I have a confession to make.
I'm not much of a knitter.
"What?" you may ask, "How can you have all these beautiful handmade items and not be able to knit?"
Well first of all if you don't know the difference between knitting and crocheting let me clear that up.
Crocheting uses one needle which has a hook on the end. Hence it's called crochet which means hook in french. Knitting uses two pointed needles that you work with one in each hand.
Each discipline has it's own class of patterns and terminology. So even though I feel I'm an expert in crochet, I feel like a dummy when it comes to knitting. For example I read patterns with such terms as single crochet, treble crochet, back loop-back stitch and reverse double crochet. Learning how to read patterns started for me around the age of 10 and thanks to well-written patterns it was always an exciting challenge to figure out a new stitch.
But many of my friends are avid knitters. They use such terms as garter stitch and stocking knit. "What are they talking about?", I often wonder to myself.
The fault is my own, my Mother showed me how to knit when I was young around the same time I was learning how to crochet but for some reason crocheting interested and challenged me more and I never bothered with knitting.
Until now that is. It all started last month when I went with a friend to a unique country yarn store. The store was unlike any other I've been to but you could clearly tell when you walked in that is was geared to the knitters of the world. Evidenced by all the knitting needles displayed everywhere and only a few crochet hooks on the back wall. The owner of the shop noticed my sweater and quickly named the stitch it was done in. Yep, I felt like a dummy, a crocheter in a knitted world. Needless to say we all use the same yarn, right? Well maybe, and I'll tell you the reason why in a minute. I made my selections and of course fell in love with a few different yarns just imagining the pieces I would crochet out of them, but then when I was standing in line to check out I noticed a display table that was missed to begin with. On it was something I had never seen before, a faux fur yarn that looked like the real thing but it wasn't just how it looked, the feel of it was amazing. It was cool to the touch instead of warm like usual synthetics are and it was slinky and stretchy. I knew I had to have it so I traded it out for another yarn I had picked. She was nice enough to throw in the knitting pattern for free. "A knitting pattern," I thought to myself, "What will I do with that?"
The last time I tried knitting was when my Mom was in the hospital in 2009, I made a cashmere blend basket weave scarf. My Mom quickly showed me how to knit and purl since that was all the pattern required, then I looked up on the Internet to see if I was doing it right. Since I'm left-handed but crochet with my right hand it's always a little different for me but turns out I was using the continental method. When I considered this fur yarn though it almost seemed like it had to be knitted because my experience with crocheting furry yarns is that the crochet stitches trap longer lengths of yarn in each stitch, which is why crocheted items are thicker and bulkier then knitted, this meant that if I tried it with the fur yarn it wasn't going to come out anything like the sample scarf so the knitting pattern would just have to be figured out.
The pattern called for the garter stitch for the entire length which is just knitting every row. Simple enough, the scarf was done and proudly show it to my friend. "Look, I knitted it" was my exclamation. One problem though, I loved the yarn and scarf so much I wanted to make some as gifts for my family. So I ordered more yarn and when it came I knitted another scarf for my sister. It took me about 8 hrs to complete over the course of a week. Which is slow for me, for example I can crochet a small dog sweater in under 2 hours. So how was I going to let my love for this new yarn and knitting not sidetrack me from the items that were waiting to be made for my Etsy shop?
A knitting machine came to mind. Not just any though, my Dad with the help of my sister-in-law, bought one for my Mom when I was young. My Mom barely used it but I would play with it occasionally and play is the right word because I never knew what I was doing. The knitted pieces would always come out too tight. But could it knit this bulky fur yarn? Searching on the Internet I found there are knitting machines that knit bulky yarn but many start around $1000, this one wasn't an expensive piece of equipment and remembering how tight it use to knit, my hopes sank. It wasn't till a couple of days later that I actually went and got the contraption out. Thankfully Dad had recently found the book and other tools that went with it. My hopes lifted when the cover picture is of a lady in a very 80's sweater but the yarn was a bulky mohair variety. Turns out the dial can be adjusted from sock weight yarn, all the way to bulky size 6 or mohair/furry yarns. The numbers corresponds to knitting needle sizes. Want to see it? Here you go.
As I said earlier it's hand powered. Which gives you quite a workout when the yarn is stiff. Adding some oil to the metal switch on the underside of the carriage helped a bunch. The needles look like latch-hook rug needles, they have a little latch that closes as it pulls the yarn through each stitch. Needless to say, even though it's call a "machine", your hands are still very involved. First you have to figure out tension and the right gauge for each yarn. Then I've had to work on how to get the finished piece off the hooks, which was easy for the fur scarves but harder on the sock weight yarn I'm currently using, without it gathering up the knitted piece. And don't ask me what happens when it drops a stitch. It's pretty labor intensive to correct.
My first fur scarf on the machine took me 2 hours. Then my next 1 and 1/2 hours. Then I read the book again and it turns out that I was missing a step. So trying it the correct way left me with a new scarf in 30 minutes. Yep, that's right a scarf in 30 minutes. Quickly my gifts were finished but now that it's not taking that long to make each scarf I knew I could add them to my Etsy shop for purchase at a reasonable price. And here are pictures of them.
If you are interested in what yarn I used, contact me through my Etsy shop, I plan on purchasing more of it soon.
In short I'm still interest in learning what all the knitting stitches are. Now I have the option of both hand or "machine" knitting but both help me to see how the stitches are made. And I won't feel like as much of a dummy the next time I walk into a yarn store.
I'm not much of a knitter.
"What?" you may ask, "How can you have all these beautiful handmade items and not be able to knit?"
Well first of all if you don't know the difference between knitting and crocheting let me clear that up.
Crocheting uses one needle which has a hook on the end. Hence it's called crochet which means hook in french. Knitting uses two pointed needles that you work with one in each hand.
Each discipline has it's own class of patterns and terminology. So even though I feel I'm an expert in crochet, I feel like a dummy when it comes to knitting. For example I read patterns with such terms as single crochet, treble crochet, back loop-back stitch and reverse double crochet. Learning how to read patterns started for me around the age of 10 and thanks to well-written patterns it was always an exciting challenge to figure out a new stitch.
But many of my friends are avid knitters. They use such terms as garter stitch and stocking knit. "What are they talking about?", I often wonder to myself.
The fault is my own, my Mother showed me how to knit when I was young around the same time I was learning how to crochet but for some reason crocheting interested and challenged me more and I never bothered with knitting.
Until now that is. It all started last month when I went with a friend to a unique country yarn store. The store was unlike any other I've been to but you could clearly tell when you walked in that is was geared to the knitters of the world. Evidenced by all the knitting needles displayed everywhere and only a few crochet hooks on the back wall. The owner of the shop noticed my sweater and quickly named the stitch it was done in. Yep, I felt like a dummy, a crocheter in a knitted world. Needless to say we all use the same yarn, right? Well maybe, and I'll tell you the reason why in a minute. I made my selections and of course fell in love with a few different yarns just imagining the pieces I would crochet out of them, but then when I was standing in line to check out I noticed a display table that was missed to begin with. On it was something I had never seen before, a faux fur yarn that looked like the real thing but it wasn't just how it looked, the feel of it was amazing. It was cool to the touch instead of warm like usual synthetics are and it was slinky and stretchy. I knew I had to have it so I traded it out for another yarn I had picked. She was nice enough to throw in the knitting pattern for free. "A knitting pattern," I thought to myself, "What will I do with that?"
The last time I tried knitting was when my Mom was in the hospital in 2009, I made a cashmere blend basket weave scarf. My Mom quickly showed me how to knit and purl since that was all the pattern required, then I looked up on the Internet to see if I was doing it right. Since I'm left-handed but crochet with my right hand it's always a little different for me but turns out I was using the continental method. When I considered this fur yarn though it almost seemed like it had to be knitted because my experience with crocheting furry yarns is that the crochet stitches trap longer lengths of yarn in each stitch, which is why crocheted items are thicker and bulkier then knitted, this meant that if I tried it with the fur yarn it wasn't going to come out anything like the sample scarf so the knitting pattern would just have to be figured out.
The pattern called for the garter stitch for the entire length which is just knitting every row. Simple enough, the scarf was done and proudly show it to my friend. "Look, I knitted it" was my exclamation. One problem though, I loved the yarn and scarf so much I wanted to make some as gifts for my family. So I ordered more yarn and when it came I knitted another scarf for my sister. It took me about 8 hrs to complete over the course of a week. Which is slow for me, for example I can crochet a small dog sweater in under 2 hours. So how was I going to let my love for this new yarn and knitting not sidetrack me from the items that were waiting to be made for my Etsy shop?
A knitting machine came to mind. Not just any though, my Dad with the help of my sister-in-law, bought one for my Mom when I was young. My Mom barely used it but I would play with it occasionally and play is the right word because I never knew what I was doing. The knitted pieces would always come out too tight. But could it knit this bulky fur yarn? Searching on the Internet I found there are knitting machines that knit bulky yarn but many start around $1000, this one wasn't an expensive piece of equipment and remembering how tight it use to knit, my hopes sank. It wasn't till a couple of days later that I actually went and got the contraption out. Thankfully Dad had recently found the book and other tools that went with it. My hopes lifted when the cover picture is of a lady in a very 80's sweater but the yarn was a bulky mohair variety. Turns out the dial can be adjusted from sock weight yarn, all the way to bulky size 6 or mohair/furry yarns. The numbers corresponds to knitting needle sizes. Want to see it? Here you go.
 |
| White Magic Knitter Machine |
My first fur scarf on the machine took me 2 hours. Then my next 1 and 1/2 hours. Then I read the book again and it turns out that I was missing a step. So trying it the correct way left me with a new scarf in 30 minutes. Yep, that's right a scarf in 30 minutes. Quickly my gifts were finished but now that it's not taking that long to make each scarf I knew I could add them to my Etsy shop for purchase at a reasonable price. And here are pictures of them.
 |
| White and Lt. Brown |
 |
| White and Cream |
In short I'm still interest in learning what all the knitting stitches are. Now I have the option of both hand or "machine" knitting but both help me to see how the stitches are made. And I won't feel like as much of a dummy the next time I walk into a yarn store.
Posts
