Stitch Dictionaries

You might have noticed I'm knitting a lot of lace at the moment. I am also about to start into a design for some cabled socks.

I was recently asked how I come up with "all those clever patterns". The stitch patterns.

Stitch dictionaries, of course.


These are books that contain nothing but instructions for working various stitch patterns. No garments, no discussion, no techniques. Just stitch patterns. Pictures of swatches and instructions.


It was years before I bought one -- I couldn't imagine why on earth I would need such a thing. Even when I started designing, I still didn't need one, because I wasn't doing anything fancy -- no lace, no complicated colourwork, no fancy cables.

But I kept reading about how fabulous these books are... Barbara Walker's 4 volumes and the long out of print but beloved Mary Thomas book, in particular. (Newsflash! It's back in print! Thank you Dover! Marsha at the Needle Arts Book Shop tracked a used copy down for me a few years ago.)

I bought my first, one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries, 5 years ago. And though I paged through it with interest, it was another couple of years before I actually used it. First time I used it, I was creating a simple lace scarf and I needed a lace stitch pattern.

The rest, as they say, is history. Now I won't start a project without first paging through all my stitch dictionaries.

Even if the garment is worked in good old plain stocking stitch (which, if truth be told, it rarely is), I consult the stitch dictionaries for interesting ideas for ribbing and edges. I love working fancy cuffs on plain socks.

You'd be amazed how many different stitch patterns there are; even changing a single stitch in a group of 8 or 10 can change the look radically. Yes, there's definitely overlap between the books, but each has its own unique ideas. The books also differ in how the patterns are presented -- written or charted -- or in my ideal world, both.

And yes, once I find a pattern I like, I do swatch. To see how it looks with the yarn I've chosen, to see how it feels, to see how it works for the design I have in mind.

I've been working on a lace sweater, and the challenge there is finding a stitch pattern that's nice and open and lacy, but still has enough structure to retain the shape of a garment.

I've only recently added the Vogue Stitchionaries to my collection... and I have an issue with them, particularly the first one. There are some great patterns, and enough new and interesting ones to make the book a worthwhile addition to the genre -- but some of the swatch pictures are terrible....


This is a lace design. Yup, in the instructions, there are a fair number of yarn overs to create eyelets, but I'll be damned if I can see them in the swatch picture. I don't have any complaints about the knitting, but my god, the swatches should have been blocked. If it doesn't look attractive, I'm not going to try it. And as I've proven below, a lace swatch simply doesn't look attractive if it's not blocked sufficiently. And few in the book's lace section have been blocked sufficiently.

The basic swatches are fine, but whoever was responsible for the lace chapter needs to rethink her/his work.

The Cables book, Volume 2, is much stronger. There are both written and charted instructions for all patterns, and the photos are much clearer. But be warned about Volume 1 - it rather spoils an otherwise good set of books.

With Apologies to John Lennon

Socks are what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.

I've got a couple of design projects on the go, for which I've been swatching...

and knitting

and blocking...
There are deadlines on both, which mean that I'm working pretty hard on them... lots of focused knitting, at home, in the car, in public, the works.

But somehow, in the in between moments, I seem to have almost finished a pair of socks...


They're what I call emergency socks, in emergency sock yarn. Paton's Kroy 4-ply in the colourway "Paintbox". I bought it, on sale, at Michael's, in one of those "hey, you can never have enough sock yarn, I might need it someday" sort of moments.

And the socks themselves got started when I needed a car project, when neither of the design projects was at a car-appropriate stage. That is, when they needed attentive knitting.

And yes, somehow, they've got themselves just about finished. Socks are what happens to me when I'm busy making other projects...

On a different note, I've used this yarn before, and I do like it. It's well-priced, good quality, hard wearing, good old nylon and wool blend sock yarn. All the ones listed on the Patons' site seem to be 4-ply, but they used to make a finer, 3 ply variant. The 4-ply is nice, but the socks are thicker and I'm not sure they're as easily fitted in shoes. I do hope they haven't discontinued the 3-ply.

To A., Who I Met Last Night

There's a woman out there in Toronto who's an excellent spinner -- working on her Master Spinner certification, no less. She confessed to me that she doesn't really know how to knit...

I asked her what she does with the yarn. "Not much."

I wonder if she's taking applications to be her friend???

Fixing Mistakes: A Forest and Trees Problem

I'm working a lace design at the moment.

Hey, on a different but related note... here's the pre- and post-blocking pictures of the lace swatch, and the actual garment piece.

And they say that blocking isn't worth it...

Anyway, yes, working on a lace design. The stitch pattern is simple enough, a 6-stitch repeat. I was knitting away, while watching TV last night, and I discovered I'd made a small mistake. Nothing serious, but it was 6 rows down.

Easy enough, I thought. I can fix this without pulling rows back.

About 45 minutes later, still working away, I began to wonder... at what point does cleverness stop being the right way to go? I spend about an hour fixing the problem in place. But if I'd taken the simple route, and just pulled back the 6 rows and re-knitted them, it would probably have taken less time, and would certainly have required less foul language.

If truth be told, I'm still not wildly happy with the in-situ fix, as the stitches are a bit loose.

It would be great if there was a way to even out the tension.... hey... wait... what was I talking about up there.... ?

Blocking!

Happy WWKIP day!

I will be celebrating the way I know best. By knitting.

In public.

Every Day? In Public? In Public Every Day?

This has come up more than once in my knitting classes... I'm asked if I knit every day... (often with a slightly incredulous tone.)

I'm typically asked this when I talk about how long it takes to make a sweater. My favourite question, if only because I can answer it with my favourite snappy reply of all time: "Well, you know, it's sort of a 'how long is a piece of string' question."

Damn skippy I knit every day. Several times a day. I knit in front of the TV, and even if it's only 20 minutes of my favourite 24 hour news channel, there's daily TV watching.

And I knit when I'm on the phone as much as possible. And god knows that happens several times a day. And when I'm on public transport -- not daily but several times a week. And then when I'm in a line (often) or waiting at the dentist (this morning, as a matter of fact) or in a restaurant waiting for my salad to arrive (last night), or waiting for my friends to arrive at the bar (last Friday), or ... you get the idea.

Which brings me to the next question I'm hearing a lot at the moment... June 14th, this Saturday, is World Wide Knit In Public Day. "Do you knit in public?"

This makes me chuckle. I do know lots of people who only knit at home -- my Mum, for one, since her favourite type of project is a big complicated sweater that simply cannot be carted around. But as a lace and sock knitter, I knit in public as much as humanly possible. And I've done it in various locations around the world... photos from my vacation being proof....

This is all partially for practical reasons -- I'm often knitting on a deadline, and I need to maximize my knitting time. But it's also for the simple reason that it's the best possible way I can think of to pass the time.

For me, every day is World Wide Knit in Public day.

On Casting Off

So I mentioned that I'd had to mess with the cast off for the Scurvy shawl.

The cast off I use most frequently for lace knitting is the "Russian Lace bind-off"... explained nicely here. It is indeed nice and stretchy, but it's...... errr...

...I guess the best way to describe it is that it's high profile. Since you're working each stitch twice, you're working a full extra row, and as purl stitches. Which means that they sit higher, and stand out more.

It's a good cast-off, absolutely, but I didn't like how it looked against the garter edging.

So I ripped that back, and I tried the good old "k1, k1, lift first stitch over second" cast-off. You know, the first one you were taught. It is lovely. Very simple and elegant. But it's tight. You have to work fairly hard to even get it at the same tension as the knitting. It's a classic beginner problem, a too-tight cast off. It's not easy.

But then if you're trying to to allow stretch for blocking... Definitely a challenge.

The only answer is to use a larger needle. A MUCH larger needle. I had decent success using a 5.5 mm needle (having worked the shawl with a 3.5mm needle) and staying very relaxed.

It worked. If push came to shove, there's probably a bit more blocking room in the lace, and not quite enough in the cast-off, but I'm quite content with it the way it is.

FO: The Scurvy Shawl

About time, too.

This yarn was the result of a couple of pints, a boxing day sale, and a cold, dark winter.

It's Malabrigo Lace, in a colourway that no-one has ever seen anywhere else, and can't be found on their website. You wouldn't be out of line to suggest that it was an unfortunate mistake in the dyeing vats.

However, it in the depths of winter, it reminded me of nothing more than a shot of lively citrus fruits.

And so inspired, I sought out a semi-circular design, something that would take actually work with the citrusy nature of the colourway.

And I found a "cocoon" stitch that on the wrong side, looks entirely like the flesh of a citrus fruit.

You can see it in this picture -- click to embiggen.


And so was born the Scurvy Shawl - a knitted slice of orange. To combat scurvy, you see.

I've been working it on and off since January, and decided a few weeks ago to focus to actually get it done. The problem with semicircular (and triangular) shawls is that as they get closer to being done, the rows get longer, and therefore take longer to do. As its biggest, I was working over 400 stitches per row. Takes a while. The last 20 or so rows took me well over 8 hours.

I took it with me on vacation, and worked on it during our train journey from Cannes to London. Great scenery, a big bag of food we'd bought the morning of our departure at the local market in Cannes, some good music, and a knitting project I was desperate to finish -- it was a great day. I wasn't quite done by the time we hit London, but a couple of pub evenings and a trip or two on the underground and I was just about complete. I started the cast-off a couple of times... my usual "Russian lace bind off" (which I'll explain later) didn't look good in the context of the garter edging. And not having any larger needles with me, a standard cast-off was simply too tight. So I reluctantly packed it up and brought it home unfinished.

The final cast off, which a 5.5mm needle (compared to the 3.5mm on which I worked the shawl) looked good against the garter edging, and had enough stretch to accommodate the blocking.

I finished it up Monday, blocked it Tuesday (blocking wires, clothespins and my laundry rack... much quicker than pinning it to the floor)


and was wearing it by Wednesday.

It's a single skein of the Malabrigo Lace -- I did buy two, and I might have to see if I the shop that sold it to me is willing to take the extra back. I'm not sure I see how I need anything else in this colourway in my wardrobe right now...

It's modestly sized, but just perfect for a soft, warm little scarf with a light coat. And my god, it's soft and warm.

Very pleased with it, in the end. I'm just sorry the weather's suddenly got too hot for wearing wool scarves...

A visitor to my blog recently commented that she loves travel knitting, as the finished object will always carry with it the associations with the places it was worked. A train in the south of France in early seems like an entirely appropriate place to associate with this project...

What I Did On My Summer Holidays

I'm on the train! Knitting on the train!

That big plastic bag may well have been full of crisps and chocolate. I will neither confirm nor deny it.

What knitting did I get done? I finished up the scurvy shawl, all but the cast-off. I completed one and a bit socks for a design assignment, and got about a third of the way into another sock....

The tweedy black and white is the mystery unlabelled sock yarn. I'm working the the heel, toe and ribbing in plain black and there will be enough of the tweedy yarn for a pair. Of course, we came back to full on hot and humid summer, so it's probably going to be a while before I need black wool socks. But hey, it's good to be prepared.

On that note, I didn't get anywhere near the Misti Alpace laceweight I packed to take on holiday, nor the third ball of sock yarn. But my god, to run out of yarn would have been a bad bad thing.

In London

That's the Scurvy Shawl.

All the knitting is done, I just have to redo the cast off. I didn't like how my usual lace cast-off looked against the garter edging, and a normal cast-off was just too tight with the same size needles.

Need to redo it with a larger needle.

Knitting on the Cote D'Azur

Really, no comment or description is needed.

Air Travel

This question comes up pretty often in my knitting classes... usually around the time that I mention that socks are ideal travel knitting.

Yes, travel. As in planes.

I've never had a problem with plastic, bamboo and wood needles either going through security or on the plane. No one has ever stopped me. I have successfully traveled with a circular metal needle, too, but I went prepared to have it confiscated -- it was a lace project, and a lifeline had been threaded so it didn't matter if I had to remove it from the knitting. No problem, and it went back and forth to New York with me a couple of times.

The trick seems to be to not ask. You say the word needle to the poor security guard and he/she is more likely to think of something medical than craft-related. So I just put 'em in my carry-on bag and send 'em through the x-ray machine.

This worked again for this most recent trip.

But I did encounter a new resistance. I was asked by the flight attendant to put the needles away for landing.

I suppose I could have hurt myself with them in a landing incident... should I take away from this that knitting in the car is dangerous, too?

Hey, we all gotta take risks....

Decisions, Decisions: Travel Knitting

As anyone who has spoken to me in the last month knows, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. (Sorry if I've been boring you!)

A few days in Cannes, avoiding the film festival, and then a few days in London. There's some work planned, for both the day job and the knitting, but also lots of sitting around drinking strong coffee and relaxing.

And for that, I need relaxing knitting.

Oh, what to take... decisions, decisions. God forbid I should run out of things to knit while on a four hour layover at Heathrow....

I have one and half socks to finish for an assignment, but those will be done fairly quickly.

I have already shipped the Scurvy Shawl ahead with Norman, since it's on a metal needle and I'm taking only carry on, and I'd hate to lose my favourite Addi Turbo. 95% of the time, metal needles are fine on planes, but I'm not risking this one. I'm desperate to finish -- it's been fun, but a tough slog. I'd had been contemplating making it larger, but the challenging nature of the graph is making the calculations hard -- and anyway, she says, madly rationalizing, it's ok that it might be a bit small. I'm using much finer yarn than the original pattern calls for -- laceweight rather than sport. It's looking like it will be about 50 cm/20 inches long after blocking, and therefore have a span of about 100 cm/40 ins. This is pretty damn small for a shawl, but I'm going to treat it as a scarf. And it's going to be so outrageous that I wouldn't want it too big. It's bright orange and lime green after all.

19 rows of about 400 sts left. Which should take most of the first leg of the vacation. (I was averaging about 15 minutes a row, so that's 5-ish hours.)

And then what?

Well, naturally, I'm going to take some sock yarn, since I'll have the needles with me anyway. I can get two pairs out of 3 50g balls.


Both of the black and white mix yarns -- a twist and a tweedy mix -- were bargain bin finds. (Note both the price and the sophisticated label on the ball on the right...) If I use the plain black for the top rib, the heel and the toe, a 50gm ball is enough for a pair.

So that's about 5-6 hours of lace knitting (allowing extra time for fixing of mistakes and lifeline feeding and such).

And then two pairs of socks at about 12-15 hours a pair. Another 24-20 hours.

But I'd hate to run out.

So then there's this... the yarn from the abandoned Lace Wings project....


laceweight doesn't take up much room in my bag... and anyway, I'll have the right needle with me, and the pattern sheets take up no room at all... what the heck...

The design I have in mind is Cheryl Oberle's North Sea Shawl from Folk Shawls. Of course, because I can never leave well enough alone, it's a different yarn -- lace weight rather than the DK she calls for. And I'll be working it narrower and shorter because I don't have enough yarn. So again, more of a scarf than a shawl.

So yeah, four and a half pairs of socks, and one and a quarter shawls. That should be enough for 10 days, no?

Thank You, Mr. Postman - Harmony DPNs

The KnitPicks Harmony DPNs arrived!


Woo hoo!

They're lovely -- very pretty to look at. They're smooth but I wouldn't call them slippery.

They seem very hard, which is good. I've been bending my bamboo DPNs...

It doesn't look that extreme, but you can certainly feel the bend as you work with it.

The points perhaps aren't quite as sharp as I'd like, but they are a hair sharper than the bamboo points, and I do think that their hardness will help a lot. I'm only working a plain sock with them right now, so will get you know as soon I start into a fancy stitch sock.

I only ordered three sets: 2.0mm, 2.25mm and 2.5mm. I have a beautiful set of Lantern Moon rosewood 2.75mm DPNs, so I didn't need any more in that size. And I very rarely use anything so big as 3mm for socks. Am working with the 2.25mm set right now.

And perhaps the best thing of all: they come in sets of 6. Although I'm not in the habit of losing DPNs, I have been known to sit on them.... Anyone have any idea about their breakability compared to bamboo?

The gorgeous sock yarn in the picture above? Sorry, can't say a lot... it's classified TOP SECRET... I'll let you know about it when I'm allowed to. I have to say that the yarn is absolutely fabulous, though... it's a blend of wool, the obligatory nylon, and possibly some other delicious things which might or might not include silk and alpaca. I'm going to have a hard time mailing these off to their proper home when the time comes, I fear.

Yet Another One: This Time In Qiviut

Yet another One Skein Luxury Kerchief. This one is in Cottage Craft qiviut, which I picked up at the Frolic.

It's actually a blend -- 50% merino, 50% qiviut. Qiviut is, for those who were wondering, the softest, loveliest fibre in the world. It's the undercoat of the musk ox. Really. More from Wikipedia. One of the things I love about the yarn is that it's undyed -- that's the actual colour. And it doesn't shrink or felt, which means it makes a terrific sock yarn. And oh look, they've got one for sale! I didn't actually need to know that...

But in the meantime, I had 150m or so of a fingering weight, and so I worked another kerchief.

Sandra's Mini Sock!

As anyone who has taken my sock class -- or read my article on Knitty -- I start off sock knitters with my "training sock". It's a simple pattern that allows a new sock knitter to learn all the techniques to create a sock, in a reasonable amount of time.

To give you a sense of scale:

It's worked on larger needles and worsted weight yarn, so you can see your stitches more easily, and you can make fast progress. (I find that "real" teeny tiny sock yarn and needles can be a little intimidating for new sock knitters.)

I love seeing the training socks that result, it's fun for me, and confidence building for my students.

Sandra, who attended a recent class, was feeling so good after completing her training sock that she decided to try her hand at working with "real" sock yarn and needles.

She worked my training sock again, in a self-striping yarn she had in her stash.

The result was wonderful!

She put a long loop on it -- she suggested it would make an excellent Christmas tree decoration.

I had a better thought... if you see a red car driving around Toronto with a jaunty blue sock hanging over the rear-view mirror, you'll know that's me!

Thanks for a wonderful gift, Sandra!

Reader Mail: To Jackie, who asked about sock needles

Jackie asked whether to order the 6" or 8" length DPNs.

For a knitter who's new to working on DPNs, I definitely recommend the longer ones. You're significantly less likely to drop a stitch from longer needles.

(Some may disagree. It's true that longer needles are slightly more cumbersome to handle, but I find that the benefits outweigh the negative.)

In Case You Were Wondering

I did order the Harmony DPNs. They've shipped, can't wait for them to arrive.

I'm working on some new sock designs -- yeah, huge shock -- and I'm looking forward to some nice pointy needles. This new design is all cables and twisted stitches, and the points on my DPNs are just not holding up.

Not only are the bamboo points not very... well, pointy... but they're shredding a bit. They're getting rough. I don't have any complaints -- they've stood up well to a lot of use, and they're certainly still great for ordinary knitting. But I'm looking forward to trying the new ones out for cables.

I'll keep you posted.

Sighting: A Meditation on Yarn Choices

I was teaching a class recently.

The shop was open, and shoppers were about -- cruising the yarns, checking out the books, generally being knitterly. An older woman wandered in, clearly looking for a new project. She went straight for the books and pattern leaflets. She sat near me, and as I am wont to do, I checked out her hand-knitted garments.

She had on a twinset, with lace insets. Lace on the front of the shell (couldn't tell if it had sleeves), and then matching lace panels down both of the cardigan fronts.

It was knitted in a fine, fine yarn, and she'd clearly taken a lot of time and care in its creation.

But I could tell even from a distance that she'd knitted it in acrylic. (Two clues: the yarn had a certain sheen to it, and it was also in a colour of peach that only seems to occur in acrylic "baby yarns".)

Ok, I'm a yarn snob. I've talked about this before. I probably spend far too much on yarn for a project. Certainly, I'm lucky enough to be able to afford good yarn. It's quite possible that this particular knitter didn't have a lot of money to spend a "boutique" yarn.

She clearly loves the craft, is proud of her skills, and enjoyed knitting her twinset.

But I have to wonder about how much more this knitter would have enjoyed her project if she'd worked with good yarn -- a yarn that felt good to work with.

I say this in my classes a lot: if you're going to spend that much time with the yarn running through your fingers, you should like how it feels. This to me is even more important than what it's made of, or where it comes from. And acrylic simply doesn't feel good.

I chatted with this knitter very briefly. She commented that knitting was undergoing a resurgence. Absolutely!

Knitting fell very much out of favour in the 1970s and 1980s. I don't believe that it's a coincidence that this is exactly the time when man-made yarns became so common, when they started to replace natural fibers as the most common knitting products available. When acrylic was the best you could hope for.

Knitting is back because the pleasure of the craft is back. We're lucky. The selection of yarn available today is broader than it has ever been.

There are so many more choices than the 100% acrylic yarns of the past 30-40 years. And many of them are affordable. Fabulous cottons, great wools, and all sorts of interesting new fibres like cotton and bamboo and soy.

Oh that I could have taken her hand and lead her to feel some of these new products, this unknown knitter...

Free Pattern: Sock Yarn Baby Hat

SOCK YARN BABY HAT

Materials
1 100 gm ball SWTC Tofutsies (425m) - this is what I used -- you can use any sock yarn, and you'll get at least two or three hats from a single ball
3mm 40 cm/16 in circular needle (optional)
3mm double-pointed needles
stitch marker or safety pin

Sizes & Finished Measurements
Fits: up to 1 year (1-2 years)
Circumference: 35cm/14 ins ( 40cm/16 ins)

Gauge
32 stitches and 40 rounds over 10cm/4 inches square in the round using 3mm needles.

METHOD
Cast on 112 (128) stitches onto the circular needle, or onto a single double-pointed needle. If using DPNs, distribute across three needles. Join for working in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches. Mark the beginning of the round.

Work 12.5cm/5 inches in stocking stitch – that is, knitting every round. Don’t unroll the bottom edge to measure.

Decrease for crown:
LARGER SIZE ONLY:
Next round *K2tog, k13; repeat from * to end of round. 120 stitches.
Following round: *K2tog, k12; repeat from * to end of round. 112 stitches.

BOTH SIZES:
Change to double pointed needles when the hat gets too small to work comfortably on the circular needle.
Round 1: *K2tog, k12; repeat from * to end of round. 104 stitches.
Round 2: *K2tog, k11; repeat from * to end of round. 96 stitches.
Round 3: *K2tog, k10; repeat from * to end of round. 88 stitches.
Round 4: *K2tog, k9; repeat from * to end of round. 80 stitches.
Round 5: *K2tog, k8; repeat from * to end of round. 72 stitches.
Round 6: *K2tog, k7; repeat from * to end of round. 64 stitches.
Round 7: *K2tog, k6; repeat from * to end of round. 56 stitches.
Round 8: *K2tog, k5; repeat from * to end of round. 48 stitches.
Round 9: *K2tog, k4; repeat from * to end of round. 40 stitches.
Round 10: *K2tog, k3; repeat from * to end of round. 32 stitches.
Round 11: *K2tog, k2; repeat from * to end of round. 24 stitches.
Round 12: *K2tog, k1; repeat from * to end of round. 16 stitches.
Round 13: *K2tog; repeat from * to end of round. 8 stitches.

Break yarn, leaving a 15cm/6 in tail and pull through final stitches to close. Wash and weave in ends to finish.