I'll Knit If I Want To: Episode 39

Welcome to I’ll Knit If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
In this week’s episode we cover:
1. Absolutely love your videos - they're a highlight in my week. ;) I have a non-knitting related question. I've been admiring your moon phase banner in the background of your videos and was wondering if you made it yourself? It's lovely! Thank you & keep inspiring us!
Circles of Stitches: www.circleofst...
circle-of-stit...
2. Gauge, gauge gauge!! I’m still new to understand gauge and I’m diving into sweater knitting now. I have a couple questions on measuring swatches. 1. When a pattern calls for x yardage, would that include yardage needed for a swatch? Or should I accommodate for that? 2. Is wet blocking better for swatching? I’ve heard you can steam block but not sure if that’s as accurate. I’m an impatient person and just want to get right to the knitting! 3. When you wet block a swatch, do you let the fiber lay flat on it own or do you need to coax it a bit to stretch and pin it in place. I thought you could aggressively block finished projects but is that what you want to do with swatching? Thanks for all your amazing tips! Love your podcast. Share all your wisdom on how you swatch please
3. How can I modify a round neck to a v-neck? Specifically on your gorgeous Stonecrop Cardigan (and/or Pink Fizz). Or is the best option (if I don't want the round crewneck) to do a shawl collar like on Spark? Love your designs, and thank you for taking questions!
4. Hi there! Do you have any tips for picking yarns for Free Your Fade? The colors in the samples look cohesive while still having a lot of visual interest and I’d love a similar look!
Free Your Fade:
www.ravelry.co...
www.dreareneek...
5. I just finished the Winter Honey shawl (whew! That was a knit) and I LOVE it but I can't figure out how to wear it. Centered? To the side? Wrapped all the way around my head until only the tip of my nose peeks out?
Winter Honey:
www.dreareneek...
www.ravelry.co...
I am wearing the Oxbow Sweater:
www.ravelry.co...
www.dreareneek...
Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: forms.gle/pKM9...
(For specific pattern questions that you need an email response to, please email the address listed on the last page of your patten!)
Sign up for the DRK Newsletter: eepurl.com/diPxsr

[@TextileHouse]

Thanks for such great explanation on that fade! It was super helpful!

[@elizabethsovern8939]

i can't believe you are wearing the Oxbow today! I am sewing up the underarm seams on that while I watch! Made the tiny version for my grand daughter and it is the cutest thing in the universe! That little shawl collar is everything. I've also made one for my son and helped my knitting brother do the short rows for his collar over Thanksgiving. Eventually I want to make that one for everyone in the family. Will tag you in that photo op when it happens- probably not for years. But It's such a goodie!

[@susancomstock933]

Don't worry, you will be enjoying snow in Maine until April. Thank you for your beautiful and informative videos. Love that cozy sweater you are wearing.

[@intheyellowcorner]

We've had snow already here in Scotland.... In-between all the rain and storms. I love winter because you get be cozy inside with your knitting. 🥰

[@dre3aminbabe]

You ARE amazing!! Thanks so much for answering my question 😭😭🥰🥰 Whenever anyone asks for questions, and I do submit one. I always hate when I never hear an answer. But you have just changed my mind about giving it another try! The swatching answers… soo soo helpful! Now if only I could understand how to pick my needles based on that swatch 😂😂

[@MsConstanceMarie]

The Honeycomb Shawl is one of my favorite shawls! So toasty and comfy 😊.

[@jenniferleaverton9477]

You addressed an issue I have been needing to hear so badly. You talked about whether you should aggressively block a swatch for a sweater. When I started knitting sweaters I had no idea to not stretch the living hell out of my swatch like I would for a lace shawl. This caused some tightness in my sweaters, of course. Thank you so much. I would have loved to hear this before I figured it out myself but there are others who don't know this and you will seriously prevent some knitty frustration.

[@jenniferbarrett3272]

I love your warmth, acceptance and enthusiasm, Andrea! You are such a generous and very creative soul! ❤️💜💕 Your description of how to do a false is very helpful!

[@jilljarvis94]

Your input regarding searching is so helpful! Thank you!!

[@ssmith1413]

It’s snowing this morning here in southern Michigan. Wish you were here knitting with me today. Love your videos and you.

[@susancatalano5142]

I love Circle of Stitches - I go there whenever I visit Salem!

[@Stumpybear7640]

Excellent podcast as usual, Andrea. I love your presentation xxx

[@maryanneloeppky9304]

Appreciate and enjoy your inspiring episodes!! Just recently discovered them...really appreciate your teachings!!! I watched the snow softly falling, when I heard your desire for snow!! Wishing you a snowy white winter!! You dream of snow, I dream of visiting Maine one day (I believe that's where you live; I live in central Canada).😊

[@katanderson22]

We are getting snow today in Duluth MN. It's coming down light and it's so peaceful this morning as I'm drinking my coffee.

[@alysepaceforlani9962]

So happy to hear the shout out to Circle of Stitches! I live near Salem, MA so that’s my LYS and they’re great. Also as a life long New Englander I must say that it will snow soon❄️☃️, so hang in there. Thank you so much for these videos - I’ve learned so much from them!

[@debbylovesyarn5148]

If you are chasing snow come to Alaska. Plenty to go around. Love your honeycomb shawl. Looks great. Thanks for your podcasts.

[@patricialeach4279]

Thank you so much for answering my question!! Totally love your beautiful, informative & amusing videos.

[@karenbudnick]

Circle of Stitches is my favorite LYS. We get up to Salem every couple of years and I always stop in and do some damage to my yarn budget!

[@jennyhoward630]

I feel you on the snow, Andrea! Coming from southern Ohio - we don't get nearly enough for my satisfaction! Hope you get some soon! Thanks for all the knitting tips! I appreciate them all! I'm newer to knitting, and I love your patterns - so well written and easy to follow! Thanks for your amazing designs and great style! 🤩

[@loveknitting100]

Love your Podcast it is how I start my Sundays! Happy Knitting 💕

[@miekevanreet2544]

Thanks , ooh the winter-honey… love it big hug

[@audreyofnuthatchhill]

So. Much. Snow. I laughed when you mentioned chasing snow. We are getting loads, back here! We had a few good days of sledding, and then it melted away. More this morning, but its melting fast. No shoveling! Looks like more will come next week. I'm hoping for a Snowy Michigan Christmas.

[@lydiasimon7206]

I always love hearing your advice and experiences, but I have never connected more with something you've said until you talked about chasing the snow. All I want is just snow every day all winter long :) It just seems to make the knitting that much better!

[@annettehoffmeister4144]

I love all your tips and I learn a lot from your videos, so thank you from Denmark 😊

[@LochBriarKnits]

Haha - I literally use the word 'chunks' in my dye recipes! That made me laugh!

[@MOLLIMEDIA]

All your sweater designs are gorgeous and they fit beautifully. But for those of us who want a little more roominess in our upper arm area, how would you suggest increasing the sleeve circumference for top-down sweaters? Thank you.

[@marilenreed6083]

My question, also.

[@chelseyummali]

I live in a hot climate and am a new knitter. I sew clothing so I already know I will def be more of a garment knitter…I have heard wool is actually a great fiber for the heat but as someone who has lived her life in cottons and linens (because we know these are great for hot climates) the thought of wool in the heat seems crazy. On the other hand it makes sense that it’s water wicking and may keep sheep cool in the summer and if we consider thousands of years ago most people in the desert were making wool fiber clothing, not cotton….anyways can you speak to this a bit since your a wool buff :)

[@Melmaz32]

Umm Ali’s Happy Home ~ ‘Just Get it Done Quilts’ here on KZbin had Stephanie Hackney from Hobbs Batting on this summer. She said that Wool Batting is better then cotton for a cooler quilt. I think she said they are based in Texas. Can’t remember all that she said ~ but it probably breathes better then cotton. Hope that helps a little.

[@chelseyummali]

@@Melmaz32 thank you. I do plan on making a blanket for myself once I'm done with my kids and I wanted to use wool yarn.

[@dianabloomdesigns]

Such a lovely episode. You explain things so well. :) Also, I'm sorry about your snow struggle! I live in the Canadian Prairie so we can be sure we'll get snow. :P We're lucky if it can wait until Halloween is over. :P

[@sherristell4747]

Thanks love your tips and projects!

[@mjennyt]

I second the desire for snow up here in Maine!

[@Plantsandmusicandyarn]

When I realized that a shawl is like a blanket I could wear I wanted to make them all!

[@lisethomas8495]

Thanks again Andrea! Great tips!!

[@knottyyarnies450]

I'm in ontario canada and still no snow here so don't feel bad, it's a crazy year all around is all I keep thinking lol. Just starting to watch but needed to comment since you asked right at the beginning ;) the next 2 weeks forecast still doesn't show snow in my area yet either sadly.

[@bjh616]

Another informative vlog! Yeah! Love learning and sure others do too. What was that pink blend yarn….SO pretty! Please make more worsted weight sweater patterns for us in the real cold (-30’F) climate… raglan type. Need rugged sweaters to keep us warm. Thank you

[@dianaantonacci6341]

I think the EZ book with the yokes (11 of them) is Knitting Workshop

[@BornToDreamTheBeat]

Yay i always look forward to coming home from work on fridays because i know i can watch another episode of I'll knit if i want to 🤗

[@TrudySchwartzBurrill]

Really great info especially altering a sweater to a v neck. However for me not being a math person and having to deal with a dyslexic brain 🧠 visualization, math, and decreasing isn’t something that I can do just out of my head and knitting. I have to take out graph paper and colored pencils and actually draw it to figure out how fast or slow to increase or decrease. So…I know many people are in that boat along with me. Here is how I get around that in another way it does takes a lot of searching and some figuring but if you find similar patterns that have that same basic construction you can also blend the two patterns together to fudge/ hack the pattern and modify it for your own unique body. For math people this may sound harder, perhaps IDK because I’m dyslexia so it is not a very easy thing to deal with especially when you are a knitter and you are trying to get a pattern to fit you exactly how you really want it to. Let’s just say its not an easy job. So I find for me I need is to be able to have something exact to follow whether it be a drawing or written instructions I need something to lean on. Otherwise it following patterns exactly as written. Again for me if I can blend two patterns together the math and visualization techniques are easier to make happen. I hope its ok to write this here. It is it quite embarrassing but I know how many dyslexic people there really are. Being an art teacher I started to see just how many others there are out there that similarity are unable to hack a pattern to fit them or alter a design in anything really. So I thought I’d share something very embarrassing 😳 to say but its simply a fact of life. lol Love these videos, Andrea. Thanks so much.

[@christinadriskell8713]

I’m curious - Do you ever wear the winter honey shawl & shawlette together? I think there may have been a picture of that on the pattern page in Ravelry. Maybe that was just for photography purposes for the pattern.

[@alli12987]

Can you talk about your hair?? I want bangs and a shag, but my wavy hair goes crazy every time I get it cut - any advice to tell a stylist so that I get cute waves like yours??

[@daliahsilver4577]

As I'm watching this episode, as Andrea says "It's messy in here today", my partner walks past me and says "It's always messy in there Andrea" I'm done - Andrea, you are now a part of our family. Thank you for the wonderful videos each week, our entire household loves them!

[@dreareneeknits]

hahaha!

[@carrieregnier241]

Great podcast as always. I was wondering, are you going to or thought of having an online teaching class? Would really like to learn from you. 🧶❤️

[@dreareneeknits]

Hi Carrie! I do have a class that is offered thru Knit Stars!

[@klaskelangford8324]

Thank you!

[@donnacarter8440]

No snow in Northern Colorado either😕

[@elizabethcartner2005]

🤙

[@d.l.1275]

Thank you so much for answering my V-neck question! I'll try to work out how I can start Stonecrop with fewer stitches, then increase next to the steeking stitches while incorporating the pattern/colorwork... I'm getting the Knitting from the Top book for guidance, thank you for the book rec's! Your videos are very helpful, I love hearing other people's questions, and coincidentally I'm wearing Winter Honey right now, the cozy at home over the shoulders old school way...

[@andreahknits]

now i totally want to knit a faded shawl! also: is anyone else curious what this gorgeous la bien aimee yarn is going to become? :-)

[@karenbudnick]

I would think wet blocking would be required as you'll be eventually washing your knits.

[@gerridauer9092]

I just started a bottom up sweater. I mistakenly did k1p1 rather than k2p2. Will that make much of a difference in size?

[@dreareneeknits]

Nope, that shouldn't affect the size.

[@gerridauer9092]

@@dreareneeknits Thank you so much Andrea! You’re a lifesaver. I’ve sat here and googled trying to find the answer almost longer than it would have taken to rip out and start over. Nothing really showed the difference in stretchiness. Now I can move on. (Fasting for a procedure today so I may have some brain fog going on.)

[@chelseyummali]

‘’Isn’t it ironic…don’t you think…I little too ironic…’’ lol millennials will get it…

[@sherriheare8425]

Elizabeth Zimmerman is very hard for me to understand. I know she was a great knitter but hard for me to follow. Anyone else?

[@cherylbaker1396]

Have to say I have not revisited her books in many years. But I totally agree, when I was a newer knitter it was very hard for me to grasp.

[@sherriheare8425]

@@cherylbaker1396 I tried to read Knitting Without Tears several times. I don't get it.