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I bought Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley, and it is great! I started that cotton cardigan I wrote about a few weeks ago, and used the book to make a hem at the bottom. I made a provisional cast-on, which means a cast on in another yarn, that's meant to be pulled out. Then when the length of the hem had been knitted, I pulled out the provisional cast-on, put the loops at the end on another needle, and knitted both ends together. It felt weird at first to knit with three needles, but I got used to it. And voila, a neat, seamless hem!

The pattern said to just fold the hem over and sew it up after finishing the sweater. I don't mind sewing on a knitting project when it's the best approach, but the instructions in the book to knit it up seamlessly were so much tidier. I even marked the fold by slipping every other stitch in one row, instead of purling a row as the pattern said, so the fold wouldn't have a ridge. This is my favorite kind of finish for the bottom of a sweater, and I'm thrilled to have figured out how to do it so nicely. Maybe this is old hat to experienced knitters, but I felt like a knitting superstar!

I'm sorry to bore the people who don't knit again, but I'm in the thick of this project so it's kind of on my mind. Besides, it's not like knitting is the only limited-audience topic I ever write about. My blog has something to bore everyone at one time or another. (or maybe all the time!)

Thanks to Raynor Grace and Bummble, I have online advice on an alternate cast off method, which I think will work much better for me. Unfortunately I didn't get that far last night for two reasons: first, I had to work. Bummer eh? What can you do, we had an idea late in the day which would resolve a problem for a tense meeting first thing this morning.

Aside from that, I wouldn't have gotten to the casting off anyway because I got stuck on the buttonholes. The pattern calls for making buttonholes by casting off four stitches, then on the next row casting them back on. This makes a buttonhole which is parallel to the edge. Which you would rarely do in sewing. A buttonhole like that would gap and be unstable. In a sewn garment you would always make the buttonhole perpendicular to the edge, so the button pulls against the corner of the buttonhole and it doesn't gap. I also like to make keyhole buttonholes for added stability on that outer edge.

I looked online for knitted buttonhole variations, and all of them were parallel to the edge like my pattern. Maybe this is just the way it's done in knitting. But I'm having a hard time forcing myself to make a buttonhole like that. Especially such a large one. It just looks like it's going to gap open and the buttons are going to pop right out.

It seems to me that it would be easy to make a buttonhole perpendicular to the edge. Just knit the area in between two buttonholes for as many rows as you need, leaving all the other stitches on holders. Do that for all the buttonholes, and then join them all together at the top. You'd end up with a slit in the fabric for each buttonhole. Does that explanation make any sense? Is there a reason I don't want to do that?

I think I'm going to try it tonight and see how it turns out. I'll only have to pull out a couple of rows.

One more knitting question: Once a circular needle is removed from its packaging, how do I figure out what size it is? There doesn't seem to be a marking anywhere on the needle.

So I'm finishing up a sweater. Not the one I wrote about last week; this is the striped cardigan I started back when I had surgery. And I feel like I need to finish it before starting on another.

I've never made a sweater before, just simple hats and scarves, so I used super cheap yarn in garish colors. That way, if I mess it up, I don't feel like I wasted a lot of money. Just time. Of which I have so much to spare! (that was sarcastic.) In fact, I did not mess it up and it wasn't a waste of time. On the contrary, it seems to be turning out well! I like the way it fits in the body. The sleeves are big though. Not too big to wear, but if I make this pattern again I'll do the sleeves at least an inch narrower, and a bit shorter too.

Over the weekend I had to learn a couple of new techniques: sewing pieces together and picking up stitches to make the ribbing on the edge. Both of which went well. I was worried about matching the stripes when I sewed the pieces together, but it turned out to be easy. Easier in fact than sewing striped fabric. Because when you (or more to the point, when I) sew on a machine, the top fabric always shifts a bit. Not enough to mess up the seam, but enough to throw off the stripes. But since I hand-sewed the sweater, I could match up all the stripes as I went. In a way it made it easier to make sure I was sewing the pieces together evenly.

My next concern is casting off. For some reason, when I cast off the finished edge always ends up loose and messy looking. I don't want the whole front edge of my cardigan to have that messy edge. Am I doing something wrong, or is casting off just like that? Are there multiple ways to cast off, and how do I find instructions for a neater method? The only thing I could think of was to switch to smaller knitting needles for the cast off. I wonder if that would work. I'll be ready to cast off the sweater soon -- maybe tonight! -- so I hope I figure this out.

I like knitting, but I have the proverbial "beer budget and champagne taste" when it comes to yarn. In other words, I can't stomach the prices at good yarn stores, and I can't stand the horrible plasticky feel of most yarns at the big craft stores.

I've been meaning to ask the experienced knitters I know how to find decent yarn at a non-obscene price. Meanwhile, I was running errands yesterday, made a quick stop at Michael's, and discovered that they now carry a cotton blend yarn that doesn't cost a lot, feels nice and comes in colors I like. Jackpot!

I want to make a light cotton cardigan for my office, which vaccilates between really cold (when the a/c is running) and a bit warm (when it's not). Something I can throw over my shoulders when the a/c kicks on, and then easily pull off when it warms up. Spent a little time browsing patterns last night and came up with these two:

Any opinions? I like the style of the Mandarin collar one better, but it would be more complicated for two reasons: first, I want long sleeves, or at least 3/4 length, and the pattern is short sleeves. Second, the gauge is off so I'd have to recalculate everything. The blue one isn't as stylish, but the gauge is exactly right so it would be easier to do.

On a closer look, I also see that the Mandarin collar one is gapping over the model's bust, and she's not that busty, so that would be more of a problem for me. Maybe I should make the blue one, and wait until I know what I'm doing before trying a pattern that needs so much adjustment.