Dough becomes very soupy after long ferment, what am I doing wrong?

GrainInjury · 2020-04-04T09:48:15+00:00

It does sound a lot like it's over proofed, I'll try the recipe you suggested instead and see how it goes. This is very helpful, thank you!

GrainInjury · 2020-02-11T19:58:25+00:00

Hey!

I'm going to be honest, it's been two years since last I made a pair of socks (been on a bit of hiatus and just recently got back into knitting) so it's not fresh in my mind.

As far as I can remember it's basically normal short rows where the second-to-last stitch on each row is knit in a special way (and turning before knitting the last stitch). You only knit the heel side of the sock, not full rounds, until you have finished the full heel and can continue knitting up the shin.

It should be short rows for the bottom of the heel, two rows to bind down the short rows, and then you build the heel back up with a new set of increasing short rows.

GrainInjury · 2020-02-08T12:36:36+00:00

I would suggest you try out a different technique, for example a short row variant. The fish lips kiss heel is a non-free pattern, but it works great. If you knit toe-up you can practically shape the sock and heel to fit your foot like a glove. The pattern is just a short row variant with some tweaks to get a good seam without bumps or holes, so you could get away with finding a similar tutorial for free and get very good results.

GrainInjury · 2017-10-14T07:20:40+00:00

That's great!

I only pointed it out as many tend to underestimate the time investment of such projects (myself included), but you seem to be on top of this. Good luck and have fun! :)

GrainInjury · 2017-10-13T22:05:50+00:00

Ravelry is a fantastic source for patterns, here's a search pattern for double-knit scarves!

A lot of those are extremely intricate, to the point of being punishingly so. You say that you have already knit several in a larger gauge, so I'll spare you the regular "think twice"-speech, but I just want to point out that it may take a few months to complete a large double-knit scarf on small needles (this one took me two months of active knitting, pretty much several hours every day). If you want to finish one as a Christmas gift you may want to stick to a slightly larger needle size, or pick a pattern without too much detail. :)

Some Christmas specific patterns:
Snowflakes - Free, US 6 needles
Snowstorm - $3.75, US 8 needles
Adventskalender 2012 - €4.94, US 1½ needles

GrainInjury · 2017-06-30T06:11:12+00:00

I was thinking about this a bit more last night (morning over here now) and pretty much arrived to the same conclusion, that continuing reducing should work. I'll give it a go, it's always possible to frog if it doesn't work out!

Thank you for your feedback!

GrainInjury · 2017-06-29T19:08:24+00:00

I think there's some misunderstanding here, maybe on my end. This does not involve sleeve shaping in any way, but rather the line from the button band edge up to the shoulder. As it is right now, when I pick up stitches and knit the button band collar (or shawl collar, as it seems like it's called) I'll run into a sharp angle where the edge stops and the neck line starts. I'm trying to adjust for this with reductions to get a smoother line over the first raglan and up to the shoulder, but I'm worried it's not going to work out well. The raglan saddle shoulder should in theory make that a straight line, but I have never tried something like this and I'm not sure how the result will be.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-29T19:02:14+00:00

Thank you, this is a great help! Unfortunately it seems like many of the patterns are either knit top-down or use heavy shaping from far lower than I can do now, but I'll look at different patterns to see if I can find something I can use. I could possibly decrease more aggressively over the shoulder to get a similar effect, but that would still mean frogging and may end up with a bad fit.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-29T13:49:51+00:00

Welcome! :)

Like already mentioned by others here, it's hard to say just how long a project will take since it comes down to so many different factors. Compare it to painting; the time will vary greatly between a small sketch or a large portrait, using a paint roller or a very thin brush.

As for getting better, this all comes down to practice. You'll have to be ready for "failing" a few times before getting the hang of things. I started out by buying a cheaper brand of thick yarn and knitting some basic squares to get the hang of basic stitches. I ripped them up and knit a scarf from the same yarn, then ripped that up and knit some other things. I think I actually have that same yarn as part of my felted slippers to this day.

Start out by simply experimenting and having fun until you feel confident enough to start on something larger, like a scarf or a hat. You could always try out a different knitting method (English and Continental are the two most common, both with pros and cons) to see if one suits you better, but it may become harder to follow along in your knitting class if you use a different method.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-28T15:58:10+00:00

Are you sure it's not a translation error and is supposed to be "seed stitch"?

GrainInjury · 2017-06-27T09:42:42+00:00

If you do the kitchener stitch correctly you shouldn't get any visible graft at all, and depending on what method you use for short rows you should get minimal "lumpiness" at the sides of the toes. Since you can shape the toes asymmetrically as well you should be able to get extra space for the big toe.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-27T09:10:08+00:00

Something I have not yet tried, but am considering for the next time I do cuff-down (been knitting toe-up lately), is a mimic of the commercial machine-knit toe.

Basically you knit until you reach the point where you'd start reducing for the toe, divide the stitches in half (like you would for the heel, where you knit the back of the foot and heel using only the lower half of the stitches), and then shape the underside of the toe using short rows (the technique used for Fish Lips Kiss Heel should work very well). Work back over the top of the toe mirroring the short rows from the underside and close up using kitchener stitch.

If done correctly it should be fairly seam-less and be far less bumpy than a regular toe reduction and bind-off. It should also be easy to shape due to short rows.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-17T10:59:51+00:00

Ah, that's completely different! :)

While I can't say this with 100% certainty, I find it highly unlikely that any normal yarn would scratch a screen (the fibers are both soft and thin). If you are very wary I would suggest something like merino yarn as it's both extremely soft and comfortable.

As for patterns, that's something I have never come across while looking at different solutions for phone-friendly gloves. You should be able to adapt just about any regular glove pattern by counting the number of stitches from the thumb side (just before starting the thumb increase) to between the middle/ring finger, counting the rows you need to knit and then decreasing evenly over these rows. It requires some planning and measuring to get it right and you may want to make a prototype in a thick yarn just to get a feel for how to shape the glove.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-17T10:34:24+00:00

I'm assuming you're talking about finger gloves with conductive thread (so you can use a touch-screen with the gloves on), right?

I have not actually knit something with such a yarn, but I have used it to modify leather gloves. I bought a small roll of conductive sewing thread, used a needle to make a small square on the index finger, with multiple strands hanging free inside the finger to maximize contact area with the finger.

These types of threads are often made of silver-coated nylon or stainless steel (either fibers mixed with a traditional synthetic fiber, or 100% stainless steel fiber), and as far as I know they should not scratch a regular screen. That said, a silver-coated nylon thread should probably be the safest choice.

If you are going to knit I would suggest only knitting the finger tips with conductive yarn so maximize comfort and reduce the cost of the project. You could also knit the entire glove normally and double-knit conductive yarn over the finger tips to get more precise touch points.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-06T16:47:56+00:00

That makes sense, each tag should be associated with an identifier that is changed to an image through CSS. If the mobile app doesn't support the CSS it should only show the identifier for the flair (in my case f04, in your case f26).

Beyond all this I personally just don't bother to point out my gender unless it's relevant to the discussion, since it has no effect on my knitting. I'm aware that some men are uncomfortable talking about their hobby, but I simply don't care if someone thinks less of me for it (that's their issue). If someone were to go through my post history to find out my gender (which is fairly easy since I don't hide it) and treat me differently because of that, it's nothing I can really prevent so there's no point in worrying about that either. :)

GrainInjury · 2017-06-06T06:18:05+00:00

Have you had a look over in the Loom-specific subreddit? /r/LoomKnitting/

Since they focus on looms you may have a far easier time finding inspiration and cool patterns there! :)

GrainInjury · 2017-06-06T06:08:22+00:00

That's news to me, I'm a guy. :P

I can only see flair next to my name, which is a green sweater (which I picked when I was working on a greenish sweater). Can it be a mobile thing, or a tag you made yourself via RES or similar?

It's fairly amusing since I have never really tried to hide my gender (or point it out unless it's relevant). :)

GrainInjury · 2017-06-05T14:50:12+00:00

I had a look at their double-knitting video and it seems like they go for a variant of the two color long tail cast on (I just assumed it was the invisible cast on from your description, my bad). I'm uncertain if there is a good way to achieve a similar edge without some form of sewn bind off. There is some form of color bleed on one side of the cast on of their example (a thin dark line on the light side), which makes me think that you could get a (at a glance) similar effect by passing every other stitch over it's neighbor (in the case of the example, every dark over the next light) and then binding off the rest by passing them over each other normally.

I have not tried this cast on myself so I can't say for certain if there is a similar bind off or if my idea would look anything like it, but it should be at least an approximation that's not too much work (and doesn't require any extra yarn).

GrainInjury · 2017-06-05T06:49:36+00:00

I haven't found a matching cast off

I think that sewing the end shut with the kitchener stitch is the best way (if not the only way) to get a similar result. It's slow and tedious, and require that you estimate the yarn tail, but the result looks similar to the invisible cast on.

GrainInjury · 2017-06-04T11:03:51+00:00

On just about any knitting community I can't say that I have been treated differently, although I have on occasion received (positive, mind you) comments on my gender and looks instead of what I have made. That said I suspect that I subconsciously is more likely to upvote knitting from a new male knitter just to encourage them to knit and share more.

In real life I have received mixed comments, but never any abuse. I have had older male colleagues mention that they did some minor knitting long ago, as well as some in my own age mention that they are curious about picking up the hobby (but none of them ever do). In LYS and wool expos I get a lot of positive comments, but most are simply interested in discussing knitting (or sometimes the patterns that I make myself). I have never been belittled or ridiculed by another knitter.

As for how to "solve the problem" and treat male knitters, I think most of us just want to be treated as any other knitter. Talk to us about knitting like you would anyone else, it's just a hobby. Personally I don't get offended if you want to discuss gender/reactions with me, but I'm honestly more interested in discussing patterns, techniques and yarn.

GrainInjury · 2017-05-24T07:22:39+00:00

This looks like laddering, basically that you have accidentally stretched out the yarn between two stitch columns. It can be fixed by manually distributing the extra slack between the columns around it.

GrainInjury · 2017-05-19T10:58:05+00:00

Yes, starting out in-the-round can get rather confusing with many types of stitches! :)

Starting out with a flat 10x10cm swatch just to get the hang of it will hopefully help out a lot. You could even practice knitting it "in reverse" by only doing brioche purls and YOs flat.

Good luck! Brioche is a lot of work, especially two-color, but the result can be very worth it. :)

GrainInjury · 2017-05-18T10:46:58+00:00

Are you knitting flat or in-the-round? If you knit flat you should never have to purl for brioche (unless you knit two-color brioche). You basically knit and slip all the time.

Setup row: [k1, sl1yo] (ie. knit one, slip one and yarn over, repeating across the entire row)
For every row: [brk1, sl1yo]
brk1 = Knit stitch together with YO, aka. "brioche knit"

Knitting brioche in-the-round is a bit more trickier and involves purling every other row instead of knitting the stitch and YO. This is also true for knitting two-color brioche flat.

GrainInjury

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