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  • Writer's pictureBobbie Olan Casiano
    • Sep 28, 2022
    • 38 min read

#027 - Final Flare

In this episode:


Sincerely, Curious in Craftlandia

- I discuss and demonstrate my 2 go-to provisional cast ons. They are the crochet provisional cast on, and Judy's Magic cast on.


Handy Dandy

- Sourcebook Flared Pullover by Norah Gaughan.

- How I made the sleeves.

- A rundown of all the special techniques used throughout the project.


Craft for Thought

- Just a brief chat about my making plans for the rest of the year.


Heart Full of Craft

- Thank you to Katrina Walser for gifting me your beautiful Gothic Tracery Beanie pattern!

- Grateful for successful op shopping. In particular: a travel bag for my e-spinner, and an (assumed) hand knit jumper in ribbon yarn.





Transcript

Greetings knitting neighbours and crafty comrades. A big warm welcome to all of you - whether you're a new viewer or you are a returning viewer - to a- another episode of Bobolog. My name is Bobbie Olan and I am a knitter and fibre crafts explorer in Victoria, Australia. I live with my partner on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people and I would like to acknowledge them and pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and future.


As usual, starting off with a little housekeeping. You can find me on other social media platforms such as Instagram and Ravelry. If you call Ravelry a social media platform. It's kind of many things to many people. Anyway, links to those profiles are in the description down below.


You will also find links to everything that I discuss throughout this episode in that YouTube description below as well. I do also have a shop on Kofi. So if you want to check those little bits and pieces out or if you want to support me, you can find the link for that down below as well.


Let's see. The other housekeeping thing is: my first giveaway for reaching 100 subscribers is still running. I am kicking myself a bit because I'm so excited to give away the yarn to one of you lovely viewers that I wish I had chosen an end date that was a little bit earlier so I could be giving it away and announcing the- the winner of that now. But I was looking at the calendar month and not my vlogging schedule so there are still a few days to go. That will be ending at the end of September - so the 30th of September - at midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time. So if you want to see what the prizes for that are and how to enter, check out episode #25.


Yes, I did also want to say I have been reading all of the comments for that episode, which is how you enter the giveaway. I haven't replied to any of them though, because I have seen other people mention that that can mess up with the random comment picker thingimabib. So I've just been leaving hearts on- on all of the comments. So I am reading all of them. I have read all of them. But I am just not responding, so I'm not ignoring you. Yeah, we'll just see how that goes.


And I will get in touch with the the winner- I'll leave a comment for the winner before the next episode comes out because it seems a bit silly for it to end in a couple of days but then for me to not announce anything in another two weeks. So anyway, my poor planning there. But yes, very excited to be sharing some yarn with one of you and doing my first giveaway.


What else? I think that is it for the housekeeping. Yes.



Sincerely, Curious in Craftlandia

So the first section we actually have today is a- another question from one of my viewers - Elle. Hello, Elle! So this is Sincerely, Curious in Craftlandia. And Elle wrote to me saying. "I wanted to ask about provisional cast ons. Would love to hear which ones you use and how they work for you. It's one technique I've never gotten the hang of so I'm reaching out to those who know more than myself for insight."


So thank you for writing in with that question, Elle, and I'm so flattered that you think I am knowledgeable enough to be answering this question for you. So hopefully, what I have to share will be helpful for you.


There are lots of different types of provisional cast ons and I'm only going to be sharing the couple that I really use and go to. But there are so many out there that I can understand how it can be a bit overwhelming trying to figure out which one you want to use. As with knitting, there are- with all knitting techniques there are many ways to do everything and there is no right or wrong way. It's just whatever way works best for you and for what you're trying to achieve and what you're trying to create.


So on that - my first sort of consideration when choosing a provisional cast on is: what am I going to be using it for?


So a provisional cast on - for those who aren't aware - is basically just- so you cast on your stitches. So normally you cast on your stitches and you knit- you knit in one direction. You knit up. A provisional cast on allows you to knit in the other direction from your cast on as well. So you have the provision for knitting in the opposite way. So you know, if normal knitting is like that, provisional knitting you can also knit the opposite direction. So that, yeah, that's basically it.


But kind of within that is... Gosh, I thought I had this planned in my head how I was going to describe it, but then I sit here and all the words go flying away. Let me show you the examples that I've made, and maybe that will help describe what I'm trying to say.


So this is an example of one provisional cast on here using waste yarn. So this dark green yarn is some waste yarn that I have used to make a crochet provisional cast on. And I have knit in one direction. And then when I'm ready, I can take out this cast on, and the there will be live stitches and - stitches that haven't been bound off - and that I can just put straight onto a needle and then keep working in that direction.


This is another small example of that kind of cast on where the cast on is this bit of purple here. And then I worked in one direction, and then I bound that off, and then I worked in the other direction. I'll be showing you how to do all of these as well. So this is the same. This thing used the same cast on as this. But instead of working flat in two different directions, I actually worked in the round to make a little pocket type thing.



So I guess that's what I mean when I say: when choosing your provisional cast on, you just need to know what you're going to be using it for. So this particular one here where I've made a little pouch and worked in the round - this type of cast on, I've only really used on the few occasions when I've knit a toe- I was gonna say when a toe, sock up. That's not right. When I knit a sock, toe up. So that's a- that's a really great one for that one there and it's like- so- so both- both sides of it are being knit in the same direction. But you are- if you can sort of flatten it, they are work- they are moving away from each other. So that is still a type of provisional cast on.


Again, I hope I'm making sense in my messy way of explaining things. So let me get into the demonstrations and explaining how I do all of these things.



Crochet provisional cast on

So I'll start with this crochet provisional cast on here. This one I like because the waste yarn just holds your stitches there and you don't need to do anything else until you're ready to work with them. For this one here, once you have done the cast on you need to transfer the other side that you're not going to be working initially on to waste yarn or a stitch holder or- or something else. And it's just the tiniest little thing that you have to do before you can keep working, but I like this one because you just do it and you just go and you don't have to do anything else.


So I've got here a bit of waste yarn, and I have a crochet hook and knitting needles. Oh, I should have picked some lighter ones for you there. Anyway, what you do to start this one is you make- Oh, am I doing that the wrong way? You make a slip knot. So just do a quick slip knot there and put that on your crochet hook. And I'm just gonna hold the tail end in the same hand is the crochet hook to try to keep that out of the way. And you put your knitting needle alongside the crochet hook.


And so I'm- for me, I'm just tensioning it- tensioning the yarn of the waste yarn as I would when I'm doing my continental knitting. And you're basically making a crochet chain but you're making it around the knitting needle. So let me just do that again.


I'm not going to do this as a- as a proper tutorial tutorial, by the way, because there are others out there that can probably show you a lot better and a lot clearer and will make more of an effort to explain. I'm sort of just trying to demonstrate which provisional cast ons I like and how they work in a really basic sort of way, so that if you decide you want to use them then you can go and look that up.


So anyway, the yarn is behind the needle. So I just put the crochet hook over the needle, hook the yarn, and then pull it through. And you can see now that there is one loop on the needle itself. So now the yarn is in front of the knitting needle, so you just have to swing it around to the back again and you make another stitch. Swing it around to the back and make another stitch. And you just cast on however many stitches you need.


You can also- so for those stitches, I have been swinging the yarn to the back going between the crochet hook and the knitting needle. You can actually also just swing it around both and pull it through. It doesn't really make a difference, except that because you've got the double bar here instead of just a single line, it is a little bit firmer. I have also found in my experience, though, that this way makes - oopsies - it makes this first row of stitches that you've cast on twisted. So that's just something to be aware of when you start working the first row. So just swing the yarn to the back and using the crochet hook to pull it through and make a chain. So that's that there.


And then once you are done - once you've cast on enough stitches - you just just - trying to - it's a bit fiddly because you've got to just manoeuvre the knitting needle around a bit. So I'm now just making a crochet chain and then - just a few chain stitches long - and then just pull that through and pull it tight so that it's not going to come undone. And then - oopsies, it's flying away. Then you just get your actual working yarn and start knitting into... First stitches are always a bit fiddly, at least in my experience. So you just start knitting into- into- so you can see what I mean. They're- The twisted stitches just need to work a little bit harder to get your knitting needle in there. And I'm just going to just- I'm just gonna go ahead and knit along this whole row.


So, now I have all of those stitches and I can just keep keep knitting up and I, you know, just be aware of all of these loose ends that you've got flying around. But yeah, that's just really nice and simple and easy to do.


You can also just make a crochet chain, and then with your knitting needle sort of like pick up and knit through the crochet chain. But you have to pick up and knit through the back of the crochet chain and I just find that really- I find that a bit fiddly. So when I do the crochet provisional cast on, I do it around the knitting needle like how I demonstrated here today.


So let me show you what that looks like when- when you're ready to start working the other side of it. So I've knit along and I've bound off - and that needles really dark. Let me pull out another one that you'll be able to see better. That'll do, whatever this is.


Okay, so when you're ready to start working in the other direction, this crochet chain that you made just to hold those stitches, that's where you start pulling from to undo the crochet cast on and get your live stitches - and get- get your stitches live again so that you can work on them. So you just get- grab the end of it. And you just pull. Carefully pull and that just undoes itself. And I should- I wonder if I have- this background is a bit dark. So I'm just pulling out a notebook here so that I can sit that on so you can see that a bit better.


So you - just trying to get things out of the way. You just pull that and you can see that those stitches - this yarn's a bit sticky. Those stitches - can you see? Can you see? Those stitches are now live and ready to be worked on. So you just want to catch them with your knitting needle. So if you are confident that you're not going to drop anything, you can just pull the chain out a few at a time and then catch them.


So right now I'm sort of just catching these stitches with the knitting needle any which way and I'm not worrying about stitch orientation. And I'm just going to fix that when I knit my first row. So by stitch orientation, I mean that the legs of the knit stitch are sitting on the needle the right way. So I can see here that they're not. It might be hard for you to see but the right leg - let me show you this. So the loop - when it's just sitting like that, you want the right leg to be at the front of the needle. And if it is at the back - as it is with this second stitch here - if you just knit into that first one, it's going to create a twisted stitch. So that is easy enough to fix when you knit your first row.


So if I want to make sure I am doing that when I am picking these up - this yarn is so sticky. Oh gosh, I didn't realise that this yarn was going to be this sticky when I picked it. Not the best for demonstrating. Sorry about that. But okay, let me just see if I can - just pinching here to try to keep my stitches from running down when I pull this out. Oh my gosh, it's so sticky. This is a wool yarn that I haven't worked with in a long time. So I guess I just forgot.


Anyway, if you want your stitch orientation to be correct from the get go, just put the stitch onto your needle from top to bottom. From the front to the back, instead of from the back to the front. Clearly not very experienced with this demonstrating thing. Hopefully I'll get better.


You can also - if you're worried about losing the stitches, you can also kind of - before you take off the crochet chain that is holding the stitch there, you can kind of slip your needle tip in while that yarn is still in there and then pull it out. And that way you're- you know that you're not going to lose anything. So you can see the yarn is still through that stitch. I'm going to put my needle tip in, making sure that I'm not splitting this yarn and catching it on my needle tip. And then I pull that one out and it is free and ready to be worked. Putting... Like this- this is a bit fiddly, however you do it, but the actual casting on - I mean, it's all- it's all a bit fiddly. But you know, it- I think it works really well.



Stitch offset and directionality

So one thing that I should have mentioned as well is: so for this swatch I cast on 20 stitches, and because of the nature of knitting, because... So knit stitches create a V, right. So you've got your V's, and then when you start working in the other direction your V's are upside down. And because of that, no matter what type of provisional cast on you do, when you start going the other way your stitches will be offset. So rather than- rather than- my hands are in my way of my own demonstration.


Rather than them lining up, they're gonna be like - say that's a stitch. And... How does... That's a stitch. That's a V, and that's a V, and then this V sits in between them. Gosh, that's terrible. You can't see anything because my hand is in the way. Anyway, your stitches will be offset. So because of that - wonder if I can just draw it for you actually. So if I just get a random page in the middle here and a pencil. Do I have a pencil? I should have a pencil.


All right. So let me try that again. So knit stitches are V's. And then when you start working in the opposite direction, they're upside down V's. So you can see - like that V is on top of that V. That V is on top of that V. But when you're working this way, and you're making the V's there between the V's that are going in the opposite direction. So when you cast on - how many here? Five stitches. You really- When you're picking them up again to work on the other side, you've got- you've only got the loops in between them. There isn't a whole loop here. There's only- There'll only be like a half one. So when you're going in the opposite direction, you have one less. So here I have five, and then in the other way I have four. So that's just something to be aware of when you're doing this crochet cast on.


I have found though that when you get to the end of picking up the stitches - let me just get there for you. When I get closer to the end - I do like doing this way of sticking the needle in before I release the stitch just to make sure I really don't lose anything. So I am at the end of it now. And you can see that the last bit of waste yarn, it is holding on to a loop there, but that isn't really a full stitch. But I do feel like you can catch it and sort of pretend it is a stitch and with that- with that extra little half loop that you've caught, that can form a full stitch.


So here we have 2-4-6-8-10... So then we do actually have 20, but you can see how that one- so you can- you can see here now looking at it this way, you have a full V under each of these stitches on the needle. But this last one here is kind of just hanging off to the side there. So you can either do that and have the full set of however many stitches you originally cast on, or just remember when you knit the first row to increase a stitch just anywhere - probably in the middle or at the end or wherever you want - if you do need the same number of stitches working in the second direction as you had working in the first direction. So that's the crochet provisional cast on.



Crochet provisional cast on continued

My most recent project where I used that one is probably when I worked the Opposite Pole cardigan by Joji Locatelli. But that one, I didn't really use it in this way where I knit in one direction, and then I picked up the stitches in the other direction. That one - because the construction of that sweater is: you have a rectangle panel. You start with the rectangle panel, and then you you cast on and then you work in this direction in a circle and then graft the end of it back to your cast on. What I had actually done in that instance was: I knit in that circle. And then when I got to the part where I was meant to graft it on, I was able to remove the crochet waste yarn and have those stitches live and I was able to Kitchener- do a Kitchener graft instead of a seam.


So that's the most recent instance when I have used the crochet provisional cast on. And because I have a terrible memory, I can't remember where else I would have used it but that is one of my go-to's.



Judy's Magic cast on

Now the other one that I want to show you is Judy's Magic cast on, which is a really popular provisional cast on for knitting socks. Mainly because it creates that pocket that can be, you know, the toe of the sock. And like I showed here, you can actually use it to knit flat as well. But you'll see better when I- when I- when I demo it why I like the- the crochet one better. But you may prefer this because it is a really easy cast on. So let me show you what that looks like. Don't really need this anymore. Let's get rid of that. Let's get the other pair because this one was no good. And let's release that so you can see it.


So this one you don't need any waste yarn. It is I guess a form of a long tail cast on. So you do need, you know, whatever length - I think one of the tricks for figuring out how long you need is to just wrap around the needle how many stitches you need to cast on - or half the number of stitches you need to cast on - and then that's- that becomes your long tail and that becomes your working yarn.


Anyway, I'm just doing a random thing here because I don't need to cast on a certain number of stitches. And I just have- I have my working yarn - sorry, the tail of the yarn - towards me and the yarn coming from the ball away from me. And I just hold them in my- so I make pinching fingers. And I put that so that the yarn is sitting on top, and then I grab both strands that are hanging down with the rest of my fingers. And then to get started I turn my pinch towards me, have the needle point pointing towards me underneath, and then just twist them both to face each other. And that becomes my first stitch.


Oh, I've just realised I need to be doing this on circular needles. Not straight. So let me start again.


Just going to do that really quickly again. I have a somewhat long tail. I get in my long tail - oopsies - my long tail formation, make my first loop on the needle and have the other needle next to it, closer to me. And then we're just going to take turns wrapping yarn around each needle. So yarn- There's a loop of yarn on the top needle. So my next stitch will be on the bottom needle, and then the next stitch will be on the top, then the bottom, then the top, then the bottom.


So what I am doing is: the- the yarn is always working - is always wrapping around the needles away from you. And then the other thing is: the yarn that you're using to wrap around this needle is coming from the opposite end of - it's coming from the opposite of where the needle is sitting. So the yarn that wraps around the bottom needle is coming from the top, and the yarn that wraps around the top needle is coming from the bottom.


So I take the top yarn and I bring it under and then over going away from me, just the bottom needle, and that's created another stitch. And then the yarn from the bottom, I bring beneath the- the- the needle and wrap it over the top of the top needle going away from me, and that's created another stitch. So I have three stitches there and I'm just going to keep going.


And again, there will be many more tutorials online that will be able to demonstrate this a lot clearer for you. I'm just trying to take you- give you a really basic overview of my- my preferred provisional cast ons.


So let's say that's how many stitches I want there. I have - what do I have, 2-4... I've got seven stitches on the top, seven stitches on the bottom, for a total of 14 stitches. And then when I start working, I am going to turn the needles around so that the points are facing the other way. What I like to do is - you can see this tail yarn is kind of just hanging out back there. To sort of help secure everything. I like to swing it back over the top of the working yarn, and then sort of just hold it there.


Then, what you want to do is - I'm just going to start by tensioning the working yarn around my fingers for continential knitting and hold that tail yarn with whatever fingers I can manage to, out of the way. And now this bottom needle, I'm just going to pull through so that it's sitting on the cord. And then you just simply knit - that's a bit too far away from my needle tip. So you knit into those stitches on that top needle. And then once you've come to the end of that - it's like knitting in the round, basically. Now I'm just going to slip those stitches back onto the needle, and then the stitches that I have just worked, they- I pull the needle through so that they are now on the cord. And I knit across those as well. And that first row of knitting just sort of helps secure everything and keep everything in place.


And now if you want to work flat, you will need to put one set of the stitches onto waste yarn or onto another needle or onto some kind of stitch holder - like that one, for example. So I find that kind of annoying, which is why I like the crochet one. I don't need to do anything else, I can just keep working. If you are just working a short section and it's not gonna bother you - and I have definitely done this before - I just leave those stitches on the cable and I just work back and forth - oops, that's the tail. Make sure you're working with the right bit of yarn. And I just work back and forth and just have this one sitting on the cable. But it does get a bit of-noying- a bit annoying to have it sitting there.


So yes, so- so here- from this point, you can choose whether you keep working in the round - just as you did that first row, which is what's going to give the- like the pocket/pouch/toe thing, whatever you want to call it. So that's that there.


Or you can choose to just knit in the one direction and then come back and do the other one. So that is this example here. And the purple stitches is what I cast on. And then there is this one row on this side of the white and purple speckles because that was my setup row where I knit in the round for one row. And then I continued in this direction, which is all the white with purple speckles. And then I bound that off and I got a new- another end of yarn and I knit the pink in the opposite direction. So that's just an example of how that one looks.



Number of stitches cast on

And oh yes. The other thing that I wanted to mention is: with all of these three little tiny examples that I've done, they were all- they all had 20 stitches cast on. So you can see here with the crochet one, I cast on 20 stitches and I knit all of them in the one direction. With the Judy's Magic cast on, because- so you have your- you have your stitches-


The crochet cast on, you have your stitches and you all work in the same direction. With the- With the Judy's Magic cast on, because you're going in the round, half of the stitches are going in the other direction. So that's just something to be aware of, that you cast on enough stitches for what you're needing to work. Yes. So these are half the width of- of the crochet one because I kind of just wanted to demonstrate that.


I hope that this has all been helpful for you, Elle, and that gives you a little bit of understanding about provisional cast ons and sort of how they can work and what you can use them for - and it hasn't just confused you more.


My first introduction to casting on - to the array of different types of cast ons you can do - including provisional cast on - was a class that I was gifted from my aunt on Craftsy. I think it's called '40 ways to cast on and bind off' by Aurora- Aurora Since- Cisneros, and I have a link for that below as well if you want to check it out.


I actually do still go back and refer to it when I need to just refresh myself or I want to see what options there are for specific types of cast ons. And if I know exactly the type of cast on that I want to relearn, I will just go to YouTube and look it up. But say I need to do a provisional cast on and I can't remember which one it is that I like, I do like to go back to that class and go through each of the ones that she demonstrates - just because it was kind of my starting off point so for me it still feels like the go-to just to get myself started in what to look for. Yeah.


That's a really, really big, Curious in Craftlandia. Yeah, I hope that has been helpful. If anything was not clear enough, let me know. And maybe I will do a small dedicated video and actually plan out better what I'm trying to demonstrate and how to explain everything. But hopefully this- this was sufficient and it's- it's helpful.



Handy Dandy

All right, let's move on to talking about my actual knitting. And so, okay. The Colours of Fall knit-along for the Yarniacs is done. It ended on the equinox - our Spring Equinox here in Australia. And it's called the Colours of Fall knit-along because it ends on the Fall Equinox for the- they're in the- they're in the United States. So it's on their- it ends on their Fall Equinox. And the theme of the knit-along is the Pantone colour trend forecasts for the different seasons. So yeah, they have colour trend forecasts for fall and winter, and for spring and summer. So you just have to work with yarn that has those colours. Anyway, I think I have explained all that before so I won't again.


Flared Pullover

And my big entry for it was the Flared Pullover - which I have finished! I am so excited to have finished this one. It's done. Sleeves. It's got its excellent pockets that I'm so happy about. I'm so excited about the pockets. The placement is just perfect and I love it. The beautiful cables at the front, and at the back. And yeah, I'm so happy with it. I'm so so happy with that- how it has turned out.


I do have to say I feel like I probably could have gone a size down and not had quite as much ease. But it's definitely not a problem for it to have the ease that it does have. It is the intended ease. But I think I realised when I put it on that because I'm short and it's like a big, wide jumper - it's not necessarily the most flattering on my body shape. I still think it looks really good. And I'm still super happy with it. But yeah, I feel like it helps to emphasise the short and wide rather than... Yeah. Anyway, happy with it. I am happy with it. So let's get on to- let me- let me tell you about it. The last thing that I did to finish it off.



So I worked the sleeves one at a time. Just working in the round on some short circular needles, which is really really good. And because it is all stockinette I was able to do a bit of - stockinette and ribbing, I should say - I was able to work on some of this while I was walking, which I always like being able to do. I did - Let me look at my notes so I don't jump around so much.


Yes, so this whole pattern is designed to be knit flat in pieces and then seamed together. So the body, I did knit flat as written. But the sleeves I did in the round - for speed, essentially. And for most people, when you are knitting in the round, your gauge is usually a bit tighter than it is when you are knitting flat because when you're knitting stockinette stitch in the round, you are only doing knit stitches. And just because of the the way that the yarn wraps around the needle to create purl stitches, there's a bit more yarn there, which means the purl stitches usually end up to- usually end up a bit looser and therefore a bit bigger.


So usually when you're working stockinette stitch flat, your gauge can often be just a little bit looser than it is when working in the round. There are ways of combating that but I could not be bothered. I had done enough modifications to this. And because I know that this had a lot of ease, I didn't mind that it would just be the tiniest smidge narrower because of that gauge difference.


And also, I do- I do think- I do like to knit a bit tighter where possible just to help the yarn hold it's structure more and not pill so much, just because it's all a bit firmer and tighter. So this isn't a firm and tight fabric by any means. But it's, yeah. It's just one of those- It's just one of those things.


And then of course, when I got up to the sleeve cap, that couldn't be in the round and that was knit flat. But yeah, I didn't- I didn't bother changing my- my needles or anything to try to account for the gauge difference, and I don't think you can tell. So yeah, that's just one little thing.


The one thing that I did do - or I did wrong the first time when I went to knit in the round is - the ribbing I did perfectly fine. So when you change- when you make the adjustment from knitting flat to in the round, you really should eliminate a couple of stitches as well because when you're knitting flat, you'll have at least a stitch on each side that will get hidden in the seam when you seam the pieces together. So when you're knitting in the round, you- you don't need those extra stitches because there isn't going to be any seaming that will eat those up.


And for the ribbing, I remembered that and that went all good and that was fine. It's really easy to remember in ribbing as well because you have to have the the right number of stitches to get the same ribbing pattern all the way around. If I had stuck with the pattern, I would have had one column that would have had like, you know, it would have been like four purl stitches or four knit stitches instead of two, or whatever it was. I can't remember because I changed it.


Anyway, when I started working on the the arm I forgot to eliminate those stitches. So I had an extra two stitches and I knit pretty much until I was ready to do the sleeve cap. And that was when I realised that I had forgotten to eliminate two stitches. And really - it's two stitches. It doesn't make that much of a difference. It hasn't affected the pattern because there is no patterning on this sleeve. It's just stockinette stitch. But me being me - I- I- I undid the whole sleeve up to the ribbing and re-knit it without those extra two stitches.


And honestly, part of that really is because this jumper has so much positive ease. And I knew that. I knew all of that going into it. They- There are schematics in the book with all of the measurements, so I knew how wide they sleeves were going to be. But I figured because of that width, even losing just an extra centimetre - which is what I think two stitches came to in my gauge - I figured that was worth it to just have the tiny little bit extra- so that tiny little bit less circumference. So I undid almost the whole first sleeve and re-knid it- re-knit it. And honestly, I probably can't tell the difference but I am still happier for having done it.


I did- When I first started working on the arms as well and was reminded of how much ease there was in in the sleeve, I had a moment where I was thinking, 'Oh, do I actually just want to adjust this? Do I want to modify this as well so that it is a more fitted sleeve?'


If you look at the projects on Ravelry, there are people who have made the whole thing more fitted. But I wasn't sure that I wanted to do that. So I went around to all of my jumpers and I was measuring all of the jumpers that I have and none of them have sleeves this wide and I started worrying that it was going to be just ridiculously wide and I wouldn't like it. But then I found one garment that I do have that does have sleeves this wide. And that's my dressing gown. So I put my dressing gown on and I was feeling how the sleeves felt on my arms and I was just like, 'Oh, this is just so comfy and cozy and it's just like snugly. It's just this like a snuggly thing to wear.'


And then I guess because, you know, of the flare of this, it kind of has that same flowy feel - that same comfort relaxed feel of a dressing gown. It's obviously a lot nicer than a dressing gown. But yeah, realising that and having a sleeve that I could wear that had the same ease and knowing that I was still like okay with that helped me decide not to make any modifications and do it anyway.


And also because I had already knit the front and the back, which meant the armscye - I think is how it's pronounced - that the opening for the sleeve - I couldn't change the size of that because that had already been done on the front and the back pieces. If I did want to make the sleeve narrower, I could have started it off narrower. I would have had to narrow the ribbing as well. But I would have still had to increase to a point where this section at the start of the sleeve cap was the same size so that the sleeve cap could be the same size to fit into the armscye. So if I'm saying that wrong, can someone please correct me?


Yeah, so anyway, I knit as written except that I did shorten it because, like I have said, I'm short. I have short arms, which I am sometimes grateful for when I am knitting. I took 7cm off the sleeve and I was kind of hoping it would hit around here. So what would you call that? Something like just past- past bracelet length but not halfway down your hand? I didn't account for how wide the shoulder is and how far that would go down the arm, and also the weight of it. So instead of finishing just past bracelet length, it does kind of hang to probably the base of my fingers. But again, it's not covering my whole hand so it's fine and it's still really comfy and it still- it just- it also just lends to that feel of like comfort and coziness and snugly up-ness.



Yeah. I think, yeah. I think that's the only modification that I made to it. So I cut off 7cm off the sleeve. I could have cut off a little bit more but I'm still happy with the length of it.


What else do I want to say? Oh, yes.


Because my row gauge was different. I did have to make the sleeve cap just a tiny bit shorter. But it was like- it was like a no thought modification. Like all I had to do was just eliminate like four rows or something like that. Yeah, just so that it wouldn't be too big for that armscye - because my row gauge was different and it would have created more length on here. Yes. I think that's all that I have to say about the sleeves.



All the techniques used

So just to go through all of the techniques that I've used on this with you again - let me go from the beginning.


So casting on - I used Tilly Buddy's very stretchy cast on, which is a form of a tubular cast on. It's not perfectly tubular. So you can see here - it does look a bit neater on 1x1 ribbing. But you can see here that like this knit stitch, it kind of does wrap around and it continues to look like knit stitch. But the one beside it kind of- it kind of looks like there's a purl bump there. But you know, from a distance - I guess you can see it. From a real distance you can't and it does like you know go over the edge of it nicely and it's really easy to do. It's such an easy cast on to do. It's- It's actually my go-to cast on. And look at- look how nice it looks on the cuff there when you're looking at the edge of it.


Yeah, and I think the other reason that I like this cast on as well is that you- you don't need to fiddle around with any waste yarn. And my issue sometimes with the long tail cast on is that it eats up like an extra length of yarn. And sometimes I'm just like, I don't want to lose that extra bit of yarn, or something like that.


Anyway, Tilly Buddy's very stretchy cost on. It's very stretchy.


What else did I use? I did- I have already talked about how I have used sloped bind offs on... I used it on both the neck bind off and the shoulder bind off. I did mention when I had done it - when I had first done it on the back on this garter stitch section - that... What the sloped bind off looks like when you're looking at the edge of it is it looks like a chain of V's. And when I had done it on the garter stitch, there were sections where it looked like it had like a purl bump, so it wasn't completely clean.


And then when I did it for the front, I realised that all I had to do to fix that and eliminate that purl bump was just to - so the sloped bind off involves slipping stitches. So all I had to do was slip stitches with yarn in front instead of around the back. Because when I slipped with the yarn around the back, I did have to end up bringing it to the front. And it was because of that wrapping around, it created that purl bump. Anyway, so that is that. So that's the second technique that I use.


The third technique that I used is - I mean I'm showing you here but you can't- you can't see it- anything, really. There's nothing to see. But Roxanne Richardson has a technique for a better bind off in the middle of a row. So usually, when I do a bind off in the middle of the row, I do find that like one side of it has like a big hole. And I usually have to like - when I'm seaming there I, you know, do some kind of like duplicate stitch manoeuvring type stuff to try to close up that hole.


But for this I followed Roxanne Richardson's method, which is really really easy for- for a better bind off in the middle of the row and it worked really, really well. There's no gappiness, which is excellent. So I'm pretty much going to use that technique all the time when I have to- when I'm in that kind of a situation. So again, linked below.


The other techniques that I used is... Do, do do, do do.


Oh, for the neck I did the - it has a few names, I think. I think a lot of people just refer to it as a tubular bind off. I've also seen it called the grafted bind off or the kitchener bind off because you're essentially treating the edge stitches - you're kind of working them in the same way that you would do the kitchener graft. So I did that for 2x2, which is a little bit more fiddly than when you're doing it for 1x1. And you can see that like the the tops of them kind of lean to the left - or to the right, depending which way you're looking at it. But that's kind of just the nature of the beast, and it still like makes a really nice tubular edge. So that's another technique that I used.


And then how I did the seaming is for the shoulders and for setting in the sleeves - I just did a back stitch. And then for the side seams... Which are somewhere here. Where are my side seams? Kind of good that I can't tell where they are. That's kind of the point. They'd be along here. Yeah, they'd be along here somewhere. Yeah, somewhere here. I did a mattress stitch. When... Yeah, I like the mattress stitch for this- for seaming in this direction because it's pretty much invisible. Can I find it on the other side? I mean, yeah, it's like- it's close to that edge anyway, so yeah. There's the inside of it - this chunk here - so it must just be like right along this edge somewhere. Yeah, and it's also satisfying just to be able to like line up stitch- line- to line it up stitch by stitch. So yeah, that's the mattress stitch. And I think that's it. I think that's it.


Yeah, that's- that's- that's my Flared- That's my Flared Sourcebook Pullover. Sourcebook Flared Pullover. Let me put it on for you.



I almost forgot to mention - this sweater took 675g of DK weight yarn, which is just under 3.5 balls of the Bendigo Woollen Mills Tweed yarn (which is unfortunately discontinued). It also took me about 65 hours of knitting, which does include, sadly, 10.5 hours of re-knitting the parts that I had tinked.


So that's that one finished. I'm so happy to have it off the needles. And I'm so happy that I can wear it now. Although the weather has started getting warmer. We're in spring now so I'm probably not going to be able to wear it. The other thing about that though is I have thought - while I was making it I've always had the thought in the back of my head that I would want to submit it possibly to next year's Bendigo Sheep and Wool show - to their- their judging/competitions/whatever you call them. Part of me wants to avoid wearing it as much as possible so that it doesn't pill and it stays really clean and nice for when I submit it. And I know that I can just use a de-piller, but yeah. I kind of just want to preserve it as much as possible before I submit it in.



Craft for Thought
Future knitting plans

And then the other last thing that I wanted to say is: I feel like that was such an epic project for me and I put so much into, you know, all of the modifications and changes and all of the figuring everything out and all of the work that I put into it, that when I finished I feel like I'm suffering from whiplash and I'm just not interested in knitting right now. Yeah.


Which is also kind of nice though because I have all of these other projects with all of my other crafts that I want to do. There are sewing things that I want to do, there are crochet things that I want to do, and weaving things that I want to do, and lots of spinning. But I mean, generally anyway, I prioritise knitting because I love it the most and it's actu- usually actually what I want to be working on. So all of the other crafts and all of the other projects get put to the side. Especially with that one because it was for a knit-along which had a deadline and I just got so deep into it and getting it right that I really didn't want to do anything else. But now I kind of feel liberated and I feel like I have the- the headspace and more of the desire to work on all of the other projects that I want to be doing, which is really exciting.


And I'm definitely not going to stop knitting. But I've made a rule for myself that for the net- net?- for the rest of the year, I'm only going to be working on WIP's - on languishing WIP's and small projects, which will probably just be a few Christmas gifts and whatnot. For knitting that is. I can't start any more big projects. I can only keep working on past projects or make small projects like socks and hats and things. So yeah, I'll definitely still have knitting to share with you. But probably definitely not as intense as that particular project was.



Heart Full of Craft

And that's actually all I have to share for crafting and we're just gonna move straight into Heart Full of Craft. So I actually have two things to share for her Heart Full of Craft.


Katrina Walser and her Gothic Tracery Beanie

The first one is I'm so grateful to Kat of Oliphant Kat because after my previous episode when I talked about the Gothic Tracery Beanie - she gifted it to me! And that was just so completely unexpected, completely unnecessary, and just... I was just so touched by it. So thank you so much, Kat. I mean, I'm sure, you know, because I messaged her -


I don't know if I'm talking - I feel like I don't know if I'm talking to Kat or if I'm talking to the rest of you.


Anyway, I messaged Kat after and there were many emojis and exclamation marks because, yeah, I was just so touched that- that she sent that to me. So she said that it was kind of a like a thank you for all of the times that I've talked about her and how wonderful she is. And it was also her way of supporting me and what I'm doing a bit. So thank you - thank you a million times, Kat. I'm- I'm a bit like speechless about it.


It was seriously completely unexpected and I was definitely like... It's on my- It's in my queue. It's on my to do list. I was definitely going to buy it as- at some point when I was ready to work on it. And now I don't have to which is wonderful. But it is also like you know, I know that you, Kat, are doing this as part of your living and I want to support you - so don't give me anything else! But thank you!


And I- yeah. I want to focus on like all of the gift knitting they have- that I have to do for the rest of the year. So once I am done all that, the Gothic Tracery is kind of my carrot, I guess, to get me through all of that. So once I have done all of my knitting for other people then I can make something for myself again, which will be the Gothic Tracery and I'm so excited and thank you, Kat. Thank you so much.


Links for all of Kat's things down below in the description.


Op shop finds

Anyway, my other Heart Full of Craft is that I'm grateful for op shops and just finding goodies in op shops. So for those of you in other parts of the world, do you- prob- I think- call them thrift shops, I think? Or I don't know, you may call them all sorts of things. But here in Australia, we call them op shops or opportunity shops.


And my crochet friend Hannah took me to Savers the other day. And I'd never been to a Savers before and she's always showing me all of the wonderful, wonderful things that she's been able to find at Savers. So there isn't one that is local to me, so we hung out the other day and we went to savers and I did find a few things.


So one of them is this bag here that you can see, which is for my Electric Eel Wheel e-spinner which is just there. And I've been looking for a bag for it and I had all sorts of requirements for it, which I won't go into now, but that one is kind of pretty much what I've been looking for and hadn't been able to find online. Plus, you know, I love tartans and plaids and all of those kinds of things. And it's- it's in colours that I love. It's in a print that I love. It's like, perfect size.



I haven't actually tried putting the e-spinner in yet, but it's kind of more going to be my travel bag for it rather than my storage. Although it may be my storage. I don't know. I'm waffling on and I will stop going on about that. But that- that is one of the things that I found.


I did find a few pieces of clothing as well. I won't explain all of them to you but I did want to show you this one here because I'm really super excited about it. So this sweater here - this jumper in this beautiful yarn. I'm hoping that that colour comes through because I think it is just gorgeous. It's - again, it's my colours. It's probably going to match my All Birds shoes that I was talking about last- last episode. And probably also that yarn that I got from Tarndie, because it is just so me.


The thing that I'm really excited about this is - I mean that's the tag from [Savers], but it has no label. No label anywhere on it. There is like - you can't see that anything has been- that any label has been cut off. There is nothing inside it, which makes me think it must be hand knit. Which I just - I don't know, but it just made me so excited to find something that- that must be hand knit.


So the thing is, it fits me. The sleeves are actually the perfect length on me. But the body is really really long. So the thing is - part of the reason that I was interested in it as well is because it's made out of a ribbon yarn. So let me see if I can show you. I did- I did a little bit of a sneaky unraveling of it while I was in the op shop. But let's see if you can see here.



So I pulled off this end here and you can kind of... Like, it's flat. You can see that the yarn - I don't really know- don't know if you can see - but the the yarn is flat and it's like a ribbon and I've never worked with ribbon yarn before but I have heard of it. So I am kind of interested in working with it. But at the same time part of me is like - someone already put in all of the effort to make this - to hand knit this- this item, and it fits me and I can definitely wear it. Like I said - it's long. It reaches almost to my knees. So part of me thinks I should just leave it as it is. But part of me also wants to unravel it so that I can work with the yarn.


And honestly, I'm probably going to just leave it as it is until I have a project that I want to use the yarn for. But let me know what you think down below, if you think like - what- what would you do? Would you keep it as it is, as someone else's lovely hand knit item? Or would you- would you unravel it so that you can use the yarn?


I have no idea what it is. I don't think there's any wool in here. And it's pretty stretchy so I'm sure that there is some sort of synthetic fibres in here. I don't know fibres well enough to tell them by feel, but there's definitely some synthetic stuff going on in here. But it's beautiful. I think it is just beautiful. Beautiful colours, lovely sweater, and I don't know what to do. So let me know what you think.


And that's actually all that I have to share for today.



Thanks!

Thank you so much for joining me again. If you have enjoyed this episode, then I hope you give me the old thumbs up. And if you aren't already subscribed to my channel, then I hope that you consider doing that as well. And I guess I will see you in the next one.


In the meantime - take care, stay safe, love, laugh, be curious, and be crafty. I'll see you in the next episode.


Fare thee well.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Resources


Mentions

Binding Off in the Middle of a Row, by Roxanne Richardson

Electric Eel Wheels (EEW) (affiliate link)


Patterns (on Ravelry)

Opposite Pole by Joji Locatelli

Sourcebook Flared Pullover by Norah Gaughan

Gothic Tracery Beanie by Katrina Walser


Yarns (from my LYS, or on Ravelry)

Tarndwarncoort hand-dyed yarn from Polwarth sheep


I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live and create, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging, and to all Aboriginal peoples.

 

© 2022 by Bobbie Olan of Platypus Knitting.

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