|
Mary Lou Fleming uses a large cereal box inside a plastic bag to shape the bottom of her
smaller sized felted tote bags as they dry...
September 2007 Tips & Ideas
Dixie V asks, "What is Guernsey knitting? What is a gansey?" In her book, Knitting Ganseys (1993), Beth Brown-Reinsel states, "Gansey sweaters, also known as guernseys, developed in nineteenth century England as hard-wearing garments for hard-working fishermen." They are characterized by dense, dark yarns, rich knit/purl patterns, dropped shoulders, and underarm gussets that allow the wearer additional freedom of movement. Ganseys are traditionally seamless, and knitted in the round. The typical gauge is 7 - 9 sts/ inch, producing a dense fabric impervious to wind and cold. Rae Compton, author of The Complete Book of Traditional Guernsey and Jersey knitting (1985), writes, "throughout the British Isles the fishermen's garment is known in some places as a guernsey, in others as a gansey, and in others it has always been and still is a jersey." The gansey or guernsey took its name from the knitted fabric that has been called guernsey since before the seamen took to wearing them...
Charlene B recently e-mailed us, "What does 'work stitches as they appear' mean"? This instruction means to knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches, as they appear on your needle...
Betty L asked, "Is there any difference between the terms lace knitting and knitted lace?" Kathy took a class with Sally Melville at TNNA, in which Sally said that lace knitting refers to openwork patterns with the yarn-overs worked on the public side.
In knitted lace, the yarn-overs are worked on both sides of the fabric for a more open
fabric...
Joan Walsh passed along a knitting tip which she credits to Anna Zilbourg, page 30 of Knitting for Anarchists as the original source. Basically, changing the size of the needles is more likely to affect the number of rows per inch than the number of stitches per inch. Think of a stitch as two pieces of yarn lying next to one another (how much will a change of needle affect thickness of yarn?) Then, think of the stitch as one piece of yarn going up the needle, over and down the other side (the yarn has farther to travel with a larger needle). Thanks for the insight, Joan and Anna!
October 2007 Tips & Ideas
Tracey Earhart keeps a chain of locking stitch marker pins on her work to keep track of increases and decreases, having one pin for each increase / decrease. As you work each increase / decrease, place one of the pins at the edge of your work. When you run out of pins, you are finished with the shaping. Tracey says that this works especially well with textured yarns. Tracey also uses a short 5" double-pointed needle (dpn) as a cable needle, in the same size as the project needle. You can work the cable crossing directly from the dpn. Thanks, Tracey!
|
|
