Designing

Current Projects

• "The Dude" Sweater: Still in progress...You know that you love to create when more complex projects hit the backburner when you're inspired to knit other things.  I'm still working on it, slowly but surely, however, I do have some other projects in the works.
• Patriotic Toeless socks with cuff: Also still in progress, however won't be ready in time for Independence Day tomorrow.  *sigh*
• Adaly:  I made a very cute, top-down, seamless dress from a pattern I found on ravelry.com (see my other projects on Ravelry, username Rebeca4a).  Adaly is the name of a little girl my son knows from day care and she just recently turned two.  I was having trouble with making invisible increases on this project, but my mother told me not to be too self-conscious about it.  I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, and I want to get all these design/construction details nailed before I begin to market some of my designs.  Let me know what you think of this!  :)


Adaly's Dress
Size 2-3 years


• Seamless Dress:  I know I don't have any girls, but I wanted to perfect the seamless technique that was also featured in another design of this name on ravelry.com.  This dress was a bottom-up design, however, I did notice that other users on ravelry mentioned that the dress was a little long.  I shortened the dress and made a few other minor changes and it turned out well.  Pictures to come.
• Tiger Lily Tank: I began this project almost a week ago in order to get some more design ideas and learn a few more techniques.  It's in progress, but the back is almost complete.  Find this pattern on http://www.lionbrandyarn.com/.  Pictures to come.

Design

Finally, my design section is ready to be up and running.  I have been frantically researching how to knit a circular yoke top, similar to the one on Adaly's dress.  I have found that many people do them differently in their designs, depending on the intricacy of the needlework. 

• Method 1:  Knit in a straight line, including a cabled or vertical pattern until the desired "length" is reached.  Pick up stitches in front and in back, casting on enough stitches to shape the armholes.  Join in the round and once complete, sew any unfinished seams.
• Method 2:  Cast on enough stitches to fit over your head, join in the round, and continue with the top-down method depending on the size and shape you'd like your garment to be.  This is probably the easiest.
• Method 3a: Cast on enough stitches to fit your waist, hips, or lower, depending on the length of the garment and join in the round.  You'll end up decreasing or increasing stitches where you want to contour to your body.  You will shape the armholes by casting off the correct number of stitches once you reach the armholes.  In the next round, you will cast on the number of stitches needed to finish the circumference of the armhole.  Finish in the round.
• Method 3b:  You will work the garment the same, but once you reach the armholes, you can work some short rows on either side of the front and back of the garment so that you have a circular yoke that is actually circular (if that doesn't make sense, let me know).

Knitting Madness

I will use this section to talk about some of my knitting woes, offering advice on how to complete some of the techniques that I've had trouble with.  Now remember, if you need any additional help, feel free to contact me via email for further instruction, I'm always here to help!

So as I've mentioned earlier, I was having some trouble making my increases invisible.  So I looked up how to do left- and right-slanted increases on a website we all know and love: Knitting Daily.  In order to keep from any copyright infringements, I will just refer you to their website and search for "Left Slant Raised Increase (M1L)" and "Right Slant Raised Increase (M1R)" both by Kat.  I will say that I tried these methods this morning on the bust shaping section on the the Tiger Lily Tank and they worked like a charm.  No holes, they just blend into the design!  Granted this was "2" yarn, but as I continue on with my design and construction efforts, I'll let you know if this works for thicker yarns (most importantly worsted-weight which I love to make garments out of).