Friday Tutorial: Finishing the 2 at a Time Hats

We're nearing the end of our hats! This week we're going to finish them up and learn how to decrease stitches using double knitting. You may want to use a cable needle or stitch holder of some sort, as you will need to move stitches around to do the decreases. Once I've made a few decreases and they get closer together, I will usually just move all of the stitches from one hat to a new set of needles to "hold" it and finish them separately. This works out pretty well and is a little less stressful. However, it doesn't work so well when you're working the heel of a sock, so i'm going to explain how this is done - just in case you want to do it.

The pattern tells us to knit 6 and decrease (knit together)2. So for our hats, we'll knit the first 12 stitches (6 blue, 6 orange) and then slip 1 blue stitch.

Slip 1 blue stitch

To get your stitches next to each other you need to drop one orange (back) stitch from your needle, work the knit 2 together with the blue, then place the dropped stitch back on the needle to knit two orange together.

move 1 orange stitch to holder

Move blue stitch back to working needle, knit 2 together

Slip orange stitch back to working needle

2 orange together

 I usually just hold my dropped stitch in my left hand, work the k2tog, then place it back on the needle. However, you CAN use a small cable needle here or a juice pouch straw or something to hold that stitch if you're afraid you can't keep it from dropping and running. We want to be careful we don't knit a blue and orange together either. That defeats our whole purpose.

holding dropped stitch 

If you want to separate the hats to make the decreases, you will need a circular needle or another set of dpns to hold the stitches on one hat. It doesn't have to be the same size, as you're just holding them and can move them back once you complete the first hat.

Working in reverse of our cast on, slip 1 blue stitch to the working dpn. Slip 1 orange stitch to the holding needle. Keep slipping stitches until they are all moved. Pull the inside hat up through the top of the outside hat and lay aside to work later.

Finish your hat as directed in the pattern and voila! you have a hat to share and one to keep. Or give both. Or whatever. I hope you had fun with this tutorial series and learned a lot. I also hope you try this technique with other applications like sleeves and scarves. If you would like to donate your extra hat, would you consider donating it to my charity Warm Up the Boro? I collect donated hats and scarves and hand them out in our community during the cold winter months. You can find out more on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/warmuptheboro.

As always, please post pics to the Flickr group!

Quilting on Wednesday: Block of the Month 2014

Who would like to do a Block of the Month??? Yeah, some of us get into doing these things and find out that we love them. Blocks of the month increase our skills and knowledge and provide us with little bite-sized pieces that don't necessarily have to develop into quilts. You can use your blocks to make a variety of things like pillows, pot holders and hot pads, mug rugs, etc.

We will be doing one block a month, on the first Wednesday of the month. So our first one will start on February 5, 2014.

Our first block will be an Attic Windows block that measures 12" x 12". You will need:

Supplies: 

1. 3 different fabric colors; 1 light, 1 medium, 1 dark in the same scale. (For example, if I want blue, I would choose 1 dark blue, 1 medium blue, and 1 light blue. They can be patterned or solid, your choice. ) 
2. Rotary cutter
3. Cutting Mat
4. Sewing Machine
5. Thread (matching is recommended but not necessary. I generally use white.) 
6. Pattern downloaded from website

I will be using my Janome MC8900 and hopefully will be able to show you on video some of the features of this machine. We will also be using block designs from Marcia Hohn's Quilt Cache website. Her patterns are free to use and download, but you cannot sell anything made from her original designs. Remember, these blocks are just for practice anyway! If you post images of your blocks made from any of her original designs that we make, you must include this information: 

Name of the Block as it is on the website

Include website and Martha Hohn's name

I am going to try to stick with traditional designs for now. 

Ok, so you have until February 5, 2014 to get the fabric and necessary supplies before we start! I think this will be a lot of fun and I hope to get a lot of participation. 

Happy New Year and a Giveaway!

First blog post of the 2014 year! I'm very excited to start the year off with a contest. Every year I make a New Year's Resolution to do something new in the craft industry. Because of this, I've learned so many new things and expanded my skills. I don't know as if I would try the new things as frequently if it wasn't for the incentive of a resolution to do so.

I think it's important to set goals for ourselves. This year, I've decided to learn how to spin. I've played around with the idea for years, but think this is my year to take out the spindle and try my hand at making yarn. I've also researched some wheels and think I'm headed toward a new one of those too! So I also want to know, what is your Crafty New Year's Resolution? Do you want to learn to crochet, knit, quilt, weave, spin, or decorate cakes? Or maybe you want to build skills you already have. This is the opportunity for you to take any Craftsy class worth up to $20.




Simply enter your comment below, telling me what you want to pursue this year. Then, like us on Facebook and enter the link for the Craftsy class of your choice. You can also follow on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway to earn extra entries. PLEASE DON'T FORGET to leave me an email address in the comments! I need to be able to contact you if you win! If you don't want to leave it in the comments, you can simply email it to me at freckledotsquilts (at) gmail (dot) com with your name.

Good luck, and craft on!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What are all those pre-loaded stitches for?

In my recent review of the Janome MC8900 I mentioned that it came pre-loaded with over 250 decorative and utility stitches. So what in the world are they good for? Many things, actually. If you're a beginning sewist you'll probably decide you don't really need them and you're good with just a basic machine that has basic utility stitches (ie., straight lines, satin stitches, zigzags, etc.) and you'll be right. However, if you do invest in a machine like the 8900, you'll see that it has all of these fancy stitches and start thinking about putting them on dresses for little girls, shirts for boys, edgings on jeans and shorts, along curtain bottoms and insets in panels, table runners, pillowcases and on and on and on.

If you're a quilter, your mind will probably start to wander toward art quilts. Craftsy has a great class on how to use these stitches for your quilts to create fabulous works of art that are original and beautiful! The class is called Stupendous Stitching and I have recently enrolled in it, as art quilts are on my bucket list. And for the remainder of the day, this class is on sale for $19.99 - $10 off the original price.

I don't get in to hand embroidery much, but I do a lot of machine embroidery using my Brother SE400. The designs for them are fantastic and numerous, but I'm really limited on what I can do with a hoop and a pre-made design. I don't have design software, so I use what I find on the internet - mostly at Embroidery Library or Urban Threads. So the ability to combine stitches and make visual interest in quilts and other items is an attractive option. Janome also has a circular sewing attachment that lets you make these stitches in circular patterns. They even have a video about it. With only a 4" x 4" space available in my hooped embroidery machine, 10" seems like a big deal! Oh, imagine the possibilities: Framing a picture transferred to fabric, designing intricate circular motifs, creating quilted patterns, and probably more than I can think of!

The projects that have shown up through this Craftsy course are fantastic. I wish I had permission to show them, but you'll just have to follow the link to see. These folks let their imaginations run wild and created visually interesting and useful items. So take a look, enroll in a course, try out those stitches, and discover what you can do today!!!!

Continuous Learning

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a geek. I love to learn new things. I especially love to learn new things about crafting; knitting, quilting, crochet, DIY and others are my passions. Once I've learned the basics of something, learning to improve your skills can be so beneficial to your future work. YouTube is a good resource, but you could cycle through 20 videos before you find one that actually answers the questions you have. Or, you can try to find a class somewhere, pay for it, buy all the supplies, tote them with you somewhere, and try to keep up with everyone else. But you may also be one of those people that just can't squeeze in an hour or two a week to learn something new or the classes move to quickly for you and you give up. Or you forget something but there is no resource for you to go back to unless you took scrupulous notes during class and neglected the actual project. Hmmm...what's a person to do?

Craftsy. I absolutely, 100% adore Craftsy and their classes. You can take as many as you want and take all the time in the world to watch the videos, get your questions answered, go back and see what you missed or forgot, and stay right at home to do it. The best part of these courses is that they are yours to keep, forever, and you can watch them any time you have a moment to do so!

You don't even have to invest any money up front to try one of their courses. Craftsy offers free mini-courses that are led by other students. I'm taking two of them myself:

The next 2 free Craftsy mini-courses I'm going to take are: 

1. Creative Quilt Backs
2. Short Rows

There are tons of others on many different subjects, even cooking. Craftsy also offers supplies and kits for the classes. Have fun and continue to learn. It keeps your mind active and your heart happy!