Video for neat SSKs

I typically don’t like how my SSK stitches look and I found this video from Knit Purl Hunter that provides a neat trick for making them look more straight and neat. I may try this on my next project.

Another trick I personally have used is to slip the first stitch as if to knit but slip the second stitch as if to purl and then put your left needle through those two stitches and knit as you normally would to complete the stitches.

I’m seeing spots!

Yesterday was a busy day as I finalized another pattern for my latest design called the Spotted Diamonds hat. The pattern includes links to YouTube videos demonstrating some of the techniques I used when making the hat.  I like to include those because I like sharing things I’ve learned.  Similar to my Best Friends Forever hat, you can reverse the colors and get two hats out of two skeins of yarn.

Side view of Spotted Diamonds hat

I’ve done other fair isle designs and have struggled n the past with the resulting fabric puckering.  I’ve gotten better but still don’t have a fabric I’m 100% happy with.  The biggest benefit of this design is that there only a few places that have a float of five stitches. So the smaller floats really help make a nice fabric and I don’t get any puckering or tight spots. I think this is a good project for those who’ve had the tight areas or puckering in their work.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day!

I’ve just released a FREE dishcloth pattern on Ravelry called Hearts Galore.  It’s a textured dishcloth with alternating hearts and small squares which help with scrubbing.  The pattern is free and can be downloaded here. If you are not a member of the awesome Ravelry community, you can still get the pattern from this link.

Hearts Galore