Why (and How) I Modified a Well-Written Sweater Pattern // Casual Friday S7E22

[@nicolelafontaine1720]

Thanks for showing so many differnt ways to cast-on. It always fascinates me all these possibilities. I love your new cardigan, looking forward to see you wearing it.

[@elaineenstone6834]

The cardigan is beautiful, love the colour. The demonstration of the cast ons is fascinating. Thank you. 🇬🇧

[@emveecee]

Gorgeous knitting as always. What an intriguing bottom that sweater has - I love the combo of partial ribbing and partial flat!!😍

[@shirleemohiuddin7305]

Another wonderful episode. This was packed with so much info. I especially love that you shared the way you motivate youself with your charts. This is fascinating!

[@edinacole6382]

I steam my curly hair to get the curls back after sleeping on them. It also hydrates the hair shaft so I’m not surprised that someone would suggest prior to spinning your wool.

[@melissaspradley8901]

LOL, I never had any idea where the term tow headed came from. I always learn so much from your casual Fridays!

[@cathiapizetta4957]

That was fascinating! I love your channel! You are such an inspiration and an amazing teacher! I feel privileged for making part of your subscribers! Thank you so much for sharing this!❤

[@itsknotty]

Never thought about using the Norwegian purl method on my cast-on... Brilliant!

[@KnittingPolarTree-fd4gx]

Dear Roxanne, your segment about CO just blew my mind, I already knew some of it because I have been watching your channel for a long time but waw this was so so cool, thanks. Also, I made this embroidered cardigan recently. For the button band, in order to prevent H and V stretch (see I listen to you), I chose seed st with a reverse crochet st border. This suits my aesthetic preferences in knitting that are very different from yours. I find it fascinating that we are so different and so similar at the same time. I basically always choose the opposite to you, I prefer fingering, neon colorwork, in the round, etc... however, I also love cardigans and buttons. Furthermore, I recently bought a sewing machine and I want to make machine buttonholes. I plan to train on fabric then knitted samples first. Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing how you tackle this kind of technique. Knitted fabric is so squishy, I wonder how it would behave under the needle. Any advice would be highly appreciated. Have a nice day

[@LottaSocks]

I absolutely love your content! I don’t always comment unless to share a tip or ask a question. I just want to say I LEARN sooo much from you! The “Tow-head” tidbit gave me a “Huh…how interesting”! Thank you for making my day(s) with information, whether techniques or historical bits or new (or different) ways to make xyz (ie: cast on, bind off etc). I always refer to your channel if I have a problem or question w my knitting. A treasure trove full of information! Thank you!!!

[@theastewart6721]

Hi Roxanne. Interesting episode! It’s like a Technique Tuesday and a Casual Friday all rolled into one, lol. Your cardigan is stunning! Such a beautiful work of art. Thank you for explaining all about the cast on thought process. Fascinating. About 25-30 years ago I started making a beautiful sweater in separate pieces using this beautiful teal Icelandic wool yarn. It was more of a green teal. I got the pattern from a magazine and it finally got to the point where I couldn’t read the pattern anymore. I had tried to write it out but it was a lost cause. It was full of beautiful cables. Eventually sadly I tossed it. You have given me the courage to maybe try a sweater like that again. I did enjoy making the separate pieces. I have an unfinished top down raglan sweater that is just waiting for the sleeves to be done but my interest just isn’t there. Who knows. Maybe I’ll give it a shot one of these days. Thanks for the inspiration!😊

[@candygrubisic]

The sweater turned out great, good button spacing and LOVE that color. I've never steamed a compressed braid but have heard about it. Pulling into strips seems fluff it up. Seeing flax become yarn is so cool....same with silk.

[@stitchann]

Your new cardigan is beautiful. The colour so vibrant. I also like the sweater your were wearing.

[@zan_wild]

I have only steamed a couple of dyed braids that were really compacted, it does make a huge difference! I am a pre-drafter supreme though. I got in the habit of pre-drafting when I first learned to spin over a decade ago, and I just enjoy it. I love the feeling of the fiber in my hands & it’s a great way to get to know a braid before spinning it

[@sueaitkin8030]

Great help in casting on! Thanks much. You really think everything out. It is so interesting.

[@maureenbell1628]

I was fascinated by the detailed cast on tutorial. So useful especially understanding all the ‘Why?’s.

[@magsohara7908]

Fabulous cardi Roxanne. You’ll love wearing once the buttons are on. Great ideas for alternative casting on. I generally use English which was how I was taught but have experimented with other cast on methods. As always, thank you for your time 🙋🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@nonifidler4547]

I always steam Malabrigo nube....my iron has a steam function so I lay it all out and hover the iron over the roving, holding down the steam button. What a difference it makes!

[@susanlopez3303]

Great video, as usual- thank you. 😊 I have only steamed compacted dyed fiber in the past. Malabrigo fiber, especially Nube (pronounced noo bay, meaning cloud) is often sticky and sometimes even fulled in the dying process, and steaming it makes it much easier to draft. I’ve never felt the need to steam undyed fiber. Good luck with it, it’s a beautiful color!

[@paulalafontaine8020]

Your content is so interesting - thank you.

[@rachelbonner-ed5ux]

This was such a helpful video! I really enjoyed learning about the different castons and how to make a certain side your first row. Thanks for the great information!

[@batya7]

Fascinating lesson about casting on. I tend to like stretchy cast-on methods for my socks. Being ambidextrous, that right-handed longtail cast on made total sense to my brain! I'd like to see how you actually affix the ribbon and cut buttonholes to stabilize the button band. Never progressed that far. Glad you mentioned "tow-headed" and "flaxen-haired."" Spoke to someone recently, and they had no idea what tow was.

[@sonmarmat]

Fascinating episode, as always! I particularly enjoyed the tidbit about the tow, as we are part of a church that is mostly Americans of Scandinavian descent and there are always tons of little tow heads running around, but I'd never known where the term came from. I wonder if the tow varies in color much, because a lot of the kiddos have even lighter hair than that. Some of our kids have been almost accurately described as q-tips 😂

[@cynthiagilbreth1352]

What a fascinating video, I learned so much from it. Of course I didn’t understand half of it, but I’m learning. Thanks.

[@kaylemoine1571]

A lovely sweater. A month?? Fast knitter.

[@Sequoya]

Great episode!

[@mariehansen2534]

Your Cardigan is beautiful and I bet it is warm. Great color too. I have to investigate the Norwegian purl a bit more. I have just about finished a Sweater and I have never done a top down Cardigan before so that will be next. Regarding the Tow, which is new to me, I have found a Video on KZbin done by Riverrim, it doesn't say much but you can see what they are doing. This might help or you could just put Tow in the search bar and see what happens, this is how I found you when I was learning how to use circular needles. Good luck and I hope it helps. Take care.

[@steverobb5360]

Wow! The cardigan is gorgeous! 🙂

[@farmerswife51]

Tow is sort of a waste product in linen prep. If you've got chapped hands, it's hard on them. I'd probably not spin it in the winter, as I've always got cracked fingers, no matter what I try. I never understood why my grandmother called me a tow-head until I started spinning. Ah...that's what she meant! As always, I enjoy your offerings and I never know where they'll take me! Thank you so much.

[@debracoulter]

hi i always enjoy watching you

[@likeavirshin]

So much info! Thank you! For ribbing I always cast on with the Italian/tubular cast on (without the actual tubular technique) with one or two smaller gauge needles. I just LOVE the continuous stitches, it feels like magic after a few rows! And I also cast off ribbing doing the sewn Italian method, which is kind of a pain to do but I love the results. And the stretch is very comparable with the knitted ribbing, so no pulling or waving at the edges.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

The continuous sts of the Italian/tubular cast on works when the entire hem is in k1p1, but it wouldn't give the same result in this sort of situation, where there is a very different stitch pattern across the center of the piece along the edge.

[@veneidig]

It’s beautiful

[@nataliealexander7457]

Lovely show! I really like the blue-teal sweater, and I think the diff. teal reinforcing ribbon will work wonderfully! The part of the modifications section that detailed different cast-ons and their results could have been a Technique Tuesday. I wonder whether a copy of that part, perhaps with a few inserts, would be a good Technique Tuesday about why we could want one or another cast-on for different purposes--or perhaps you've already done that with these techniques? Origin of "tow-headed" is wonderful! I am fascinated by linen, but haven't been brave enough to try it yet. I live in northeastern Missouri, so I might have more use for it than you do in beautiful Minnesota.

[@jillyb9995]

Never heard the expression tow-headed. Flaxen, yes. 🥰

[@auntyjo1792]

I didn't know that was called the cable cast on. It was taught to me simply as "casting on". I'm finally catching up 😅

[@RoxanneRichardson]

The person who taught you might not have known any other ways to cast on!

[@franlevaillant6749]

Am I right in my thinking that the long-tail cast-on, knit flat, is the same result as creating a backwards loop cast-on and then knitting into it? It’s an assumption that I’ve held for a long time, and I’m quite prepared to be corrected, but it seems to my way of thinking that the beginning of a long-tail cast on is the “halfway point” in the two-row process of backwards loops followed by a knit row. Anyway, to get to the point, if I am correct, perhaps another way to do a long-tail purl cast-on would be to cast on backwards loops and then purl into them. Fwiw, I also have a preferred cast-on for any edge that will be seen. In my case it’s the double chain cast-on, also known as the Chinese waitress cast-on. Happy knitting everyone!! 🧶❤️

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Yes, the LTCO is a backwards loop that you immediately knit (or purl). You could do an entire row of backwards loops and then purl across them. It's more difficult to manage the tension of consecutive backwards loops as you work across them than it is to manage the tension of the LTCO. Whatever works for you and your knitting is absolutely fine!

[@christenagervais7303]

To get my long tail cast on to face the right way for me, I cast on using the yarn in my right hand and my needle in my left hand. It works for me.

[@elinathan8363]

i wish i knew about steaming the malabrigo nube when I spun with it ahh!! i'm a new spinner it was so hard to draft

[@mkeller18]

Does the ribbon of the button band normally go the full length of the edge? On this (really beautiful!) sweater it would show at the neck. So do you just end the ribbon at the top of the buttons? Do you have to do anything special?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

If it's a cardigan with a crew neck, I run it the full length. If it's a V-neck, I end the ribbon just above the last button or buttonhole.

[@maureenbell1628]

Very interesting to see the difference steaming made to the compressed tops. How did you go about the steaming?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I have a hand steamer, but you could use the steam of an iron, or hold it over a pot of steaming water, as well.

[@andreamiller6200]

I was entranced to see all the maneuvers that can be taken to end up with the specific desired cast on edge showing (smooth or bumpy, in the case of long tail) when you are ready to work row 1 of the pattern (or round 1, depending if in the round). Now that I have seen how to create long tail so that the cast on is on the left needle, the way it is for cable cast on, what else about the difference between long tail and cable makes you prefer long tail to cable? Is cable a thicker cast on? Is there something else about cable that distinguishes it from long tail that leads you to choose long tail over it? I am not experienced enough to know the difference in what I am looking at unless it is pointed out to me. Thank you, Rox!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

LTCO is stable, but can be made very stretchy, plus I like the versatility it has with being able to cast on in pattern. The cable cast on is sturdier, and while there is some room for more stretch, overall it is thicker. The LTCO is faster for me to cast on, as well, likely because I have so much practice doing it. I would recommend knitting up some swatches so that *you* can see what the differences are and then decide which cast on you would prefer for your projects. My preferences aren't right (or wrong!), they're just preferences.

[@andreamiller6200]

@@RoxanneRichardson Thank you SO MUCH, this is exactly the kind of answer I hoped I might received. Indeed the right answer is always to swatch and I absolutely will, but now I have a quick frame of reference for understanding the difference at a glance.

[@brendafuller1806]

Thank you 3:53

[@penihavir1777]

♥️♥️♥️👍

[@katywuste9054]

The cardigan is stunning and would have taken me 6 months to make. I like your button hole spacing as a scolloped edge is annoying