Jacquie's Journal

Another Buttonhole Idea

This buttonhole is setup and then completed afterwards.  It is a variation on the one where you use waste yarn to save some open stitches or cut the yarn to release the stitches and then pick them up and cast them off in a continuous circle.  What I don't like about these  methods is you end up with an awkward last loop and nowhere to go with it but to sew it down or messy ends at a point that is going to be subject to a lot of wear.

With this method will still need to cut the yarn, but the tails end up at the edge of the work.

You will need some waste yarn in a contrasting colour and a blunt sewing up needle.

Part One:

1. Knit up to where you want your buttonhole to be ending with a right side row. 
2. Knit in pattern to where the buttonhole starts.  In my sample I had 16 stitches and my buttonhole is across the centre  6 stitches, and it has a 4 stitch seed stitch border, so I knitted in pattern for 5 stitches.
3. Complete the row with the waste yarn.
4. Cut the main yarn leaving a tail long enough to complete the row - about 4 times the distance you have to knit, plus a bit.
5. Rejoin yarn and continue knitting over the waste yarn.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each buttonhole.

Right side after setting up with waste yarn.

Wrong side showing long tail of main yarn.

Part Two:

1. Carefully pick up just the stitches that will be part of the buttonhole from above and below the waste yarn onto needles in the directions shown in the next picture.  For my 6 stitch example I have 6 stitches on the bottom and 7 on the top (to account for the half stitch offset you get when picking up stitches from the bottom)
   
   
   
2. Remove the waste yarn just from those stitches.
   
   
   
3. Starting with the stitches on the bottom needle, using another needle cast off the stitches by slipping the first 2 onto the other needle as if to purl and then passing the first over the second.
   
   
   
4. With the sewing up needle (or a crochet hook if you have one handy) pull a loop of the long tail through the last of the bottom stitches and place it on the needle.
5. With the long tail knit the first of the top stitches and pass the loop made in step 4 over it.
6. Continue knitting and casting off the top stitches until one stitch remains.
   
   
   
7. Pull the remaining long tail yarn through the last stitch from the bottom
   
   
   
8. Thread the long tail onto the sewing up needle and pass it from front to back under the first stitch you cast off
   
   
   
9. Then pass it back from top to bottom through the last stitch.  Pull the tail right through and adjust both the loop through the first stitch and the last stitch so they match the gauge of the other stitches.
   
   
   
10. With the long tail still on the sewing up needle from the back of the work exactly follow the path of the remaining waste yarn back to the edge of the row, being careful not to split any stitches, or the waste yarn.
11. Finally remove the waste yarn.
12. The ends of the long tail and the rejoin are hidden in the seam and can be sewn in in the usual way.

So there we are - a buttonhole with no awkward loops or messy ends to deal with!

iPad Cover Knitting Pattern

This pattern incorporates a shadow knitted apple - almost as fascinating as the iPad itself.  Hold the cover vertically and it's just a plain old striped cover. 

  

Hold it at an angle - the flatter the better and wow!  There is an apple. 

Materials:

-About 100 yards of a light colored medium weight (3)  yarn (A).

-About 100 yards of a dark colored medium weight (3)  yarn (B).

-About 1 yard of waste yarn for provisional cast on.

-2 circular needles size 6 (US)

- crochet hook

- sewing up needle.

Measurements:

- 7.5 inches wide x 9 inches long.

Gauge:

20 st /4in in stocking/stockinette stitch.

Make a swatch in your chosen yarn to check gauge and adjust needle size to get the right gauge.

Row gauge isn't quite so important as you can just continue until it is the right length.

Directions:

Base rows:

With waste yarn, and one of the circular needles cast on 39 stitches.  This will be removed later.

With the light colored yarn (A),

Row 1: knit.

Row 2: With the 2nd circular needle pick up and knit the 38 color A bumps from the back of the provisional cast on row.  This picture shows the bumps in red (color A) against the green waste yarn.

You should now have 39 stitches on one needle - this will be the front, and 38 stitches on the 2nd needle - this will be the back.  These two rows form the base of the cover.

Body:

The body is knitted circularly on the two circular needles.  If you need help with this technique see this Cat Bordhi video from about 3 minutes in.  We have cast on a bit differently to get a closed end so we don't need to join the ends but the way the needles are used is the same.  The back 38 stitches stay on one needle and the front 39 stitches stay on the other.

The ridged stripe pattern is as follows:

Round 1: (B) knit

Round 2 (B) purl

Rounds 3,4 (A) knit

Knit rounds 1-4  a total of 5 times.

Apple motif: 

Keep the established 4 row pattern for the rest of the cover, but follow the chart for the apple motif centering it on the center front stitch (stitch 20).  The first round of each stripe is always all knit. The chart represents only the second round of each stripe.  The motif covers  23 stripes = 46 rows and starts and ends with a color B stripe. 

White rows are color A, colored rows are color B.  The dots are purls, the plain squares are knit.

Back Opening:

The back opening utilizes the buttonhole method in my last post.

There are some border rows on each side of the opening which have two functions (apart from looking pretty!) a) they help stop gaping, b) they stop the edge from curling.

Round 1: (color A) k the round, then wrap the yarn around the first stitch of the next round, turn the work and knit across the back 38 stitches. Wrap the yarn around the first stitch on the other needle, turn the work and knit back again across the back 38 stitches.

Round 2: (color A) unwrap the first stitch and knit the wrapping together with the first stitch.  Knit to last stitch on the front, unwrap the last stitch and knit the wrapping together with the last stitch. Purl across the back 38 stitches.

Round 3: (color B) knit the whole round.

Round 4: (color B) purl the front 39 stitches. Purl 2 back stitches, follow buttonhole instructions from the last post covering 34 stitches for the opening.

Rounds 5 and 6 - repeat Rounds 1 and 2 to make the edging rows for the other side of the opening.

Continue in stripes until the cover is 9 inches long after a slight stretch and ending with the second row of a (B) stripe.   Typically it will be 4 or 5 repeats of the 4 row pattern plus an extra B stripe.  If you have an iPad to hand now is a good time to try it on for fit .

Top:

With color A knit across the front stitches and then break yarn leaving about a 30 in tail.  Use the tail to graft the front to the back stitches to form the top of the cover.  Here is a video for kitchener stitch .  As we have 39 stitches on the front and 38 on the back the way you start and end the graft is slightly different.  Thread the tail onto the sewing up needle. 'Needle' unless otherwise specified refers to the sewing up needle from now on.

1) insert the needle into the first front stitch (colorA) as if to knit and pull the yarn through.

2) insert the needle into the first back stitch (color B) as if the purl, pull yarn through.

3) insert the needle into the first front stitch as if to purl, drop that stitch off its knitting needle, and insert the needle into the next stitch as if to knit, pull the yarn through.

4) insert the needle into the first back stitch as if to purl, drop the stitch off its knitting needle and then insert the needle through the next back stitch as if to purl, pull the yarn through.

5) repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is one stitch left on the back and  two on the front.

6) repeat step 3.

7) insert the needle into the first back stitch as if to purl, drop the stitch off its knitting needle.

8) insert the needle into the first front stitch as if to purl, drop that stitch off its knitting needle.

The graft should resemble a row of knitted stitches so it is important to ensure that the yarn is not pulled too tightly to maintain the gauge.

Finishing:

Sew in ends.  Amuse yourself by holding the cover at different angles and watching the apple appear and disappear. 

Resources:

For more patterns and an explanation of this shadow technique see Vivian Høxbro's Shadow Knitting book 

Terms and Conditions:
This pattern is for personal use only and may not be used for profit.  The apple depicted is actually a Fuji apple and any resemblance to the logo of Apple inc is entirely coincidental.

 

A New Knitted Buttonhole

It is a variation on the one row buttonhole (though there is a little bit to do on the next row to finish it). My problem with the usual way of doing it is that the cast on part looks different to the cast off part.

Here are the instructions if you would like to try it.

The cast off part is exactly the same as the regular one row buttonhole:

Row 1: Knit to the point where the buttonhole will be placed.

Slip the first stitch on the left needle as if knit.

Move the yarn to the front of the work and leave it there. Slip the next stitch from the left needle to the right needle as if to knit. Pass the first slipped stitch over the second slipped stitch and off the needle. Repeat until you have bound off the number of required stitches for the buttonhole.

Slip the last stitch from the right needle back to the left needle. Turn. Bring the yarn to the front of the work.

The cast on part uses the crochet cast on, so you will need a crochet hook to continue - also a stitch marker would be handy.

If you have followed the above instructions so far (and you are using stockinette st) you will have the purl side facing you.

Look at the first stitch on the left needle and count two bumps down. Pick up the bump with the right needle and place it on the left needle oriented with the right "leg" towards the front. Purl this stitch and then place it on the crochet hook.

Crochet cast on 1 stitch - good instructions for that here - Crochet Cast On and then place the stitch marker on the left needle.

Crochet cast on the same number of stitches you cast off pulling the edge chain fairly tight as you go to produce a nice edge.

You should have one extra stitch overall - plus the loop on the crochet hook.

Turn the work again to have the right side facing, slip the loop from the crochet hook onto the right needle. Slip the first stitch from the left needle onto the left needle and pass the crochet hook loop over it..Return the first stitch to the left needle, pull the working yarn to tighten that loop a bit and then knit to the end of the row.

Row 2: Purl to the marker. Remove the marker, and then slip the next two stitches onto the right needle as if to knit, slip them back on the left needle and then purl them together through the back of the loops. (This loses the extra stitch by hiding it behind the next stitch)

Purl to the end of the row.

And you are done.

Notes:

I tried it without the extra stitch and decrease on the second row, but I don't think it gives as strong and as nice a finish.

I would love to hear what you think of this and any suggestions for improvements.

 

Happy Easter

Well what can I say?   I have been working and not been doing much else of interest again.  Hope you all had a great Easter.  We have had beautiful spring weather and have even had the heating turned off.  We went to Sam and Sunnie's new house for dinner last week which was lovely but I forgot to take any pictures.  It is a pretty house, and has a huge kitchen which I am quite envious of.

What is this?
Yes it is a knitted egg. 








What could be inside?

Why a chick of course!  I made it using the pattern in the Make: Craft magazine by Anna Hrachovec whose website is mochimochiland .  Actually I made him about a quarter the size he was meant to be by halving the number of stitches and rows, which is probably why he is quite difficult to turn from egg to chick.  I missed off the embroidered crack and eyes on the egg as eggs just don't have eyes in my world.

We never went to see Enchanted when it was on at the movies so we got it out of Blockbusters to watch last night when there was absolutely nothing worth watching - not even slightly.  I have to say if I am being honest that I was a little bit disappointed.  Some bits only made sense once we'd seen the deleted scenes - seems to me they weren't as unnecessary as the director seemed to think.  Also the whole magic thing.   The poor old chipmunk suddenly couldn't talk in the real world, but she could still summon all the local animals to help her clean, and produce dresses from curtains just like that.  I think it would have been better if she had to learn to cope without the magic.

I am falling a little behind with my assignments and challenges for March.  I have not yet had a goat spinning although I have purchased the book recommended by Alarming Female in my comments - Thank you it looks like exactly what I need.  I have had the idea for my March QAL block - the theme for which is 'Hope'.  I am going to do Elpis the Greek Goddess of Hope who was the only one to remain in Pandora's Box (which I gather was actually a jar!) when the silly girl opened and all the evils of the world escpaed.  I have had some chocolate, but it has been the 70% cocoa medicinal kind, and I have eaten only a small piece at a time.  We have been watching Paul McKenna's program, 'I can make you thin' with interest.  We watched the second episode while eating our dinner so I guess we haven't fully submerged ourselves in it yet!

Juno and Mags and Needles

On the day of the Oscars we finally got to see Juno.  I hope it wins some, we really enjoyed it, it was funny and although it deals with the usual "what to do about an unexpected teenage pregnancy" dilemmas it does it in a fresh way I think.

I have been very impressed with a couple of magazines lately.  The first is CRAFT: , the sister magazine of MAKE:.  It's jampacked with fun little projects including some knitting and sewing ones.  The more I look through it the more I find.  The latest issue has cute Japanese juggling balls to sew filled with short grain rice, a chicken/egg toy to knit, sturdy cardboard chairs and a reversible wrap skirt to make amongst other things.  I am making the chicken/egg toy and will post a pic as soon as I have finished it.  Amy O'Neill Houck of  The Hook and I  has very kindly posted on their blog about my KnitChartMaker which is exciting.

The other magazine is a UK magazine that Carolinne has very kindly given me a subscription for for Christmas.  It is Selvedge and is about all kinds of textiles.  I just love the whole look and feel  of this magazine - it's printed on nice thick paper - and it has ads but they are not as obtrusive as in some magazines.  It doesn't  have patterns, but it has lots of articles about designers and there is plenty to inspire there.

Gary bought me the KnitPicks Options Harmony Wood Interchangeable Needle Set for Valentine's Day and they arrived in the week.. They are so pretty and really lovely to use.  The cords are much thinner than the Denise ones so the knitting doesn't stick on them and they are nice and pointy.  Luckily the tiny keys are just there for leverage to tighten the join and any pin that will fit through the hole will do, when I have lost them both!

Speaking, as I was two paragraphs ago, about my chart maker, I am in the final throes of testing the new version and desperately trying to fight the urge to add more new features  that break the existing code.  It's difficult to know when to stop, but I know some Mac users are having problems with it and I hope the new version will address those.  I am sorry if I haven't got back to you with an answer to your problem - the simple truth is that I don't have a Mac to test on so it is difficult to diagnose and fix.   I will do my best to research the matter with Applets on Macs generally and see what I come up with.

First Competition!

But before that, I made  a few things as Christmas presents and for a swap that I can now reveal:
First, a couple of ambigram cushion covers for my nieces Eden and Maya.

Then there was a pair of wristwarmers for their Mum.

I designed them myself, and I can't remember exactly what yarn it is but it is definitely from Knitpicks and definitely has a lot of alpaca in its ingredients - it's lovely and soft anyway!  The ruffled edging was the Ruffle Rib Scallop from Knitting On The Edge (Nicky Epstein)  then the other end was finished off with a couple of mock tucks and a picot edge that all just happened to fit in with the basic 1x1 rib used on the main part.

Then for a swap I made these:

It was the Crafty Threads'n' Yarns Stitchmarker swap and mine went to Franney .  This is the Competition part!  Franney guessed the answer straight away from the clue I gave her but she has been sworn to secrecy  :D

The question is "What are these beads made of?"

Here are a couple of clues

1. I bought the beads in Moab, UT and I am not sure if they actually originated from there but they could have.
2. They appealed to my inner 10 year old boy's sense of humour!

The prize will be a similar set of stitchmarkers made from the same beads.
The winner will be chosen at random from all the correct answers submitted.
Please send your answer in an email to [email protected]
The closing date is Saturday Jan 19th and I will announce the winner and the answer on Sunday 20th.

Good Luck!!!

Pre-Pay It Forward

My Pay It Forward pal Becka has sent me a Pre PIF Gift!   I was so surprised when an enormous parcel appeared on our doorstep.  Becka quite understandably believes in very secure wrappings for delicate items.

Inside the big box was one of those adorable decorative takeout boxes:
Inside one little bag was this set of four sock stitchmarkers beautifully made from Sterling silver and czech glass.  The rings are closed so no snags!  Amazingly they are her very first stitchmarkers!
The second little bag held a set of six more markers also made in Sterling silver and czech glass but for bigger needles

Thanks so much Becka - they are just beautiful!

Pay It Forward Exchange Update

Another busy week - don't want to jinx things by saying anything at this stage though!

I do however have to apologise to my PIFees for dropping the ball on that and I will now attempt to make amends for that.

My three PIFees are Alarming Female, Murdo and daisydap.  Thank you so much for volunteering and I am looking forward to making something special for each of you and to that end will shortly be sending out the same questionnaire whimsical knitting sent me.  She has an amazing collection of buttons you can choose from to display so others know you are participating.   Don't forget it's best to download and host your own  copy of your chosen button.

Thank you to everyone else who volunteered.  If you would still like to participate I am sure my three PIFees will be looking for their own very soon.

At last I feel my knitting mo-jo returning - maybe it's the cooler weather or the need for some respectable clothing to wear in the event of sudden employment in an office where I have to be thought of as responsible and smart.  I am looking seriously at sweater and jacket patterns and will post more when I have narrowed down the choices.  In the meantime I am going to knit some cat toys from some Peaches n cream that will last forever and may prolong the cats' lives too if they play with those and not the live fish, the dog, or the furniture!

Back To School

This week Edward went back to school so it's back to getting up very early to make sure he gets on the bus. The summer went by very quickly this year, but I think he is glad to be back.  He is in 9th grade so it is his last year at middle school, and next year he'll have to go through being the youngest all over again at High School.  He didn't do much over the summer, not even going swimming, but in a way I am glad because he missed out on catching Cryptosporidiosis which has caused havoc and the banning of children under five years from all public swimming pools in the state for the time being.

Today was our 27th Wedding Anniversary.  We decided to go out for a Sushi dinner.  I don't know if we went to the wrong place or what but we didn't enjoy it as much as we hoped.  We then went and had coffee and chocolate cheesecake at good old dependable Barnes and Noble.

I have done absolutely nothing on the knitting or sewing front this week.  I have been working on my Chart Maker though - making the symbol sets into floatable toolbars so that the grid area can be maximised.   I discovered that with Safari on the Mac the key short cuts do not get passed to applets so it is impossible for users to copy the text for their charts on that browser - sorry about that I will have to think of another way to make that work.  It may still be a couple of weeks away but a new release should be available soon.

I have also been getting to grips with Ravelry.  So far I have entered a load of my books, and one project.  I have joined 5 groups and set up one of my own for knitters who are addicted to Sudoku.  It is a wonderful place and it is going to be very successful, not least because it has Bob the Boston Terrier as its mascot. 

Charlie Can Swim!

Yesterday we took Charlie for a hike up Mill Creek Canyon - the next canyon up from ours.  We took the Big Water Trail at the very top and made it all the way up to Dog Lake, a six mile round trip.  It is a good hike for several reasons:

• On odd days no bikes are allowed and dogs may go off leash.
• Although it is in the mountains long switchbacks make for not a too steep path.
• At the top you have the reward of sitting by a lovely little lake surrounded by fir trees and mountains
• It is nice and shady even on a hot day.

Charlie was very good staying by us all the way and when we got to the lake we knew she would go in the water to fetch sticks but up to now she hasn't been interested in going out of her depth.  Perhaps it came as a surprise to her too but she was so desperate to get this stick that she suddenly found herself paddling like crazy.  She looked so cute, the concentration made one ear stick up and one stick out.  Once she got herself into a rhythm I think she quite enjoyed it and didn't even seem to mind when she went right under once or twice.  She played in the water for ages fetching sticks and perfecting her stroke.  Of course we didn't have the camera to record this momentous event but we hope to go up there again soon - the leaves will probably start changing soon.

Stardust and The Bourne Ultimatum - we went to see Stardust last week, very good and very funny.  We were surprosed to see David Walliams (Little Britain) in the cast list because we hadn't noticed him in the movie - apparently he was Sextus, one of the brothers, but they were all so heavily made up even afterwards, looking at stills from the movie I can't tell which one he is??!!  Then yesterday afternoon we went to see The Bourne Ultimatum.  Good I think, but in these action movies I tend to switch off a bit during the fight and car chase scenes, assuming that the right person will win/get away/be caught and all will be well in the end.

It's David's Memorial Service today.  I couldn't go but I have been thinking about him and his family a lot over the weekend and I am still having trouble believing we won't see him again.  Rest in Peace, David.