Flipping any YouTube video

Something I just learned. If you go to the URL of a YouTube video from the website (not the app) and replace YouTube or m.youtube with mirrorthevideo it will flip any video so you can view it mirrored. Great for turning any right, or standard,  knitting or crochet video into a mirror or lefty video

Darning needle holder

 My brain works in weird ways. I opened a packet of Sugru (moldable putty glue) and didn't use it for what I intended so I was trying to figure out what I could use it for before it set up. 

 So I got a cap from a dried up marker and cut it down (it was to long) and used it to glue the cap to my lamp by the chair I sit and knit in. 

 And that's how I made a darning needle holder so they don't fall off my stand when not in immediate use and are at the ready.

How to keep magic and traveling loop from creating ladders at the join

 Trick I use for magic and traveling loop to keep cables tight at the join. 

- Slip small ring all the way to the stitches before making the loop..

- Loop your cable and insert working needle through the same ring. 

- Continue knitting.

I always do my hats on traveling loop. I hate DPN's!

This will put a ring around the cable at the join preventing them from spreading to far apart and stressing the join, which can cause ladders.

Remember I'm a mirror knitter so this may seem backwards. I knit my new stitches onto my left needle.

G's sock blanket

Update progress pic 2/27/22

I will add to this as I make it

Why am I posting a sock blanket when there are loads of sock blankets out there? I did a few tricks with this one. I'm working the co and 1st row in black which will frame each square. I'm doing a sk2p every other row and I'm slipping the last stitch for a easy pickup edge.this is also made so that all the edges are pointy and the squares are turned so points are up.

The marker is for the center decrease. It shifts on the wrong side and Mark's the decrease on the right side.

To start my blanket I made 3 square groupings so that my points at the bottom of the blanket are 2 squares deep (the top will match). My blanket is 6 points/groups wide. I made my points and then joined them once I had enough. If you dont want the deep points, just make single 1st squares  and join them as described later.

PLEASE NOTE!

I am a mirror knitter. This means I knit left to right. If you are not a mirror knitter please reverse left and right! Ex. When I say join on the left, or left edge of the blanket, you will be working on your right. Photos in this pattern will appear reversed if you knit right to left.

Using fingerling/sock weight yarn and size 3 needles (I will be switching between knitting and crochet, but that will be later)

Tools:

Size 3 (3.25mm) needles

Size C (3.12mm) crochet hook

1 stitch marker

Yarn needle to weave in ends

Abbreviations 

co - cast on / k - knit / pm - place marker / sm - slip marker / sk2p - slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over (double decrease) / s1wyif - slip 1 with yarn in front

sc - single crochet / ss - slip stitch / ch - chain

Always join with right side facing. Slip marker on wrong side rows, decrease on right side rows.

Casting on

At the start of a row and to make the 1st squares I use LTCO. 

To co 1 I use backwards loop, knitted co works to. 

To co at the end of a row I use knitted co. You can use backwards loop here as well.

1st square:

With border color: Co 24, pm, co 25 (the stitch with the marker on it will be your center stitch), Turn. - 49 stitches

*Every square will be worked exactly the same as written below after the setup row. Only the setup row varies depending on where you are placing it. The squares will give the setup row, then say finish square. 

Row 1: K to marker, remove marker, k1, pm. K to end, turn. Break yarn. - 49 stitches

Join in color B:

Row 2: K to marker, sm, sk2p, k to last stitch, s1 wyif, turn - 47 stitches 

Row 3: k to marker, remove marker, k1, replace marker, k to last stitch, s1 wyif, turn - 47 stitches

Repeat rows 2 and 3 till 3 stitches remain. Sk2p, k1 break yarn, pull end through and weave in ends

2nd square, Joining to square 1 on the left 

With border color: 

Co24, PM, co1, pickup 24 stitches along the edge, turn

-Finish square 

After casting on, pickup stitches. There are 24 slipped edge stitches on the square. Start with black.

This is after the co and pickup 

I leave the co tail loose so if there are any gaps or stretched stitches where it transitions from co to pickup I can use the tail to close it and straighten it up as I weave in ends. The strand on the left is my tail from breaking yarn. I've ran it under a few stitches on the needle. This shifts the tail to a place where it wont have to be weaved in where the other 2 ends are reducing bulk in that area.

Here is the square after a few rows.

3rd square, joining to square 1 on the right:

With border color and starting at the point, pickup 24 stitches from the other side of square 1, PM, co25, turn

-Finish square 

4 - Joining square (also body square)

With border color, pickup 24 stitches, pm, co1, pickup 24 stitches from next square

-Finish square 

All the squares in the middle will be made this way. But instead of m1, you pickup one stitch from the point of the square below as described in the next square. This can be easily done with the hook.

5 - Left inner edge including edging

*if you dont want to crochet, just pickup the 24/1/24 stitches. But doing this will leave 1 edge of the side squares without a border.

Join edging color to border edge, ch1, sc in same space, sc in next 22 edge stitches, 2 sc in last stitch,  ch1, insert hook into 1st slipped edge stitch on other side of point, draw up a loop, pull loop through loop on hook and place the loop on the needle, pickup the next 23 stitches (24 stitches on needle), pm,  pickup 1 stitch through the point in the middle square, pickup 24 stitches up along the edge of the next square

-Finish square 

 

6 - Right inner edge square with edging 

With border color pickup 24, pm, pickup 1 from point, pickup 24 from next square.

Leave the 49 stitches on the needle. With the hook insert it into the 1st slipped stitch on the other side of the point (outside edge), draw up a loop, ch1, sc in same space, sc in next 23 slipped stitches along the squares edge, ch1 turn. 

Return row: Working in front loop only ss in each stitch to end, 1 sc into point, ch1, hook last knit stitch and pull it through the loop on the hook, place loop back on needle 

- Finish square

Crochet down edge and slip back

Hook 1st stitch and pull it through the loop on hook and put it back on the needle and keep knitting

7 - outer left edge 

co 24, pm, pickup 1 from point, pickup 24 stitches from side of square, turn

- Finish square 

8 - outer right edge

Pickup 24 stitches along edge, PM, pickup 1 stitch from point, co 24 stitches, turn

- Finish square 

End the blanket with the last row being the wide outer edge row

Finishing edging

With crochet hook, join border color to 1st border slipped stitch of last row of squares, ch1, sc in same space, 1sc in next 22 slipped stitches, 2sc in last space, [ch1, 2sc in 1st slipped stitch on other side of the point, sc in next 22 slipped stitches, insert hook into border slipped stitch, draw up a loop, (skip point), insert hook into 2st slipped border stitch of next square, draw up a loop, yo draw through 2 loops on hook. Sc in next 23 slipped stitches, 2 sc in last stitch.] Repeat to top of point on last square. Ch1, 2sc in next slipped stitch, sc in next 23 slipped stitches, break yarn and weave in ends.

This is a mockup of how I will finish it. Clearly it will not be done for a very long time, so instead of waiting till I actually finish, this is how it will be done.

Here is a picture with the squares numbered to show where they fit

You can add large squares by working the left then righ and leaving a 2 square space then picking up 2 squares worth of stitches (pickup the 48 stitches on either side).

How to use tiger tail wire (Beadalon) to bead knitting

This is my preferred method for placing beads onto knitting. This is the same method as what people use dental floss, but the wire (found in the beading/jewelry making section) is stiffer and easier to handle. And once you have a kink in it you can load up the wire and set it aside and the beads don't easily fall off. Also you don't have to worry about your hook splitting your yarn as you try to work the beads onto the stitches.

This is the wire, it is a nylon coated steel wire used for jewelry making. I use a larger gauge of this type of wire for my stitch markers. The fine gauge works well and allows you to use more of your beads. Seed beads don't always have a consistant sized hole in the center which makes some useless because you cannot get a hook into it. With the wire, you can use the beads which may have a smaller hole.

 I cut segments about 5-6" and put 1 bead on and tie the wire around it into a knot towards an end of the wire. This creates a stopper so you won't loose your beads.

I'll use my current shawl, Celestarium, for this demo.

 load the wire up Leaving a long enough tail to fold over. Fold the end to put a kink in it (at least 1 inch from the end). 

 

Hook the end into your stitch

Holding both strands of the wire, pull the stitch off the needle.

 

 Slide a bead down and make sure to feed the tail of the wire through the bead as you transfer it onto the stitch. Place the stitch back on the needle and remove the wire and continue working.

For this particular shawl I strung the bead onto the stitch before I knit it. this creates a tight stitch and the beads sink back into the fabric to sit nice and snug. so I string the bead onto the stitch, place the stitch onto the needle and than knit it.

You can also place the bead onto the stitch you just knit. this will create a little more slack in that particular stitch because there is enough yarn to pass through the bead and go around the needle. I do this if I want to make sure the beads will stay on top nicely. Ilike if I'm following a line of decrease. It allows the bead a little bit of slack to be more raised on the surface.

Here is a bead in my current shawl. it's nice and tight

These are the beads on the Sagittaria shawl I did. I beaded the stitch after knitting it (knit the stitch, placed the bead and put back on the needle). They sit nicely on top of the lines of decrease. These particular beads were much smaller than the ones I normally use.

Sagataria shawl

This is a free pattern that is available on Ravelry. You can find it here

First I would like to stress this is not my pattern. I in no way wrote it. The charts I offer here reflect my mods. They do not give instruction to make the pattern. I suggest downloading the actual pattern than using these mods if you want to.

I am making this post because I did quite a few modifications to the pattern and also charted my bead placement. I thought it would be good to explain what I did.

1st. the body of the shawl.

Cast on:
This shawl starts with a 2 stitch garter tab. I have a post the shows how to do a garter tab so that you don't have to pick up any stitches when done. You can find it here (it's actually the post just below this one)

This was a traditional Shetland lace. the original has all the decreases leaning the same way so I mirrored them. this is the same stitch pattern used in Rock Island. The charts are mirrored on both sides so I eliminated the 2nd half of the chart so it would print larger. This is what I have for the body of the shawl. If you want to use lifelines in this portion of the pattern I would suggest inserting them on any double decrease row. these rows have the most stitches which makes it easier to pick up off the lifeline if needed.

Instead of the k3tog. I did a s1, k2tog, psso. this centers the decreases

this is the chart I made for chart 1

The edging:

Here I didn't really change the chart. I did change the decreases and used both s1, k2tog, psso and s2knitwise, k1, psso

for the most part I used the later so this created straight lines of stitches with a lined up stitch on top. I did use the 1st version at the tips of the arrows to allow them to come to a clear point. I also moved the decreases from the center of the arrow to the edge to better accent the lines of the arrow heads. Again, this chart is mirrored so you don't need the other side, this allows for larger printing.

I also changed the order of the charts on the page so better see how the pattern repeats lined up with each other. The highlighted stitches  are where I placed the beads I worked the stitch and than removed the loop and slipped a bead onto it before placing it back on the needle.

This bead placement does take a LOT of beads! But I think it's worth it as it really brings out the arrow pattern in the edging.

Here is my charts for the edging

The bind off:

I placed a bead at the tip of each point. I also worked the bind off in pattern. It calls for a stretchy bind off so I worked the one where you make 2 stitches and than knit them together. But I worked the 1st stitch in pattern.

So the bo on mine goes...
k2, slip back, k2tog (place bead on loop), yo, pass last stitch over the yo, *k1, slip back and k2tog* [repeat 4 times). ssk, slip back and k2tog, *k1, slip back and k2tog* [repeat 4 times]. yo pass last stitch over yo, k1, slip back and k2tog (place bead), yo, pass stitch over yo. Basically I worked the 1st stitch of the bo edge as though it were another pattern repeat than I bound it off with the last stitch I had on the needle.

I continued on in this same fashion. It's not necessary to do this, but I liked carrying the decreases to the edge.

Beads... beads... this has a LOT of beads!

when working off your edging every other cluster will turn into a arrow. Of these arrows they will stagger and every other will be shorter. the short arrows take 15 beads each and the long arrow takes 17

for the body of my shawl I worked 7 repeats. this gave me 36 full arrows along the edge 576 beads than another 70 for the increase arrows that resulted from increasing on the points. The edging took 25 beads for a grand total of 671 beads.

My beads are small and I used a size 13 crochet hook to place them on. Another method is to string them onto a beading wire than fold the end of the wire. hook the loop of the stitch with the bend of the wire and put the tip of the wire back into the bead and push the bead down onto the stitch.

No pickup garter tab

I have combined a couple techniques that has resulted in a garter tab that you don't have to pick up a single stitch to make!

1st cast on using the provisional co for toe up socks. For this sample I'll be making a 3 stitch garter tab. So I have 3 stitches on each needle.

 Just pull the needle through the 3 you won't be knitting right now so they are further down the cable and out of the way.

With the 3 stitches that are on the needle
kfb, k2 turn
k3 turn
kfb, k2 turn

repeat these steps. the 1st stitch of the kfb will be the one that you would have to pick up later. Were just doing it right now. End on a kfb row. Do these steps untill you have enough stitches to equal what you would be picking up later.

You can see the 3 loops on the cabel thsn 5 stitches created by the kfb and the last 3 are the live stitches

Now pull your cable tight causing the 3 stitches from the co to pop back up to the tab. My tail is kinda in the way here, but I've moved the cable through so all the stitches atr together.

turn your work and knit across all stitches. this is the 3 live stitches, however many you have on the side (i have 5 in my sample) and the 3 from the co end.

you have just made a garter tab and didn't have to pick up a single stitch!
Here is the co to my current shawl that I used this technique for. This called for a 2 stitch garter tab and 5 stitches to pickup along the edge as well as another 2 stitches from the start.

Knitted decreases... how do they work?

This description is directed at mirror knitters and the mirrored version of decreases.
Mirror knitters swap the meanings for the decreases we use because we approach the stitches from the other direction.

I am posting this here. I have shared this on a board on Ravelry and thought i would add it here for refrence.

Below is a swatch I made showing various decreases with explanations of how/why they work. This description is of the decreases from the top section down.

These descriptions refer to stitches mounted so that the leading leg is in front. Due to your personal style of knitting the stitches on the needles may not be mounted leading leg in front and require extra slipping for correct placement to avoid twisting your finished stitches. I am a combined knitter so I have to manipulate stitches a bit more than some.

Patterns are written assuming you have your leading leg in front so that is what based these descriptions on.

block 1:
on the left are  ssk’s  - the line of decrease slants to the right (right leaning) the stitches to the right are ending at the line of decrease
on the right are the k2tog - the line of decrease slants to the left (left leaning) the stitches to the left are ending at the line of decrease
at the top where they join is s1 k2tog psso (you can see both lines of decrease end at this point and the point sits on top and the center stitch under sort of disappears into the point.
the last decrease directly on top is a sl2tog k1 psso you can see the center line stays on top and the side stitches end into and behind it.
block 2:
these are all s1 k2tog psso - when stacked this creates a choppy line because the side stitches are being pulled over the center stitch and covering it.
block 3:
sl2tog k1 psso - you can see the center line stays on top and the stitches that are being reduced are “disappearing” behind the center line.
this stitch is not used nearly as much as the s1 k2tog psso decrease.

on the bottom 2 samples I placed an extra row between the 1st and 2nd decreases to sort of show them better. on the top sets of decreases I worked them directly on top of each other
*you can click to enlarge the image for a better view.

 

when working decreases on the wrong side that will be seen on the knit side you need to switch decreases to get the desired result on the right side of the fabric.

To demonstrate why this is, take a small piece of paper and make a diagonal line from the lower left to the upper right corner, this line represents a right leaning decrease. When you turn the paper over that line is now left leaning.
 
ssp = left leaning decrease on the right side
p2tog = right leaning decrease on the right side

If you are decreasing in a field of purls and the purl side is the right side it doesn’t matter which decrease you use because lean cannot be seen on the purl side. use whichever one is easier for you.

Fixing an accidental short row

 So you are knitting and you find that you have this strange hole. You don't know exactly what it is, but you don't want a hole in your knitting.

You figure it's not to bad, only 1 stitch, so you ladder down to fix it.

 When you get down to the hole you find a loop

 This loop means you set your knitting down mid row and when you picked it back up you accidentally turned your work creating a short row.

 To fix this you actually need to drop 2 columns of stitches. Here I dropped the stitches to the right of the loop. You want to drop the stitches on the other side of the loop. My loop is on my left so I dropped another column on the right. You want to drop just to the stitches directly below the loop.

 Here I have placed the 2 stitches onto a crochet hook. Crochet hooks are very handy for this sort of thing.

 Holding the loop I am grabbing both legs and will draw them through the 1st loop on the hook to create a stitch. Don't pull all the way through. .

 Leave the loop end hanging out. you can stick a stitch marker in it if you are worried about loosing the loop. I used a knitting needle and stuck that through the loop. Here my stitch is on the hook and the loop is on the needle above it.

 place the stitch you just made onto a needle or something to keep it and don't loose the loop sticking out.

 Now your next stitch you want to drop just 1 more stitch down from where you are

 Here my hook is through my stitch and the bar above it that I just dropped

 And hook the loop

 Pull both the loop and the bar through the stitch on the hook.

Transfer the stitch you just made to your needle. You now have 2 stitches that are 2 strands thick on the needle

 Now just work your way back up to the top knitting with the bars from the stitches you just dropped and treating the 2 strand stitches as though they were just one strand thick.

Personally I prefer to work with my needles. I knit my 2 stitches, transfer them back to the other side needle and knit them with the next bar and repeat till I'm back at the top.

 Once you worked back up you now have fixed the hole. There is a slight thickness where you fixed it form the 2 stitches that are double thick. Also you have 1 more row on one side than the other from accidentally turning your work. But this won't really be a problem unless you do this to often. This fix disguises the problem area and closes the hole created by the short row.