Let’s talk Needles. Needles are the backbone of knitting, and there are three types of knitting needles – Double Pointed Needles, Straight and Circular. Double Pointed Needles, or DPNs, are essentially needles with pointy edges on both sides. They are used for knitting small and round items like hats, socks, sleeves, mittens and gloves. They are also exclusively used for brioche knitting. DPNs come in a pack of five needles, with 4 holding the stitches, while the fifth one is used to knit round and round and round without stopping. DPNs come in different materials, and in the infographic, you can see three sets of needles. The first set (a) is by Lantern Moon, made out of redwood in Vietnam, […]
Continue reading
POM-POMS
Pom-poms are fun. I mean, try saying pom-poms multiple times when you are angry. I am sure you will burst out laughing. It’s exactly like saying bubbles š A pom-pom is a decorative ball or a tuft, made with fibres. It is derived from the French word pompon, a small decorative ball made of fabric or feathers. Flexible and versatile, it can be made out of wool, cotton, paper, plastic, thread, glitter and feathers, in a variety of sizes and with innumerable colour options. It is extensively used on top of hats, or you may have seen a variation of them in cheerleaders’ hands. To make a pom-pom, you could use a cardboard sheet, a fork or a pom-pom maker. […]
Continue reading
T-SHIRT YARN
T-shirt yarn is exactly what the name says: yarn made out of t-shirts. Snip an unseamed t-shirt in whichever width you like into a continuous strip, roll it into a ball and off you go! There are a bazillion videos online to ease this process, with many tips and tricks thrown in. The yarn I have is actually about 3cm wide, but it tends to curl up naturally and become about 4mm. Which is a bulky bulky yarn, that works up super quick. It is perfect for those days when I don’t have reasonable sanity, and don’t want to spend my limited working hours on complex projects. T-shirt yarn is super easy to make, and is an excellent way of […]
Continue reading
KNITTED LIFELINES
A lifeline is a line to which a drowning or falling victim may cling to, instead of facing imminent death. In knitting, a lifeline is a piece of yarn or thread that runs through each and every stitch of one row. Itās a proper case of prevention being better than unravelling the entire project, in case of a massive goof-up. Because stitches are live while working on a knitted piece, especially lace or brioche, there is ALWAYS a possibility of stitches getting dropped or me misreading the pattern or due to genuine confusion. The worst errors have occurred when I have been trying to fix previous errors, and then I fall into a spiral of doom and despair, and have […]
Continue reading
STITCH MARKERS
Stitch markers are tiny yet efficient accessories in a knitting bag. They maybe made of metal or plastic and look like teeny-meeny CUTE safety pins.They are incredibly useful and I found them very handy, especially when I was a beginner. By slipping onto a knitting needle to mark a particular position in a row, it kept my work steady and clean. Today it is the key to keeping my sanity, as I mark each fifth or tenth row done with a stitch marker… Instead of counting the same rows twenty million times.”Many small objects, in many small places, do many small things, that can alter the face of the world.” Ā Ā
Continue reading
YARN PACKAGING
You must have seen yarn packaged and presented for sale in your local crafts store in many different ways. Some of the most common ones are hanks, skeins and balls. Apparently there are 12 different ways of packaging yarn, and I must have seen 5-6. I doubt if someone buying is concerned with how yarn is packaged, they are more curious about the colours and textures. What matters is how yarn can be used once it is bought. Clockwise from top left, you can see a pink HANK, grey SKEIN, white BALL and something that is cutely packaged as a CAKE. It certainly looks delicious! In a hank, the yarn is rolled into a big circle then folded into itself. […]
Continue reading
BRIOCHE KNITTING – ATTEMPTING MISS B
Designer Nancy Marchant, the Queen of Brioche, is the one who realized Brioche knitting was really underdeveloped, as compared to other knitting techniques. She created the key terms of Barking and Burping as well as a charting system which uses symbols for each brioche stitch or technique, so knitters across the world could share their patterns using the same language.Ā Her research shows that the name ābriocheā arose in reference to a type of cushion that was fashionable for ladies to make in England in the mid-1800s. These brioche pillows were named for the fluffy French baked goods, and the special ribbed fabric that lent them extra poof took on the same name. The Brioche Stitch resembles a ribbed knitting […]
Continue reading