Sew Wrong

Sew Wrong Top 5: Must-Have Knitting Tools

top 5 knitting


Earlier this month, Haley of The Zen of Making did a round-up of her must have crochet tools, which made me think: what are my must-have knitting tools?  Here are my top five tools that I gotta have in my bag or else!

1. Row Counter – A row counter is an integral part of your knitting basket – it keeps track of where you are in a pattern repeat, how many rows until you need to change colors, or when it’s time to start increasing or decreasing. There’s rarely a knitting pattern where you don’t need to keep track of something row-related.

Row counters can be the traditional kind that you slip onto the end of a needle, hang off of a pair of circular needles, or the kind that you “click” after each row or repeat. I have one of each kind and use all of them frequently. Find an assortment of row counters here: Row Counters from Dreamweaver Yarns

 2. Tape Measure – Knitting patterns will tell you to knit until a piece measures a certain length before shaping, binding off, or maybe switching needle sizes.  Plus, it’s important to make sure you take your body measurements to make sure that whatever it is that you’re knitting will fit you!

I have a penchant for cute, functional things, which is probably why I gravitated towards the sheep tape measure that I use. Pull out it’s tail to measure your knitting progress: Lantern Moon Sheep Tape Measure

3. Addi Turbo Needles – For years, I refused to pony up the cash for these needles.  They seemed just like the trusty Susan Bates that I used and anyway, I preferred bamboo to metal needles.  Boy was I wrong!  These needles have made knitting such a dream and are worth their weight in gold.  I don’t consider myself a fast knitter, but my stitches glide with ease and I find myself finishing rows quicker than on my polished wooden needles.  I highly recommend these, especially when knitting projects that require small needle sizes.


There’s a whole range of tips, cables, and DPNs available at Yarn Market.

4. Point Protectors – If you don’t want your stitches slipping off your needles, you’ve got to have point protectors.  They come in a variety of shapes and sizes to accommodate different types of needles, even ones that work on circulars or DPNs.  Plus, who wants a big hole poked in their knitting bag?

I love the cute colors of the Hiya Hiya point protectors, available at Just Yarn.

5. Stitch Markers – When I’m working a pattern with repeats, or maybe I’m adding some waist shaping to a sweater, I have to have stitch markers to let me know when something important needs to be done.  I’d be lost without them, and it makes knitting lace patterns a little more bearable!

And again, why settle for boring plastic stitch markers when you can use something cute?  I adore these ladybug stitch markers, but maybe you’d prefer their bumble bees or sheep: Lantern Moon Ladybug Stitch Markers

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On The Needles: Knit Night Cardigan

whole wheat WIP

I love my Wednesday night knitting group.  We’ve been meeting at our local Panera Bread every week since last August and I’ve gotta say, it’s a great group of girls.  Some of us are new to knitting, have been knitting for years, work in super smart science/tech jobs, but we all share a love for the craft and gathering to trade ideas and get inspiration.  Forming this group initially on Meetup.org is one of the best things I’ve done since moving to the city – I’m so glad we all met!

I’m calling this cardigan my “Knit Night Cardigan” since the yarn I’m using for this project was purchased at a LYS using a gift card that the girls chipped in and gave me as a thank you for starting the group – they’re the sweetest!  (Funny enough, the LYS is across the street from where we meet and they have a knitting group that meets every Wednesday as well.  And there’s a bookstore in the shopping center where we meet that has a Wednesday night knitting group.  Wednesday is a knitting night I guess!)  I’m using Sublime Yarns Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, which has such a nice feel and stitch definition, but it’s a little on the splitty side if you’re not careful and paying attention to your knitting.

I’m really enjoying the knitting on this project, which is originally called the Whole Wheat Cardigan by Alexandra Charlotte Dafoe.  It’s not mind-numbing stockinette and it’s not overly complicated that I can’t talk while I’m working on it.  The above picture is my progress so far on the back, but I’m actually further along than what you can see above.  I’m right at where the neck shaping takes place, and then it’s time to bind off and start the fronts.

And yes, this really is a shockingly loud pink yarn.  Perfect for all of those black and white dresses and tops I’ve been sewing!

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Adventures in Dropping Stitches

Clapotis - WIP

There are few things that terrify me when it comes to knitting, such as steeking (I could never cut my knitting!), size 0 needles (I’ll never finish anything on those teeny things), and skinny, laceweight yarn (goes hand in hand with the teeny needles).  Taking on the Clapotis, a project that has been in my queue for years since it was published in Knitty, is tackling one of those fears: dropping stitches

Dropping stitches has a stigma attached to it: as new knitters, we learn to fear it because it seems like something that impossible to fix.  To all knitters, it’s sign that oops, you made a mistake.  So to incorporate the concept of intentionally dropping stitches into a design seemed to blow my mind.  How could it be possible that doing that wouldn’t backfire and ruin a loved project?

The Clapotis is such a lovely scarf and oodles of knitters have made it in the last eight years since the pattern was published – that should be testament right there that this is a project with risks well worth the result.  And you know what?  Dropping that first stitch was ok.  I may have panicked when I sent down the stitch to be dropped, watching as it created a ladder down the edge of my knitting.  But when it got to the very end of the column and stopped unraveling, I breathed a sigh of relief that my knitting didn’t fall apart, that the pattern designer knew what she was doing when she wrote the pattern.  Since then, I have sent many other stitches to their dropped-down fate and the outcome of each dropped stitch has been just right.  I will say, there’s almost a rebellious feel to it – it’s making what would traditionally be a mistake into an intentional action.  Take that, knitting perfectionists!

I can’t say that I’ll be tackling any of my other knitting fears soon…especially steeking.  I shudder at the thought of taking my scissors to something that I spent hours working on.

So you know what mine are now – what are your knitting fears?

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Star Crossed Beret

Star Crossed Beret

Pattern: Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson
Yarn: Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky from Gather Here
Needles: US 9 and 11 16″ circs
Size: OS

Star Crossed Beret

My sister came up to visit last weekend from NYC and I wanted to show her some of the places that make the Boston area great: the Harpoon Brewery (tour tickets were sold out, dang), Grendel’s Den in Harvard Square, and Gather Here in Cambridge.  After finishing my Odessa hat last week, and not being too pleased with the outcome, I decided I need to whip up something – fast – to help me get over my hat failure. So taking a cue from what I learned about that hat, I found some yarn at Gather Here to make the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret.  My sis?  She bought some yarn for the Blue Sky Alpacas “Sporty Mitts” pattern, her first Fair Isle project.

Star Crossed Beret

After about four episodes of catching up on Downton Abbey, my hat was finished!  Started it Saturday night and finished it Sunday afternoon.  I decided to use US 9 circs for the ribbing since I didn’t have any size 10 dpns or circs like the pattern called for, and then switched to US 11s for the rest of the hat.  I’ve made a couple of berets over the years and this one is definitely my favorite by far.  I love the shape of the hat – it’s more fitted at the crown than other beret patterns I’ve knitted, and the drape starts at the right point, not too soon after the ribbing ends.  It lays nicely and doesn’t need to be constantly tugged at or pulled on to make sure it’s not falling off of my head.  I highly recommend knitting this pattern for a no-fail beret/slouchy hat/tam project.


I think I’ve got my hat-knitting groove back.
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Odessa Hat

Odessa Hat

Pattern: Odessa Hat by Grumperina
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK
Beads: Size 6 seed beads from Webs Beads
Needles: US 4 and 6 16″ circs
Size: OS

Odessa Hat

I wanted to love this hat, but the truth is, I just can’t.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved knitting it and discovered that knitting with beads is addictive and fun (I want everything to have beads in it now!).  I had such high hopes for it because it looked so pretty on my needles as I kept knitting the swirling stockinette pattern.  But I’m not a beanie girl, have never been a beanie girl, and so I don’t like how it looks on my head.  I deliberately posted these three pictures on the blog because they don’t really give a full look as to how the hat looks head-on.  But I wanted to show how the hat turned out and say that it’s a great pattern, just not for me.

Odessa Hat
(This was the only straight-on picture that looked ok)

Every project is a learning experience.  You learn what you did wrong so that you can improve on it next time in a new project.  Sometimes you also learn what works and doesn’t work for you – case in point this hat.  I learned that I like loose fitting hats, pretty much of the tam or beret variety, and that thinking back, I never owned a single beanie that I liked.  It’s that whole hair-smooshing thing I think, as silly as that sounds.  And light, neutral colors wash me out.  I need some bright colors going on for my hats!

Oh well.  Knitting, like any other craft, is full of mishaps.  I used to get upset when something didn’t turn out right, but now I just use it as a point of reference going forward, and learn not to make that mistake again.  No more beanies for me.

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