And since it’s in my head now, I leave you with a little Bowie.

Find this pattern on Ravelry

Short rows create most of the shaping.  The ears and jaw are knit separately and sewn on, but otherwise there is no seaming.

Find this pattern on Ravelry

This tutorial is an add-on for my pattern for this guy. Hello, little monster!

Most knitters I know have at least a marginal knowledge or experience with wrapping and turning.  I find that the idea of adding a wrap to a stitch is rather east and nearly self explanatory.  Where I think this process gets daunting (and some tutorials glaze over without much thought) is the picking up of the wraps.   This topic came up at a knit night a few weeks back and our poor knitter friend who was looking for help didn’t seem to be able to get a concrete answer from any of us.  It’s a hard one to try to explain, so I whipped out the camera today in hopes of adding some visuals to this technique.  I know there are plenty of sites out there that have these sort of tutorials but whenever I need to learn a technique I end up browsing about 4 or 5 sites until I find the one that explains it best in the way that I learn.  Hopefully I can add something here to help someone out there!

Say you have some stitches.

Wrapping on the knit side

You want to knit up to the point where your next stitch is the one to be wrapped.  Don’t knit it…

… but slip it purl-wise onto the right hand needle.

Move your yarn counter-clockwise around this stitch, moving it to the front of your work.

Now slip that stitch back onto the left-hand needle.  Move your yarn to the back of the work.

Turn the whole thing so the purl side is facing you.  Now continue the other direction with the purl side!

Easy peasy.

Wrapping on the purl side

Purl to the stitch you want to wrap.

Slip that stitch to the right needle purl-wise and wrap the yarn clockwise to the knit side of the work.

Return the stitch to the left-hand needle.

Turn the work to the knit side.

Swing the yarn clockwise to the back of the work.  Continue knitting on this side.

Now where things often get a little shaky is when you are knitting or purling and come across these wrapped stitches.  I believe there are a couple of ways to approach this but I’ll show you how I do it.

Knitting a wrap (knit side)

The next stitch to knit here has a wrap around it.

I like to slip the stitch purl-wise onto the right needle.

Insert the left needle through the bottom of the wrap, then through the stitch as if to knit.

Remove the right needle so both the wrap and the stitch are on the left needle.

Knit the wrap and the stitch together.

There.  Not so hard, eh?

Knitting a wrap (purl side)

Here, same thing, the next stitch has a wrap.

Slip the stitch purl-wise to the right needle.

Insert the left needle through the bottom of the wrap and through the left side of the stitch.

Now slip the stitch back onto the left needle.  Here you can see the wrap on the left, the stitch on the right.  Purl the two together.

There is one more version of knitting a wrap that I think is handy to know.  This is the one that I always had a problem with myself up until I started writing patterns that involved short rows and I forced myself to figure it out better.

Knitting a wrap (knit side, version II)

This type of wrap you come across if you wrapped on the purl side then began working in the round again.  In many patterns this will come up on the first knit round after a short row set.

You can see that wrap on the right side of the next stitch.

Stick the right-hand needle through the bottom of the wrap and through the left side of the stitch.  For some reason I always seem to make this wrap tight and it takes a little wiggle to get the needle in.

Leaving the wrap on the needle, knit the stitch….

… then with the left needle pull the wrap up and over the stitch (like you’re binding off a stitch, same general motion).

Done!

That there is a long hank.

I’d say this is well worth the trouble.

Oh hello there colors, waiting to come out!

I’ve been wanting to do self striping rainbow for a while.  As a first try, I’d say this is pretty good.  The yellow is a little neon and the purple is a bit dark, but now I know what to do next time.  I’m anxious to see how large the stripes are too, as I didn’t plan that part ahead of time.  At least I’ll have a frame of reference of fencepost to fencepost next time I try this.

It’s been too hot to want to knit too much during the day.  Having this yarn dyeing outdoor operation is a nice change.  I wonder, could I somehow rig a dyepot to the gas grill??

Isn’t that just about the cutest foot ever?

That is all.

This one I started last July.  It’s based on an Edward Gorey drawing that I love. 

I put this away last fall because I just couldn’t get the dress right.  This week I had an epiphany as to how to do it so back onto the needles it went.  I’m happy with it now and am currently working on the hair.

The other current one is based on a drawing that my husband did.

I’ve been wanting to translate his drawing to yarn for a long time now and finally settled on this one.  I love how simple the shape is but it’s still expressive and has details that really make it.

It looks a little more fetal alien than monster right now but once he gets his face finished it’ll look better, I swear.

I had to special order the oval shaped safety eyes but I think it’ll be worth it.  I hope to write the pattern for this one so I’ll try a version with embroidered eyes next and see it that’ll work.

Ahh, knitting items with no trying on of warm garments.  Now to figure out what to knit for the next three months….

This week I caught Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo on TV.  This short but sweet documentary explores Japan’s obsession with insects.  I loved this and went to bed thinking about bugs.  I dreamt about bugs.  I woke up thinking about bugs and instantly knew that I needed to work these little insects into my next knitting project.

I had already started this little cotton sundress for the baby.  The pattern is Shades of Summer.  This designer has so many cute patterns for little girls.  Her sample in the pattern has little button embellishments along the bodice.  I loved the look but I knew I wanted something different.  I started embroidering little bugs on it today and I really like the way it looks so far (I especially like the caterpillar!).  There will be bigger insects along the bottom hem.  I think.  We’ll see what it looks like when I get there.

Next up is another insect inspired knit.  I dyed these skeins yesterday and am now trying to decide which and how many to use for the toy that I have brewing in my head.

I’m getting over a particularly nasty case of broncitous, so I took this as a good excuse to not do much today aside from sitting on the porch, knitting, and watching the bugs fly/crawl/scuttle around.  Lots of good inspiration outside today.  So many things to knit, so little time.  I’ll always make time for the bugs, though.

Until now.  Summer is obviously barreling down on us here.  Last week’s rains brought leaves to every tree and new growth everywhere imaginable.  I even have sprouts in the vegetable garden!  Instead of bracing for those 90 degree days of June and July, I’m daydreaming about cool breezy evenings.  To me, nothing beats mid-summer walks at dusk, enjoying the break in the heat and the sun.

With these cool periods in mind I made this shawlette.  The stitch is actually half linen stitch, meaning every other row is plain stockinette.  This combined with the larger needles in relation to the yarn weight creates a nice open fabric perfect for allowing maximum breathability while being just warm enough to shake off a light chill.

Instructions are given for the smallest size (shown in the photo).  Feel free to keep on adding length if you like something a little larger or more drapey.

The Details:

Find this pattern on Ravelry

The base yarn for today is Patons Kroy sock yarn.  Not the softest but I love the way it wears and it sucks up dye well.

This is using Jacquard Acid Dyes.  I love the colors I get with these dyes.

As an added bonus, I got to hear Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me while I was working (this week featuring John Waters!)

Some spring colors

And an experiment that I’m rather pleased with.  Okay, tremendously please with, not to toot my own horn. 

One of these two will probably end up as a variegated sample for a scarf pattern I’m working on.  Here’s my solid one so far:

I figure that working on a scarf that I’m excited about is the most surefire way to end winter.  Seeing as how it snowed here yesterday that may be wishful thinking.