My curious mind doesn’t stop, especially when it comes to knitting and designing. Because I had 2 Deluxe Superwash yarns that were the same color, I thought I’d experiment to see how I could use these 2 yarns together in the same swatch. Knitting into the row below, or in this case rows below, produced some interesting results.
Close-up of Tucked Ribbing
The bulky yarn rows were basically a 3x3 ribbing, but I used garter stitch in between the columns of stockinette stitch instead of the usual reverse stockinette stitch. Then, I let the worsted weight yarn “do all the work” making the stitch pattern look interesting.
Full-on view of tucked rib swatch with knit below rows
The first maneuver I did with the worsted weight yarn was to work a double decrease/double increase in the same stitch. To do this, I slipped 2 stitches together, as if I were going to knit them together. Then in the 3rd stitch I knit 1, made a yarn over, knit 1, all in the same stitch. Then I took the 2 slipped stitches -- now the 4th and 5th stitches on the right-hand needle -- passed them over the first 3 stitches, and voila!
The second technique, the one where I knit into rows below, happened in the center stitch of each garter stitch section. I inserted the needle just below the garter stitch bump, not just 1 row below, but 4 rows below. This is the 2nd garter stitch bump of the center stitch. Then I knit through as usual, trapping all the strands of yarn that had been knit into that center stitch in the rows above. This brings up a lovely “V” shaped knit stitch and after a bit of massaging, there are strands that drape outwards to the left and right from behind the V. I really like this look.
If I were to try this again, I’d use the Deluxe DK superwash weight instead of the worsted weight for an even greater contrast and a lacier look. Hmmm, I wonder what it would look like in 2 different colors.
Here’s the stitch chart for you to try this yourself. Please share pictures of what your project or swatch looks like.
Another member of the Deluxe family of yarns by Universal Yarns is the Superwash line. It comes in three weights. The bulky weight comes in 43 colors; the worsted weight in a whopping 61 colors and the DK weight in a substantial 52 colors. I chose Jade for both the worsted and bulky weights I swatched.
Deluxe Worsted and Deluxe Bulky Superwash woolen yarns by Universal yarns
Both the bulky and worsted weights are spun out of 4 plies of superwash wool. The bulky yarn has about 6 to 7 twists per inch and the worsted weight has between 11 and 12. The twist is tight enough to prevent splitting and it gives a fairly good stitch definition. The yarn is very low sheen, which could be a result of the breed of sheep, the amount of twist, or, most likely, the superwash treatment. Regardess, the matte look is very classic and doesn’t deter from making texture stand out. It’s also a “low-haze” yarn which also keeps stitches from looking muddled with each other.
Deluxe Bulky Superwash is in focus
On a rating scale of really-itchy being that old orlon-acrylic from the 70s at a score of ten and a not-itchy-at-all score of zero being the cloudiest pima cotton, I would give this yarn an itch factor of 1.5 to 2. I put a swatch inside my elbow with a dress shirt on and also under my collar for about 20 minutes. In either location, I had no red bumps, and I didn’t really feel the wool next to my skin other than the weird bulk, and the extra warmth. The label just says superwash wool, so I’m sure it’s a blend from a variety of different sheep.
Close-up of Deluxe Worsted Superwash wool
The Universal Yarns website has many free patterns for each of the Deluxe Superwash weights of yarn. Scroll down to where you see the colors and click on the patterns tab. Some are for sale, but many are free downloads. Here are some of my favorites.
Diamonds are High ski hat knit in Deluxe Bulky Superwash
I also wanted to see how this yarn would work in a lace motif, so I swatched with Deluxe Bulky Superwash to show how nicely it knits on US10¾ [7mm] needles to make a lace pattern. This swatch is on 25 sts, but I think 50 sts would do for a warm cowl.
Swatch of Askew Lace in Deluxe Bulky Superwash
The chart for this lace is below. I just sort of made it up on the needles, it has an interesting bias to the left.
Tomorrow you’ll see why I have the same color of yarn in both the worsted and bulky weights of Deluxe Superwash.
Once I started exploring slipped stitches to knit easy two color patterns, like the one I shared yesterday, I basically couldn’t stop. I’m sure it’s been done by others, but I “un”-vented this cool pattern. I’m calling it mock houndstooth. You can see it worked up in 2 colors of Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash.
Illustration of houndstooth weave done on a loom
This two color pattern is now ubiquitous to the fashion industry, but for many it evokes mental images of hunting on the Scottish moors, or strolling along Paris avenues with socialites.
Grid chart of houndstooth motif
Designers use the stark, high-contrast black and white version at many different scales; tiny, fine tweeds and oversized jagged checks are in vogue pretty much every year in some collection or other. This weave can be traced back to the early 1800s and was commonly worn as woven wool outwear by Scottish sheep herders, but by the early 1900s, many designers adopted it for business and evening wear.
I really like houndstooth, but to knit it as it appears above involves a lot of work with stranded colors or intarsia, techniques not everyone is ready to dive into when they feel ready to try a houndstooth pattern in a scarf or cowl.
Swatch of easy-to-knit mock houndstooth pattern
Yesterday’s swatch with the 2-color tweed got me thinking, and I tried a variety of times to get a houndstooth look using the same easy slip stitch 2-color knitting technique I demonstrated yesterday.
To make this pattern you need a multiple of three stitches, plus 2 for symmetrical edges. I used 26 stitches for this swatch.
Rows 1 & 2: With MC, knit.
Row 3: With CC, k1, [k2, sl 1] across to last st, k1.
Row 4: With CC, knit.
Row 5: With MC, k1 [k1, sl 1, k1] across to last st, k1.
Row 6: With MC, knit.
Row 7: With CC, k1, [sl 1, k2] across to last st, k1.
Row 8: With CC, knit.
Row 9: With MC, k1, [k2, sl 1] across to last st, k1.
Row 10: With MC, knit.
Row 11: With CC, k1 [k1, sl 1, k1] across to last st, k1.
Row 12: With CC, knit.
Row 13: With MC, k1, [sl 1, k2] across to last st, k1.
Row 14: With MC, knit.
Repeat Rows 3-14 for pattern.
Close up of easy-to-knit houndstooth
My swatch is about 4¾” [12cm] across, so 26 stitches are not enough for a man’s scarf, which is what I’d like to knit with this yarn. I think I’m going to go up to 47 stitches, which will yield about 8" [20cm] in width. I’m going to knit until the two balls of yarn run out. I’ll let you know how long it ends up being.
Another thing I may try is to work the following pattern to see if I can get the diagonal slant of the 2-color mock houndstooth to change direction.
Rows 1 – 14 as above, then work the odd rows in reverse order from Row 11 to 3.
Please share photos of your swatches or projects if you try this pattern out.
If you’re not ready to jump into Fair Isle knitting or the intarsia technique, today’s post will give you a chance to try some beautiful, easy two-color knitting without even having to purl!
This easy, two-color pattern uses only one color of yarn per row
I knit this two-color swatch with Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash for two reasons: first because I wanted to find a tweedy stitch pattern to complement this tweedy yarn, and second because I wanted to explore some easy stitch patterns to teach in my knitting classes.
I’ve heard this stitch pattern called the 2-color bee pattern. It's made completely of knit stitches, but there's something new to learn here. It's not a purl stitch, but it's a variation on the knit stitch. Sometimes you’ll need to “knit in the stitch below”.
Close up of 2-color Bee Stitch
Looking at the swatch again, you’ll notice that something looks different in the middle 10 or 12 rows. We could call it a mistake, but let’s just call it a design feature. Near the left edge of the 4th set of light colored yarn you'll see a circle around two cream-colored stitches. They should have been separated by a green stitch. This mistake throws off the staggered dots pattern and instead we have…zigzag-like stripes. I think using both stitch patterns together does create some visual “noise” but you may not really like that! If not, no worries, I’ll give you the instructions so you can choose which way you’d like to run with things.
2-colored bee pattern with a slight variation
First, the real 2-color bee pattern.
Multiple of 2 stitches, plus 1 for edge symmetry. (I cast on 25 with MC)
For this swatch I knit the first and last stitch of every row, RS or WS.
In my swatch the MC (main color) is the pine and the CC (contrasting color) is the porcelain. Both these color names are what Universal Yarns gave to these 2 out of 14 colors of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash…and I really love “porcelain” as a color name. One of my dream jobs would be to name yarn colorways! But I digress.
Row 1: With MC, knit.
Row 2: With MC, knit.
Row 3: With CC, k1, [k1b, k1] across.
Row 4: With CC, knit.
Row 5: With MC, k2, [k1b, k1] across to last st, k1.
Row 6: With MC, knit.
Repeat rows 3-6 for pattern.
The Zig Zag Stripes design element pattern
Around Row 16 is where I went awry and got the zigzag stripes. The instructions to achieve this on purpose rather than by accident are:
Row 1: With MC, knit.
Row 2: With MC, knit.
Row 3: With CC, k1, [k1b, k1] across.
Row 4: With CC, knit.
Row 5: With MC, k1, [k1b, k1] across.
Row 6: With MC, knit.
Row 7: With CC, k2, [k1b, k1] across to last st, k1.
Row 8: With CC, knit.
Row 9: With MC, k2, [k1b, k1] across to last st, k1.
Row 10: With MC, knit.
Repeat rows 3-10 for pattern.
My sons and I don't shy away from color, so I think this pattern with these yarns will make a great scarf for the 3 of us to take turns using this winter -- until I get the other two knitted up. Too many ideas, too little time!
Tomorrow I’ll continue exploring using two-color patterns two rows at a time to see what other fun projects we could knit.
This week we're going to look at knitting with the Deluxe family of yarns developed by Universal Yarns. There are 9 different lines in this yarn family. Today I want to highlight Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash.
Ball of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash in Garnet colorway
Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash comes in 14 classic subdued colors. The whole spectrum of the rainbow is included, but don't think primary brights! Instead think of calm and stoic colors that have stood the test of time in ever-changing fashion fads. Pictured above is the rich Garnet color (#901). I also made some swatches with Pine (#905) and Porcelain (#910) as you’ll see below.
All of the colors are speckled with black, camel, and taupe flecks which grounds them in an earthy way and also makes it easy to use several different base colors because the flecks are consistent throughout. I worked with the worsted weight, but the double knitting (DK) line has parallel colors.
Skein of Porcelain colored Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash
Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash is a traditional 4-ply yarn. The twist is excellent for showing off texture and for giving the yarn -- and therefore the knits you work up with it -- a lot of structural integrity. I count roughly 12 twists per inch. The fiber content is 90% superwash wool, and the flecks are made of 7% acrylic and 3% viscose. My guess is that the flecks are spun and dyed, cut and combed first and then re-combed with the wool fibers so that the flecks get entangled in the wool fibers before they are spun into the 4 single plies which are then plied together. This would explain how they get the flecks consistent across the different colorways.
Untwisted plies of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash
One of my true tests for quality of a tweed yarn is the distribution of the flecks and whether they appear evenly throughout the yarn so that there're no glaring gaps in the knits once they’ve been worked up. Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash lives up to my “test” as you can see below
Stocking Stitch Swatch of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash
Although the "go to" needle size for a worsted yarn is US 7 [4.5mm], the ball band recommends size 6 US [4 mm] needles, and I knitted these swatches with US 8 [5mm]. I think the springiness of the yarn lends itself to being knit with different needle sizes depending on what you want to achieve. As far as getting gauge for your “go to” worsted weight sweater, Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash is a great substitution yarn because you can get between 16 and 20 stitches per 4”[10cm] depending on the needle size and your tension.
Ball of the pine colorway of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash
In this picture, you can see a little two-color knitting in the background. That is what we’re going to delve into tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Two color knitting peeking from behind 2 balls of Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash yarn in the Porcelain (left) and Pine (right) colorways
In yesterday's post we began to knit a trick-or-treat bag using Red Heart's Chunky Soft and Reflective yarns. Now that the base is complete, I'm going to wrap up our series with the knitted sides and handles for our project.
Cynthia's trick-or-treat bag
The project is knitted in the round, and the face appears on both sides, so for 10 rounds of the chart for the face of the jack-o-lantern, we'll be doing intarsia in the round.
Working intarsia in the round isn't true "in the round" knitting: in order for the yarn to be in the correct location to work the next "round", you need to come back along as you would in back-and-forth knitting. To avoid having seams where we do the intarsia, we need to link the rows of knitting together where the ends meet. This 4 minute video shows you how to work the ends of the rows.
intarsia in the round
Blogger Cynthia MacDougall shows the steps to take to work intarsia knitting "in the round"
Round 1: with orange yarn, (m1, k8) around (72 sts) Rounds 2, 3, and 4: k around Round 5: (m1, k9) around (80 sts) Rounds 6, 7 and 8: k around Round 9: k12, m1, pm, k16, pm, m1, k24, m1, pm, k16, pm, m1, k12. (84 sts)
Markers denote the chart areas; the chart is worked twice on each round. Slip markers as needed. Chart may be worked in color stranding or intarsia, as desired. To work intarsia, wind small bobbins or make butterflies - 4 with ¾ yd [.7m] black for each eye, 2 with 5 yds [4.5m] and 2 with 1 yd [.9m] for each mouth, and 4 lengths of orange 1 yd. [.9m] to work teeth and between the eyes.
Rounds 1-7 and 14-16 of the chart are best worked with the intarsia-in-the-round technique. The other rounds can be worked circular style, as they are solid color rounds.
Our jack-o-lantern has a chipped tooth!
Round 10: k13, work chart, k26, work chart, k13, wt Rounds 11, 13, and 15: p13, work chart, p26, work chart, p12, lift wrap from next st and ptog with the last st of the round, wt Rounds 12 and 14: k13, work chart, k26, work chart, k13, lift wrap from next st and ktog with the last st of the round, wt Round 16: k13, m1, work chart, m1, k26, m1, work chart, m1, k13, lift wrap from next st and ktog with the last st of the round. Do not turn - the 2 rem black sts for mouth in the next round can be worked from the rem black yarn. (88 sts) Round 17: k14, work chart, k28, work chart, k14 Rounds 18-20 (rounds 9-11 of chart): with orange, k around Round 21: with orange, k14, m1, slm, k16, slm, m1, k28, m1,slm, k16, slm. m1, k14 (92 sts) Round 22: k around Rounds 23: k15, work chart, k30, work chart, k15, wt Round 24: p15, work chart, p30, work chart, p14, lift wrap from next st and ptog with the last st of the round, wt Round 25 (remove all markers in this round except for the round marker): k15, work chart, k30, work chart, k14, lift wrap from next st and ktog with the last st of the round. Do not turn - the 1 rem black st for each eye in the next round can be worked from the rem black yarn
Knit in rounds with orange until work measures 7 1/2"/ 19cm from orange garter ridge at base.
Shape top
Side 1, row 1: k17, cast of 12, k34, cast off 12, k17, remove round marker, k17. Turn work. Put the 34 sts between the cast off sts onto a holder, if desired.
Row 2: sl1wyif, cast off 2 sts, p to end, turn. (32 sts)
Row 3: sl1wyib, cast off 2 sts, k to end, turn (30 sts)
Rows 4-7: repeat rows 2 and 3 (22 sts)
Row 8: rep row 2 (20 sts)
Row 9: sl1wyib, cast off 2 sts, sl last cast off st back to left needle, k2tog across. (9 sts) Break orange yarn.
Side 2: sl sts from holder onto needle. With WS facing and orange yarn, work rows 2-9 as given for Side 1.
Handle
With WS facing, join black yarn and p 1 row. If a less stretchy handle is desired, switch to a needle 2 sizes smaller.
Row 1: (k1, p1) 4 times, k1
Row 2: (p1, k1) 4 times, p1
Rep these two rows until handle is desired length. (The sample handle is 11" [28cm] long.) End with a Row 2.
Put handle across opening, being careful not to twist it, and align the right side of the handle sts to the rem orange bag sts (see photo). With black yarn, p1 st from handle with 1 st of bag. Rep to end, turn.
Placement of handle across the top of bag to join the two together
Purling 1 handle stitch with 1 bag stitch.
Cast off sts. Break black yarn and draw through loop.
Finishing
Weave in all ends, slip pail into bag.
There you have it. A simple trick-or-treat bag that holds not only good candy for the wee-ones, but a lot of possibility for learning and exploring useful knitting techniques! Happy Hallowe'en.
The last two days' posts have been devoted to learning cast ons for circular knitting and different ways of forming our circles. Today, we're going to use our Red Heart yarns to make our trick-or-treat bag. This project is designed to be small enough for the average-aged trick-or-treater. It's small enough that parents can inspect the goodies at the street before putting them into a larger container.
In today's post, we'll knit the base for our jack-o-lantern project.
The project is knit from the bottom to the top, beginning with a circle that will become the outer shell of a plastic pail liner to give our trick-or-treat bag structure. The bottom circle is black to maximize the yardage of the Red Heart Reflective yarn. The last few rounds of the base are done in the orange Reflective yarn so that it'll catch the light even if the child is swinging the bag around. We chose Chunky Soft for the black sections of the project so that when headlights catch the face of the jack-o-lantern on the side, the pattern will be dark while the rest of the bag shines. Ooooo -- spooky!
The black yarn (Chunky Soft) is not reflective. It contrasts with the bright orange and sparkles of Reflective yarn.
The pattern
Today we're going to make the base of our bag using the spoke-shaped circle I described in yesterday's post. Tomorrow we'll work the sides and handle of the bag and talk about making intarsia designs in the round.
Skill
Intermediate- includes working with double pointed needles and intarsia
materials
Red Heart Reflective yarn, neon orange, 2 balls, 3.5 oz/100g Red Heart Chunky Soft yarn, black, 1 ball, 5 oz/141g Size 9/ 5.5mm double point needles, set of 5 Size 9/ 5.5mm circular needle (optional)
notions
170 oz/ 5 L slotted handle plastic pail, orange or black, approx 6" [15cm] dia. at base, 8-9" [20-23cm] at brim, and 7-8" [18-23cm] high (Example is by Patio Plastico) Removable stitch markers, solid stitch markers Tapestry needle for weaving in ends
gauge
14 sts to 4" [10cm] over stocking stitch
abbreviations
m1p - make 1 purl wise - lift the bar between 2 sts and place it with the left leg of the loop in front of the left needle and the right leg of the loop behind the left needle, then p through the front loop of the st
pm - place marker
sl1wyif - keep the yarn at the front of the work and slip the next stitch as if to purl
sl1wyib - keep the yarn at the back of the work and slip the next stitch as if to purl
slm - slip marker
wt - wrap and turn - with the yarn in the correct position for the work done to this point (at back for knitting, at front for purling), sl the next st purlwise to the right needle. Move the yarn to the opposite position (front or back) and turn work. (The sl st is now on the left needle.) Sl the st purlwise to the right needle, and move the yarn into position to work the next round.
The orange pail purchased to line our trick-or-treat bag is currently useful as a project bin!
instructions
With black yarn, cast on 8 sts for circular knitting. Place 2 sts on each needle. K 1 round Begin spoke shaping: Round 1: k1, p1 in each stitch around (16 sts) Round 2: k around Round 3: (k1, p1) around Round 4: k around Round 5: (m1p, k1, m1p, p1) twice on each needle (32 sts) Round 6: k around Round 7: (p1, k1, p3, k1, p2) on each needle Round 8: k around Round 9: (p1, m1p, k1, m1p, p3, m1p, k1, m1p, p2) on each needle (48 sts) Round 10: k around Round 11: (p2, k1, p5, k1, p3) on each needle Round 12: k around Round 13: (p2, m1p, k1, m1p, p5, m1p, k1, m1p, p3) on each needle (64 sts). Break black yarn, join orange yarn. Round 14: k around Round 15: (p3, k1, p7, k1, p4) on each needle Round 16: k around Base is now complete. Continue to work on dpns or change to a circular needle on the next round. This is also a good time to move the round marker.
The completed base of our trick-or-treat bag showing our spoke-shaped circle
Join us again tomorrow to complete the sides and handle for our bag.
Our journey this week is a knitted trick-or-treat bag using Red Heart Reflective yarn to keep your ghosts and goblins safe on Hallowe'en. Yesterday we began with three cast ons to get the base of our jack-o-lantern pail onto the needles. Today, we're going to look at increasing the number of stitches to form a flat circle.
Top: by day, Reflective is mild-mannered, but add headlights or a camera flash (bottom), and Reflective shows its bolder self.
There are three basic ways to form your circle: spiral, spoke, and Pi-shaped.
The convention for making a center-out piece of knitting lay flat is to increase 4 stitches every row or 8 stitches every second round.
When single increases are made every round at the same 4 points each time, or when increases are made before and after a stitch at the same point every second round at the same 4 points, they form a square.
When increases are placed at the same point at 8 spots in a round, they form an octagon. Circles can have their increases placed at other intervals by varying the number of rows in between. A circle shaped at 6 intervals per round will resemble a hexagon in shape, and one with 10 intervals per round will make a decagon (there's a word you don't see every day!)
Putting more "sides", or intervals, into a circle will produce a more gently arcing shape. Generally, though, knitted circles have 8 sides, leaving us to rely on blocking to coax our octagon into a curvy arc.
Another general practice of knitting circles from the center out is to begin with the same number of stitches as you will have intervals: if you're doing a pattern that has 6 repeats per round, you'll begin with 6 stitches; if your pattern has 8 repeats per round, you'll cast on 8 stitches.
Spiral shaping
Spiral-shaped circles are often seen in circular baby blankets, the backs of baby bonnets, and some afghans. The swirly spirals can curve to the left or to the right, depending upon where the increases are made. The sample in our video swishes to the right, which means the increases have been placed at the start of each repeat.
Our video begins where we left of yesterday after the Emily Ocker cast on and first round. At the 5 minute mark, I show how to place stitch markers to indicate where increases should continue to be made. At 9 minutes and 11 minutes I give "secrets" regarding the pattern, and at 10 minutes, I talk about my strategy to keep the circle flat once it comes off the needles.
Knit a spiral circle
Knit along as Cynthia knits a circle from the center out that forms a graceful spiral. Learn tips for placing stitch markers and for making the circle lay flat.
The finished spiral circle, with a garter stitch edge
Spoke shape
The spoke shape of circle is the one that most closely resembles a spider's web. Since our project is a trick-or-treat basket for Hallowe'en, this shaping is suitably spooky for our project!
This sample is also based on an "8-sided circle", but instead of increasing 8 stitches every second round, we are going to make double increases at each of the 8 spokes (16 increases per round) every 4 rounds. This video is a continuation of the invisible circular cast on in yesterday's post. At the 2 minute mark we begin to set the pattern. The tips contained in this video will help prepare you for knitting the bottom of our basket.
Knit a circle with spokes
Strategic placement of increases creates this knitted circle with spokes that create the look of a spider web
The Pi-shaped circle is based on the principle of Pi, where the number of stitches (the circumference) doubles every time the number of rows (diameter) does. It expands quickly in the beginning, and the circle will voluntarily lay flat up to about 128 stitches. Beyond that, the rapid doubling of stitches on a single round followed by more and more rounds between the increase rounds pose some structural challenges that have to be sorted out. Blocking can address some of them, but sometimes other solutions need to be investigated.
The Pi circle begins with a small number of stitches (say 8), followed by a knit round. Then, you double the number of stitches (to 16) and knit 2 rounds. Double the number of stitches again (32) and knit 4 rounds. Double the stitches again (64) and knit 8 rounds before the next increase round which will get you to 128.
A tip I've learned for making Pi circles is to knit only about half of the number of plain rounds between the last increase round and the edge. This prevents the outside edge of the circle from ruffling or pulling in too much.
In the video, the early increases are made as "closed" increases (I used m1 or make 1 increases), and the ones toward the outside are made with "open" yarn over increases.
Pi shaping for a knitted circle
Knit a circle from the center out using the Pi principle.
The Pi-shaped circle uses make 1 (m1) increases to get to 16 and 32 stitches and yarn over increases for the rounds to bring the stitch counts to 64 and 128
Try each of these samples. Knit along with the videos, or start with the videos and branch out on your own. Start with 5 stitches and create that decagon! Send us comments and photos of your results; we'd love to see them!
Tomorrow we begin our Hallowe-en trick-or-treat bag.
Yesterday we explored the qualities and project possibilities of Red Heart's Reflective yarn. Today, we're going to work toward our project of a knitted trick-or-treat bag knitted from the bottom up.
My demonstrations are going to be done with a plain yarn, because the project begins with a flat circle made with black yarn which would be too hard for you to see.
Red Heart Reflective yarn photographed with the camera's flash to show how the reflective tape picks up light
We begin with three ways to cast on for knitting a flat piece of knitting from the center. Principles of Knitting gives no fewer than nine different ways to cast on for a piece of knitting worked from the center out, and that doesn't include casting on stitches as for straight knitting, then dividing them onto double pointed needles, and working in the round!
The challenge with making a circle from the center out is that you usually begin with only 6-8 stitches, which historically has meant 3-4 double pointed needles to juggle with two stitches on each.
Emily Ocker cast on
The first circular cast on I learned was the Emily Ocker cast on. It was featured in Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop published in 1981. This cast on involves the use of a crochet hook. The following narrated video is about 8 minutes long. The first half is the actual cast on, and the second half shows knitting the first round.
Emily Ocker cast on and knit first round on Vimeo
Learn the Emily Ocker cast on to knit a circle from the center out with blogger Cynthia MacDougall
The invisible circular cast on has similarities to the Emily Ocker cast on in that the stitches are formed over a loop of yarn and the tail of the yarn pulls the stitches together. There are also similarities to the waste yarn provisional cast on in that the stitches are formed over a strand of yarn using a knitting needle. This time, though, the strand of yarn isn't exactly waste yarn, it's the loop closes the stitches into the center of the work. This cast on is sometimes called the pinhole cast on. It's my new favorite cast on.
The video below is about 9 minutes long; again the first 4 minutes are the actual cast on, and the remainder is knitting the first round.
invisible circular cast on - YouTube
Blogger Cynthia MacDougall shows how to do an awesome cast on for working a circle from the center out.
Our third cast on is called the belly button cast on. It's a waste yarn cast on that starts with a 3 or 4 stitch I-cord. This video is a whopping 18 minutes long, but don't let that stop you from trying this cast on.
There are three main segments to the video. The first three minutes is devoted to making the I-cord portion which is made out of waste yarn. At 3:15, I show you how to add your project yarn and make the first two rounds of the circle. To see how to remove the waste yarn and close the center of your circle, fast forward to 7 minutes.
This video has numerous tips along the way -- I-cord basics, how to tell if your needles have become twisted, and even pointers for weaving in ends on your project. You may want to watch the whole thing!
Because any cast on leaves a yarn end that has to be woven in, sometimes I'll cast on stitches as I would for straight knitting, work back (a wrong side row), and then split the stitches onto multiple needles for working in the round on the next (right side) row. I would likely do this is for a project that will be felted. However, if I'm making a project such as a fancy shawl, where I want the center to have a professional finish, I use one of the three cast ons we covered today.
Tomorrow we're going to look at three ways to shape a circle knitted flat from the center out -- one of them will form the bottom of our trick or treat bag.
Reflective yarn first hit my knitting radar about four years ago. The pattern I saw was for a dog coat, and I thought, "how useful!"
Red Heart has added Reflective to their line of yarns. This is a bulky-weight acrylic yarn with a strand of polyester "tape" that's about 1/32" [.7mm] wide and reflective on both sides. Reflective comes in 10 colors that will go with most winter coats, including several neon colors that are perfect for the snowboarders in your family.
By day, Reflective looks like a regular yarn, but add headlights or a camera flash, and BAM, Reflective comes alive!
The three acrylic strands are very soft, and very softly spun. The bulky weight means that it will knit up in a hurry.
This detailed photo of Red Heart Reflective shows three softly-spun orange acrylic strands and the more rigid "tape" of reflective material. Leaving the flash on the camera shows how both sides of the "tape" sparkle.
Reflective is perfect for any kind of night wear -- hats, scarves, leg warmers, gloves, mitts. What more thoughtful gift for a runner than a hat, pair of leg warmers, or headband (or the whole set) that will reflect in headlights when they are out for an early morning or late evening run!
Dog walkers would equally appreciate a hat or mitts, and their furry friends will also be safer on the sidewalk with a dog coat or leash made of Red Heart Reflective yarn.
This week, though, our project is going to be a trick-or-treat bucket designed to keep your ghosts and goblins safe this Hallowe'en. Along our journey, we're going to learn about cast ons and increasing for center-out circles and we'll also do a little tutorial about knitting intarsia in the round. Come on along!
