Stabilizing Buttonbands

Sew a small clear button on the inside of the sweater band on cardigans. This will help stabilize the fabric. It also helps if you have a fabric that tends to stretch or is weakened.

Untwisting Yarn

To untwist yarn while working items like a twined knitting project, place your yarn on a turntable lazy susan and turn as needed.

Yardage Per Row, Last Stitch Bind Off

If you are getting close to the end of your skein of yarn and aren’t sure if you can make another row, check to see if the remaining yarn is about triple the width of what you are knitting. If so, then you’ll have enough to complete the row. Once you’ve bound off the row and you have one loop left on both the left and right hand needles, knit through both the left needle stitch and the stitch below it by picking up the loop of the stitch below and bind off all three together. Then you don’t end up with the little point on the corner of your work.

Notions - Provisional Yarn

Keep a length (about 3-5 yards) of smooth lighter weight cotton yarn in your notions kit so you can always do a provisional cast on when you need it.

In a provisional cast on, you are casting on with a temporary yarn and then knitting with the project yarn from the temporary loops. The intent is that later you will undo the temporary cast on, picking up the resulting loops of your project yarn to knit from the “bottom edge” of the piece. A garish color for your temporary makes it easier to pick out or unravel and smooth cotton won’t catch on your loops as you remove it.