Bob Cratchit is famous for a few things—being father of Tiny Tim, being cold, being basically cheerful, and having fingerless mitts in most representations of him. While it would be nice to knit some fine-gauge fingerless mitts as Christmas presents, my reality is that I have far too much knitting to do in far too little time. Instead, I worked up this little pattern for our Holiday Hop. For your knitting pleasure, I would like to...

Ever needed to add a few stitches—like to make up for thumb gusset stitches you just eliminated from the palm of your mitten. Well, here’s an easy and quick way to accomplish that. The standard half-hitch manoeuver always left me with saggy cast-on stitches. A friend showed me this ages ago and I’ve never looked...

Sometimes you just want a scarf that won’t roll—EVER. Or sometimes you need the back of an item to look just like the front. The easiest way to do that is to double knit—and mirror your pattern in reverse. On this sample, you’ll see the red side facing you with white “flea” stitches. The reverse side of the fabric is EXACTLY the same, but white with red “flea” stitches. How do you do that? Double...

Monday, September 27, 2010-Tuesday, September 28, 2010 DH drives me to airport after spending frantic morning   at last-minute self-employment deluge. Appear to have left without hair brush. Figures. Trip begins auspiciously with gluten-free beer in Delta Terminal bar/sushi bar of the Tucson Int’l (snort) Airport. Guess I shouldn’t snort. They have GF beer. Surrounded by happy travelers with lovely smiles. Sat next to only funny...

I worked on altering a pattern and am very happy with the results. I found the adorable Cora’s Cloche then adjusted to adult size (pattern from Knit Picks). I added a repeat and went up a needle size but used the same yarn. It’s a cotton, which I normally wouldn’t do, but I just might get a chance to wear a cotton cloche in Tucson. However, I did this for the UK trip since we’re heading over in the fall and not the...

Alasdair Post-Quinn over at the Twist Collective made a tutorial which–yes, is a little precious and slow but also—is rawther comprehensive regarding an elegant cast on for Double Knitting color work. Add to that the very clear tutorial at KnittingHelp.com (scroll down for the “Double Knitting” video link near the bottom of the page) and you’ll have learned a ton in under 20 minutes. (Plus Alasdair’s pattern...