On episode 35 of YarnCraft, our radio-style show for knitters, crocheters, and yarncrafters of all sorts, Liz and I take you all the way to Minnesota for the annual Knit-Out & Crochet sponsored by the Craft Yarn Council of America. Thousands upon thousands of knitters and crocheters descended upon the Mall of America (biggest mall in America!) for a weekend event with booths, demos, fashion shows, contests and more!
In this episode, we also give tips for knitting and crocheting lace. Here are just a few of these tips:
- Swatch with scrap yarn first so that you (a) get used to the pattern and (b) don’t waste your actual yarn.
- When knitting, use stitch markers between each repeat of the lace pattern (at least for the first few rows) so that it is easy to keep track of the pattern.
- Count the number of stitches in each row to make sure you have the correct number, so that you notice any mistakes right away.
- Use a lifeline. For knitters, this means weaving a piece of waste yarn through all of your open stitches after each repetition of the lace pattern, so that you have a place that you can easily rip back to, if there is a major problem. The waste yarn will catch your stitches. For crocheters, put a split ring stitch marker or safety pin on the last stitch of a repetition of your lace pattern, so again, you have a place to rip back, with the marker catching the stitch and keeping you from ripping back too far.
- Block your project. This will open up your lace stitches and make them look their best.
To listen to this episode, click here [MP3]. For more on this episode, visit the YarnCraft blog.
Join us next week for a new episode on great warm-weather patterns.
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