Stories in the Making

What a great turnout for our first meeting of the year, thank you to all who attended during what I know can be a very busy time of year. If you missed the Yarn Club meeting, let me catch you up on a fairly big change before I share some great resources from our talk. This coming Yarn Club year, Alexis will be taking time off to spend with her family and her newest addition, a baby boy due in October. She isn't going anywhere, and will still come to meetings when she can, but our monthly meetings, blog updates,...

At our May meeting, Yarn Club enjoyed a great discussion with Lori Law of Oceanwind Knits about the ins & outs of knitwear design and pattern publication.  Here are the resources Lori shared with us after her talk: Stitch pattern ‘dictionaries’ are the backbone of knitting design. (One of my first and still favourites - Alexis) Books I use regularly : Ann Budd’s “Handy Books” Sock books by Cookie A have very good technical information for building sock designs. Shirley Paden’s “Knitwear Design Workshop” (although I have yet to actually publish a sweater pattern, I will one day.  :)) Ravelry has...

 (The Maryborough Vest pictured above is an example of a pattern that attaches edging as-you-go) Many knitting books devoted to edgings still advise that you'll need to seam the edging to your project.  Unless they're referring to attaching knit or crocheted edging to a woven commercial fabric, this just isn't true.  This misconception about how to you must attach edgings is a particular pet-peeve of mine; after all, crocheters would scoff at the idea of sewing an edging to an afghan.  When it comes to edging, knitters should take a page from the crocheter's book instead (and if you're a...

This is how I make most of my socks: top down, heel-flap, decrease short-row heel, flat round toe - no matter the gauge, needle size or yarn weight.  I use the method described below to make the first sock, then I use the finished first sock as a template to make the second.  In all honesty, this method arose from utter laziness.  I'd much rather crack on with my knitting than stop and take notes (ahem, though of course, not while I'm designing for pattern writing).  So instead of writing anything down, I just look back at the first sock...

If you're just starting out, or don't know what I mean by "reading" your knitting, let me first direct you to these two excellent series of blog posts: "Reading" Your Knitting (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Talena Winters The Secret to Becoming a Great Knitter! (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Felicia of the Craft Sessions These are great starting points for mastering this skill.  The best way to learn to "read" the stitches you are or have knitting, however, is practice.  Keen observation of what the yarn is doing in your hands as you complete each knitted stitch, decrease,...