Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning.

I have been asked about taking out stitches that are on circular needles.  Taking out stitches in a knitted work is tricky.  When I first started knitting I would discover a mistake and say a few rude things to the project I was working on and tear the whole thing out and start again.  I really do not like starting things over.  But I was still tearing out projects that I discovered a mistake in when I started shopping at Yarn for All Seasons.

Dodie, my friend and mentor, taught me how to tink.  It is as important as learning to knit and purl.  It is easy and a skill that every knitter, in my opinion, should have.

Tinking:

Examine the piece you are working on and find the problem.  The problem is, of course, what needs to be taken out and reknit.  I usually mark the problem with a stitch marker.  If the candidate for thinking is in the same row you may want to skip the marker.  If it is several rows back, trust me, mark the place.

Put the point of the left hand needle in the stitch below the row you had been working on.  Pull the stitch onto the left hand needle and slip the upper stitch (the one on the right hand needle) off and pull the yarn so that the upper stitch is gone.  

Because the word  “purl”  comes out “lrup”  I use  the word tinking for taking out both knitting and purling. 

The one thing to remember is to get those lower row stitches back onto the left needle in the same direction they were knit or purled onto the right needle.  Otherwise, when you get to replacing the stitches, they are difficult to re-knit or re-purl.   And those re-knit/re-purled stitches  are visible in the finished work.  I have done that frequently in my early knitting days and have ended up taking  out work that I wanted to avoid taking out by the tinking.  Some of my more frustrating knitting moments. 

So that is tinking.  I work on circular needles, as I have said before, and switch to double point needles for topping off.  I have tinked on the double points, too.  And the method is the same as on the circular. 

Until I learned to tink, I was seriously considering crocheting my caps because crochet is so easy to pull out and redo.  But thanks to Dodie, I can now tink my projects, if necessary, as well as I can knit  or purl them in the first place. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

This is going to be a rather exciting week.  Karen and I are getting ready for the first show of the new year – this coming weekend. We set up on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and show all day Saturday and Sunday at the Commons in Yachats. 

When we went into Newport yesterday, we talked about the market and made a list of things we needed to do to get ready.  All of a sudden,  a no-brainer thing like getting set up took on a whole new perspective.  It is the first time we have done Winterfest and so we will not be in the same space as we have for Crafts on the Coast.  So we have to figure out how to make the best use of the space and make sure we have all bases covered like:  lunches made and taken along, money totes, projects to work on, change.  You name it.

Also this morning I downloaded an application and a copy of the regulations for the 40th Annual Yachats Original Arts and Crafts Fair.  We did it several years ago during that year when we were working every weekend at a show or a market.  To my great excitement, Karen has decided to work more on her art work and develop that aspect of her creativity.  So I will fill out the application for the show today and get it ready to drive down to the Yachats Chamber of Commerce this week.

I am looking foward to the markets and shows and I can hardly sit still.  Which is a problem, since what I do for the markets and shows requires sitting — a lot of it — and it is difficult to knit while hopping around like a little kid just before Christmas vacation.

I have been waking  up before my alarm lately, so I have decided to make good use of the time.  I have been working on a lace cap.  It is a pretty easy pattern and requires only Yarn Over, SK, and K2tog to create the lace.  The pattern is only an 11 stitch repeat.  I have had to tink it once because I was not paying attention to the pattern or the stitch count or something and ended up after the second row of the pattern with only 10 stitches where I should have had 11.  But it is now going along very well, and I have about 1 inch of the pattern done. 

Actually, lace is not as hard as I envisioned it and the result is an eye-feast when the cap is done.  I have decided to learn one kind of a lace stitch at a time.  I can do an SK without any difficulty, but am still stymied by the SSK process.  Will work on it later. 

Hope you have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning:

I was talking with Karen this morning before she took off to open Shorebirds.  She said I use words that  nobody knows but me. 

The example she cited was “the weather was mizzling.”  I have to confess I did not think I made the word up. Here on the Oregon Coast, we get a lot of mizzling weather.  That is weather that is a little more than a mist and less than a drizzle.  Mizzle.  Of course, maybe the Oregon Coast is the only place where mizzling exists.

That conversation plus some questions on this site got me to thinking.  What about “tinking.’”  It is a word my friend and knitting instructor, Dodie, taught me. 

When I first started knitting, I lived in terror of making a knitting error.  That meant taking out the whole body of the work I had done and starting over at casting on.  For reasons that I really do not understand, “starting all over again”  is something I hate doing.  One of my early projects was a white turtle neck sweater for my brother, John.  I did Ok.  Got the front and the back done and was well into the first sleeve when I moved to LaGrande for my first post-college job.  So the sweater was buried in the middle of the things I moved. 

My brother was then working in eastern  Washington.  He called and asked how the sweater was coming along. 

I smiled and said, “Just fine.” 

Then he asked the fatal quesion:  “When will it be done?” 

“Soon.”  I answered. 

The next weekend, I hauled the sweater and the pattern out of its box and drove a hasty trip to Milton-Freewater to ask a knitting aunt to get me figured out.  It took her about 10 minutes of some sort of counting and she knew what I needed to know.  I, of course, thought she was brilliant and went back to LaGrande  to finish the sweater.

What I did not know then — but do now — is tinking.  Dodie taught me tinking.  It is knitting backward.   You place the left needle point into the body of the stitch that is just below the stitch on the  right needle.  Then slip the top loop off the right hand needle, and you have tinked one stitch. 

This technique works just as well for purling.  I tried to call it lrup, but that doesn’t work too well.  So I call it all tinking.  I am sure Dodie would agree with me.

Why is tinking important?  You can back up several stitches or even several rows, and correct a dropped stitch or a color mistake or whatever needs correcting and all WITHOUT taking out the whole project and beginning again. 

I was very grateful to my knitting aunt to get me straightened out on that sleeve.  But, if either she or I had known about tinking,  all I would have had to do was to tink down to the place where the decreases for the shoulder began and restart the shoulder. 

Hope you never have to tink.   But if you do, it sure beats tearing the project out and starting again. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Sorry that I have not kept up with this site.  But I have CBS (Creaky Body Syndrome) and I had an attack of it the last couple of weeks.  Nothing really serious.  Just annoying.

Fortunately, knitting is something you CAN do when  you are not feeling all that perky.  I switched from the caps with patterns to making a couple of Guy Caps.  They are not that difficult, once you get the ribbing and the increases done.  You just sit and knit and knit and knit.  It is not a great challenge but it is a good project when the body is being a little difficult. 

One good thing coming out of this downtime was that I also rooted around on my Projects in Progress table and found a cap that I had completely forgotten.  Now that I am better, I am going to get back to work on it.  After, that is, I get the two GCs  topped and in the finish bin. 

The first GC that I worked on is a deep navy blue yarn.  The brand of yarn  is Cascade and it is wonderful for GCs.  I have a special head in mind for this one.  But I wanted to wait until I got to perking along a little better before I put it on double points and started the topping.  While I was on downtime, I tried topping a cap and had to count the stitches 4 times and then TInk one whole row and put it back on the circular needles and recount.  But it is topped and in the finish bin.  So that is a good thing. 

The other GC is a rich forest green.  Also Cascade yarn.  I am pleased with it so far.  But then a GC is an easy piece to make.  It will look good on some guy’s head. 

Well, this is going to be a short entry,  because our local radio station is changing hands today and there is a big party at the station to wish the old owners a happy retirement and the new owner a welcome to the Oregon Coast. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

I spent yesterday working on a new guy cap.  It is a simple watch cap.  I enjoy doing them when I have other things on my mind.  Which right now I do.

I started the second skein of the Noro yarn for the contest cap. The first skein finished in a lovely, soft blue-green water color.  The second one started with brown.  And — I must admit, I was not paying much attention to what I was doing.   And — the place where the new yarn started is quite not very pretty.  I counted the rows this morning and I have about 6 to tink.

When I realized what I had done, I put the contest cap on the table and started the  guy cap.  I don’t do as many guy caps as I could but they are so easy. 

Guy Cap pattern:

1.   Using #6 circular  needles and the yarn of choice:  I am using a yarn from Cascade, 100% wool, in a rusty brown and black combination.

2.   Cast on 101 stitches and join the first and last stich on each end of the needles and K2tog.

3.   Do ribbing.  I  use a K2/P2 ribbing for the guy caps and I usually do about 4 inches of ribbing. 

4.   After the ribbing is done, I do a row of plain knitting and increase every 4th stitch. 

5.   Then the rest is easy.  Just knit around and around and around.  I can see why some knitters find doing a guy cap kind of boring, but to me it is like sitting beside the surf on a sunny day.  Very soothing. 

6.   Knit the body until you have the desired depth and then top the cap off.  Again, I use a 7-point top off, but any top off that you want is OK.

I don’t sell many guy caps, but I have had a man come looking for a guy cap often enough that I try to have some of them on hand.  And, again, it is a soothing change from tinking and counting stitches. 

I hope you all have a good day today.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

My  cold has really gone the way of all good colds — far away, that is.   It is nice because my brain does not have to decide whether to breathe or knit because I can do both simultaneously, again.  

Worked on the olive green EB yesterday.  Had to tink about 4 rows or so because the yarn ply is not very tight and so if I am not careful, I can knit only part of a loop of yarn and that makes a mess that needs to be tinked immediately or tinked several rows down the line, depending on when I catch the error.  But this is such a lovely yarn and the EB is going to be so striking that I am willing to put up with problems of working with the yarn. 

And now that the cold has wandered out to sea or where ever it is that terrible colds go when they go away, I have to get back to the caps that are on the table, too.  I have almost nothing ready for finish work to go out at Shorebirds for this month. 

So one project looming today will be rooting around on the “in-progress” table and seeing what needs to be done to what and getting going on some of those “whats.”  I can think of at least 4 caps that are ready to top off.  The sunshine cap is ready for finish work.  The mushroom cap is hiding under some other work on the table.  And so it should.  The silly thing has given me more irritation than good work since I started doing the white bobbles on what is going to be the cap of the mushroom shape.  Maybe if I let it sit about a week longer it will be less of a problem.  If not, I may just take it out and start again. 

But my major chore for the day is getting that olive green  EB done and ready for finish work.  And get some others cast on.  I finally figured out that on the needles I am using (straights) I can cast on at least two and  possibly three EBs and work them simultaneously. 

Guess I need to go to work on that EB before it ends up like the mushroom cap — hiding on my work table.

Have a great day.  Good knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Well, I got myself to the doctor the first of the week and this pesky head cold is on its way to where ever head colds go after a goodly dose of antibiotics.  As long as it is out of my head, I don’t care where it has gone, actually.

And the timing on the head cold going away perfectly coincides with the beginning of a new year.  That is a good sign, I  think. 

Unfortunately, the knitting had to go on a back burner while the cold raged.  I have, in the past, tried to knit when I was not feeling well — and have  made record tinkings as a result.  So I have learned to just put the yarns and needles away until I am better and can concentrate.

Worked on the white EB yesterday.  Got the length done and then did a normal cast off.  The cast off end is about half again as wide as the cast on end.  I  thought about it over breakfast and I think what I will do is take it out and reknit it and then at the cast off end, I will see how it works if I k2tog on all the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches.  Then on the opposite side do the k2tog on the knit stitches again.  Then on the 3rd  end row just go ahead and cast off the rest of the stitches. 

I think that will probably take care of the bloom-effect of the cast off end.  I hope so, at any  rate.  Will also be rummaging the work table and seeing what caps need what done to them.  I  hoped to have about 4 or 5 caps a month to take down to Shorebirds, but this month the new cap supply is a little lean.  So will get out the bin of finished caps and see what can be taken to Shorebirds  and reshown for the new month.

A new year always has so many possibilities.   I hope your year succeeds in fulfilling all the good things you envision for it.  Keep knitting and have a great new year.

Happy knitting,  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Well, we are having our day or two of winter right now.  I will bet that the people who walked past all my caps, at the market, are, right now, wishing for one of them. 

We don’t really get winter here on the coast.  We get rain, usually.  But a cold front wandered in and now we have cold and ice on everything.  There is even snow up the Alsea River at Tidewater.  Mostly a winter here is rain, and rain and then some more rain.  Last winter,  by this time,  we had had a major storm blow through with the  necesssary  power outages and leaky roofs. 

While the weather was working up to this cold, yesterday, I sat and knit.   I worked some on the new, pink EB, but mis-knit on one row and did not find it until I was about 4 rows further along.  So I had to tink those rows and find the error and correct it.  I don’t mind tinking on a cap because the caps are done on circular needles.  But tinking on straights is a real challenge.  It’s that business of trying to figure out which side to tink on.  I finally figured it out and tinked those 4 rows and then did a knit row to see if I had really gotten to the mis-knit place.   I had.  Then I put the EB down on my works-in-progress table, and went to work on the cap from Saturday.

That project is going along well.  I thought I would not have enough of the red  background  yarn to do the whole cap.  I am almost done with the fuzzy yarn  skein,  and it looks like I won’t have to figure out how to get it topped in another color yarn.  I think it is going to be a very striking looking cap and,  so far,  am pleased with it. 

I really miss having another knitter close at hand.   When I first started on the caps, if  I struck problem, I could  take the work to my yarn shop and the owner of the shop would look over what I was doing, figure out what I needed to do and then I would do it.  Sort of like a high wire walker has a net down below,  just in case.  Now, when I hit a snag on something, I usually end up tinking or just tearing the whole thing out and starting again. 

What  is tinking, you ask.  Tinking is knitting backward.  Both the skill and the name. And, truthfully,   I am almost as fast at tinking as I am at knitting.  Have had a lot of practice at it.  It is a highly difficult skill and can only be learned with diligent practice because if you tink the purl stitches like  you tink the knit stitches,  the tinked purl stitches get smaller and reknitting that area is not a great deal of fun. But on the whole, tinking can be a time-saver, at least for someone like me who is well-practiced in skill.  Otherwise, the whole project has to be ripped out and started again. 

Well, I am hoping whoever knit this winter weather here on the coast will decide to tink it out and we can have some normal winter weather starting about 5 minutes ago. 

Happy knitting and tinking.  Granny LJ