The Knitting Fiend

As you can see, I’ve been swatching. This is not standard swatching to check gauge; it’s “design process” swatching.

So, how are the two different? If I want to recreate someone else’s design based on their published pattern, (which I now rarely do) I buy the specified yarn and just swatch to figure out the needle size required to achieve the stated gauge. Once I’ve done that, I cast on and follow the directions. Often, I knit exactly 1 swatch because I can generally guess what needle size I need to get the published gauge. (I my case, this is usually 2 needle sizes smaller than stated in the pattern directions.)

But, as you know, I am designing my own sweater. I did have an idea what I wanted to make when I bought the yarn, but the idea wasn’t precise. In fact, when I entered the Stephanie’s Knitting Olympics site I described it as “A Yoke Sweater”. ( I probably deserve a prize for the most boring sounding entry in “The Knitting Olympics”.)

At the time, I didn’t know if I’d be making a fine or heavy gauge sweater, only that it would have a yoke! Later I decided to buy from a company I had never heard of; this adds additional challenge because it means I don’t quite know the properties of the yarn. Will it be tightly or loosely spun? Fuzzy or smooth? Will cables pop, or will it knit into a more “fluid drapey” type fabric? Will I want to use it single thickness or double? I couldn’t know these things.

So, when deciding how much to order, I decided to assume I would use the yarn double which gave me the upperbound on the amount of yarn I would require. So, I estimated I need 7-8 skein. I added an extra skein to use for swatching. I bought 9.

As you can see, I’ve now knit 4 swatches. So, I’m definitely using that extra yarn!

Two of the swatches use the yarn 1 strand at a time. Since this yarn doesn’t indicate a suggested gauge, I had to guess the needles I would need to knit. Eyeballing, it looked “fingering” to “very light sport”. It’s noticably thinner than Plymouth Galway, which I knit with US 6 needles. (The manufacturer recommends size 8, but I tend to knit loosely so I always use smaller needles.)

So, I figured, I should use size 3 for this yarn. But, wanting the cables to truly pop, I figured I wanted a very firm knit. So, I used the size 1’s which were right there at hand.

I got a 28 st= 4″ gauge. I also knit “Bobbled Cable” stitch pattern single stranded to how cables look in this yarn. I like the fabric and the cable. But, that at this fine gauge, that cable is a more delicate that I want in the design I have planned “in my head”. In my mind’s eye, I am planning one decorative element which will make the sweater deserve the name “Olympic Circle”. I want the decorative element to be bold.

What to do? I decided to try the yarn double stranded.¹

Ok, back to what I actually did! Once I decided to knit two strands at a time, I had to knit more swatches. To explore how the yarn knits over a range of gauges, I changed needle tips as I knit. I began knitting with US size 5 and progressively increased to US size 8. So, the stitch gauge on that swatch ranges from 4.5 st/inch to 3.5 st/inch. I’ll decide what needle size will use after I wash the swatches and see how the fabric feels.

Notice I also knit a second cable swatch this time double stranded. I’ve decided I definitely like that! I also tested picking up stitches along one edge of the cable panel as will be required for my design.

Next: Wash my swatches then decide how I like these swatches after they are washed and dried. I know some people are surprised that I wash my swatches, but I always do. That’s because I want my sweaters to fit after I wash them.

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1. I promised readers some suggestions on yarn gauge for this yarn. For those wondering, if I had decided to use this yarn single stranded, I’d probably knit a second swatch on US size 2 or 3 needles. Because I do want fairly firm fabric, I’d aim for 26 st = 4 inch. If I were knitting a sweater in pure stockinette, I’d aim for 24 st = 4″. If I were knitting a shawl, I’d aim for 22 st/inch.

I promised this: how to work a “Peasant Heel”, illustrated.

One reader had wondered what a peasant heel looks like. Well, I’m modeling a sock with a peasant heel to the left; it peasant heel strongly resembles a short row heel. However, you don’t need to work short rows which will relieve some knitters.

Now, having shown you how they look, on to the “how to” portion of this article!

Peasant heels can be used in both “top down” and “toe up” sock patterns, and are worked similarly in both cases. When socks are knit top down, you knit the leg circular to the appropriate length, then stop knitting, drop the sock yarn but don’t break it. Attach waste yarn and knit 1/2 the total number of stitches on the needles with using waste yarn. Then, turn the work and purl back over the stitches you just knit. When you arrive back at the point where you attached the waste yarn, break the waste yarn. Now, pick up the sock yarn and start knitting around and around until you reach the point where you beging toe shaping. You follow your toe shaping directions.

If you work toe up, you do the same thing except you work the toe, then foot, the two rows of waste yarn where the heel will be and then work the leg.

So far so good. But, now you now have a sock with no heel and two stupid rows of waste yarn where you want to have a heel. What do do?

Either grab two DPNs or a circular needle, and insert them into the rows of sock yarn stitches adjacent to the waste yarn as shown to the right.

I used my circulars to illustrate how you will begin knitting. Notice in the photo, the cuff is toward the bottom and the toe toward the top. The needle tips point to the right. If you look for the broken ends of the waste yarn, you will also find them on the right.

When I knit, I will pull the top needle tip to the right to draw out the cable and use that tip to knit off the stitches on the lower needle — that is, the needle holding stitches on the “cuff” side of the sock.

Why do knit off the “cuff side” needle tip first? Because I knit this sock cuff down, which means I knit the cuff before the toe! (If you knit toe up and work peasant heels work the “toe” side stitches first. )

Ok, that’s not a real explanation of why you should do this. The full answer has something to do with the spiral geometry of knitting circular which I don’t want to explain right now. But, if you pick up stitches for the peasant heel and knit in the “wrong” direction, you’re likely to see a pesky holes on one or both sides of the heel. You can patch these up, but it’s better to knit in the correct direction in the first place.¹

After sticking the needle tips in the stitches you want to pick up, check that you picked up every stitch, inspecting the sides carefully. You may find it difficult to pick up on one of the sides, because you are picking up stitches “upside down” which means the stitches are shifted a half stitch. So, you may find you are picking up one extra stitch or one two few. Try to err on the side of one too many– you can knit this away if necessary.

After checking carefully, (like I thought I did), snip the waste yarn and pick it out; see above left. You will now have live stitches.

Now, even though you checked really carefully like I did check to make sure you picked up all the stitches. Oops! I missed one! (See above right.)

Had I picked up stitches on DPN’s, I’d just slide this stitch onto a DPN, but I used circular needles. So, I placed the stitch I missed on a safety pin.

Now, if you are knitting with DPN’s distribute the stitches on three needles as specified in your pattern. If you are knitting using Magic Loop, just pull out the cable. You are ready to knit a plain round, which will be the first round of your “toe” shaping. So, attach the sock yarn and start knitting.

I could describe how to knit the toe in detail. But, I’m going to take the lazy way out and just tell you that you will knit what seems to bea pointy toe. Why take the lazy way out? Because almost no one has difficulties following directions to shape the toes!

The general idea is you alternate plain rounds and decrease rounds. Each decrease round you decrease a total of 4 stitches, one on the left edge and one on the right edge of the “top” , then one on the left and on on right edge of the “bottom”. Your pattern will tell you to continue alternating decrease and plain rounds doing this until only a certain number of stitches remain; this will generally be 1/3 the total number of stitches you had when you began the heel.) Then, you break the yarn and use kitchener stitch to close the heel and you weave in the end where you attached the sock yarn to begin knitting the heel.

Of course, while doing this, you should resist the temptation to try on your sock!

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1. If you are pondering this, the reason it’s better to knit one direction rather than the other reason is related to the whole “color jog” phenomena knitters see when they first try to knit stripes circular.

I like discovering knit-a-longs and reading how those projects are going, but I finding all the intereting ones can be difficult. Since I got so many people to help add links using the form for my “add your link” sock links page I figured I’d start a page for knit-a-longs. So, here it is!

If you’d like the link to your knit a long to appear, click here then enter the data in the “add a knit-a-long link” form.
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