Spillikins

Aside | | Elanor

I’ve knit so much with circs lately I’ve forgotten what to do with sticks. Been using some DPNs for a quick swatch. Keep throwing away the left needle at the end of every row.

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I’m not Biased

| Elanor

Knitting on the Bias

Basically, this is knitting diagonally. 

There are two main types.

1) Starting at a corner and increasing at each end. This will make a triangle. The inverse is to decrease at each end.

2) Starting straight and tilting the knitting by increasing at one end and decreasing at the other. This will make a parallelogram.

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Angles of increase

Let’s take a look at increasing angles when starting in the corner.

The following swatches have all been made by casting on two stitches and proceeding in garter stitch. The swatches vary in the number of stitches per row that are increased. The increases were made by knitting into the front and back of the stitch.

Swatch A: Increase in the first and last stitch on every row. This gives an increase rate of 2 per row. See how quickly the swatch widens. This swatch widens rapidly to make a 130° angle (approx, I’m using my kid’s school protractor to measure it). It would be great for a shawl or scarf. 

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Swatch B: Increase in the first stitch in every row. This is an increase rate of 1 per row. This creates a very nearly 90° angle. Good for panels and squares.

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Swatch C: Increase in the first stitch on every 3rd row, or .33 per row. This widens slowly. It might be a good rate for triangular inserts in a swirly skirt. Approx 30°. This is probably too narrow for bunting flags. I’d estimate an increase rate of .5 would be better for bunting.

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Swatch D: Increasing on one side of the fabric only, once every other row. This gives an increase rate of .5, however it’s all on one side, so the gradient is the same as at each side on swatch B, i.e. approx 45°

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Swatches knitted up in Sirdar Flirt on 3.75mm needles.

Nesting Instinct

| Elanor

My kniteratti gang made a stash swoop on Nest in Crouch End today. Pretty shop and yummy cake! And it’s now open on a Sunday which just rocks. Handsome man took the kidlets round to Aunties’ and I got an afternoon off! Bliss! Got myself some pretties too.

Nest

I would love if Nest was closer to me. It’s in Crouch End, and it’s a pain in the neck to get to it from where I live. I’m not going to be able to dash there quickly if I run out of yarn the night before a deadline. Boo :(

It’s in a wee little row of shops round back of the high street. Quite an unassuming entrance, but when you go in, all the lovely yarn makes a gorgeous vista in front of you. In the window are some wispy, lacey garments that someone’s put a lot of effort into, and on the table in front of you is a rainbow jumble of singles for your squooshing pleasure.

Finer yarn is on the left and thicker on the right. They have it all listed on their site, so I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s quality stuff at a decent price. I’m particularly fond of the small skeins of JC Rennie 100% lambswool I picked up for £1.25 each. They also had stuff I’d never heard of, and most of them got a manhandling from me. I’m not a crocheter except for trimmings, but it did look like they were well-stocked for crochet enthusiasts too. I loved the little trinkets and bibelots that were dotted ’round the shop too. There were very cute earrings made to look like a ball of yarn with needles stuck through, and I also like the button set with the flower, stem and pot each on a different one.

Best two things though were the cake (lemon curd) and the knowledgeable service. Aplayfulday was there, who just happens to be a PRvangelist “for members of the fibre community”. Hmmm… can you smell the oil burning from the speed of the spinning of the cogs? There’s a card that’s gone straight into the contacts folder now!

Introduction to Catching Loop

| Elanor

Dear Reader,

Welcome! My name is Elanor King and I’m a knitwear designer. This is my first non-anonymous, public appearance on the web, and I’m just a little nervous about it. First impression stress hittin’ home and all that. How about I just tell you I’m funny, informative and my patterns kick ass, would that do? No? I have to back it up with actual humorous, interesting, content and really good Yuen Woo-ping-stylee designs? Eep! This is worse than speed-dating!

Way back when, before balls of yarn filled every cupboard and drawer in my house, and my shelves had more than knitting pattern books on them, I was a software engineer. In fact, I may possibly have been just a little bit of a geek. In the programming languages I used most often, there were “catch loops” that would be triggered if an error occurred. Like, if a customer on a shopping site tries to buy an out-of-stock item, the catch (no-items-left) loop might pop up a little message box saying something like “Sorry, we’re all out of KnitPros, would you like to try some Addis?”.

So my life catch loop probably goes a bit like this:

try{    beSAHM();

} catch (burnt_dinner, nappy_explosion, looming_deadline, unkissed_booboo, leaky_bath) {

get_kids_to_bed();

pour_glass();

knit();

}

Knit long and prosper!

x Elanor