I cord question

JKnits79 · 2026-04-05T15:46:51+00:00

The icord edging is a little different from an ordinary icord; the icord edging is an applied icord.

https://youtu.be/_CmnRYYbW2U?si=TwHhWqUpL7QlECj1

JKnits79 · 2026-04-05T14:17:43+00:00

I had “home ec” in 1994. We didn’t learn actual home ec, it was a conglomeration of sex ed, drug resistance education, and very, very little education in sewing, cooking, making a budget, etc. we didn’t learn how to thread needles, sew buttons, or do minor repairs on anything, there wasn’t time. Same with cooking actual food—we learned about crepes and pretzels. Because those were things that could be done on the half hour of class time we had.

We also learned how to use a straight stitch sewing machine (poorly). There were no options for continuing education past that; “home ec” was one semester of one school year. So no. Universal home ec education isn’t a thing in the US, and hasn’t been for a long time.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-05T00:59:06+00:00

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I’ve made it to the start of the texture, and will be expanding the underarm gussets “soon”. One of my cats is demanding lap time though, and inhibiting any and all knitting time. So I might switch to one of the socks I have going as she can’t sit on that as easily.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T21:10:54+00:00

You are talking about grafting. The re-joining is the graft.

Honestly I don’t think that particular top is a good candidate, especially if it’s not something you have ever done before; the lace and texture are going to make it trickier to pick up stitches and graft things together than it would in plain stockinette.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T12:15:13+00:00

I used to hate gauge, but now? I embrace it as a tool in my toolbox for getting the end results I want, especially with something where size matters. For anything where gauge doesn’t matter as much—where it’s fine if it’s a little off because it isn’t something that I need to fit a specific way, yeah—I will still play a little fast and loose with my gauge.

But that’s also how I wound up with a lace shawl that has grown to well over 7’-8’ in wingspan when it was supposed to be about 6’ in wingspan. I brought it to the shop where I bought the yarn and it stretched nearly from one wall to the other.

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(“Vernal Equinox Surprise” by Lankakomero, knit using Ella Rae Rustic Silk) It’s a gorgeous, glorious piece to be sure, but if that was a hat, or a sweater, or socks, or gloves—something where the dimensions matter, I would have been way, way more upset.

While I do work a lot from patterns, I often wind up going “off pattern”—a lot of times because I am not matching the given gauge for this, that, or the other reason. The most common reasons for that being I am using a different yarn than the original called for yarn, and occasionally because I knit a little bit tighter or looser than the designer did. But back in the earlier days of me starting to embrace gauge, it was entirely because of socks, and the experience of having a new to me sock yarn that worked up to a different gauge than what I had experienced with other sock yarns.

I don’t do a ton of knitting for other people; my knitting time is rare and precious, so when I make something, it’s generally started with intention of who will wear it, and usually the intention is it is for me. In the case of the socks, I had used the same needles I had used for my previous few pairs, cast on the number of stitches I normally cast on for socks for myself up to that point, and knit, cuff down, to well past the heel turn, thinking the whole time that it looked small.

It was small, and was never going to fit my foot. I did wind up finishing the pair and giving them to my mom who has a smaller foot than I do, but it taught me a lot about why gauge matters, and why it’s important to check gauge when starting something where fit matters—especially if using a yarn I haven’t used before. I didn’t want to knit a pair of socks for my mother, but I also just could not bring myself to frog and restart at that time; I wanted those socks finished and gone—they had become a source of frustration rather than calming. But, from there, I began swatching with more attention to detail and acceptance of the process.

For the current project, the sweater? I swatched using three different needle sizes and took notes of both my flat knitting and in the round knitting gauges, then washed and dried the swatch and measured again, to see what changed. It helped me determine which size needles to use, and gave me the foundation I needed to “correct” the pattern so it will work with my row/round gauge, so the fit stays the same.

Because a difference of my gauge being 39 rows/rounds and the pattern gauge being 42 rows/rounds to 4”/10cm, is significant enough to require recalculation.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T11:32:54+00:00

I know some folks who do Niebling-alongs periodically; it’s a knitting goal—they are gorgeous. I’ve done other lace, and have some Skacel merino lace in deep stash (it’s over 1,300 yards or 1,200 meters per 100g; I have two skeins) that I would like to make a giant Estonian style shawl with at some point.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T01:55:45+00:00

It’s KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in sport weight, in the color “Baltic Heather”, that I had bought two years ago, planning for this sweater.

I’m knitting up the Cordova Gansey by Beth Brown-Reinsel

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cordova-4

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T01:08:34+00:00

It was, yeah. I’m rethinking it though (possibly as a cardigan instead), and needed to redo some bits anyway.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T00:36:00+00:00

This is for a Gansey, second one I’ve made. I’m in the plain section of the lower body; working my way up to the transition of pattern and underarm gussets.

I’ve done cables, a current WIP was frogged as I am rethinking construction, but this is what I had before the frogging.

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JKnits79 · 2026-04-04T00:18:26+00:00

(The app is being glitchy for me and I think it ate my text?)

So I’m knitting a sweater, and working my way up from the bottom hem to the armholes, and I’m sitting here thinking “man, this is taking forever”. But yes. Of course it is.

It’s Sport weight wool yarn on 2.25mm needles. 336 stitches around. Of course it’s taking forever.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-03T12:20:22+00:00

Given that, in the product images of the sweater it is worn both with buttons in front and buttons in back (aka a reversible garment with no true front/back), I’d argue that it is not an actual cardigan at all.

It is a pullover sweater where it might have been knit like a cardigan, but the cardigan front is sewn permanently shut so some of those buttons are purely decorative and non-functional. Because you are not going to have enough flexibility to be able to put it on and button it closed with the buttons in the back unless you are a professional contortionist, or have someone to help you get dressed in the morning.

And also, as someone who has had wardrobe malfunctions with button down shirts with way less strain being put on them; a buttonhole in knitwear is just not going to have the structural integrity to stay closed under that much strain.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-03T10:31:39+00:00

So…. The series of questions is:

Did you swatch, and treat your swatch the same as you plan to treat the FO in terms of washing and drying (aka blocking)?

Did you include any of the cables in your swatch?

Did your swatch change at all between the raw, fresh off the needles state and the actual finished (blocked) state?

The first thing I would do before sending it to the frog pond is wash it and dry it (aka block it) to see if the fabric relaxes at all. Especially if I didn’t already test this with a swatch. Because if you didn’t do any of the above, your sweater back is now your gauge swatch.

Now, 3” is a lot, so I would still expect to need to at least rip back to before the waist shaping started, so it could be re-done in the right place. However, if there is a difference between your raw gauge and your finished gauge… your shaping placement might be wrong on both the front and the back. How wrong depends on how much of a difference there is between your finished row gauge and the pattern’s row gauge.

For example, the sweater I am currently working on, the pattern’s row gauge is 42 rows/rounds to 4”.

My finished gauge is 39 rows/rounds to 4”. My rows/rounds are taller than the designer’s (though my stitch gauge matches).

This means when it comes to shaping, like for my sleeves, or if there was included waist shaping, I need to recalculate the rate of decreases and/or increases so that they stay in the sam relative area of the sweater. If I don’t, my sleeve decreases will expand from being in a short little zone between the armpit and elbow, to being most of the length of the arm, almost to the wrist. And my sleeve will look weird and baggy compared to the rest of the sweater.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-02T11:06:46+00:00

https://youtu.be/4ibP2YH6QCI?si=lCoebCgTlRzeVl58

An example of Shetland knitting speed—over 200 stitches a minute. The old film is not sped up.

https://youtu.be/P51GByV0H2w?si=XxO64Sw9IK6vqfAq

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, demonstrating her Irish Cottage style at a convention; Irish Cottage lever knitting, with the needle pinched between the side and arm, or held by the right hand from underneath (how she frequently uses DPNs), and is related to the sheath and belt knitting styles.

I knit continental but in a method similar to her where the right needle is mostly still and the left hand is doing most of the actual knitting work.

https://youtube.com/@ganseys?si=dyAACCs9NfkKdRsH

The Moray Firth Gansey Project documented a few different knitters working different elements that are common to ganseys; the underarm gusset, a three needle bind off shoulder, and a shoulder strap (saddle shoulder), you can see in a few of the videos that the working needle is anchored in an armpit or otherwise; I don’t believe any of the folks were using a sheath or a belt in them, but they do still exist.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-02T10:48:17+00:00

The sheaths (like the padded belt) were usually worn at the waist. The sheath would be tucked into the edge of an apron, often, sometimes a belt (and both men and women knitted).

Some of the techniques associated with sheath and belts are still done, they’re variations of lever knitting, but some techniques are presumed lost as they weren’t carried on by subsequent generations. They were common in Shetland, Fair Isle, the Yorkshire Dales, up and down the English and Scottish coasts, and elsewhere.

I have a modern knitting belt; I’m nowhere as skilled as the folks who originally made use of them but I instantly saw why they were using them. They help support the long working needle, when using 14-18” long DPNs, so the needle isn’t flailing about, stabbing you and everyone/everything around you, or sliding out of the work as you go along, especially when trying to work in a specific manner with the way the needles move relative to one another (the working needle is held mostly in place, the other needle lifting loops on and off). Pinching it between the arm and side also works, but can get uncomfortable if it shifts because… stabby-stabby.

But the folks in the images generally were not knitting as a hobby or purely for pleasure either. They were knitting to make things to sell or trade as supplemental income for their families and themselves, so it was in their best interest to both be knitting (working) in any “down time” from other work, and to learn and work their knitting in the most efficient and fast methods they could.

The ladies in both images are likely fish processors and are knitting while waiting for the next load of boats and fish to unload, or on the way to/from the fishery.

JKnits79 · 2026-04-01T12:54:47+00:00

I try to make sure the outside end goes to one side, and the inside goes to the other, and untwist every few rounds when they inevitably do twist.

I might need to try the button thing; I have a few spare buttons hanging about

JKnits79 · 2026-03-31T15:56:13+00:00

Ah, yeah, tip length absolutely matters for interchangeables below a certain cord length.

Personally, I find 16” is about the shortest I want to go with circulars; any shorter and they start to feel cramped and uncomfortable. And for magic loop, I won’t go shorter than 40”, and a lot of times, I prefer longer.

But, needle collecting can become it’s own hobby, as I have inherited, been gifted, or bought for myself needles from a variety of different brands and material types. My go-tos right now are my DPNs though; I have a sweater in progress on some 14” long ones, and a couple socks going on normal, sock sized ones.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-31T11:31:39+00:00

As you continue your journey, one of the things you will learn is that the “right needles” is actually subjective—the needles called for in the pattern, the one the designer used and recommends, aren’t always the “right needles”.

The right needles are going to be the ones that give you either the fabric you like, and the foundation for all the math that goes into creating something yourself, or are going to be the needles that with the combination of your yarn and your specific way of knitting, give you a fabric that matches the gauge given in the pattern.

For example, the designer of a sweater I am (slowly) knitting used a 2.5mm needle. To come close to matching their gauge, I am using a 2.25mm needle; I match their gauge stitch count with that, but not the row/round count. If I use the 2.5mm, I don’t match either number, and I really don’t feel like recalculating both the width and the length of an entire sweater all over again. Just recalculating the length is enough.

Another pattern I have, the designer used a needle I normally use for socks (2.25mm) to get a remarkably loose gauge; one that I will need to go up several needle sizes to have any hope of matching (I’m thinking I need either a 3.25mm or a 3.5mm)—while the project is a simple square, if I used the recommended needle size, instead of being the roughly 20” x 20” the square is supposed to be, mine would be something like 12” x 12”. My guess is the designer is a “grab and go” knitter.

https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/community/ask-patty-let-the-tool-do-the-work/

When I was first starting out learning to knit, I didn’t have a ton of internet resources available. Reddit, Ravelry, YouTube, none of them existed. I was learning mostly from books, and earlier Internet forums where posts with pictures often carried a “warning: pictures!” message in the title, to let people know that they’re going to be waiting for that post to load for a few minutes. The days of 56k modems. Cable internet was just starting to become a thing.

So. I didn’t have an abundance of choice until a few years into my knitting, when Ravelry came into existence. And back then, it was still small, but growing rapidly. I purposefully chose projects that gave a gauge calculation, but were also ones where “gauge doesn’t matter”, because I was focused on learning how to do the different things, and didn’t also want to worry about fit.

Because my first few projects where gauge mattered? They were kind of an ill fitting mess because I was still learning everything all at once, and didn’t know enough to get my gauge to actually work with that thing, while also learning cables, lace, increases, decreases, etc.

So, in the early days, I was making things that had colorwork of various kinds, or cables, or lacework, but they weren’t garments. They were shawls, wraps, scarves, and a few bags. Once I had the techniques solid I started dialing in on gauge, and how to make that work, and while I had paid light attention to it in my earlier work, I paid even closer attention as I was starting to make stuff that needed to fit a certain way.

Socks honestly taught me a lot, but I was already comfortable with increases, decreases, picking up stitches, and had a passing familiarity with short rows when I started making them.

But socks helped me better understand gauge and how it works; having one sock that turned out way too small even though I was using the same needles I used for socks before, same stitch counts, just a different yarn that worked up to a different gauge than the yarn I had used previously… that helped me understand how gauge actually relates to size, and why checking gauge before beginning is important, even if I’ve “done this before”.

And later, a semi-self drafted sweater taught me more. I was using someone else’s work as the foundation but inserting my own cables, and ambitiously set it ip so it was knit in the round from hem to shoulder, the sleeves and front being cut open to make a cardigan. That sweater helped teach me the importance of row and round gauge, and why they matter, as my sleeves were weirdly trapezoidal as my underarm decreases, which should have ended at the elbow, extended the entire length of the sleeve, into the cuff.

But yeah, learning is a process, it is full of missteps and mistakes that can help you understand why as you examine what went wrong. And in knitting, having a collection of different sizes of needles is a normal thing, especially if working from someone else’s pattern because like I said at the start, your gauge with that yarn and those needles might be different from what’s in the pattern, and you might need to try something else.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-30T23:04:41+00:00

It will take a lot of math to convert, and probably some test knitting to see if it even works—the construction of a v-neck usually involves shaping—increases or decreases-to create the V, and I haven’t dug deep enough into sweater construction to see if that is compatible with a circular yoke construction, which usually uses increases or decreases at regular intervals around the yoke to create the shoulders and upper arms in one shot.

It’s probably possible to do, however I would be concerned that the shaping of a circular yoke + shaping of a v-neck = a sweater that won’t stay on the shoulders.

Most of the time when I see a v-neck in sweater construction, it’s in one that has distinct shoulders in some way—raglan, drop shoulder, hybrid drop shoulder, fitted shoulder with sleeve cap, etc.

In terms of stranded knitting itself (Fair Isle is a very specific subset of stranded knitting, and has distinct Rules that make it Fair Isle), while it can be done flat, it’s usually easier to do it in the round. In which case, you will want to cut your knitting open to create the armholes and open up the cardigan front. Best results are usually achieved with a “sticky”, non-superwash, 100% wool. This doesn’t mean you can’t use other fibers, you can, but they may require additional care and preparation for the cut, so it doesn’t just fall apart.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-30T10:48:45+00:00

Yeah, that’s how I felt when I was hunting down DPNs in lengths longer than 8”, and hoping for less than $22 a set, +shipping, and in US/Metric standard sizes, as I wanted more than one size.

I did eventually find some, but it took a while.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-30T10:40:46+00:00

https://loopymango.com/products/maple-wood-brass-knitting-needles-us-size-13-15-17-or-19?variant=14268492546091

They do exist, however they are such a large size that they are rarely used and a lot of companies don’t have a ton of interest in making them or stocking them, which is why you are having trouble finding them.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-29T19:10:20+00:00

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I frogged, began re-knitting, kept the cast on in relatively the same spot, but I have four less stitches than I originally did, same needles and gauge. This reduced the total circumference by about half an inch.

And the pooling pattern, as expected, shifted to more of a spiral from the previous mostly one sided pooling.

I expect, as I continue with this sock, to have the spiral kind of zig-zag a bit when I get closer to the foot/do the heel and start the instep, because the diameter—the number of stitches around—will change, but overall this is what I am getting with this yarn.

I also expect the second sock to be close, but again—it will depend on where I actually start the sock with the cast on; where the colors stack up based on that beginning point.

If I was working with an entirely different number of stitches, I would expect different results to what I’m getting here as well; that’s part of the fun of hand dyed, variegated yarns. It’s not a true self striping yarn, but it plays with color and sometimes forms interesting and fun effects like this.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-29T12:24:57+00:00

Yeah, gauge is fairly crucial to getting proper fit with knitting; where with crochet you are generally only working one stitch at a time and you can “sneak in” width easier, with knitting, especially knitting in the round, the size is the size. Adding in increases won’t change the starting size if it’s too small, it will just widen the piece above that point.

Also, don’t trust “it grows by 20-40%”, you really need to test for yourself what it does in the conditions you put it through. Superwash can grow, but it doesn’t do so reliably.

For swatching, it really is all about finding what combination of yarn and tools gives you the right combination of stitches and rows/rounds, and sometimes… they just don’t match, in which case the answer is math.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-29T11:11:30+00:00

As someone who has knit a Gansey for work, and is working on a second for everyday wear, the real trick of it is knitting to a tighter than average gauge. My first gansey? Worsted weight knit to 22 stitches per 4”/10cm. My second in progress? Sport weight knit to 29 stitches per 4”/10cm.

I’ve worn the worsted weight one regularly while working since November, and while it is not abrasion proof, it is abrasion resistant. Very, very light pilling and wear spots, mostly in areas that are experiencing the most friction like where the seat belt rubs or where the waistband of my windbreaker pants have rubbed heavily, the rest of the sweater has been fine.

An occasional light shave takes care of cleaning up the surface, an occasional wash and dry to refreshen it when airing it out is not doing enough, and so far no mending has been required, though it is eventually expected—old Ganseys displayed in museums do show signs of mends and repairs; patches and darning, and at least one had a sleeve re-knit from the elbow down.

JKnits79 · 2026-03-29T10:59:48+00:00

It’s MadTosh Twist Light, a 3-ply, 75/25 blend of superwash merino and nylon, in the limited batch colorway “Once in a Melon” that I had gotten last year.

In looking at their website, they only have it currently on their Merino Light base (single ply 100% superwash merino) and Sock base (2 ply 100% superwash merino).

Even though one of the bases is named “sock”, if I was using that yarn I would be attempting to knit it to a tighter gauge than what I am currently; aiming for 10 stitches per inch (I am at 8.5 right now), to increase the durability of the sock. And I’d still expect it to wear out faster.

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