Universal Yarn Creative Network

Greetings knitalongers! After joining shoulder seams on my Catawba River Poncho last week, I’m all set to pick up stitches for my side ribbing.

At this stage, my poncho is starting to look like a wearable thing. Which is exciting! All that’s left now is the side ribbing and then the collar. The side ribbing is more of the mock eyelet ribbing pattern, the same stitch pattern that’s used on the hem.

As you can see before the ribbing is added, I have an unattractive rolled stockinette thing going on here at the sides of my piece. But this will soon change.

The instructions in the pattern state to “pick up and knit 162 (167, 177) sts. To pick up and knit stitches, I am going to pull through loops of yarn and place them on my knitting needle to form my base row.

But first things first. How in the heck do I figure out how to pick up that many stitches evenly along this thing? It can seem like daunting task, but I’m going to share a few of the little tricks I like to use when doing this.

I’m making the small size, which means I need to pick up and knit 162 stitches. I’m going to break this down into more manageable numbers.

My usual method is to cut the length in half, then in half again, and again, until I get to a small enough section that doesn’t hurt my head. If I wanted in the illustration below, I could have halved the 20 stitch sections to 10, but I’m comfortable with 20 stitches at a time.

162 / 8 sections  = 20.25 stitches per section. I’m going to solve this by making 2 of my sections 21 stitches instead of 20. In the scheme of things, a stitch here or there rarely makes much of a difference. I placed safety pins at each of my divisions

Next, I need to figure out the rate at which I’m going to pick up my stitches. I counted the rows in a couple of my 20-stitch sections, and found that each of these had 24 rows. I will be picking up 20 stitches over 24 rows.

Now I’m going to put some of my fancy math skills to work with fractions! 20/24 can be reduced to 5/6. This means I’m going to be picking up 5 stitches for every 6 rows. For you, this number could be the same, but it could also be different. It all depends on your row gauge.

To pick up and knit, I’m first going to start at the right-hand side of the piece. In most cases when I’m picking up stitches, I like to pick up between the outermost stitch and the next stitch in. In a super chunky yarn, I might pick up in the center of the outermost stitch to reduce the bulky of the seam. But Deluxe Chunky isn’t too heavy, so I’m going one stitch in as usual.

Insert your needle into the space between those first two stitches. Wrap yarn around the needle,

And pull through.

Here we are with a few picked up stitches on the needle.

And with the first 21 stitches on the needle. My markers make it easy to see my sections and to count back to make sure I have the right number of stitches.

Here are all the stitches on the needle:

What you can’t see here, is that I picked up an extra stitch on one half of the piece. If this happens, it’s no big deal. Just k2tog or p2tog over the next row to adjust.

And, the edging completed:

All that’s left is my other side edging, a collar, some blocking, and it’s done!

As I was sitting outside enjoying my evening the other night, I could smell the autumn in the air for the first time this year. It’s coming, people. It’s coming! How is your knitalong project coming?

Our Deluxe Cable Collection Knitalong has been going strong for about 3 weeks now. If you’ve been thinking about joining, you can begin by reading through some of the blog posts here. It’s not too late to start! You can take part in sharing and conversation over on Ravelry in our knitalong group here.

Today I want to cover a technique used in the Catawba River Poncho, the 3 needle bind-off. In this pattern, it is used to join the shoulder seams of the front and back pieces.

Here is my front piece of the poncho. My neck stitches have been bound-off already, and my shoulder stitches are sitting on the needle.

And here are my front and back pieces with shoulders touching. They’re ready to become one!

To begin, place the pieces with right sides together. You can see that I left my yarn attached to one of my pieces – one less end to weave in later!

It’s important for each shoulder to be on a needle. I’m going to be knitting a stitch from each needle together to join them.

Insert your right needle through the first stitch on the front needle, then through the first stitch on the back needle. Here, I’m just using the needle from the other end of one of my working circular needles. But if you find this awkward, you could use a spare double point or straight needle.

Step 1: Knit the 2 stitches together and slip to the right needle.

Step 2: Knit the next 2 stitches together and slip to your right needle – you now have 2 stitches on your right needle.

Step 3: Bind off 1 stitch by passing the first stitch on the right needle over the second stitch.

Repeat steps 1-3 for a 3 needle bind-off. Here’s what it looks like after a few stitches have been bound off:

Here is my first shoulder after joining:

Both shoulders:

You can see that this method produces a ridge, which is why it’s typically worked with wrong sides of pieces held together. But every now and then I like to use it as a design element and work it with wrong sides together.

And here’s my shoulder viewed from the right side:

There are a few reasons I love a three needle bind-off. For one, I don’t have any seams to sew. I don’t really mind sewing seams, but I don’t just totally love doing it, either. I’d always rather be knitting than sewing a seam.

Second, a three needle bind-off makes it easy to line up pattern stitches, such as in the Catawba River Poncho. I could acheive the same look with a mattress stitch seam, but I prefer this method when possible.

Third, I find it easier to get a seam with good tension as opposed to a sewn seam. Oh, and fourth, a 3 needle bind-off makes for a very stable seam. Shoulder seams see a lot of stress. Especially in a piece like this worked in a bulky weight yarn, think about how much stress will be placed on the shoulders as the garment is hanging down from it.

Next time I’ll be back to talk more about this poncho! I’m going to be picking up stitches along the sides for my eyelet ribbing.

Are you knitting along? I would love to hear how you’re doing!

How are my fellow knitalongers doing? We’re all plugging away on our Deluxe Worsted Cable projects here in the office. I think we’re all enjoying the laid back nature of this knitalong. There is no pressure. No deadline. No rules, really. Just fun and learning!

If you haven’t joined us yet but think you’re in the mood for some cable knitting, it’s not too late to start! You can begin by picking a project from our latest ebook: Deluxe Worsted Cable Collection. You can read back through my other blog posts talking about the knitalong:

Deluxe Cable Collection Knitalong (launch post)

Deluxe Knitalong: Gearing Up

Twists and Cables

The Mighty Spit Splice

Set-in Pockets, Part 1

You can also find all posts related to this knitalong by going the home page of our blog (https://blog.universalyarn.com/) and locating the category “Deluxe Cable Collection Knitalong” on the left side of the page. And be sure to join the discussion over on Ravelry in our dedicated knitalong group.

Let me catch you up with how we’re doing with our projects over here.

Remember Angie who has never done cables before? She is now the proud owner of her very own Cold Mountain cabled hat. She also might kill me for posting this goofy picture of her.

Angie made a couple of mods to this hat. She decided to knit the brim shorter than the original so it is not folded. She also eliminated the lace part and stuck with stockinette instead. I’m so proud of Angie – her cable and hat look so good. She’s waffling on a very important finishing decision: to pom-pom or not to pom-pom.

Heather is making progress on her two-at-a-time Tillery Socks.  She’s modeling them on her arm here so we can see the patterning better. Seeing them like this, I could definitely imagine these being turned into fingerless mitts or mittens, too.

Jen has cast-on for her Ballantyne Tee, modified to be knit in the round. This project is a nice balance of mindless reverse stockinette along with a little bit of patterning to keep things interesting.

Tori has also opted to go for a one-piece project. Instead of knitting fronts and back separately, she cast on for the body to work it as one. Here’s her Eastover Vest after a few rows, sitting next to her swatch:

If you remember, Jannie is a very new knitter, and this will be her first garment project. So exciting! She started swatching for her Greensboro Cardigan using Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash. Jannie was mostly getting the patterning right, but we discovered one little thing – over the twist cable stitches she was knitting these stitches on wrong side rows instead of purling them. But she’s not discouraged and is ready to continue on swatching and practicing the stitch pattern. Good attitude!

Yonca started on her Cumberland Poncho using Smoke Heather in Deluxe Worsted.  As is her usual way when working sleeves, fronts, or any other identical pieces, she’s working both rectangles of the poncho on the same needle at the same time. Unfortunately, Yonca discovered an issue with some of her twisted stitches so she’s going to have to rip out and start over. But as we all know, ripping is just part of the process sometimes! Luckily she’s not too far along.

Speaking of ripping, I’ve got quite a bit of this to do myself. I happily bound off the fronts of my Wesley Heights (modified to be a cardigan) the other day. I washed my fronts along with the back piece and laid them out on my blocking mats. So tell me, what’s wrong with this picture?

Er, yeah. Even though I made myself a very clear note that to match length from the back piece, I needed to work 3 pattern repeats + 14 rows, somehow I managed to work 1 entire extra pattern repeat before moving to my armhole shaping. I thought I was ready to start seaming and knitting a collar. But alas, to the frog pond I go.

I’m also making progress on my Catawba River Poncho. Look out for tutorials related to this over the next couple of weeks.

And I decided I also need a Dilworth Shawl in a nice bright color:

And that’s it from us? How are you doing? I’d love to hear about it!

As part of our ongoing Deluxe Cable Collection Knitalong, today I bring you a tutorial on adding set-in pockets to a sweater.

There are two cardigans in the collection that are written to have set-in pockets. We have the Tallulah Cardigan:

And the Greensboro Cardigan:

First, let me explain what the”set-in” part of set-in pockets means. There are several ways to incorporate pockets into a piece of knitting. In addition to the set-in method, the other common way to add a pocket is to sew on a patch pocket. With patch pockets, you complete your garment, knit a pocket, and sew it to the outside of your knitting. It can be nice to place the pocket exactly where you want it, but for a sweater that’s patterned, it can be tough to make a patch pocket look nice.

With a set-in pocket, you sew a liner separately. Then, when it’s time for the pocket opening in your garment, you put the pocket stitches on hold and then begin working from the liner set of stitches.

The most beneficial aspect of the set-in pocket, and the reason I chose it for both projects above, is that it makes your pocket blend seamlessly into a heavily patterned garment. Let me explain the how and why!

To show you just how easy it is to put pockets on virtually any cardigan or sweater, I decided to knit the Wesley Heights sweater from the collection (which is written to be a pullover) and turn it into a cardigan. I’m basically making a Greensboro Cardigan with Wesley Heights patterning.

Here are the fronts for my cardigan. I’m working them two at a time on a single circular needle.

I’ve reached the height where I want my pocket opening to be. I have knit a pocket liner for each pocket in the same yarn in simple stockinette stitch. The liner will be going on the inside of the sweater and won’t be seen, so stockinette works fine. It will also provide a smooth surface for my hand to slide into.

First, I knit part of my row  up to where my pocket opening will be.

The next step is to place some of my sweater stitches on a holder. I will eventually come back to these stitches and knit my ribbed pocket edging.

My liner is 25 stitches wide, so I put the next 25 stitches from my front piece on hold also. Next, I work the next row of my twisted pattern stitch over the liner stitches. I am incorporating the liner into my main sweater pattern so it will look like a pocket magically grew out of my sweater.

After working in pattern across the liner, I simply finish my row and the rest of my front piece like usual.

You can see that the liner is sitting behind my sweater front. Once I’ve finished the front, I’ll come back and knit my pocket edging and sew down the liner to the inside. And I’ll show you how – stay tuned!