New Mexico Knitters! (And Wannabe Knitters!)

I'm teaching classes this Saturday!  I will be teaching beginning knitting and continental style knitting :)  More details here.

I would love to meet you and you're friends so be sure to sign up today!  Sign ups close soon, so don't hesitate.

Cabled Tie-Front Bolero Pattern

Remember back in this post where I asked for sleeve suggestions for a coming design?

The most votes went toward short flutter sleeves so that's what I did!  What do you think?

The pattern can also be knit up without sleeves, which looks just as adorable, so you can personalize it however you prefer. 

The pattern can be found in my shop and Ravelry details are here.

Tuesday Learn To Knit Day 14 - The I-Cord

Hello My Dear Students,

I know I didn't really come back and teach you new things the next week like I said I would, I got incredibly busy and these lessons fell by the wayside.  I know.  For Shame.  I apologize profusely and hope to get these back on track. 

This week, we're learning the I-cord.  I was teaching my friend how to knit this the other night and knew that I must show you all! The I-cord is used for a variety of things including straps on bags and various embellishments.  It is also good for knitting jewelry and those sorts of things.

Basically, knitting an I-cord is knitting in the round on a very small scale.

You will need two double pointed needles and whatever yarn you are using.

First, cast on probably 3 or 4 stitches (the more stitches, the thicker the I-cord.  Many patterns call for a specific number, so I'll leave that to them and give you the basics).

Instead of knitting on the side that the last cast on stitch is on, you will slide the stitches to the other end of the needle and knit the first cast on stitch first, instead of the last.

Continue with the rest of the stitches on the needle and when you complete the row, slide the stitches back to the other side of the needle (I hear making the type-writer sound "Ching" while doing this makes it easier ;))

Continue in this fashion until the I-cord is as long as desired and bind off.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to let me know :)

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 12 - Knitting in the Round

Hello knitters! In this week's installment of my knitting lessons, I will be teaching you the fundamentals of knitting in the round. This type of knitting is perfect for hats, socks, bags and other 'round' type things, it creates one uniform piece of fabric so you don't have to sew up the sides later.

There are two ways to do this, with circular needles (circs) and double pointed needles (dpns).

In both cases, the most important thing about knitting in the round is to make sure your stitches don't get twisted. This can take some practice (as does everything with knitting). The way I do this is to make sure that the ridge created when casting on is all facing downward. If the little ridge is twisted or snakes around your needles, you won't get a flat project and you'll have to start over. Unless, of course, your project calls for twisted stitches, but most of the time they don't :)

I find circular needles a bit easier so I will start with those first.

Cast on the desired number of stitches just as you would with straight needles.

Stretch the stitches over the entire length of the needle so that they reach the other point.

Place a stitch marker (the little elephant in the picture) to mark the beginning of a round. A round is equivalent to a row on straight needles.

Knit as you would on straight needles, passing the stitch marker over from left to right as you come to it.

Now onto double pointed needles.

With double pointed needles, usually they come in a set of 4 or 5. Depending on the size of the project, you will have 3 or 4 in constant use (kind of acting as the loose chord holding circulars together) and one for knitting.

Cast on the desired number of stitches evenly over the 3 or 4 needles. this part can be a bit confusing and frustrating at first. To keep the needles from falling out or getting twisted, I hold the ones with stitches on them in my right hand along with the needle currently receiving stitches sticking out a bit farther than the others.

Make a triangle or square with them as shown to orient the stitches so that the first cast on and the last cast on are next to each other.

Place your marker (the elephant in the photo) and knit two or three stitches from the first needle to the 3rd (or 4th).

Now take your empty needle, needle 4 in this demonstration, and knit all of the stitches from needle 1 onto needle 4.

This will leave needle 1 empty, and you will then use needle 1 to knit all of the stitches from needle 2.

Then you will use needle 2 to knit all of the stitches from needle 3, and so on and so forth.

Standing Out on Etsy 101

Hey everybody, if you're an Etsy seller I want to point you in the direction of Olivebites. She has a three-part series that she posted this week all about how to standout on Etsy and I think the information in there is not only informative, insightful and intelligent, its also very inspirational and an easy read. (sorry for all the i's, I mean, I like alliteration and all hehe). So please head over and check out what she has to say, I learned all kinds of new things that I will start implementing in my shop!

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 11 - Stitch Patterns

Today we're not learning a new stitch so much as we are learning what cool things we can do with the stitches you already know, namely the knit and purl stitches.

These stitch patterns will let you practice both knitting and purling as well as show you some cool textures you can create with them!

First, stockinette:

This pattern consists of two rows: Knit one row, Purl the next row, simple, no?

Second, ribbing:

This pattern is very useful when making pieces that you would like to be stretchy, its pattern is some variation of the following:

CO 16

K2, P2 across row

You do this for all rows

Third, seed stitch:

This pattern is where you vary your knit and purl stitches, like so:

CO 16

K1, P1 across row

you will do this for all rows with an even number of stitches, for odd amounts, the second row will be to P1, K1 across all the stitches

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 10 - A Simple Increase

Since I taught you two simple methods for decreasing the number of stitches in your knitting last week, this week I'm going to teach you an easy way to increase. Its called Knitting Through the Front and Back (kfb).

Ok, so you knit to where you would like the increase to take place,

You knit the next stitch (stitch to be increased with) as normal but do not slide the stitch off the left hand needle, instead, insert your right hand needle through the middle of the stitch and through the back

Then wrap the yarn around the right hand needle again and pull the right hand needle back through the center of the stitch, similar to normal knitting, and slide the stitch on the left hand needle off, you will have made two new stitches on the right hand needle.

This is what it looks like in the long run:

Now you know many of the basics of knitting and can start making all kinds of projects! I will continue to show you various knitting techniques, and if you have something specific you'd like to know, don't hesitate to ask! Questions? Comments? I want to hear those too :)

Wise Wednesday - The Art (or science?) of Pricing - Follow Up

from Sassboxclassics

So last week I shared with you my take on the art and science of pricing. A number of great comments were made and I chatted with CarolBradley about the formula and she brought it to my attention that I had mistyped! I wrote that you multiply your labor by your materials when really you add them together to get your At Cost price (you should NEVER sell at cost, by the way), it is now corrected in the original post. She also shared with me her formula for pricing which I really like. To price her jewelry, CarolBradley uses:

Materials = Raw materials for the piece + shipping, etc

4 x materials

add pro-rated labor at $xx an hour

add 10% for overhead

and this gives you the MINIMUM price for retail

from Sovietvintage

Again, this formula can be personalized as needed, and make sure that you are paying yourself a fair hourly wage!

from SomethingUsed

*Also, in all of these formulas, we are assuming that the seller buys their materials at a wholesale price, rather than retail.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 9 - Two Simple Decreases

So by now I'm sure you'd all like to move on from rectangles and squares and maybe do a hat or something with shape! That's why this week I am going to teach you the two simplest decrease methods that are very widely used. I use them in most of my hats, sweaters, socks, etc etc, the list goes on.

Ok the first one I am going to teach you is the Knit 2 Together (K2tog) method.

Basically, it is what it sounds like. You knit to where you'd like to decrease, then insert your right hand needle into both of the next two stitches on the left hand needle as if to knit.

You then complete the stitch as one normal knit stitch. You wrap the yarn around the right hand needle from right to left, back to front, and slip the two old stitches off the left hand needle leaving only your new single stitch on the right hand needle.

Pretty simple no?

The next decrease method is fairly similar in appearance although the "direction" of the decrease goes to the right instead of the left, this will be more obvious once you've seen them both.

Again, knit to where you'd like to decrease, slip the next stitch off the left hand needle onto the right hand needle without knitting it (sl1).

Knit the next stitch on the left hand needle.

Now take the slipped stitch and pass it over the knitted stitch and off the right hand needle (Psso)

What do you think? Which is your preferred method of decreasing?

Wise Wednesday - The Art (or science?) of Pricing

It's been a hot topic on Etsy recently (well, I mean, I guess its almost always hot topic huh?) but pricing can be a very difficult thing to tackle. This post is filled with the things that I find most important about pricing and I think everyone, especially every Etsy seller, should know.

First, you can't do everything. And when I say everything, I really mean: your product cannot be quickly made, cheap and of the highest quality. You can do maybe two of those three things, but not all three and you shouldn't try. This will reflect in your pricing.

If you have a quickly-made product that is cheap, it won't be the most high quality piece. If you make a very high quality piece that was made rather quickly, it won't be cheap. If you make a cheap, high quality item, it won't be quickly made. You see what I mean?

Make sure your decision on which two features to focus on (whether you make it consciously, or your craft makes it for you) reflects in your pricing structure.

There are so many different ways to price items, and you really do have to find one that works the best for you. I've heard some people settle for a simple calculation of "Three times the price of the materials" I've heard some people research the price of other similar items, I know some people have very lengthy equations that they use, or they download a pricing template. The equation I find that works best for me is as follows:

Hours Spent on Piece x Hourly Wage = Labor

Cost of Materials + Labor = At Cost

At Cost x 2 = Wholesale

Wholesale x 2 = Retail

If you decide to use this method, I can send you an excel spreadsheet that I made that makes this easy for me, you enter in your hourly wage that you will charge (make sure its fair, come on, do you really want to be making less than minimum wage?), you enter in the cost of materials and how many hours you took to make it, then it calculates everything else out for you. Trust me, it can be a bit scary or at least eye-opening at first to see how much you really *should* be making, but you have to know what your work is worth. If you don't believe in it, no one else will.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 8 - Help with a Common Issue

One of the most common issues that newbie knitters face (myself included, long long ago when I began) is knitting too tightly.

Karin was having some troubles with the lace knitting I taught you about here because her stitches are too tight. To loosen up your stitches, really you just need a lot of practice knitting, you need to be able to realize that your stitches will not randomly fall off the needle if you loosen up your loops and let the stitches breath some. Its like learning how to drive, once you realize that the road will not jump out from under you, you can relax and enjoy the view a bit more. Knitting is the same way, it takes practice, patience, and the realization that you need to let go some :)

If you find that you continue to knit too tightly and it seems that there is nothing you can do about it (like my mother (hi Mom!)) then I suggest moving up a needle size or two. This will help the yarn breath because, for instance, if you are using a worsted weight yarn and size 8 or 9 needles, moving up to a 10 1/2 will allow the yarn a bit bigger gauge and it won't knit up so tightly naturally and you don't have to do anything about it.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 7 - Button Holes

This week's addition to the Knitting Lessons is in response to a request from fellow blogger and Etsy Shop owner Karin.

She asked if we could perhaps learn how to incorporate buttons holes into our knitting and this week I'm going to show you how using techniques you all already know! I will be showing you two different methods, one that I prefer for smaller buttons that is a little easier to "blend in" with your knitting and one that I use for larger buttons, or projects where you want to be able to see the button hole (like sweaters, etc)

Ok, for the smaller button hole all you have to do is knit to where you want the button hole to be, and YO then K2tog like I showed you last week. You only have to do it once! See how nice and petite that hole is? (you almost can't even see the hole its so small! but trust me, its there)

The other method uses only BO and CO. Knit to where you would like the button hole, BO as many stitches as you think you need, then continue knitting. You're going to have a hole on your needles that'll look like this:

On the following row, knit to the hole and cast on the same number of stitches that you had bound off, continue knitting in the pattern you chose.

I'm not giving you a specific project this week, because I'm sure many of you are already coming up with your own ideas for pieces you'd like to create. If you are wanting to practice the button holes on a smaller project, I suggest wrist cuffs (bracelets, basically) or a neckwarmer (a shorter scarf secured with buttons around the neck).

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 6 - A Simple Lace Pattern

For this week I am teaching you a simple lacy looking pattern that is great for scarves :)

I hope you found some gorgeous, soft yarn that you are looking forward to using because this is our first apparel project!

Ok, here we go. Cast on an odd number of stitches in the width that you want your scarf to be (usually somewhere around 21 stitches if you're still using the needles we used for the washcloths). Cast on more for a thicker scarf and less for a thinner scarf.

Knit the first row as I taught you in this post.

The first stitch of the next row: Insert your right hand needle through the stitch as if to knit but don't wrap and simply slip off the left hand needle onto the rhn (right hand needle) leaving the yarn behind the work. This is called Slipping the Stitch Knitwise or sl or sl st.

Before the next stitch, wrap the yarn around the rhn from back to the left around the front and to the back again as if you are wrapping it around the needle on a knit stitch. This is called a Yarn Over or YO.

Now, insert your rhn into the next TWO stitches on the lhn knitwise. As in, take the right hand needle and insert it through the second stitch as if to knit and then through the first st as if to knit so that you have both sts. Wrap the yarn around the rhn and remove the sts as if you were simply knitting one. this is called Knitting Two Together or K2tog.

For the remainder of the sts on the lhn, continue to YO then K2tog across.

At the beginning for each row, sl the first st knitwise and YO, K2tog to the end :)

When the scarf is the desired length, knit one more row then bind off as shown in this post.

I can't wait to see what you all make!

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 5 - On Wednesday...

First of all, I sincerely apologize for not posting this yesterday! This week has been and will continue to be, crazy because it is Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies' recruiting week here at NMT, and I am the recruiting officer so I have been incredibly busy!

This week I'd like to share one of my reader's projects with you, her name is Karin and instead of making dishcloths, she decided to be a little more creative, check out what she made:

Isn't that just adorable? I thought so :) Click on over to her blog to read more about it. (and don't forget to visit her adorable Etsy shop!)

Next week I will be showing you all two more stitches and we will be using these stitches to create a scarf! The scarf should knit up quick and easy and the finished result will have a lacy appearance, aren't you excited? So as far as yarns go, I suggest you simply find a yarn that you love, make sure it is soft enough to around your neck, on your face, etc. You don't *have* to get new needles, but you are more than welcome to (although if you do get new needles for this project, I suggest going up sizes instead of down sizes) if you decide not to get new needles, try to make sure that the yarn you get isn't too large for the needles you already have. Most yarn companies and sellers on Etsy suggest a needle gauge for the yarn, its on the label. So, double check that before you purchase!

Please feel free to send in pictures of your own finished projects (I don't care if you're a little behind, just starting, or keeping up with all of these posts, you can share whenever!) or your questions or comments :D

I'll see you back here next week to learn more knitting techniques!