An answer to your question on picking up and knitting stitches.

Some Anonymous commenter asked this question on the tutorial about picking up and knitting stitches from the cast on or bound off edge:

"How do you secure the knit you just stitched? It looks as though nothing is keeping it there and you could just pull out the string from the end. Also, wouldn't that make it difficult to continue picking up stitches?"

Anonymous commenter, you are right as far as nothing keeping the stitch there at first. In fact, when I knit the first row (or purl across, if the part I've picked up is Stockinette knit flat) and near the first few picked up stitches, I keep a little bit of tension on the yarn that's hanging out at the end (the tail) because it CAN come undone. After a few rows I secure the string by weaving in the end with a tapestry needle, the same way I would if I were making stripes or switching to a new ball of yarn.

I hope that helps. If the original commenter would please clarify what they mean by "wouldn't that make it difficult to continue picking up stitches?", I would be happy to answer that part of the question, too. If you mean the looseness of the first stitch - for example, if it comes out when you're trying to pick up more stitches - try putting a little tension on the tail. Looking at this picture might help a bit:



See how I'm holding the tail with my thumb and middle finger? Use your thumb and middle finger to hold the tail taut and create some tension. You can do this as you pick up and knit stitches to keep the first stitch in place.

If this answer is in any way confusing, please let me know, and if you have any questions about anything you see on the blog, don't be afraid to ask either by posting a comment or emailing me at tonyawagner AT theshizknit DOT com. Remember, I'm not a knitting expert, so it is possible that I leave out an important note!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to do a provisional cast on with a crochet hook

I told you Tutorial Tuesday would be back in July! We will resume our look at using a crochet hook in knitting by learning how to do a provisional cast on with a crochet hook. A provisional cast on is used when you need to later make the cast on stitches live so you can knit seamlessly from the cast-on edge.

Important note: When you do the provisional cast on, you will want to use a smooth waste yarn so it can be "unzipped" easily. The yarn used in this demonstration is Nashua Creative Focus Worsted - a lovely yarn, but probably not the best for the provisional cast on. I used this yarn because the pink would show up well in photos. Were I actually going to do the provisional cast for a knitting project on I would choose a cotton or synthetic yarn.

Step One: Start with a slip knot. This is the same kind of slip knot you would use for the long-tail cast on.


Step Two: Place the slip knot on the crochet hook.


Step Three: Place the knitting needle between the crochet hook and the ball of yarn. The crochet hook should be in front, the ball of yarn should be in back. Keep some tension on the yarn.



Step Four: Make your first cast on stitch. Use the hook to grab the yarn still attached to the ball . . .


. . . and pull it through, so that you have a loop on the needle and a loop on the hook.

Step Five: Place the yarn behind the knitting needle.



Repeat steps four and five until you have the required number of stitches.

Step Six: Secure the yarn. Because you're going to be unzipping this yarn later, you want to keep the yarn in place in a way that is easily un-done later. There are two methods of doing this.

Your first option is to remove the crochet hook and leave an extra-long loop.



The second option, which I think is a little more secure, is to insert a locking stitch marker or safety pin into the loop where the crochet hook was.


Ta-da! There you have it - another use for that crochet hook!

Twisted!

Right now I'm feeling something like this . . .

Leo is perplexed.

. . . because of this . . .


How could I have knit eight and a half rounds of almost 200 stitches before realizing that I accidentally twisted the knitting when joining it in the round. Arugh!

In happier news, tomorrow the Finnish version of the Confection Baby Shrug will be posted!

By the way, I've added a poll to the sidebar. Please take it - I would love your feedback!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to pick up a dropped stitch using a crochet hook.

Some people are multi-crafters. They can knit, crochet, embroider, quilt, sew clothes, fashion resin jewelry, and build coffee tables. I am pretty monogamous when it comes to my crafting - a die hard knitter - that occasionally does some sewing on the side. I have never completed a crochet-only project.

Still, I have a large collection of crochet hooks. Why? Crochet hooks can be invaluable to knitters. This month, I'm going to explore the different ways to utilize crochet hooks with your knitting. We'll start with one of the most basic: picking up a dropped stitch.

Step One: As always, examine your knitting. See the poor, lonely dropped stitch? We're going to rescue him! Think of the area above the dropped stitch as a ladder that it's going to climb back up to the needle.

Step Two: Insert a crochet hook into the dropped stitch. Try to use a crochet hook that is close to the needle size you're using. For example, if you're using size 6 needles, a G crochet hook would be the right one for you.

Step Three: Using the hook, grab the "rung" up from the dropped stitch. The hook will have two stitches on it.


Step Four: Pull that rung through the first stitch.The first image shows this step in progress. The second picture shows what you have once this step is complete: one stitch on the hook.


Repeat steps three and four until all of the rungs have been pulled through.

Step Five: Place the stitch on the left hand needle. Make sure it's not twisted. If you do happen to twist the stitch, you can just knit it through the back loop on the next go-round.

As a Tutorial Tuesday treat (can you tell I love alliteration?), here's a video showing you how to pick up a dropped stitch:

* * *

Special note: thank you Sam for linking to last month's tutorials on the Lime & Violet blog, Daily Chum!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to pick up and knit the right number of stitches.

(Note: I am writing this tutorial pretty quickly - Leo is demanding a lot of attention because of allergies. If you notice anything that I leave out, let me know!)

Sometimes a pattern will tell you to pick up and knit a certain number of stitches. Many a knitter has let out a string of four-letter words when trying to pick up exactly the right number of stitches. This little trick will help you pick up and knit the proper number of stitches evenly across your knitting.

Step One. Gather your materials


Besides the typical yarn and needles, you will also need a few safety pins. (I learned the trick of keeping them in an old Altoid container from Debbie Stoeller in Stitch and Bitch.)


Step Two. Place the first safety pin.


Let's pretend that you are asked to pick up and knit 40 stitches along the edge. In order to pick up and knit the stitches evenly, we'll divide the knitting into four equal sections and pick up and knit 10 stitches from each section. To place the first pin, you fold the knitting in half and place a pin at the halfway mark.

Step Three. Keep foldin' and pinnin'.


Fold each half in half and place another pin, for a total of four sections.

Step Four. Pick up and knit an equal number of stitches from each section.


You can do this with any number of stitches - just make sure you divide the number of stitches equally. (Example, if you need to pick up 100 stitches, do four sections of 25 each, or 10 sections of 10. It's all up to you!)

I will probably add more to this tutorial later - right now, Leo needs some love (and some Allegra!)

Tutorial Tuesday: How to pick up and knit stitches from the side of your knitting

Last week, you learned how to pick up and knit stitches from the top or bottom of your knitting. This week, you'll learn how to pick up stitches from the side of your knitting - which you'll use almost every time you add a buttonhole band to a garment.

This tutorial applies to Stockinette stitch, but at the end I'll talk a little bit about garter stitch.

Step One. As with last week, examine your knitting.

Note that there are little bumps and loops on the side of the knitting. (This is easier to feel than to see, but you should be able to see it in this picture.)

Step Two. Pick up and knit the first stitch.

It doesn't matter if you start with a loop or a bump. I started with a loop for this example. As with picking up and knitting stitches from the cast on/bound off edge, going through both layers of the stitch (so there are two little loops on your needle) will ensure that you have a hole-free edge.

Just as in step three of last week's tutorial, you pull the new yarn through like you would any other knit stitch.

Step Three. Pick up and knit the second stitch.

Pretty simple, right? If you picked up a loop the first time, you'll pick up a bump the second time. This is how the bump looks on the needle.

Step Four. Skip a stitch!

Stockinette stitch is generally 2/3 as tall as it is wide. So chant this little mantra as you pick up side stitches: "Loop, bump, skip - bump, loop, skip - loop, bump, skip - bump, loop, skip . . ."

In the picture, you can see the little groups of two on the needle.

Once you've picked up all the stitches, knit back and forth on these stitches as usual.

Remember I told you I'd mention garter stitch? That's because the proportion of garter stitch is different than Stockinette. Rather than being 2/3 as tall as it is wide, garter stitch is 1/2 as tall as it is wide. That's why you pick up on every other row with garter stitch - basically you're picking up one stitch for every ridge.

A couple of notes . . .

Some people slip the first stitch of every row to make it easier to pick up stitches. The great Barbara Walker would prefer you didn't. Though I'm not sure she explains why, I'm sure it's because it would mess up the whole concept of pick up two, skip one required to keep the picked-up section in proportion with the rest of the knitting. However, when you're knitting socks, the first stitch of the heel flap is generally slipped every row. For a good visual of how to pick up stitches from a slipped stitch edge, this Knitty tutorial will help ya out.

In the same tutorial, the author has some rather complicated math for picking up and knitting stitches from the side edge. (Granted, my idea of "complicated" might be a bit different than yours - math isn't my forte.) Ignore it! Next week, we'll discuss how to pick up the right number of stitches - no crazy math required.

This week it's Tutorial Thursday . . .

Leo's shots + cooking dinner for friends + me spending last night literally cleaning the kitchen on my hands and knees means that I didn't take the pictures for Tutorial Tuesday. Check back Thursday for a complete how-to pick up stitches from the side of your knitting.

Plus, I can't resist sharing my terrific news! Two of my designs have been chosen to appear in a knitting book that will be published by Wiley, Inc. next Spring. I was so excited when I found out that I did a little happy dance.

Back to cooking and cleaning. (Actually, right now it's time to feed Leo!)

Tutorial Tuesday: How to pick up and knit stiches from the top or bottom of you knitting.

Picking up stitches allows knitters to seamlessly add additional length or a border to a knit piece. This month, we'll look at different aspects of picking up stitches.

Today, we're going to look at how to pick up and knit stitches from the cast-on or bound-off edge of your work. This tutorial applies to Stockinette stitch, one of the most commonly used stitches in knitting. I have used a contrasting color of yarn to pick up the stitches so that it's easier to see.

Step One: Examine the knitting!

Note that on the right side of your knitting, each stitch is a little "V".


Step Two: Place the point of the needle in the center of the "V".



Make sure there are two loops on the needle; otherwise you may have holes. This is what the needle should look like:



Step Three: Using a new length of yarn, create a stitch.

Hold the needle in your left hand, and grasp the new length of yarn with the ring and pinky finger of your left hand.


Put the new yarn over the needle like so:


As usual with knitting, you need to put some tension on the yarn.


At last, you pull the new stitch through, just like you would any other knit stitch.



Voila! Simply continue picking up stitches across the row. You'll knit these stitches as you would any cast-on row.

Next week: Picking up and knitting stitches from the sides of your knitting.


The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license applies to this tutorial.

Coming to the Shizknit!

Ever since deciding to make knitting my second full-time job (because we all know motherhood is a 24-7 endeavor), I have been planning ways to serve YOU, my fellow crafty folk. This May is when it's all happening!

I am focusing most of my energy on designing new knits and creating FO's for my shop, but I have some exciting things coming to theshizknit.com, too.

First, TUTORIAL TUESDAYS (or, as I like to think of them, TuteTues) will begin tomorrow. I'll guide you through various knitting techniques. If you're a pattern designer, feel free to link to any of these tutorials. If there's a technique that you'd like to see on Tutorial Tuesdays, email me at tonyawagner at theshizknit dot com, or leave a comment.

I am also very excited to announce that THE SHIZKNIT PODCAST is coming! I started toying with the idea of a podcast a year ago, and finally I'm ready to turn that thought into a reality. At the end of every month it will come straight to you! Features will include lots of knitting discussion, suggested music to knit with, and - what I'm most pumped about - interviews with knitters of note. I have some REALLY exciting guests lined up, so be sure to check back at the end of every month to see who is joining us to talk knitting.

As always, I will be working hard to bring you new knitting patterns.

Come back tomorrow for the first Tutorial Tuesday!