KnitBits: Knitting Fails, What’s Your Knitting Worth and the Steven Show

Knitting fails happen to everyone. Just last night I was trying to knit what should have been, looked like, was, a relatively simple lace pattern and I could not for the life of me do it. I was supposed to have 39 stitches, then suddenly I had 38. Rip it out, try again. 40. Ugh.

A knit fail is not the end of the world — yarn can always be ripped out and tried again, after all — but it’s always great when people can share their knit fails with the world. It makes us all feel better. So take heart and check out these cringe-worthy knitting fails over at Love Knitting.

Once you’ve done that, go read the super sweet piece from the Globe and Mail that reminds us why we do what we do. It starts off as a regular learning to knit story and ends reminding us that knitting really is an act of love, all the time. It’d worth the read.

And speaking of worth, when people ask you to knit something for them, odds are good most of them don’t want to pay you. This knitting time calculator isn’t a real calculator, but it will give the person asking some idea of what your time might be worth. It offers estimates for the length of time a project might take, asks if the person wants to buy the yarn or have the knitter buy it, whether the person wants to compensate the knitter by cleaning her house and so on. It’s good for a laugh, anyway.

And for a final laugh, you probably know that Steven Be and Stephen West have been working and touring together, and recently they were teaching and putting on a ridiculous (in the best possible way) fashion show at Vogue Knitting Live. You can check out some of the fun with the first episode of the web series StevenBe. It will inspire you to knit something awesome, I’m sure.

[Photo via Love Knitting.]

Next Pattern:

I happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, but I know we have a lot of Southern Hemisphere friends, too, who are heading into the cooler months as we are warming up. Whichever one of the seasons you’re in, you might want to stitch up this sweet little hood.

This pattern by saskie&co is called snug hood and it uses two colors of yarn to make a close-fitting pixie style hood (almost a balaclava but it doesn’t cover your face, though there is a neck covering portion to keep you a little warmer). You can use the fingering weight wool and mohair held together that are called for in the pattern, or use a single strand of DK weight yarn.

The neck portion and the edging around the face are worked in ribbing in a single color, while the body of the hat includes an allover colorwork flower pattern. The project is worked both flat and in the round and there is colorwork that is knit flat, which means you’ll have to purl in colorwork (which some people don’t like; also, you can’t see what you’re doing as well on the back of the work).

The pattern comes in one size and the colorwork is charted. Testers noted this is a quick and easy project and a great way to learn some new skills (chart reading, working stranded colorwork flat) if you’ve never tried those things before. They noted the hood is cute, comfortable and warm, and a few said it didn’t take as much yarn as the pattern suggests, so bear that in mind if you’re trying to use stash.

Speaking of the pattern notes, check out all the cute color variations in the projects on Ravelry. From pink and red to blue and white to gray and cream, there are lots of great options to think about.

You can buy this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: saskie&co]

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