Nadina’s Free online knitting patterns

What kind of slippers do you like to knit? Tube style or with heels?
I am going to make the slippers the way I make my bath mitts on the little blue loom, using Red Heart Grande yarn, which is very chunky. I use the blue loom and do a flat piece for 20 rows, then switch to the whole loom doing a tube for
20 rows and gather like a hat. I sew up the back of the flat piece and I have a slipper:) The number of rows will vary with the
size that I need (I play by the ear). Then, I crochet around the edges to make them look better
or knit. What ever I want to do…

I find Kathy Norris’ book I Can’t Believe I’m Loom Knitting (Leisure Arts #5250) a great source for patterns for any knifty knitter loom

I LOVE my Circular Solution needle cases…one for DPs and one for circulars…you can get them from most of the vendors online. They have the sizes marked on the pockets so it is easy to see which sizes I need to buy more of… Actually I was lucky enough to get one (from the creator) that did not have the sizes marked…so I could arrange it just the way I wanted to…
The best, I’ve found, have compartments to organize the needles and a zipper around the perimeter to keep them closed.
Others roll up and have a tie around the middle, also with organizing compartments. The big drawback, I’ve found, is the expense–they are usually FAR more expensive than I want/can afford to pay. My solution is to scour flea markets, sidewalk sales, resale shops, etc., and also E-Bay!
Give it a try– you’ve got nothing to lose, and might get a great “find” for your trouble! (By the way, if one can sew on a fair-to-middling basis, the roll-up kind wouldn’t seem too hard to make on your own!)

There is nothing wrong with knit casting onto the needles. It is the way I have cast on for many years. When you do, try this, it makes for a neater cast. Put the loop on your left needle, start by knitting into that loop and pull yarn through, then up over left needle (2 loops on left needle). From that point on, instead of going directly to the loop (as you would when knitting), place right needle BETWEEN loops on left needle, yarn over, draw through, and place loop over left needle. Going between the loops on the hook makes the edge much neater.

Pulling a loop THROUGH the stitch to cast-on a stitch is called the Knitted Cast-On and pulling a loop BETWEEN two stitches to
cast-on a stitch is called the Cable Cast-On. You can read about A LOT of ways of knitting in Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook

So here’s my $.02 on the idiot’s guide…

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knitting & Crocheting, by Gail Diven & Cindy
Kitchel

Very good instructions & pictures of how to do cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off. It also goes into knitting in the
round, fair isle, intarsia. Other sections on how to fix boo-boos such as dropped or twisted stitches, guage, and a discussion of different yarns & needles. 3 projects are included to use the skills as you learn them: a knitted dishcloth (increase/decrease), a scarf (knit/purl/counting stitches), and a hat (knitting in the round).

I would recommend this book to someone just learning how to knit—in fact I just used it to learn how to crochet, and it was clear & entertaining. I lent it to another woman who wanted to learn how to crochet, and she’s doing very well with it, too. But using it as a reference for either knit or crochet? I honestly cannot see myself ever opening it again, now that the
basics have been learned. A wonderful book to get someone started, but it’s a book that could be outgrown rather quickly.

I can tell you it’s not so easy to sew on buttons, especially with some of the interesting buttons you can get today!
You dont want the buttons you sew on a cardigan to look loose and dangly…Sometimes the chosen buttons can be too heavy for the knitted fabric. (This is fairly common with heavy pewter or other relatively heavy metal buttons.) The easiest way I’ve found around it is to sew on a smaller “backing button” along with the main button, but on the back of the buttonband. This goes a long way to stabilize the flopping button, and also keeps the knitted fabric more stable. The backing button can be an inexpensive plastic button that matches the buttonband color as closely as possible.

SO: Reinforcing with a clear plastic button (on the buttonband’s wrong side) will help prevent your knitting from stretching out when you wear your sweater buttoned.

This is especially helpful with soft, less stretchy yarns like cashmere and alpaca.

There is a stitch called “Mattress Stitch”. You use a yarn needle threaded with the yarn used in knitting the garment, put the two RIGHT SIDE pieces together. Hold the sides together with a stitch at the bottom, then pick up one or two bars (the bar between the stitches) on the left side, move to the right side and pick up one or two bars go back to the left side and pick up one or two more bars, do this a few times, and then pull gently on the yarn to tighten the stitches. The seam will be on the inside, and it will be difficult to see the join on the right side. When you put the two right sides together, put them side by side, not “together” you are weaving back and forth more than anything…then steam the seams with the iron and it will flattened out nicely.
I find this method much better than the back stitch or overcast.

I’ve made tons of hats on circulars. I start at the lower edge with a 16 inch circular, when I decrease so that there are to few stitches to continue I switch to double pointed needles the same size. I use a size seven for worsted weight. You can go down to only about 16-20 stitches before having to switch over to the dpn.
Note: When making hats in the round at some point of decreases you have to change to double pointed needles. I usually don’t even bother with the circular just do the whole thing on D.P. needles. I find it much easier to connect 1st row without twisting. Hope this helps!