I can’t believe that it’s finally done, after thirteen years and three and a half months. I completed the grafting of the ends of the edging on Sunday night and immediately set it to soak so that I could block it.
Read moreEncouraging Yourself on a Bigger Project
When should you just throw in the towel and give up on a project?
If a project has been in hibernation for over five years, and was cast on more than ten years ago, should it just be frogged or thrown away?
Read moreLow-Tech Lace Blocking (A Video Tutorial)
Blocking is a magical process that converts a cast off piece of knitting into a fully-fledged finished object. There are few knitted items that won’t benefit from a soak or a steam, but it’s especially transformative with lace knitting. After all the careful work you’ve done whipping up beautiful lace, it’s really worth it to take the extra bit of time to block it so your handiwork really shines! There are tools you can use — wires, pin combs — to help you on your way, but today, I’ve got a video showing you how to do it with minimal kit
Read moreReading Your Knitting: Right- and Left-Leaning Lace Diagonals
Learning new skills and techniques is always loads of fun — there’s nothing like mastering something new and realising a whole new world of knitting possibilities has just opened up to you. Harder to teach, but perhaps even more revolutionary, is to learn how to read your knitting and really understand what’s happening. In today’s tutorials, I show you how to keep track of your left- and right-leaning yarn over/decrease pairs.
Read moreSomething to Knit Together Pattern Drop: The Camaraderie Hat
Today it’s time to introduce you to the next pattern offering from Sarah Hatton for our Something to Knit Together collection … the Camaraderie Hat!
Read moreFixing mistakes in lace and the Sterlyn Shawl
Here is April’s stunning design for Boost Your Knitting: The Sterlyn Shawl by Joji Locatelli! Joji’s beautiful shawl uses three skeins of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply. Joji used Charcoal, Water and Glisten for this design – all of which are available in our online shop.
Read moreWe are happily knitting along on our lace projects
It seems like every time I log in to my Ravelry account there are loads more posts in the Lace KAL thread! It's a chatty place with no end of inspiring lace projects, hints and tips. If you don't fancy wading through all of the chatter, then I highly recommend clicking the button at the top of the thread so that you can browse through just the photos in the thread, which gives you a more manageable 145 posts (rather than the 1200ish in the whole thread!).
Read moreWill yours be a summer of lace?
On Sunday our Something New to Learn About Lace Knitalong kicks off! Unlike other topical kick offs, this isn't about winning or losing, and there certainly won't be any penalties... just lots of knitters working on lace projects and sharing their progress, hints and tips. Now is the perfect time to wind your yarn, maybe knit a swatch or two, and find a project with some lace!
Read moreVideo: Fixing Mistakes by Tinking
Learning to fix a mistake in your knitting is really empowering. I remember in my early knitting days I would traipse down the hill to the local yarn shop whenever something went amiss in my knitting. The owner, Tina, was really patient with me, and picked up dropped stitches, helped me to rip back, and eventually, once my confidence had grown, she showed me how to fix my own mistakes. It really marks a change in your relationship with your knitting when you are able to get a project back on track on your own.
Video: Blocking Using Pin Combs (Knit Blockers)
Have you come across pin combs before? I had seen them mentioned a while ago, but it wasn't until we started work on Something New to Learn About Lace that I got around to ordering a set. I have the KnitPro Knit Blockers that we now stock in the shop, and I absolutely love them! I have had a set of blocking wires for nearly ten years, and they get used a LOT. I find my wires so useful that it had never really occurred to me that I would want to use anything else for blocking lace. For peaked or scalloped edges, I think that wires are still the best way to go, but depending on the size of your project, pin combs are a brilliant way to pin out straight edges. They are certainly faster and easier than wires over short distances.
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