The Knitting Fiend

I don’t “do” Christmas knitting. I suspect this sounds somewhat heretical. A knitter is supposed to rush out, break their budget and buy tons and tons or yarn to knit secret gifts.

I don’t.

Like all knitters, I like to make hand made gifts for people. So why don’t I do Christmas knitting? Because, the moment I finish a project, I feel compelled to give it to them right now. Then, I want them to wear it right now!

If I give someone a sweater at Halloween, and they wear it all fall, how can it be a Christmas gift? Sigh. . .

Mind you, this compulsion to give them the sweater right now wouldn’t exclude Christmas knitting if I were any capable of predicting how long it would take me to knit a sweater. I’m hopeless at that.

So, there is no way I’m going to cast on something long and difficult after Thanksgiving hoping I’ll finish by Christmas!

Still, I always think, a hand knit gift for Jim is de rigeur. So, I have a “compensating strategy”. My mother, A.K.A the hater of any and all UFOs, likely disapproves of this strategy, and will probably be horrified when I reveal this to the world:

I start Jim’s gift way before Christmas, leave it 2% unfinished, and finish it up New Year’s Eve. Tonight, I will sew the sleeve on his Aran! Then, I’ll wrap it and put it under the tree.

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Submitted to The Carnival Of Knitting

Janet Szabo, owner of Big Sky Knitting and moderator of the Aran Knits yahoo groups email list, will be leading a top down Aran Knit-A-Long beginning in January, 2006. Guidelines for the knit-a-long are posted at Big Sky Knitting's FLAK knitalong page. Janet is a wonderful designer and teacher. So, if you follow along, you'll be able to read some really good tips for designing and knitting a custom Aran to fit you.

As it happens, I designed a saddle shoulder Aran and knit it top down last fall. Even though my basic design is a bit different from Janet's, some knitters might be interested in finding my tips and techniques. This list may simplify that task:

Aran Knitting Stitch Patterns, Tips and Techniques.

Sleeve Knit Top Down

General Design of Aran. Design tips for motifs.

Scaling Up Sizes. Design: Discusses increasing the size of an Aran design.

Sleeve Cap. Design: How to design a sleeve cap for a semi-fitted sleeve.

Sleeve Length. Design: Sleeve Length.

Sleeveless Aran. How Aran looks before sleeves are attached.

Finished the knitting. Progress: How the sweater looks with one sleeve missing.

Aran to Underarms. Progress: To underarms.

Full Twisted Rib. Stitch Pattern for ribbing on Arans.

Trinity Stitch. Stitch Pattern: A traditional Aran stitch pattern.

Stitch Pattern: Half Twisted Rib. Stitch Pattern: Interesting variation or Rib. (I advise using full twisted rib though.)

Twisted Column. Stitch Pattern: Knit a twisted rib stitch to make it pop.

Moss stitch. Stitch Pattern: Popular background stitch pattern.

Seed Stitch. Stitch Pattern: Popular background stitch.

Celtic Flourish. Swatching the major stitch pattern.

Pick Up Stitches for Back. Technique

Increase 5 stitches into 1. Technique used in Celtic Flourish.

Pillar Decrease. Technique for Celtic Flourish stitch pattern.

Knit Sleeve Top Down. Technique.

Join front to back. Technique.

Phoney Seams. Technique: Create crisp fold lines at side seams.

Attach sleeve to body. Technique: Graft saddle, mattress stitch rest of sleeve.

Cross without a cable needle. Technique: How I cross medium wide cables.

How to use a pull skein. Technique: Illustrated with Plymouth Galway.

Wicker work. Technique: Read to learn to twist two stitches without a cable needle.

Shoulder Strips. Technique: Saddle shoulder strips illustrated.

Binding off. Technique: Smooth bind off when knitting rib circular.

Pick up stitches for neck. Technique: Useful if you cast on neck using waste yarn.

Provisional Cast On. Technique: Useful if you want to work sleeves separate and graft later.

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Based on questions I'm reading Aran Knits, visitors may want to know these tidbits:

1. Jim's Men's extra-small sweater was knit using Plymouth Galway. I bought ten 50 gram skeins and used roughly 8. I had enough left over to knit a flying spaghetti monster and a spiral ear flap hat. I still have more left over.
2. I think Janet recommends Cascade 220, Elann Peruvian Highland and Knitpicks Wool of the Andes. The guidelines at her site list required yardages.

Often, knitters ask how to bind off the final two stitches when knitting in the round. Evidently, these knitters are doing “something”, which they don’t describe, but which, they think, results in a visible jog.

I’ll show you, then you can decide if it’s acceptable for you.

As I previously described when I bind off rib, I knit the first two stitches “as they present themselves”^1. Eventually, I have two stitches on the right needle tip and none on the left tip. (See below left.)

I insert my left needle tip into the second stitch from the right on the right tip and lift it over edge stitch on the right tip. Since these are the last stitches, I break the yarn leaving a long tail, then I pull the stitch on the right tip. (See above right.) I keep pulling until the tail pulls through both stitches; this anchors the stitches.

Now, if you think about this, I’ve just unknit that very last stitch I worked! That turns out to be a good thing because levels out the height of the first and last stitches in the round.

Often, when I look carefully, I notice the stitch below the last stitch in the round is loose. So, I insert my needle tip into the first stitch I bound off and pull gently to adjust the tension. (See below left.)

Next, I thread a tapestry needle with the yarn end and embroider a chain to close the little gap. See above right. Then I tighten to make it look like all the other chains.

To the left you can see how this looks when I finish. As far as I can tell there is no height jog.

But, as you know, I am a knitter who has been known to knit and crochet using fun fur, so it may be that I’m just not picky.

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End notes:
1. That is, if it looks like a knit, I knit it. If it looks like a purl, I purl it. So, I’m working stitches in rib. To read more details click: binding off in rib.

Filed in “How To Knit”.