Oolong knits

Revised on 29/01/2018 . Two very good tutorial videos on "standard" short-rows, i.e. the wrap-and-turn method. The first is for when hiding the wraps on the knit side: The second is for when hiding the wraps on the purl side: The above videos are on the wrap-and-turn technique. However I highly recommend using the German short-row method instead. They look very good and are easier to execute and memorise. Here is a nice video on out to do it. It is kind of long but it explains how to replace German short-rows when following a pattern with wrap-and-turn instructions (almost 100% of patterns) and how to incorporate them in sock heels. Quick tip for GSR: turn, slip stitch with yarn in front, bring yarn to back over the needle. Last but not the least, both of the above assume you are working stockinette stitch. For garter stitch , I recommend a completely different technique which is even easier that German short-rows and looks great: use the wrap-and...

The duplicate stitch is a very useful technique, and not only for decoration. You can use it to reinforce a small corner of a pattern, to correct (or better said to hide) small mistakes, and also to reinforce certain areas like elbows of sweaters or toes and heels of socks before they grow a hole. All of this in stockinette stitch, if you have a different stitch then the duplicate stitch is not appropriate.

Often you'd like to have identical looking cast-on and bind-off, for example if you're knitting a scarf. If you're a perfectionist and nothing else will satisfy you, here is a neat trick that will give you perfect results always. Cast-on using provisional cast-on , knit the piece as required, bind-off when done, then undo the provisional cast-on and use the same bind-off on this side. It is a little extra work that pays.

A really good pair of videos I recommend for two techniques that are very useful when knitting lace: elastic cast-on strechy bind-off On the other hand, if you need an extra stretchy bind-off on a hat brim or sock cuff, the Russian bind-off is a better option. Another, more decorative option is the Icelandic Bind-Off .

I've just finished my first cardigan. It is a slightly adapted version of the very popular pattern Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane . I've changed the number of stitches in order to be able to close it all the way in front with extra buttons and buttonholes. A more traditional look and a warmer option, don't forget I live in the north of England. I've also used two colours instead of a single one. I'm really happy with the results. This is not only my first cardigan, it is also the first time I've used waist shaping and I'm really impressed with the result. I'm quite flat at the waist, so I naively thought that the waist shaping would look bad on me. It is quite the contrary, the flatter you are the more important the shaping is. The whole idea is to fool the eye, not to reproduce your shape. After I finished this project, I got an email from Rowan advertising their Options knit-along. This is a cardigan/sweater pattern by Amy Herzog . The videos,...

Just yesterday I had a big argument with my love on ethics. And it wasn't even the first time. A lapsed catholic, brought up in a very religious family, my dear one is, as should be expected, strongly on the side of Kant, and his categoric imperative. I, on the other hand, was brought up in a catholic country, but was never one, neither was the education I received from my parents. In addition, my parents had very different, and often incompatible moral perspectives, which compelled me, from an early age, to develop my own set of beliefs. Not necessarily the ones that were offered to me by the catholic tradition of those around me, but not necessarily against it either. In doing so, in attempting my lonely way into ethics, albeit strongly influenced by the ideas I was familiar with, I become necessarily a consequentialist, with a good mix of judeo-christian, and Kantian humanistic tradition. Strangely enough, starting from very different directions, my beloved and I arrived exac...

I know how to knit in a few ways and I use all of them regularly. I can do the knit stitch using German and Portuguese styles, but also Portuguese Reverse. What I mean by the latter is knitting Portuguese style from right to left. I can also purl Portuguese, Norwegian and German style, but I avoid the latter like the plague, because I really never managed to get the hang of it. Why have I bothered to learn all of these different techniques, you ask? Well... even though I must confess I love learning new stuff, that is not the main reason. There are two better reasons to learn to knit in more than one style, and these are speed and even tension . As for speed I decided to do a few test and check. Here are my personal results (per 100st): 4:20    purl pt (pt=Portuguese) 6:10    knit pt 6:00    knit reverse pt 5:50    knit de (de=Deutch=German) I haven't compared the speeds of other purl techniques because they're obviously much,...

Lately I've been obsessed with shapes. No surprise there, I'm kind of a math geek, and shapes are the way that math and knitting get together and have a good time. The most trivial non-trivial topology is the Möbius strip and we've already learned how to knit those . You can take the connection between knitting and mathematics much, much further , but, if you're only beginning, like me, there is a lot to be said about trivial shapes. The easiest way to knit a triangle is to knit a half square or rectangle. The idea is to start with a certain number of stitches and as you go along keep on doing a regular amount of decreases. Or, if you prefer, you can do it the other way: start with only a few stitches and as you go along keep increasing the stitches regularly. Here is an example to make it more definite: Cast-on 3 stitches. Row 1: knit one, increase one (make one, or any other increase you prefer) and knit to the end of the row Keep repeating row 1 until you...

I've done a post on circles before , or was it two ? I really like understanding how things are done. So I'm fascinated by the problem of how to get a particular shape and why a certain sequence of increases and decreases accomplishes it. Recently I've spent (or shall I say wasted?) quite some time trying to determine how to get a crescent shape all on my own. Eventually I was clever enough (I'm trying to think positive, but the truth is I was stupid enough to spend many hours thinking and knitting before I realized that...) to realize that I needed to check out some patterns done by others. It is faster and less error prone. So I went to Ravelry and used their great search engine to look at other people's work. Here are some of my results. There are many ways of getting a crescent shape, as you can imagine. The simplest one is: Cast-on 7 stitches Row 1: k3, I1, I1, I1, k3 (10 stitches) Even rows: k3, I1, purl every stitch except the last few ones, I1, k3 ...

If you've read my previous post on Portuguese-style knitting , you'll know I knit Portuguese because I find it easier and faster than either German or English-style knitting. You don't need to speak Portuguese to knit Portuguese-style, on the contrary, this style is used in many other countries where people do not speak Portuguese, like Egipt, Greece, and certain Eastern European  and South American countries. It is almost sure that it did not originate in Portugal either, so the its name is a misnomer (just like German and English-style knitting, which also most surely did not originate in these countries and most definitely are not exclusive to them). Still, I personally find it useful to keep a dictionary of Portuguese-English knitting words and this is the reason for this post. 1 stitch=1 malha row=carreira purl stitch=ponto liga, tricot knit stitch=ponto meia stockinette stitch=ponto meia, malha, jersey (this is confusing but in Portugal the knit and stockin...

Have you ever had your yarn ball rolling over to the other side of the room while you're happily sat on your favourite chair knitting away? Oh! and the mess you find after you've got up and picked it up. All covered in dust and lint picked on its travel through the floor (unless you vacuum-clean often, of course). Many knitters have thought of solutions to travelling balls. Here are a few I know of: The cheapest, easiest and most versatile method: use one of those plastic bags that have a seal. Close the seal half-way leaving a hole that allows the thread to go through easily but keeps the ball inside. No rolling and no dirt either. Very nice if you take your knitting with you. Also, if you're doing colour work, you don't need one bag for each ball. Keep balls in one bag, and seal the middle area, leaving two holes on each side (you can also make it work with more holes). This will keep the yarn disentangled. You can also poke some holes in the plastic bag if it...

The short version of this post: The difference between Addi and KnitPro is relatively small, so you'll be happy with which ever you buy. I personally prefer Addi Lace. KnitPro Synfonie and Nova being second best, in my opinion. Do not buy KnitPro cubics. Basic Addi have rounded tips that make knitting (knit and purl) easier and faster, but knitting lace (making increases and decreases) a lot more difficult. So I do not recommend them (even though I use these needle the most often), because sharper tips are simply more versatile. Metal vs. wood or bamboo: metal has less friction, thus knitting with this is faster and more pleasant. But, for the same reason, stitches are more prone to drop off metal needles. I'd recommend wood for beginners, metal for more experienced knitters. Metal needles are less prone to breaking. Long story told short, I own both a set of Knit Pro interchangeable Symfonie wood needles and the Basic set of Addi interchangeable metal needles. I also...

Whether you like his writings or not, Montaigne is undoubtedly the father of bloggers. Yep, it's a fact, the guy was writing whatever thoughts came to his head as early as the 16th century, long before the web and hence the weblog were invented. The reason I love and admire Montaigne so much is easy to explain and I'll use his own words to do it. This is the guy who wrote: If I come across difficult passages in my reading I never bite my nails over them: after making a charge or two I let them be. [...] What I fail to see during my original charge I see even less when I stubborn it out. In other words, he readily admits that if something is not simple enough to be understood at first reading, then he is too dumb to understand it... And in the same way, you'll find, when reading Montaigne, that you'll never need to read a passage twice. Everything is told in a straightforward, simple way... even if not everything he says is straightforward or simple... This is what ...

There are essentially two types of knitters (or if you prefer two ways any knitter can choose to knit): the creative knitter and the pattern knitter. The pattern knitter: follows patterns to the letter,  uses swatches in order to "get gauge", that is, to choose the needles to use in order to obtain the gauge that is recommended in the pattern, and hence the correct size of the knitted object. The creative knitter: prefers to create his/her own patterns,  may use written patterns to get inspired or learn, but won't follow them to the letter,  will use swatches in order to obtain gauge and be able to calculate how many stitches to work in order to obtain the desired size.  For the pattern knitter, pattern books and leaflets, together with the Internet, are enough. There is no need to buy a reference book because when a new technique shows up on a pattern, all the pattern knitter needs to do is to google it or look it up on YouTube in order to find a good h...

Note: this post is an errata to the post 4 stitches . Before I wrote the aforementioned post, I had spent some time playing with needles and yarn, and I had convinced myself that there are only 4 stitches. But then, I bought a very nice reference book, that I highly recommend, "The principles of knitting" by June Hemmons Hiatt, an amazing tour-de-force of a book, that teaches almost everything there is to know about knitting (and when I say almost, I'm not giving the book enough credit, it is quite a challenge to find a technique that is not explained in it). I actually wouldn't need such a complete book to find out that I was wrong, but the thing is Hiatt doesn't just explain the how's, she also explains the why's. So her book is amazing in helping the reader make sense of things. In this case, it helped me realize that what I previously thought were two different ways of doing the same, namely making a twisted stitch, are actually ways of getting two d...

Elizabeth Zimmermann is like a goddess in the knitting world. You should know that the main reason for this is that she appeared on American TV at a time when there were not many TV channels and everyone watched the same programs. So that pretty much means everyone who appeared on TV at the time has made history (you can say she is to knitting, what Julia Child is to cooking). Nowadays, if you show up on TV, you only get to be famous for 15 minutes, how unfair... That said, I don't want to minimize how brilliant and worthy of her reputation she is. Her philosophy was that knitting was simple enough ("Knitting without tears", the title of her most famous book, sums it up) and there are (almost) no set rules. Every knitter should be free to go along, improvising and adapting methods and instructions, as better suits him. She was an amazingly bright woman, who discovered (or rediscovered) methods and techniques to simplify knitting, promoted knitting in the round taking ...

Moebius cowls are a classic. I'm having a try at my first one right now. I do apologize for the awful picture... You can't even see it is a Moebius! You'll just have to trust me. There are a few ways to do them. Vertical : Start with a provisional cast-on and the number of stitches that correspond to the desire width. Knit to the desired length with a reversible stitch (the right and wrong side must be identical). Finish off by joining the first and last rows using Kitchener stitch. The trick here is that before you join the two rows, you twist them, so that the right side is joined with the wrong side, making a Moebius strip. Horizontal (in the round): Cast-on using Cat Bordhi's Moebius cast-on. Knit to the desired width with a reversible stitch. Bind-off as usual. I'm using the horizontal method, and this very simple, beautiful pattern: Posie Moebius. Here is what you should be aware when using the Moebius cast-on. A Moebius strip has a ...

On my previous post I've talked about pooling, an effect that can occur when using variegated yarn. In this post I'm going to talk about a completely different problem that can occur when using hand-made variegated yarns. I'll call it inconsistent colouring , and I've come across it recently while knitting the sweater I've mentioned in my previous post, as a justification to write about knitting-unrelated subjects. After working on this sweater for months, I've frogged it . I admit it, this was traumatic experience. The reason I've frogged it was that when I was close to finishing the sweater I realized I had areas of different colour and I didn't like the overall effect. So this post is a warning if you're planning on doing something with this type of yarns. Some hand-made variegated yarn is only suitable for small projects (or colour knitting) that require a few skeins, but not projects, like a man's sweater that may require as much as 8 or...

Colour pooling can occur when using variegated yarns. This is usually an undesired effect, which occurs when the colours instead of being distributed in a pleasing even way, end up blotched together, resulting in an unattractive pattern in the final project. However, Karla Stuebing realized that in many industrial variegated yarns the colour distribution is completely regular. This allows to make what she calls planned pooling , which means using this regularity to plan beautiful pooling effects. For lovers of geometric colour patterns, like myself, I recommend reading Karla Stuebing's really good tutorial. If you go along and give it a try, you'll probably find this planned pooling calculator very helpful. Note: on the paragraph on Argyle socks, Karla mentions a technique called sliding loop join in Intarsia, I think she is referring to the technique explained in this tutorial . She also mentions a planned pooling group in Ravelry which I believe to be this one , che...

Note: This post is not entirely correct. In fact there are 4 types of twisted stitches, not just 2, because you can either twist a stitch to the right or the left before purling or knitting it. I've written an errata to this post that explains it in more detail. There are only 4 stitches you can knit: (1) knit , (2) purl , (3) knit through the back loop and (4) purl through the back loop . Stitches worked through the back loop are twisted . These correspond to the 4 ways you can place a needle: from the back or front and from the left or right. From back to front you purl, from front to back you knit, more precisely: (1) from the front and left, you make a knit stitch, (2) from the back and right you make a purl stitch, (3) from the front and right, a knit through the back loop, (3) from the back and left, a purl through the back loop. You may think that you can also wrap the yarn around the needle in two different directions, but doing that actually does not affect the st...

Oh oh... I must apologize, I don't know how I published this post with some many typos, wrong punctuation and all other sorts of grammar mistakes. It is so confusing that in more than one passage I seem to be saying exactly the opposite of what I intended. Unfortunately I'm too busy right now to rewrite it. I think I need to completely rephrase several paragraphs and that is going to need more time than I have now. I was reading this very interesting essay by Eva Illouz which I'd mentioned in my previous post about Grey and it suggested to me a point that is not mentioned in the essay but that I think is very important when discussing the modern/feminist approach to women's sexuality and sexual role. When discussing the contradictions that are obvious in the aforementioned books between the apparent anti-feminist dichotomy of woman as submissive-man as dominant, woman as dependent-man as provider, and the many aspects of the novel that are indeed feminist, that I w...

When I first read Fifty Shades, the thing that most struck me about the book was not the sex, I'm not easily shocked, but the fact that its author is a woman who is very evidently oppressed by her role of carer: as a wife, a mother, and (I presume) also in her profession. Despite the achievements of feminism, it is still true that both in the private sphere of the family and in the public sphere of their profession, women are expected to take the role of carers. They are more often teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, personal assistants, and any other profession that involves taking care of others. They are also the one's responsible for the great part of their children care, the house chores, the care of the elderly, and even their 'eternally young' (to be read as privileged immature, why grow up when you don't have to?) husbands. This is many times a secret that many of us carry with a certain shame (as we perceive ourselves as traitors to our feminist be...

In a previous post I've mentioned that one of the reasons I've learned to knit so late in life is that I didn't know anyone who knitted. Actually, I still don't and that is also the reason I've learned it through the internet. I was thinking about the reasons for this decline on the number of people who do, despite the claims that it is now fashionable. Which is true but only up to a certain point, knitters are still a very small tribe, no matter how many of them claim to be legion. On my own I found a few reasons for this. 1. Technological progress aka. time and money With the development of more and more efficient knitting machines, there is no longer a justification to spend so much time and money on something you can simply buy. The fact that knitting takes time is evident. The fact that it is expensive is not so obvious, but it is still true. Take the example of the sweater I'm knitting right now, I've spent more money on the yarn alone than I...

EL James following Kant. You cannot accuse me of being highbrow after this one. I'll start with an introduction to my experience of the 50 shades sequence. Some years ago, probably before you ever heard of James' books (unless you were an early reader), I was interested in BDSM books for a very simple reason: I think that novels are often a better way to understand human psychology than psychology treatises. Why BDSM? because it is so foreign to my experience that I could not even begin to phantom the reasons people might be into it. My curiosity was aroused by Sacher-Masoch's "Venus in Furs",  which I'd read because I wanted to know what was so influential about it that it generated the word masochism (and it still surprises me that we didn't have a word for it until so recently!). So I'd started reading, but did not finish because I'd got really bored with it, Ann Rice's Sleeping Beauty. I'd also began reading "The story of O...

While I'm at it. I just want to add the following to my previous post .  Why are the media and our society so worried about the consequences of mother's working on children's welfare? Isn't it more than obvious that, in our society, it is the fact that most fathers do not feel more responsibility for their children's upbringing that is causing the greater damage on children? Why are we not talking about this instead then? What justifies the attention given to the responsibilities of motherhood in place of those of fatherhood? Why so much pressure is put on women, making them feel guilty about not being better mums, dedicating more time to their children, sacrificing their lives and careers to them? Why none on men? I repeat children need their father too.

This is about this article Not every woman deserves equal pay By Amanda Platell for The Daily Mail (I know, I know it's the Mail, but let's get beyond petty arguments and to what is really important). The point of this article is that equal pay is a lost cause, because when a woman has children, she must take a break from her always-upward career path and that just means she will necessarily damage her next chance for promotion and consequently the rest of her career. Platell goes on to say that In fact, research shows that female graduates and full-time working women in their 30s actually earn more than men — until they have children. I wonder about this research. What country, what sample? But let us suppose this is true. Then, she says: But the uncomfortable truth is that there is a very good reason for the gender pay gap that no amount of social engineering will change. As I have witnessed throughout my 35-year career, women are predominantly the ones to step...