Welcome to I’ll Knit (& Spin!) If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
1. continental vs english vs whatever the heck I do. I learned to knit from my grandmother and dad, and as family knowledge goes, we knit continental but I've been told it's an Eastern European style, not what is currently considered 'continental' - I hold my yarn in the left hand, but knit through the back loop and purl where you just grab the yarn as it stands rather than wrap from in front to over the needle. When I started knitting again a few years ago I basically had to teach myself how to knit continental in order to follow pattern directions, and even so I frequently reverted to the old purl style, which makes an interesting pattern when done deliberately but a little weird in a cardigan. I've finally knit enough to break the habit, but the problem is, my purl stitches are impossible to keep nice tension in. No matter how hard I try I basically row out every time, and it looks terrible, as well as destroying my overall gauge. I can knit English (slowly and only if I'm forced to for colorwork) but I don't know that switching to English is the solution. I just frogged an entire fingering weight sweater body because the gauge was close in a 4 inch measurement, but the stretch was like 12 inches too much when taken overall. I'm swatching again, and in frustration I switched back to my old style, and magically that swatch looks like a million bucks, lovely even stitches, nice amount of bounce, a fabric I'd like to wear and show off. So FINALLY to my questions - am I the only one? Are there other knitters in this style? Am I a secret third thing? I'm wondering if it's worth reverse engineering every stitch increase/decrease/lace effect in order to use my own personal style of knitting.
2. Hi! I love these weekly chats! In past episodes you have talked about how you block your hats on a balloon. Could you tell us more about how you do that? I tried to block my challenge Traveler Hat on a balloon and failed miserably. I usually block hats flat but thought, with its shaping, this one would like a balloon better. Unfortunately, when I tried to put the wet, floppy hat over the inflated balloon it didn't go well. It slid everywhere and I couldn't get it straight. Maybe I blew the balloon up too big? I ended up blocking the hat flat, and that was fine, but I think it would have been more crisp in 3D. Do you inflate the balloon to a certain circumference? How do you wrangle the wet hat? Would love to know any tips or tricks.
3. I have knitted quite a number of your patterns and they are always so easy to follow and fit me so well. However … I’ve been knitting the Brume in a Sport held with Mohair, which is a gorgeous drapey fabric, and I’ve finished the body and one sleeve. My problem is that the neck is waaay tighter than your pattern shows and I’m not sure I’ll be able to stand it that close to my skin. I must confess I didn’t cast on with your twisted German cast on as I just could NOT figure out how to do it, So I did a long tail cast on instead hoping it would be loose enough as I realised it would need to be for the neckline to be wide ,, but, sadly it’s not. So my question is do you think blocking and streeeetching it will do the trick, or do I need to rip it back from the top and down past where it has been caught for the double over.
4. I've been knitting with a single ply wool sport weight yarn lately. I was wondering if it's possible for me to spin 2 ply's together with a drop spindle to create a heavier weight yarn?
5. I'm wondering if you have any advice on how I translate changes in my swatch pre- and post-blocking to how the actual larger garment will change. I'm using a superwash wool yarn and it grew a full 3/4 of an inch in the swatch. Will my garment also grow 3/4 of an inch or should I expect more growth based on the weight of an entire sweater? Is there something else I need to consider or think about?
