Introducing: Baby Nerd

I'm not much of a gamer, but I used to play DnD back in the days. So I just had to make a homage to roleplaying and gaming on this cute little long-sleeved t-shirt I made for my youngest. 

The pattern is from my own head, an easy raglan knit top-down. 

I say easy, but I mean horribly, tear-wrenchingly filled with bad decisions, hair-tearing and lots and lots of swearing. First I knit a round yoke, but made a mess of the calculations, so it became way too wide across the chest. Fit for a 2-year old, rather than a newborn, not exactly what I had in mind, haha.

I unraveled, but didn't wash the yarn before starting again. You guessed it - the top half of the sweater looked terrible. I hoped it would look better after I washed it. In retrospect, that wasn't my brightest moment. I came to my senses a little late, washing it after having knit the main part of the body. It looked horrible. Wish I had a photo, but self irony was not a feeling I had at that moment. Unraveling one more time? No way.

How to salvage such a misery? For my part, it involves lots of swearing, and possibly alcohol. Being pregnant at the time, I substituted the latter with very loud music. (The teenager complained. He does that.) So now what? Wool shrinks, I thought. I tossed it back into the sink and gave it my worst. Hot water and agitation (I should say abuse, because that's what it felt like) made it felt. It worked almost too well - I had to tear the front and back apart when I finished. It doesn't look good, but it looks way better than before, so I guess I'm good. 

The arrows show the stitches that I cross. The white is the waste yarn that is ready to be removed now that I have picked up the under-arm stitches for the sleeves, 5 on each side of the magic loop.

To avoid seaming, I cast on and knit 3 rounds with waste yarn for the under-arm stitches, and I crossed the first and last stitch before and after the new stitches to avoid getting a hole. (I found this trick over at the Techknitting blog, but I can't find the right post.) Picked up stitches from the waste yarn for the sleeves, and crossed those as well. Perfect seamless armhole, works like a charm every time. 

Yarn from stash: Duo Silke/Merino, bought in Hirtshals in 2012. Maybe around 70 gram, but haven't weighed it yet.

Project page on Ravelry

Sidetracked...again.

During the summer I went on a major sewing spree, so not a lot were knitted. Plus this summer was incredibly warm! I'm a northerner, 30+ is just way too hot for me. Luckily my dear new little treasure was born just before the heatwave set in. She also had the great sense to be born the day before the new paternity leave rules took effect, so daddy gets his 14 weeks of paid paternity leave after all, woohoo! My leave lasts until primo February, so I'll make sure to relax and recharge...with lots of knitting and sewing in between mommying, lol! 

I'm a mother of three now. For a long time now I thought it would never happen. My son was born when I was 20, way too young in retrospect. I always wanted more children. My own dad a deadbeat dad, my son's dad the same, finding mr. Right Who Is Also a Great Dad took a long time. I am eternally grateful. Terje, you rock! The reason I get anything creative done at all is because he does a lot of housework and parenting stuff with our daughters. I'm lucky and I know it!

I did finish a baby blanket for my dear little one. Cute huh? She keeps me sidetracked...and busy! I actually finished it AFTER she was born - I thought she would be late like her sister...but no! It only took an evening to finish the last bit though. I love the colour, just about everything looks good with it. Red, green, purple, blue, petrol, turquoise, white... I need more of that yarn. Lots more.

I've also knitted three shorties and a pair of longies. Nothing fancy. They're on Ravelry if anyone's interested, here, here, here and here. OK the first one is really cute, it's for my oldest daughter, but sadly she doesn't like it much. Oh well. Maybe they will get some use when it get's colder, and if I knit the accompanying leg warmers. I've knit nearly 20 shorties and longies these past two and a half years. Guess I kind of like it.

Ugly yarn

I mentioned my super ugly yarn that I still just can't make myself get rid of. I thought I'd add some photos, just to prove that I have some really ugly yarn in my stash.
Ok, I know that this may be someone else's favourite yarn, but that's not the point. I hate it, but it's still in my stash, horrible reminders that crazy sale shopping is not necessary a good thing.

The worst part? Some of this yarn actually contains mohair. 














Pink. I will avoid going political and just state that it is my least favourite colour. 
That brownish colour that looks like over-boiled rhubarb - it may look good on somebody, but I'm not that somebody. And I've got 20 skeins of it. 
The multi-colour skeins? They make my eyes hurt,and my body cringe. Literally. They may be good for a kindergarten hat, or a pair of mittens, but how will I survive knitting them?

What's this? Heck, another skein of pink! How did this happen?

And another! 
My brain must have been parked at home when I bought these. 








I kind of thought I'd save the worst for last. I lack words. 

Do you have this kind of problem, or is it just me? What's your least favourite yarn and/or colour?

Too much stash-formation. A post on (dis)organizing stash

System? Kind of.

This is a reply to What's in a Treehouse's excellent post on stash organization.

I have only been a knitter for a good two years, even if I've known how to knit since I was a child, and occasionally knitted a sock and a half. I realized last February - according to Ravelry - that adding my stash to my notebook there might be a good idea, especially considering the speed at which new skeins mysteriously entered the house. I've got most of my stash there, except new yarn not catalogued yet, some old yarns with no labels, some yarns of shame, and the old winter sock yarn for knitting thick, slightly felted winter socks. (Those winter socks have so many names in Norwegian, it's amazing.)

The stash tab on Ravelry is genius. When I'm at a LYS, I can check if I already own that colour in that yarn. I often do. (My taste is quite consistent, as witnessed the second time I went to Iceland and came home with lots and lots of Léttlopi yarn; many, many colours and shades, but also many of the colours I bought last time I was there.) So, it saves a lot of duplicates. It's also a great help when I go shopping online, with preventing me from buying the same yarn colours and shades over and over. 

Taking good pictures of yarn is difficult, even if my smartphone has a pretty decent camera. I've learnt to make sure the centre of the photo is of the yarn, and not the labels. When you add yarn from your stash to projects on Ravelry, you see only a very tiny icon cropped from the centre of the photo, and if that centre contains the label, then you can't see the colour. For the same reason, I've made it easier for myself with adding the actual colour of the yarn, and not just the number, to the colourway field. That makes it faster to pick the right colour, particularly if I'm adding the project on the phone.

I like the boxes, they make it looks semi-tidy. The empty holes at the lower right belong to fabric boxes. Below, not on the picture, is more yarn and two boxes of toys waiting to become new and exiting again.

I recently bought the largest Expedit shelf from IKEA, and it's already almost full. One row of boxes contains fabric, and two boxes are for toys, but the rest is yarn related. Most of the yarn is stuffed in boxes in the shelf, but some is on display. It's a little reminder to knit with good quality yarn, and it's also my yarn candy basket. (In tray shape.) It may also be laziness. It certainly is a lot messier now than it was a mere month ago.

Living room stash. My bookshelves have doors, so I don't have to look at the mess.

I sort the yarn mostly by weight, and since I mostly knit for my daughter, I rarely have sweater quantities. It's good for sampling new yarns, but I try to buy at least 100 grams so I may actually make a garment of it. Even stripes and colourwork have the potential of becoming boring. Not a lot of it is bought with specific projects in mind. That's not how my creativeness works. I need to have the right weight and colour yarn ready when inspiration strikes, or else the spark is gone.

Yarns for specific projects are usually stored together, as well as the yarn that actually are sweater quantity. I also store yarn for hats and mittens together. Some yarns are stored in plastic zip lock bags, most are not.  I've seen no moths so far, and pretend they don't exist.
It has worked so far.

Yarn downstairs.

The stairs, an overlooked
storage spot.

Not all my yarn fit in the new storage. Some are stored among the books in the hall downstairs, others among the books in the living room.

Two poor boxes are still stuck in the stairs. Because toddlers and yarn are worse than cats and yarn. 

My stash is ridiculous I know. But at least my taste in yarn is getting better.  

How do you store your stash? Do you use Ravelry to keep an inventory of your yarn? 

Short inspiration

Spring here in the south always happens way too fast for me. While winter is still firmly lodged in my brain, everything turns green and suddenly there's dandelions everywhere. But with 18 C outside, it's hard to stay in denial. (The Easter holiday helped as well - six days all sunny, and pretty warm too.)

Sewing may not be the most economical activity I ever do (at least measured in time units), but at least nobody suffer while making clothes for me or my daughter. Except for me of course. Possibly those surrounding me as well. There is usually some, or possibly a lot of, swearing. (I'm a Northerner. I'm allowed. Culture and stuff.) 

Skirt for the very pregnant me. Still on the thinking/swearing stage.

I've been working on a skirt for my self, but sewing pregnancy clothes without a pattern really takes some thinking, measuring, rethinking, and quite a lot of swearing. (Sorry.) With the warm weather going on, I decided to make a pair of shorts for my daughter instead. She got to choose fabric, a surefire way to get her to wear whatever I make at least once. She chose a plain turquoise jersey. Huh. 

That ruler is a superb tool for winging things! And for guiding my rotary cutter.

I had no pattern, so decided to wing it. I measured her waist and desired length of the shorts, but forgot to measure the inseam. I used a pair of pants in the same kind of material as a rough template, and just had to make an educated guess about the length from the waist to the crotch. I used a fancy eraser pen from Clover to mark the fabric, with appr. 5 mm seam allowance. I sewed with an overlock stitch on my quite ordinary Janome machine. I just dotted along the crotch (or does it have a nicer name in sewing terminology?) and used the ruler to cut the diagonal on the top, and the straight line on the bottom. Then I turned the pants and drew up the other side. And cut. That's when I discovered that rotary cutters and jerseys are mortal enemies. 

Turquoise. With freshly made stains. 

The whole process took five hours, a wee bit of cursing, a lot of mistakes, and ended with a usable pair of shorts. My daughter put them on and they got dirty right away. Success! So I made a second pair when Terje (that's my husband) put her to bed. This time it took two hours, and then I cut the pattern pieces for two pairs of shorts instead of just one. When I got to choose fabric, I chose...monkeys! (Or apes. Are they apes?)

Monkeys. Or apes. 

Two shorts done. In 7 hours, that's about 1000 NOK (appr. 167$ or 100£). Quite expensive shorts. (I'm a teacher, that's not even a high salary.)

A list of sewing mistakes and discoveries (incomplete):

1. Forgot to measure the inseam.
2. Rotary cutters and jerseys don't go well together. 
3. Rotary cutters and rib fabric don't go well together. (I'm a slow learner. Or stubborn. Or both.)

Just a little reminder of stuff to avoid. (The cutting mat was a strike of genius forethought, as I bought it before I had even heard of a rotary cutter. You should not avoid either - they are both superb tools.)

4. It is very difficult to sew buttonholes in jerseys. You need backing. (At least I managed to test this on scrap fabric.)
5. It's hard to sew a nice fold with jersey. It flares. At least when the seam is close to the fold. It flares when you fold it double as well.
6. The rib fabric should be about the same size as the elastic, if it is a wide rib and a wide elastic. If the rib is wider, it just buckles, and that's not pretty. 
7. The diameter of the waist rib must not be a lot less than the diameter of main fabric it connects to. It will cause the main fabric to bulge and flare below the rib. 20% difference is apparently too much. Will try with 15% next time.
8. When cutting patterned fabric, it's a good idea to make sure the pattern match on front and back. Half a monkey off looks weird. Hence cutting the double amount of pattern pieces. It deserves a picture so I'll add one below.
9. At least I learn a lot from the mistakes I make. I bet the swearing would be much worse were it not for this precious fact.

Not good. At least I didn't sew the pieces together before I noticed.

Have a lovely spring, with (hopefully) few crafting mistakes, great weather and excellent company!

Yarn shopping and stash

Pinterest, Feedly and Blogger can be dangerous places. Especially when you find the most gorgeous, irresistible yarn out there.

A link lead from this to that to Etsy, and indie dyers Sunset Stitches. The colours, oh the colours... you just have to see for yourself. Add bonus: Names from Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and True Blood on their yarns. I needed that yarn. Never mind that I’ve never knitted a sock before (Not counting heavy, lightly felted winter socks). If I ever want to, it is good to have the yarn at hand, right? 

This is Soar, Ravenclaw! 

Ego knitting! Defo!

I also bought this wonderful yarn called Cheeky Merino Joy from Rosy Green Wool - GOTS-certified, from Ninapetrina. It must be the softest merino I have ever touched, and the yarn shipped so fast it was in my mailbox a day and a half later - great service. I liked it so much that I promptly ordered five more skeins. Yarn madness indeed.

Love the vacuumed wrap!

My new collection! Yum! Green colour is off.

Green, more to my taste.

 I'm very good at rationalizing my yarn related shopping. So good actually, that my stash have increased from half a plastic bag (two forgotten skeins of cotton that was supposed to become a hat (cotton, hat, Norway - how stupid is that), a few skeins of heavy winter sock yarn, and one full and one used skeins of baby wool from when I was expecting my eldest 17 years ago) and to this. (Ravelry account needed.) In just over two years. My most recent purchases are not even in there yet (nor is a largish box full of bulky weight yarn that I plan to use for, uh, felting projects?). 

It's very hard to stay on the narrow path with so many interesting - or should I say tempting - yarns out there that I haven't tried yet. Especially when Norwegian LYS, at least those in the area, have such boring yarn (sorry, but they are. Norwegian yarns tend to be either sturdy or superwash. Decent exceptions exists, of course) on their shelves, I can't even window shop, or touch, or anything without actually buying something, because the window shopping happens on the Internet, and the touching happens when the yarn arrives in my mailbox. The colour fails - ouch.

More yummy yarn, on its own awesome yarn tray.

I even struggle with giving away the worst of the yarn, from when I started knitting and I bought everything that looked knittable. I look at it and think, "well, this has potential, it could become a little tunic, or I could add that colour, or maybe I may knit something for someone one day, who actually likes pink"? Feeble fantasies of course, since I always choose the good yarn from my stash when I start a new project. 

When I knit, I feel good. When I knit with good yarn, I feel like a queen. I like that.

Spring hats - vårluetid

Yes, she's a girl! Can't you tell by the purple shoes and the flowery hat?

Spring has arrived, and new woolen needs appear.

I have heard so much nice about the yarns from Pickles, and decided to order some skeins a few weeks back. I had planned to knit a baby cardi, but one of the colours were wrong. But with the warmer weather my daughter really needed a new, thinner hat, and this lovely, soft yarn just begged to be knit.

I did a quick Ravelry search on hat/toddler/gauge 21-23st/cm (21-23 st/in), and what did I see? A pattern I recognized! I had favourited a dress with that flower back when I had just started using Ravelry two years ago. I had no idea there was a hat pattern as well. That hat just flew on and off my needles with for me record speed.

I started knitting on Saturday afternoon, and finished Sunday morning. I was in a hurry, because we had planned an outing to an open farm to watch some animals, play a lot, and have homemade coffee and buns from the café. And she really needed a thinner hat. I’ve been off the hat knitting wagon for a long time…poor little one.

Playtime! Monster dress, and flower hat.

Plutselig er det vår, og nye ullbehov melder seg.

Jeg har hørt mye fint om Pickles sine garn, og bestilte en del nøster for noen uker siden. Egentlig hadde jeg tenkt å strikke en babyjakke, men en av fargene var helt feil. Men nå er det vår, og jeg har tenkt en stund at dattera trenger en lettere lue. Det myke, deilige garnet måtte testes i lueformat, rett og slett. Et kjapt Ravelrysøk på lue/småbarn/strikkefasthet 21-23 m/10cm, og jeg fant denne søte oppskrifta, som jeg til og med har siklet på før, men da i kjoleformat. Lua både fløy på og av pinnene i rekordtempo, sånn til meg å være.

Lua ble påbegynt på en lørdagsettermiddag, og ferdig på søndags formiddag. Den MÅTTE bli ferdig, for vi planla tur til Fritidsgården i Stavanger, og hun trengte virkelig en tynnere lue (jeg har virkelig vært litt lat på luestrikkfronten).

Magic loop, Knit Pro Karbonz 3mm.

No time to wash and block, I did that in the evening instead. Washed it and gave it a lanolin bath, and dried it on a balloon. I haven’t tried that before, but it worked like a charm.

I loved the hat so much that I knitted another right away, this time size 0-3 months. A present for friends who just had their first baby.

Ja jeg vet, vasking og blokking og sånt, kremt. Det gjorde jeg da vi kom hjem. Vasket lua, heiv den i et lanolinbad, og tørket den på en ballong i passe størrelse.

Jeg likte lua så godt at jeg like godt strikket en til i størrelse 0-3 måneder med det samme, som skal bli barselspresang.

Balloon blocking - so cool!

The yarn is a bit splitty, but not worse than I can manage. Most yarns become untwisted when I purl, because I knit combined. Russian purling prevents rowing out, and my rib looks way better. I just have to be careful. I really love the yarn, so soft and lovely. Guess it will pill...

Garnet har en bitteliten tendens til å splitte seg når man strikker. Jeg strikker kombinert (dvs vrangstrikk på russisk måte, slik at maskene blir montert feil vei på pinnene), og det gjør at garnet mister mye av tvinningen når jeg strikker vrangmaskene. Men garnet splitter litt på vanlig glattstrikk også, men ikke verre enn at det er levelig. Og så er det så mykt og godt! Tipper det vil loe en del.

Top: Earflap no.2             Bottom: Earflap no.1

Hats for babies and toddlers that doesn’t have earflaps are a bit unpractical, so I knit a few short rows on both hats to keep the darling ears warm. This time I used the short rows from Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heels. A bit fiddly at first, and the first earflap looks a bit untidy. The second looks a bit better, and on the last flap of baby hat you can hardly see the short rows at all. Even the purl stitches looks better once I got the technique figured out.

For å få bedre passform, strikket jeg kortrader over ørene. Jeg testet ut enda en ny måte å strikke kortrader på, denne gangen er det Kat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel som inspirerte. Det ble litt ujevnt på den første lua, men på neste ser det mye penere ut, i hvert fall på den siste øreflappen. Det ser ganske fint ut på vrangmaskene på ribben også, når jeg endelig fant ut hvordan jeg skulle strikke dem. En vakker dag blir det nok noen sokker med Sweet Tomato Heel.

     Left: Earflap no.3                                                                                Right: Earflap no.4

After being used a week in the kindergarten, I realize I HAVE to add Icord strings on the toddler hat, because the latest play fad is burying mittens, cowls and hats in the sand.

Etter ei lita uke i bruk i barnehagen, ser jeg at jeg MÅ strikke i-cordsnorer på datteras lue. Nyeste leketrend er nemlig å grave ned halser, luer og votter i sandkassa.

Pattern: Little Flower Hat by/av Ewelina Murach

Yarn/Garn: Pickles Extra Fine Merino. Yummy yarn/Deilig garn!

More info about the short row shaping and cool invisible cast on technique on my Ravelry pages/Mer info om kortradene og helt usynlig oppleggsmetode på prosjektsidene på Ravelry:

Size/Størrelse 2-3 years/år

Size/Størrelse 0-3 months/måneder

Yarn related shopping on IKEA

This was so fun I just have to share.

I went to IKEA looking for some kitchen stuff today. Guess what I found? Yeah, well I had to buy 
one. Or two. Just in case, you know. 

I just had to put my daughter to bed and then immediately put it to the use it was screaming for. 
(I heard it, screaming. Much the same way LYS or IYS yarn scream at me to take them home.)

I knew there was a reason why I bought two. Other than the fact that they only had two.

Volcanoes and no purling!

I kind of want one for myself... 

I have a volcano loving nephew. What better to make for him than - drum solo - volcano mittens! Also a great excuse to test out the "no purl garter stitch in the round". I don't hate purling, but I purl slower, and since I move my hands and fingers more when I purl, it hurts if I do much of it. I Russian purl faster, but traditional Norwegian yarn is not very Russian purl friendly. It untwists when I purl, which makes it difficult to knit through the back loop when I knit stitches that were purled on the previous round or row.

Bonus trick: A rolled edge makes mittens easier to take on and off. 

You knit with two threads, one on the inside for the knit stitches, and one on the outside for the purl stitches. When you have knitted a round, you simply turn the work and knit from the inside, just like knitting short rows.

No purl garter stitch in the round

1. Knitting from the inside.
2. Knit the last stitch, drop the thread on the outside.
3. Turn the work, pick up the thread that is hanging on the inside.
4. Start knitting!
5. Just a few more stitches left before the turn.
6. Drop the thread, turn your knitting.
7. Pick up the thread that is hanging on the outside.
8 Knit one round with the outside yarn. 

Of course I failed to follow the instructions twice before I realized that it is paramount to leave the outside thread ON THE OUTSIDE when turning the work. I kept putting it on the inside with the other thread when I turned the work, which left a hole in the knitting at that place. Not pretty. And not what the method promised! When I finally got it, everything went smoothly. I haven't finished the second mitten yet, and no washing and blocking done, but I think that with a wash and some wear, the hardly noticeable line will disappear completely. 

The pattern is from Nøstebarn, but you can use any pattern you like and just modify. I got the inspiration from a pin on Pinterest. (Links to pattern. It's free. And Ravelry link.)

Other mods: I added a rolled edge to ease taking them on and off for kids. When picking up stitches for the thumb, instead of picking up one stitch on each end of the thumb I picked up two, K2tog., twice. I also twisted the stitches I picked up. Result: Just a teeny tiny hole to seam. 

Thoughts on knitting

These are a few of the projects I have tested new techniques on. Some WIP's, some FO's.

So. It has been a while. Just like me, in other words. I've knit a bit, sewn a bit, made some jewelry. And thought a lot about knitting. Knitting as it turns out, is a vastly more sophisticated craft than I imagined, with incredible variation and an endless number of techniques. With the Internet as the superhighway to increasing ones knowledge, learning is just a matter of curiosity (I'm curious!), interest (I have other hobbies too...) and time (there is never enough) to apply new skills in knitting projects.

A recent look at my projects on Ravelry got me pondering on my new knitting skills. I've learnt so much these two last years since I started knitting for real (meaning anything else than thick warm winter socks).

Looking at those first things I knitted - a baby blanket, my daughter's first jacket, pants and hat, the first dresses, several shorties, a lace scarf - while writing this it dawns on me that I am an adventurous knitter, even if it doesn't feel like that when I'm skipping projects that feels too complicated or that I just plain failed at . And I realize just how much I've learnt, in two short years. 

So I am making a list. Be warned, it is long.

Here goes:

• Cables. A lot easier than it looks for a non-knitter. I actually laughed out loud when my sister-in-law showed me how to do it.

• Yarn-overs. I promise, I didn't know about them.

• Tweaking patterns. I did it with the baby jacket, which was the second thing I knitted for my daughter. I make modifications on almost everything I knit. I hate it when I want to modify something and can't find out how, despite excessive googling.

• Pattern vocabulary in English. What a vast resource of patterns! And easy too! Which leads me to...

• Ravelry. Wow.

• Youtube and Pinterest. OK of course I knew about Youtube, but I had no idea there were knit related content there. How silly of me. Pinterest too - I had an account, but didn't use it until I realized I could keep track of cute stuff I would like to knit there. And then I discovered it too was already filled with knit related stuff for me to add. Isn't Internet great?

• Lace. Slow but sweet. It taught me several interesting decreases. And that blocking is a good thing.

• Magic loop! I love it, and only wish I learned it sooner. Goodbye second anything syndrome. I use it for arms, legs, mittens, fingerless gloves...anything with two. I haven't tried socks yet, but they too will be magic looped! Promise!

• No purl garter stitch in the round. It was a revelation. 

  

  I switched yarn next to the thumb increases. Almost invisible. 

• Jogless stripes, and that I could use the same trick for decorative rows of garter stitch. Used on this sweater. First I learned how Techknitter does it, and then I heard about another way as well (I know of two more ways, but I haven't tried them). I use both methods, depending on the project. I have half a mind on testing if there is any difference, but I'm lazy. It must be tested on a project, no way am I knitting a swatch just for that. Which brings me to...

• Swatching. The necessary evil with unknown yarn, a different needle size, or items where size actually matters. I am no fan, but it helped learning how to knit a swatch in the round that is flat. Yup. I tried it last week, and the swatch's gauge is actually the same as on the longies I'm knitting -  usually I knit stockinette looser when I knit in the round than when I knit flat.

• Short rows. German short rows in particular. Before I learnt German short rows, I used the shadow wrap, a huge improvement on the unsightly wrap-and-turn. But German short rows outperforms every other method I've tried. Perhaps Japanese short rows are infinitesimally better, but I'm too lazy to bother. Note: The shadow wrap looks good on both sides. 

No seam, smooth graft.

• Kitchener stitch. I have never cast off stitches under arms just to pick them up again, or to seam them. Grafting live stitches together - no seam, only smooth knit fabric. Fast too, once you get into the rhythm. 

• Casting on and binding off -  Many, MANY ways. The Icelandic bind-off - sturdy, tough, stretchy. Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off. (On youtube with bonus: neat edge) Finding cast-ons and bind-offs that matches! I also learnt how to regulate the tension on the long-tail cast-on.

I prefer knitting to mending...

• Better bands and cuffs (the series). Particularly keeping the edge stitches away from the garment edge, or just sturdier cast-ons or bind-offs, like the Icelandic b.o above. Three sweaters and dresses that I've knitted for my daughter have frayed edges, and I'm not a big fan of mending, so most of my newer projects have more robust edges. I am lazy. Heh.

And with Icelandic bind-off.

• Stranded knitting. I found Elizabeth Zimmermann's tip working well for me - I knit the dominant colour with my left hand, and the pattern colour with my right hand, throwing style. If I knit with three colours, I have two on my left index finger, and the third on my right fingers. The pattern shows much better on the topmost part of the yoke on this sweater, that was when I decided to try the Zimmermann way.

The front of a baby dress. Not pretty.

• How to prevent weak spots in the knitwear (edges, corners, vertical openings) by reinforcing while knitting. Techknitter has done several posts on this. (I also found out how to employ her tricks from her "binding off in the middle of fabric" posts to reinforce the edges of a cast on in the middle of a fabric. Sweet.) The first baby dresses I knit have pulled apart, leaving long exposed strands between stitches - not very attractive. I can't stress enough how these small tricks have improved the quality of my finished items. 

• Double knitting. I have this dragon motif I would love to double knit on a scarf, but I needed to practice first, so I double knitted an elastic casing on a pair of longies - worked like a dream, and made them look super pro - like something bought from a store. (And I mean that in a good way.)

• Spit splicing - I love that dirty little trick. Saves time and dread. 

• Purling Russian style. So much faster! It leaves the stitches leaning the other way, but on rib that is a good thing - I can knit with the thread behind the needle all the time. Win! And the stitches use less yarn than ordinary purl stitches, leaving a very good looking rib. Double win! When knitting flat in stockinette, the knit row and the purl row use the same amount of yarn. Triple win!

• A prettier garter stitch edge. Slip the last stitch on the row with yarn held in front, and you create a chain edge instead of bumps. Here is another cute edge that prevents stretcing.

• Invisible join when knitting in the round. I unvented one way of casting off without a gap myself, the rest I learnt here. (My way is the same as method 2, only without the needle. I knit the last stitch, but pull the thread up so I start at picture 2b.) And then I found out how to avoid the cast-on gap too. There are more ways of doing this, and I have not tried all of them, but so far I prefer the first method linked.

I have to stop here, or I'll never finish. Enjoy!
Oh, and if there is a conclusion to make here, it is that Google is my very best knitting tool. Without the Internet, I would still be a n00b. 

Have you discovered any new tricks lately?