Double Increases

It has been a busy couple of weeks.  Starting an organization from the ground up takes a lot of work.  We have a great board and we have divided up the necessary tasks.  Christina and Mary Beth have great business skills. It looks like our non-profit status will come through by the beginning of next month.  That will be a relief as we can start fund raising.  Our main expense is going to be a website and computer system that actually works.  Anyone who has tried to navigate TKGA.com will tell you that this is much needed.  I'm working on the next issue of Cast On.  The first issue will have to be small due to the financial realities.  Designers do expect to be paid so I imagine we will have mostly "donated" designs.  I've got several in mind.  The good news is that we can make the organization what it should be -- for serious knitters, by serious knitters.

STUDENT NEWS
I've had more lessons to review that I expected.  Summer is generally a slow time.  Again, nothing is going to change for the correspondence courses.  I like to remind my students that I do not enforce a time limit but this is NOT the case for the other courses.  The deadline is a year.  

TIP OF THE WEEK
I used double increases for the skirt part of the dress I just finished (see below) and I started to think of the ways to work double increases.  Also whenever I teach eyelet/yarnover buttonholes, dealing with a double yarnover always causes problems.  I decided to group them all together.  

Double yarnovers can be used to create a double increase.  The problem will be that there will be a hole but depending on the project, this might be just fine.

This photo shows three ways of dealing with double yarnovers.



The first step in working any of these double increases is to make a double yarnover.  You don't have to decide what to do until the next row.  The examples assume you are working flat so if you make the yarnovers on a RS, you will work them on a WS row.  Most instructions for the bottom one state to knit into the first yarnover and then into the back of the next yarnover.  I've seen lots of variation on this one.  Sometimes you knit the first stitch and then purl the next.  It really doesn't matter, the results are similar.

This increase is used in the Monkey Socks by Cookie A.  (Some of you may remember when this pattern appeared in Knitty.  I really didn't like the way the double yarnover looked so I did a variation, the one at the top of the swatch.

The next two show a variation where you treat the yarnovers like you would the horizontal strand between two stitches when you make an M1 increase.  You can have them all slant int the same direction or you can mirror them as shown in the photograph.  The video shows the difference when working them.  The hole is smaller with those methods.

This type of double increase works well when you have an even number of stitches as you are making them between stitches.  The next technique works better when you have an odd number of stitches as the increases are on either side of a stitch.



The one labeled A is a central double increase.  I've seen this used in lace patterns.  The instructions for this one are a bit confusing.  You knit into the back of the stitch, then into the front of the stitch, and then you find the vertical strand running up to these two stitches and you lift it onto your needle and then into the back of it.  The videos shows this one, if that sounds confusing.  It does produce a nice increase, sort of the reverse of the central double decrease.

The one labeled B is created by working a right slanting lifted increase on one side of the stitch and a left slanting increase on the other side of the stitch after you've worked the stitch itself.  It does leave a bit of a hole.

The ones labeled C and D use mirrored M1 increases on either side of a central stitch.  If you look close you can see that they are slightly different, depending on the order of M1L and M1R increases.

Here is the video:  Double Increases

KNITTING SALON
Salon will be on Sunday from 1:30-3:20.  See you then!

CURRENT PROJECTS
Yes, I finished it.  It hasn't be blocked yet.  I'm waiting for a day without rain in the forecast.  I can't say this was fun to knit but I am looking forward to wearing it.  Yes, this is for me and No, I am not writing a pattern for it.  

I'm enjoying having time to knit for myself again.  I know I will be doing lots for the winter issue as I know I am cheap, as in free, until our financial situation is more on track,