Duplicate Stitch How-To

I'm back! And this time I'm getting back into the swing of this whole tutorial thing.

I frequently use duplicate stitch in my knitting. I use it to reinforce any seaming I do, and to reinforce thumbs on gloves and mittens, it's also a good alternative for new knitters who are still scared to attempt other colorwork methods, like Fair Isle or intarsia, to put a design on a piece of knitting after it's completed. Duplicate stitch isn't difficult, all you'll need is your project, a tapestry needle, and a similar weight of contrasting yarn. Duplicate stitch, in my experience, only works on stockinette pieces of knitting. When you're looking at stockinette stitch, you'll see that the individual stitches look like little tiny "v's."

You'll need a contrasting yarn, or the same color of yarn if you're reinforcing a seam or area of your knitting. It's important that the two yarns are the same weight, otherwise the constrasting yarn will bulge, or it won't cover the underlying stitches completely. If you don't have two yarns of the same brand or weight, you can substitute certain yarns. For example, if you're working with worsted weight yarn, you can use a double strand of DK yarn to duplicate stitch.

1. Thread a tapestry needle with contrasting yarn. (Don't thread too much onto the needle, it's better to have a few more tails to weave in when finished than pulling feet and feet of yarn through your work, and having a tangled mess on the wrong side of the fabric.) Insert the needle into the base of a stitch, right where the two legs meet at the bottom of the "v." Pull the yarn through, leaving a 6 inch or so long tail. 

2. Now insert your tapestry needle into both legs of the stitch above the stitch you originally pulled your constrasting yarn through. Pull the yarn through the two legs, but not too tightly. Just as with knitting, you'll find a tension that works for you with practice of this technique, like Ma' always said "Practice makes perfect." And something about patience, what was that again?

3. Re-insert your needle right back into the base of the stitch that you originally started in, and now you'll see how the contrasting yarn rests right over the two legs of the stitch, effectively masking the original color. I like to think of it like I'm drawing an upside down triangle over the stitch, using the legs of the stitch about it. 

In the end, you should have something that looks like the picture above, neat little duplicate stitches square over your original work. Experiment with this technique to create beautiful motifs, or finished objects that will withstand the forces of nature. 

As always, if you have any questions, would like a PDF version of this tutorial, or have any requests you can contact me at Ashley.Mishmoshcrafting@gmail.com 

Allonsy! 

Twisted Stitches

Using cables in knitting is an easy way to incorporate both feminine and masculine touches to a project. Using a Celtic knot can make a pair of mittens interesting and strong for your special man friend, and just a braid can make a hat pretty and beloved by a mother or sister. In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to cable without having to use a cable needle.

Before we get started, I'd like to cover a few basics about this technique. For one, it's not my favorite way to cable, but when you've left the house with your project, find yourself with time to kill, and then realize you didn't bring your cable needle along this technique can be a real life saver. There are drawbacks, however. My rule of thumb for using this technique is simple - if I'm doing more than a 6 stitch cable, meaning if I'm actively cabling any more than 3 stitches, I won't use it. The work gets too tight, and it's much too easy to lose those stitches and unravel hours of work - which doesn't save anyone any time. But when used over a small number of stitches, it can help speed you up by taking out the repetition of picking up and putting down your cable needle.

Left Cable (Often LCT, LCB, or C(#St)B)

A left cable twist is a cable that will point, or go off to, the left side of your work when the right side of your work is facing you. To create a left cable twist, the cabled stitches will be held to the back of your work.

Right Cable (Often RCT, RCF, or C(#St)F)

A right cable twist, on the other hand, will go off to the right side of your work. To create a right cable, the cabled stitches will be held to the front of your work.

And that's it! It's really that simple. Usually cabling is done with a cable needle, or just a double pointed needle, where you'll slip the stitches onto the cable needle, hold them in their respective place while you knit the stationary stitches, and then knitting off of the cable needle. This makes it easy to not lose track of stitches, or have them come unraveled. Cabling without a needle is a little (or a lot) more daring, but if your cable pattern is a simple braid, like the example above, or is a cable pattern worked over a small amount of stitches, I think you'll be just fine.

Left Cable Without a Cable Needle:

1. Work up to the stitches that would normally be cabled. Now, skip the normally cabled stitches (in my case it is the first two stitches of the stockinette panel) to the next two (again, this in my case, your pattern may be worked over three, or more stitches). Insert your right hand needle into the back of these stitches.

2. Here's where it gets scary. Mentally steel yourself, my friend, it will all be alright. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Now you're going to slide the preceding stitches (the 2 that would normally be slipped onto a cable needle) off the left hand needle, and slip the two stitches you just went into the back of onto your right hand needle. (Do this slowly, don't jerk your knitting around, and you shouldn't have any problems.)

Taking your left hand needle, scoop those free stitches up. Again, do it slowly. Going fast is instinct, but if you jerk too much you're bound to have those free stitches unravel at some point.

Now you're going to pull the 2 stitches your transferred to your right hand needle up and slip them back onto the left hand needle, in front of the two previously free stitches. (I kinda messed up and didn't get a picture of that, sorry!) Now all you have to do is knit across the now cabled stitches. Easy peasy. Essentially all we did was rearrange the stitches on the needles themselves, instead of doing it with the help of the cable needle. 

Right Cable Without a Cable Needle: 

Now we'll move on to the right cable steps. A right slanting cable calls for the stitches to be held behind the work. As you can imagine, we'll be reversing the directions above. Again work up to the stitches you'd normally slip onto the cable needle, skip those stitches and insert your needle into the front of the two stitches (or whatever your pattern specifies) after. 

Just as before, slide the stitches to the tip of your left hand needle, letting the first two stitches fall free, and pulling the stitches you went into off the left hand needle, and on to the right hand needle. Using your left hand needle, pick up the free stitches. Then slip the two stitches transferred to your right needle back to the left hand needle. 

And then all you do is knit along as normal! 

We're done! That's how you cable sans the actual cable needle. As always, if you have any questions feel free to comment, email, smoke signal, or telegram! But the first two really are ideal. 

If a video would work better for you, I have found the couple listed below helpful. 

Allonsy!

Entrelac Revisited

A while ago I did a tutorial on entrelac, a great way to knit a modular-type of garment with blocks of alternating colors. Now I decided it was time to do a tutorial on entrelac in the round.When working entrelac in the round you're basically just excluding the side triangle, which may be a godsend for some. Entrelac is definitely easier when worked in the round. But, I recommend everyone learn entrelac flat first.

It might seem counter intuitive, but when you learn how to knit entrelac flat, and then learn it in the round it will just feel like doing it a little differently. If you learn in the round first, and then decide you also want to learn how to work it flat, it will feel totally alien and be extremely confusing.

Materials: I'm using US size 8 Takumi Clover needles, with a 12 inch cable. The size of you needle and cable really depends on your yarn, and the pattern. My yarn is a cream and light pink color of Berella's "4" yarn.

Step 1: Cast on a multiple of 8 stitches to fill up your needle. The blocks and base triangles we'll be working, just like my flat tutorial, will be worked over 8 stitches. It provides a nice even number that's not too large, but not so small that the slipped stitch edges are hard to identify.

We're going to be working the base triangles identically to how you work the base triangles in a flat piece of entrelac. If you're working on an entrelac hat, you will probably have done a set number of ribbed rounds or something similar. I'm just picking up and just knitting the entrelac.

Step 2: Building the Base Triangles 

1. Knit 1 stitch
2. Turn your work around, and purl the stitch you just knit.

Note: Some patterns and instructions on entrelac will slip the first stitch of each row, including this very first stitch. I personally do not do this because I've found that knitting the first stitch provides a more "stable" triangle for me, after knitting it once I slip purlwise for the rest of the triangle. If you want to slip this stitch and then purl, that's fine too. 


3. Turn work. Slip 1 stitch, knit 1 stitch.
4. Turn work, purl back to start. (By start, I mean back to the start of this base triangle, or, in other words, back to the first original stitch that you're slipping.)
5. Turn work, slip 1 stitch, knit 2 stitches.
6. Turn work, purl back to start.
7. Turn work, slip 1 stitch, knit 3 stitches.
8. Turn work, purl back to start.
9. Turn work, slip 1 stitch, knit 4 stitches.

Continue in this way, adding 1 more stitch of the set 8 every time you turn to knit. Once you have 8 stitches on the right hand needle, you will stop. Do not turn and purl.

You're now done with that base triangle, and you will just pretend for the time being that it doesn't exist anymore. Begin the next triangle on the next set of 8 stitches in the same way as above.

Continue your way around the needle, picking up the 8 stitches of each base triangle.

At this point it looks like you have an awkward, mushy crown on your needles. Now we're basically going to be filling the little loops formed between each of the triangles with the right slanting diamonds. 

Step 2: The Right Slanting Diamonds 

Like I said, there are no side triangles in entrelac worked in the round! Yay! We just get to move on to the central diamonds.

This first diamond might throw you off, it's a rebel without a cause, and it wants to be different than all the other diamonds, it wants to be special. The first diamond will be picked up with the right side facing you. All the other diamonds will be picked up with the wrong side facing you, and there's a special maneuver to begin the other diamonds as well, but we'll worry about that later.

Because you've been slipping the first stitch purlwise, you should have a very neat little edge of "v's" to pick up from.

You'll be inserting your needles between each of the "legs" of this v, and picking up a new stitch with your alternating color. In this case, that's white. 

As I said, you'll be picking up from the front for this diamond. Insert the right hand needle into the "v" at the base of the last triangle (the one you just finished knitting), with alternating color behind, loop and pull the new white stitch onto the left hand needle. Continue this way, picking up a total of 8 stitches. Now it's time to begin forming the first diamond.

Row 1: Purl 7, purl the last white stitch, p2tog (1 white and 1 pink) together
Row 2: Turn and knit across the 8 stitches.
Row 3: Turn, slip 1 stitch, purl 6, p2tog
Row 4: Turn and a knit 8.

You'll keep working this way until the pink stitches (or whatever color you're using) are decreased away. Once you have purled the final pink stitch with the white stitch, you will stop. Don't knit back across. It's time to pick up 8 new stitches.

This time, and for all the rest of the diamonds this round, you'll be picking up with the wrong side facing you.

To begin, yarn back and insert you right hand needle into the first slipped stitch and pull yarn through. (If you're having trouble, this is shown on my original entrelac tutorial, located here: Entrelac Part 1 and Entrelac Part 2) Pick up a total of 8 stitches.

Now bring your yarn back to the front, and slip the last white stitch you just picked up onto your left hand needle, and purl it together with the first pink stitch.

Row 1: Turn, knit 8 stitches.
Row 2: Turn, purl 7, p2tog.
Row 3: Turn, knit 8 stitches.
Row 4: Turn, purl 7, p2tog.

Just as before, continue this until all your pink stitches are gone, on the last p2tog do not turn and knit, just pick up 8 more stitches and do it all again.

That's it for now, folks! The rest of the tutorial, for the left slanting diamonds and the ending triangles should be in tomorrow! If you have any questions, email me at Ashley.mishmoshcrafting@gmail.com 

Also - if you like my tutorials, maybe you'd like to donate a dollar (or more!) for my little yarn fund (which doubles as my Addi needles fund, sigh, maybe someday), which of course will be used for more tutorials! Donate Here. 

No pressure of course, everything here will remain free.

Edit: I would like to put a very special thank you out to Kay Green for being my first donation. I really appreciate it, thank you for the very special night. 

On the Next Episode

Since Alex and I have been a little more busy these last few days or so (well, I've been more busy than usual, Alex somehow juggles a hectic life 24/7) I guess we've taken to posting blog teasers. I wanted to give a little preview of what I'm planning for the next week, provided I learn to juggle this blog, my other blog, and my writing work.

I was cruising through Pinterest searching for inspiration for my next project when I saw this.

I love big, bold socks like this. Sure, the only place to conveniently wear them is at home, but isn't that where they're the most comfortable anyway?

I couldn't find a pattern for this picture, so I'm putting together my own sock tutorial (complete with video!) and pattern, both will be available for free. The tutorial will cover an afterthought heel and a star toe.

So, stay tuned!

Knitting In The Round: Double Pointed Needles

Knitting in the round is a technique that often scares new knitters, or even seasoned knitters who have just avoided doing it. But knitting in the round is much easier than it appears, and it's a lot of fun when you get the hang of it. One of the best perks of knitting in the round is - get this - no purling to create perfect stockinette stitch. Purling of course can be used to change texture, and just add a border other than stockinette.

Knitting in the round is definitely intimidating at first, but if you just follow along below, take breathers and make sure not to get ahead of yourself, or expect perfection on your first go at it, you'll be fine. :) I promise.

Now, there are two popular ways of knitting in the round: Magic Loop, and Double Pointed Needles. Some use both techniques, and some are loyal to one or another. I am a sucker for magic loop, I find that overall my work goes more quickly, and there's a ton less "laddering" in the work. Laddering occurs when you're not knitting tight enough over the needle change offs and you get, as the name suggests, little ladders between your work.

In this post, I'll be covering working on double pointed needles. Double pointed needles are a bit "fiddly" at first, but don't let that scare you away, it always feels like that and it's totally normal. Once you get in a few rounds, it will start to feel a whole lot more stable.

Okay, here goes:

Let's pretend we have a pattern, and it calls to cast on 20 stitches. Grab your dpn's, and cast on 20 stitches to a needle.

So now we've got 20 stitches on our needle. The set of dpn's I'm using is a set of four, some come in sets of four, others in five and so on. Do your best to distribute the stitches among the needles evenly, just slip them onto their respective needle as if to knit. I have 6 stitches on two needles, and 8 on the last. 

As the picture shows, the tail end of the yarn, and the working end, are on the needle on the right. We're going to be working on the left hand needle. Where the working yarn leaves off indicates where you begin, laying the needles flat helps you find where they naturally fall more easily, which is the needle to left. To make sure you're not twisting stitches, you can align all the knots of the cast on edge in towards each other, if you look at the picture you'll see what I mean. When I start the first round, I pick up tail yarn and knit it into the first two stitches, for a snug connection. This is my preference, it's not necessary. 

Just start working on that first row. It helps to just pretend that those other two needles don't even exist, you don't need them right now, just focus on the two in your hands. Once you complete that needle, just move to the next as you just did with the first needle, all the way around. 

I place a marker on the last needle that completes the round, so the third. So I know, when I finish this work on this needle, I've completed a round. 

As I mentioned earlier, some have problems with laddering. Laddering looks a little something like this: 

This happens when your dpn's meet, and you're not knitting that stitch quite tight enough. This can be avoided a couple of ways: 

1.) Make sure you're knitting the first stitch on each needle a little tighter than normal. 

2.) You can switch where the stitches are, so that no two stitches are always the beginning stitch. You can do this by slipping stitches between needles. But this can be a pain in the bum. Usually just making sure you're giving the first stitch some special attention helps just fine. But with lace yarn, it may be best to move the stitch around. I find I have much more of a problem with laddering the finer the yarn I use. 

And there you have it! You just keep working around like this, and you will get a tube. Knitting in the round is a wonderful skill to have. In a later post I'll be discussing Magic Loop, and even knitting with two circular needles. 

Hope to see you there! 

Having trouble? Need a video? Here's a great Youtube link: 

RedHeart Tutorial

And as always, if you have questions, shoot me an email, I'm here for you! ashley.mishmoshcrafting@gmail.com

Allonsy! 

Knitting Backwards

Knitting backwards can be a very handy skill to have. Personally, I don't use it for long rows of purling, because it can be a tad fiddly, as my left hand is nearly useless when it comes to skilled movements. But if you're naturally blessed with ambidexterity, well, it will be a lot easier, also - teach me your ways, please?

Knitting backwards, which is more correctly, purling backwards is the most useful for short rows, like when you're working the heel of a sock, or working entrelac. It can make an annoying process of constantly turning your work around way less of a pain in the keester.

Also, it's really easy. There's really no fancy footwork involved, you just have to get used to using your left needle, which is really fiddly at first, since we're all taught that our left needle stays stationary, a proverbial parking lots for our stitches.

If you do love knitting backwards, feel free to use it all the time! I just find that when working long groups, I have some stitches tight, some very loose.

Okay, here we go.

As you can see, I've already been playing with knitting backwards on this piece in a bunch of random short rows.

1. Your left needle goes into the back leg of the stitch.
2. Wrap your yarn counterclockwise around the front of the needle, so you'll be pulling the yarn from behind and around the needle to the right. (it's my natural instinct to go clockwise, this will work, but you will have a stitch that is seated the wrong way on your needle.)
3. Pull it through, removing the original stitch from your right needle.

It's really that easy.

Now, let's just say you make a mistake, you wrap the yarn clockwise for awhile before catching yourself, silly you. That's okay!

If you wrapped the yarn incorrectly, you will have a stitch that looks like this:

As you can see, the stitch is seated on our needle the wrong way, the left leg being in front, rather than behind. This can be corrected very easily on the next knit row by knitting into the "back loop" of this stitch, rather than into the front.

And there we have it, knitting backwards. It's a simple, and useful technique to utilize.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at: ashley.mishmoshcrafting@gmail.com

Entrelac: Parts 1 - 2.5

I've been on and off with my fascination with modular knitting in the last couple of years. I have months where it's all that sits upon my needles, and then months where I forget about it for the classics and lace work.

Now, I don't want to confuse anyone, entrelac and modular knitting are two separate entities. But if you're anything like me - starting with entrelac is the best way to introduce yourself to modular knitting. It gets you familiar with working entirely separate pieces of knitting, all on the same solid piece of growing work. In the beginning, it will make your brain hurt. It will make you want to rip all the stitches out, yell, and go crochet your heart out to spite the world of two needle crafts.

Have faith, oh grasshopper, it will come to you. And you know, anger will only lead to the darkside. That's bad ju-ju.So, I thought I would add a little tutorial of my own, to help those struggling with entrelac work through it. So, put 'yer thinkin' caps on! And grab two colors of yarn, and some size 8 needles.


Part 1: The Base Triangles

We have to start our entrelac with three base triangles. Well, three in this case, it ranges for every pattern. But three is the number I need for my pot holder pattern. This tutorial is not for in the round entrelac, just flat work. I will make a subsequent in the round post later. :)

Cast on 24 stitches, loosely. I used the long tail cast on, but nearly any 'stretchy' cast on will work just fine. I used a size US 8 needle. You will want to continue working a little more loosely than normal, it will help hide the picked up stitches.

Now, here comes the tricky part. But it's not really tricky.

1. Knit 1 stitch, turn. By turn I mean switch your right hand needle to your left hand, and likewise. So your work is literally turned around.
2. Purl the stitch you just knit.
3. Slip 1 stitch, and knit 1 stitch (adding a stitch), and turn.
4. Purl across.
5. Slip 1 stitch, knit to last stitch, and knit one more from the left hand needle, again adding a stitch.
6. Purl across.

Edit: I had some questions here as to why I knit the very first stitch the first time, rather than slipping it. I choose to knit that stitch to add more stability to the base of my piece. This prevents the top from being more firm than the bottom. I hope that makes sense. Questions are always welcome! :)

Continue to work in this fashion, adding one stitch to your needle with every knit row, until you reach your goal number, in this case that is 8 stitches, by adding one of the existing stitches each knit row. And turning after that addition to purl across. We're slipping the first stitch so we have a nice neat visual of where we will be picking stitches up later on. In the picture above, we have 4 stitches cast on, and you can see the growing base triangle forming from the turning.

Oh no! Did you lose count of how many stitches you've added? Well, it's okay. When you turn your work back around after the purl row, you will see a clear indication of where you left off by the gap. Shown here:

There's a pretty clear little "hole" you can see, so we have 6 stitches on, and two more to add.

When you reach your goal number of stitches, do not turn and purl across. You will stop right there, and begin the next triangle in the same way as the first. Working until you have 8 stitches of that set.

One triangle, done, again, no turning, you want the "right side" of your fabric facing you, working yarn behind. Now, go back to the start and make two more triangles, ignoring the finished ones.

We now have three finished triangles. I placed stitch markers so you can easily see the three separate triangles, you don't have to use them. Now I know these look pretty wonky, but it will all start making sense soon.

Now we're going to move to the next step - 'filling in' our empty spot, and placing the side triangles, to even it all out.

Part 2: The Left Side Triangle & 2 Central Diamonds

So we're looking at what we ended with in step 4 of part one, and it looks a little crazy. If you're using two colors, cut a three or so inch long tail, and pick up your second color.

1. Purl into the first stitch with new color, turn and knit front and back (kfb), adding a stitch in the new color.

2. Purl 1, purl 2 stitches (green and blue) together. Turn.

3. Knit front and back, slip 1 purlwise. Turn.
4. Purl to last 'new colored' stitch, and p2tog. Turn.
5. Knit to the last two stitches, kfb, slip 1 purlwise.

Essentially, we're slowly eating away those green stitches, by combining them with our new blue stitches. Keep moving along in this way until all of your green stitches are gone, knitting front and back on the second to last stitch on your knit row, and you have 8 blue stitches. Do not turn on the last p2tog, you want the 'wrong side' facing you for the next step.

You should end up with a little something like this:

The 'live' original green stitches are now the underside of the side triangle.

Part 2.5: 2 Central Diamonds

Now we're going to build two central diamonds. 

Above, you were slipping the last knit stitches purlwise, this leaves us with a nice edge to pick up our diamonds from. 

1. Pick up 8 stitches, purlwise, along the edge of the first triangle.

2. Grab the last picked up stitch, and place it on your left hand needle, from there purl this picked up stitch and first green stitch together.

A note on picking up: I feel terrible, because I feel I've caused some confusion. When you're picking up a stitch, if your right side of the work is facing you, you'd pick up just like if you were to knit across, yarn in the back. And if the wrong side is facing you, you'd pick up as if you were purling across, the yarn will be in the front. 

3. Turn and knit 7, slip 1 purlwise. Turn.
4. Purl across to the last blue stitch, and purl 2 stitches together.
5. Turn and knit 7, slip the last stitch purlwise.

Like usual, continue doing this all the way across, until you're all the way across your green stitches. (Or, whatever color you're using.) You'll have this:

After the last purl 2 together do not turn your work. Start at the beginning of part 2.5, picking up the edge stitches on the middle triangle, just as you did for the first. Working across in the same way.

Tune in tomorrow, for the rest of my entrelac tutorial.