A few years ago, I was working in a yarn shop when one of our most frequent customers came in with a pattern question. She was an excellent knitter and had tackled lots of challenging projects, but her question that day was a very simple one. She pulled out an almost-completed sweater worked from the… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What does “bind off in pattern” mean?
Category: ask amanda
Ask Amanda: How can I control stockinette curling?
Stockinette is probably the most instantly recognizeable knitted fabric. I remember when I finally learned to work stockinette after knitting lots of garter stitch. I looked down at those orderly little rows of Vs, and for the first time I thought “Hey, this is actually looking GOOD!” Though it’s an extremely popular stitch pattern, stockinette… Continue reading Ask Amanda: How can I control stockinette curling?
Ask Amanda: What’s the difference between Fair Isle and intarsia?
When you’re starting out with color knitting, it can be kind of tricky to understand the difference between Fair Isle and intarsia. At its most basic, the difference lies in where the colors are in your pattern. If the colors run across the width of your knitting, you’ll be working stranded, or Fair Isle knitting.… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What’s the difference between Fair Isle and intarsia?
Ask Amanda: How do I fix a dropped stitch?
You know, learning to fix dropped stitches is kind of like learning to ride a bike. At first everything seems wobbly and out of control, but once you start to get the hang of it, it begins to feel like second nature - and before long, you’ll wonder why it seemed so intimidating in the… Continue reading Ask Amanda: How do I fix a dropped stitch?
Ask Amanda: Should I wind all my hanks right away?
This has happened to me suprisingly frequently: I’ve picked out yarn for a new sweater, and I’m standing at the yarn shop counter with my wallet in hand when the yarn shop employee asks, “Would you like your yarn wound?” I have a tendency to freeze and start overthinking in situations like this... The convenience… Continue reading Ask Amanda: Should I wind all my hanks right away?
Ask Amanda: What cast on should I use?
When I first learned to knit, I always asked my mom to do the casting on for me. I was still trying to master the difference between knits and purls, and the cast on somehow felt too complicated to even consider doing myself. Whenever I wanted to start a new project, I’d grab my yarn… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What cast on should I use?
Ask Amanda: What is Kitchener stitch?
You won’t come across it in every knitting pattern, but sometimes it’s necessary to join together two sections of “live” stitches in your knitting. This process is often called grafting or Kitchener stitch, and though it might sound intimidating at first, it’s easy to master. The toe of a sock is the place you’re most… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What is Kitchener stitch?
Ask Amanda: What type of increase should I use?
Increasing, at its most basic, is simply adding another stitch to the total number on your needle. The potential problem is that there are many different techniques for knitting increases, which can make it seem very confusing! In Berroco patterns, we tend to leave the choice of increase up to the knitter in most cases… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What type of increase should I use?
Ask Amanda: How do I rip out my knitting?
Nobody likes to do it. It can be one of the most depressing and unpleasant parts of a knitting project. But sometimes, you have to rip out your knitting. At its most basic, ripping out is very easy. You just pull the needle out from inside your stitches and start unraveling the yarn. If you… Continue reading Ask Amanda: How do I rip out my knitting?
Ask Amanda: What does wyif mean?
Some knitting abbreviations seem pretty straightforward, like how K stands for “knit” and P stands for “purl,” but when multiple letters get involved, sometimes things get murky. Some of the leading offenders? Knitting terms like wyif and its equally sneaky cousin, wyib. To make matters worse, even after a knitter has deciphered what these terms… Continue reading Ask Amanda: What does wyif mean?