Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week 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. Can we talk catching floats? Do we always have to - is there some reason you need to apart from snagging? I've heard some folks just don't and over time the stitches are in place and it's fine (hoping yes to this). Do you have a preferred technique or does it depend on yarn type - like regular catch for wool but jacquard for linen? And how do you know when to jacquard if it's not given in the patter. Help please!
Brooklyn Tweed Catching Floats: youtu.be/b9JWn5Rk_vE?si=3qLod43j-Frte2QS
2. Hi Andrea!!!! I love your patterns and your weekly podcast!!! Your encouragement to take patterns and make them work for each person is really inspiring! I was wanting to make your Weekender light since I have a perfect fingering weight yarn, but I really like the crew neck of your weekender crew. I already own both patterns and am a pretty confident knitter. Could I just knit the light version until the neck and follow the instructions for the neck from the crew pattern? Obviously stitch counts would be different and I would need to figure that out but is there any other changes between the two patterns that I should be aware of? Or any other recommendations for making it a fingering weight sweater with the crew neck? Thanks so much for all you do for our craft!!!
3. I love your podcast! Thank you for all your thoughtful answers and insights! I currently have a swatch that grew a lot- it went from 24 rows per inch to 20 rows per inch! What does this mean for reading the pattern? If a pattern says to “knit 2 inches”, does that refer to pre-blocking length or post-blocking length? Do I need to recalculate the pre-blocking equivalent of each measurement in a pattern? Somehow I’ve knit for 8 years without ever considering this! Thanks for your help
4. Hi Andrea, I have used your excellent tutorial videos to help me learn how to do tubular bind off for a professional finish to hand knitted garments, and have found your Kitchener stitch using one needle and converting 2 by 2 to 1 by 1 rib especially useful. I love doing a tubular bind off to finish a ribbing, but I do not like having the yarn give way and break half way through! Any tips on how to make yarn hold up for the whole tubular bind-off process?
5. I am knitting your DRK Everyday Cardi, and I have some buttons that I really want to use for it. They are 0.9" -- just under the 1" that the pattern calls for! Would you recommend trying to shrink the buttonhole while knitting the button band or mitigating once the sweater is done? Maybe by adding a whip stitch or grafting? These buttons might just be close enough, but I'm curious for future projects too. What would you recommend? Thank you!
Today I am wearing Hey Sailor:
Ravelry: ravelry.com/patterns/library/hey-sailor-2
My Website: dreareneeknits.com/shop/hey-sailor
Spinalong Challenge
Ravelry Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4353630
Instagram Hashtags: #3ply2ways ; #drkspinchallenge
March 2 May KAL 2025
Shawl Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4351754
Sweater Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4351752
Instagram: #DRKmarch2maykal25 Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: https://forms.gle/pKM9gF9SixkdQwmS7
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. Can we talk catching floats? Do we always have to - is there some reason you need to apart from snagging? I've heard some folks just don't and over time the stitches are in place and it's fine (hoping yes to this). Do you have a preferred technique or does it depend on yarn type - like regular catch for wool but jacquard for linen? And how do you know when to jacquard if it's not given in the patter. Help please!
Brooklyn Tweed Catching Floats: youtu.be/b9JWn5Rk_vE?si=3qLod43j-Frte2QS
2. Hi Andrea!!!! I love your patterns and your weekly podcast!!! Your encouragement to take patterns and make them work for each person is really inspiring! I was wanting to make your Weekender light since I have a perfect fingering weight yarn, but I really like the crew neck of your weekender crew. I already own both patterns and am a pretty confident knitter. Could I just knit the light version until the neck and follow the instructions for the neck from the crew pattern? Obviously stitch counts would be different and I would need to figure that out but is there any other changes between the two patterns that I should be aware of? Or any other recommendations for making it a fingering weight sweater with the crew neck? Thanks so much for all you do for our craft!!!
3. I love your podcast! Thank you for all your thoughtful answers and insights! I currently have a swatch that grew a lot- it went from 24 rows per inch to 20 rows per inch! What does this mean for reading the pattern? If a pattern says to “knit 2 inches”, does that refer to pre-blocking length or post-blocking length? Do I need to recalculate the pre-blocking equivalent of each measurement in a pattern? Somehow I’ve knit for 8 years without ever considering this! Thanks for your help
4. Hi Andrea, I have used your excellent tutorial videos to help me learn how to do tubular bind off for a professional finish to hand knitted garments, and have found your Kitchener stitch using one needle and converting 2 by 2 to 1 by 1 rib especially useful. I love doing a tubular bind off to finish a ribbing, but I do not like having the yarn give way and break half way through! Any tips on how to make yarn hold up for the whole tubular bind-off process?
5. I am knitting your DRK Everyday Cardi, and I have some buttons that I really want to use for it. They are 0.9" -- just under the 1" that the pattern calls for! Would you recommend trying to shrink the buttonhole while knitting the button band or mitigating once the sweater is done? Maybe by adding a whip stitch or grafting? These buttons might just be close enough, but I'm curious for future projects too. What would you recommend? Thank you!
Today I am wearing Hey Sailor:
Ravelry: ravelry.com/patterns/library/hey-sailor-2
My Website: dreareneeknits.com/shop/hey-sailor
Spinalong Challenge
Ravelry Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4353630
Instagram Hashtags: #3ply2ways ; #drkspinchallenge
March 2 May KAL 2025
Shawl Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4351754
Sweater Forum: ravelry.com/discuss/dreareneeknits/4351752
Instagram: #DRKmarch2maykal25 Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: https://forms.gle/pKM9gF9SixkdQwmS7
Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: https://forms.gle/pKM9gF9SixkdQwmS7
