The Little Things...

Isn't it amazing how Little Things can make such a big difference in your day, your project, and your mood?

A cheeky kiss can send you out into the world with hope and promise.

A friendly phone call in the middle of an otherwise hectic and demanding day can pull it all back into perspective.

Finding the last donut still in the box before the kids wake up... pure heaven.

But at the same time one single snarky comment can wreck an entire day before its even begun. One more seemingly senseless demand can make an already busy day unbearable and seeing the donut box from across the room only to find it empty is just plain cruel.

Little Things really can mean a lot.

The same is true when it relates to knitting, sewing, and any other hand craft. Little Things can really make a difference in the final product.

One thing I'm really picky about is joining a new ball or skein into a project. Its really a Little Thing but if you aren't sure how to do it neatly you can end up with a knot that keeps coming to the surface or a wierd pulled-lumpy thing where you made the join or even a hole.

The following process of joining a new working yarn works with any yarn but may not be the best for very open work like lace and isn't good for stranded color-work. This is how I join in stockinette, textures, cables, and any other situation where I'm working with a stable knitted fabric and need to join a new working yarn of the same color.

So... you're knitting along and notice that the end of your working yarn is fast approaching. When that tail is about 6-8 inches long simply drop it and begin working with a new ball/skein. Don't do any fancy fidgeting just forget about it and continue working. Do this every time you need to add a new working yarn.

When your piece/project is completely knitted its time to go back and weave in any loose ends including the ones from new ball/skein joins. From the wrong side of the project you'll easily see all those loose spaghetti ends hanging. From the front you'll have a hole...

Look closely at the wrong side of the work where the hole is. You'll see quite clearly that you have 2 perfect, yet very loose, stitches...

The first thing you need to do is snug them up to get rid of the hole. Grasp the hanging yarn ends and gently pull them straight down. Don't try to pick and force the yarn ends to do anything weird. Pulling the loose ends straight down will automatically keep the loose stitches in line and even with their neighbors as you tighten them. Doing any sort of fancy twisting and relocating at this point will leave you with twisted and uneven stitches on the front. Pull them just until the loose stitches appear to be the same size as thier neighbors...

You'll still have hole but the previously loose stitches should look good. To close up the hole simply tie the 2 ends together in a knot just like when you tie your shoe. The really cool thing about this is that if you look real close at your new knot it looks a lot like a weird purl bump...

Tie a second knot on top of the first knot. The "trick" about tying the knots is to let the yarn ends be on the side they want to be on... meaning don't yank and twist them... just pick them up and tie them nicely. You can see from the pictures that everything looks "natural" and nothing looks "stressed".

Remember that hole on the front? Its gone!

Now, I've heard that tying knots in your knitting is one of those things that could potentially get the Knitting Police sent on their way to your door but I've never heard from them and I've been tying knots in my yarn for a very long time. I've also never had a knot (of this kind) work its way to the front of the knitted piece.

Now, weaving in the ends is also a topic of hot debate. I prefer to duplicate stitch them on the back. To me neatness is very important and this is the neatest, most stable and dependable way I've found for weaving in ends. I keep the back of my work looking as nice as possible and I've been known to flip over other peoples knitting to look at the back. Call it a snotty character flaw but its true. Even the samples from yarn companies hanging at the LYS don't escape my private-side scrutiny.

One more thing I want to mention is that I never end/begin a working yarn at the end of a row of flat knitting. I know a lot of books will encourage this but I've always found that it makes the edge messy and uneven. Trying to seam over a lumpy or loose edge is difficult and leaving a weird edge exposed at the front of a cardigan is just not a good idea. It also means that you'll be weaving in an end close to what could be an exposed edge.

If you are forced to cut your working yarn on an edge, like when you need to temporarily abandon stitches to divide front and back sections, leave a long tail. When you come back to this piece and need to rejoin the working yarn first use the old tail to knit across and get away from the edge. Then drop the tail and join in the new working yarn and continue as above...

Yup... Little Things sure can make a big difference in your life. Like 99 cent wind-up toys from the craft store. She's played with that Little Thing for hours a day and still isn't tired of it.

Comments

[Ashley]

Marie-
Nice to have met you tonight. Nice website. Enjoyed the tips!

[Sharon]

Thanks for the detailed tutorials.I'm learning some very helpful things from you.Enjoy your blog.

[bezzie]

I'm a knotter from way back. The Knitting Po-Po haven't caught me yet!

[clarabelle]

I totally agree with you, MG, about the impact of Little Things. Well, if this 'little thing' helps, then I want to say that you are the topmost kiddies' knitwear designer at the moment, as far as I'm concerned.

My daughters are hassling me all the time about when I'm going to knit up Maylie and Darling (after already knitting Breeze and Daisy).

Snarky comments? Stick 'em.