How To Rip Back Rows

Use the smallest circular or double point needle that you have, preferably a size 1, 2, or 3 needle. Find the row BELOW your mistake, and pick up the RIGHT loop of each stitch (including edge stitches). Remove your regular knitting needle from the top row of your knitting, and rip back your stitches until you reach the skinny needle row. Start knitting again with your regular needle. Here's a great video showing how this is done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVeUteBJEsI&list=PLCA62A5AB7F53FB9E&index=12&feature=plpp_video

Jogless Stripes While Knitting in the Round

When kitting in the round, sometimes you change colors for stripes. To avoid the "jog" that occurs when you start the new color, do this: At the beginning of the round where the new color starts, go ahead and drop the old color and start knitting with the new color. After finishing the first row of the new color: SLIP THE FIRST STITCH on the second round as if to purl, and then continue knitting. Here is a video demonstrating this technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhbjcQjXw8g&list=PLCA62A5AB7F53FB9E&index=8&feature=plpp_video

To Swatch or Not - Practice Sample

If you see the perfect pattern, but the project is too big for you to tackle without knowing that you will actually like knitting the entire thing, try knitting a dishcloth using the pattern instead. For worsted weight cotton like Peaches'N Cream yarn, use about 45-48 stitches so adjust your practice pattern by adding edge stitches to make it fit. Knit your pattern in the center continuing with edge stitches until you have about 8". All you have invested in this project is some yarn and a few hours of practice knitting which will help determine if you want to commit to the entire project. Besides, you'll end up with a cool dishcloth to use!

Tink - or Undo Your Knitting

Sometimes there is no way to "fix" a mistake without "unknitting" your work. Here's a tip to make that task easier: Use a needle a couple of sizes smaller than what you are knitting with. For knit stitches: hold your yarn in back of your work and insert the left (smaller) needle into the stitch below the first stitch on your right needle. For purl stitches: hold your yarn in front of your work, and insert the left needle under the "bar" below the stitch. Pull the yarn out of the stitch.

Automatic I-Cord Edging

If you want to have a finished edge on scarves, shawls, or baby blankets, cast on an extra three stitches at each edge of your knitting. Then, before starting the "real" pattern, knit the first three stitches. Then follow your pattern until you get to the last three stitches. Stop, bring your yarn to the front of your knitting, and slip the last three stitches as if to purl. When you turn your work, always knit the first three stitches, then follow your pattern until the last three stitches. Bring your yarn to the front of your knitting, and slip the last three stitches as if to purl. You will automatically have an i-cord edge!

Reviving Musty Yarn

If you find a "musty" smelling stash of yarn, and don't want it to go to waste, try one of these two tricks: Put 2-3 drops of lavender oil on a cotton ball. Wrap it loosely in a plastic bag, and put it in with your work... OR...Keep a bar of soap in your bag - any soap will work.

Adding More Color By Overdyeing

A little recipe for you to help perk up a skein of plain or colored natural fiber yarn with overdyeing. Supplies you will need:
¼ cup vinegar
2-3 cups tepid water
a 2 -3 qt pot
a packet or two (or more for really dark result) of unsweetened Kool-aid
Optional: candy thermometer.
Add the water, vinegar, and Kool-aid to the pot and without heating, stir until the Kool-aid is fully dissolved. Open up your yarn skein so it is just a big loop and arrange in the pan making sure all parts are submerged.
Turn on the heat, low or very low, depending on your stove top. The goal is to raise the water temperature to about 185-190 degrees gradually without boiling the water. Monitor the water color. When it's the correct temp, the color will be absorbed by the fiber and the water will be clear or very close to clear. This gradual increase should take at least 15-20 min. You can poke and shift the contents but avoid stirring unless you are using superwash wool. Once the water is clear, cover the pot and remove from heat. Allow the pot to sit until it reaches room temp to set the dye and absorb any additional dye in the water.
Rinse the skein. If you see color in the rinse water it is either not completely set (redo process with water and more vinegar) or there was so much Kool-aid that the yarn couldn’t absorb it all. Roll in an old towel and squeeze out the extra moisture. Hang skein to dry.
This will work for animal fiber, silk, and nylon. Wool/acrylic blends will partially absorb the dye giving you a heathered look.

Lifelines

How to use lifelines is demonstrated at this website: http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/lifeline.shtm.

Lifelines are a must when you are knitting a complicated pattern and want to be able to rip back to a certain point in your work without losing stitches. Super handy if you are knitting lace with lots of yarn-overs, or if the pattern instructions aren’t completely clear for the next step and you just want to try them out but not necessarily commit to the interpretation.

Remember to mark, in some way, the same row in the pattern from the position of your lifeline in the event that you have to continue from that point. One way is to add a series of knots to the lifeline yarn indicating the row.
-----------------------*--*-----------* --*--*------------- is row 23, for example.

Attaching a New Skein of Yarn

There are several options when starting a new skein of yarn Here are a few ideas:
**If you are working with wool or animal fiber that felts easily you can felt your ends together with a felting needle. To do this, slightly splay the plies of both ends you are joining. Lay over each other, overlapping an inch or so, and then punch together with the felting needle, turn sideways and felt again so the strand is compact and round.
**Also with wool fiber, you can spit splice the yarn. Tease out approximately, but not perfectly, about equal lengths of 2 plies of yarn. Overlap the ends, again approximately. Lay the overlapped ends across your hand and either spit on it or us water. You get the yarn nice and wet, then you gently rub it back and forth between your hands, generating both friction and heat, until you have a nice, continuous piece of yarn.
**Leave a long tail in your work and then leave an equally long tail for the new strand and simply continue knitting. Weave the ends in later.
**Merge the ends with a darning needle. This works like Chinese thumb cuffs if your yarn has multiple plies and works similarly to a person holding both wrists with the opposite hands, from the inside. For explanation purposes: we want to join yarn A to yarn B. Thread the darning needle with A. Starting about 1.5-2 inches back from the end of B insert the needle lengthwise down the center of B for another inch or so (going towards the work or ball). Go far enough with the needle and A so that the tip of A is hidden within B, remove the needle and adjust if necessary. Then take the little 1.5-2 inch tail of B, thread the needle and, starting at where A went into B, slide B into A going the opposite direction. Go far enough through A to hide this end of B as well. Remove needle and adjust or trim.

Polymar Clay Buttons

Polymer clay comes in tons of colors, and you don't need much skill to flatten it, cut out a circle, and poke holes in it with a toothpick to make a button. It bakes in the oven in fifteen minutes or so. Of course, you can make them as plain or fancy as you wish, and there are tons of free instructions and ideas on the web. When you cook them make sure you don’t use utensils that are used for food. Using a sheet of tin foil works well.

Customized Yarn

To add a novelty look to your knitting try combining your yarn with a colored thread. The thread will naturally wind around the yarn as you knit, creating a bumpiness. There are many novelty threads available for quilting, some are shiny or springy, some in variegated or changing colors. Knitting a thread with a yarn that tends to stretch, such as pure alpaca, can also stabilize the finished work and support the yarn.

Determining Needle Size for Yarns

To determine a needle size for a yarn (homespun or unlabeled), double the yarn and, using a needle sizer, find the hole where your doubled yarn goes through comfortably; touching all sides but not squeezed. Use this as the primary needle size and compare to the pattern recommendations. For mohair, boucle, and novelty yarn, consider the fuzz/loop as part of the yarn width. For thick and thin, combine the fattest and thinnest parts to do your measuring.