Studio Marlowe

As I posted the other day, I’m going for a tetris-y look with my scrap afghan. Today I’m going to start posting some tutorials for some of the pieces that are not just your basic square. Today’s piece is going to be pretty basic, a small square “L”, worked from the outside edge in (you can also work this piece from the inside out, which will be the subject of a later tutorial):

The entire afghan is worked using the mitered square technique. In the case of garter stitch (which I am using), you work a mitered square by casting on an even number of stitches, knitting half the stitches minus two, working two decreases, and knitting to the end of the row. Knit back and repeat again. So if you were to cast on 10 20 stitches (thanks Sarah!), your first row would be: k8, ssk, k2tog, k8. Then your next RS row would be K7, ssk, k2tog, k7. And so on.

My afghan is worked on multiples of 15. So for a small square, I cast on 30 stitches, and for a large square, 60. All the numbers I’ll be providing from here on out are assuming that you are also working in multiples of 15, but these could be easily altered to accommodate a different multiple if your gauge is especially larger/small, or you just want a different look.

For this piece, you will need to pick up/cast on a total of 90 stitches:

The diagram above shows where the cast on edges of each square are placed (thick white lines, 15 stitches each), and the eventual shape of the squares, plus the diagonal that the decreases are centered on. Remember if you are picking up from an already knit piece, to consider how your finished piece will be shaped. For example, I am going to need to cast on 15 stitches on the lower right hand side (which I’ll do with a backwards loop cast-on when I knit the first row and get to that end of the piece), rather than picking them up from that adjacent square, because they will need to be at a right angle to the other 15 stitches I have already picked up from the square.

So, once you’ve cast-on, it’s time to start knitting. These instructions are assuming you already have all 90 stitches on the needle. If you have to cast on stitches at the end of the row, my approach is to cast on all the stitches using backwards loop and count the cast on as row 1, then to work the row 1 decreases on row 2 (then work all the following decreases as usual, on the odd numbered rows).

So:

Row 1: k13, ssk, k2tog, k26, ssk, k2tog, k26, ssk, k2tog, k13

Row 2 (and all even rows): k all stitches.

Row 3: k12, ssk, k2tog, k24, ssk, k2tog, k24, ssk, k2tog, k12

Row 5: k11, ssk, k2tog, k22, ssk, k2tog, k22, ssk, k2tog, k11

Row 7: k10, ssk, k2tog, k20, ssk, k2tog, k20, ssk, k2tog, k10

Row 9: k9, ssk, k2tog, k18, ssk, k2tog, k18, ssk, k2tog, k9

Row 11: k8, ssk, k2tog, k16, ssk, k2tog, k16, ssk, k2tog, k8

Row 13: k7, ssk, k2tog, k14, ssk, k2tog, k14, ssk, k2tog, k7

Row 15: k6, ssk, k2tog, k12, ssk, k2tog, k12, ssk, k2tog, k6

Row 17: k5, ssk, k2tog, k10, ssk, k2tog, k10, ssk, k2tog, k5

Row 19: k4, ssk, k2tog, k8, ssk, k2tog, k8, ssk, k2tog, k4

Row 21: k3, ssk, k2tog, k6, ssk, k2tog, k6, ssk, k2tog, k3

Row 23: k2, ssk, k2tog, k4, ssk, k2tog, k4, ssk, k2tog, k2

Row 25: k1, ssk, k2tog, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, ssk, k2tog, k1

Row 27: *ssk, k2tog, repeat from * 2 times

Row 29: sl 1, k2tog, psso

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitch.

It’s been a very glove filled weekend. I made great progress on the fair isle gloves I started for my brother…until I realized the gauge was a whole stitch per inch tighter than I had calculated originally. So off the needles they came.

My beaded lace gloves, however, are meeting with far more success. Today I picked up the stitches for the thumb. There are lots of ways of doing thumbs for gloves or mittens. The method that probably results in the most “natural” fit is to increase stitches on one side as you knit from the wrist to the thumb. However, gloves made in this fashion are, in my opinion, not as nice looking as gloves where a little anatomical correctness has been sacrificed for the sake of appearances. And unless you are making a pair of incredibly tight gloves, the finished product should still fit quite well.

I use a method that I like to refer to as an “afterthought” thumb, because it’s similar to an afterthought heel. I’m fairly certain there’s a real name for it, but I’ve forgotten. When knitting the main part of the glove, you will need to knit the stitches where the thumb is intended to protrude in scrap yarn:

Use some scrap yarn that is roughly the same thickness and that you can easily distinguish from your main yarn. If you want to live dangerously, you can omit the scrap yarn and simply cut directly into the main yarn later. Personally I prefer to play it safe.

Next, pick up the stitches directly above:

and below:

the scrap yarn. Again, if you prefer, you can do this step after removing the waste yarn, but I find that I always lose at least on stitch.

Finally! It’s time to get rid of that unsightly scrap yarn. You can either cut it out or simply unravel the scrap stitches:

My scissors are a bit big relative to this fine yarn so I unraveled.

You should now have a hungry thumb hole staring up at you:

To minimize holes at the base of the thumb, pick up a stitch at the end of each needle (4 stitches total). Some people prefer to pick up more stitches and decrease later. I find that 4 is usually enough and that any remaining holeage can be fixed when weaving in the ends. Finally, transfer a few stitches onto a third needle:

And now you are all ready to knit the thumb!

Rather than just post pictures of beaded glove #2 today (which, shockingly, look pretty much like photos of glove #1), I thought I’d try my hand at a little tutorial on knitting with beads. This is one of those things that’s actually not technically that difficult, but can maybe be a little difficult to wrap your head around. I know I’ve tried it in the past with mixed results! So, without further ado:

1. Pick yarn and beads that are suitably matched to each other in terms of size. You want the bead to be large enough to string on the yarn, but not so large that it looks wonky or is going to be prone to sliding around a lot. For example, don’t put plastic pony beads on a fine lace weight yarn. The standard seed beads you can get at most large craft stores in the US are great for sport/fingering weight yarns.

2. Thread your beads onto your yarn. The easiest way to do this is to use a needle and thread and tie the thread onto the end of your yarn, like so:

Make sure you pick a needle that your beads will go over! I am just using a small sewing needle here, but you can also buy special beading needles that are extra thin. If you are threading onto a very fine weight yarn, beading needles may be a worthwhile investment (they’re fairly cheap), as you will probably want to use beads that are too small for any of the needles that come in a standard package of sewing/crafting needles.

Once you have the thread tied onto the yarn, start stringing on beads. Don’t get too carried away with the number of beads you string on—a large number of beads on the yarn can be difficult to manipulate, they can tend to “jam” in place. I would advise stringing a maximum of 200 beads at a time:

3. Start knitting. When you want to create a beaded stitch, bring one bead up the yarn. Don’t bring it all the way up to the right needle though! You want to have it a little way out, perhaps a centimeter, so that it will fall into the stitch you are knitting:

Knit the stitch. You may need to finagle with pulling the yarn through to ensure that the bead comes along for the ride. I find it helps to keep my right index finger up against the tip of the needle and the stitch, so the bead doesn’t have too many opportunities to slip off elsewhere:

4. Deciding which side of the stitch you want the bead on. This is probably pretty minor, but if you are doing a pattern where the placement of beads is at all symmetrical, then having the beads properly placed is a nice touch that will enhance the symmetrical appearance. The placement of the bead within the stitch really occurs on the row AFTER the row where the bead is placed. The illustrations here are for knitting in the round, so both the row where the bead is knit, and the one where it is aligned, are right side rows.

If you want the bead to fall on the right side of the stitch, insert your right hand needle ABOVE the bead when knitting the alignment round:

Want it on the left side? Insert your needle BELOW the bead:

If you are purling back across the row, you would reverse these instructions–insert the needle below for a right side alignment, and above for a left side alignment.

So for the gloves I am knitting now, where there is a V pattern forming, I am placing the beads associated with left leaning decreases on the left side of the stitch, and the stitches associated with right leaning decreases on the right side of the stitch. This alignment makes the symmetry of the beads line up with the symmetry of the decreases, so that both beads and decreases are centered on the same point.