First taught at Sock Summit ’09.
This course teaches at least six heels and leaves participants armed with a set of worksheets that will allow them to substitute virutally any heel into any sock they ever knit from that point forward—guaranteeing a perfect fit. This class can be tailored as needed—fewer heels, shorter class, toe-up only, top-down only, or all six heels in six hours.Course Length: 6 hours (can be taught in shorter segments)
Materials Needed: There is homework that needs to be done before the class—little cuffs and some cuff-heel-flaps to prepare for the different turns and gussets. Details will be provided.
Paävätär sock plaited cast-on
The Finnish socks Ordover designed on the cover of Knitting Socks from Around the World use a special plaited cast-on. This class is only 1-1/2 hours but can be extended to three hours by adding another cast-on from the book (the Channel Island Cast-on from the Gansey Socks or a provisional cast on like the Ides of March). Students will practice the cast-on while constructing a wristie and leave class with the pattern for the Bohus-inspired wrist warmer. Course Length: 1.5 hours (can be expanded to 3 hours)Materials Needed: DPNs or two circs or long circ for magic loop, three colors of yarn to match the needles. Sample wristie knit using US6-7 and three colors of light-worsted yarn.
Double Knitting
The Finnish scarf Ordover designed for Knitting Scarves from Around the World is double knit. Depending on your needs, the double knitting class can run from 1-1/2 to 3 hours. Students will leave class with a soap bag scrubbie or a bookmark (or both!).
Course Length: 1.5 hours (can be expanded to 3 hours)
Materials Needed: straight needles or circs for knitting flat; DK or light worsted for bookmark; hemp or linen, for soap bag scrubbie.
Shawl Construction
A three-hour class dedicated to learning the
construction of the Defarge Stole from What Would Madame Defarge Knit? This class will leave participants with a lacy bookmark and a new way to construct directionally-dependent,
rectangular shawls without grafting.Course Length: 3 hours Materials Needed: 24-40 in circ for knitting flat; lace, fingering or DK needed for bookmark.
Ergonomic knitting: 1-1/2 hours
Fixing mistakes in knitting: 1-1/2–3 hours (3 hours if there is a practicum where students bring their “design elements” they wish to fix.) Specific cast-ons or techniques: by request.
Knit Companion
Knit Companion—slow and easy: three 2–hour classes spread over several weeks.
Knit Companion—over time: two 3–hour classes with a two week break between.
Knit Companion—fast and strong: full day. Get your beauty sleep beforehand.
Knit Companion—tips and tricks and Knit Companion—”walk in” help are also available.
Pricing for Knit Companion classes is slightly different. Please use the contact form below before booking.
Signing: use the booking tool below to book Ordover into your shop, guild, or venue for a book reading and book signing. Any or all books can be read from by request.
To book Ordover for a class, a speaking engagement, or a book signing, please use one of the “book now” buttons or this contact form if you have questions. [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]
Who?
Heather Ordover won awards for teaching HS English in NYC and for Honors Writing at the University of Arizona. She’s written curriculum, articles, and is now editrix and designer for her own book series, What Would Madame Defarge Knit? Creations Inspired by Classic Characters and the proud parent of her new YA novel Grounded—The Seven, book 1. Her designs have also appeared in the Knitting ___ from Around the World series.
She credited her success as a teacher at her LYS in Tucson, Arizona, to her modus operandi while teaching high school—”always teach to the joke.”
When teaching knitting I strive for a comfortable, friendly environment where everyone is at ease. The worst thing I can imagine in a knitting class is having an instructor say, ‘You’re doing that wrong! Do it my way!’ — In knitting, as in life, there are many paths to the same goal.
Ah, the mythic Hair Clip Cap! The post that time forgot.
Sorry, I’d had this scheduled as a draft and didn’t get to it in time.
So!
I wrote a pattern for a hair clip hat.
Why?
Because I wear my hair up in a banana clip and I can’t fit a hat over the clip!
What you need to know to knit it—
Skills​
decreasing
seed stitch pattern
mid-row cast-on
crochet
picking up stitches (with or without crochet hook)
cutting your knitting (may require addition of alcohol) for steeks-photo instructions are provided
Having knit a sock heel will help, but isn’t required
Size​
Fits Women M-L and is easily adjustable up or down
Gauge​
Stockinette or Seed Stitch, 12 stitches = 4in
Yarn ​
Charisma, Loops & Threads, Bulky (CYA #5)
Light worsted in a complementary color for button band
Needle
​US 10.5 (6.5 mm) straight or circ
US 9 (5.5mm) circ (at least 20″)
Notions​
Stitch holder, stitch marker.
Right now I have the pattern on Ravelry (where the link below will take you) but I’ll be adding a link to the Shoppe soon, too.
I hope you like it as much as I have. On the windy days I think it could use an iCord tie, but 99% of the time, the bonnet structure holds nicely and it’s easy to get on and off.
Free things for you!
I’ve been working on adding patterns and goodies to my Ravelry store and CafePress shops for CraftLit and WWMDfK?. There’s always more to do, but so far I have a lot of free things for you (and a couple that aren’t free but I thought I’d throw them in as they are related).
Free
This free eBook gives you everything you need to know about knitting socks in one easy-to-follow place. The eBook has been created to be read on a tablet or computer screen which means it is “sideways” or landscape view.
download now
How to Knit Toe-Up Socks
Free
This free eBook gives you everything you need to know about knitting socks in one easy-to-follow place. Like the above, this eBook has also been built in landscape view. download now
Hufflepuff Socks
Free
This ribbed sock is knitted toe-up and includes charted color-work and was designed for the 2007 Hogwarts Sock Swap. download now for free from Ravelry
Free
This bag is an easy first double-knitting pattern which gives you, at the end, a lovely little bag in which to put soap odds-and-ends. Waste not, want not. It can be knit in one night of relatively boring TV (you need to pay attention a little bit) and gives instructions for double knitting. A video tutorial for double knitting is also available below. download now for free via Ravelry.
Toothfairy Bag
Free
This bag is knitted for the little one in your life who is eagerly anticipating a visit from the Tooth Fairy. This pattern is worked flat, is seamed, and utilizes the intarsia technique. download now for free via Ravelry.
These heels started at Sea Socks ’08, matured at Sock Summit ’09 and are now part of my classroom repertoire. However, I can’t teach everywhere so it seemed right to pass on as much information as I could in the little eBooks. If I scoot through your area and teach the class, I promise there will be more than just what you find here; I can’t include everything from a six hour class in an eBook.
But this is a darn good start!
Once you are familiar with the basics of knitting a sock (see above if you need more generalized sockiness) you can branch out and begin to customize exactly for your needs. The beauty of hand knitting is that if a particular part of a pattern does not work for you, it can be modified. There are many different ways to knit sock heels. There are many different feet. This works out well. If you want to read more about the genesis of this Sock Heel book series, please continue reading » ».
Dutch Heel eBook $2.50
This generic heel generally fits any foot.
German Heel eBook $2.50
The extra garter stitch edge to the heel flap helps eliminate saggy gussets and provides a snug fit.
French Heel eBook $2.50
This rounded heel is perfect for those who are sensitive to tags, snags and lumps.
Welsh Heel eBook $2.50
This is a very hard-wearing heel that leads the knitter on quite the adventure along the way but arrives at a beautifully sproingy heel.
Double knitting is knitting both sides of a fabric at once. This is what you see in the video. The other nifty thing double knitting does is create a tube.
For the double knitting used in the little bag here—knitting a tube without any color patterning—you will knit the knit stitches which are facing you and slip the next stitch which has the purl side facing you. The pattern in your head is like any sock heel, “knit, slip, knit, slip…” the only difference begin that you slip with yarn in front of the purl stitches (this way you’ll be keeping the yarn on the inside the bag as you’re creating it). End your row on a slip. Knit and slip back to where you started.
The video shows a two colored scarf being made—one side red, the other side white. For this video, the red stitches will all be knit stitches, followed by it’s partnered white stitch which you will see purled instead of slipped (this is because the color patterns have to match and it’s easier to do the patterning all at once). It helps to remember that all stitches are knit side facing out and purl side facing in to the tube you’re creating (genius, no?).
And it makes a LOT more sense actually watching it.
I made a BSJ (that’s Baby Surprise Jacket if you haven’t made one yet) for my little niece.
It was definitely a surprise, mostly because of how odd it looked. Here, let me show you.
See? Giant blob o yarn.
Well, once I finished I decided to take pictures of the folding process.
First, the primordial blob.
Now, at the top you’ll see button holes. That’s one side of the front. You can see a sleeve trying to form there, too, pointing up and to the left slightly.
And there, down at the bottom of this next pic you can see the same.
Okay, overview pic. You can see button holes right and left edges, but see how nicely turned the upper right and left corners are? That’s because those are actually the bottom of the button bands–actually the bottom of the sweater. Remember, for me, it was a blob. This is me figuring out what the heck I’m looking at, so I didn’t rotate any pix. Yours may look equally odd.
So, since the sleeves were trying to assert themselves at the top of the button hole edges and had to be opposite the nicely rounded bottom edges (I did an attached I-cord all the way around)
Now I put my hands at the top middle and the bottom middle (between the nicely rounded edges and between the burgeoning sleeves) and I lifted the sweater to fold it in half. Top of this picture you can again see button holes and now you can clearly see a sleeve pointing north.
I rotated the whole thing, opened it, adjusted those button hole areas to overlap and VOILA! SURPRISE!!!
Now, HOW La Zimmerman figured that out is a mystery. And for me, having that I-cord band to hide the seaming of the shoulders was just spectacular. Howevvah. I’m not a real fan of the garter stitch thing. I like flat. I like sleek. I’m not so much into the bumpy thing.
I mentioned this on the podcast and IMMEDIATELY got these words of warning from Lee:
Heather:
The stockinette BSJ does not work. I made one and it comes out slightly deformed. Remember, garter stitch is square but stockinette stitch is not.
Attached are 3 photos. 1 Stockinette BSJ and 2 regular BSJ’s. You’ll see what I mean.
I’m including her pix below (you can see more of her handiwork at sereneknitter.blogspot.com. See how perfect the first two are? And the third, in stockinette…not so much.
Along with the “How to Crochet” page I put up a bit ago—with the best video tutorials I found—I wanted to add Continental and British knitting tutorial videos to the mix.
Before I go any further, and because I know folks have opinions about these things, I want to put out there that I knit both British and Continental. My Grandmother taught me British when I was little, and later when I picked the craft back up as an adult I re-taught myself Continental. (Well, not just Continental, but Combination Knitting, just like Annie Modesitt (who has free online knitting classes)… only I didn’t write a book about it.[1])
All of that is a long way of saying I have no personal bias. I knit Continental most of the time, but I think that’s because I spent so many of my non-knitting years neck deep in crochet and thus holding the yarn with my left hand feels comfortable. If I do color work I knit both ways at the same time, and there are some needle and yarn sizes that simply require me to knit British.
So.
What the heck are Continental and British?
Continental Knitting has you hold your working yarn in your left hand (and generally that means you’re manipulating the yarn with your left and the needle with your right). British has you hold your working yarn in your right hand (and generally that means you’re manipulating the yarn and one needle with your right). These, however, are not hard and fast rules. I’ve seen Continental knitters carry the yarn in their left but manipulate it with their right. It’s pretty cool. And ditto that in reverse for British.
All that is a long way of saying: if you’re doing something that looks like knitting and find that you’re making some kind of fabric and aren’t twisting your stitches, then you’re doing just fine. Unless someone can show you how you’re twisting something up, don’t let them tell you you’re doing it “wrong.”
Now, on with it!
Knitting is the process of making a series of slip knots but instead of making them in a chain (crochet) you’re making a loop and catching each loop on a needle. All those stitches on the needle are “live” and if you pull them off the needle and tug the yarn they’ll all rip out. Prrrrrrrrrrrrt!
Lesson?
Don’t pull your stitches off the needle unless you know what you’re doing.
There are two ways to look at knitted fabric, the flat side and the bumpy side. If you make a KNIT stitch, you’ll have the “flat” side facing you. This will look like “regular knitting” that you might see in a standard sweater you buy at a store.
If you turn that fabric over, you’ll see that the back side of the knit stitches is bumpy. That means you need to learn how to knit the flat “front” side and the bumpy “back” side. Those stitches are called “knit” (flat) and “purl” (bumpy).
Every move in knitting begins with either a knit stitch or a purl stitch. So, once you master these two stitches there is NOTHING you cannot do. Interweave just came out with this nifty little (free) eBook on how to knit, too. NAYY*
I’m a visual learner, so I’ve dug around to find the clearest videos I could. PLEASE feel free to put links to other good videos into the comments on this page UPDATE: In fact, drop down to the comment from Alix F. She found better videos! The Knit Stitch
The Purl Stitch
If you want flat knitting (not bumpy) then you will knit one row (often called the “right side”) then turn your knitting and purl back down to where you started (often called the “wrong” or “back side”). This is called “Stockinette Stitch.”
If you want bumpy knitting, use the knit stitch no matter which side you’re on. This is called “Garter Stitch.”
All of that is well and good, but you can’t practice if you can’t cast-on—that’s how you get the yarn on the needle to begin with. There are MANY ways to cast-on. I’ve linked here to two. The first video is the most common as it gives you a solid, generally stretchy cast-on row. The second requires less fiddling with the yarn initially, but it can make for a very loose cast-on which may look a bit baggy when you’re done. Long Tail Cast-on
Backwards Loop Cast-on
And when you’re done, you’ll need to get the blasted thing off of your needle! For that, you need a bind off.
And now?
You can knit!
The only other things you need are to know how to increase and decrease. I found a page with very good tutorials on that, so I’ll just link you to them. And if the videos I’ve posted here don’t float your boat, please don’t despair. There have to be a metric ton of tutorials and videos out there. Poke around. I know you’ll find one that works for you. And don’t be embarrassed to go to your local yarn store. Buy some cheap yarn and needles, then plop yourself down and have them teach you. They will.
Along with the “How to Crochet” page I put up a bit ago—with the best video tutorials I found—I wanted to add Continental and British knitting tutorial videos to the mix.
Before I go any further, and because I know folks have opinions about these things, I want to put out there that I knit both British and Continental. My Grandmother taught me British when I was little, and later when I picked the craft back up as an adult I re-taught myself Continental. (Well, not just Continental, but Combination Knitting, just like Annie Modesitt (who has free online knitting classes)… only I didn’t write a book about it.[1])
All of that is a long way of saying I have no personal bias. I knit Continental most of the time, but I think that’s because I spent so many of my non-knitting years neck deep in crochet and thus holding the yarn etc in my left hand feels comfortable. If I do color work I knit both ways at the same time, and there are some needle and yarn sizes that simply require me to knit British.
So.
What the heck are Continental and British?
Continental Knitting has you hold your working yarn in your left hand (and generally that means you’re manipulating the yarn with your left and the needle with your right). British has you hold your working yarn in your right hand (and generally that means you’re manipulating the yarn and needle with your right). These, however, are not hard and fast rules. I’ve seen Continental knitters carry the yarn in their left but manipulate it with their right. It’s pretty cool. And ditto that in reverse for British.
All that is a long way of saying: if you’re doing something that looks like knitting and find that you’re making some kind of fabric and aren’t twisting your stitches, then you’re doing just fine. Unless someone can show you how you’re twisting something up, don’t let them tell you you’re doing it “wrong.”
Now, on with it!
Knitting is the process of making a series of slip knots but instead of making them in a chain (crochet) you’re making a loop and catching each loop on a needle. All those stitches on the stick are “live” and if you pull them off the needle and tug the yarn they’ll all rip out. Prrrrrrrrrrrrt!
Lesson?
Don’t pull your stitches off the needle.
There are two ways to look at knitted fabric, the flat side and the bumpy side. If you make a KNIT stitch, you’ll have the “flat” side facing you. This will look like “regular knitting” that you might see in a standard sweater you buy at a store.
If you turn that fabric over, you’ll see that the back side of the knit stitches is bumpy. That means you need to learn how to knit the flat “front” side and the bumpy “back” side. Those stitches are called “knit” (flat) and “purl” (bumpy).
Every move in knitting begins with either a knit stitch or a purl stitch. So, once you master these two stitches there is NOTHING you cannot do.
I’m a visual learner, so I’ve dug around to find the clearest videos I could. PLEASE feel free to put links to other good videos into the comments on this page. The more information, the better. The Knit Stitch
The Purl Stitch
If you want flat knitting (not bumpy) then you will knit one row (often called the “right side”) then turn your knitting and purl back down to where you started (often called the “wrong” or “back side”). This is called “Stockinette Stitch.”
If you want bumpy knitting, use the knit stitch no matter which side you’re on. This is called “Garter Stitch.”
All of that is well and good, but you can’t practice if you can’t cast-on—that’s how you get the yarn on the needle to begin with. There are MANY ways to cast-on. I’ve linked here to two. The first video is the most common as it gives you a solid, generally stretchy cast-on row. The second requires less fiddling with the yarn initially, but it can make for a very loose cast-on which may look a bit baggy when you’re done. Long Tail Cast-on
Backwards Loop Cast-on
And when you’re done, you’ll need to get the blasted thing off of your needle! For that, you need a bind off.
And now?
You can knit!
The only other things you need are to know how to increase and decrease. I found a page with very good tutorials on that, so I’ll just link you to them. And if the videos I’ve posted here don’t float your boat, please don’t despair. There have to be a metric ton of tutorials and videos out there. Poke around. I know you’ll find one that works for you. And don’t be embarrassed to go to your local yarn store. Buy some cheap yarn and needles, then plop yourself down and have them teach you. They will.
From my CraftLit folks I often get questions about “how to”… fill in the blank. I decided I should get a move on and get some tutorials compiled here for y’all. So.
Crochet.
Don’t know that I agree with the arcylic recommendation (I’d just say any tightly plied yarn–no splitting) but I really like that they work you towards a product rather than just chaining forever.
Here’s Part I of the basics of crochet.
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 back.
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 knitting—knitting both sides at once. That means the red stitches will all be knit stitches, followed by it’s partnered white stitch which you will purl. It helps to remember that all stitches are knit side facing out and purl side facing in to the tube you’re creating (genius, no?).
And it makes a LOT more sense actually watching it.
For practice try doing a simple double-knit tube (bookmark?). Start by taking any size yarn and needles—variegated that changes color rapidly is quite helpful.
For the tube:
Cast on 20 stitches.
Turn.
Knit 1, purl 1 across.
Turn.
Now, *knit the knit stitches you see and slip (slip and ignore) the purl stitches you see, all the way across.
Turn.
Now, knit the knit stitches and slip the purl stitches across.*
Now you have knit one complete row each side!
Keep going * to * for an inch or so, then pinch each side of the fabric and pull apart.
Neat, no?!
You can pull the sides away from each other because you formed a tube.
(If you CAN’T pull the sides apart that most likely means that somewhere you accidentally purled a stitch that should have been slipped.)
Now, pat yourself on the back and show this to everyone you meet today.
Someone will be impressed.
If you want to get really crazy, try the two colors in the video. Use a long tail cast on with one color going over your thumb and the other color over your finger. You’ll have a lovely little braided cast-on. Then start double knitting. At first you would want to keep one side one color and the other side the other color, as it’s easier to get the rhythm of the knitting/purling that way. But if you wanted to create a simple star pattern, you could easily use a pattern like this
The hardest thing to wrap your mind around is that you see five stitches on the chart, but you’ll really be knitting/purling ten.
Let’s break that down. Imagine you’re knitting with red and white. Start by deciding (this is arbitrary) that the blank squares in our little star pattern will be for the white facing you and the dots will be for the red facing you—those will be your knit stitches.
To mirror that pattern on the other side you need to purl it in the reverse colors—dominant red with a white star. That is what you will be purling.
So your first row will go like this:
(white-dominant side facing) knit white, purl red, knit white, purl red, knit red, purl white, knit white, purl red, knit white, purl red (10 pattern stitches total, bold indicates the lower point of the star)
turn
(red-dominant side facing) knit red, purl white, knit white, purl red, knit white, purl red, knit white, purl red, knit red, purl white (bold indicates the middle row of the star)
etc
I promise you this makes much more sense if you try it. I still have my first little tube bookmark and I’m still pretty impressed with myself every time I do this. Once you master this it’s easy to do other nifty things like knitting a sock inside a sock.
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 is gorgeous!)
Then get a copy of Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini (thanks Meg!) and pat yourself on the back for only having go so far as to attempt double knitting rather than a Starmore Tudor Rose.
MamaO is Heather Ordover, author, designer, mother and knitter... not necessarily in that order. You can get posts from this blog sent directly to your inbox by signing up below, Follow her on Twitter and Like her on Facebook if you're feeling friendly-like. Follow @MamaO
When teaching knitting I strive for a comfortable, friendly environment where everyone is at ease. The worst thing I can imagine in a knitting class is having an instructor say, ‘You’re doing that wrong! Do it my way!’ — In knitting, as in life, there are many paths to the same goal.
Free
Free
Dutch Heel eBook
German Heel eBook
French Heel eBook
Welsh Heel eBook
MamaO is Heather Ordover, author, designer, mother and knitter... not necessarily in that order. You can get posts from this blog sent directly to your inbox by signing up below, Follow her on Twitter and Like her on Facebook if you're feeling friendly-like.
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