savannahchik.com » Tips & Techniques

raglans and row gauge

jody — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:54:28 +0000

I fielded a question on the Plum Dandi board this week and it reminded me of one of my knitting peeves – not realizing that row gauge matters when knitting a one piece raglan (top-down or bottom-up)

It’s understandable. Row gauge isn’t critical in a lot of designs – but that’s not the case with raglans. Let’s take a look at what happens when you only match stitch gauge on a raglan.

The raglan on the left is what you want – good proportions, both stitch and row gauge are on. Your garment’s measurements will match the schematic*.

The raglan on the right has perfect stitch gauge but the row gauge is off. The knitter is getting fewer rows per inch than the pattern calls for. The yoke is too long, the armholes are too deep (hello bra peeking out through the sleeve hole) and the neckline is lower as well. The resulting garment looks sloppy, ill-fitting and sadly – home made.

You can avoid this though! Here are a couple of options:

Change yarns. The yarn might be fighting you to hit the right gauge.
Change needle sizes. If you’re close in gauge a different size might do the trick.
Change needle material. Slick metals tend to make the knitter knit more tightly and grabby woods can do the opposite. You’ll be shocked at the differences in gauge just by changing the material.
And then the final option – alter the rate of increase to compensate. I’ll walk you through how to determine what to change.

Let’s start with a couple assumptions:

Knitting direction is top-down
Pattern row gauge 5 rows per inch
Your row gauge 4 rows per inch
Raglan increases every other row – meaning you work one row of increases and then a plain row. This is the most common way to work raglan increases
Number of rows in pattern 60 rows

First, calculate the percentage you need to adjust

Take [your row gauge] / [pattern row gauge]. In our example it’s

4/5 = 0.8

This is the percentage of rows you need to reduce.

Now, calculate the number of rows that you need to knit

Take [number of rows in pattern] * [percentage of rows you need to reduce]. In our example it’s

60*.8 = 48 rows

Calculate the difference

Take [number of rows in pattern] – [number of rows you need to knit]. In our example it’s

60-48 = 12 rows

Calculate number of plain rows in pattern

Take [number of rows in pattern] / 2. In our example it’s

60 / 2 = 30 rows

So, we need to work 12 fewer plain rows over a total of 30 rows.

It’s up to you how to work in the skipping of the plain rows. I think it’s more anatomically correct to skip the plain rows closer to the armholes. So, I might try:

Row 1: raglan increase

Row 2: plain

Repeat for a total of 30 rows.

Then, begin skipping some plain rows.

Rows 1 and 2: raglan increase

Row 3: plain

Repeat for a total of 18 rows

You’ll be working a total of 48 rows instead of the 60 that the pattern called for.

A couple more things to consider

If your raglan increases are decorative, you’ll want to keep the raglans visually consistent. This means that you’ll still work the decorative raglans every other row while working the increases as needed to do the adjustment.
I suggest avoiding working all increase rows together without any plain rows at all. The angle will be very sharp and you might even see a bit of a pucker.
If your pattern has waist shaping you’ll need to make a similar adjustment
If your pattern has a neckline that gets worked at the same time as the raglans you’ll need to make a similar adjustment

I’ve tried to consider the more common issues with mis-matched row gauge but feel free to leave a comment if you have a question.

I’ll catch you on the purl side…

* I’ve been brewing a rant post on the importance of a schematic

Lessons on the Afterthought Heel

jody — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 11:52:14 +0000

I learned a few important lessons while knitting my first afterthought heel. I took some notes so I wouldn’t forget and I thought they might be helpful for you if you’re considering trying an afterthought heel too.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Fine-tuning the fit is easier when knitting the sock top-down. You can easily add a few more rounds on the leg but you can’t do that on the foot.
The Crystal Socklet heel is awesome! Its shape is much more anatomically-correct with its 4 point spiral decreases and changing rate of the decreases. Thank you Rycrafty for the fabulous recommendation.
If possible, don’t put the waste yarn in a dark stripe. It was a miracle that I didn’t drop any stitches when picking out the waste yarn.
Approximating leg length is hard because you can’t try the sock on until you work the heel. I estimated the leg with another handknit sock but it’s a bit shorter than I’d like – not unwearably short but it could definitely be longer. Next pair.
Working with very long color repeats – in my case 15 colors of stripes – creates more waste if you want to match up the heels. Just something to keep in mind if you’re neurotic like I am.

With all that I learned, I still think my first afterthought heel came out great. The yarn is doing all the work. How can you not love 15 Colour Rainbow?
I’m glad to be finding inspiration with self-striping yarns because you may remember all the self-striping yarn I have in my stash. And no, your eyes don’t deceive you – I forgot to include 15 Colour Rainbow in the pic.

Now to CO for sock #2. I’m halfway through my first pair for the Rock the Socks KAL. Yeah!

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

Friday Faves: Video Knitting Tutorials

jody — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 08:34:50 +0000

Sometimes reading instructions about knitting makes sense. And other times you just need to see it. Here’s a collection of some of my favorite video tutorials.

Magic Knot Hands down the simplest way to join a new yarn. No ends to weave in. Did you hear me? NO ENDS TO WEAVE IN.		Emily Ocker’s Cast On If you’re starting a circular object from the center, this method is a clever way to cast on. Think shawls, hats and specialty garments.
Very Stretchy Cast On I suspect this has another name, but I love this simple to execute cast on! The video shows ribbing that stretches out as far as the ribbing. You gotta try this one.		Long tail Purlwise Cast On If you’re casting on ribbing and love the long tail cast on, this one is a simple extension on the traditional long tail. I just used this last week and loved it – and really needed a video to get it right.
Lifted Increase (Right -Leaning) One of my favorite invisible increases. I use a lifted increase more than any other.		Lifted Increase (Left-Leaning) If you want symmetrical increases, you’ll need this one too.

Tutorial: Handpainting Bamboo Yarn

jody — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:00:58 +0000

A few months ago, I got some beautiful Alchemy Bamboo in a trade on Ravelry. The yarn is gorgeous, the yardage is enough for a nice accessory (600 yards) but the color, not so much. So, when I made the trade, I did it with the intention of overdyeing the yarn (I have Kristy to thank for the idea).
I did some research online and I couldn’t find a resource that talked about handpainting bamboo yarn Handpainting (wool) yarn, sure. Dyeing bamboo yarn, sure. But nothing that talked about how to do it in a non-submersive way. Now that I’ve dyed my yarn, and I’m happy with the results, I thought I’d share with you all what I did.
ETA – the instructions I found for immersion dyeing bamboo yarn can be found here on Halcyon’s site
Step 1: Scour the Yarn
I soaked the yarn in hot water (140° F / 60&def; C) with Synthrapol and Soda Ash for about 15 minutes. I used 1/2 tsp Synthrapol and 1/2 tsp Soda Ash per pound.
To get the water warm enough, I started out with hot tap water in a stove-proof container, dissolved the Synthrapol and Soda Ash, added the yarn and cooked it on low for 15 minutes once it hit the right temperature. To check the temp, I used a candy thermometer locked in a Ziploc bag so it didn’t get any chemicals on it (I wasn’t sure if the Ziploc would hold, but it was fine!

Note: My yarn was already in hanks that were tied off in figure 8s in three places along the hank. If your yarn isn’t tied off this way, make sure you do so before getting it wet — wet fiber sticks to itself and makes it much harder to work with. You’ll have a big mess if you don’t.
While the yarn was getting cleansed, I mixed up the dyes.
Step 2: Prepare the Dye
I used Procion Dye in #78 Navy. I wanted a nice variation of color, so I mixed three strengths — 2 grams, 4 grams and 6 grams of dye for 1 cup of water. In the end, this step was completely unnecessary, as I found I could easily control the saturation of dye just based on how light or heavy I was with the paint brush, and how much dye I picked up with my brush. So, save yourself a considerable amount of dye and just mix up 2 grams for 1 cup of water.
Step 3: Finish Preparing the Yarn
After the 15 minutes were up, I rinsed the yarn. I was shocked at how much red dye came out in the rinse.
After that, I prepared a Soda Ash bath for the yarn by mixing 3/4 cup of Soda Ash with a 3/4 gallon of water. Note – I started with cold water this time and the Soda Ash hardened as soon as it hit the water. So, use hot water so it dissolves easier. Once the Soda Ash is dissolved, add the yarn and let it soak for about 5 minutes.
Remove the yarn from the Soda Ash bath, wring gently by hand, and place it on a protected surface (I used a double layer of kitchen garbage bags.

Step 3: Painting the Yarn
Put on some waterproof gloves, and using your paintbrush, paint the yarn. Use a heavy hand for very saturated areas, and a dry brush and lighter hand for a more mottled effect. Be sure to get the dye into the areas where the hanks are tied together, and once you’ve painted one side, flip them over to paint the other side.

about halfway done at this point
You shouldn’t have any dye liquid pooling around your yarn — natural fiber has a wicking property, so if it finds any liquid it will soak it right up and you’ll be left with an uneven dye job.
Step 4: Curing the Dye
Wrap up the yarn in plastic (I used the garbage bags that I painted on as the wrapping). I folded it up into a nice package and let it sit for a few hours.

From what I read it only needed to sit for 90 minutes or so, but I ended up letting it sit for 8 hours or so. This didn’t seem to have any impact on how the dye set, although I’ve read that the dye needs to stay wet.
Step 5: Washing out the Dye
I unwrapped my yarn and dumped it in the sink (I have a black cast iron sink so I wasn’t worried about it getting dyed), and ran cold water on it to wash out any loose dye. Very little dye came off.
Next, I put the yarn in a stove-proof container with 1/2 tsp on Synthrapol and brought the temp to 140° for about 10 minutes. The water turned very blue. I rinsed the yarn and returned it to another Synthrapol bath. This second time the water stayed clear.
I rinsed the yarn, gently wrung them out by hand, and hung them on a hanger to dry. I was afraid of dye dripping from them so I placed a couple of old towels underneath them, but they didn’t drip at all.
Step 6: Admire Your Handiwork!
Step back and admire your beautiful work!

if anyone uses this tutorial and has an issue, question or suggestion, feel free to leave a comment!

Tutorial: Latvian Techniques

jody — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:40:48 +0000

Here are a few techniques we learned in last week’s class — a left- and right-leaning braid, and a two-color cast on.
This is a picture heavy post. If you’re interested in any of these techniques they’re behind the cut.

These techniques are really not that hard. They’re decorative and look like they take a long time to do, but they really don’t. If you’re feeling cautious, go grab 2 colors of wool yarn from your stash and give it a go.
Two-Color Cast-on
If you know how to do a long-tail cast-on this will be a breeze.

Step 1 – Tie a slip knot with both yarns together. Important – do not leave a long tail here. It’s unnecessary and will just leave 2 long tails to weave in later.
Put both loops on your needle, making sure that the color you want to be the bumps below the cast is the color on the right.

Step 2 – Using the yarn that’s connected to the skeins, wrap them around your hand to do a long-tail cast on. The color around your index finger will make the loops on your needle, and the color around your thumb will make the bumps below the loops. Make sure that the color around your thumb is the same color that’s on the right of your slip knot loops.
Cast on using the long-tail method. For counting purposes, both loops of the slip knot should count as one stitch — not two.

That’s it — the color around your index finger is looped on the needle, and the color around your thumb is making little bumps below.
Now that you’re done, slip that first loop (the one that doesn’t match) off the other side of the needle, and pull the yarns to tighten up that area. Don’t worry — your cast on will not unravel.
You could use this technique all by itself to cast on the edge of a sock or even a sweater. If you use a double strand of the bump color you’ll see that color even better. If you do that, setup the slip knot in step one the same way, but add in a length of the bump color as well.
Notes for Both Braids

I’ve knit these samples flat, but emulated knitting them in the round. The insructions I’ve given you are for knitting the braids in the round. Please disregard the yarn you see draped below my knitting — it’s just the yarn being brought from the end of one row to the beginning of the next row.
For both braids, I have knit several stitches before taking a pic because the pictures were clearer when a few stitches were already knit. You should follow these instructions starting with the first stitch on your needle.
Braids are knit by purling with 2 alternating colors and stranding them in the front.

Left-Leaning Braid
As a setup row, knit a plain row of knits, alternating the two colors. I forgot to do this when knitting my sample for these pics. Oops. I’ll show you why you need to do this at the end of this post

Step 1: Take both colors and place them in the front of your work. Here I have just finished a light blue braid and am getting ready to knit a dark blue braid.
Note that the dark blue — the working yarn for the next stitch — is to the right.

Step 2: Take the dark blue yarn and place it in front of (on top of) the light blue yarn.

Step 3: And purl with the dark blue.

Step 4: Your work now looks very similar to Step 1, except that the light blue is to the right. You’re now setup to do the next light blue braid by following the same instructions.
It’s important to remember that the working yarn always goes in front of the yarn last used. That’s what makes the braid lean to the left.
And here’s what it should look like when you’re done.

Right-Leaning Braid
This braid is made very similarly to the left-leaning braid, except that the working yarn is always passed under the other yarn.

Step 1: Just like you saw in the left-leaning braid, the yarn you just knit with will be to the left.

Step 2: Take the working yarn and bring it under the yarn just used.
Follow these steps until you’re at the end of the row.
When you’re done, it will look like this.

Do you see how there’s a straight piece of yarn in between the right- and left-leaning braids? That’s the yarn from the row before I started the braid. If I had done the setup row, all three parts of the braid would be in the same color.
If you’re curious what you can do with these techniques, take a look at Lizbeth Upitas’ Latvian Mittens. She shows a few other techniques and at least 60 different mittens.
If you try to use this tutuorial please let me know what you think. Is it clear? Was it helpful? Did you find an error?

Tubular Bind-Off

jody — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 07:49:00 +0000

Quite a while ago I promised you guys a pictorial of the tubular bind off. It took 8 months, but here it is.

I learned this technique via Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook. I thoroughly recommend the book. It covers a lot of topics and the illustrations are good. There are 30 pages on cast ons and bind offs alone.
1×1 rib These instructions are for K1 P1 rib. You can tubular bind-off in other ribs, but the directions at each step will vary.
Benefits
Bind offs can often be tight, or look like they don’t quite match the rest of the knitting. A tubular bind off is very stretchy and looks professional.
Get Started

Cut your yarn and leave a tail about 4 times as long as the area you’re binding off. remember to stretch your ribbing to full width before measuring what 4 times its length is. i betcha can guess why i’m giving you this pointer..
Thread a yarn needle with the tail, sit down in a well-let area and get started.
Step 1

Insert your sewing needle knitwise into the 1st st (this will be a knit st).

Pull the yarn average-tight and drop the stitch.
Step 2

Insert your sewing needle purlwise into the second stitch on your left needle (a knit st).

Pull yarn loosely. The thread that’s left here will be spanning a stitch so you want to leave it some give. This was the step I found took the most practice to get right.
Step 3

Insert your sewing needle purlwise into the first st on your left needle (a purl stitch).

Pull it average-tight and drop the stitch.
Step 4
This step sounds fiddly but it really isn’t so bad.

Take your yarn and needle and put it to the back of the work. Be sure not to create an unintentional YO. Insert the sewing needle between the 1st and 2nd st on the left needle.

(a) Pull the yarn through.

(b) And then, insert the needle knitwise into that 2nd st.
Once you get used to it you’ll be able to do parts (a) and (b) at the same time.
Do not drop a stitch You’ve now bound off 2 sts.
Now, go back and follow Steps 1 through 4 until you’ve bound off all your sts.

That’s it folks. It’s takes a bit more time than a regular bind off, but the results are really worth it.

Bag It

jody — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:32:38 +0000

I know you all warned me about trying to pre-wash more hanks of linen but I had to try. It’s really hard to accept defeat.
I’m happy to report complete success this time! If you like the way knitted linen feels but hate that hardness of the yarn here’s what you need to do:*

The hank comes with 2 ties already on it. Add 3 more to each side, and tie them in a figure 8. To be safe I made each figure 8 into 3 sections instead of 2. 270 yards makes for a think hank and I wanted to make sure this yarn didn’t budge.
Fill the sink up with warm water, a little laundry detergent and a little fabric softener.
Put the hank in the sink and let it sit for a good hour.
Drain the water.
Fold the hank in half, half again, and then wring. I would never do this with wool but it really helped with the linen.
Untwist the hank and rinse until the water runs clear.
Repeat the wringing out process.
Put it in a lingerie bag. Pin through the bag in 4 inch intervals very close to the hank. Make it so the yarn can’t fold onto itself and tangle.
Drop it in the dryer with a few lint-free items. I used woven pajama bottoms. This step isn’t necessary but giving the yarn something else to bang up against will speed up the process.
Run it through a few cycles of drying. It took a little more than 2 cycles to dry my hank.
Unpin, remove from the bag, and wind.
Sit back and enjoy your beautiful and stress-free pre-washed linen yarn.

*Many thanks to Jayme and Patty (blogless) for their comments and suggestions. This method is a combination of ideas they sent to me. Thanks ladies!

Four Hours

jody — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:41:40 +0000

This story is entirely my own fault, and I’m sharing this it so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
i seriously doubt you would
It starts out with a comment from Jayme, suggesting I wash the linen hanks so they’ll soften before I knit with it.
jayme honey, i’m not blaming you for this…it’s all my fault
I tie the hank in 4 places (making it 6 places with the 2 that are already there), drop it in my easy-does-it-can’t-felt-to save-my-life front loader. A little detergent, a little fabric softener, and we’re off.
i go upstairs, make myself a french bread pizza, and wait for my soft and fluffy hank to finish its bath
An hour later I take out the hank and it’s a rumpled mess. It’s linen’s version of felted. It’s twisted and knotted all onto itself. I try to untangle it but wet linen is like velcro and it won’t budge. It even makes irksome creeky noises when I pull on it. I put it into a lingerie bag and let the dryer do its thing.
at this point you’re probably wondering why i didn’t use the bag for the wash cycle. join the club.
Three cycles of drying later and the hank is fluffy, soft, and haloed.
and knotted, kinked and clumpy
It’s midnight, and I go to bed, exhausted and annoyed.
Next night, I detangle it enough to get onto the swift and commence unraveling it inch by inch by hand.
2.5 hours later and i’m done. i considered taking a pic but i just didn’t have it in me
Equipped with a wonky looking (but detangled) hand-wound ball, I drop it in a tall box on the floor and attach the free end to the winder.
this was blissful for about 20 seconds
And then, the ball exploded into three mini-balls. The ends wound all up onto each other, and it was again a mess.
i swear this happened, and even though i had consumed 4 mai tais earlier that evening, it in no way impaired my perspective. the ball exploded and made three mini balls of hell. they were multiplying.
Another hour gone by (with a TIVOd episode of CSI: Miami in the background) and I was back in business.
i was a ball-winding-madwoman. no one could stop me.
And no one did stop me. But something did. It was at this moment that the 2/3rds of a center-pull-ball-in-progress did the only thing it could do to thwart me.
It flew off the winder. In majestic form. It arced and hit the wall with a thud, trailing a lone strand of yarn still connected to the winder. For a brief moment it was beautiful, almost comet-like.
The fucker committed suicide
Isabella thought this was just grand, and did what any kitty would do to her prey. She pounced on it and squeezed it with all four paws.
I extracted the ball from her and plotted my next move.
I took the suicidal ball and stretched and pulled and got it back on the ball winder. Conscious of my speed, I wound at a slower pace, stopping occasionally to make sure the ball didn’t work its way back up the winder.
the yarn was obviously committed and i wasn’t taking any chances
A few moments later I emerged victorious.
Behold, a pre-washed, fluffy, soft, drapey and cuddly ball of yarn.

How To: Short Row Raglan Shoulders

jody — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 22:11:59 +0000

Thank you all for the wonderful comments on Somewhat Cowl!
Several people left comments asking for more details on the short rows that I inserted in the shoulders. I’ll share with you what I did, and what I think you’ll need to do for yourself.
The point I want to stress is that you must do this by trying it on your own body. Shoulder width, drape and stretch of yarn and armhole depth will all play a part in how many short rows you need.
Here’s an updated version of the illustration I presented in my last post.

This illustration shows you how SC’s shoulders fit me after doing the yoke. The end of the yoke came out at a soft angle rather than a harsh 90 degrees.
After looking at SC on my body in the mirror, I decided I need about 1.5 inches total length added in the center of the sleeve, tapering out to nothing at the edges.
So, here’s what I did, starting with the first row of the sleeve after knitting the yoke (let’s assume a gauge of 6 spi):
Row 1: Pickup and knit stitches at armhole, and then around the sleeve until 15% of the sleeve stitches from the center top of the sleeve are knit. So, if the sleeve had a total of 100 stitches, knit 15 stitches past the center top of the sleeve. Wrap and turn.
Row 2: Purl 29, wrap and turn.
Row 3: Knit 35, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).
Row 4: Purl 41, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).
Keep following the above, going an extra 6 stitches (1 inch) past the last row’s short row until a total of 1.5 inches of short rows have been knit.
Once they’ve been knit, start knitting all sleeve stitches in the round. For short sleeves on SC, this means knit an inch of sleeve in stockinette before switching to 2×2 rib.
added later: grumperina left a comment that she also has written up some details on short row shoulders. you can read hers here.
Let me know if this makes sense, or if you think I’ve left something out. Like so many things in knitting (or just because I’m Italian and like talking with my hands) it would be a lot easier to demonstrate in person than try to get it down on paper.

That Crazy Starmore Increase

jody — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:13:00 +0000

I’ve tried so many times to explain this increase in emails. Since I have some extra time this week I thought I’d take a few pics instead.
This increase — the centered double increase — was first written about in Starmore’s Aran Knitting. She uses it in other arans as well, and you’ll see it in many designers’ patterns now. Jenna Wilson’s Rogue and Jodi Green’s Mariah both use this increase.
Here’s my attempt to explain it. I hope it’s helpful to some of you!
note: all images are clickable to bring up a larger size.

First, knit into the back of the stitch AND LEAVE IT ON THE LEFT HAND NEEDLE.

Now, knit into the front of the stitch and slip the stitch off your left hand needle. You have now made 2 stitches. Just one more to go!

This next step is the hardest — but it’s really not hard. If you look closely right in between the 2 stitches you just made you’ll see a strand of yarn that’s going vertical between the two. It’s actually the left leg of the stitch you just knit into in the steps above. I’ve drawn it in red — click to enlarge and you’ll see.

Here’s the stitch picked up with my cable needle. I promise if you look you’ll see it!

Now, take that strand and place it on your left hand needle.Knit into the front of the stitch (the way you would normally knit a stitch). You may struggle with this a bit, and you might find it easier to pull on the stitch a bit to stretch it first. Knitting this third stitch should be a little bit difficult though — that means it will be tight and not form any holes.

After knitting it slip the stitch off your left hand needle and you’re done! You’ve made three stitches out of one!