Becca J Norman

If you're a knitter in Korea, or you've looked up yarn stores in Korea at all, you've probably seen pictures and videos of the store with the giant wall of thread cones, artfully arranged by color. It's a beautiful sight. Even though I've been in Korea for 4 years, I'd never visited, until now! The store is called 바늘이야기, or the shortened Banul for the logo. It translates literally to "Needle Story." I wasn't really sure if it would be worth the hype, since all I'd really seen of it was that one wall, and the cafe upstairs. But I booked myself a weekend alone in Seoul, and made a point to finally check it out for myself. Blog contents: Location Yarn selection Other tools and supplies Cafe The front of the store building Location info [NAVER Map] 바늘이야기 연희점 Address: 서울 서대문구 연희로11가길 15 Phone number: 02-771-9771 (did you know that you can enter the phone number into Naver to find a business?) https://naver.me/G7D4f3CC How to get there: As you can see from the maps, it's not very close to a subway station, and while you can drive there if you have a car, there isn't a lot of parking available either. Personally, I don't enjoy driving in Seoul if I can help it, and I'm recovering from a foot injury, so I opted to take a bus. If you're new to Korea or public transit in general, (hi, it was me too) don't be nervous! Just get a T-money card, look up directions in Naver, and you are set! Yarn selection I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and amount of yarn available in the store. It's not only beautifully displayed with great lighting, there is a wide range of weights, fibers, colors, and prices. Natural fibers I've gotten questions from other knitters and crocheters in Korea about where to find natural fibers, and while most of the yarns had some synthetic fibers blended in, there were still quite a few that were 100% natural fibers, such as wool, alpaca, cashmere, and cotton. They also had some of the traditional Korean paper yarn. All natural fibers! As you can see from the photos, some things are labeled in English, but there is still quite a bit in Korean, so if you are in Korea but haven't yet learned to read Hangeul, do it! In the case of yarn fibers, if you can just sound out the words, they will sound the same as their English equivalent, so it really will make things easier. Additional tools and supplies In addition to a great selection of yarns, there were quite a bit of tools and other things to complete a variety of projects. Some, but not all were: knitting needles crochet hooks buttons safety eyes embroidery needles snaps tags bag bases and straps rings stitch markers Banul Cafe After you've gotten all your supplies, you can head up to the second floor to the cafe, which has your usual selection of drinks, and cakes that look like buttons, or ice cream that looks like yarn! I did get a little over-stimulated trying to make a wise choice and excercise self-control with my purchase, so the cafe was a good place to unwind (and knit my gauge swatch) before getting back on the bus. Overall opinion: I think it's safe to say I'm a fan and will be back. I have to also give bonus points to the girl who rang up my yarn purchase for asking me if I remembered to check the dye lots on my yarn. So check it out if you get the chance, and let me know what you thought!

I got to go on a fun trip into Seoul with my husband when some friends agreed to watch our kids for us. In case you’re new here, Hi! I’m American but have lived in Korea for about 2 and a half years. I don’t go to Seoul a lot, but it’s not hard to have a completely different experience every time. This time my husband was excited to take me to a hidden yarn market he accidentally found on a trip without me. He called me that day and said I HAD to go there. He saved the location and took me the first chance we got. Sweet, right? I know. But first, baffle. If you haven’t watched all the Street Food iterations on Netflix, Do it. Because we’re in Korea, we particularly enjoyed the Korea episode of Street Food Asia. We took my parents to get the knife-cut noodles (delicious, and the lady making them is a delight.) The Baked Baffle was a little more elusive. It was harder to find and we went at least twice to find that the stand was closed. It was on the way to the yarn market so we tried again and finally it was open! Baffle stand location: Address: 서울 종로구 종로6가 314-15 (a quick walk from Dongdaemun Station, where subway lines 1 and 4 converge) Kakao Maps Naver JP thought it was amazing and I thought it was okay. Do with that what you will. The Underground Shopping Center After that, we headed to the main attraction. One of the most fascinating things about Korea for me is the crazy amount of underground places that exist. Some have flashy signs and some look like nothing. This one is just some stairs that lead down from street level. It feels like walking into a bomb shelter but suddenly you’re in this hidden world full of yarn, records, antique cameras, jewelry stores, and clothing boutiques. Obviously I was there for the yarn. The outer display of just one of the stores in this shopping center. Shopping center location: Address: 서울 중구 소공로 지하 58 (우)04535 (halfway between Hoehyun Station and Myeongdong Station on subway line 4) Kakao Maps Naver Keeping it under control I of course had specific yarn needs for specific projects. I’m still dedicated to intentional yarn habits. See this blog entry. I needed yarn for a sweater in my queue and also for a collection of stuffed animals. I had noted weights, amounts, and desired colors, so I knew what to look for. This is a practice I highly recommend. It helps keep you from spending too much money on yarns you don’t know what to do with. I was successful in finding yarns for the stuffed animals, but had a hard time finding enough for a whole solid-color sweater. The most I saw of any one yarn was 3 skeins per color. I bought 3 skeins of a periwinkle blue mohair-type yarn and was nervous because I didn’t see the yardage on the label and wasn’t sure it would be quite enough. I used it all up and ended up having to do a couple rows without it on the inside of the collar, but it was okay because I was stranding it alongside 2 strands of another yarn. It was quite the adventure and I got a little overstimulated and sweaty in there, but am happy with most of my purchases. One I thought was another mohair-type yarn but it turned out to be the shiny stuff they use for scrubbies that I can’t stand. Oh well. Vinyl Records! After I had my fill of yarn, I found my husband digging through records, something we both share a love for. He was really excited about Journey’s “Frontiers” LP for only 10,000 KRW. (That’s about $9) I looked with him for a while and we ended up leaving with the Journey album, Eric Clapton Unplugged, Jim Croce, and Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” Japanese pressing! All very enjoyable, minus a surprisingly offensive song from Sir Elton. There were SO many, pretty much all in great condition. They weren’t priced cheap but for the most part it was reasonable. I really wanted to get a good retro Korean pop album, but to be honest, I didn’t know where to start. I need recommendations. I’m talking pre-1990, preferably. I bet you wouldn’t expect to see an Andy Griffith cassette tape in Korea!

If you have a goal of shrinking your yarn stash, but never feel like you make any progress and also can’t find yarn you want to use, you’re not alone. I’m going to help you break it down so you can identify the yarns you really want to use. Hi. I'm Becca I’ve been knitting for about 25 years. I’ve accumulated quite a bit of yarn over the years, gone on prolonged yarn-buying fasts and reduced the stash, but still have more than I would like. If you’re not sold on the idea of even trying to have a smaller stash, check out this blog post where I get more into the why behind this. Getting Ready to pare down Before you even get into the yarn, I want you to look around your house and notice what colors you see. Are there any themes? Are there a few colors that make more appearances than others? Then look at your closet and do the same. If you have family members that you knit for, think about their colors also. I wanted you to do that because most of us have a favorite color or 2, and there are usually some colors we aren’t as drawn to. Knowing which is which will help with the process of sorting through the yarn. An example of my family’s general color scheme. It includes all our favorite colors, and each one works well with several others. Gather it all up. Actually, first get the floor nice and clean in the area you’ll be working, so you don’t get your precious yarns all dusty and hairy. Once you have all that yarn out of hiding, dump it all out in one spot. You know I’m a Marie Kondo fan, and this is literally straight out of her book. Then get a box or bin of some sort to toss the rejects into. If you don’t want to have to think about it again once you’ve made the cuts, then get a big cardboard box and tape it up as soon as you’re done. Make a rainbow. Arrange the yarns into a color wheel of sorts, in ROYGBIV order, and then place the black, white, grey, and multicolored ones either in the center or on the outer edge, depending on how it will fit better. Once that’s done, stand back and admire how pretty it probably is! See how this looks similar to my family color palette? That’s what we want! Sort. If it looks overwhelming right now, just take a deep breath and trust me. We're going to sort through it systematically and apply a few different filters, one at a time. Color scheme How does it compare to your household color scheme? Do you see any color families that you could eliminate? Think about not only the hue, but also about the values and saturation. Do you like bright colors? Pastels? Earth tones? Certain combinations? If you get overwhelmed and forget everything you ever knew when you’re staring at this massive rainbow of yarn, take a few minutes to look at the other parts of your house again and remember which colors are important to you. (Also don’t forget to breathe) Now for the hard part: Whatever doesn’t match that, grab it and toss it into your designated rejects box. Feel Once you’ve separated them by color, touch everything that’s left. This is kind of like the KonMari “spark joy” philosophy. If you don’t like the texture and feel, you won’t like knitting with it either, and therefore probably won’t ever use it, so why keep it? Again, toss everything that didn’t feel great to you into the bin. Weight Think back on things you’ve knitted. Do you have a favorite weight? It’s okay to have many different weights in your stash (I do), but if you know you prefer delicate lace weight projects, you could probably get rid of anything worsted weight and up. Conversely: maybe you hate fiddling with thin yarns. Then those can go. How does it feel now? Does the remaining stash feel more like you? More like home? It should. Thinking about the future I want you to think about the projects you want to knit. Do you see yarn in your stash that will work for them? If not, what’s the missing element? Not enough of a certain color? Not the right weight? Is there a way you can adapt the pattern to work with what you have? If you have a list of “to knit” patterns, like in your Ravelry queue, take a look in there and see if there’s a way to use what you have for any of them. (Side note: try to keep your queue to 15 or less.) I’m not saying you need to have an exact plan for every bit of yarn that you keep, but you should at least be able to visualize how some of them could be combined. Update your inventory. Before you put it all away, take some time to update your Ravelry stash, if you use that. If you haven’t ever done that, check out this old video to see how. I think it’s worth doing. If you already use the stash section of your Ravelry notebook, go through it and change the status of the ones that didn’t make the cut. Change them to either traded/sold/gifted or will trade or sell. Don’t delete them, or you’ll lose the yarn information from previous projects. For the ones you’re keeping, make sure the yardage is up to date. Learn how to do that here. This will make shopping from your stash much easier, and if you find yourself one day in a yarn store, tempted to buy everything, you can easily pull up your stash right then and there to see if this new yarn is really necessary. Get rid of the rejects. You can either donate or sell. Trading is also an option, but I would caution against that because the reason you’re doing this in the first place is because you had too much yarn. First, this will add more back in and defeat the purpose. Second, if you wouldn’t pay money for it, why take it for free? If you had to pay money for it, would you still want it? Before you donate, take some time to untangle knots and wind things into nice little balls. Ziploc bags are good for grouping compatible yarns together and keeping the yarn from getting jumbled up and dusty. If you’re selling it, obviously do the same. Donation ideas: You can offer it up to your local knitting group, take it to a thrift store, or check to see if there’s a domestic violence shelter or children’s home in your area and call to see if they would take this sort of donation. Selling If you’d like to recoup some of the money originally spent on these yarns, and maybe set it aside for future, wiser yarn choices, Mercari Is a site that I like to use for things like this that don’t weigh much and are nicer and/or a larger quantity. Once, I listed a bag of low-quality yarns on Facebook and titled it “Crappy acrylic yarns” for $5. It was claimed within the hour. If you try this, I’d love to hear about your experience and how you feel afterward. Share it on social media and tag me so I can see it. I’m @becca.j.norman on IG, and I don’t use snapchat, tiktok or twitter.

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!

If eyes are the window to the soul... Then don’t you want your handmade toys to have the cutest eyes possible? Today I’m going to show you 4 ways to add cute shiny eyes to your handmade stuffed animals and dolls to give them a little extra personality and life. Click here to shop for safety eyes in various sizes and colors. *A word of caution: even though these are called “safety” eyes, they can still be a choking hazard for any ferocious chewers, and that can include both human and fur babies. See what my dog did to this guy down below? Luckily this one only had embroidered eyes. Traditional Method Step 1: Prep the pieces. Sew any head pieces together, leaving an opening, but don’t stuff it yet. Check out this blog post for tips on sewing pieces together. You may want to play around with different sizes and styles of eyes to see what will give the personality you’re looking for. I got all the safety eyes I own at garage sales and flea markets a really long time ago, but you can also get them at pretty much any craft store or on Amazon. Step 2: Placement Figure out where you want the eyes to be placed and gently wiggle the tip into a space between strands of yarn. Move them around until you’re satisfied. You won’t be able to move them once the backs are on, so make sure you like the placement before you do. Step 3: Secure with a back Flip the piece at least partially inside-out and push the back onto the post of the eye, flat side first. If it’s very tight, you may need to place the eyeball onto a hard surface and really use firm pressure. Just be careful not to scratch the cornea. Ouch! The back of the safety eye Bonus Style #1: Eyeliner For an extra eye-popping effect, you can cut a circle of felt in a contrasting color, a little bigger than the eye, to place under it. You’ll just need to cut a small hole (as small as possible, just barely big enough to get the post through) in the middle of it. Then you can gradually trim around it until you have just the right amount peeking out past the edges of the eye. Even a very thin rim looks great, but for something like a panda or racoon, you may want a more dramatic patch. Trimming black felt around a plastic eye Bonus Style #2: Cat Eyes To give a wonderful retro cat eye lined look, simply backstitch a horizontal straight line across where the lined eye will go. That’s it! Bonus Style #3: Eyelashes Another option is once you’ve decided where you want the eyes to be, take them out and embroider some little lashes with embroidery floss or a thinner yarn so that it peeks out from behind the eye. This can be done along with the eyeliner or on its own and would be really cute either way! Don’t be afraid to play around with it and have a little fun. I prefer not to secure the ends until I’m sure I’m satisfied, because I usually decide to take out the stitches and start again at least once. Also don’t stitch through the eye insertion point too many times or you won’t be able to get it in. See how cute it turned out? This is felt eyeliner plus embroidered eyelashes. Which look is your favorite? Leave a comment below and let me know. I love seeing your projects! If you make something using techniques you learned from me, don’t forget to tag me in your posts so I can see. I’m @becca.j.norman on Instagram and Facebook. If you’d like to make this fox, you can find the pattern here on my website.

What is a kitchener stitch for? Who doesn’t love warm woolen mittens, especially when they’re made by hand? Okay, maybe you’re picturing something really amazing, or maybe all you can think of are those weirdly-shaped felted old things you find once a year in your bag of winter gear. (Just me?) I don’t have a mitten pattern for you just yet, but I was making a quick pair for my son when someone in my community requested a tutorial for the kitchener stitch. Perfect timing! The kitchener stitch is a grafting technique that’s used most often for creating a seamless finish on sock toes and the ends of mittens. (The first time I used it, it was to bind off a 1x1 ribbing on a sweater. It created a fantastic finish but Jenny’s Super Stretchy has since taken the place in my heart for that purpose.) When you see the directions listed out, it might look a little bit intimidating, but I promise you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Watch the video or keep reading, and it will all make sense. Start with an equal number of stitches on 2 knitting needles. I’m using double-pointed needles here, but straight or circular will work fine too. Cut the yarn length to about 4 times the width of the area you’re grafting. Thread it onto a tapestry or darning needle. Get darning needles here. 1. P front leave it on. Which means: Insert the threaded needle purl-wise through the first stitch on the front needle but don’t slip it off. 2. K back leave it on. Thread your needle knit-wise through the first stitch on the back needle, leaving it on. 3. K front take it off. Now thread it through the front stitch again, this time knit-wise and slipping it off. 4. Repeat step 1. 5. P back take it off. Thread the needle through the back stitch purl-wise and slip it off. 6. Repeat step 2. Then repeat steps 3-6 until you have just one stitch left on each needle. Then it’s just steps 3 and 5. And you’re done! Thread the tail to the inside of your work, turn inside-out, weave it it and trim. Voila! My memory trick: I have a super easy way to remember what I’m supposed to do for each one. I simply think of the front needle as a knit needle and the back one as a purl needle. Then I tell myself that in order to remove a stitch from the needle, I need to be doing it ‘correctly.’ In other words, knit on a knit needle and purl on a purl needle. When I’m doing it backwards, it’s just a reinforcement. Does that make sense to anyone besides me? Next time you see the kitchener stitch mentioned in a pattern you want to knit, don’t let it scare you off! Just get out your darning needle, open my video, and give it a go! Don’t forget to show me your results! Tag me @becca.j.norman on Instagram and to let me know how you used it.

What should I get when I'm starting to knit? Starting a new hobby is exciting! You get to learn something new, and get a bunch of interesting gadgets that will clutter up your dresser and fill your drawers! Wait… That doesn’t sound so great, right? But it’s a trap I see far too many people fall into. When you’re learning how to knit for the first time, there are some obvious things you need, like yarn and knitting needles, some things that might be a little less obvious, and some tempting things you don’t need — at least not in the beginning. Never fear, your miserly knitting friend is here to steer you in the right direction, save you money, and keep your house tidy. Watch the video below to see my recommendations and what everything is for. Then grab your shopping list through the form below. Too long didn't watch? That's okay! I've got it all in a list for you. Interchangeable circular needles I suggest getting a set of interchangeables pretty early in your knitting journey, and that's because as you start knitting different projects, you'll end up needing lots of different sizes of needles. It can get out of hand really fast. Circular needles may seem advanced, but I promise they're not. They can be used for regular flat knitting or for knitting larger projects in the round. (You'll eventually work up the courage to make a sweater and these will work for that too!) You can use these for small or large items too. A set of interchangeable circular needles comes with a range of sizes (diameter) of needle tips that screw on to a flexible cable, of which you will have a few different lengths. The Prism Aluminum Options Interchangeable Needle Set is what I use most, and I really like it. If you tend to be a looser knitter and your stitches slid off the needles easily, you may prefer wooden tips because they have a little more grip. Try these if that's you. If you notice the "short" sets when you're shopping, those have shorter tips and cables, which makes them good for knitting sleeves in the round, but that's for when you're more advanced, so don't worry about that yet. Stitch Markers Stitch markers can be used for marking your place on your work, to signal a repeat or where to perform shaping stitches. They can also be used to help keep count of your stitches if you have a lot. Example: you place a marker every 25 stitches so you don't have to start counting from the beginning to see if you have 200 or not. These are my favorite because they're simple and thin and don't get in my way. Swatch ruler & needle gauge While you can certainly use any old ruler to measure your gauge (stitches and rows per inch or cm, in case you didn't know), one of these makes it so much easier. This one also has holes on it that you can use to check the size of your needles. I use the needle measuring holes often, since I have so many double-pointed needles. Tape Measure Wait, what? Another measuring thing? Yes. A flexible tape measure is for not only measuring larger items, but also for measuring your body. Measure around your head so you can make the hat the right size, or your chest so you know what size to choose for that dream sweater! I like to have a retractable tape measure in my purse or knitting bag so I'm always ready. Check out this retractable tape measure from Knit Picks. Tapestry needles These can also be called darning needles. You'll use these for weaving in ends, sewing pieces together, or adding decorations to a finished objects. I like these bent-tip needles a lot. Scissors I'm sure you have scissors at home already, and unlike with fabric, any old scissors will cut yarn just fine. BUT, a small pair for your knitting bag is really nice. I've had this Fiskars pair for a long time, and they're quality. I've even taken them through security at several airports and they haven't been confiscated yet! (They have gotten flagged in the x-ray machine a few times, but after inspection, it's always been fine.)

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.

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!

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.

For most people, the first step in learning how to knit is making a slip knot; you make a little knot, you put it on the needle, and then you cast on your stitches - but turns out the slip knot isn't completely necessary. (I made this assuming you already know how to knit and are familiar with the long tail cast on. If you’re a pre-knitter and you’re hoping to get started, check out the course I made for beginners. How In order to start this way, you still need the same length of yarn that you would for any regular long tail cast on, but instead of making the slip knot, you're just going to: insert your left thumb and index finger under the yarn in the slingshot style (like you normally would after the slip knot is on the needle). open them up, take your needle in your right hand and simply put it over the top, swing it under and toward yourself, around and come back up. The yarn should be twisted around the needle now. That's your first stitch. Then you just continue casting on the way you normally would. Use what works best for you I was taught to start with a slip knot and for a long time that was the only way I ever taught anyone else, but recently I was teaching an eight-year-old how to knit and she was kind of struggling with a slipknot, so I said "you know what; there's another way. Let's give it a try and see if you like it any better" and she did! Then I started teaching her brother also, who is seven, and he was struggling with this method, so I said "hey let's try a slip knot" and that worked better for him. Is there a difference? There are only very slight differences in the finished product, when compared with a piece started with the traditional slip knot. The piece made with no slip knot feels slightly softer in the corner and is a little bit rounder also. So depending on what kind of project you’re making and whether you want a structured corner or one that’s light and airy, you might choose one method over the other. Aren’t you glad you know now? How were you taught, and which way do you like better? Let me know in the comments down below. If you're just trying to get started learning HOW to knit, but you feel like you need a little bit more direction, I have a whole online course that is just for you my friend. You can learn more about it right here.