M1L & M1R

I thought I would do a post that I hope will make the m1l and m1r increases less confusing. I won't go into the details of "how" you make these increases because it can vary depending on your personal style of knitting and also weather or not you are a mirror knitter. This is pretty much the same post I put on Ravelry when someone was asking about these increases.

The M1L and M1R has to do with the direction you twist the bar. Generally you lift the bar between 2 stitches to make these increases. If there is a lot of twisting in the pattern, you can set them up on the row before so that you are not stealing yarn from the surrounding stitches. This is what I did on my "the drunken mason" scarf.

 the difference between a M1L and M1R is the twist. on a M1L the leg in front will be slanted to the left, on a M1R it will be slanted to the right. Generally these are used when stitches need to slant away from a particular line in the knitting so the top leg will slant away from what ever it is in the pattern you are increasing.

If you knit in a way that your leading leg is in front, for mirror knitter (knitters who move their new stitches onto the left needle) the M1R is the same thing as a KTBL. For standard (non mirror knitters) a M1L will be the same as a KTBL.

If your style of knitting results in your leading leg in back, you will want to slip the stitch to reposition it so you can knit through the back loop to get the twist.

So when you are required to make a M1R or M1L, twist your stitch as I show in this diagram. This is as though you were looking at the knit side of the fabric.

When working from a written pattern, a mirror knitter will want to switch these. If the pattern is telling you to make a M1R you will want to swap that for a M1L and the same goes for when the pattern tells you to make a M1l you will want to make a M1R. this is because we are approaching the stitches and knitting from the opposite way.

When a mirror knitter is working from a chart you will want to make the increase in the direction they tell you. But if they give you instructions for how to create the left and right stitch, you will want to swap the directions. The directions they give you for a M1R will result in creating a M1L, and vice-versa.

But in short, for both standard and mirror knitters, you simply want to twist your yarn so that your stitch looks like the loops in this diagram.

Headphone earbud holder

Earbud headphone holder

I like to use earbud headphones  with my iPod at work but have to take them out often. I usually run my cord up my shirt and when I take out the earbuds I let them hang out the neck of my shirt. Problem with this is the left and right get all twisted together and gravity grabs hold and they start to slid down to the point that the ear buds are bouncing around somewhere on my belly. Not only is this irritating, but I've ruined several sets by snagging them on things.

So I saw a photo somewhere of some silicone holders for earbud headphones and of course thought "I bet I could make that" and this is the result. I whipped these up before work last night and they worked great! I work in a factory.

So here you go!

Yarn: sock yarn scraps, this takes verry little yarn

needles: size 2 double point needles. you don't really need a whole set if you don't want to knit the ends in the round, I don't have a full set so I knit my ends flat and seamed them. you do need 2 dpn's though.

cast on 12 stitches (join in the round if you want, other wise leave a tail to seam shut

knit 5 rows in 1x1 ribbing

bind off 9 stitches leaving 3 on the needle.

use these 3 stitches to make an i cord about 14 inches long (or desired length)

cast on 9 stitches (join in the round if you prefer, other wise knit flat)

knit 5 rows in 1x1 ribbing

bind off. 

use tails to seam ends closed if you have not knit in the round.

The ribbing stretches enough to allow you to put the earbuds through but are not big enough to have them fall back out. when I set my earbuds to hang in this holder I just move the cord so the bud is resting on the end piece.

If you find your buds are sliding in the holder (I didn't have this problem) you can just loop the bud back through another time creating a loop around the end hole and this will secure it in place.

To knit an i cord you must have 2 double point needles. you knit your stitches, do not turn, slide them back to the other side of the needle and knit them again. keep doing this untill cord reaches desired length.

 

new reversible scarf pattern

8-21-12 I have picked a name for this scarf pattern. I am going to be calling this "The drunken mason" because it looks like crooked brick work on both sides

At this point this is just really raw. I am confident that the chart is complete and accurate and this PDF is not fine tuned for publishing. But as far as the information on it goes I think it's done. If anyone would like to give this a go and leave a comment I would very much appreciate it.

This is a reversible stitch pattern for a scarf. it has a wide variety of stitches in it including twisted stitches and dropped stitches. Even though this had dropped stitches it is still mostly a solid knit so I think it should be suitable for winter.

Heres the rough draft. I don't have a name for this yet. I was also asked to offer it as a written pattern so that will come as well. This chart is right handed so those lefty's will have to flip the stitch deffinations. But i did use m1l and m1r to better destinguish these stitches from the twisted stitches and that should make it easier to identify the stitches that need to be swapped

this is a PDF document. it's only 2 pages but saved as 3

reversible stitch pattern.

This is my working sample I used to help create the pattern.

side A

I don't know why this one loads sideways. it's not sideways on my camera and the thumb nail is not sideways when I select it but for some reason blogger uploads it sideways 

side B
but this one loaded straight.

Knitting and crochet fonts

I haven't posted in a while as I've been extremely busy. But I do have some things in the works which will be quite detailed blog posts.

I thought I would share with you 2 fonts that you can purchase. They are really high quality and very inexpensive to purchase. For anyone out there who wants to make (be it for your self or to publish) charts I highly recommend them. They also include symbols used for washing and ironing, both are a very comprehensive set of fonts. the washing and ironing fonts are only part of the knitting set though.

knitting font - StitchinKnit
crochet font - StitchinCrochet