Reading Corner Shawl

The Reading Corner Shawl

If you find yourself with some DK leftovers or small 10g mini-skeins this is the perfect shawl to use them up. The Reading Corner shawl combines 2 x 100g DK skeins and 5x10g minis in a simple stripe and eyelet design. Designed for minimal counting and maximum ease.

The Reading Corner shawl is an elongated triangle, knit mainly in garter stitch with contrast stripes, with an eyelet detail. As it’s knit in DK weight yarn it’s wonderfully warm and squishy, perfect for draping over your shoulders while you read, or the elongated ends mean that it also works well as a wearable, wrappable shawl on colder days.

Perfect for stashbusting and adapting to the yarn you have, each contrast stripe uses just under 10g yarn. You could use a single contrast colour for all the stripes, or mix and match with leftovers from your stash.

Top tips for faster knitting

I originally wrote about this in 2017, but I thought it was time to revisit the topic of faster knitting. A lot of people comment that I must knit very quickly in order to be able to churn out the projects that I do. Having seen other, very accomplished knitters in action I have to say that I’m pretty slow in comparison.

What I do however, is short bursts of very focused knitting where I can power through quite a lot in a short space of time. The other thing that I do is to take my knitting everywhere - and I mean everywhere - so that if I find myself with an unexpected wait somewhere I can whip the needles out and get a few rounds in. It’s amazing how much those little moments accumulate throughout the day.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love a good meditative knit sometimes and not every project knits to be rushed off the needles. But as deadlines loom or a loved ones birthday approaches there are always those times where a bit of power knitting is called for. If you’ve ever wondered how to knit faster I hope that these few simple tips will help.

Top tips for faster knitting:

1. Use super slick and shiny needles: As slick as you can get away with without your stitches flying off the needles. I like Addi Turbos in particular for lots of stocking stitch. The points aren't the sharpest but they really are super speedy.

2. Front load your stitches: Scoot as many stitches as you can to the tip of your left hand needle. That way you don't have to pull the next stitch to the top of the needle - it will already be there.

3. Knit at the tips: Knit each stitch right at the tip of the left hand needle - but be sure to wrap the yarn fully around the wider part of the right hand needle as this is what determines the tightness of each stitch.

4. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Eyes down and why not see how much you can knit when you really put your mind to it.

When is a skein not a skein

When is a skein not a skein? A chance conversation with an online pal lead to a very confusing "crossed wires" situation.
I'd shared some advice for new knitters (in my last post) about not trying to knit direct from a skein but to wind it first.

She responded that she always knits direct from the skein. And I wondered how on earth she ever left the house.

I turns out that we were talking about 2 completely different things. To me, a skein (let's not get into pronunciation 😂) is a tightly twisted length of yarn as in the picture.

But to my friend, this is a hank. She refers to the kind of fat ball (swipe left) that sits neatly on a shelf as a skein - hence the confusion.

Partly it might be a geographical thing I guess. I've only ever heard hank refer to rope - or embroidery thread.

But it was a timely lesson to remember, especially for newer knitters, to always be clear exactly what you are referring to. And not to assume anything.

So what would you call this?
Skein or hank? Let me know in the comments

Five things I wish I'd known when I started knitting

5 mini skeins from As Yet Yarns

I’ve been a knitter a long time now, first learning as a child sat on my Grandma’s knee. Then in my early 30s picking up the needles again by way of respite from life with two babies under 2. I knit most days, on a variety of projects and I’m never without knitting on my person when I leave the house. In short, I’m a knitter with a capital K.

But everyone starts somewhere and it’s easy to forget that things we now take for granted, we once didn’t know. Not only that we didn’t know. But that we didn’t know that we didn’t know.

It would never occur to me now to try and knit from yarn directly from the skein. But once, I did. Not only that but I tried to do it in a parked car with the yarn looped around the gearstick. As I said - I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

But, we live and learn - at least most of the time. I still persist in thinking that I don’t need to make a note of the needles I’m using for a particular project for example. But most of the time we do.

And in that spirit I thought I would present a short list of things I wished someone had presented me with (ideally on a laminated sheet for my project bag) back when I was a new knitter.

1. Wind the yarn into a ball before you start. I know I already mentioned this one but it really is my top tip for anyone new to knitting who is tempted to try the joys of hand dyed yarn. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need fancy equipment. Just loop the yarn around two chair backs pushed other or employ the hands of a handy helper.

2. Keep a knitting notebook - either on paper or digital. Make a note of the yarn and needles you are using along with any notes you might want to refer back to. It also really helps when you are getting to grips with gauge swatches and helps you keep a record of the stitch count you are likely to get with certain yarn weights and needle sizes.

3. Gauge matters - I’m not going to labour the point on this one. Others have done that much better than I - see this post. But it really, really matters.

4. There are better alternatives to the thumb cast on. This was the one I used for years (thanks, Nana) before it dawned on me that it was a bit wibbly and unstable for anything more than a short piece of knitting. Finding the long tail cast on was a revelation. There are others, of course and it’s always worth experimenting, but this is the one I always turn to first.

5. Always mark the right side of your work. I generally clip a little bulb pin to the front of my work, just to remind me which is the right side. On a stockinette sweater of course, it’s easy to tell once you get going but just for those first few rows - and particularly if you are a new knitter it really does help to orientate you - and stop you picking up your work and accidentally knitting back the way you have come.

How about you. if you could write one piece of advice to your younger knitting self what would it be? Why not let me know in the comments.

The messy middle

The 'messy middle' is something that we don't talk about very often. It's a term often used to describe the creative process - whether that process is knitting, or writing or anything else for that matter.

You've got the excitement of the fresh start out of the way. You have a clear idea in your head of what you want the end project to look like. The only trouble is that what you often see in front of you doesn't really match up to that ideal.

It might do, in time.

But in truth it often looks more like a bedraggled duckling rather than the majestic bird that you envision in your minds eye.

That's a lot of words really to explain why there hasn't been a lot of fresh knitting content on the timeline this week. Everything on my needles is currently in the 25-50% done phase. A phase that's often accompanied by thoughts of 'oh, this just isn't working' - and sometimes swears are said.

It's so tempting at times like this to just throw your hands up and cast on for yet another mitered square blanket - or a pair of socks - after all, you know where you are with a pair of socks.

But for now I'm restraining myself with a bit of therapeutic journaling (aka a written rant) and a packet of biscuits.

Although I'm not ruling out a new cast on later on tonight.

What do you do when you hit that 'nothing is working' phase? Do you grit your teeth and soldier on or give in and raid the sock yarn stash? Let me know in the comments.

Social media - what a difference a year makes

This time last year I was in a very different place with regard to social media. Things with Twitter had reached breaking point and called for drastic action. I nuked my account and started again from scratch.

And it proved to be such a great decision. In the space of a year I have rebuilt my account to roughly the same number of followers as I had with my 9 year old account.

The difference being that I ruthlessly curated the content I saw there, and crucially the content that I interacted with. Mindful of the fact that Twitter will share my likes/retweets with others I was careful not to interact with content that others might find triggering - Brexit, Covid and other hot button issues in the UK.

Not that they aren't important, but I knew how fragile my own mental health was feeling coming out of the pandemic and that the only way I could stay on Twitter, and enjoy being there was by being strict about what I allowed into my bubble. Knitting, otters and funny cat memes are the order of the day now, and my day is far better for it.

Please note this is different to putting my head in the sand. I stay informed by reading and from trusted news sources. What I don’t need is to be sand blasted by the hose of other people's opinions and hot takes.

This time last year, my Instagram by contrast felt completely dead in the water. I felt similarly stifled but couldn't bring myself to delete my account, as anyone who has painstakingly inched over the 10k followers threshold will understand.

Instead I cut back the number of accounts I followed to almost zero - and started again. Just following those whose content either uplifted, inspired or entertained me. Drastic yes, but my goodness it was like a breath of fresh air.

Side note though - it did earn me a shadow ban for a few weeks as I deleted more follows per day than the algorithm was happy with, so I’m not sure I can entirely recommend it as a course of action.

As we moved into 2023 though, things started to feel different yet again. The whole twitter atmosphere has undoubtedly changed as a result of the site’s new owner and a lot of people have either left or are interacting far less on their accounts.

Instagram by contrast feels a lot more vibrant - the Reels are obviously here to stay and maybe, who knows I’m actually starting to like them a little bit. It feels as though people are allowing themselves to relax and let go of the quest for Instagram flatlay perfection a little bit, and embrace the fun and more spontaneous side of the platform again. Instagram have also responded (finally) to concerns about account security and have introduced a new system for helping people to recover hacked/locked accounts.

What will this year bring? Who knows quite frankly but change is inevitable, it always is.

Now more than ever it’s important to connect with people on more than one platform, or via email/DMs. Rumours of Twitters imminent collapse are almost certainly exaggerated but it does no harm to make sure that you are subscribed to your favourite folks’ newsletters, just in case something drastic were to happen.

I know there are a few alternatives to Twitter popping up - Mastodon and Hive being the two that I have come across - and created accounts there. But honestly, the thought of starting again from scratch on another social media platform is more than I can bear right now. I want to spend less time on social media in 2023, not more.

How about you? Have you used one of the Twitter alts, and if so what do you think of it? Do drop me a comment and let me know.

And if you’d like to make sure you stay abreast of what I’m up to please do subscribe to my weekly email. I try to share snippets from the online world that have caught my eye, what’s on my needles and general random thoughts that I might not get around to sharing anywhere else.

And my other online hangouts are:

Twitter - as EverydayKnitter

Instagram - as LouiseTilbrookDesigns