Knitting Technique: How to Wrap & Turn

Ever see the abbreviation w&t on a pattern and wonder what it means?  If you bought my Birds in Flight Socks pattern you may have, because I forgot to define it.  (I appreciate the patterns that define the less-common knitting techniques…But if you work short-row heels as often as I do, maybe this one doesn’t seem uncommon.)

Anyhow, w&t means wrap and turn—you’re wrapping the last unworked stitch with the working yarn and turning your work.  Here’s a tutorial with photos:

1. Knit to the last unworked stitch (or wherever your pattern calls for you to wrap and turn—it’s not just for socks, you know) and move your working yarn in front.  (If you’re purling, bring the working yarn to the back of your work.)

  
2. Now slip the next stitch (the stitch to be wrapped) from your left needle to the right needle, keeping the working yarn in front.

  
3. Now turn your work.

 

4. Slip the stitch to the wrapped from the left needle to the right needle.

5. And start working back across the row, in this case, purling. 

The white line highlights the wrapped stitch on the wrong side of the fabric:

Here’s what it looks like from the right side of the fabric:

See the little wrap?  So cute.  And functional!  In another tutorial I’ll explain how to pick up these wraps when turning the heel of a short-row sock.  You won’t want to miss it!

It's My Birfday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was lucky enough to continue a lifelong tradition of never working or having gone to school on my birthday.  That's one of the greatest benefits to having a birthday so close to Christmas.  The other is getting to see all of my family on my birthday.

It was a good day, despite the furnace not cooperating and my husband having wait around for the repairman, missing my birthday dinner.  (Things like this always happen to me.  Always.  I should be used to it by now, but I'm just not.)  So that made me a little sad, but by the time we got home the heat was back on and I was able to tell T.J. how good Nathan was in our favorite seafood restaurant.

My brother took these pictures:

I don't know which one I like better – the one where Nathan's forcing a grin or the more natural one.  I'm so glad to have these photos – I have so few good ones of us together.  They're a nice birthday gift.  (FYI, I'm wearing my April socks and Multnomah shawl – I love when I can wear more than one knitted item at once!)

Another great gift from my brother is Knitting Stitches Visual Encyclopedia – I love it!  It's giving me some great design ideas, plus an idea for the palms of Nathan's owl mittens – pattern coming soon.  What?  I hadn't mentioned those yet?  Heehee!  I have so many great knitting plans in the works for 2012, and all of them from my stash!

I look forward to diminishing my stash in 2012, gearing up my 2012 stash-busting challenge (more info coming soon), coming up with some interesting patterns and ideas and recapping my knitting goal for 2011: knitting a pair of socks a month for the whole year.  I did one better than that and knitted 13 pairs in 13 months! (Starting in December 2010.)

Happy New Year to all – see you in 2012!

Yarn Along & A Christmas Message

I'm keeping it short today, but wanted to pop in with a quick update.  (I'm joining in on Ginny's Yarn Along over at Small Things.)

Here's just one of the Christmas gifts I'm knitting:

This is all you get to see until after Christmas (sorry), since I don't want to give it away.  If you like cables (who doesn't?) and you like warm things that go on your feet (ditto), come back in 2012 for the pattern.  : )

I haven't been in this space in a week, but I'm rather enjoying my time away from the computer, both for work and for personal things, and I'm especially enjoying being in the moment with my family as Christmas approaches.

Since I won't be back here before Christmas -- or maybe even before the end of 2011 -- I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

In case you missed it, consider joining in on my 2012 stash busting challenge starting on January 1.  My goal is to finish all of my WIPs and knit from my stash for as long as I can in 2012, and I'm encouraging you to join me!  (This goes for any other kind of crafting, too.)  If you have a stash, let's use it up in 2012 as a show of resourcefulness, innovation, creativity and thrift.  I'll come back with more information, a graphic to post on your blog and maybe even a linky list for those who want to join in.  For more details until then, please read this post.

Happy knitting and crafting, my friends!

P.S. The photos were taken with Instagram for iPhone.  Anyone else using Instagram?  My username is kellypatla -- if you care to follow me, I'll follow you back!  I love seeing other peoples' photos.

Yarn Along

Over the weekend I cast on my final Christmas gift project.  It's the most difficult one yet, so I don't know what possessed me to knit it last.  I hope I can get it done in time.  In a fit of uncertainty I looked for a comparable item to gift just in case, but I couldn't find one I thought my gift recipient would like.  So.  The pressure's really on!

Since I can't show it or any of my Christmas knitting -- yet -- I thought I'd instead share two things. 1) My Finished Object Report on Nathan's Big Birthday Owl and 2) this amazing amazing hand-dyed yarn that arrived today from Brambleberry Yarns:

The color is called Sunshine Yellow, and as it sat in the car next to me on the trip home from the post office (yes, I opened it in the car) it reflected back the warm yellow light of the sun.  It's beautiful!

Cynthia from Brambleberry Yarns dyes her yarns and fibers with plants she grows in her garden and finds in the wilderness around her.  Does that intrigue you the way it does me?  This yarn was dyed with goldenrod.  All of a sudden I'm a sucker for yellow, but I've always been a sucker for blue, and she has some gorgeous blues and purples in her shop right now.  If you're in the market for new yarn, I hope you'll stop by her shop!

On to the Finished Object Report: Big Birthday Owl

Pattern: Big Snowy Owl by the Purl Bee
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Bare, Porchini, Hazelnut and Chocholate
Needles: Size 11 circular and size 11 DPNs
Rating & fun factor: 5 out of 5 stars

This pattern is clever, interesting and fun to execute.  What more could I want in a pattern?  I know, a finished object that my son will actually play with!  But really, I went into this knowing he'd never play with the owl.  It was 10 days before Nathan's second birthday and I realized that I didn't have a gift for him -- or even one in mind -- and when I came across this pattern I knew I had it figured out.  And I had an idea that he wouldn't really play with the owl -- yet.  Someday, sure.  All he does for now is throw him around or toss him out of the way to get to the more interesting toys.

But the good news is, the owl is super squishy and he gets to live in my house so I can hug him whenever I want.

Two things I'd do differently if I knitted him again:

1.  I'd use smaller needles so I don't see so much stuffing through the stitches.  The pattern calls for super bulky yarn, but I only had bulky, so I went down two needle sizes.  I could have gone down another size or two, but I didn't want the owl to get smaller, too.

2.  If I used smaller needles and had tighter stitches, I would have added a lot more stuffing.  I like how downright squishy he is -- I did it intentionally -- and adding more stuffing wouldn't have made him less squishy... but it would have stretched the stitches further and shown off even more stuffing than it already does.

It was a fun and easy knit.  I hope you'll give him a chance for a little (or big) one in your life.  Just make sure he or she is older than two.  :)

Choosing Gifts

In an effort to get into the holiday spirit, I thought I'd share with you what I'm asking my husband for this Christmas.  Or rather, what I'm telling him I want.  That's how we work it around here, but we both know that I'm going to go online and just order it for myself.

It's a swift.

Since the swift will replace the role my husband plays in helping me wind my yarn into balls, I think this is actually a gift to my husband.  So maybe while I'm shopping online I should just add a few extras to my cart and that'll be his gift to me!

What are you getting yourself this year for Christmas?

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's taken me a while to finally get into the holiday spirit this year, but we're finally getting ready for Christmas.  We bought our tree this week, and hopefully it'll make its way into the house tomorrow.  I've been slowly putting away the fall decorations and setting out the Christmas ones.

At first I blamed my slowness to catch onto the holiday spirit on the unseasonably warm weather we'd been having (it was great -- I'm not complaining!), but then I remembered that I'm always a little slow to catch on.  The commercialism of Christmas turned me off years ago (I'm way ahead of my time), and so did hearing Christmas songs on the radio this Thanksgiving.  (Christmas music on Thanksgiving?!?  I don't remember ever hearing that before.)

I guess I thought I'd feel different this year, with Nathan being much more aware of what's going on around him.  He's two now, and even though he doesn't get the whole Santa thing yet (he will soon -- I'm really talking it up!), I expected that I would get excited about Christmas earlier than usual and enjoy shopping and decorating more.  Well.  What a letdown to not live up to my own expectations!

Although I ordered most of Nathan's gifts online (I admit, it's not very Christmassy of me), I made almost all of the rest of our gifts.  I've been dying to talk about them here, but can't for obvious reasons.  I'll be sure to recap all of my projects after Christmas!

I still have some last-minute shopping to do, and I'm not exactly looking forward to it.  I could go out tomorrow, but I think we'll just stay home instead.  I guess nothing's changed.  Two weeks out and we're still getting ready for Christmas.

A Knitting & Crafting Challenge for 2012

This has been on my mind for a while, and I thought I'd just throw it out there before the holidays.  I know everyone is knee-deep in their holiday knitting and crafting, but what are your plans for 2012?  Are you looking around at your stash and feeling a twinge of guilt for all the money you had spent on yarn or crafting supplies that are still crammed in your craftroom or studio? 

Maybe you're feeling the pinch of the economy (I know I'm feeling it this month), or you're in the mood to be especially thrifty and creative (this is me, too!).  I'm also feeling the pull of WIPs that I set down years ago and finally feel like finishing.

So whatta ya say?  Will you join me in a stash-busting challenge in 2012?  Not to say that you can't buy new yarn or supplies (you can) -- just don't use it.  Yet.  Instead, let's see how long we can go just knitting or crafting from our stashes. 

Do you think you can make it a full year or just a few months?  What will you make?  What WIPs are you remembering about that lurk somewhere deep in your stash?

I can already remember a handful of WIPs before even perusing my stash -- some of them are really old:

• A baby sweater I couldn't finish before Nathan got too big for it (why do they grow so fast?!)
• Baby sweater pieces I knitted for no one in particular and didn't seam up
• Nathan's Fall Jacket (for next fall, as it's way too big!)
• Felted slippers
• Baby sweater for my friend's charity

And I have some new projects on my mind that I can make from my stash:

• Lacey stole
• Colorwork socks with leftover bits of sock yarn (can't wait to design this one!)
• Mittens for Nathan
• Baby sweaters
• Sewing new buttons on my cableknit sweater; thinking about adding length to the body

I also have several cross stitching projects in progress, and still have some clay leftover from my ceramics class.  I'm going to do my best to use as much of it as I can, purely for fun.  I love a challenge!

Are you in?

Fall Sunset & Fun with Instagram

I love fall sunsets, even if they're not as spectacularly colorful as summer ones.  The low angle of the sun is fun to be in -- I feel like the sun is shining just on and for us.  (Although I hate driving when the sun is so low and always shining in my eyes -- that's quite a different feeling!)  I love the fall sunset's orangey hue and the yellowish glow it casts on the fading grass and trees around us.  It just makes me feel good!

(unedited)

It turns out that my iPhone takes pretty good pictures.  They're not as good as the photos my old point-and-shoot Canon takes, but in a pinch, taking photos on my iPhone a good, easy solution.  And it's really fun to use Instagram, a photo sharing application for iPhone. 

I'm not really into apps -- I just use my phone to look things up, go on Facebook and *gasp* make phone calls (shocking, I know) -- but I'm really enamored with this one.  It lets you take square photos and then quickly apply filters to transform the look and feel of the photos.  (You can also crop and use photos you've already taken on your iPhone.)  And then the photos show up in your Instagram feed and you can tweet them, share them on Facebook or send them to people via e-mail.  Really convenient and really fun.

Here's what I did with the photos I took at sunset on Friday night.  I posted the original photo below each one I edited in Instagram.  (Pro tip: You can also choose not to apply a filter to a photo on Instagram and share it as-is.)

This one's my favorite.

I love the old-school feel of this photo.

Old school, again, and it really makes me think about fall compared with the original photo below, which is greener.

Awesome colors and border. This is one of my favorite effects, but it doesn't work well with every photo.

I'm sure you can imagine what happened directly after this photo was taken...

Was that fun, or what?  (I'm sorry if you answered or what.  I thought it was!)

If you're on Instagram, my username is kellypatla, in case you'd like to follow along.  If not, you can still see my pictures -- I tweet some of them on Twitter (KellyPatla).

New Knitting Pattern & Craft Tutorial in ROTH!

Hey everyone!  I hope you'll check out my latest free pattern, Thermal Textured Socks, debuting today on the winter edition of Rhythm of the Home!  But it's more than just a pattern, it's a sock-knitting tutorial that demystifies sock knitting and explains the anatomy of a hand-knitted sock.  The pattern provides lots of extra details and photos to guide you through each step.  If you haven't tried knitting socks yet, this is definitely a great place to start.

The pattern is written in both women's and men's sizes and can be knitted plain (for beginning sock knitters) or with the optional texture pattern for more advanced or adventurous knitters.  I hope this tutorial and pattern show you that sock knitting is much easier than you may think.

Also, check out my Four Seasons Nature Box tutorial.  It's a great craft to do with kids, plus it nets you a convenient place to store all the fun things you and your kids bring in from outdoors.  (There's nothing quite like a walnut underfoot when you're not expecting it!)  Plus, maybe it'll inspire you to get outside more this winter.  I especially enjoyed the decorating one side of the box for each season.  I hope you do, too!

I'd love it if you'd come back here to tell me what you thought of either or both tutorials.  Thanks for reading!