I've finished knitting a thing. It's a big thing. 110cm (43") square, to be precise. You're looking at 123 500 stitches which, it's fair to say, took a good while to complete. It's made of Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift, and it weighs in at 500 grams. That's a kilometre of yarn. It was knitted in the round with a steek, which I then cut. (Steeks aren't as scary as folk think, I promise. Here's a quick how-to.) I used 3mm needles for the stranded work, then 2.5mm needles for the Continue Reading
“That” Project
Let's talk about that project. That half-finished, half-loved-half-hated one you shoved in a bag somewhere, that only occasionally shows its face to remind you that you still haven't figured out where you went wrong in the pattern repeats, or been able to face another nine inches of seed stitch in lace-weight silk. Every knitter/crocheter, I'll wager, has a project like this. If you can't think of one, it's probably because your version of this project has tortured you so badly that you've Continue Reading
Tutorial: How To Steek
Steeking (aka setting your knitting up to be cut, in order to turn a knitted-in-the-round piece into a flat piece, for example to open up the front of a cardigan) tends to scare otherwise bold and courageous people. It feels vaguely wrong to take a pair of scissors to your knitting.Really, it shouldn't. Honestly. It used to scare me, until I tried it a few times, at which point I thought, "Is that all?" The secret is this: *whispers* Knitting doesn't especially mind being cut vertically. (Cut Continue Reading
Cutting a steek, and blocking your knitting
(I know, I promised part two of previous post. But a stinking cold has interfered. It's coming.) So, the knitted blog header is knitted. Just need to crochet some flowers for its edge. I thought I'd share a few photos of the knitting/steeking/blocking process with you, though, because not so very long ago words such as 'steek' terrified me, and words such as 'blocking' confused me, and I want to prove to anyone similarly anxious that like pretty much anything in knitting, it's not actually Continue Reading