Technique By Special Request: Switching to a New Set of Needles on Magic Loop

Thanks, Myrna, for requesting a special video on the KNITFreedom Facebook page!

Myrna's question: "I want to know how to change needles in the middle of a project. For instance, I started with a circular needle that is too short and I need to change to a longer one."

So, Myrna and everyone else, this is what to do (PS - it's very easy)...

You can do this if you've got a project on DPNs that you want to switch to Magic Loop, or in my case in the video, I wanted to switch from Addi Lace needles to Addi Turbos so I could speed through the cuffs of my socks. Enjoy!

Mistake #8 - Letting Stitches Lag On Your Left-Hand Needle

Problem: Not advancing the stitches on your left-hand needle makes you work harder and harder to get into those stitches. Yet many people do it, because they are afraid their stitches will pop off if they get too close to the edge.

Fix: Get in the habit of pushing the stitches up onto the tip of your left-hand needle as you knit. Also see the video for Tip #6, Using Your Fingers To Help You (coming up in a few weeks), to solve this problem.

Please remember to comment if you have any questions or if there's a video you'd like to see. Stay tuned for Tip #7 - Not Using the Right Tools for the Job!

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How To Get KNITFreedom Free Patterns and Videos

With a subscription to KNITFreedom, you get to...

• Watch amazingly clear videos and read insightful tips made just for you
• Make special requests for videos and techniques
• Download my most popular knitting patterns for free

Click on any of the links below to learn more about the patterns I'm offering, or just fill out the form below to get them all.

• Bulky Cabled Legwarmers with Buttons
• Felted Moebius Duet
• Beginner Socks for Magic Loop
• Beginner TOE-UP Socks for Magic Loop
• Worsted-Weight Socks for Magic Loop, Toe-Up or Top-Down
• Bulky-Weight Socks for Magic Loop, Toe-Up or Top-Down

Plus, download a FREE video knitting dictionary to use as a video reference whenever you need it!

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I know you'll love this FREE newsletter - it's got 10 years of knitting expertise behind it! Welcome to Knitting Superstardom!

Free Pattern: Bulky Cabled Legwarmers with Buttons!

"I totally love these legwarmers and highly recommend this pattern."

-Belinda, Melbourne, Australia

Here is a fun and hip pattern for you! Now you don't need UGGs to be cool! Knit yourself or a friend a pair of fabulous, cabled, knee-high legwarmers! Finish off with chunky buttons and a twisted-cord tie.

This is a charted pattern that includes instructions for making the buttonholes, cables, and the twisted-cord ties.

• Learn cables easily
• Great gift and accessory
• Clear, charted instructions
• Totally hip and fashionable

Materials:

     Yarn: 265 yards super-bulky yarn (shown: Brown Sheep Burly-Spun in BS-07 Sable)

     Needles: US #15 straight needles OR needle size required to obtain gauge

Gauge: 2.5 sts and 4 rows/inch in St st

Finished measurements: 17 inches long and 15 inches wide when laid flat

Notions: 8 buttons, 1-inch in diameter

Always wanted to learn cables but don't know how? I've created a video e-book to teach you everything you need to know to create these legwarmers. With 25 step-by-step videos, I guide you every step of the way! Click here to learn more.

Free Pattern: Moebius Duet!

This unique felted moebius bowl pattern is the product of three generations of moebius bowls - inspired originally by Somersaulting Rim Bowl by Cat Bordhi. This pattern is fun and slightly challenging - bet you’ve never done a moebius with five twists before!


The directions come with video and photograph tutorials to aid your moebius adventure. These bowls are fun to make in the summer since you don’t wear them, and once you get the hang of it, you can start giving them as gifts! This duo of moebius bowls will rock your knitting world!

• Makes 2 felted bowls
• Learn to knit a moebius!
• Use one skein of chunky yarn in 2 colors
• KNITFreedom video tutorials

Materials Needed:

   Yarn: 150 yards bulky-weight yarn in two colors

   Needles: One 47-inch-long circular needle US size 15. Optional: One 16-inch-long circular needle US size 15 and one set of 5 DPNs size 15.

Mistake #9 - Scrunching Your Stitches Up On Your Right-Hand Needle

Problem: If you do this, you may notice ten-twenty new stitches stacking up on the tip of your right-hand needle, in front of your fingers. This can slow you down, as your fingers are nowhere near the tips of your needles, helping you knit. Knitters who do this also tend to slow down for fear of losing stitches off the tips of the needles.

Fix: Every time you notice this happening, simply move your right hand up the needle, massaging your new stitches evenly down along the length of the needle, and place your fingers over the stitches.

Please remember to comment if you have any questions or if there's a video you'd like to see. Stay tuned for Tip #8 - Letting Stitches Lag On Your Left-Hand Needle!

Top Ten Mistakes Knitters Make that Slow Down Their Knitting (and How to Fix Them)

Are you making one of these classic mistakes? Don’t worry, almost everybody does. That’s why they made this top-ten list. Just read through and watch the videos to see if you are making your knitting experience harder than it should be - and what to do about it.

And just so you know, I’m not perfect, either. My top knitting mistake didn’t make it to the top ten, because it doesn’t really slow me down, per se, but it’s caused me a lot of frustration. I’ve been working on it, and I’m happy to say it doesn’t affect me now as much as it used to.

It’s that I would knit things out of colors that look bad on me. I used to pick a lot of pale, delicate colors, because they looked so good on models and in knitting magazines. Unfortunately, they make me look pasty and bland! So now I try to stick to deep, rich colors and bright jewel tones, no matter how good that sand-colored cardigan looks.

So, counting down from #10, your top mistakes and how to fix them are:

#10 Not Pushing Your Needle-Tips Far Enough Through Your Stitches

Problem: I see so many knitters doing this - they just barely push the tips of their needles through the stitches, and as a consequence, have to go really slowly and carefully to make sure that the stitches don’t fall off.

Fix: Easy! Push your needles all the way into your stitches, like I show in the video. Pair this fix with Tip #6, Using Your Fingers To Help You (coming up in a few weeks), and you should be golden.

This video tutorial is part of a popular new e-book called "Knit Faster!" Speed Up Your Knitting By Avoiding These Ten Mistakes. Click here to learn what they are and how you can fix them!

Free Pattern: Beginner Toe-Up Socks for Magic Loop

“Toe up socks are SO much easier and the invisible bind off makes them look very professional!” -Jillian C.

Here is a free basic pattern for toe-up socks, one- or two-at a time, using Magic Loop. It's the one I use in all my classes, and I always get great results.

Find out why toe-up socks are great! 

• Beginner pattern in three sizes
• Video and text tutorials
• Learn Judy's Magic Cast On
• A heel with no holes
• Invisible ribbed bind-off illustrated guide

Learn more about this pattern

Brand-New Desktop Video Knitting Dictionary!

“
Thank you for this great video! This proved so helpful." - shadowedaethyr

What's a Video Knitting Dictionary?
It's 25 large, high-quality videos of all the knitting abbreviations you need to know in one downloadable PDF.

• This is a complete digital knitting reference
• Large, high-quality video demonstrations of 25 techniques, right in the dictionary.
• Clear demonstrations (American and Continental) of all these techniques:

1. Beginnings
2. Knit and Purl
3. Terms and Abbreviations
4. Pattern Stitches
5. Decreases
6. Increases
7. Finishing

Watch a sample video! Ktbl, Ptbl: knitting and purling through the back loop. The best part -- the videos are twice as big when you view them in your knitting dictionary.

I'm giving this FREE video knitting dictionary away to those of you who sign up for my newsletter. My newsletter audience receives free patterns and videos not released on my blog, as well as special announcements.

• Fill out the form below
• Click for instant download!

Name:

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This is brand-new technology and I'd love for you to get your hands while it's still free. Also, as a member of my newsletter audience, you can request additional free videos and tutorials - your suggestions make my newsletter even better!

Three Reasons You've Got To Know How To Read A Knitting Pattern

1 - It's a matter of leverage.

You are amazing. I know this, because you are reading my blog to help you become a Knitting Superstar! So why let the fact that you don’t know how to read a pattern hold you back? Many people don’t think it’s very important, that they’ve gotten along fine without knowing how to do it all these years. But I am here to tell you that knowing how to read a pattern is a HUGE advantage in the knitting world. It is a small investment of time and energy that will yield a disproportionate amount of results - in other words, it is an area of leverage. A lever moves a heavy weight with little effort because it is constructed to do so. Using levers makes you stronger and smarter than someone who is just trying to pick up the heavy weight. This blog is all about being a Knitting Superstar, and in order to do that EASILY, you have to identify areas in which a small amount of effort will make a big difference. This is one of them.

2 - Being able to read a knitting pattern helps you make better decisions.
When you can speak the language of knitting, you will be able to understand what a designer is telling you, and also to think critically about it. You’ll be able to visualize what he or she is saying, before you buy the pattern and start knitting. Reading through a recipe before you go grocery shopping can save you a lot of time, i.e., “The results sound good, but I see here that I’m going to have to spend all day making this leg of lamb. For who I am right now, making tortellini makes more sense tonight.” I know you probably don’t think like that consciously, but these are unconscious decisions we make all the time.

Just like being able to read a recipe, being able to read a knitting pattern can help you make better decisions about the “ingredients” you buy and the time you decide to invest. Once you understand what someone is telling you, you have a much clearer picture of the road ahead, and you will be better prepared to travel it. Don’t you hate it when you get to a part in your recipe that you overlooked, that says something like, “Let rest for at least four hours.” Dangit! I’m hungry now! This is a preventable problem, but one that many knitters walk right into over and over. Halfway through the project, the get stuck, come into the knit shop and ask for help understanding what the pattern says. Unfortunately, sometimes it says, “Knit for 900 rows on really tiny needles before you get to the next interesting part.” Really.

3 - You won't have to take everything at face value.
One of the things I want you to gain from this blog is a sense of empowerment, and the confidence that comes from a deep understanding of what you are doing. When you understand how to read a knitting pattern, you will start to see that not all knitting patterns tell you to do things the best way, and sometimes they’re just wrong. Sometimes, for whatever reason, designers make you do things that are unnecessarily difficult (like knitting a hat flat and then sewing it up). This is because a) the designer is afraid to challenge you, b) the designer didn’t know any better, or c) the designer just made a mistake. That’s okay - the wonderful thing about knitting is that anyone can be a designer and anyone can publish a pattern, which means we have access to thousands more wonderful patterns than if everything had to be published in a book (no guarantee against mistakes, either).

But now, knowing how to read a pattern, you’ll be able to spot things that don’t make sense to you and to think critically about what you want to do about it. Just like anyone who has some experience can spot an obvious typo in a recipe (“4 C flour to thicken this gravy? I think they meant 4 T”), you’ll be able to spot mistakes that earlier would have left you undoing your work over and over again, wondering where you went wrong. You’ll also be able to (gasp) change how a pattern is constructed, if you think you have a better way. Think it’s not possible? Wait and see. It will happen without you realizing it. Once you understand how to read a pattern, you’ll be flipping through patterns, deciding what to knit next, and you’ll say, “Wouldn’t this be easier if I just ____?” And the world of knitting will be a better place.