LunaKnit

My Socktober socks are ready. All three pairs of them. I used tincanknits' Rye Sock pattern for them, and made a pair for each member of our little family. I would really like to recommend this sock pattern: the fit is great (Magnus thinks these are the best fitting woolen socks he has ever had), they were quite easy and fast to knit, and they look really good. And the pattern is freely available for download via Ravelry. A while back I posted a question asking your help for knitting heels. I had problems with picking the stitches from the sides of the heel flaps because I thought they were loose and little holes appeared at the sides of the gussets because of it. I had tried to pull the stitches at the beginning of each heel flap row really tight and then knit the picked stitches through the back loop (twisting them) to make them even tighter but it didn't give me a satisfactory result. You guys had many great tips and I already tried some of them.  First th...

As I've often mentioned on this blog, I never really learned to knit as a child (I did finish the mandatory socks and mittens we were all expected to knit in elementary school, but I hated it and decided never to touch yarn or needles again) and only taught myself to knit after I turned 20. So there are a lot of things I've had to figure out for myself as I've had no one to show me the ropes or help me when I was stuck.  I've made so many mistakes, but (hopefully) learned from every one of them. Some mistakes I had to repeat more than once before figuring out what I was doing wrong. Still I wish I could now go back and tell the beginner version of me a few things I've learned during the past few years - especially after I found Ravelry and a whole new world of knitting. I'm sharing them with you, because some of you might still be in the beginner state and I'm hoping to spare you from the same mistakes I've made. 12 THINGS I WISH I KNEW...

I have finished my first Rye sock and started the second one last night. I prefer knitting afterthought heels instead of this kind of heel (with heel flaps) because I never get them to look neat. I just can't seem to get the stitches that I pick from the sides of the flap tight enough (even though I usually knit them through the back loop) so they look sloppy and there's always little holes. Usually I fix this by sewing them close with a piece of scrap yarn once I'm finished but there must be another way! So I'm asking your help. How do you get the heels looking nice and tight? What am I doing wrong? I think my problem is that the slipped stitches at the sides of the heel flap are too loose, especially at the beginning of RS rows, but I don't know how to fix that. Any ideas? P.S. This is what I love about knitting. It doesn't matter how much you knit, there's always a new technique to be learned, and you are never ready or perfect. Keeps t...

I've been meaning to knit a blanket for the baby for a while now but every time I've settled on a pattern something else comes along and I change my mind. The pattern for this super cute baby blanket was only released on the Purl Bee website last Monday and as soon as I saw it I knew it was the one I wanted to make. Plus it seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn a new technique as I've never done any mosaic knitting before. I've browsed through different mosaic knitting patterns on Ravelry in the past but always put off trying the technique because I've thought it looked too complicated. To be frank I've been a bit intimidated by it believing it to be much harder than it in reality actually is. I was surprised to notice it doesn't really differ from other slip stitch techniques, for example the three-and-one tweed knitting except that here the slipped stitches form a more complex pattern than just rows and columns.  The technique is als...

With my first Exeter I tried to follow the instructions very closely but with the second one I took quite a many liberties and cut a few corners. Here are details of my modifications. Note: The modifications I made are for a cardigan with a size 41 1/2 " body and 37 1/2 " sleeves. I usually knit sleeves in a size smaller than the body because I have narrow shoulders and I often feel like the standard sizing of sleeves is way too big and wide for me. So keep the sizing in mind when reading my mods. They might not work for other sizes! 1. I knitted the whole cardigan using size 4.0mm needles. I didn't change for anything bigger after the ribbing. 2. Obviously I changed the charted pattern. Here's the chart for my modified pattern. Hope you can read my handwriting.  These might help you understand the chart a little better: 1/1 RT = Sl next st to cn and hold in back of work; k1 tbl, then k1 tbl from cn. 1/1 RPT = Sl next st to ...

I came across this really cute pattern for a baby cardigan on Pinterest, but there was only one size and it was for an 18-month old. I though it's a bit too early to start to knit things that far ahead so I decided to use the pattern as a guideline but go down with needle sizes and yarn weight. I used DK weight Garnstudio Drops Lima that was left over from my Fuse cardigan . I made the cast on edge and the two first rows of every part (except the hood) with lighter grey Drops Karisma (the last bits of the colorway I used for my Maeve shrug ).   I first started knitting with 3.0mm needles, but that gave too small a fit so I started again with 4.0mm needles. In the hindsight 3.5mm would have been the perfect size because I was aiming for a cardigan that would fit a six-month old but ended up something for maybe a 9-month old instead. I didn't do the buttonholes but instead picked up stitches around both fronts and the hood, knitted one row and then finished the...

I have published earlier a post on an easy way to k4tog - knit 4 stitches together - which is an essential stitch in my Cloud mitten pattern. As you might already know it is a bit challenging especially with 2.5 mm bamboo needles that not only have sharp tips but are bendy and especially prone to snapping. Stubborn as I am, I wasn't going to give up and change the design just to make it easier to knit. So I came up with the idea of using a tiny crochet hook to pull the working stitch through other three.  I was planning to use this same method when knitting the second pair of Cloud mittens, but alas, I couldn't find the hook anywhere. I seem to have misplaced it and I just can't remember where I put it... And as you know I don't crochet often so the second smallest hook I had was size 3.5 mm which didn't work for this purpose for obvious reasons.  So I was back to square one trying to figure out how to do the k4tog in an easy way when I got the idea of rev...

Knitting 4 stitches together is hard . Especially with size 2.5 mm bamboo needles. I just couldn't make it happen. I kept dropping the stitch every time I had arduously put my needle through all the 4 stitches and fished the yarn around the tip of the needle. It wouldn't come through. I was really frustrated, but still didn't want to compromise and change the pattern. I had an inspiration about the cloud lace mittens and I was determined to go through with it. So I came up with a solution. Magnus's mother gave me a few years ago a bunch of crochet hooks she didn't use any more. They have been in the bottom of my drawer until now, because I can't crochet, even though I have been meaning to learn for a couple years. I just never got around it because I really like to knit and there are still so many things I haven't knitted yet. Maybe some day I will have the patience to sit down and crochet something... But back to k4tog. I have this really ...