one ball of each of the colors is used on each row, no matter how many color changes the pattern calls for. Whenever the design requires a different color within a row, the yarn is carried across the back of the knitting. This method is generally recommended only for two-color designs and designs where the yarn changes occur within a few stitches of each other. For larger designs where there are more than five to ten stitches to carry yarn across, it not recommended to use Fair Isle, as you will have difficulty maintaining proper tension across the back of the fabric.
Agitating wool so that it becomes matted is the art of felting. This is a craft that can be intricate and time-consuming, but for the projects in this book, we are simply felting finished projects by subjecting them to the washing machine, on either a hot or cold wash or a combination needed to obtain the desired effect. The finish is a firmer and sturdier fabric that is great for bags and other items. Please note that you cannot felt synthetic fibers, cotton, or superwash wool.
To create a fringe, several strands of short yarn are grouped together, folded in half, and pulled through the knitted fabric with a crochet hook. The ends of the yarn are then pulled through the loop created and pulled tight, so that they remain firmly on the knitted fabric.
Garter stitch has a bumpy look that is created by knitting every row in flat knitting (or purling every row in flat knitting). It can be achieved when knitting in the round by placing a stitch marker at the beginning of the round and alternating knitted rounds and purled rounds. Please note that circular needles can be used in knitting without joining to form a round, and in this case you would knit every row or purl every row.
An I-cord is a knitted tube that is created using double-pointed needles and a small number of stitches (no more than ten). A row is knit, and with the right side of the fabric facing you, the stitches are pushed back toward the right end of your needle, and the needle is moved to your left hand. The yarn is pulled across the back of the needle, and another row is knit. This is repeated until your cord grows to the desired length.
There are various methods of increasing the number of stitches on a row. For the purposes of the projects in this book, we made strand increases by picking up the horizontal strand that lies between two stitches and either knitting or purling it so that it twisted, thus creating an additional stitch without making a hole.
This is a method of knitting various blocks of color with separate balls of yarn to follow a pattern of color changes or graph in stockinette stitch. When knitting and purling intarsia, you will drop your old color to the left of the stitch you just worked and bring your new color up into use to the right of the old color. This will twist the new color under the old color just once, interlocking and maintaining an even tension. It’s best to practice this a few times with scrap yarn to get the hang of it.
Knitting in the round is using circular needles to create a tubular finished product. After casting on the desired number of stitches and being careful not to twist any stitches in the cast-on row, you simply knit the last stitch of your cast-on to join the round. At this point, markers can be placed to signify the beginning of the round, then each round is knitted (or purled) to create a tube of stockinette stitch. In order to create a tube of garter stitch while knitting in the round, markers must be placed at the beginning of the row so that you can knit one row and then purl one row, continuing in that pattern.
When you need to add knitting to an existing piece, you can pick up stitches along its edge instead of knitting the item separately and sewing it on. Stitches can be picked up along all edges of finished work either with a crochet hook (and transferred onto a knitting needle) or a knitting needle, which you use to pull yarn through holes in the edge of the work in a consistent manner.
A combination of knitting and purling in one row, done in a pattern along vertical columns, creates ridges and makes the knitted fabric stretchy. There are infinite patterns of ribs that can be created, but some common ones are two-by-two ribs (which consist of a combination of two knits and two purls) or four-by-four ribs, and so on.
There are multiple ways of joining knitted items together using a darning needle and the same yarn. When the seam will not show in the final project, you can sew two items together very simply. When a seam needs to be invisible because it will detract from the final project, you can use mattress stitch. Alternately, you can use a crochet hook to join items by crocheting them together.
In crochet, this is a way of joining rounds or getting to another point in the project without adding the height of the crochet stitch. You simply insert the hook through the desired stitch, pull yarn over the hook, and pull through both the stitch and the loop on your hook. In knitting, slipping a stitch is simply moving it from one needle to another without knitting or purling it.
Stockinette stitch is the most basic knitting pattern, creating a smooth fabric. Up close it will resemble a pattern of V’s on the right side of the fabric and a bumpy set of loops on the wrong side. It is created on straight needles by alternating rows of knits and purls. It is created when knitting in the round on circular needles by knitting every row or purling every row.
The 3-needle bind-off is a method of binding off two pieces at the same time in order to create a smooth seam where the two pieces are joined together. It is important to have two needles with the live stitches on them, with an equal number of stitches on each needle. The two pieces should be held together with the right sides of the work facing in (inside out), then a third needle is inserted into the first stitch on each of the held needles, and the two stitches are knit together as one. This is repeated with the next stitch on the two needles. When there are two stitches on your third (right-hand needle), pass the first stitch over the second one as you would anytime you are binding off. Repeat this pattern of knitting the two next stitches of the original two needles together as one and binding off on the third needle until only one stitch remains on your right-hand needle. Then cut the yarn, leaving about a 6-inch tail, and pull the yarn through.
On finished knitted items, you will have various strands of dangling yarn on the wrong side of the fabric from switching yarn, the cast-on row, and for other reasons. Using a darning needle, the dangling strands should be worked into the purl-side bumps of the fabric so that the fabric does not unravel.
These can be used to increase stitches and make decorative holes in knitting. When knitting, simply pull the yarn in front of the work between the two needle points and over the needle in your right hand before knitting the next stitch. When purling, bring yarn to the front, and loop it over the right-hand needle and back to the front again before purling the next stitch. On the next row, these can be knitted to make a hole and increase the number of stitches, or they can simply be dropped without knitting to create decorative holes without increasing the number of stitches.