Becca J Norman

Is it too plain? If you want/need to add extra details onto something that you've knitted, you can embroider them on! Now, if you don't have any experience with embroidery, don't be scared; I'm going to teach you a really easy chain stitch embroidery technique. I've gotten a few requests for a tutorial on this, since I mention it in my football pattern, which, [wink wink] is free when you sign up for my newsletter. The chain stitch creates a continuous chain of stitches and can be used to make a bold straight line, or an outline of any shape you want to make, or even a meandering vine. Materials I’m using a plain old worsted weight white yarn - nothing fancy. Embroidery floss or a lighter weight would also work just fine. Think of all the small scraps of yarn you have. This is the perfect time to use them up! You know I love me some stashbusting! Step 1 Thread it onto a tapestry needle and begin by inserting it through your item so that the working end of the yarn is coming out on the right side where you want your design to begin. In this case, since the football is completely enclosed and stuffed, I have a tail dangling, but we’ll fix that at the end. If you have access to the wrong side, go ahead and tie a small knot, or save the end for weaving in later. Step 2 Take a small stitch in the direction you want your line to go, making sure that you get the long tail of the yarn underneath the needle so that you’re catching that loop. (see image below) When you pull the yarn/thread tight, it will form a loop around your working yarn. Pull it just tight enough to close the loop, but not so tight that the fabric puckers. As I'm working, I like to hold the yarn around the football to mark the line I’m following. That keeps me from getting off-course. Then as you're working each stitch, try to stay on the same side of the yarn. I'm right-handed so I stitch usually to the right of where the yarn is. This keeps your little chain loops from getting twisted on themselves. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Then I'll just keep stitching, taking fairly small stitches but not too teeny tiny. You can be as free-form as you want if you're doing a vine or something that's a little bit less precise. Always stitch back in where the yarn previously came out. That's how we get that really continuous chain of stitches. For the football, I wanted a thicker line, so once I had it the length I wanted, I turned around and did a second line right next to the first. Frankie Say Relax Remember your stitch tension! Depending on your personality or the level of stress that you're feeling at the moment, you may find yourself pulling the yarn really super tight, and that is not going to give you the same effect. So take a deep breath, and focus on relaxing a little, if only in your arms. You may find that concentrating on physically relaxing one part of your body will help you feel calmer in general. And that’s the magic of making things with your hands. Finishing To finish the ends, pull the yarn to the wrong side if you can, if not, just make a small knot as close to the end of the chain as you can. Then hide the end by threading in into the inside of the toy/whatever it is, and trim it while pulling tight. Of course if you can get to the wrong side, make the knot there and weave the end in a little nicer. Do the exact same thing for the tail you left dangling at the beginning! Have you ever dabbled in embroidery, or are you a knitting purist? I actually used to cross stitch before I got into knitting. For a different embroidery-on-knitting technique, check out how I make the faces on stuffed animals in this blog post.

A Common Pattern Abbreviation Out of all the knitting abbreviations in the English knitting world, I think k2tog is the one I see the most often. It stands for Knit Two Together. It’s a very useful decrease (subtracts a stitch, making your fabric narrower unless paired with an increase) technique and super easy for beginners to learn. You’ll use it for all sorts of things, from hats, mittens, sweaters, stuffed animals, and even in advanced lace patterns (alongside many other techniques). Lean to the Right For quite a while, this was the only decrease that I knew existed. There are others, but if you're new to this, don't worry about it yet. What you need to know is that this is a right-leaning decrease. This has nothing to do with political views (Thank God!) It literally leans to the right. How to K2tog Literally all you do is knit 2 stitches at the same time. Just bring your needle over one more stitch to the left, so that there are 2 between the right needle and the tip of the left needle. When you knit through them, make sure you’re catching both. A common mistake is to just spear through, and one stitch will fall by the wayside. If that happens, you'll lose it and then you'll get a run down below. So you always want to make sure you're actually going through both of the stitches. If you can't tell from the front, take the time to look at it from the back. If you can see both on the right needle, you’ve got it. Then just knit like normal. How to use it Now let's take a look at different ways that the stitch behaves based on where you place it in relation to either the edge or other knit two togethers. *Note: In all the examples, I’ve worked the decrease stitches on the right side only, meaning every other row. On the Right Selvedge When you work k2togs on the right selvedge edge, the stiches slant into it, which makes a relatively smooth transition as the stitches seemingly disappear one by one. Aligned to the left of a stitch marker When you work k2togs to the left of a stitch marker, meaning you slip the marker and then knit two together (sm, k2tog), It creates a flat smooth fabric with a continuous column slanting to the left, with the decreases leaning into it. To the Right of a Stitch Marker “Knit to 2 stitches before stitch marker, k2tog, sm” This creates a raised column of stitches that slant to the right, with the regular stitches on the right appearing to disappear underneath. On the Left Selvedge Edge And then finally, when they’re worked on the last 2 stitches on a right side row, it creates a neat braided finish. Did you know this one little stitch could do so many different things? And of course they can be used in any combination and amount needed.

Easy enough for a beginner Today I'm going to teach you a simple knitting increase. You definitely want to know at least one kind, because eventually knitting nothing except for flat rectangular objects is going to get kind of boring. I'm demonstrating this on the same football pattern as what I mentioned in my "Joining in the Round" post, so you can head over and check that out if you want to know how to do that. Don't let it freak you out though; it does not have to be in the round for this method. How to Increase with KFB “Knit front and back” means that you knit into the front of the stitch just like normal, but instead of slipping it off the end of the left needle right away, you want to bring a little bit more slack to that stitch that you worked, come around to the back, and knit through the back loop. Then you wrap the yarn around, pull it through very carefully - sometimes it can be kind of tight. I always use my thumbnails to pull it down so I don't lose it. then you slide it off. Then there is an extra stitch! This increase stitch has a bit of a purl bump on it and that's why this is also sometimes called the "bar increase." If you want to follow along with the creation of this football, go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss anything. I'll be adding all of the videos of techniques used in the pattern to this playlist, so go check it out!

Seed Stitch vs. Moss Stitch I’m an old-school knitter. I leaned from handbooks that were older than me, sitting on a bean bag chair in my closet. According to the books I had, seed stitch and moss stitch are the same thing. Nowadays, I see people referring to the method I’m showing in today’s video as seed stitch, and the second swatch I show as moss stitch. That’s probably less confusing but I think it’s important to know that there isn’t a universally agreed-upon term. Case in point: This book I have was published in 1976 and calls it moss stitch only. The stitch pattern on the far right, it calls ‘double moss stitch.’ Which I was going to show you as a variation, but as I was knitting it, it did not spark joy so I moved on to something else. You can briefly see it on the “hot mess swatch” at the end of the video. It's easier than you might think. Whatever you prefer to call it, seed stitch is a staple technique to keep in your back pocket. It’s the same on both sides and doesn’t roll up on itself, so it’s good for all kinds of things. My great-grandma knitted my baby blanket in seed stitch, so it’s a special one for me. Other things it’s good for: Pillows, scarves, warm sweaters, placemats… All kinds of stuff! How it's done: I think you’ll benefit the most from watching the video, but here are the key takeaways: The setup row is crucial, so carefully work a k1, p1 repeat all the way across, and then double check to make sure there aren’t any mistakes before moving on to the second row. After that, every row is the same. You’ll always knit into a purl stitch and purl into a knit stitch. It’s like a checkerboard of knits and purls. Then bind of with your preferred method. In the video I show what it looks like with the plain Jane knit-every-stitch standard bind off, the Jenny’s super stretchy bind off, and a standard bind off with alternating knits and purls. That’s really all there is to it! I would love to see how you use it, so don’t forget to share your pics of your projects and tag me! I’m @becca.j.norman on IG and FB.

What even is a 3/8 Market? When we first moved to Camp Humphreys (or to be more accurate, when we first got out of quarantine and were living in a hotel #pandemicpcs) I heard several people talk about going to a market in “The Ville” and some of my friends that used to live here told me to check out the 3/8 Market. Now, this is my first time living outside of the US, and I was very overwhelmed with house hunting and everything else, along with my kids being in virtual school for the first time. It took me a little bit, but I finally figured out that The Ville is the area outside of the USFK Camp Humphreys Pedestrian gate, and the 3/8 market is a farmer’s market that takes place on every day of the month that ends in a 3 or 8. Not too complicated after all! Since I live off post, I usually park in the public lot in between the Anjeon-ri gate and the Walk-in (pedestrian) gate. You pay with credit card when you leave and it’s charged based on how long you were there. It’s about 1000 won per hour. Exchange your USD Speaking of Won, you’ll need some if you want to buy things at the market. There’s a currency exchange right behind the first Turkish kebab place (there are 3 really close together. Weird, I know, and yes, I’ve tried all of them. MG has the best falafel. But I digress.) Take whatever cash you want to convert and they’ll give you KRW at the current exchange rate. Easy peasy. Watch the video at the top to see the market in action! It was much less crowded than usual that day, probably because I went in the afternoon. You will find the best produce - much fresher an cheaper that at the commissary, as well as other assorted grocery items and some cool street food. My favorite is the hotteok in the fall and winter. Living in Korea has been an amazing experience so far, even with a lot of restrictions because of good ol’ Covid-19. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself how lucky I really am.

Knitting ribbing is easy! While there are many variations (k1 p1… k2 p2… k2 p1…) what they all have in common is that they create vertical ridges and have lots of horizontal stretch. Another advantage of ribbing is that is doesn’t roll or have a wrong side. Watch the video below to see me demonstrate a 1 by 1 rib worked in the round. Now, I hear people a lot obsessing over whether they should cast on an even or odd number of stitches, and if they always start with a knit, or start with a knit on the right side and a purl on the wrong side. Stop overthinking it! If you want a full repeat of your ribbing pattern, cast on a multiple of however many stitches that is. For example, for a k2 p1 rib, cast on a multiple of 3 stitches. But the thing I want you to remember is that you have to bring the yarn to the front before you purl and to the back before you knit. That might be the hardest thing to remember. As long as you get through the first row without getting off track, you can just read the stitches and let them guide you from there. What I mean by that is you will knit into the stitches wearing v-necks (right side of a knit/wrong side of a purl) and purl into the stitches wearing turtlenecks (right side of a purl/wrong side of a knit)

It’s all on the labels “But how in the heck am I supposed to decipher all the gibberish on there?” (you ask) Well, it’s easier and more complicated than you might think. There are a lot of numbers and words on those labels, but when it comes to weight (the thickness of the yarn) the best indicator is the recommended knitting needle size. That doesn’t mean that you have to use that size needle; it’s just a recommendation along with the gauge it might* give you with that particular yarn. (More on gauge later…) If you have a yarn with no label and you need to know its weight, check out this blog post all about that. If you've even been unsure how to tell if you're getting the yarn weight you need, or don't even know what that means, I made this video for you. Now you can get the appropriate yarn for that awesome knitting pattern! The breakdown Yarn labels almost always have a needle size listed somewhere, usually in relation to gauge. Lace: 2-2.5mm (US 0-1) Fingering: 2.25-2.75mm (1-2) Sport: 3.75mm (US 5) DK: 4mm (US 6) Worsted : 4.5-5mm (US 7-8) Aran: 5.5mm (US 9) Bulky : 6mm (US 10) Super Bulky: 6.5-10mm (US 10.5 -15) Worried you won’t be able to remember all that when you’re staring at shelves full of yarn? I made a free Cheat Sheet PDF for you to print or save to your phone and take to the store with you.