Ellie’s Knitting Blog

ellie | she/her | flaming bisexual | casual knitter This is mostly a sock blog

[mareliini]

it's done! finished! Added buttons this morning after drying the bad boy up for two whole days. Learned a lot and watched so many streams and shows while knitting it.... a frog journey..

yarn: filcolana arwetta

pattern: my own

[mareliini]

here is a clear pic of the boy! In case you want to try knitting him yourself

[heywriters]

[knittystitch]

Whenever I mention I knit and I get the question "oh so do you sell it on etsy?"

I feel like this video and my feelings on the etsy question are very related. I feel like, especially when that's the knee jerk reply to finding out someone knits (or crochets! Or does needlepoint! Or any craft!), it boils the skill down to only mattering if it has monetary value; it only matters if it's an income.

To be clear, anyone who uses their skill for income is a very valid crafter and I wholeheartedly respect the small business hussle. But for a lot of us, the lack of a paycheck attached allows us to take on the craft as a means of relaxation just for ourselves. There's value in both these options.

Sometimes we gotta do things just because we enjoy doing them, despite (or even in some cases, as a necessary way to relax because of) capitalism.

[bueliknits]

I’m really interested in starting a knitting journal, but have no idea where to start. What does everyone else include in their knitting journals? Do you format it similar to a bullet journal?

[bueliknits]

Working on the Secret Summer Crop by Jessie Maed Designs

[knittystitch]

First WIP Wednesday of 2021!

[dearsnails]

sknitting (snail knitting) is at LEAST a two snail job!!

[kniteral]

psa.

if you’re using the yarn over method of increasing and you find that it leaves holes in your work, try doing the YO in the opposite direction. saved my life.

[the-fibre-stuff]

I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, I think I’m missing something here. Isn’t the point of doing the yarn over method of increasing instead of a different style that it leaves a hole?

[kniteral]

abt your tags, I’m probably the idiot here.

I honestly don’t know, the pattern I’m using doesn’t specify what type of increase and it’s in stockinette, so I didn’t wanna kfb and have a weird bump. and unfortunately, yo and kfb are the only increases I know

[the-fibre-stuff]

Well, then, I suggest the raised bar increase, which in modern patterns is what’s often meant by “M1″, so it’s becoming more and more common to say “this is what M1 means”. It’s very popular, it’s like the yarn over method. It has a left- and right-leaning version (although honestly, if you’re sensible you won’t learn both, because then you can’t torment yourself by trying to make sure that your increases are matched. Learn from my mistakes.)

Structurally it’s very similar to doing a yo increase, except that you pick up the yarn the row afterwards (so you’re pulling it tighter, because you didn’t leave yarn for the increase) and knitting into it immediately, rather than wrapping the yarn around the needle and waiting for the next row. You still want to make sure that you twist the yarn though.

Edit: mandatory xkcd, because you’re one of today’s lucky 10 000.

[knittingphysicist]

You can do a kfb without the little bump! Knit in the front of the stitch like normal, but instead of knitting in the back of the loop you just slip it

[the-fibre-stuff]

Structurally is this the same as knitting in the row below, just moving it to the row after the increase?

[yarnaddiction]

There’s also this neat little technique, which i like a lot: https://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/05/very-nearly-invisible-increase.html

[knittingphysicist]

@the-fibre-stuff Now that you point this out, yeah, this is structurally the same as the knitting into the stitch below that @yarnaddiction linked. They sort of face in opposite directions, since the guide for picking up from the row below puts the new stitch on the right and the modified kfb puts it on the left, but they’re almost identical to look at so I don’t think it would matter. I find the modified kfb a more comfortable motion, because i personally feel I’m less likely to drop the stitch, but they’re both great increase techniques!

Another increase trick I’ve found is that if I’m picking up the bar for a M1 makes my tension too tight, I’ve started putting in a YO and then knitting the yarn over through the back of the loop to twist it on the next round. It’s structurally the same as a M1, but the yarn over gives you a little extra slack to work with 😊 I find it helpful in the hexipuffs for my beekeeper quilt and when I (rarely) do toe-up socks and you end up with a bunch of increases in the same spot

[yarnings]

This thread needs to be mandatory reading for anyone who’s learning how to do increases. Because not only does it have a list of different kinds of increases (with the effects of them - like yo’s leave holes, kfb leave bumps), but we’ve got multiple ways to do the same increase, so people will see that a)there’s different ways to do the same increase and b)there’s no one “easier” way. (I haven’t actually tried the modified kfb intentionally, but based on what happens every time I try picking back when I’ve done a “very nearly invisible increase”/knitting into the stitch below, I would have trouble keeping both stitches live.)

Oh, and be aware that one thing I like about that increase (I don’t think it works quite as well with the modified kfb version of it) is that you can do it on either side of the stitch that you’re increasing in to. I don’t recommend doing it on both sides, but you do you. (If you’re increasing AFTER the stitch that you’re increasing in to, you knit down two rows, not one. I’ve seen it referred to as the “grandmother” of the stitch, instead of the mother. You have to do this because you have one more row there since you just knit it.)

[kniteral]

yes!! thanks again to everyone who hopped on this post with advice. I’ve only been knitting for just over a year, and this is showing me I still have so much to learn

[bueliknits]

Working on kitty socks!