When was the last time your tapestry needle got some love? It’s an essential bit of kit, for sure, but a humble one, most often consigned to the drudgery of weaving in ends. Well, now is your tapestry needle’s moment to shine, as it takes on a starring role in this month’s headline Confident Knitting technique, Embroidering on Knitting!
Read moreCatching Floats in Stranded Colourwork Knitting (Two Video Tutorials)
For this month’s Confident Knitting project, we’re focussed on floats! If you’ve ever knitted colourwork that’s turned out a bit lumpy and bumpy, or that looks a bit loose and sloppy, it was probably down to the floats being too tight, in the first instance, or too loose, in the second. Even floats equal even, beautiful stranded colourwork! Today, we’ve got two tutorials to help you catch your floats for even colourwork!
Read moreHow to Block Using a Hap Stretcher, Part 1: Square or Rectangular Hap (Photo Tutorial)
We’re all about the blocking at the moment — Excellent Blocking is this month’s featured Confident Knitting technique. This month’s pair of video tutorials creatively use household objects (with the option to use flexible blocking wires) to achieve some really stellar blocking results. Today though, we thought it’d be fun to share a blocking tutorial of a different type from our archives: how to block a square hap!
Read moreGetting Going with Magic Loop (Two Video Tutorials!)
Chances are, if you’ve read this blog before, you’ve heard of magic loop knitting. It’s a nifty way of using a long-ish circular needle to knit a small-ish circumference item. Now before we go any further, I’m going to level with you. I used to hate the magic loop. Many years ago, I was a knitter who found The Way I liked doing things and stuck with it, and The Way I Liked To Knit Small Circumferences was with two circular needles. I’d given magic loop a cursory try, but it felt awkward and ungainly, with kinks of cable everywhere. So I happily stuck with my totally serviceable but rather expensive habit of knitting small circumferences on two circular needles until one day, I was commuting to work on the bus, and the bamboo tip of one of my circular needles broke. I was faced with two choices: sit the rest of the bus ride without knitting or face my magic loop demons. I’m sure you can guess which one I chose.
Read moreLet's block, excellently! Two video tutorials to boost your lace blocking confidence
Blocking can be a really magical, transformative process, but its’s something that (and you can correct me if I’m wrong) knitters rarely get excited about. It’s consigned, along with swatching, to the list of things one should do when knitting something, much like eating your vegetables or drinking more water.
Read moreFour Reasons to Love the Folded Hem + A Video Tutorial
We’re kicking off our year-long Confident Knitting journey this month with folded hems, a really fun and achievable technique that gives a lovely polish to your finished knits.
Read moreThe Joy of Learning with Friends + Getting Started at The Knitalong Hub
Learning something new can be really fun but also, it can be hard! Even armed with clear instructions and tutorials, sometimes it just takes a couple of tries to really get a new skill. And a bit of camaraderie can really help you through the hard bits. Which is why we set up our online forum, The Knitalong Hub, where our monthly Confident Knitting knitalongs will be hosted. The first one will be kicking off this Monday, 1st March, and we’ve put together a short video tutorial walking you through the quick and easy process of creating your free account + have put together a few tips.
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 moreGet Your Seam On! (A trio of sweater-finishing video tutorials)
While it might seem a little early to be talking about joining up the pieces of your Unite Sweater or Reunite Cardigan, honestly, these garments knit up so quickly in Something To Knit With Aran, you’re going to be ready to sew up before you know it. So today, we’ve got not one, not two, but three video tutorials in which Jen shows you how to bring together your sweater or cardigan without breaking a sweat!
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.
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