knit1frog2

gettin' a head

While trying to adhere to 2010 ideologies of not buying anything unless it's needed, I came across this today while at the beauty supply (where I did NOT buy one nail polish thankyouverymuch.  This is a far cry from buying six at a time and filling an OPI box.).

I hope this doesn't scare me in the middle
 o' the night!

I've always wanted something to block my hats on, this should work perfectly!  I needed it, right?  Right?!!  Oh and in my defense, it was only $3.98.

k5b

So...the k5b stitch.  I meant to blog about it before, but after the berry hat was done, it was kind of hard to go back and re-create it all.  When I decided to knit another hat, I figured this was the perfect opportunity.  Here.  we.  go.

You have knit the setup knit rows and come to the start of the k5b pattern.  What you will need to do is, drop the next stitch until you have 4 rows of ladder rungs.

the right most stitch will be dropped

Use a crochet hook to grab the dropped stitch, you'll thank me later.

dig out that crochet hook!

Then reach behind the 4 rungs of ladder rungs and grab the yarn as if to crochet (or knit).

see?  It's really not that complicated!

Pull the yarn through the stitch...

almost done!

Place the new stitch on the RH needle, snug up the yarn and continue knitting to the next k5b!

finished.

That's all there is to it! Go forth and knit on...let me know how it works for you! ^__^

casting on

Ever wonder how much yarn to pull out for your long-tail cast on?  Sometimes, depending on the size of the needle, I will use 0.5" - 1" per stitch.  However, I have heard that you should approximate in the following ways...

Try 3 x width of piece for the amount of yarn that you'll need to cast on.  (I only tried this for one item and it came up about 6" short, but I will try again on something else to see if it comes close!)

Try 1.5 x length of piece for the appropriate amt of seaming yarn if mattress style is used.  (This one worked well.)

Ever run out of tail yarn when casting on?  If you flip the needle around and purl on the remaining stitches, it comes pretty close to the original cast on method.  (I did try this, but I wasn't satisfied with the slight difference since the cast on edge would be easily seen in a hat.  I might be okay with it if it were in an inconspicuous spot like the bottom of a sweater that you had cast on a zillion stitches to knit in the round.)

I made it across the bridge Monday night to meet up with the Purlygirls.  Seriously, if you've never gone to meet them, what in the world are you waiting for?  I love that group!  It's one reason that I wish I still lived on the West side!  It's a big jaunt for me coming from the Eastside during rush hour and traffic was really bad tonight.  I had heard there was all sorts of issues on both I-5 Northbound AND I-90 that were causing problems.  I didn't get to Blue Star until 7:30PM and only got to stay for about an hour before I had to turn around to go home.  Still yet, it was completely worth it...such a lovely group of people there...

I woke up at 12:40AM feeling terribly terribly nauseous.  My head has been splitting since Friday and whatnot, so I wonder if that has something to do with it.  I have been eating crackers and drinking water until now...sigh.  Oh look.  It's 2AM.  great.