knitting Archives - Page 15 of 18

luule

Luule means “poetry” in Estonian. The Luule stole was designed for and dedicated to my mother, because she wanted to knit pretty lace. The delicate lace is based on traditional Estonian stitch patterns, knit on both right and wrong sides of the fabric and include nupps. Instructions for both traditional and easy nupps are included.

This shawl begins with a provisional cast on followed by a lovely leaf lace edging and border. After the provisional cast on has been undone, the center is filled with diamond lace. The top edge mirrors the bottom. The instructions for the shawl are provided both fully charted and written out.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.50)

€

Size and finished measurements

One size – finished dimensions: 58 cm (23 inches) wide and 180 cm (71 inches) long, measured after blocking.

Difficulty

This stole starts with a provisional cast on and contains lace patterning on both right and wrong sides of the fabric. Stitches used include knit, purl, k2tog, k3tog, skp, yo, p2tog, a centered double decrease (sl2-k1-p2sso), Estonian 3 into 3 gathered stitches and nupps.
This pattern is suitable for the advanced knitter.

Pattern details

Worked flat back and forth.
For the sample shawl measured after blocking: 19.2 sts / 24 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over the body in Diamonds pattern. Gauge is however not critical for this design, the lace will open up after blocking.
Pattern languages included: English and Dutch (Dit patroon omvat zowel een Nederlandse als een Engelse versie).
Digital PDF has 4 pages (letter size).

Materials

Yarn: 800 m (875 yds) Garnstudio Drops Lace [70% alpaca, 30% silk; 400 m (438 yds) per 50 g]. Substitute any lace weight yarn of comparable thickness for a similar result
Knitting needles in your preferred style in size 3.5 mm (US 4).
Yarn needle
Waste yarn for provisional cast on
11 stitch markers (optional)
Crochet hook in a size equivalent to the size of your knitting needles (optional, for easy nupps)

luule Read More »

tutorial: knitting rick-rack rib

To finish a sweater, ribbing is obviously the preferred choice: its fabric does not roll and it gives quite an elastic finishing. Sometimes, however, I find knitting yet another 2×2 rib or variant thereof just so… boring. For giving your project that tiny bit of “je ne se quoi” instead of regular ribbing, try the rick-rack rib.

The nice zig-zag texture that is so characteristic of this stitch is obtained by the knitting the stitches in a different order than they appear on the needle. In this post, I’ll show you how to knit this variation on regular ribbing when knitting it flat. Pointers on how to knit this stitch in the round can be found in this tutorial.

Rick-rack rib worked flat is knitted as a multiple of 3 + 1 stitches. For this example, I have cast on 19 stitches.

In short, the instructions for this stitch worked flat consist of the following 2 rows:

Row 1 (RS): Purl 1, *skip the first stitch, knit in the back loop of the second stitch (do not slip this stitch off the needle), knit into the front loop of the first stitch and now slip both knitted stitches of the needle, purl 1; repeat from * to end of the row.

Row 2 (WS): Knit 1, *skip the first stitch, purl the second stitch (do not slip stitch of the needle), purl the first stitch and now slip both knitted stitches from the needle, knit 1; repeat from * to end of the row.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 to the desired height.

Knitting rick-rack rib flat step by step

Row 1
1. Purl 1 stitch.

2. Skip the first stitch and knit the second stitch on the needle in the back loop. Do not slip this stitch off the left-hand needle just yet!

3. Knit into the front loop of the first stitch that you skipped in step 2. Then slip both knitted stitches from the needle.

4. Purl 1 stitch.

5. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to the end of the needle.

Row 2
6. Knit 1 stitch.

7. Skip the first stitch and purl the second stitch on the left-hand needle. Do not slip this stitch off the needle just yet!

8. Purl the first stitch that you skipped in step 7. Then slip both knitted stitches from the needle.

9. Knit 1 stitch.

10. Repeat steps 7 to 9 to the end of the row.

On the right side of the work, it will look something like this:

And this is how it looks on the back:

In case your project ends with rick-rack rib, you can bind-off after row 2 by binding off in purl 1, knit 2 pattern.

tutorial: knitting rick-rack rib Read More »

tutorial: knitted-on border – turning the corner

Knitting on borders, around the corner - a tutorial by La Visch Designs

In an earlier blog post, I’ve already shown how to apply an edging to your project. In this post, I will focus on how to turn your border around the corner.

The special feature of knitting on borders is that such a border is knit perpendicular to the body of the project. The stitches of the border are connected to those of the main body by knitting or purling them together. This is not only very decorative, but also a highly elastic finish of a project. Much more elastic than with a regular cast off!

Last time I have shown you the basics of how an applied border is worked. In this post, I want to show you how to apply such an edging around a corner.

To “turn the corner” you need a slightly different approach than with the rest of the border. And what, exactly, depends on how wide your knitted-on edging is. You can probably imagine that going around the corner is similar to driving a car in a race: the inner corner of the race track gives a shorter distance to cover than the outer corner.

If you don’t take this difference into account somehow, the fabric will pull at the corner and deform in a way that really can’t be fixed by blocking your project. The wider the edging, the more important it is, therefore, to plan in advance on how to approach the corners in your work.

When you knit on an edging, you work 2 border rows for each stitch of the body of the project. This makes the solution is actually quite obvious: Make sure to knit more than two rows for each body stitch to give the fabric more slack! This is in that respect, very much like knitting a variant of short rows.

For a relatively narrow edging of about 5 to 9 stitches wide, it is usually sufficient to add 2 additional times of knitting back and forth at the corner point. For wider edges, more rows are, of course, needed. In this example, the edging varies between 10 and 15 stitches wide. Therefore I will be adding a total of 3 additional times knitting back and forth at the corner.

The border pattern used in this example is the “traditional scalloped lace” border. It can found on page 81 of the book “The magic of Shetland Lace Knitting”, written by Elizabeth Lovick.

Knitting around the corner step by step

1. Mark the 3 stitches at the corner of the body of your work. Knit the edging as shown in the previous blog up to the first marked stitch.

2. Now work according to the description given in the pattern for the next row that is knit from the outside of the edging going inwards, up to 1 st before the end of the row. Knit the last stitch of the row together with the first next stitch of the body as usual.

3. Turn the work and slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and work the next row of the border pattern as usual.

4. Now work next row according to the description given in the border pattern, until 1 stitch before the end of the border stitches. Now do not knit this next stitch together with the first body stitch, just knit it instead.

5. Turn work. Slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and knit the return row as usual. You now have knit 4 rows and have only used 1 stitch of the body of your project.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 twice, one time for each marked corner stitch. Doing so, you knit a total of 12 edging rows, using only 3 stitches from the body of your work. This looks something like this:

You can also see, that for each corner stitch there are 2 garter stitch ridges instead of 1.

7. After turning around the corner, continue to knit on your edging in the usual way with2 rows from the edging for each stitch of the body of the work.

And that is really all there is to it!

tutorial: knitted-on border – turning the corner Read More »

tutorial: knitted-on border

In many patterns, it is common to first knit the body of the piece followed by a lace border that is knit perpendicular to the edge of the body. Such a knitted-on border is sometimes also called an applied border. You can see this for example in the traditional Shetland shawls, but also in patterns for knitted blankets. It is also a lovely way to give the hem or cuffs of a sweater a beautiful finish.

The beauty of the knitted-on border is that it is not only very decorative but also very elastic. With a regular cast-of, the bound of edge is the limiting factor in how far you can block out your work. And as you know, lace is at its best when the patterning is opened up. When knitting on a border you won’t have a problem with a tight-ish cast-of, because there is, in fact, no cast-of!

The starting point of such a knitted edge is that the stitches of the border are knitted perpendicular to the work. The stitches of the border are connected to those of the main body by knitting or purling them together. If you knit (or purl) through the back loop, you get a more solid connection. Depending on the type of project, for example, a lacy scarf vs. a sweater, you can choose the one you prefer.

In this post, I’ll show you how to knit on an edge to your work.

E-course on working an applied border
Of course, there is much more to learn and tell about working an applied border. More than I can put in this post! For that reason, I want to create a simple online course teaching the basics on applied borders for approx. € 25. If you’d be interested in such a course, enter your info below and I’ll notify you when it launches!

The form you have selected does not exist.

In the example in this post, I knitted a swatch in white. On this, I will knit a border in a contrasting color. If you want to make the border the same color as the main part of your project, you can, of course, continue to use the same yarn instead of attaching new yarn.

The border pattern used in this example is the “traditional scalloped lace” border that can found on page 81 of the book “The magic of Shetland Lace Knitting”. It’s written by Elizabeth Lovick.

Working a knitted-on border step by step

1. Start by casting on the number of stitches you need for your border, on the same needle that holds the body stitches of your project. I used the knitted-on cast-on.

2. Now work according to the description given in the border pattern for the first row that you knit from the outside of the piece inwards, until 1 st before the end of the border stitches. Then knit the last border stitch together with the first body stitch.

3. Turn the work. Next, slip the stitch just worked purl-wise with the yarn in front of the right-hand needle. We do this to make sure that the connection is as flat as possible. Then move the yarn to the back of the work and work the next row of the border pattern. This row is knit outwards from the body.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all stitches are worked. For every body stitch, you basically knit two rows of the border.

On the right side of the work it will look something like this:

And this is the result on the wrong side of the work:

In part 2 of “Working a knitted-on border” I show you how to turn the border around a corner.

tutorial: knitted-on border Read More »

tutorial: a two-color cast-on

Perhaps you have seen them, those beautiful patterns by Nancy Marchant or Stephen West. Both designers often use two-color knitting in the brioche technique.

To be able to start such a two-color project, you would of course need a two-color cast-on. The “two-color brioche cast-on”, also known as the “two-color Italian cast-on” is of course an obvious choice. However, this particular cast-on method fights me all the way!

Fortunately, I also found another two-color cast-on method, which gives an elastic result. This method is for me a lot easier to use. In this post I will show you how this alternative two-color cast-on technique is done.

Two-color cast-on step-by-step

1. Start by making a slipknot holding both colors of yarn together to make the first stitch on the needle. Make sure you leave about 15 cm (6 inch) of yarn at the beginning, shorter lengths I find a bit tricky to weave in correctly.

2. Place the tip of the right needle between the two loops on the needle, make a yarn over with color 1 and pull up a loop.

3. Put this loop twisted on the left hand needle.

4. Now place the tip of the right needle between the front two stitches on the left hand needle, make a yarn over with color 2 and again pull up a loop.

5. Again put this loop twisted on the left hand needle.

Repeat steps 2 to 5, alternating the two colors, until the required number of stitches has been cast-on. The slipknot that you started with, can now be dropped. This way you avoid a very noticeable knot in your work.

Now you are ready to start your two-colored knitting project!

This cast-on is not only useful for brioche projects. It also lends itself very nicely for starting double-knitting projects. I also sometimes use it just to have a nice two-tone edge to my project, because I find it very decorative on its own.

tutorial: a two-color cast-on Read More »

Linea

Linea is an airy lace shawl with a simple and appealing play on lines and differences in lacy texture. Using mainly yarn overs and right- and left-leaning decreases, Linea looks much more complex than it actually is to knit. The perfect choice for a first lace shawl project!

This shawl is knitted from the top-down in one piece, starting at the neck edge with a garter tab. The instructions for the body and the border of the shawl are provided both fully charted and written out.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.50)

€

Size and finished measurements

Finished dimensions of the sample shawl: span width of 180 cm (71 inches) and a depth of 73 cm (29 inches), measured after blocking.

Difficulty

This shawl is started with a garter stitch tab. Stitches used include knit, purl, skp, k2tog, yo and a centered double decrease. This pattern is suitable for the intermediate knitter.

Pattern details

Worked flat back and forth.
Gauge is not critical in this design. For the sample shawl measured after blocking: 14 sts / 24 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over body pattern.
Pattern languages included: English and Dutch (Dit patroon omvat zowel een Nederlandse als een Engelse versie).
Digital PDF has 4 pages for the English version and 5 pages for the Dutch version (A4 size).

Materials

Yarn: 398 m (436 yds) Regia Silk 4-ply / 4 fädig (Uni / Solid) [55% Merino, 25% Nylon, 20% Silk; 199 m (218 yds) per 50 g skein]. Substitute any fingering weight yarn for a similar result.
Size 4.5 mm (US 7) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles.
Yarn needle
1 stitch marker to indicate the center stitch
18 stitch markers (optional)

Linea Read More »

tutorial: Russian bind-off on the purl side

In a previous post I have shown you my favorite method of binding off: The Russian bind-off method. This is a very elegant way to bind-off your knitting project to get a very elastic edge on your piece. This is often important to me, because I knit a lot of lace shawls. Knitted lace usually shows its beauty best when it has been gently washed and blocked out. This is only possible if the edge has plenty of stretch.

But what if you need to cast off from the wrong side of the work? Think of a situation that you don’t have enough yarn to knit another row before binding off. In such a case, it is nice to know that you can also bind-off the Russian way on the wrong or purl side of your work!

In short instructions for a Russian bind-off on the purl side may look like this:
Russian bind-off on the WS: *P2tog, slip stitch from right-hand back to the left-hand needle; repeat from * to end.

The Russian bind-off on the purl side step-by-step

For this tutorial I have prepared a little swatch to bind off:

1. Purl the first 2 stitches together.

2. Slip the new stitch on right hand needle back to the left hand needle.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all stitches have been worked. On the wrong side of the work this will look as follows:

And on the right side of the work the Russian bind-off on the purl side will look like this:

Looking good, right?!

tutorial: Russian bind-off on the purl side Read More »

tutorial: Estonian lace knitting – nupps

Maybe you are already familiar with them: Those funny little buttons that give beautiful lace shawls texture. Take for example the beautiful Luule shawl pictured below. A nupp (rhymes with “soup”) is a characteristic of lace as traditionally knit in Estonia.

The special thing of Estonian lace knitting is that besides the openwork it also contains a lot of texture. As a result, in lace knitting in the Estonian tradition there are many stitches that you will probably encounter (almost) nowhere else.

History of lace knitting in Estonia

The tradition of knitting lace shawls in Estonia, began about 200 years ago in the city Haapsalu. From the early 18th century until about 1918 Haapsalu was a popular destination for Russian tourists. To benefit from this tourism the women of Haapsula started selling their knitted lace shawls.

The story goes that these shawls were sold by weight. And because nupps consume a lot of yarn, a pattern with many nupps increase the weight of the resulting shawl considerably. This is the reason that the characteristic Estonian lace patterns have been devised in such a way that they combine the so popular delicate appearance as well as many nupps.

In this post I want to show you how to knit nupps.

Knitting nupps step by step

Knitting nupps is actually a 2-step process: first stitches are increased and in the following wrong side row all these stitches are decreased back to 1 stitch by purling them all together.

1 . To start knit 1 stitch, leaving the original stitch on the left hand needle. Make sure to knit loosely.

2. Make a yarn over on the right hand needle.

3. Again knit 1 stitch loosely, leaving the original stitch on the left hand needle.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 once more (for a five-stitch nupp), and then slip the original stitch of the left hand needle. You know have 5 stitches where there originally only was 1. The result will look something like this:

5. For this example, I set up several nupps in the same row:

6. On the following wrong side row the nupps will be completed. The clusters of five stitches look like this from the wrong side of the fabric:

7. Insert your needle in all five stitches at the same time to purl them together. This works best if you have made the new stitches for the nupps loosely and when using sharp knitting needles.

8. Once purled together it looks like this:

And this is how it looks on the right side of the work:

When knit in a thin yarn nupps will of course look very different from the ones in the worsted weight yarn I used for this tutorial. Depending on the effect you want to achieve you can make 5-stitch, 7-stitch or even 9-stitch nupps. Just repeat steps 2 and 3 as desired.

And don’t forget:

Knit loosely.
Use sharp needles.
Use a crochet hook to purl the nupps stitches together if you have to.
Don’t sweat it if they don’t turn out the way you want at first: it is only yarn!

tutorial: Estonian lace knitting – nupps Read More »

diva

Like a true Diva, this design is glamorous and truly eye-catching with its exquisite lace border. The stockinette body lets that special skein of fingering weight yarn really shine.

Diva is a semi-circle Pi shawl worked from the top-down, started with a garter stitch tab. The lace in the border is patterned on both right side and wrong side rows. Instructions are provided both charted and written out.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.50)

€

Size and finished measurements

Finished dimensions of the sample shawl: span width of 142 cm (56 inches) and a depth of 50 cm (19 ½ inches), measured after blocking.

Difficulty

Knit this half-circle shawl from the top down, starting with a garter tab cast-on. The lace border contains patterning on both sides of the fabric. Stitches used include knit, purl, yo, M1, kfb, skp, k2tog, p2tog, p2tog tbl as well as a centered double decrease.

The pattern is therefor suitable for the intermediate to advanced knitter.

Pattern details

Worked flat back and forth
Gauge is not critical in this design. For the sample shawl: 15 sts / 12 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over stockinette, measured after blocking.
Pattern languages included: English and Dutch (Dit patroon omvat zowel een Nederlandse als een Engelse versie)
Digital PDF has 4 pages (letter size)

Materials

Yarn: 100 g / 400 m (437 yds) Diva Sock Glitter by Dutch Wool Diva [75% Merino wool, 20% nylon, 5% silver stellina]. Substitute any fingering weight yarn for a similar result. Please note that while this pattern can use more variegation in the yarn than most lace, it will be best displayed using a solid or tonal colored yarn.
Size 4 mm (US 6) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles.
Yarn needle
31 stitch markers (optional)

diva Read More »

tutorial: 3-needle bind-off

Binding off with the 3-needle bind off method is a way to bind off and connect two sets of live stitches, each on their own knitting needle. It is often used to close the shoulder seams from sweaters that are knitted bottom-up. It can for example also be used to close a cowl in the round, that has been started with a provisional cast on and knit flat.When connecting the pieces of your work with the right sides against each other, then the seam will be on the inside of your work. When placing wrong sides together, then the seam on the outside. This can be very nice as a design element because this method of binding off / closing the seam yields a very neat seam.

The 3-needle bind off step by step

1. To bind off this way, you will need two sets of stitches, each in their own knitting needle, and a third knitting needle to work with. Please note that both sets should contain the same number of stitches. Otherwise, you will have a problem with remaining stitches that cannot be cast off, because the other needle is already “empty.”

2. Hold in one hand both needles with stitches. In this example I have placed the right sides together, to get the seam on the wrong side of the work.

3. Insert the third knitting needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit as usual, then immediately after that do the same with the first stitch on the needle at the back.

4. Wrap yarn around the needle as usual …

5. … and pull it through both stitches.

6. Next slip both first stitches from the 2 left-hand needles to complete the stitch.

7. Repeat steps 3 to 6, you now have two stitches on your right-hand needle.

8. Slip the first stitch on your right-hand needle over the second stitch to bind off one stitch.

9. Repeat steps 3 to 8 until all stitches have been worked. You can now break your yarn and pull it through the last live stitch on your right-hand needle to finish.

The result will be as pictured below. On the left, you see how the seam is on the right side of the work looks and on the left how it looks on the wrong side.

tutorial: 3-needle bind-off Read More »