Have a question that doesn't fit into any of the other categories?

Post it here, and we'll try to answer it!

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Elianastar on April 12, 2009 at 6:06pm: Glad you found out what to do to fix it. I think its a great idea to work on something else and give your tension a chance to "settle in." I did an entire basketweave/checkerboard afghan simply to practice my knit and purl stitches! :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Denise Ciotti on April 13, 2009 at 4:10pm: When can we start ordering City Tweed? What is the gauge so we can start looking for patterns?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Elianastar on April 13, 2009 at 6:26pm: The catalog indicated a release date as "late April." That would appear to mean it will be released for sale in about ten days to two weeks. (Sometime after April 15th, but before May 1st.)

If you are on the mailing list, you'll likely get an email the same day the new product becomes available to order and it will also show up in the "Shop" section... usually in a full color banner ad and on the main KP page. It'll be hard to miss when it becomes available for purchase! LOL! Oh... if you have a FaceBook account, you can also become a KP fan and you'll get the announcement via your FaceBook page. :-)

According to a post by a KP staffer, on Ravelry:

For planning purposes, here’s the low-down from the ball bands…

City Tweed DK
55% Merino Wool, 25% Superfine Alpaca, 20% Donegal Tweed
123 yards/50 grams
5.5 sts = 1” on #5-7 needles.
Hand wash, dry flat.

City Tweed HW
55% Merino Wool, 25% Superfine Alpaca, 20% Donegal Tweed
164 yards/100 grams
4-4.75 sts = 1” on #7-9 needles.
Hand wash, dry flat.

Additional info, regarding the Donegal Tweed content:
"Our donegal is a series of viscose nebs (think slubs or bits of lint) that are suspended in a very fine acrylic mesh which allows them to be spun alongside the longer alpaca and Merino fibers. In the yarn, you won’t be able to see the acrylic web at all, and the neps will appear either on the surface of the yarn or spun inside the yarn strand."; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ellen Martin on April 14, 2009 at 10:16am: Hi - I have finally finished a project that took me about 8 months to complete - issue is that during that time I lost 50 pounds, which is wonderful but now my lovely sweater is HUGE! It is cotton so I washed it and shrank it up - but it is still huge. I have taken it in over an inch on the sides and it is starting to look better but I now have huge bulky seams on the sides. I would like to machine stitch these seams and then trim them but am worried that the stitching will unravel. Any ideas on how to approach this?

Thanks!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Elianastar on April 14, 2009 at 11:22am: You can reconstruct a sweater to fit if you've got the sewing skills. Here a couple of articles to help you get started:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=031407
http://permanentstyle.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-tailor-your-sweat...
http://www.sweetsassafras.org/2008/01/27/how-to-alter-a-wool-sweater
http://kundhicreative.com/lincolnblog/?tag=alter
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/fashion-beauty/refashion-sweater.html

Hope these are helpful!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by palsknitto on May 14, 2009 at 6:41pm: I dont know how to help you reduce your sweater, but congradulation on your weight loss, better to have loss weight and redo the sweater. Irene; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michelle on April 14, 2009 at 11:07am: Hello All.
I'm new to Knitpicks and knitting and I have so many questions.
For starters, I was wondering if I really do need to invest in a ball winder? Thus far, I have purchased standard skeins of yarn at my LYS and most do not have the center pull feature. I haven't yet purchased any yarns that come in hanks. Is there any reason I shouldn't have the skein bobbing around in my knitting bag as I pull the yarn? Of course, I would much rather have it pull from the center but it's more cost effective to let it just bob around.

Secondly, I am currently knitting my first cable scarf. I feel confident with the pattern and I am getting better at manipulating the cable stitch holder without losing some of my stitches. While I am knitting the scarf however, my mind is racing with thoughts of sock and hat knitting. I have asked many questions about both and the answers I have received are so varied. I was wondering if there is a preferred method that really lends itself to a beginner learning to knit in the round? I have the dvd that instructs how to knit socks on one circular needle and I have an instructional book on knitting with double pointed needles. Both instructions seem to be a bit confusing though not impossible. Would I be better off trying to knit a simple hat first? I am hoping to make socks my summer/fall project because I will be traveling for my son's baseball and need something to occupy my time.
Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.

Regards,
Michelle; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alison on April 14, 2009 at 11:14am: Welcome to the Knitting Community!

- You don't necessarily need a ball winder, and you can always wind hanks of yarn into balls using the back of a chair and just wind by hand. I like to re-wind my yarn using a ball winder so that it doesn't tangle in my knitting bag, but it's certainly not necessary.

- If you've never knit in the round before, we have a free hat pattern that comes with a video tutorial. It makes a super-simple hat out of bulky yarn, and it'd be a really quick project to learn on. You could just jump right into socks - there's no "right" way to learn how to knit - but you might find this beginner hat project to be a helpful stepping stone.

If you are going to jump right into socks, I really recommend knitting them using a long circular, but that's just my own personal preference. Here's our tutorial page for all circular knitting techniques, if you want to see a comparison of the different methods.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michelle on April 14, 2009 at 12:13pm: Thanks!
Based on the answers of other knitters, can I assume that using one long circular is the same as using the Magic Loop method?
I watched the hat tutorial (Easy Peasy Hat) and it seems simple enough for a beginner. My confusion lies with the cable length. If I need a smaller length for a hat (the suggested needle had a cable length of 16"), then why would I need a long cable for socks--which have a narrower opening? Pardon my naivete, I'm just trying to get a handle on what I need to purchase for socks and/or hats.
I did notice that the interchangeable needles don't allow for shorter cables to be attached. Is it safe to assume then that for the Easy Peasy hat, I would buy the fixed circular in 16"?
As a beginner, if I am planning to try knitting socks and hats, could you recommend a good basic set of needles for purchase (if I didn't want to invest in the interchangeable--although they do seem more cost effective in the long run).
Wow, so much information to process.
I'd be lying if I said I thought the circular seemed easier than the double pointed. The DPN seem more cumbersome to manipulate, but I find those directions to be more easily digested. When I watch the tutorials for the long-cabled circular needles, I am not completely clear on what I am looking at when the stitches get moved to and fro.

Thanks so much to all who took the time to respond.
I don't want to be a wannabe knitter who owns lovely yarn but does nothing with it. :)

Regards,
Michelle; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on April 14, 2009 at 12:20pm: Michell,
Once you do your first sock (no matter what method you choose), all of the confusion will be gone. Yes, DPNs are cumbersome, and stitches can slip off very easily - not what you want to happen.
The extra length in the cable actually makes the socks easier to knit... with too short a cable, well, you can't knit in that tight of a circle.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alison on April 14, 2009 at 12:26pm: No problem! The trick is that you can knit small diameter pieces on long cables if you pull a little loop of the cable out - this is essentially what Magic Loop is. For example, I could do the Easy Peasy Hat on a 16" fixed circular, but I could also use a 40" circular (and, in that case, interchangeable needle tips) as long as I let the excess cable "escape" the knitting in a loop at one side of the work.

If DPNs seem less intimidating (and I learned on DPNs), you can buy an inexpensive set of nickel DPNs in all the sizes needed for sock knitting. I prefer circulars for Magic Loop now, and I would buy fixed circular needles in size 0, 1, or 2 with 40" cables for sock knitting. It really depends on the yarn you're planning to use and the way you knit, so you may have to experiment with a range of sizes to find what you like for a given type of yarn.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michelle on April 16, 2009 at 5:12pm: Hi again.
Perhaps I have too much going on at once, but I am happy to report that I am (successfully) knitting the Easy Peasy hat on a 16" circular needle. I also tried my hand at using 4 DPN to knit a starter sock. I ran into a bit of trouble with the pattern I was following. I think I might be confused because I am not yet (mentally) adept at understanding the requirements of ribbing. I will try to explain: I followed a pattern for a size based on my leg/foot measurements. According to the chart, it was necessary that I cast on 40 stitches. I was already a bit intimidated because this number does not evenly divide by 3. I separated as directed to three needles (14, 12, 14). The first stitches were for a K2 P2 ribbing. I was very careful to count my stitches. When I joined my round, I used the crossover method slipping (essentially trading) the first and last stitch over each other. Somehow, when I got to round 2 or 3, I discovered I had 41 stitches on the needles and this totally threw off my K2P2 ribbing. I panicked and simply could not figure out what to do. Should I have decreased a stitch, and if so, at what point? I worked three or four more rows just to get the hang of using the DPN but I knew something was terribly off because the ribbing didn't look right. I assume that with a K2P2 ribbing, I am essentially purling the knit stitches and knitting the purl stitches, is that correct? If so, could I have kept that extra stitch and just followed the pattern until I came to the "off" stitch?
All in all, I think the DPNs were manageable but as suggested, a bit cumbersome. I am eager to try the single circular method but I am awaiting a delivery of a better needle. I purchased circulars at my LYS and even after soaking the cable in hot water, it is unruly, stiff and impossible to manipulate.

I apologize for the longwinded post.
My last question is this: Are there sock patterns out there that use the shorter cable on a singular circular needle, just as the Easy Peasy hat does?
Is there a place I can download patterns that are especially for the shorter single circulars? I feel very comfortable using the 16" for the hat, and I would be interested in trying some of the shorter cables too.

Thanks for your help.

Michelle; ▶ Reply to This