Becca J Norman

I originally planned for this to be a small bonus tucked in along with the stuffing tutorial, but as I was editing the video, I decided this deserved its own post. I’m of course demonstrating once again on my fox pattern , but there will be other times you’ll need to attach a cast-on end to a bound-off end, sometimes in the underarm of a sweater sleeve. So even if you’re not making a stuffed animal, save this one for when you need it! Smooth Seam For this particular project, in order to close up the head once it’s been stuffed, I need to create a smooth seam connecting a bound-off edge and a cast-on edge. Since it’s going to be attached to the body at the center point of this seam, I stitch from the corners to the middle, allowing myself to then use the loose threads to attach the head to the neck opening on the body. I’m all about having less loose yarn tails to deal with at the end. First, make sure your corners are secure or your edges are lined up. You will insert the needle horizontally through both sides of the “V” that is a stitch, as close to the edge as you can get. Then you will insert the needle horizontally through a stitch on the opposite side, starting at the exit point the yarn came out before, and catching an upside-down “V” this time. Then keep working across like this, always inserting the needle through the previous yarn exit point and alternating upside-down and right-side-up Vs. Just the right tension You can pull it pull it fairly tight; you'll be able to feel when you've got it just right: not so tight that it's puckered, but not so loose that that you can see extra large stitches. It should look about like the picture above. If you’re making the fox or something similar, don’t forget to stop at the middle and start again from the other side! Then you can tie the ends in a knot in the middle and continue with the rest of the animal. That’s really all there is to it. As always, tag me @becca.j.norman in your projects that I helped you with!

Cute and Simple Facial Features I'm back, continuing our stuffed animal series, and today I'm going to show you a couple of different ideas for how to embroider on facial details. You may remember my safety eyes tutorial , and if you decided not to do those or you just don't have any, this one is for you. If you have ears to add, go ahead and attach those first. I find that helps me with placing the eyes. If you need some guidance on how to do that, check out this blog post. Supplies: (The pattern I’m demonstrating on can be found right here on this site.) Yarn or Embroidery Floss You're going to need some yarn in a color of your choice, DK weight or lighter. Embroidery floss is also a good choice if you only have bulkier weight yarns available. You'll need a pretty long piece. I used KnitPicks CotLin in Clementine, Swan, and Black. Tapestry Needle That’s obvious at this point, right? These are nice ones. Begin with the end in mind. The secret sauce for all of this is that our yarn is going to enter at the base of the head, right where it's going to be hidden when you sew it into the body. You can knot it there, or you can live life on the edge like me and just pinch it in place until you’ve taken a few stitches and it’s not moving. So insert your needle there at the base and bring it out through where you want the top edge of the nose to be. Pointy Nose 1. Make Vertical Spokes For this pointy fox nose, make several vertical spoke-like stitches, all going back through the pointed end of the nose. Do as many of these stitches as you need, until there are no more big gaps in between. I ended up doing one extra on each side, below the nose, which turned into a cute little mouth. 2. Weave Through the Spokes To fill it in the rest of the way, we're going to just weave it in and out of all of these spokes. Over, under, over, under, just like those potholders you used to make with the the loops on a loom. After each row of weaving, push the yarn down to the tip of the nose, and do another, making sure to go under the strands you went over last time, and vice versa. Do this until the whole nose is filled in. The last row should be a little tight. Moving on to the Eyes When you’re satisfied, insert the needle into the corner of the nose right where the yarn end is, and direct it to where you want the corner of the eye to be, on the opposite side of the face. For the eyes, you can get as creative as you want, but I always like the results the best when I keep it really simple. Play Around! I'm kind of woo and I like to just let their personalities develop as I'm making them. I always start in the corner of the eye and play around with the next stitch length and angle by simply sticking the needle in where I’m thinking about going, and stretch the yarn around it to see if I like it, and if I want to do a single straight stitch, or 2, like a bent line. Play around with it like this until you decide what you like the best. In this case, I made one small stitch up from the corner, and then a longer one for the length of the eye. So up from the inner corner, out through the outer corner. Then insert your needle into the upper part of the inner corner, and out though the exact same spot on the other side. What Lies Beneath I want you to look carefully and see what I did here. In order for the eyes to look symmetrical, you have to think about what the yarn is doing under the surface. If the outer corner is folded under, it will appear slightly shorter. The inner corner is extending out in the same direction under the surface, so it appears slightly elongated. You want the eyes to mirror each other. The devil is in the details, and paying attention to things like this will really elevate your projects. If you’re having a hard time picturing how this works, watch the video below . If you ever take a stitch and you don't like the way it looks, that's okay. Just pull it out and then you can re-thread your needle and start again. Secure the Ends After the last eye stitch is placed, bring that needle back out through the base of the head where we started and tie both ends in a knot together. When kids play with these, sometimes the thread gets picked and comes loose, so you do want to make sure it’s fairly secure. Show Me! I am from the Show-Me State after all, so if you make something using this tutorial, I would really love to see it! Make sure you tag me in your pictures. I'm @becca.j.norman on Instagram . Check out the next post , where we’ll be sewing on the ears. A good way to make sure you don’t miss it is to subscribe to my YouTube channel and turn on notifications, or get on my email list via the form below.

Map it Out Before you stitch anything down, of course you always need to decide exactly where you want it to be. Get both ears and the head and simply hold them in place, moving them around until they’re spaced properly, and then turn it to the side to check if they should be moved forward or back. Once you’ve found the sweet spot , place stitch markers or safety pins on the head, where the edges of the ears will be. Start Sewing Thread the yarn that’s still attached to the ear onto a tapestry needle and stick it right into that spot you marked on the head. You want the corners to be really secure, so go through that first stitch twice. Here you will use the same technique that we did for closing up the head, so for a review, go back to this blog post. How to Make Sure it Stands Up: This is a double-sided ear and we want it to stand up on its own. The way to accomplish that is to stitch across just one side, and then stitch across the other side just a tiny bit away from your first row of stitching. I also like to take any extra yarn tails that are hanging out and tuck them inside of the ear to give it just a little puff without actually being stuffed. When my daughter was watching me edit the video, she said she had always wondered what made the ears feel like that. So now you know too! Hold it Up with your thumb Instead of holding it down flat while you’re sewing, and just hoping it pops up once you’re done, I find that it helps to prop it up from behind with your thumb, like in the picture above. Burying the Tail Once each ear is fully sewn on, just tie a little knot at the corner and insert the needle right into that point and pull it out on the other side of the head. Pull the yarn tight, trim, let go, and watch it disappear! It’s just like magic. Stay Tuned! Stay tuned for the next and final post in this series, where we’ll be sewing on the rest of the body parts. A good way to make sure you don’t miss it is to subscribe to my YouTube channel and turn on notifications, or get on my email list via the form below.

Take it from the top. For this one, you want the seam where the orange and white meet to be centered over the neck opening. Just like we did with the ears, before you stitch anything down, you have to plan the placement. We’ll start with the head so that of it’s slightly twisted to the right or left, we’ll add the arms in relation to how the head ended up. That will insure that all the pieces work well together. You may want to mark a few strategic points on the head where it will meet up with the body. I find that it’s easy to get lost when stitching around in a circle, but adding a few markers helps me stay on track. Claw Hands The easiest way to hold the head in position while you’re sewing is to use the “claw hands” grip. simply place the body in the palm of your left hand (or right hand, if you’re left-handed), use your index and middle fingers to grab the head and the other 3 to hold the body. Once you’ve stitched part of the way around, you can let go and rotate it so that the part you’re working on is facing you without twisting your arm into knots. Before you close the opening completely, decide if you want to add a pinch more stuffing to the neck. I usually do because I really don’t like it when the head looks droopy. Tuck all the loose yarn ends in as well to hide them easily. When stitching across the front of the head, I like to mark he center point by simply placing the needle into the stitch on the head where I plan for it to meet the body, and place a locking stitch marker or safety pin. Make Adjustments as Necessary Once you’ve sewn all the way around, you can still evaluate if you like how it looks or not. if you want to draw any side down slightly, just stitch that section again, catching a slightly wider base than you did the first time. Remember to make a small knot and hide the yarn tail by drawing in into the body, pulling it tight, and trimming close so that it will disappear. (I showed this in more detail at the end of the ears video ) Arms In the same fashion, play around with the arm positioning and angles, then start stitching! Pay attention to how much they’re angled forward and whether you want them to be flappy or not. You get full creative freedom! Legs I think you’ve got the idea now. Use all those same techniques on the legs! Time for the Tail At last! The final piece of the puzzle. Fold the tail in half so that the loose end in in the middle and draw it through to the opposite side. As opposed to all the other pieces, we’re going to stitch this on on flat so it can wiggle waggle up and down. Sew across on way, then back to the other side, and make the final knot on the under side of the tail before you finish it off. Congrats! You're Done! Or you can be… if you haven’t yet, grab the pattern and make one (or 2 or 3) yourself.

Problematic Phrases Lately I can't get on social media without seeing someone talk about their "yarn addiction" or how they already have so much yarn that they don't even know what to do with it and yet they continue to buy more because "you can never have too much yarn" or, "it's not a problem if it makes me happy." I have a lot to say about that. But before I launch into a full-blown judgy rant, I’ll give you a brief history of my relationship with yarn. A Long and Complicated Relationship with Yarn I learned how to knit about 25 years ago , with some random balls of yarn left over from when my mom was into knitting, and also some sparkly stuff from my Barbie knitting loom kit. That's right; even my Barbies had knitwear. For the next several years, I didn't knit anything serious; it was mostly just swatches, and scarves, and you know, nothing really fancy. It was just a skein here and there, usually from Walmart or a garage sale, and I would get just enough for whatever the next thing was that I was knitting. And I would mostly use it up. A Turn for the Worse In my early 20s, I started to get more serious about knitting, and I also started knitting more different types of things. I made a lot of weird seed stitch beanies... I think it was when I got into knitting stuffed animals that my yarn-buying started to take on a whole other level. I felt like I needed to have every color , and sometimes I would buy all of these colors. and then realize they weren't the right weight for the next pattern I wanted to knit. So I bought a whole bunch more colors in that weight. I developed this habit where whenever I would see yarn on clearance at Hobby Lobby , I felt like I had to get it -- because the reason it was on clearance was because it was being discontinued, so if I didn't buy it I wouldn't be able to get it a different time because it would never be restocked! The Problem The problem was a lot of these yarns I never even used. And I also shopped on this site for discontinued yarn: I think it was called DBNY.com or something like that. I don't think it's still a thing. The catch with that website was they came in lots of usually 10 skeins or so, which was exciting for me because it was enough usually to knit a whole sweater, and I had all of these ideas about sweaters I would make. So I would order a few lots of this really cheap yarn, and it ended up being so much yarn , but sometimes they weren't so great because they were usually factory rejects. They had knots in the middle of the ball, or there was, like, a place where it just was cut. They were usually not the softest. Sometimes the colors were weird. I did all of this because I was on a really tight budget , and I had this scarcity mentality that made me feel like taking advantage of these deals was URGENT. Can you relate? Now, let's get back to all these phrases I keep hearing in the knitting community and why I have a problem with some of them. "Yarn Addiction" First of all, I decided that it's not funny to joke about addiction because it's a really serious problem that ruins a lot of people's lives and, so to casually talk about your addiction like it's some kind of a joke or even a good thing... I just really don't think it's funny. Second, even if you're being sarcastic and jokey, it IS possible to have an actual addiction to things that seem totally harmless. Even yarn. "You Can Never Have Too Much Yarn" Oh, I beg to differ. I hear from so many other knitters about how they have so much yarn - so much, in fact, that they don't even know where all of it is or what they have, so whenever they want to start a new project, they can't find the yarn that they think might be in their stash, so they just go out and buy more. Guys. Sounds like hoarding to me. And a lot of people, you know, proudly call themselves "yarn hoarders" but guys, once again, hoarding is an actual disorder that really affects people's lives. Why are we promoting this kind of behavior? I looked it up in my husband's DSM-5 desk reference... Let's read a few of the criteria and see if any of it sounds familiar: "Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. This difficulty is due to a perceived need to save the items and to distress associated with discarding them. The difficulty discarding possessions results in the accumulation of possessions that congest and clutter active living areas and substantially compromise their intended use." *I am not a licensed behavioral healthcare provider and this is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions. "It's Not a Problem if it Makes Me Happy" Oh boy. I mean, really I think this falls into the realm of what we're calling "toxic positivity" these days. And the other thing is: if you have to keep acquiring more, does it really make you happy, or are you just getting a temporary dopamine hit every time you bring more home? And third, are you a yarn collector or are you a Knitter, or Crocheter? Whatever are we to do about this? Well, let's get back to my story. I didn't have nearly as much yarn as some people do, but for me it was too much. It was starting to feel overwhelming, and my dedicated yarn storage bins were full , and I still had more yarn, and so it started getting stashed in different drawers, and just on my dresser and stuff. And it was actually stressing me out. Trying out Minimalism In 2017, I decided to dip my toe into the waters of minimalism. I listened to a bunch of podcasts and then finally, when my husband went to Iraq , I got Marie Kondo's book and I just went for it. I followed all of her steps and it was... it was life-changing - just like she said it would be. It was slow progress because my three children were very young at the time and also because of the aforementioned deployment, but little by little, my mindset started to change and as I sorted through all of my possessions, I realized how much I really have, and that scarcity mindset started to melt away. Still a Struggle Even so, whenever I tried to tackle my yarn, I just wasn't able to part with any of it. Every time, I would pull all of it out and I would look at every single skein and ball, and every bit of it, and I would think, "I can't get rid of it; I might make something with it! What if I want to make something and I need this color? and I already bought it and I don't want to have to buy it again, so I have to keep it..." I Have Issues Too... So see, you guys? I uh, I've had a few hoarding tendencies myself. I knew we would be moving again and we really wanted to go somewhere OCONUS (Outside the Continental United States") so I knew that good closet and storage space was not going to be guaranteed and I needed to do something about it. So I committed to not buying any more yarn until I had reduced my yarn stash from two storage bins, plus some extra, to all of it fitting in one bin. And I did it! It's very full; I CAN get the lid closed. It's not the prettiest organization method, but it works for me. A Very Long Yarn Fast From August of 2019 to February of 2021, I didn't buy any yarn. Some was given to me, as tends to happen when people know you love knitting. After a while of knitting my way through my stash, I got a better feel for what I like and don't like. And I realized that there were some yarns in my stash that, as much as I didn't want to get rid of, I didn't really want to knit with them either. So I sold those! 23 Stash-busting Projects I made quite a bit during that time. I finally made sweaters that I’d had in my queue for years. I used some wonderful cashmere blend I’d been saving for something really special for over 10 years. Many more accessories and small fun projects. 23 projects using only yarn that I already had! It felt so good. And honestly, even before that, I had been trying to stash bust for a while. Confession Full disclosure though: I do have one more sweater amount of yarn downstairs that I got because my daughter wanted a sweater, and what do you know: I didn't have enough of a color that she liked to make a whole sweater, so I had to buy more. Moving Forward So obviously I have some more work to do. I do. I know that. And after I knit that sweater, I'm gonna go on a diet again and just stash bust. I have started buying some more yarn again, but I'm a lot more careful about it now. I always know exactly what I want to make with it, how much I need, and what color, and I'm also mindful of the colors that I buy going well with the other colors that I have , so that whenever there's a small amount left, if I want to use a couple of them together it'll look nice. Anyway, that was my solution. I hope you feel inspired to do something similar.

Right Hand or Left There are many different ways that knitters hold their yarn while they're knitting. The two most common being Continental and English style. (sometimes referred to as picking or throwing) I'm going to show you today how they both work, and why continental ended up working a lot better for me. English Style When I first learned how to knit, I held the yarn in my right hand, which is called 'throwing' or 'English style.' I recently heard someone call this American style , which was new for me. I want to say: I've seen plenty of Knitters knit very gracefully with English style, but I personally was never able to get the hang of the fancy stranding without having to let go of the right needle. That honestly was the biggest problem for me ; in letting go of the needle every time I wrapped the yarn around to make a new stitch, either the needle would fall out, or I had to have it propped up on my legs or a pillow or something and it was just really really awkward. An example of English style knitting I made English style work for me and I knitted plenty of really cool things, but the more I knitted, and the faster I got, and then when I started using circular needles more often, I wasn't able to use my leg to hold up those needles and I got a lot less graceful. So finally, I decided to slow down a little bit and learn how to knit with the yarn in my left hand. Crossing Over I switched over in the middle of a project -- I don't know why. I was pregnant; who knows. At first it made my stitches super tight, then looser, and then they finally evened out, but my gauge was all over the place during this pattern. It looked terrible when it got done, so I do not recommend switching from one to the other mid-project.  Finish one thing and then just do a couple of swatches like you did when you were first knitting, and practice that way. It was awkward at first, just like everything when you're learning, but once I finally got the hang of it, I was hooked! (I flubbed at the very beginning of the video and said English style is called “picking.” I meant to say throwing but didn’t even catch my mistake until it was too late to change it. I also messed up the graphics that pop up at the beginning of each section. Oh my, so embarrassing! How I Hold the Yarn This is how I situate the yarn around my fingers for Continental knitting, I played around with a lot of different ways to hold the yarn and wrap it around various fingers before I finally landed on the right method for me. I put my hand over the yarn and then I scoop my pinky under it and wind it around; once if it's a roughish yarn and twice if it's really slippery. Then I flip my hand back over palm down, get my index finger under it, and just grasp the needle. Knitting Continental When I do a stitch, rather than throwing the yarn around like I was doing before, I just pick it. That's why this is called picking. It's a much smaller motion of the hands, which will cause less fatigue and strain , which is always a good thing. Insert into the stitch - I do kind of bring the left index finger around, but it's a really slight motion. Then the right needle is actually grabbing the yarn. I use my thumbs a lot to hold the stitches in place while I'm knitting, to keep them all from sliding off. Then whenever I need a little more slack in the yarn, I just stretch out my left pinky, and that helps me to keep a more even tension on the yarn, which in turn creates neater looking stitches. I'm dying to know how you were taught! Leave me a comment and let me know if you were taught English or Continental, or something else; there are a lot of other interesting ways to hold the yarn too. Taking Good Care of Those Wrists and Hands When I was in cosmetology school, they ground into us from the very beginning not to work with your hands balled up and your wrists turned under. So, say you're cutting someone's hair and your hands are turned under all day, that's not very kind to your wrists; you're gonna set yourself up for carpal tunnel syndrome and then you won't be able to work anymore. Well, it's the same risk for knitting. If you're knitting and you're holding your needles under, and your wrists are collapsed the carpal tunnel area is going to get crowded and possibly inflamed, and then if you start getting pain and tingling in your arm , that's no good! The Importance of Posture In my early 20s, when I was still doing hair full time and knitting every night, like any wild 20 year old , I started having those symptoms. So I had to really slow down and not worry about knitting so fast. Relax your wrists and lean back; you want to make sure your shoulders are back and your chest is open. A lot of the time I'll find myself hunching over, just because, I don't know. I'm a huncher. So shoulders back, chest open so you can breathe , cross your legs if you need to, whatever. You want your whole upper half of your arms to be relaxed. I could knit much longer this way before my hands wore out than I could when I was throwing. You'll notice I didn't cover purling continental style, but I've got a whole other blog on that right here.

I knitted English style for a really long time before switching to continental. I have another blog post about that where I go into all the details about how to hold the yarn that you can check out, but today we are focusing on PURLING. It was awkward at first. For a while after I switched to knitting continental, I still struggled to find a comfortable and efficient way to purl. I devised a method where I would kind of pinch the yarn for each stitch, but I didn’t really love it. It wore my hand out faster and I didn’t feel like my stitches were even. New and Improved Method I kept trying and once again had to slow down to try some new things. Finally I found a method that I like! It’s easier on my hands, gives me more even stitches , and works a lot better when I’m switching back and forth between knit and purl, like for seed stitch and ribbing . I hold the needle same way as I do for knitting continental, with my hand kind of closed. Some people, use an open hand. I don't like; it if you like, it cool. For each purl stitch, my right needle is coming out under the working yarn. As my right needle comes back up around, my left index finger is kind of pulling it down gently to guide it into place. My whole hand is controlling the tension and my pinky is letting in more slack as needed. Purls looser than knits? It's really common for your purling to be a little looser. Mine is, actually, but if you think it's a too big of a difference, you can try to push down a little more on the yarn as you're purling. If it stays a pretty big problem, there’s an easy solution , at least for when you’re working flat in stockinette stitch. You can just use a size smaller needle for your purl rows. An example would be using a size 9 needle for the knit rows and size 8 for the purl rows. I don’t find that it’s a problem for stitch patterns that use a combination of knits and purls within each row. Find what works best for you. Like I always say, experiment with a few different ways of holding the yarn. I hope that this gives you a few more options. Play around with it; try not to collapse through your wrists too much; don't hold your hands too tight. When you find that sweet spot, you'll know!

An Introvert Prepares to be Social It was January 19, 2006 , and I had finally worked up the nerve to go to a weekly game night at a church near me. I had been once before, but it was pretty awkward and a couple months had passed since then. (And also during that time, I totaled my car and my grandma died - not in the car accident - so a lot had been going on) I decided that this time, I would bring my knitting , so I would feel less weird and I would have something to do even if no one talked to me. Meet Cute I walked in and saw an empty couch so I quickly sat down and started knitting. As a single girl, I was always aware of guys in the room. I noticed one that was kinda cute. I avoided eye contact of course! The cute guy walked toward me and I realized I was sitting next to his coat and he was just getting something out of the pocket. But he said hi, asked what I was knitting. And you know one way to get me to come out of my shell? Ask me about knitting! So I lifted my needles up to show him the project and his mind was instantly blown. It was an illusion scarf with an alien head design in it. I don’t have any pictures of it because this was before Instagram, and I didn’t even have Facebook or Ravelry yet. Crazy! This is the pattern in the book. Another Guy? There’s also the fact that it was for another guy… I was a hairstylist back then and one of my young (high school student) clients showed up one day with a knitting book and a Snickers bar and showed me the scarf pattern in the book and said I needed to make it for him. Was that a flirt? We’ll never know for sure, but no sparks flew on my end, although I happily obliged with the knitting request. My Guy Filter I just so happened to be wearing my favorite Beatles tee shirt that day, which I liked to use as a filter for the guys my friends were always introducing me to. If they said anything about hating the Beatles: OUT. But this guy (the one whose coat I sat next to) noticed it and started talking about how he loved the Beatles! Cue some real excitement that I tried to keep under wraps. He went back to playing the game of Rook with his friends, but soon one of them left to go to the bathroom or something and the guys said I should come take his place. I’d never played before, but one of them sat behind me and explained how it worked, and we won! The cute guy with the coat was my teammate in that game so he was very happy too. I thought the flip phone was pretentious. Before I left, he asked for my phone number and I tried to keep my cool as I recited it and he programmed it into his Razr flip phone. From Sushi to Forever The next day he left me a voicemail while I was at work, inviting me to a movie “with a bunch of friends” and ended up taking me to a sushi restaurant just the 2 of us. Fast forward 16 years and we’ve lived in 3 states, 2 countries, had 3 kids, and so many ups and downs, but he still makes me laugh. Our first photo together. I only this week noticed the creepy puppet in the background. I don’t remember that and neither does my roommate!

You know how to knit two together , but now you need a left-leaning decrease. There are a few different techniques to achieve this, each of which looks slightly different. I'm going to show you three of them, compare them side by side to show you how they differ, and teach you some hacks to make them look even better. I went a little swatch crazy searching for the fairest and smoothest left-leaning decrease in all the land. On the first swatch, I did the left-leaning decreases to the left of a stitch marker: I knit to a stitch marker, worked two stitches together… knit to a stitch marker, worked two stitches together. I wanted to compare them all both ways because I had a feeling different ones might look better in different situations. From left to right, both swatches have: k2togtbl, modified ssk, ssk. On the second one, I did them where they're aligned on their left side. So when I came to a stitch marker, I knit the two together that were BEFORE the stitch marker. both of these swatches have the same three left-leaning decreases. (There’s one more that I forgot about: skpsso , sometimes also called skp , but I really don’t like it so maybe I forgot it on purpose) This on the right side is a traditional SSK; in the middle is a modified SSK, and on the left is a k2tog tbl. I'll show you how each of those is worked, and then we will go over which one I like better, and when and why. SSK SSK means "slip, slip, knit" (slip them knit-wise) and knit them together through the back loop. Modified SSK For the modified SSK, which everybody says is so much smoother, you only slip one stitch-knit wise, and then you knit that and the next stitch together through the back loop. This could also be abbreviated as s1k2togtbl but that’s not very short so I don’t know who does that. K2tog TBL For the k2tog tbl, which of course stands for "knit two together through the back loop" you don't slip them; you just knit them through the back loop as-is. The Hack There is one additional secret that I found made a really big difference in a smoother column of left-leaning decreases. Without it, every other stitch looks a little bit smaller, and it's kind of a crooked line. But when you work the stitch in the next row through the back loop, it makes everything look a lot smoother. This is the modified SSK without the trick I’m about to show you. Hack Option 1: When knitting stockinette flat, you can purl every stitch directly above the decrease through the back loop, and all the rest regularly. Working a stitch through the back loop creates what’s called a “twisted stitch.” When knitting in the round, knit the stitch above the previously worked decrease through the back loop. This is easier because the decrease is easier to see on the knit side than the purl side, but if you’re using stitch markers to keep track of the decreases, you can use those as a reminder of where to work the twisted stitches. Hack Option 2: If you don’t think you’ll remember it on the plain rows (understandable), you can do the work of twisting the stitch right after working the decrease. This will work the same whether you’re working flat or in the round. To do this, insert your left needle through that stitch on the right needle (the one you just worked) from right to left, slipping it to the left needle, and then back to the right needle again by slipping it purl-wise. When you do this, you don't need to do anything fancy on the next row. Just knit or purl normally. They'll feel a little bit different because they're already twisted, but it accomplishes the same goal. And the Winner Is... Who is the winner of this left-leaning decrease beauty contest? K2tog tbl? Not my favorite. It's not horrible, but I don't love it. It is a lot better with the twisted-stitch-on-the-off-rows-trick than without. It was harder for me to decide between the others. They’re pretty similar, but in the end, I prefer the regular ol’ SSK. What made the biggest difference was twisting the stitch in the following row. What’s your favorite? Leave me a comment here or send me a DM on IG! @becca.j.norman

Bipartisan stitches All knitting decreases (and increases too, for that matter) fall into one of two categories: right-leaning and left-leaning , which has nothing to do with their political views. I'm going to show you why both are important, and how to use them together in different combinations to create different looks. If you still need to learn how to do these decreases, check out the other blog posts where I cover that, Here, and here. Swatches and More Swatches I made some swatches to show you different ways that left- and right-leaning stitches can be combined. Remember that K2tog leans to the right , and SSK leans to the left ( along with a few other methods; for more on that see this blog post ) Swatch #1 Decreases from left to right: K2tog, SSK, K2tog, SSK. When you do K2tog, SSK (right to left) next to each other in the middle or wherever, what you get is two raised stitches and then all of the other stitches seem to just disappear underneath. Swatch #2 Decreases from left to right: SSK, K2tog, SSK, K2tog This swatch has all of the same decreases but in reverse order, and see how different that is? Instead of the raised ridge in the middle, it's more flat. All of the stitches are just meeting together. The only problem with this is you run the risk of the sort of gapping in between, so you have to either make sure you pull it really super tight in between, but you still might get a gap, or the other option is to add a stitch - just a plain knit stitch - in between each of the decreases, and that will really help to smooth it out. Intro to Knitting Charts To give you a better picture and help you visualize how this is all laid out, I made a couple charts. The vertical line in the middle notates where a stitch marker is placed, and the / and \ symbols are the decreases. Ideally they would be 2 squares wide, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that with the program I was using. This is the chart for swatch #1. To further explain how to knit with a chart (if you enlarge the image, you should be able to read the key in the bottom right corner) the plain white squares stand for both knitting on the right side and purling on the wrong side. So all of the odd-numbered rows are just purled all the way across. If this were a stitch pattern for anything other that stockinette, there would also be dot or dash symbols to notate purling on the right side or knitting on the wrong side. The chart for swatch #2 Charts are generally worked from right to left on the right side, and left to right on the wrong side, as well as bottom to top. Don't be scared! I know charts can sometimes seem intimidating and a little confusing, but if you are a visual learner, it really can help to visualize what you're reading when you look at the written instructions.

Look Ma, I made it! Sweaters = Intimidating? It took me a long time to get into knitting sweaters. They're so darn intimidating... The first one I made maybe didn't turn out so well, (I’m recalling a lumpy vest) but I recently finished the cardigan of my dreams, and I'm sharing with you how I feel about the pattern, what I liked and didn't like, changes that I made, and changes that I wish I had made. Pattern I used the Channel Cardigan pattern by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. This is actually my third cardigan pattern of his that I've knitted, and I didn't even necessarily do that on purpose; whenever I was picking patterns, the ones I gravitated toward turned out to be his. I mean, the man the man knows what he's doing. Yarn The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Rainforest Heather , and I really really love the color. Depending on the light, you catch different little flecks of scarlet or purple, and it's just really cool. Techniques The techniques I used for this sweater are: tubular cast on moss stitch reading a chart increasing decreasing cabled cast on/knitted cast on Jenny's super stretchy bind off knitting in the round knitting flat English Rib Pros The stitch pattern itself and the texture that it creates is so beautiful. The chevron, the moss stitch (you know I'm rather partial to the moss stitch) and the way that it creates vertical stripes... I mean it's gorgeous right? Not only are they beautiful and do they have such a luxurious texture, but they're actually pretty easy to remember , so you don't have to be totally glued to the pattern the whole time you're knitting. Moss stitch is super simple; the English Rib only has a two row repeat. The chevron, even though it is a chart and you have to really look at it, once you get going, it's not hard to remember what you're supposed to be doing. The schematics in the pattern are laid out really well, which helped me to visualize how everything was laid out even though it was all in different pieces. I always appreciate when designers add a detailed schematic of the measurements of different parts of the garment, and he even has one for where all of the stitch markers are in relation to side seams, and the center, and all of the decreasing and increasing for the shaping, and that that helped me a lot. There are plenty of opportunities built in to increase and decrease to shape it to your body without messing up the stitch pattern; you just do it in the seed stitch panels and I thought that was genius as far as making it more easily customizable. Since it's worsted weight, it's warm but it's not too bulky to just wear around all the time in the house, which I 100% have been doing since I finished it. I wear it every day. Cons: They’re minimal but there are a few. As beautiful and amazing as the chevron pattern is, since I was working with a darker-colored yarn, I realized pretty quickly that I could not work on it in dim lighting because I couldn't see what I was doing and I made a lot of mistakes that I had to frog back. I know I said the chevron pattern was easy to memorize, but it did require a lot of concentration because every row is different. Watching a movie while knitting = lots of mistakes. It was totally worth it, but if you don't have a lot of spare mental energy, that might present a challenge. Mods: As for the modifications I made, I used a special ribbing technique for my 2x2 ribbing so that it doesn't look all splitty when it stretches. It's a really nice and neat ribbing. Comment below or send me a DM if you would like a tutorial for that. I could totally make one. You can also see the tubular cast-on edge. Nice, right? I did Jenny's super stretchy bind off along the back of the collar, which, I don't know if you would really count that as a modification, but the pattern didn't specify it. I added a little length to the bottom , because I noticed in a lot of the pictures that it looked like the belt was kind of low, and I naturally have a higher waist and I knew that would bother me, so I thought that I would just add some length below, but then I forgot to subtract length above, so it ended up completely defeating the purpose. I really thought about not putting in the eyelets for the belt loop holes, but I did it anyway, and I ended up sewing the belt loops into the top eyelet but not the bottom, and I just flipped it up and pushed it through the fabric because the belt was going to be awfully low for my body. I was worried about it looking weird because of the empty eyelet below, but you can hardly tell. The empty eyelets only show if I spread them out on purpose. I couldn't quite get the exact gauge that the pattern called for. My first swatch was too tight and when I made another with one needle size up, it was too loose. I think the yarn is maybe just a teensy bit lighter than a standard worsted. Maybe it's just me. I decided to go with the tighter gauge rather than looser because sweaters tend to stretch out from their own weight, and I'm happy with that decision except that I forgot to take that into consideration in the size that I made, and I probably should have made one size bigger. (More on that later) Next time… Things I would change next time: I would definitely grade up a size below the waist. This is specific to my body, but if you also are curvy through the butt/hips you might decide to do the same. I can’t wear it buttoned all the way down. I think part of the reason the bottom hem is so tight is because of the special ribbing technique I mentioned. As great as it is, it has wonderful stretch recovery and elasticity which makes it cinch up a little bit tighter than a traditional ribbing, and so I maybe should also have used the same size needles for the ribbing as I did for the body, instead of sizing down as the pattern suggested. I would definitely make the belt loop holes higher or remove them altogether. I ended up getting the belt loop inserted just fine in the spot where there wasn't a hole, so they're not 100% necessary. Their advantage is that they make it much easier to place the loops evenly, so if you choose not to do the eyelets, you probably want to place locking stitch markers where they eyelets are called for. Then if you decide to move them, you still can. I would make one or two more buttonholes if I keep the length the same because it kind of bothers me that I can't button it very much above where the belt is. Last but not least: I would start it in the Spring so that it would be ready for me to wear all Winter! I started this one in September and finished it near the end of January, so it was a little intense. Overall, I love this sweater and I almost never knit the same pattern twice, but I kind of want to make another one of these. It's not a great stash busting project though, so not until I've reduced my stash a little more with some other projects. I'm gonna behave. I would for sure use the same yarn again, of course in a different color, but it has great stitch definition and even though it's a 100% wool, it doesn't make me itchy. Which is saying a lot because I have a really hard time wearing wool sweaters. It does help that I wear t-shirts under it, so it doesn’t bare skin on my neck or chest where I’m most sensitive, but it's it's really soft and it's a super wash, which I know some people have opinions about, but I appreciate that it’s easier care and that also does make it a little bit less itchy. The important links, again: Buy the pattern here Buy the yarn here * (this is an affiliate link, which helps me to keep providing free content for you!) Ravelry project page

When you finish a knitting project, you usually have some yarn left over, right? I know I do. I'm going to show you how to calculate how many yards or meters are left with reasonable accuracy so you can plan your stash-busting projects with confidence. After finishing a project I recently finished a big project - my Channel Cardigan . I still need to update the yardage in my stash. Now, I keep all of my yarn organized digitally in my Ravelry notebook . I have a really old video about that here . You can go back and check out if you want to know HOW to do that, but to calculate how many yards you have left is a little bit complicated you might think, right ? Wrong . It’s easy. Supplies: A Scale All you need is a digital scale . That's it. Please note though: this method is for when you know how many yards per gram or ounce or whatever are in a skein of this yarn. If you've lost the label and you did not take note of it and you don't remember what brand or kind of yarn it is, I'm sorry but this is not gonna work for you quite so easily. Your Yarn Grab any partial skeins that you have left, and then make sure there aren't any others hidden anywhere. Sometimes I have a tendency to throw my knitting projects in a bag when I'm on the go and then leave partial balls different places. A Bowl This one is optional, but if the yarn won’t fit completely on the scale, a bowl will keep it all contained. Just make sure you zero out the weight on the scale after placing the bowl and before putting the yarn it it. And Now We Weigh If you have your stash and knitting project in your Ravelry notebook already, open up the project and scroll down to the yarn information. It will say how many yards or meters were originally in your stash. Click that, and note the original gross weight. (When you started the project) Then weigh your yarn. Subtract the current weight from the original weight; take note of how much that is, because that's how much you used. Go back to the project page, click 'edit project' then go down to the yarn again and click 'enter totals' then you're going to enter the difference, so, the amount that you used. Click 'save changes' and bam! now your stash is updated with the amount left over and your project reflects how much yarn you used. The reason I choose to do this through the project page and not the stash page is because it not only helps you buy the correct amount of yarn should you ever want to knit this pattern again, so you can know if you have enough, but it also helps other knitters who might want to make this pattern and might be curious how much yarn it's taken other knitters to finish a particular size. Without Ravelry If you just want to know how much is left, you can still calculate it manually with just a little bit of math. Look at what the label says and divide the length by the weight, and then multiply that by the current weight. Make sure you're using the same unit of measurement so you don't throw off your numbers. Et voila! That's how much you have left. See? I told you it was easy.