Great Ways to Weave in Ends

I confess I’m not great at weaving in ends. Sometimes it’s hard to decide exactly where to put them, or it can get tricky in colorwork knitting to hide them in the right places. And I suffer from end creep. A lot.

Jane Richmond is clearly much better at weaving in ends than I am, and she shared her tips and tricks at Very Shannon as part of her summer sweater knitalong.

You should click through and check out all her tips, but her hidden ends are basically worked in duplicate stitch, which is a great way to do it.

She shows how to work in ends on both the knit side and the purl side, using contrasting and matching yarn, so you can see how to do it and also see how much you can’t really see it when it’s done.

In addition she has a great visible way of weaving in ends that gets them out of the way but makes them really easy to pull out if you find you need to rip up the knitting at some point.

How do you weave in ends? I do sometimes do the duplicate stitch method but have never gotten into the habit of doing it all the time. Maybe I need to try harder!

[Photo via Very Shannon.]

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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