Nadina’s Free online knitting patterns

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.

Oh yeah. You never stop ripping no matter how good you THINK you are. I’ve
been ripping out  for too many years. I almost never
take the work off the needles unless the mistake is so egregious, I have no
choice. But when I do rip each stitch out, rather than pull the yarn out of
the old stitch each time, I do an entire row (round) and then gently pull
the ripped yarn.

Btw, if you really want a frogging challenge, there’s ripping out from point
A only the stitches where lies the mistake and then reknitting them back up
to point A, leaving the rest of the knitting as is. This works extremely
well for mistakes in cables, for example. Like when you should have twisted
the cable one way and did it wrong and only noticed it about 10 twists later
. You’d simply rip out the cable stitches and reknit and twist them
using either a crochet hook or a dp. Not hard at all, just takes a little
nerve.

Btw: fixing missed yarnovers: If you miss a yarnover and catch it the next row, just pick up the running thread between the stitches and go on. Don’t twist it when you pick it up. Just scoop and knit. It will be a little smaller than
“normal” but once it is blocked no one will notice!

I never block garments made of acrylic yarn. Acrylics are
plastics. Plastic has no memory-unless you apply too much heat, in which
case acrylic yarn will melt. Follow the manufacturer’s directions, i.e.,
throw it in the wash and then dry it on low for a few minutes.( Whenever I wash a garment in the machine, no matter the fiber, I turn
it inside out which decreases pilling)

Second, I have wire sock blockers, but frankly, I haven’t found them to be
of much use, except if there is a lace insert in the socks. Otherwise, I
wash, lay flat, and wear ‘em when they’re dry.

Blocking should be done with commonsense. There is no rule that says you
must block absolutely everything. AND there are several ways to block,
depending on stitch pattern and fiber. Here’s what you can’t ever block:
ribbings and cables. Here’s what you MUST block: lace and Fair Isle. Know
your fibers. Wool has excellent elasticity and memory, and can take a lot of
steam, pinning, and general abuse. Cotton, silk, and linen have little
elasticity and memory and must be blocked with care. You can never, ever
block out mistakes. If you goofed with the gauge and made the garment too
small, no amount of blocking will ever salvage it, be it of wool, cotton,
linen or your husband’s garden hose.

I either block the whole sweater or sometimes, particularly with lace, I
block each individual piece first and then do the final finishing after all
is dry. If I am dealing with lace, I wet the piece down, pin it on a padded
board w/ blocking wires and T-pins, stretching out the lace so that it opens
up. If I am blocking a Fair Isle sweater, I steam-press the bejesus out of
it, with a towel on top of the fabric and then lay it on my board to dry,
shaping it to its correct measurements with my hands. If I’m blocking a
cabled or Aran sweater, I simply wash it in the machine on knit cycle, give
it a quick spin, and then lay it flat on towels without pinning. The above
applies to natural fibers only. Acrylics, like I said, get the ole heave-ho
into the washing machine. I’ve always gotten excellent results using these
methods.