IT'S ONLY KNIT/CROCHET!!

How many times have you made a mistake? Countless, right? Is it worth getting crazy over, crying over or throwing a tantrum? NO!

I look at our projects as a learning experience. So what you knitted instead of purling. Take it out, fix it and continue on your journey. Don't be a cry baby!! Again, it's only knitting or crocheting. Cry over something important: for example, your children, husband, your health. That's worthy of your worry!!

I've come to the conclusion after crossing milestones in my life that I want to enjoy my needlework and not get that upset with my errors. Everytime I make a mistake and it gets corrected, I fix it, and go on my merry way. Do I get annoyed at myself? You bet!! I'm still human, but I say my peace, fix and continue!! Then I give myself an "at-a-girl" and then I'm proud when it's completed.

Folks, life is too short to sweat the "small stuff."

Sit back, kick off your shoes, pick up your needles or hook and ENJOY!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!

SEWING IN TAILS AGAIN!

We had a customer who needed her multi colored sweater to be sewn together. Sewing the seams together wasn't hard at all, but what was a pain in the "you know where" were the oodles of tails of yarn that had to be sewn in first!

This is my theory: when you're cooking do you do all the cooking and then wash the dishes (providing that you are the dishwasher as well)? The easier thing to do is to cook and wash dishes as you go so the chore isn't so much!!

The same thing holds true for your "tails." Sew them in as you go. This way you don't have to do it after you finished stitching your project together!!!

Try it...you'll like it!!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!!

CONTINENTAL VS ENGLISH

As I was teaching a sock class, my student was knitting continental AND in the back loop. Well, what happens when you knit in the round AND knitting continental in the back loop? Your stitches get twisted. When you knit in the round, your end result will be stockinette. How do you identify your stitch? Stockinette looks like a "V". What happened to this customer is that he (yes, he) was constantly knitting in the back loop and the stitch got twisted. Well, I finally figured out that he had to knit in the FRONT loop to get his stitches straightened out.

So, if you are a continental knitter AND you knit in the back loop, just remember that when you're knitting in the round, knit in the front loop!!!

Happy Knitting, my friends!!

I'M LOST, NOW WHAT!???

My friend Peggy and I had breakfast this morning. Not unusual, but Peg doesn't work for us anymore and I don't get to see her as often as I like.

At the deli, one of the waitresses came over to me and said: 'Ginny, I think one of your customer's may have left her knitting here yesterday.' So, I checked out the knitting bag and sure enough, it was one of our customer's bags. I gave her a call and she came by and picked it up.

So what's the point of telling you all this? It made me realize that there are going to be times when we leave things behind that are very near and dear to our hearts (especially our yarns!)

Within your knitting/crocheting supplies, leave your FIRST NAME and telephone number so that in case you do lose your supplies, someone can contact you. Put your first name and telephone number on the inside flap of your books for the same reason. This way when that poor doggy loses his way, he'll know how to get back home!!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!!

I Knitted/Crocheted it, now I have to sew it?

You made your first sweater!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Guess what, now you have to put it together. Sewing seams is really not that hard once you get the hang of it. I like to use the Mattress stitch for sewing my seams....but....there are ways of putting this "thing" together.

We had a customer who had a pattern that she knitted and the pattern was dated from 1963. This pullover pattern was not hard to knit, but the way that she seamed it together created a small disaster.

According to the directions (again from 1963) she sewed her shoulder seams first (that was correct), then they told her to sew the side seams, then sew the sleeve seams and then sew the sleeves to the sweater (wrong, try again!)

It is much easier to sew your sleeves in first, (after you sewed your shoulders), then you have one seam going from the bottom of the sweater to the sleeve edge.

When she seemed it the way she was instructed, the cap of the sleeve puckered. This made it look ickky (if that's a word.) I had to pull out all of her seams except the shoulders and then reseam it. It took longer to pull it out then it was to sew it up!!

So (or sew), my friends, if you haven't learned how to sew your seams together and you need some help, come visit us if you are local. If you are not local, then go to your LYS (local yarn shop) and ask for advice. If you really don't want to sew your seams, we will!

Happy Stitching (or seaming!)

KNIT/CROCHET IT LARGER/SMALLER

I happen to look into a new book that we received and it has an afghan in it that's big. So I thought to give you the formula for making an afghan bigger or smaller. A good idea is to either write this down or print this page:

1. Take length x width of original afghan = square inches.

2. Take length x width of desired size afghan = square inches.

3. Divide the original yardage by the original afghan square inches = yards per square inch.

4. Multiply the amount of yards per square inch x new afghan square inches.

5. Divide total yards of the new afghan by amount of yards on the yarn ball.

For example: 36 x 45 = 1620 square inches (original afghan size)
Yards needed: 1175 yards

45 x 58 = 2610 square inches (new afghan size)

Take the amount of yards (1175) divide by 1620 (original square inches) = .7253

Takes .7253 x 2610 (new afghan square inches) = 1893 yards.

Now, take the 1893 yards and divide that by the amount of yards that's on the ball. let's say it's 200 yards on the ball. That equals 9.46 balls or rounded up is 10 balls.

See, it really is easy to calculate. You can do the same thing if you're going to scale it down!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends

PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT?

You have a brand new project to stitch! You are so excited to start it! You can't wait to get to the "meat" of that project because it looks so interesting to make! But....you come to a point in that project and your stumped because of a technique.

What I like to do is test the technique out on scrap yarn first. Most of the time, when the instructions give you a technique, say for example, a bobble, they will explain how it is done. I don't like to test it out on my project because I don't want to put it in, take it out, put it in and take it out again. That weakens the yarn, makes it fray and then the yarn looks like it went through war!

According to a psychologist I saw on TV sometime ago, practice does not make perfect----PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, and it's better to practice on your scrap swatch then on your project. Let's keep that project free of in and out boo-boos!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!

WHO DONE IT?? DON'T READ AHEAD!

Sometimes I make myself laugh! I was helping a customer who was reading ahead in her knit instructions and she didn't understand what to do at that point.

I told her that it isn't a good idea to read ahead because when you don't have that area stitched, you won't be able to understand what to do.

So, how did I make myself laugh? I asked the customer this question: 'When you read a book, do you go to the end and read the last page? It's just like reading that novel, don't read the last page.'
Her reply to me was 'yes I do read the last page!' Guess I won't be asking that question again!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!

DIFFERENT YARNS, DIFFERENT GAUGES

So, you are the one in a million (maybe not) who knits or crochets to gauge. Do you think that everytime you pick up needles or hooks and different yarns you're going to get to gauge? What fantasy land do you live in, because I'd like to go there too!

The point is that NEVER ASSUME (you do know what assume means: you make an ass out of you and me) that every yarn you use you will knit or crochet to gauge. Not so. Take the time to make the gauge and IF you do knit or crochet to gauge then good for you! But you were smart to take the time to check it out first.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to get through my project and then learn halfway there that it's wrong. GAUGE IS VERRRY IMPORTANT!

HAPPY STITCHING, my friends!