Nov 15 2012

How to Make a Knit HeadBand

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Rachel

I’m going to the Harvard vs. Yale football game this Saturday and realized I don’t have a lot of Crimson to support Harvard. I have plenty of orange and navy to support the Fighting Illini and Da Bears but not much else. I decided on a knit headband.

So I took the extra maroon yarn from my felted knit bag and counting the slip knot, cast on 7.

tiny yarn ball

I went until I had little yarn left and finished it. It ended up being 11 3/4 inches long.

all knitted up

supplies

Then I got one yard of black ribbon a little bit smaller in width than the knitted piece, cut it in half and hand sewed it to the knitted piece. I used a running stitch along the top, bottom and down the middle of the ribbon. I tried to make sure not to go over the knit stitches so the black stitches wouldn’t be seen. I also put the ribbon about four inches onto the knit piece to give the head band some strength.

The ends of the ribbon will fray so it’s best to fold over the end, to create a hem and sew to enclose the end of the ribbon.

front view

back view

I tried my best to get a good shot of me wearing it but apparently I am no good at it, and every straight on view, I looked a little cooky so maybe I’ll get some good pictures at the game!

from the front

Now I have a nice unique headband to wear to the game and just a fun winter accessory!

wool yarn, cast on 7 on size 6 needles
knit stitch until about 12 inches long
2 pieces of 1/2 yard ribbon
sew ribbon to knitted piece
wear and look great!

Nov 6 2012

Wash Instructions on Yarn for Knitting

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Rachel

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All of those wash instructions symbols on the yarn tag can be confusing, before I got a knitting book, I started a page where I drew the symbol and wrote what it meant underneath it. I think I have most of them now, so I’ll share it.

Wash Symbols

If there’s an X through it, don’t do it! Now that I’ve knitting a few things and felt like I’ve looked at thousands of labels trying to pick out yarn, the pictures are a bit self-explanatory but when just a month ago, I was confused to what they meant and now I have a page to look back on and check just in case I forget.

Nov 5 2012

How to Sew in a Zipper

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Rachel

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Yesterday I showed how to create a bed for a dog kennel. Today I’ll show you how to sew in a zipper. I cut some pieces of fabric and drew on them to better show how to sew the central zipper in.

-To start, mark where the zipper will go because before and after the zipper a seam stitch will be sewn and where the zipper will go, I’ll do a basting stitch, or the longest stitch on my machine.

-Use pins or fabric chalk to mark the fabric. Don’t use a marker like I did, I just wanted to clearly show where to mark.

mark fabric

where to baste

– Pin the fabric together and baste where the zipper goes and continue with the seam stitch before and after the zipper, backstitching when I stitch the stitch length, I’m using a 5/8inch seam.

differences in stitches

-Then iron the seam open.

iron seam

– Then pin the zipper, face down, teeth to the seam. I placed the pins in the wrong direction. So I had to switch them so I could easily remove them as I was stitching.

pin zipper over seam

– Using a basting stitch, longest stitch on my machine, I place the edge of my zipper foot directly in the middle of the teeth and stitch, when I need to turn, I leave the needle in the fabric, lift the foot, and turn the fabric to the direction, put the foot down and begin to stitch again. I use a basting stitch to tack the zipper to the fabric and I don’t have to worry about removing pins as I sew.

– When I get to the zipper head, I make sure the needle is in the fabric, lift the zipper foot and push the zipper head past the foot.

zipper foot up, and push the zipper head past the foot

– Once the zipper head is out of the way, put the foot down, and continue stitching.

zipper foot down and continue stitching

-After the basting, stitch around the zipper with a smaller stitch size, just outside the basting stitch. Using the same technique at the corners and the zipper head.

-Once the stitching is complete, remove the basting stitch around the zipper and in the middle of the zipper.

remove basting stitch

– The zipper is complete! The zipper has been successfully installed. It does take practice but it’s not as intimidating as it first appears.

zipper complete

finished

Happy Sewing!

Nov 3 2012

How to Knit the Purl Stitch

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Rachel

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Purl stitch day!

We know how to do the standard knit stitch, so it’s time to switch it up a bit, well literally switch it up with the purl stitch. The purl is the opposite of the knit stitch.

With the knit stitch, the yarn starts in the back, but for the purl stitch the thread starts in the front.

start with the thread in front

Next take the right hand needle through the first stitch on the left hand needle, going from the back of the needle to the front of the needle.

back to front

another view

Then take the yarn over the right hand needle.

wrap yarn around needle

Like with the knit stitch, pull the right hand needle out catching the yarn.

catch yarn while pulling right hand needle out

catch

Then push the stitch off of the left needle and pull the yarn a bit to keep the stitch tension consistent.

push stitch off

There’s the purl stitch! Now I can create more patterns with knitting.

Nov 1 2012

How to Sew the Running or Basting Stitch

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Rachel

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The past couple of projects I have used a couple of hand stitches. One is the running stitch and the other is the whip stitch. I tried my best to draw it but here are a couple of pictures as well.

– On my fabric you’ll see a R and W written on it, this is for Right side of the fabric or the side everyone sees when the project is finished and Wrong side of fabric or the underneath part people don’t see.

– Another side note, I found out the hard way that this wasn’t the greatest fabric to do my tutorial with, it breaks and pills very easily. It’s an old pillowcase.

The first stitch is a running stitch. Also called a basting stitch because you can increase the length of this stitch and use it to mark/baste fabric and then easily remove the stitch.

Tie a Knot

For all hand stitches, use two of string only about forearm length so you aren’t tangling or doing extra unnecessary movements. Also, tie a knot at the end of the thread, sometimes more than one knot in the same place is needed so the knot doesn’t go through the fabric.

Take needle from wrong side of the fabric through to the right side of the fabric

from right side to wrong side

This is where I need to decide how long I want the stitch to be, because I need even straight stitches, which takes practice but even length stitches should always be the goal.

So you go just as far on the wrong side of the fabric as you do on the right side of the fabric.

equal stitch lengths

Continue with even stitches until you’ve reached the end.

finished, front view

back view

The wrong side of the fabric should look like the right view of the fabric.

tie off the stitches

After the stitches are complete, I need to tie it off so the stitches don’t come out, unless I’m basting, I take the needle underneath the last stitch and into the loop it creates to create a knot. I then tie another knot to make sure it is secure.

make a knot with the thread

finished

Tomorrow I’ll go over how to do two different variations of the whip stitch.

Oct 29 2012

How to Make a Simple Braid

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Rachel

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First I need supplies. Three pieces of thread or string at the desired length and then I usually add about four to sixes inches to my desired length because of the knot I need to tie at the ends of the braid.

Supplies for Braiding

Tie a Knot

Tape

Now something I always think about when I’m braiding, is think of as the three strands are fighting to stay in the middle. The outside always wants to be in the middle.

outside towards to the middle

So in the picture above the pink thread, outside right, is crossing over the center, red, thread.

bring the other side to the middle

Now the pink is in the middle and I need to bring the blue, outside left, over the pink and into the middle.

close up of first braid

to the middle again

Again, bring the outside right, now the red, over the blue to the middle.

pink to the middle

Now the blue is the outside right, the red is in the middle and the pink is outside left. Bring the pink over the red making the red now the outside left and the pink the middle thread.

close up of the braiding

If you’re yarn long thread, be careful and separate the threads after each passing because the ends can get tangled. Also try to keep the same tension as you braid so there’s an even pattern.

continue to braid

keep going

Continue all the way down until there is only about an inch or so left of thread, or until you can’t braid anymore. Then, I like to tie a knot to keep the braid from separating.

braid complete!

This is going to be the string for my stitch counter, so I carefully cut the knot off each end, as close to the knot as I possibly can, and carefully thread the stitch counter and then knot both ends together.

my stitch counter is ready

I’m now ready to use my new stitch counter necklace!

Oct 28 2012

Felted Knit Envelope Bag

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Rachel

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My first project in the book I’m going to tackle is the felted knit envelope bag which actually the second project in the book because the first project is a scarf with a knit stitch and since I have completed two already I decided it was ok for me to skip that one. 🙂 Here are my yarn choices. They are in skeins, so I don’t need to hand wind them.

time to knit a bag

I was a little worried at first about combining two different yarns but it hasn’t been too big of a deal. It is a little difficult to see where the stitches are so I have employed the use of some awesome knitting tools. First one is a stitch/row counter. It helped me keep track of the number of stitches in each row. I think I will braid some yarn in order to make a necklace out of it. It even has a lock on it so I can stop wherever. Second is the use the purple knit stoppers. It’s great to place them on the needle points when I am finished knitting and I do not have to worry about the stitches falling off the needle.

I have skipped stitches a couple of times and with the fuzzy novelty yarn it was hard to tell at first, but you just carefully pull the yarn to where the skipped stitch is and place the stitches back on the needle, carefully, and start knitting again.

The bag is basically a giant rectangle and could be made into any size. It just depends on your intended use. You fold and then whip stitch the edges to create the pocket which turns it into a bag. I’m using both threads to do the whipstitching. I’ll do a separate tutorial on the whip stitch because it is used in knitting, needlepoint and a hand stitch for finishing in sewing and at the beginning I had a bit of trouble making sure I was going through both layers to connect them. That’s probably because I was too busy watching television as I was finishing. :/

knitted rectangle

fold

whip stitch close up

This is also a felted bag which really concerns me. Something about doing all of this work just to place it in the wash to shrink rubbed me the wrong way. How much will it shrink anyways? It’s currently about 15inches by 10inches. But here is how it turned out. :/

How to Felt:

First I needed to get all of my materials, the bag, a zippered pillowcase, towels, jeans, and quarters for the washing machine.

felting supplies

put knitted bag in zippered pillowcase

put pillowcase and jeans in the washer

feed the machine

Place on small load, hot wash, and check after awhile, 10 minutes, to make sure it is felting and take it out when it has reached the size I want and also not let the cycle go into spin or rinse. Now maybe the washer I chose in my building is old or maybe because it is a commercial machine or I picked the wrong wool yarn but I don’t think it looks like it’s suppose to..

finished?

So it was suppose to turn out to be a thick fabric where you can no longer see the stitches and shrink a little bit and it didn’t. So, maybe I’ll try the felting process again?

So felting fail, but no worries that’s why it’s good to practice.

Oct 26 2012

Finishing Knitting, How to Bind Off

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Rachel

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I’m at the point in my scarf that it is time to finish it! So I need to bind off of my needles.

To start, I need to knit two stitches, but do not do it too tightly.

Take the left hand needle under the first stitch on the right hand (the stitch farthest away from the point of the needle) and hook it back on the left hand needle and pull the first stitch over the second stitch and then drop, the one that is being pulled over, the stitch leaving only one stitch on the right hand needle.

Next knit stitch another stitch to make two stitches on the right hand needle again, and again take the left needle under the first stitch and pull it over the second stitch, then drop the stitch that you pulled over. Continue this until there is only one stitch left on the needle. Carefully pull the needle out of the loop, and place the yarn tail through the loop and pull tight. All there is left to do before completing the scarf is weaving in the tails of the scarf.

First complete two knit stitches

Take left needle under first stitch on the right

Pull First Stitch Over the Second Stitch

Drop the pulled over stitch off of the needle

Knit another stitch so there are two stitches back on the needle and repeat

Under the first stitch

Pull over the stitch still on the needle and drop it

Continue knit stitching and dropping until there is only one stitch/loop left on the needle

Carefully pull out the needle from the loop

The Loop

Another view of the loop, be careful not to tighten the loop

If you aren’t at the end of your yarn ball simply cut the yarn so a tail a few inches long remains.

Take the tail of the scarf and place it through the loop

And pull it tight

Now all there is left to do is to weave in the ends of the scarf

Side note to this, if you created a pattern with your knitting project like knit 2 purl 2 then you bind off in that same pattern.

I’m almost done! I’m so excited to finish this scarf for my niece! Both nieces are going to look super cute all bundled up in their scarves this winter!

Oct 25 2012

How to Do the Knit Stitch

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Rachel

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The yarn is wound and cast on the needle. Now I can knit. I’m going to do just a knit stitch for this scarf. This is how I do it.

Starting the knit stitch

hold the needles like this

place right hand needle under first loop on the left hand needle and bring the right needle behind the left

: Another view of placing right needle through loop and underneath left needle

take yarn, that’s connected to the ball not the tail, and wrap around the right hand needle

: another view of wrapping the yarn around right hand needle

pull the wrap down a little bit

pull the needle and catch the wrapped yarn

pull the right hand needle down and catch the wrapped yarn around the tip of the needle

another view of catching the yarn

the loop from the wrap will be put on the right hand needle and push off the loop on the left

repeat knit stitch

underneath and through

wrap and catch

push off needle

Now I can knit knit knit until it’s time to bind off and weave the tails into the scarf! I’m so excited to complete this scarf!

Oct 22 2012

How I Hand Wind Yarn for Knitting

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Rachel

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I’m making a second scarf! This one it for another niece! I hope they like them. But the yarn I bought came in the form of a hank so I need to hand wind it into a ball.

Here’s how I did it.

First I needed to take it out of the hank. It’s a circle so I put my hand in the twisted loop to hold it and then pushed out the end at the other end so it becomes untwisted into a big circle. My shirt almost matches the yarn! I love this color 🙂

Next place the yarn on a chair or stool or anything that will keep it’s shape without becoming tangled. It makes it so much easier to wind. There will be a little knot wrapped around the yarn, you can try to unknot it but I just cut it and then I had two definitive ends.

Next it’s time to determine which of the ends is actually the beginning of the yarn and which one is the end. The beginning one will be the thread that is sitting on top of the rest of the thread when you pull it.

And the end piece is the end that you pull and it appears that the thread is coming from the bottom.

It’s a little difficult to tell from the pictures where the thread is coming from but it is important to figure this out because life will be more difficult if you start to winding from the end but it could be done.

Take the top end and wrap it around your index and middle fingers of your non-dominant hand a number of times in order to get a little oval when you push it off of your fingers.

Now that you have your little mess of an oval/ball like the one above, take the yarn and wrap it width so it makes a little bow.

Keep going until it’s more of a ball.

Then you keep wrapping the thread. I like to wrap about three or four times in a the same spot and then move a little clockwise on the ball and repeat.

Tiny yarn ball.

About half way there, and as you have noticed, I like to keep the chair cushion on because the ball fits so nicely in the dimples. So, if you get interrupted in the middle of your winding you can put it down without worrying too much about your yarn ball rolling away.

My completed yarn ball! I can now get my needles, cast on and knit the scarf! Maybe in the future I’ll get myself a swift and yarn winder so I don’t have to do it by hand but for now I’ll stick to hand winding my yarn.

Also I do this with the tag…

Ok so it’s a horrible picture but it’s the tag from the hank and on top of it I tied a little piece of the yarn. This way I have the color and lot numbers, suggested needle size, wash directions and a piece of the actual yarn all in one place in case I need another hank or I might decide I want to get that yarn again for a different project.

Needles and Know How

Putting my Needles to Work

Tag Archives: craft

How to Make a Knit HeadBand

Wash Instructions on Yarn for Knitting

How to Sew in a Zipper

How to Knit the Purl Stitch

How to Sew the Running or Basting Stitch

How to Make a Simple Braid

Felted Knit Envelope Bag

Finishing Knitting, How to Bind Off

How to Do the Knit Stitch

How I Hand Wind Yarn for Knitting

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