Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Giveaway: 3-Month EduKnit Memberships

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win a three-month subscription to eduknit

Congrats to Linda and Sarah!

Membership-based websites are really popular these days as a way to continue your education in a subject over a long period of time, whether you want to learn more about writing, marketing or even different crafts.

Knitting pros Gwen Bortner and Kellie Nuss brought this idea to the knitting world earlier this year when they launched EduKnit, a subscription site that offers videos, interviews, reviews and tutorials, all related to one aspect of the knitting life each month.

You can read more about how the site came together and what knitters can find there in my interview with them over at About.

If this sort of deep education about the how and the why of knitting interests you, this week I’ve got a great giveaway: two free three-month memberships to the site. eduknit

You’ll get access to all previous content (which as of now is more than 250 minutes of video and 20 in-depth blog posts) as well as all new content produced during the three months. At the end of the membership you’ll be given the option to continue at the regular price of $10 a month.

This sounds like a really great program so I’d love to hear what the winners think of it.

For a chance to win a membership, comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, August 31. Why don’t you tell me what your biggest problem spot is when it comes to knitting or what you’d really like to learn next. (I may write future posts based on this information.)

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

Comments

  1. I am very experienced with crochet but have found it hard to learn to knit. I really want to be able to but struggle with the tension and the purl stitch (because I use my left hand to hold the yarn and provide the tension like I do when I am doing crochet). Would love to win this and learn. My dream is to knit socks someday!

  4. I am afraid of double pointed needles. I also have not knitted using two different yarns on the same row.

  6. I still haven’t tried Intarsia but would love to learn! Sock gussets still give me a little trouble.

    JKnits51 on Ravelry

  7. I really want to learn 2-color brioche, but so far I haven’t even mastered the single color version,

  8. I think my biggest problem with knitting is just keeping my interest in finishing a project! Doing the same thing row after row gets boring!

  11. I have a problem with recovering my stitches if I drop the, I would love any easy way if there is one to correct it.

  12. Keeping the tension even and counting stitches. Would love to learn how to do these better.

  14. My two main areas of weakness are sewing up (so boring after you’ve finished the fun part, ie. the knitting) and knitting on circular needles as they don’t go with my knitting technique!

  17. Being a serial starter…I love learning new techniques and variations on pattern construction…they are like shiny objects that draw me to the next. Next would be … pattern writing for simple garments that are easily adapted for all sizes…almost unstructured…with space for adding texture / colorwork.

  22. My biggest issue is tension. I tend to knit too tight – especially when casting on – so I’d really like to know how to loosen up a bit without it becoming loopy and messy-looking.

  23. For me it is probably the right fit. When I was younger everything I knitted was straight and fitted nicely. With my current curves I feel I have to do lots of extensive calculations but not sure it the end result would be good…. Thank you

  26. I really want to learn how to knit socks and conquer knitting in the round (again). I was able to do it easily when I was in Junior High School, but I can’t seem to conquer it again!

  27. I always have trouble with intarsia knitting, can never remember which way to twist the yarns on right vs wrong side of fabric

  31. What a great giveaway!
    I’m a very new knitter…self taught.
    My dream is to knit socks and lacey wraps.
    I’d also like to learn to read graphed patterns.
    Thaank you for the chance… :o)

  32. What a wonderful giveaway! You can never learn enough, no matter how experienced you are there is always more to learn.
    Three months worth of classes, I hope to be that lucky. Good luck to everyone who enters.

  34. Oops. I can not correct my mistakes in knitting, I would like to learn to do various corrections

  36. I struggle to really understand gauge – I mean, I get it in my head, but the actual measuring of it is challenging for me – and applying that to substituting yarns. Also, I have an aran sweater project, knit flat, that is scaring me – seaming, blocking, etc.

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  37. One of my biggest struggles is picking up stitches on edges (e.g. sleeves) without getting holes. And finding the time to learn magic loop … but I doubt you can help with the time issue 🙂 I would like to learn more about cables; I’ve done some simple and “mock” versions, but I love the cable look and want to try more.

  38. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was very young and I have carried that knowledge with me for years making lots of fun crafts for my friends and family. However, I have recently reached the threshold of what I can do with a crochet needle and would love to learn how to knit so I can make new sweaters and scarves for the upcoming winter!! I’d be delighted if I won this subscription so I have a community to learn from.

  39. I have been afraid to knit in the round on circular needles and also to try knitting with double pointed needles.

  40. My crochet skills are still minimal so I’d love to expand those. Plus I’m wanting to try 2+ color brioche knitting. I’ve only done one-color brioche and the multi-color possibilities look amazing.

  41. I would like to know how to undo my knitting mistakes, by picking up the stitches in the correct manner. Thanks so much for this amazing giveaway

  43. My biggest problem is getting things finished. Lots and lots of good patterns, yarns, techniques and only limited time in the day for knitting. So why not start something new altogether? Can anyone relate?

  44. My biggest problem is my posture. I knit so much my neck starts aching.
    For those of you who hate sewing seams, try knitting top down in the round, no more seams!

  45. I would like to learning some finishing techniques, especially putting in sleeves. I knitted a baby sweater for my friend’s granddaughter but haven’t figured out how to put the sleeves on. Now the baby is 9 months old & I knitted a 6 month size sweater so I’ll have to wait for someone to have another baby – a girl, the sweater is pink! Maybe by then I will have learned to put the sleeves in.

  47. I feel very comfortable in my knitting, but every time I do start a new knitting project, or at least some where through the project I have to either look up a stitch or re-teach myself how to do a stitch I have done before. Ex last evening, I had to look up on how to pick up stitches, trying to find someplace that can show me how to do it again, with it pertaining to what I need. I think your website can do that for me. Thank you!!!!

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]