Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Welcome to I’ll Knit (& Spin!) If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
Sign up for my newsletter here: Sign up for the DRK Newsletter: eepurl.com/diPxsr
In this week’s episode we cover:
1. I excitedly casted on Metamorphic this weekend and have been zooming through the yoke increases (I am past the third increase). After I took a picture of my progress, to my horror I realized I somehow put the BOR on the back of the sweater (perhaps I miscounted my short rows in the neck band), and now the decorative slip stitch column is in the back of the sweater instead of the front! I think there is probably no way to avoid the inevitable, that I have to frog all of my hours of progress so far, but I thought I would reach out to see if you have any other creative solutions! Could I somehow create a ‘matching’ column in the front with duplicate stitch, and keep what I’ve already done intact?
2. Hi Andrea! I’m about to start your Birch sweater and it’s my first time using NSW wool in such a big project. I just finished swatching and got stitch gauge exactly, but my row gauge is a fair bit tighter than recommended (64 rows as opposed to 57). I know that if I were using super wash, I’d just continue as is because the weight of the sweater is really going to pull that down, especially in the yoke. But I’m not familiar enough with NSW to know if this is going to be true in this project. Should I knit both the yoke and the body to my personal gauge according to the measurements, knitting more rows to account for my tighter gauge? Or should I just go with the pattern gauge to account for the length growing due to the weight? Thanks!
3. I have a hypothetical question related to tubular cast ons. I love the look of a tubular bind off and use it on most of my garments, but the tubular cast on is a different story. I just can't seem to get it to be both neat and flexible, so I generally use something else. Since I enjoy the process of the bind off could I potentially use a provisional cast on with a good bit of extra yarn and eventually just sew off those provisional stitches the way I would for a tubular bind off? Does this make any sense?
4. Hi Andrea, I really want to make the Velvet Mirror cowl but I keep putting it off because of the provisional cast on. I'm left handed and really struggle with using the crochet hook in my right hand. I've only done it once before for a project that only needed a few stitches provisionally cast on, it was frustrating and took me forever. I'm wondering if I can do the provisional cast on mirrored with the crochet hook in my left hand? Or would that have my stitches on the needle wrong? I tried Googling but haven't been able to find the answer. Just to clarify, I knit continental, my working needle is the right handed needle.
5 . I'm working on the Gib II sweater (love, love, love the texture) and things were going super well...until I went to cast off the body. This is my first time using the tubular/kitchener bind off method so I'm not sure exactly what went awry, but the edge of the sweater is terribly rigid. Like immovable. Looking back, I think the difficulty may have started in the tubular bind off rows. That's when my stitches started to feel a little tight. Then, it was very difficult, almost impossible, to slip the knits and purls onto two needles. It took a really long time and there was fuzz flying everywhere from the friction of the stitches against the needles (at the connection between the needle and the cord). Going down a needle size helped with the stitch transfer, but the kitchener finish is so tight that I can't even try the sweater on anymore! Have you come across this issue before? What do you think might have gone wrong? If my fear of doing this again wins, is there bind off you'd recommend to yield a similar look? I still have to add the sleeves, so I'm hoping to figure this out so I can try it again on the sleeves.
Today I am wearing the Framed Pullover
Ravelry: ravelry.com/patterns/library/framed-11
My Website: dreareneeknits.com/shop/framed
Instafriends KAL - hosted on Instagram from 9/18/24 to 1/31/25! Just use the hashtag #instafriendsKAL2024 and tag @dreareneeknits and @shoplamercerie
Rhinebeck Framed KAL Ravelry Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/topics/4321023
Rhinebeck Framed KAL Facebook Forum: facebook.com/groups/1227489541598223
Instagram Hashtag: #RhinebeckFramedKAL
DRK Spin It to Knit It KAL
Ravelry KAL Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/topics/4300929
Instagram Hashtags: #DRKspinittoknitKAL2024 #DRKspinsTHETRAVELER
Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: https://forms.gle/pKM9gF9SixkdQwmS7
Welcome to I’ll Knit (& Spin!) If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
Sign up for my newsletter here: Sign up for the DRK Newsletter: eepurl.com/diPxsr
In this week’s episode we cover:
1. I excitedly casted on Metamorphic this weekend and have been zooming through the yoke increases (I am past the third increase). After I took a picture of my progress, to my horror I realized I somehow put the BOR on the back of the sweater (perhaps I miscounted my short rows in the neck band), and now the decorative slip stitch column is in the back of the sweater instead of the front! I think there is probably no way to avoid the inevitable, that I have to frog all of my hours of progress so far, but I thought I would reach out to see if you have any other creative solutions! Could I somehow create a ‘matching’ column in the front with duplicate stitch, and keep what I’ve already done intact?
2. Hi Andrea! I’m about to start your Birch sweater and it’s my first time using NSW wool in such a big project. I just finished swatching and got stitch gauge exactly, but my row gauge is a fair bit tighter than recommended (64 rows as opposed to 57). I know that if I were using super wash, I’d just continue as is because the weight of the sweater is really going to pull that down, especially in the yoke. But I’m not familiar enough with NSW to know if this is going to be true in this project. Should I knit both the yoke and the body to my personal gauge according to the measurements, knitting more rows to account for my tighter gauge? Or should I just go with the pattern gauge to account for the length growing due to the weight? Thanks!
3. I have a hypothetical question related to tubular cast ons. I love the look of a tubular bind off and use it on most of my garments, but the tubular cast on is a different story. I just can't seem to get it to be both neat and flexible, so I generally use something else. Since I enjoy the process of the bind off could I potentially use a provisional cast on with a good bit of extra yarn and eventually just sew off those provisional stitches the way I would for a tubular bind off? Does this make any sense?
4. Hi Andrea, I really want to make the Velvet Mirror cowl but I keep putting it off because of the provisional cast on. I'm left handed and really struggle with using the crochet hook in my right hand. I've only done it once before for a project that only needed a few stitches provisionally cast on, it was frustrating and took me forever. I'm wondering if I can do the provisional cast on mirrored with the crochet hook in my left hand? Or would that have my stitches on the needle wrong? I tried Googling but haven't been able to find the answer. Just to clarify, I knit continental, my working needle is the right handed needle.
5 . I'm working on the Gib II sweater (love, love, love the texture) and things were going super well...until I went to cast off the body. This is my first time using the tubular/kitchener bind off method so I'm not sure exactly what went awry, but the edge of the sweater is terribly rigid. Like immovable. Looking back, I think the difficulty may have started in the tubular bind off rows. That's when my stitches started to feel a little tight. Then, it was very difficult, almost impossible, to slip the knits and purls onto two needles. It took a really long time and there was fuzz flying everywhere from the friction of the stitches against the needles (at the connection between the needle and the cord). Going down a needle size helped with the stitch transfer, but the kitchener finish is so tight that I can't even try the sweater on anymore! Have you come across this issue before? What do you think might have gone wrong? If my fear of doing this again wins, is there bind off you'd recommend to yield a similar look? I still have to add the sleeves, so I'm hoping to figure this out so I can try it again on the sleeves.
Today I am wearing the Framed Pullover
Ravelry: ravelry.com/patterns/library/framed-11
My Website: dreareneeknits.com/shop/framed
Instafriends KAL - hosted on Instagram from 9/18/24 to 1/31/25! Just use the hashtag #instafriendsKAL2024 and tag @dreareneeknits and @shoplamercerie
Rhinebeck Framed KAL Ravelry Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/topics/4321023
Rhinebeck Framed KAL Facebook Forum: facebook.com/groups/1227489541598223
Instagram Hashtag: #RhinebeckFramedKAL
DRK Spin It to Knit It KAL
Ravelry KAL Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/topics/4300929
Instagram Hashtags: #DRKspinittoknitKAL2024 #DRKspinsTHETRAVELER
Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: https://forms.gle/pKM9gF9SixkdQwmS7
