You've Got Questions, I've Got Answers // Casual Friday #29

[@GrandmaP85]

Excellent information on sleeve caps. What I did with my imperfect learning to spin wool was to knit mitts, slippers etc. extra large and then felt them. My learning to spin teacher wouldn't let us throw anything out.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Oh, I won't throw out that yarn, it's enough to keep it to remind myself how far I've come, and to get perspective on how I have refined my technique, but I have no interest in knitting with those earliest attempts. It wouldn't be enjoyable for me at all.

[@loringsmith773]

Great episode! The techniques and calculations for set-in sleeves are so valuable and well-explained; I know I'll be coming back to this episode over and over again when knitting sweaters.

[@NinaKeilin]

Yes, this part is a really good reference.

[@fiberchronicles6903]

Thank you for telling us how you do the sleeve caps. It explains some things that I have been wondering about.

[@susanpeterson9947]

For years I used the exact same left -hand-doing-the-work English method that you described, not what I was taught, it just developed over time and gave me the best results. Years later that morphed into a version of flicking which I still use. I’ve tried continental a couple of times but just can’t get my tension even, and my flicking speed is actually pretty good so I’m going to stick with that. Congratulations on your spinning, I can tell that you’re really enjoying learning all about that. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

[@Driada0830]

The best and most understandable explanation on sleeves! Thanks 🙏

[@georknits3957]

Great explanations about sleeve caps, now I undertand it much better, Thank you.

[@sheryltisdale]

Love all the information you give, especially on reusing yarn and how to get it to relax, thank you, so much to learn!

[@Jess-ix8do]

I love your channel and always recommend it to others because you are so informative. Especially loved the q and a in this one.

[@cathytimbs7479]

Excellent ideas. Love your teaching! Suggestion for a video-where and when would it be appropriate to change needle size only in a pattern and expect that change to work to give a smaller size than written (of course you might add length). Elizabeth Zimmerman used this in her books( and thereby changing the gauge, of course). In other words, if I had a pattern in a size but needed slightly smaller, what guidelines could I use to achieve a slightly smaller garment than the smallest size given and use the pattern numbers given. Or is that unrealistic to imagine. I would not want to change the pattern, but wondered what is reasonable to expect when changing gauge 1/2, 1, or 1 1/2 sr per inch. Thank you for your insight! Btw, I rarely use the suggested yarn, but I try to match gauge from my stash. So always wondering how to use a favorite pattern, or get the best bang for my stash.

[@tarar6926]

Thank you for this. I just seamed in the sleeves for a pattern that used the first method of calculation for bottom up method and I ended up with undesirable puckers where the edge of the bind off was on the sleeve cap. Now I know what I can do to alter the patter to remove it! Thank you!

[@robinmccamont]

Hi! If you want to watch someone who is actually performing the various techniques covered in the "51 yarns..." book before you decide to buy it, you should watch "Tiny Fibre Studio" on KZbin. Becks is doing one video a week (approximately) to demonstrate each technique. Very interesting and informative! Your spinning is really improving...! Keep up the good work!!! And thanks for your discussion of short row set-in sleeves. Very informative!!! Take care!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Thanks! I will check out that channel!

[@Windy888City]

So grateful for the sleeve cap method Roxanne. The one:one pick up doesn't give a good result for well fitted sleeves but your explanation was a light-bulb moment. Thank you 👍

[@RoxanneRichardson]

You are so welcome!

[@GrainneDhu]

This is the best explanation of sleeve cap shaping I've read/seen! I am impressed. As for spinning... Some people like to rest the singles for a while so that they are less sproingy when you ply them. With the growing popularity of lazy kates with brake bands and/or slanted spindles, excess sproinginess is not such a big deal. I think it may also be affected by the sort of fibre a spinner first plied with--if they plied with something that was reasonably long stapled (4 inches or more) the singles don't need so much twist to hold together but such fibre doesn't force the spinner to learn how to deal with highly energised singles. Alden Amos was a big proponent of storage bobbins to help distribute the twist more evenly across the singles and plied yarn. If I recall correctly, his minimum recommended distance between the storage bobbin and the wheel bobbin was at least 2x the spinner's average 'make' (the length of yarn that the spinner spins before letting it go onto the wheel bobbin). When I want a really smooth, homogenous yarn, I wind off onto storage bobbins (Bobbins Up! in fact) with at least 30 feet between the two bobbins. It does make a difference but maybe only one that is perceptible by me. The twist in wool goes dormant for the same reasons why human hair holds a curl. So why does human hair hold a curl? I don't know but I bet there's scientific literature out there that explains it. I do know that permanents first break the hydrogen bonds between the molecules of the hair and then the second step of the process restores those hydrogen bonds in a new configuration. So, what to do if you want to ply one bobbin that has been resting for, um, many months or years (not that I would know anything about such things, you understand ) with one that you just got done spinning? The singles that you just spun will be energised to the max and the older singles, well, not so much. Spinners have come up with many ways around this; the one I prefer is to look at the individual fibres in the plied yarn. In a balanced yarn, those fibres will appear to run parallel to the overall yarn. If I think I won't see the individual fibres clearly, I pull a single one of my own hairs to incorporate in the singles. I've been salt and pepper since I was 12 years old, so I can always find a hair that is a good contrast. Or I could use a magnifying glass but what fun would that be?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

My spinning teacher did have us wind off our bobbins onto a ball winder, from across the room, and I did that with my green singles, as well. I had to go down to the kitchen, to give myself about 12' (my office is much too tiny!).

[@SuperManinder1]

I like how you explained it. Thank you.

[@kathleenkline4622]

Rewinding your bobbins evens out the twist in the single...I've plyed from rewound bobbins and from bobbins right off the wheel and haven't noticed a difference in terms of having the singles going in the same direction as they were spun. Usually when spinning for a large project, such as a sweater, I spin all of the singles first and then mix them up when plying. I've found my finished yarn is more consistent by doing it this way. Unlike some crafts, nothing is set in stone when spinning...experiment and do what suits you best. There are no spinning police😁 Also, a salad spinner is a very useful tool for getting the excess water out of freshly washed yarn. The book you mentioned is "51 Yarns to Spin Before You Cast Off," by Jacey Boggs Faulkner. She is the publisher/director/editor in chief of Ply Magazine.

[@NinaKeilin]

Knitting styles are so personal! I have the exactly opposite reaction from yours on cabling without a cable needle. I knit continental, and I'm more efficient with the cable needle. (I actually use any random safety pin stitch holder.) I just drop the hook down back or front, knit the next two or three or four stitches and then pass the crossed stitches back to the left needle and knit them. In a way, I am doing something very similar to cabling without a cable needle. I've never liked knitting off the cable needle.

[@theastewart6721]

Very informative as usual Roxanne! I like the question and answer idea! Thanks!

[@maryalgar8779]

Wow - I now know how much I don't know about sweater shaping and, in particular, sleeve caps. I'm a visual learner, so loved all the drawings you did. I'd like to understand more about garment shaping rather than just following a pattern and hoping for the best.

[@1nanababe]

me too!

[@TheSuzberry]

You amaze me. I’m lucky if i manage to read through the entire pattern. Nevermind counting the stitches.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I'm not really counting all the stitches, the spreadsheet does that. :-) I can't explain why making spreadsheets to count up all the stitches is fun for me, but it is.

[@TheSuzberry]

Roxanne Richardson ... I understand. Love spreadsheets myself, hadn’t thought of it for this purpose.

[@knittingthestash]

excellent tutorial! The best explanation I've heard to date! Much appreciated!

[@Hezz6142]

Thank you so much for answering my questions.

[@jennifermerritt9598]

So when you spin your wool onto your bobbin the first time, snd you let it sit for 24 hours. It creates a memory. (That is the term). It will now hold it's shape better. Because it is a new shape. If you twist it to the curl of the fleece. (Ratios of the bobbin to foot peddle) it will trailer take on its new shape. The idea is like curlers in your hair over night. When you transfer it too quickly the shape isn’t stable enough. ( same with curlers) Usually you have some lanolin in spinning fleece. This helps hold shape and spin easier.

[@ahmetkemalgurel5730]

Wow wonderful video. Is there any books that you can recommend for further readings on pattern making for knitting?

[@KateColors]

This will help me a lot with a sweater to fit me better--I have a larger arm than any pattern I've tried to knit. Thank you. --KateColors

[@mrstukutela5126]

I am knitting a jacket with a rather complicated Aran pattern. When I come to the neck edge, how do I knit a decrease where the first stitch is a purl and the next is a knit. Do I knit two together or purl two together? Conversely, if the first is a purl and the second is a knit do I purl or knit two together? Also: Will it give a neater edge for knitting up the neckband if one doesn't knit the the first stitch and rather decrease on the second and third stitches of the row when shaping the neck edge on a right front? I would also prefer not to decrease on the last stitch if it's the left front.

[@gfixler]

I was listening to you talk about 2-color brioche and double-knitting, and I was thinking "I wonder if you're about to talk about Sockmatician" :) He was my intro to double-knitting, and he's another technical knitter like you (and me), who loves to figure out how things actually work down at their core.

[@weijourn1970]

Thank you for another interesting video. Several years ago I read that you shouldn't wind your sewing machine bobbins fast because it will stretch the thread. I didn't look into if others thought the same, I just started trying to wind mine slower. When you mentioned using the drill to wind onto the spinning wheel bobbins, I started to wonder if the same thing would apply to them. Have you heard anything like this?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I suppose if you're going fast, that can create more tension between the two spools, which causes it to be wound tighter. The drill I used has variable speed, so I was going at what I would call a medium speed. One of the reasons I wind my center pull balls of yarn twice is because the ball tends to be a bit too tight on the first winding, due to the tension on the swift when it's full.

[@cglamb1954]

I'm a relatively new knitter. I have knitted a few blankets for my grandchildren and have enjoyed it immensely. I have really enjoyed your knitting videos. I have a question that doesn't really relate to this video, but I can't find an answer anywhere I look. On a couple of my blankets, the pattern seemed to switch sides -- what started out on the right side flipped over to the back side. Can you tell me what causes that to happen? Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out.

[@Lesya77]

this was very helpful, thank you very much!

[@lincyndi3197]

Hi Roxanne! thank you for this information, it's very helpful! On the short row calculations for the sleeve cap, does the number of stitches in each section have anything to do with the way the sleeve hole decrease pattern was?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

If I'm replicating bottom up shaping that uses decreases and BOs, then I mirror that top down by working short rows that match the number of sts that were eliminated (e.g. short row 3 sts past the previous turn if I'm mirroring BO 3, and short row 1 st past if I'm mirroring a single dec). If I'm not replicating it, and just making a top down sleeve cap, I usually just follow one of the many different formulas for doing that.

[@lincyndi3197]

@@RoxanneRichardsonthanks for clarifying! I've tried doing the top down, multiples of 3,2,1 sleeve for my sweater and the sleeve cap looks nice, but I still feel like there is a little too much fabric in the underarm, if I want the arm to slant downwards a bit more would that be adding more to the multiple of 3 section or multiple of 1?

[@SammyMaeQ]

Have you done a video that goes into detail about your spreadsheets? I would love to see that.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I haven't done one. I thought about it a while back, to see if I could figure out a way to demonstrate it. I'll see what I can do.

[@mathsinger]

I'd like to see that, too.

[@lsweeten1971]

Energy = amount of twist or tension in the spun yarn? Tight twist = higher energy?

[@DixieGirl9876]

Beautiful sweater!

[@eliedgecomb4903]

Your local reference librarian should be able to get it for you through inter library loan. Good luck.

[@mathsinger]

I want to do double knitting, but my attempts at doing it two handed have been discouraging. I found Arne and Carlos' short video on the subject and have taken up Norwegian purling in preparation for trying it.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Good luck with that! I found that when I was learning double knitting, Norwegian purling wasn't all that helpful to me. I found it much easier to carry both yarns in my right hand. That doesn't mean it isn't possible, just that I couldn't find a way to make it work for me. I rarely do any double knitting, though, so if I had pursued it more obsessively, I might have had better luck.

[@hazeluzzell]

51 yarns to spin. Is the book associated with Ply Magazine’s ‘spin along’. If you go to Tiny Fibre Studio’s vlog on You Tube, she is doing a demo spin for each of the 51 types of yarn. That might help you to judge if you want the book.

[@Lesya77]

Dear Roxanne, thank you very much for your videos and tutorials! I have a question about neck shaping on the set in sleeves top down sweater I am working on. I am using M1 method of increases to shape the front of the neck 1 stitch away from the edge and I am not very happy with the result. Is there a better way? my yarn is very bulky, 13 st per 4 inch. Thank you very much!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Are you mirroring the decreases, or using the same method at both edges? If mirroring, try mirroring opposite, to see if you like that result better. Or, use a different method for m1 incs, like the YO m1 inc, which isn't as tight kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpC5Z2CvgN1la5Y

[@Lesya77]

@@RoxanneRichardson I am mirroring them with yarn over M1, will try to do the opposite. Thank you. Should I step two stitches away from the edge or keep one?

[@bessieanderson6798]

How far down should the sleeve be attached to the side of the sweater?

[@katgore99]

Very informative all the way around! The sweater turned out so lovely what does your daughter think?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

She likes it! :-)

[@katgore99]

Excellent. I am looking forward to seeing your yarn knit up. The 3rd yarn with the plying issue... can you redo it?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

There's not really enough of that 3rd yarn to do anything with (it's less than an ounce). It was just a small amount of fiber provided to me in my fiber processing class. So I learned a lot from it, which was the point. (Hand carding, and then how to set up my wheel properly for the spinning process, as well as the effect of feeding plied yarn through the orifice a second time. I find it more interesting/informative to leave it as-is, because I can see better what the effect of how each half was spun. So far, I'm really enjoying working with my green yarn!

[@kolbrab]

What á beautiful sweater? Where can I find the pattern?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

My project page is in my Ravelry notebook here: www.ravelry.com/projects/Rox/11-cabled-pullover. Links to the pattern page and yarn, etc. can be found there.

[@desireeross9651]

Any book from Jacey is good. I’d buy her Craftsy courses

[@bessieanderson6798]

How far down the side should should a 4 year old child’s sleeve be attached?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

There are many different types of sleeves and sweater constructions. It sounds like you might be knitting a sweater with a drop shoulder construction, where the body is worked straight up to the shoulder, with no underarm shaping, and the top of the sleeve is straight across, with no sleeve cap shaping. If that's the case, then the length of the armhole will be half the width of the top of the sleeve. You can confirm the exact measurement by dividing the number of sts you had at the top of the sleeve by your gauge. For example, if you had 60 sts at the top of the sleeve, and your gauge was 5 sts/in, then 60 sts divided by 5 sts/in = 12 inches, which means the depth of the armhole will be 6''. Most patterns will tell you to mark the armhole position as you are knitting the body, or will include a schematic that shows this measurement.

[@sheryltisdale]

I've done a scarf in two color Brioche, it was very tedious! I am new to knitting (about 3 years) , if I can do it anybody can! I am wanting to try the fisherman rib as I have seen it is similar ?

[@danschuldanschul1750]

You do an excellent job of explaining how to knit a top-down sleeve cap. Can you help with this problem: being lazy, when knitting flat, I knit slip-stitch selvedge edges. I reviewed your clip on picking up from a slip stitch selvedge (kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3-8poFji9lsaLM) but when I knit a slip-stitch selvedge, I create one selvedge stitch "hole" for every other row, in other words, 1 "hole" or st for every 2 rows. This creates problems when picking up stitches for a sleeve cap: how many stitches (how many stitches/row) and from what part of the selvedge stitches? I hope to eventually figure out the answer, but maybe you have already found the answer to these questions. For example, for my gauge of 5 st and 8 r to the inch, I've picked up 5 st every 8 rows around the arm hole, and plan to shape the cap as you suggest. Does that make sense? Even if it does make sense, does picking up from the between the two-strand bar at the edge give a better result than from the "hole" at the edge? Thanks for any help / suggestions!