Well, my Summer knitting project of a dozen dishcloths has now drifted into Fall. I completed Dishcloth #7 and #8 before Summer ended and then got busy with other projects and just left my needles and yarn waiting for me to come back and knit some more. So, I started Dishcloth # 9 on Sunday and finished it up today. Hopefully, I will finish the last three dishcloths before the end of the Fall season. Here are the completed projects:
Dishcloth #7 — Valentine Hearts
Pattern from Leisure Arts “Knitting Kitchen Brights Dishcloths” brochure. Yarn: Peaches & Cream Cotton, color Teal. This is a reverse stockinette stitch pattern on a stockinette stitch background that resembles a cut-out of hearts that I made when I was a child. It’s an easy knit pattern over 20 rows.
Dishcloth #8 — Zigzag Eyelet
Pattern from Leisure Arts “Knitting Kitchen Brights Dishcloths” brochure. Yarn: Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton, color Natural. Lovely little lace pattern done over a multiple of 11 stitches plus 2 and 12 rows.
Dishcloth #9 — Climbing Lattice
Pattern from Leisure Arts “Knitting Kitchen Brights Dishcloths” brochure. Yarn: Sugar’n Cream, color Cool Breeze Ombre. This is an interesting lace pattern that combines left twists with a four stitch eyelet pattern. I was getting tired of solid color yarns, so I went with this ombre — I really like the way it knitted up.
I apologize to those who read my little blog — I have not posted for some time due to computer issues.
About a month ago, my DH and I both got new HP Desktops with Windows 7 as the operating system. After making all the necessary file transfers, I got up and running and thought things were just dandy. The new desktop was much faster and I loved my much larger monitor (great for these old eyes!). Then, about two weeks ago, funky random things started happening as I was using my new PC. Things like the screen just freezing up — which caused me to go to Task Manager and force the “not responding” program to close. Over the next several days, this went to happening at weird random and unpredictable intervals to happening almost every time I went on to the Internet. And then, it also started happening when I was in other programs — including the game Solitare and even Word. And — it was getting so that Task Manager couldn’t shut down the “not responding” program — now, when it happened the entire PC locked up — and I do mean LOCKED UP! The only way out was to hold down the Power Button until the machine shut down….yep, a hard shut down.
So, last weekend I started researching this little problem. I had to use my iPad — ’cause my HP certainly wasn’t going to let me do any surfing on it. And I discovered that this is a KNOWN problem with Windows 7. I found lots of threads about this little issue — one of which had been going on in a forum for over two years. From this research, I gleaned a few helpful suggestions that I thought I might try. Now this surfing took me most of Saturday afternoon over the Memorial Day holiday. So Sunday, I decided to check out HP Technical Support and see if there was anything new or helpful about this problem. And you know what? HP had a technical article on this problem — along with a whole series of steps to follow to determine how best to fix this little issue.
Now — before anybody goes there — the first thing I did when this little problem popped up was to run my virus scanning software — I did a full scan of my hard drive. As we all know, a virus is the most likely cause of problems with your computer. My computer scan came up clean. No viruses.
So, what was the cause? It was most likely either a program I had recently installed or an update to Windows that had been automatically installed. The solution? Well, HP has a utility called “System Restore” that allows you to go back and “restore” your system to a point before that update — i.e. a time before the problem started happening. Full instructions for how to do this were given in the article. BUT — before I went forward with this, I decided to back up my files — and this took me most of Sunday afternoon. Then Monday I was able to go ahead and do the System Restore. I discovered that there had been an update to Windows just before I started experiencing my issue. So I took my system back to the point just before that update. Viola! No more freezing or locking up! Whew! problem solved.
Not sure what conclusion to draw from all of this. Clearly it is a known issue that can randomly occur with Windows 7 — but it doesn’t appear to be something that Microsoft has addressed at this point — even though it apparently has been happening to Windows 7 users since 2009. I find it interesting that HP has a solution for the problem in the form of a utility that allows you to restore the system back to a point before the problem started to happen.
Anyway — that’s my tale of woe. Now that I have a working PC, I can get to work and actually write a new post about my new vintage crochet pattern. Stop back in a couple of days — I should have the pattern ready and available.
I have covered the basics of how to make a Gauge Swatch and calculate your stitch and row gauge in my previous three posts. Today’s topic will cover some basic math to help you estimate the yardage that you need using your yarn, your needles, and your gauge to make a sweater.
Let’s say you want to make a sweater using yarn from your stash and you need to know if you have enough to make it. To make this estimate, you need the measurements for the sweater you want to make. If you are using a pattern, the finished measurements should be stated within the pattern – ideally on a schematic. Some patterns may only state the desired measurements within the text of the pattern and you may have to read through to find them. If you are making the sweater without using a pattern – you would use the measurements of the individual who will be wearing the sweater.
The image below shows a schematic for the back of a sweater of a drop sleeve sweater. The back is 28 inches long from the hem to the neck and it is 20 inches wide. Both the front and the back of this type of sweater are essentially rectangles.
Schematic of Back/Front of Sweater
The schematic for the sleeves of this sweater are shown below.
Schematic of Sleeve
At this point, you have the numbers you need to calculate the number of square inches of fabric that you need to make for this sweater. For the front and back, multiply the length by the width on the schematic and then multiply that number by 2. Using the numbers from my example above:
20 * 28 = 560 560*2 = 1120 square inches for front and back.
The sleeve is a trapezoid shape. The formula for the area of a trapezoid is:
[(b1+b2) * h] / 2
Where b1 is the width at the bottom of the sleeve(8”) and b2 is the width at the top of the sleeve(15”) and h is the length of the sleeve(18”). Using the numbers from the sleeve schematic, the area for one sleeve is 207 square inches. Since you need two sleeves, you then need to multiply the area of the sleeve by two. (414 square inches)
Now, here’s a short cut – if you place your sleeves next to each other so that the tops of the sleeves are parallel – you have a parallelogram. To get the area of this parallelogram you simply multiple the width(15”+ 8” = 23”) by the length(18”). Try it – you’ll get the same number as above.
Add the square inches for the front and back to the square inches for the sleeves and you have the total number of square inches of fabric in the sweater. Now that you know the total number of square inches of fabric you need, you will need to use the yardage and weight information of the yarn you want to use to estimate how many skeins or balls of yarn your sweater requires. The yardage per weight of the yarn will be found on the yarn label – see image below:
You will use the yards per gram value in the estimate for total yardage. Now you need to knit a swatch. The swatch should be in the same stitch pattern that you plan to use for the body of your sweater. This swatch does not need to be the same size as your gauge swatch, but it should be wide enough and long enough to get an accurate weight, length and width measurement. After you knit this swatch, you will measure its weight using a scale that measures to the nearest tenth (0.1) of a gram. Next measure the length and width of the swatch and multiply these values together. This gives you the number of square inches in your swatch. Now divide the number of grams by the number of square inches.(Do not round). You now know what 1 square inch of your yarn weighs. This is the number you need to calculate how much yardage you need for your sweater.
Example: My swatch measures 3.5 inches by 4.5 inches, which gives me 15.75 square inches. The swatch weighs 9.6 g. Dividing 9.6 by 15.76 gives me 0.622 g/square inch.
Here’s the final set of calculations:
Take the total number of square inches of fabric and multiply it by the number of grams per square inch. This gives you the total weight in grams for your sweater.
Total Number of Square Inches * grams/inch2 = Total grams of fabric
Total Grams/Square Inches = (1120 + 414) * 0.622 = 954.148 g
Now take the yards per gram value from the yarn label. (For example 218 yds/100grams). Divide the yds by the grams to get the number of yards in 1 gram of yarn. (For example: 218yards/100grams = 2.18 yards per gram.) Multiply the total number of grams of fabric by the number of yards per gram to get the total yardage for the sweater. Using the numbers from the examples above:
Yards per gram = 2.18 yds/g
Total Yards of Yarn = 954.148 * 2.18 = 2080 yds
To determine the number of skeins, balls or hanks of yarn you need: Divide the number of yards by the number of yards in the skein. Or divide the total number of grams by the number of grams of the skein. Remember that you will want one extra skein for swatching. (In my example, I would need 9.5 skeins, so I would want 11 skeins with one extra for swatching)
What to do if you don’t have the yarn label
To determine how many yards of yarn you have when you do not have the yarn label or any information, simply measure out 10 yards of your yarn and weigh it. Divide the weight by 10 and you have the weight for 1 yard of yarn. Now weigh the skeins/hanks of yarn and multiply by the weight of 1 yard. This will give you the number of yards for each skein/hank.
The German Twisted Cast On, which is also known as the Old Norwegian Cast On, is a variation of the standard Long Tail Cast on. This cast on has an extra twist in the working yarn. This makes it more elastic than the LTCO and it also uses a little more yarn.
The cast on has a nice edge that looks good on both the right and wrong sides of the fabric. It is a very good cast on to use for cuffs, mittens, gloves, and hats.
Suzanne Bryan (Master Hand Knitter and excellent teacher) has developed a new variation for a stretchy twisted long tail cast on. Link to video: Twisted Long Tail CO in Pattern.
This post ends my series on cast ons for now. I hope my readers have found this information helpful.
