Hems and Waistbands

I had a wonderful trip up to teach at the Dayton Guild.  It was my second time there.  I really enjoyed myself although it was a long day.  I've spent a lot of time uploading patterns to the Spring issue.  Is should go live early next week.  We just need to put the finishing touches on it.

STUDENT NEWS
My students let me have an easy week.  I only got two to review!  I made good use of the time.  I feel like I have been chained to my computer.  I figure it takes about 3 hours per pattern and article.  That doesn't include the time spent on emailing designers and yarn companies.

TIP OF THE WEEK
Another self-serving tip... I actually thought ahead to the Summer issue.  I'm doing a skirt, top down, and I wanted to do the waist band so I can try it on.  I might actually keep this one.  When you do the waistband of a skirt you have to make it elastic enough so that you can put it on.  There is no way you could just cast on (or bind off) for the waist band.  I learned this the hard way the first time I did a skirt without an opening.  I generally knit skirts from the bottom up and just graft the live stitches during the finishing process.  This time I used a provisional cast on and when the waistband was done I put the stitches on a needle and did a three needle bind off without the bind off.  This is very elastic.  As I knit the front to the back I inserted the elastic.  That is another thing I learned the hard way.  It is a miserable experience if you try and insert the elastic when the waistband is almost done.  

The first step is to do a provisional cast on.  I generally do the crochet chain method.  The photo below shows where I am putting the live stitches on a needle.  I generally do a turning row.  For baby projects or socks I might do a picot edge.  (I've done videos on picot hems.  Check the index.)

Next you fold it over and knit together the stitches from the front side to the back side.  For my own projects I almost ALWAYS use my super pointy Chiao Goo needles but I tend to use wood needles to do this.  Using three needles is a big pain especially when the stitches slide off.

Here is photograph of the final product.  The photograph after that is inside of the skirt that I am working on.  If you look close you can see the row marker I put in the skirt to mark an increase.

KNITTING SALON
Salon will be early on Sunday...11:30 am to 1:30 pm.  I'm going to the MET simulcast of Idomeneo on Saturday.  It is a treat after all my hard work this past week.

CURRENT PROJECT
Before I got the yarn from Classic Elite for the design, I started on the scarf project with the Baah yarn.  I decided to do a provisional cast on and then leave the top stitches live.  I'm going to knit a second one to match with the colors for the flowers reversed.  I will close both ends with a three needle bind off.  I want matching edges.  The inside piece will have to wait until I finish the stuff for cast on.

 

Here's the skirt.  It will be mid-calf length.  Blocking is very necessary!  It is MUCH fuller than it looks in the photo.

Horizontal Buttonholes

It has been an extremely busy week.  I've been working on getting ready for the photo shoot for the Spring issue at the same time I'm working on the Summer issue.  We've selected the designs we are going to use and now I'm contacting yarn companies for the designs.  This is my least favorite part of the process.  Some companies are great, Shibui, Classic Elite, Cascade to name a few, while others are not so great.  I have to get the yarn to the designers ASAP as we are trying to get back on our old production schedule. 

Here's George.  If you tried this with Petipa, you'd be missing a few fingers.  He is such a good natured cat.  He is enormous!  (You can see the orange sweater in the background.)

STUDENT NEWS
It has been slow this week.  I'd had a few lessons and a couple of emails but that is it.  My students are my top priority.  Their lessons always come first.  Maybe they are reading my mind & letting me get all of this work done!

TIP OF THE WEEK
I've done a posting on horizontal buttonholes which was also the topic of my LAST Finishing With Confidence article.  There are quite a few ways to work this type of buttonhole.  Some of the instructions I've seen have run to pages and are extremely complicated. This one is somewhere in the middle but produces a nice result.   The one below is worked in stockinette.



The basic steps for all version of this type of buttonhole requires that you bind off the stitches for the opening using the slip stitch bind off which doesn't use the working yarn.  One the stitches are bound off you use the cable cast on to cast on the same number of stitches.   There are a few extra steps along the way. 

Work to the position for the buttonhole.
• Bring yarn forward and slip the first stitch on the left needle purlwise.
• Bring the yarn to the back.
• Slip the next stitch on the left needle purlwise to the right needle.
• Pass the first slipped stitch on the right needle over the second stitch (as if to bind off).
• Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until the buttonhole is the desired size.
• Slip the last bound-off stitch to the left needle.
• Turn the work and use the cable cast on technique (inserting the needle as if to purl rather than as if to knit) to cast on one more stitch than you bound off.
• Turn the work.
• Slip the first stitch on the left needle to the right needle and pass the extra cast on stitch over the slipped stitch.
• Work the next stitch in the established pattern.

Is all of this worth it?  Yes, if you need a larger buttonhole or a very strong buttonhole.  I don't use this for every project and I do have to look up the instructions every time so I don't miss a step.   I use the purl version of the cable cast on so that the top half of the buttonhole matches but this isn't necessary. 

Here's the video:

KNITTING SALON
Salon will be on Sunday a bit later than usual.  The photo shoot is Sunday morning.  Tomorrow afternoon I'll be at the Met Simulcast of Traviata which has a special meaning for me.  It was the first opera I saw and will always be a favorite.

CURRENT PROJECTS
I finished up the orange sweater.  The arms on my mannequin are so skinny it makes the sleeves look huge!

Next I finished the hat for the article on jogless joins.  I think it is pretty cute.

I decided to make a double knit buff for Stephanie's birthday.  I started it several times.  I first used the invisible cast on for double knitting.  There were two problems with this.  First I was casting on over 100 stitches and if you've ever used this cast on, you know it is a pain with only 20 stitches or so.  Then this was worked in the round.  I finally gave up and wound up using Judy's Magic Cast On for the first row.  It worked pretty well.  I wanted to get it to Stephanie before this weekend as it is supposed to get cold.  Here are photos of both sides.

And here is the reverse.

I'm now working on a cowl for Baah yarns.  There is nothing to show but I should get a lot done while I'm waiting for the Hanako from Classic Elite to arrive.  I'm making a skirt & top.