Fave Friday

Five Favourite Knitting Tricks

1. I-cord bind off
I have just used this on the neckline of Hey Teach, which has 3 rows of 1x1 rib and seemed a little brief to me. It adds a really neat finish to things. Takes bloody ages, though.

2. Three needle bind off
I honestly don't get why people seam shoulder seams. Why would you? Three needle bind off is the way forward.

Both of those bind offs are explained in this Knitty article, although I usually knit in the back of the stitch closest to me when I'm doing 3NBO. I don't know why, now, but that was the way I learnt.

3. Liz Lovick's way of picking up stitches
She recommends picking up every stitch without knitting it, on a much smaller needle, then knitting the stitches you've got and decreasing down to the right number. It is foolproof. I went to her workshop at UK Rav day last year and she shows us there. My picking up used to look really shoddy but now it's neat every time.

4. Slipping the first stitch in each row
Easy seaming a-go-go. Much neater, and even on a non-seamed edge it looks a lot neater than a regular edge.

5. Spit splicing
I know I have mentioned this before. It never gets old. There is something quite magic about being able to rub two wet ends of yarn together and thus save yourself the hassle of having to weave those ends in at a later date.


We saw SATC2 tonight. It was not good. The writers have turned three of the characters into brash caricatures of themselves, all the more to shine to spotlight on Carrie, I suspect. The plot was vacuous. It had grand designs, but didn't get close to achieving them. I particularly liked this article on it (though there is some very strong language in it, be warned!)
The outfits were amazing though, and let's face it - that's the main reason I went.