(This post is part of my series for Knit and Crochet Design Week 2012.)
Designing a Simple Knit Beanie: Day 5
Today’s Design Week theme is problems. I don’t generally have too many problems until I start the project! Once you get the yarn on the needles or hook, fantasy meets reality, and all sorts of interesting things can happen. Sometimes, everything works out as planned, and other times… well, you end up with unusual little balls of yarn from unraveling everything!
So far with my beanie, I haven’t experienced any major problems. It is moving along a bit slowly because I’m the world’s slowest knitter and also because I find it hard to cable on the subway, which is where I do most of my knitting or crocheting during the week. There are too many vibrations and distractions to attempt cabling without a cable needle, but it is also hard when you are packed in like a sardine to keep digging a cable needle out of your pocket.
I’ve been toting my Knitty City bag, and have found that if I put the cable needle into the yarn, it is a little easier to find when I need it next.
The knitting students that I’ll be sharing this project with have never used circular needles before. I’m expecting that they will experience two common challenges: avoiding a twist when joining in the round and laddering. Luckily, there are some great online resources that I can share with them.
- The Webs Yarn Store blog just posted a video with some tips for avoiding a twist when joining in the round this week. (Crocheter tip: When joining a large project in the round, I actually do what Webs advises for knitting. I crochet the first few rows before joining and starting to crochet in the round. Then I use the yarn tail to weave the ending closed when I’m finished.)
- While Knitting Daily simply advises you to pull tightly to avoid laddering, this illustrated post from TECHKnitting has several helpful suggestions. (Though the post focuses on DPNs, many of the tips apply to circular needles as well.)
I expect things to get interesting when I start decreasing for this hat, because I haven’t exactly decided what I’d like the top to look like. How close to the Sandstorm pattern would I like the crown to look? Will I be careful about decreasing in some beautiful way, or will I just want the beanie project to end? These are things I can only answer as I get closer to finishing the project…
To read other Day 5 posts from Knit and Crochet Design Week, visit FreshStitches.