Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Get a Trial of Wildflower Knits’ New Course

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wildflower knitsKennita Tully, the knitter behind Wildflower Knits is launching an e-course this fall and is giving interested people a free sneak peek at the offerings.

She says the course will focus on a particular knitting technique each month and will include tutorials, video instruction and a pattern using the technique. Participants will also receive coupons for the yarn of the month, have access to an online forum, get a free recipe and have the opportunity to take part in live (in-person at the shop in Manhattan, Kan., or via Skype) meetups each month.

No word on how much the classes will cost yet, but if you sign up to her newsletter now you can get a look and will get a discount on the price when it is available. (I signed  up for the updates so I can give you the scoop once more information is available.)

It sounds like a fun way to build your knitting skills and a virtual knitting community at the same time.

[Photo by Wildflower Knits.]

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!