Oolong knits

I'm making a cardigan and I'm documenting the process in a new series. I know what you're thinking... "Didn't she start a series on making a sweater that never went beyond the first post?" I know, I know. But this time is for real. Promise. In this first post I'll discuss my design options and choices. My cardigan started, as is often the case, as yarn. A while ago I'd bought quite a good amount of Rowan Thick 'n Thin yarn in order to make a sweater. This yarn has been discontinued, but hopefully I own enough that I'll be able to finish my project. This yarn, being of the thick and thin variety, is actually quite hard to design for. Choose the right stitch and design and you'll love the result, choose anything else and you'll get a non-descriptive ugly thing. The problem is with the bad stitch definition, as I'll discuss bellow. Having chosen the yarn, I have a tentative size for my needles , the recommended one, which is 9mm...

Botanical Yoke Pullover by Purl Soho . I'm speechless, but the photo says it all. Incredibly beautiful.

Last week's post was on tight sock cuffs, it is only appropriate that this week's one is on elastic cast-ons. These are essential for knitting cuff-down socks, but they are also useful for many other projects, like, for example, the collar of top-down sweaters or the cuff of hats. This is not the first time I write on this subject, but I'm not very happy with my previous posts. So this one is going to be a lot more detailed and to the point. Here is a list of the cast-on methods I find the most relevant (other people may have other preferences): the long-tail cast-on is quite elastic and it works in most cases, but I personally find it a bit tight for sock cuffs. The recommended workaround is to use larger needles or even two needles. This post in Twist Collective explains why this may not be the best solution. However, note that the author used a separate piece of yarn for the tail and, if you use the true long-tail method, you'll find that the yarn can redistrib...

Ashland by Julie Hoover is a sweater with unusual stranded colourwork. It reminds me of barbed wire fences, but its beauty contradicts this.

A common problem with socks is that they tend to sag down the ankles. A common mistake is to believe that this is because the sock cuff is too loose and making them tighter. However, the reason for it is exactly the opposite. If a sock is too tight at the cuff, it tends to go down to the ankle where the leg is thinner. If your socks have this problem, try adding some shaping at the leg by adding extra stitches in the top region of the socks. Note: in the following I assume you're knitting "standard" mid-calf socks. Needless to say that ankle socks do not have this problem and for knee high or even longer socks shaping of the leg is always required. The general rule of sock knitting is that the foot and the leg of most people have about the same circumference. So, except for toe and heel shaping, most sock recipes create a long straight tube. Needless to say, this rule is not exactly true and the great advantage of knitting your own socks is that you can easily obtain ...

Pole Dance by Hypercycloid Designs is a free pattern for a very original and quite striking pair of socks.

I've written a post on short row heels before, but after a few experiments decided to make a more general post on the main methods for making sock heels. So here it is. Before I begin, I really like this Tess Knits post on her favourite methods to knit socks. She makes them nice and easy, which is the way I like them, and doesn't neglect to consider how to later fix holes on toes and heels. The post provides a toe-up recipe and for the heel she uses either a short row heel or the afterthought one. A disclaimer: there are an endless variety of heels out there. Some are variations of the main methods I'll include in this post, others are heels specially designed to get some specific effect. A honourable example of the latter is the Skew sock . This post does not attempt to be in any way comprehensive, on the contrary, my objective is to include only the most popular methods. Afterthought heel This is one of the most popular heels. Lately, I have heard so many people ...

Nennir by Lucy Hague is a complex Celtic cable (in a free pattern), which you can use to knit a cowl (as she suggests), or any other project you fancy.

When I'm not in a mood to knit and read simultaneously, I find garter stitch too boring. Then I like to knit something a little more evolved. For those times, I'm also knitting a pair of nice socks. I love the stitch and I love the yarn which is quite soft and has pretty, if a bit unusual, colours (the lousy out-of-focus I'm-too-lazy-to-take-another-one photo doesn't make them justice). The pattern is Salazar Slytherin by Angela Tennant, I'm not using her pattern exactly, just the stitch and a sock recipe of my choice. The yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL in colourway 589. I'm using 2.5mm needles, the only size I own for sock yarn.