Using Stitch Dictionaries to Modify or Create Original Designs // Casual Friday 4-44

[@lindarose712]

I hear how crucial it is to discern when one is chasing external reward, and of honoring, instead, the love of the thing and the doing itself. How fortunate that you discovered what you can do to protect the work, the joy. May you take breaks and pauses whenever necessary to help nurture the intrinsic reward loop🧶💕💫

[@mariehansen2534]

I am amazed at how much useful knowledge you have and that you are willing to share. I really look forward to Casual Friday and Technique Tuesday because I learn so much. Thank you for making it so easy to watch and listen.

[@kayleepollander7755]

Also check out Ranching Traditions Fiber. It's a Montana ranch that raise Rambouillet and Targhee sheep. They have yarn, fleeces, and processed fibers for sale.

[@sheryltisdale]

I love that you do what you do because it pleases you and you love it! It is good to get approval from the external world, but shouldn't be our first priority. I knit because I love it, sometimes I get frustrated with it and put it aside for a day or so, but always right back to it, maybe a different project, but always knitting! Thank you for all you share with us!

[@Sequoya]

I loved hearing about your writing journey and how your creative life is for you, and no one else. That is so important, and takes time to learn. I write songs, and I don’t care if anyone listens. They are for me. Same thing goes for knitting. I love your podcast, I get so much from them. Your authenticity, and skill is what makes them so special.

[@lainieepstein7753]

Another Targhee yarn is from Brenda and Heather- one of their sock yarns- it is so soft and stretchy. I found them via one of your you tube videos. Valuable lesson about not seeking other's approval but in finding your own joy in what you do. So loved your conversation with your daughters last week!

[@krisknits3]

What a wonderful way to look at things "Protect the joy"

[@beverlyhess611]

I loved your section on using stitch dictionary to design projects and then the bit about “fixing” a thread miscount! Very helpful hints! Plus it’s great to see that someone as phenomenal at knitting as you are can still occasionally miscount a stitch! And I loved how easy you made the fix look! Definitely storing that one in my “brain library” for future reference! (It will become quite useful I’m certain! ) thanks again! Have a great weekend!

[@jenniferrich5292]

It’s awfully nice for us your audience that making these videos is fulfilling for you, because then we all benefit🥰

[@corinalymburner1121]

Excellent. I loved the Targhee Yarn follow-up & everyone’s (who chimed-in) comments providing additional Suppliers 🙏… totally valued you sharing how external v internal motivation affects the enjoyment of your pursuits - your fair isle motif selection/math process / stitch fixes, etc. WONDERFUL, all of it!!!👏❤️👌

[@fionadrake7431]

Oh my goodness I did the same thing! I stopped half way through the penultimate unit. I thought I would regret it but no! I was suddenly free to go and make what I wanted and what made my heart sing.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I did eventually complete the MHK program, but with lots of breaks (including a 4 year break midway through Level II), with a total of 7 years to complete all three levels. Took me 7 years altogether to complete!

[@juliekowal534]

I love your words and how you communicate your thoughts to us.

[@elisabethkronqvist3987]

Re trapping the floats, about 29 minutes in: Last winter I made a stranded colourwork cowl where the designer had a way of trapping the floats that was new to me and I thought was pretty neat. What you do is to leave the floats untrapped when you're making them, and the actual trapping comes in the next round, by picking up the float with the left needle tip. Then when you knit the following stitch, the float will lie alongside the purl bump on the wrong side and be held on place by the working yarn. It has its downsides in that you actually do need to remember that there is a loose float to be trapped, and if the next round is very busy with frequent colour changes, it slips your mind far too easily. Guess how I know...

[@annreed613]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and wisdom! You are a knitter's treasure. Another source of Targhee yarn is Mountain Meadow Wool out of Wyoming. I knit with it with great pleasure!

[@theastewart6721]

Interesting podcast Roxanne. I’m glad you were able to find the balance with your knitting so you can enjoy what you are doing. You are just too good to ever lose the joy! I love stitch dictionaries for stranded colorwork. Your stocking is beautiful! I found it fascinating as you described how you designed it. Thanks for sharing with us!😊

[@nanastevens4094]

You are such an excellent teacher. I learn something in every episode. I am driving the librarian in our tiny village library slightly crazy with finding some of these reference books in the regional system. I'm having a grand time in this rabbit hole.

[@TheSuzberry]

I’m trying to think of a superlative to describe your teaching that I haven’t used already. A friend thanked me this weekend for recommending your channel. That’s pretty superlative to me.

[@khimbalee5087]

Thank you for sharing some of your personal journey, I found it meaningful and helpful.

[@nealieanderson512]

Wow! Thanks so much for the fix demonstration! I had no idea you could do those…..I am new to knitting. Very cool!

[@DawnBurn]

I really, really, really appreciate you sharing your writing journey. I know that must have been a little hard. I relate, having attempted a writing career in my 20s that fell down after a divorce and susquent depression. Protecting the work/joy is so important, and so hard to not do for those of us who fall down hard when we fall into something new. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and use your videos constantly. Thank you.

[@craig6578]

Woolens and Nosh has a range of sock yarn in Targhee.

[@maddy6316]

can i just say i love how much effort you put into researching the history behind the topics you address, not just this video but in many of your others as well. thanks for creating great content, especially for us newer knitters!

[@suenicholls5446]

💕😀xx thanks for your great podcasts. I live in a small market town in south bucks in the uk and someone puts knitted and crocheted toppers to our local letter box. They are seasonal ie Christmas Easter valentine etc.

[@mdbenoit]

As a writer who's published but never made any money, I can concur that external pressures (and the validation is to make enough money to live on) are deadly. I suffered the same fate, and cannot bring myself to write anymore, although I loved it with a passion. I'll be cherishing your words of wisdom and protect the joy I derive from knitting. Thank you.

[@CarrieMtn]

Awesome! I’m working on a stocking now. This is super helpful. I’m hoping my gauge will work out. Your duplicate stitch reminded me of “white out”. Magically the mistake disappeared!

[@pocceygirl]

KnitCircus also has a Targhee line that is called Flying Trapeze.

[@SewRunKnit]

I really appreciate your explanation of the deep dive into research about the stockings. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a waste of my time when I’m doing all kinds of advance searches on ravelry relying to match yardage, fiber garment and patterns and yet, this is my version of what you have done. It’s all helpful data. Also, thanks for sharing the inner journey of writing and awareness about how knitting started to follow. My important take away was that I need to build in space around certain projects. When I feel the joy sucked out, I tend to plow forward (usually because there is some deadline involved). It’s torture. Maybe the visual I need to recall is those finger traps. The more I pull, the tighter it gets. When I relax and let it go, the noose is loosened. (Not a perfect analogy but it clicked for me.)

[@ccpperrett7522]

Thank you Roxanne for sharing your video with us. God bless.

[@kathywoods5357]

Your stocking is beautiful. Thank you for clearly explaining how you designed it.

[@paulagrnsy]

People tell me I should sell my work, but I know it's not my work; it's my joy. When it becomes work, it's no longer a joy for me.

[@marietovo3978]

Oink Pigments makes a Targhee sock yarn. I just made a winter hat for my granddaughter out of a hank of it.

[@joanneyoung1081]

Thank you. This was especially useful as I have started knitting selbu mittens.

[@ronnabruce7856]

I love your videos! They are a great help to me on my knitting journey. Hopefully I can offer a little help in return, with regard to how to re-position the name design on the pattern. In Excel you can select cells and copy them as a picture. Then paste the pic back into the spreadsheet and use picture format to rotate and flip the picture. This can all be done within Excel. You do have to remove the original color in the cells where you paste the picture though. Thanks again for your wonderful videos!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I was able to do a kludge of that process, but not the exact method. I don't use Excel, I use LibreOffice (open source), so perhaps that is the issue. Most of the functionality is the same, but there are times when the two programs differ. But thanks! I was able to do a screen copy, rotate the image, and then position and size it on top of the cells, which works just as well, I imagine. :-)

[@ronnabruce7856]

@@RoxanneRichardson sounds like it is a similar process. Thanks for those wonderful videos!

[@jenntuomala6259]

Brenda and Heather Yarns has a targhee sock yarn.

[@tammihackley4349]

The explanation of different weights of yarn, helpful

[@juliekriz4867]

Thank you, Roxanne, for the explanation of how to use stitch dictionaries to design your own work. I would live to learn how to do this for something like a hat or mittens that are shaped. How do you figure out the increases and or decreases within the pattern so that it comes out correctly?

[@elaineenstone6834]

A really great episode as usual full of interest and knowledge. Thank you. 🇬🇧

[@marijkevries4952]

Thank you very much for your information about fixing your little mistake on your xmas stocking. THat is clever!!!!! (Your truly fan from the Netherlands)

[@evelynrichards3492]

Thank you Roxanne. I have spent many hours designing stockings using special software but next time i.e. next week I will try excel. Btw I love to add a few beads for example on the trees or in the stars

[@andreasanford8814]

I want to create my own stockings...With little motifs and lots of color. Thank you for explaining how you did this. I use Stitch Fiddle to create my own designs. I love your clever way of fixing those stitches. I use duplicate stitch for a misplaced one but this is another useful technique.

[@cindylecky3448]

5 hours ago Hello from Australia! I actually started knitting again as an adult last year with the goal of knitting Christmas stockings for my son and his friends when I was staying with them over the holidays. That turned out to be too ambitious but this year I am on track and your stockings have inspired me as they are gorgeous (and I too have looked at many patterns). I just learned to do German short row heels based on your videos and curious as it seems you are doing an afterthought heel in Nina’s stocking, and wondering what you see as the benefit for a Christmas stocking as I am still finding my way on that. Thank you so much for your channel and all you share!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

While you can knit a Christmas stocking exactly like a sock, I find that I like the proportions to be slightly different: a rounder/shallower heel and toe, and a much shorter foot, in proportion to the leg. Because a peasant heel is shaped by alternating a plain round with a decrease round, you can speed up the shaping after half the sts have been decreased, by eliminating the plain rounds, which makes a rounder heel. With short rows, you could change the shaping rate by working 2 sts past the previous turn for that same result. I also prefer doing all the stranded color work first, and then doing the toe and heel, but again, that's a personal preference. Much of knitting is making choices based on preferences, rather than following strict rules.

[@cindylecky3448]

@@RoxanneRichardson thank you so much! I am going to try that on my next one.

[@marylumetz2782]

Thanks!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Thank *you*! :-)

[@cindylecky3448]

Hello from Australia! I actually started knitting again as an adult last year with the goal of knitting Christmas stockings for my son and his friends when I was staying with them over the holidays. That turned out to be too ambitious but this year I am on track and your stockings have inspired me as they are gorgeous (and I too have looked at many patterns). I just learned to do German short row heels based on your videos and curious as it seems you are doing an afterthought heel in Nina’s stocking, and wondering what you see as the benefit for a Christmas stocking as I am still finding my way on that. Thank you so much for your channel and all you share!

[@cindymitchell6525]

I really found the mistake section very helpful. Thx.

[@elinarlowry7897]

Tidbit to share: Teti Lutsak is a Ukranian knitwear designer living in the Netherlands. She has a KZbin channel where she shares her beautiful designs. Recently she also share some video footage about a Ukranian weaving tradition called "gushka". It was fascinating to see how the creators of these wool designs use the natural turbulence in a stream by building their work space over the water. I recommend Teti's designs and her video to anyone who is interested.

[@sabinebartelt7288]

Bare Naked Wools (by designer Anne Hanson) has lovely Targhee yarn for garments.

[@jeanathey767]

Hi Roz, While we're on the topic of Christmas stocking, I'm hoping you might address the question of how to convert a straight knitting patt to circular in colorwork. I've knit the "Yankee Knitter Designs Traditional Christmas Stockings" pattern sold on the WEBS site three times. I love it, and it looks just like the stocking my aunt knitted for me when I was a wee girl. But, it's knit straight, back and forth, and doing the purl rows in stranded while catching the floats is slow. I looked up on KZbin how to convert a colorwork chart to circular format and could probably knit the leg in the round, but what do you do when you have that tube on the needles, the colorwork is finished, and you are ready to knit the foot? I'm not experienced enough to convert or figure out how to complete the stocking if I was brave enough to give it a go. My guess is that many of us could use a tutorial on this aspect of pattern conversion if you'd be interested in providing one. Thank you for all you do. You are an excellent teacher.

[@nicolelafontaine1720]

Nice tuto on fixing mistakes in colorwork.Thanks !

[@RoxanneRichardson]

You're welcome!

[@ahymsamartin648]

Great Episode as always!!! Perhaps 🤔 you someday may incorporate your writing with a knitting theme, like a story of a knitter amongst a journey, or something related to bring the writing ✍️ joy W/O any pressure ! I’m similar in that I knit whatever I feel compelled to knit. People always, knit things to sell, and I always say “No” Knitting is my hobby mans passion, it’s not for sale and it’s not a job ! A job is “ A robbery of one’s time in life !” A knitter passionately knitting is “ A physical expression of love, creation and imagination all encompassed in the past of each knitter !” Only knitters and crafters understand this, others are clueless to the reasons we knit 🧶 ☺️ Thanks for your inspiration and outreach to all of us fellow knitters !!! 😘🥰

[@heathersharp-keys8240]

I love that sweater! I love cables, but that sweater scares me to death. So many different cables and you manipulated them all over. You started with a Morning Rambler Sweater, but ended with a Roxanne Original 😊. How do you know when it's ok to pull stitch off in stranded colorwork vs having to use duplicate stitch? Aren't you carrying the white yarn in the back?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

In the example where I reknit the sts, I reused the same yarn to knit the sts, they were just in a different order. I exchanged 2 white and two red with 1 red 2 white 1 red. In the st that was fixed with duplicate st, I was replacing a red st with a white stitch. If I had dropped the red and reknit with the white, I would have had excess slack in the red strand, and taken out too much slack in the white. The strands at the back of the work are long enough to span the distance between sts of that color, but not long enough to use them to knit additional sts.

[@robinlibby324]

Crafty Jaks is an indi dyer who sells Target sock yarn which is lovely.

[@audreyh3809]

Great video ❤️

[@susanday8874]

Hi Rox! Please tell me what cast on you used at the top of the stocking and what stitch pattern you used for the first section. Thanks!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I used long tail cast on with one color for the thumb yarn and another for the index finger yarn. I then knit a Latvian Braid to start the stocking. (I have a video on the Latvian Braid on my channel.)The first stitch pattern is in the same stocking as the snowflake, which is linked to down in the show notes.

[@susanday8874]

@@RoxanneRichardson Ah, a Latvian Braid to keep it from rolling. Great idea! Thank you.

[@eliedgecomb4903]

Awe. I’ve never been so pleased to hear something that is useful to me was so definitely not about pleasing me. 😁

[@lo-jcrochetandyarnlover2642]

When making your Christmas stocking, would you need to add 1/2 of the upside down heart to the ends to on the name section so that the pattern goes all the way around?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I opted not to do that, because the two halves of the heart would have a one-row offset at the end of round/beginning of round transition. That part of the stocking isn't really visible when hung, so I left it off

[@brandysears3546]

How do you use Excel to keep track of your knitting projects & their status of completion?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I've done segments in a couple of Casual Friday episodes that explain this. CasFri #39 and CasFri 3-16, which you can find in the Casual Friday playlist on my channel, or you can search KZbin for *knitting spreadsheet roxanne richardson* and find them that way.

[@wandarutledge4260]

Thank you so much for sharing

[@xbaczewska4197]

Ha ha! Let’s do a WAL (write-along) with a prompt from a piece of your prose!

[@joanmachado9063]

Great video thank you

[@NinaKeilin]

Oh, good, I can copy your lettering for my name without any work. ha ha. In my life, I've met very few Ninas.

[@NinaKeilin]

Additional pet peeve: when your name is Nina, you can never buy a souvenir mug or other item with your name on it. I spent a very disappointed childhood traveling around the US and failing to find any personalized souvenirs. I recently found my first one: A NYS license plate keychain sold at a souvenir store near my NYC office. I work near the World Trade Center, where there are (or were--prepandemic) lots of tourists.

[@daliamcclintock1491]

I have a dear friend Nina who pronounces it with a long I as in eye. She said it’s apparently an Irish pronunciation. And I have no luck finding preprinted Dalia items! Thanks Roxanne once again for teaching us knitting AND life lessons.

[@teslaandhumanity7383]

I always thought it was titbit 😬

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Regional differences. It's tidbit in the US. It started out as tidbit in the UK, and than evolved into titbit. www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/03/tidbit-titbit.html

[@heathersharp-keys8240]

Rox, that was a really interesting review of titbits vs tidbits. Even as a proud American I have to agree with the Brits, titbits makes more sense. Rox, I love that you leave links for further explanation or information on a subject. You're very knowledgeable of all kinds of subjects. Thank you for sharing.

[@xbaczewska4197]

Both ways correct!

[@susanday8874]

Thanks!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

You're welcome! :-)