Hey, this is cute!

 This was an insight that should have occurred weeks ago, but only came recently: a provisional cast-on (PCO) would be an excellent way to achieve a really stretchy beginning for the crimped stitches! When the item is done, the PCO can be removed and the resulting loops bound off at the same tension as the stitches at the end. They have to be bound off, or your project might start unraveling from the beginning up.

But would it really? It turns out that k1, p1 ribbing cannot be unraveled from the beginning, so by substituting that for the first row of your pattern, you can just take out the waste yarn and that's that!

It gets better, though. This method forms cute little picots along the beginning edge.

There are a number of ways to do a PCO. I prefer the crochet chain method as it is very stable. Choose a waste yarn that is smooth and a good contrast with your project yarn.  A word of warning, though: if your project yarn is light in color, don't pick too dark a waste yarn. Even a smooth yarn can leave a bit of lint and red lint on a white project . . . not so nice.

Start by crocheting a chain in waste yarn with a hook that will produce stitches large enough to get your needle through. You'll need one chain for each cast-on stitch plus a few extra since the occasional chain may not be obvious when you go to pick up in it. Cut the waste yarn and pull the tail through the last chain to secure it.

Look for the back of the chain. (It's the side that doesn't look like a chain.) The bumps you see are the backs of the stitches. They will be oriented differently depending on whether you're holding the final chain to the right or the left.

Pick up the needed number of sts in the backs of the chains as per the diagram. Work Row 1 (RS) in k1, p1 ribbing. It doesn't matter which st you start and end with.

Continue with  Row 2 and the rest of the pattern stitch. Obviously, on subsequent repeats Row 1 will be as normal.

When you do the crimping row, make sure you go into the stitches as shown; don't go into the waste yarn chains. The heads of the stitches that appear as purls will be much closer to the waste yarn and it is easy to miss the stitches themselves.

Remove the waste yarn. If you've picked up the stitches correctly, you can just undo the last chain and quickly take it out. If not, you will have to work stitch by stitch. (It's usually a combination of the two.) In either case, be a little bit gentle so that the picots are not distorted.

Finally, block the piece. Wet and stretch it well. Pin the picots individually. Allow it to dry.

I did try this method on an extremely small seed stitch swatch without the crimping. It does form picots but not as prominent or nicely shaped. It's an idea worth pursuing on seed stitch, moss stitch, or, of course, k1, p1 ribbing, but I'm not going to go down that path right now. If anyone does try it, though, please let us know how it works out.

Until next time . . .

Embroidering Beads On

The stitches used in this sample are so basic that I am almost embarrassed to call them "embroidery". (For real embroidery, you might want to check out this site. In a few minutes, I saw how to do some new-to-me stitches and learned about some unusual embroidery styles. More things I'm gonna wanna try! )

Do remember, though, that embroidery on knitting does not require a hoop; that would only crush the fabric.



The first step in this particular sample is to make a simple running stitch. Thread a yarn needle, secure the yarn to the back of the work, then take the needle to the front through the first space, to the back through the next, and so on. End by securing the yarn to the back. This step is shown in the salmon-colored lines in the following diagram.

The second step is called "lacing". Again, start by securing the yarn to the wrong side. Following the blue line, go up under the first running stitch and down under the second. At Point A, unthread the yarn needle, string a bead, and rethread the needle. Continue across. Be aware of how tightly you're pulling the yarn. The beads don't have to be super-snug against the fabric, but you certainly don't want the embroidery yarn to be pulled tight.


The second pass is shown by the green line for clarity only. You are still using the same strand of yarn. Take the needle back under the previous running stitch in the opposite direction from the first pass. At Point B, unthread the yarn needle, string a bead, and rethread the needle. Finish the row and secure the yarn on the wrong side.


Essentially, the passes are two opposing waves. The first pass forms troughs between every other pair of running stitches; the beads sit in these troughs. The troughs of the second pass fill the spaces in between those of the first; again the beads sit in the troughs.

Well, that's it for now. Please use the "Comments" if you have any questions.

Until next time . . .

Maybe I CAN braid it!

The braiding did not start off well. I wanted to do a four-strand braid (which I had never done before) so I could use two strands of each color. I found an easy-to-follow instruction page here, pinned my swatch to a blocking board, and proceeded to go at it. The braid kept wanting to twist, making it difficult to tell which strand was which. Those times when I was able to make some progress, I found it impossible to keep my tension even.

It occurred to me that it would be so much easier if the strands were weighted. This triggered what little I know about bobbin lace and I figured I might have better luck if I pinned the strands in place as I went along. Since I was working a narrow braid, I figured that I could use graph paper as a pattern and a blocking board instead of a lace pillow.

Voila! As you might imagine, it was slow-going with all those pins, but IT WORKED. I did the one on the left first, and trust me, it is a great improvement over my previous attempts. Then I did the one to the right, and you can see how much better it already is than the first one. The braids did want to corkscrew, so I spritzed them well and pinned them flat. The problem seems to be solved.

This could be fun!


By my reckoning, I am at least three sidetracks away from where I started and it's time for me to start working my way back. I do want to revisit this, though; I'm a knitter first but all the needle arts are so very tempting to me.

Next up will be using embroidery stitches to attach beads, then back to stretchy cast-ons, then back to the Crimped Stitches themselves. Whew!

I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving day. Actually, given the state of the world, let me offer that wish for every day.

Until next time . . .

Tying on Beads

Perhaps the simplest way to add beads after the fact, even easier than sewing them onto your work, is just tying them on.

The first thing to do is get the beads on the yarn. Obviously, the beads need holes "large enough". They don't need to be loose because yarn is squishy, but if the hole is too small you risk breaking the bead.

Any sewing needle that will get through the beads is going to have an eye that is too small to get the yarn through. I generally use a wire threader for a needlepunch tool as shown to the right, but you can get appropriate needles - and just about everything else jewelry - at Fire Mountain Gems.




Once a bead is on a length of yarn, it's a simple matter to pull one end through a space and the other end through an adjacent space. You can use a crochet hook or tapestry needle, whichever is easier. Tie a square knot (right over left and left over right), put a dab of glue on the back of it, especially if the bead is heavy or precious, and let it dry.

And this is my result.

Of course, I looked at it and thought "hmmmmm." What I was seeing was the beads forcing the fringes to stick out. So, I decided to add extra fringe and macrame it into a design. (A nice tutorial for basic macrame knots is here.)


Superwash wool has many virtues but, it turns out,  suitability for macrame is not one of them. I did manage to tie a couple rudimentary knots, but that was it. So, I grabbed some slubbed cotton from my stash to see if plant fibers would work any better. They do, and I think that with more practice, smooth yarn, and an actual plan, I would have come up with something I would be willing to post on my blog. For now, I should probably stick to my knitting.

On the other hand, as I was writing this post, I thought "Hey, maybe I can braid it!" I will save that for next time.

Until then . . .

Embellished Swatch Part 1

I worked a swatch in Crimped Row Stitch #2 using the extra stretchy cast-on. I didn't use a larger needle, but it blocked beautifully.

When I said in my previous post that I saw embellishment potential in the cast-on, I was looking at the large spaces between the clusters, shown by the green arrows. But a smaller space behind the lowest strand in each cluster, shown by the pink arrows, is revealed by sliding a tapestry needle under the strand and gently pulling it away from the knitting.

Now, except for standard fringe, embellishing was not as straightforward as I had imagined. Searching for ideas, I found many awesome web sites. They concern themselves only with embroidery on fabric, but some of the techniques can be extrapolated to knitted items. Two sites that stood out to me are Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials and Beading Arts.


But I digress. I added standard fringe in two colors in the center of the swatch using a lark's head knot. I am absolutely always forgetting which way to pull the fringe through the edge to get the smooth side of the knot (circled in the photo to the right) on the outside of the work. It's a fussy detail, of course, but I like it much better that way!








 My instinct is to insert the crochet hook from the front of the work. This may be correct for actual crocheting, but it's not optimal for adding fringe. The hook has to be inserted from the back. I'm hoping that now that I've done a diagram of it (to the right), I will remember it forever. Time will tell.



More and more lately I've found myself wanting to add embellishments to my designs. So, next up will be some simple ways of adding beads. Until then . . .

Stretchy Enough Cast-On

Throughout the process of developing the crimped stitch patterns, I have run into the problem of how much they spread. This means that cast-ons and bind-offs need to  be r-e-a-l-l-y stretchy. I can usually bind off loosely enough; I just concentrate on stretching the edge as I go along. The cast-on is a problem, in part because you can't really know in advance how much the pattern stitch will spread.

So I went looking for elastic cast-ons.  Here is the video I settled on. This cast-on is meant for k1, p1 ribbing and you can see in the photos how well it works. But, I thought it looked skimpy for a pattern stitch where the cast-on is distorted by the stitches that are drawn up through it.

So I worked out a fix, wrote some notes, and proceeded to get swamped with other things for a couple of months. I started re-swatching to get myself back up to speed and now I can't imagine why I thought the original is anything but adorable. I can see that it also has some extra potential for being embellished. So, that is next. Until then . . .

PS: If you do try the cast-on in the video, note that every other stitch sits twisted on the needle and needs to be worked through the back on the first row.

Yes, I'm Still Here!

I have been swamped the last few weeks! While I'm catching my breath, I want to remind everyone that it's almost October and my free Jack-o-Lantern Cup Cozy pattern is here and the instructions for seaming it are here.

Also, with just over three months to go until Christmas, you might want to check out my Vintage Christmas Stocking. It's a free Ravelry download available here. Be sure to note the correction in the pattern notes.

I have a whole list of technique things I want to share with you. With any luck, I'll have something new posted by the end of the week. Until then . . .