PomPoms

Sometimes you need to create a pompom to complete your knit project. Once you start making pompoms, you'll find it hard to stop! As a young girl I had a kit to help me make them, but you really only need two pieces of cardboard to get yourself going.

This Pompom making tutorial is fantastic for two reasons. 1) Stunning, colorful and clear step by step photographs and 2) concise written instructions. (The written instructions come after the pictures, so don't run away if you don't see the words you need right away!)

Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff

There is nothing worse than making toe up socks and then being unable to fit them on your foot because the bind off was too tight. The following video shows a wonderful method to make a "surprisingly" stretchy bind off that incorporates a YO before the K or P stitch.

Smocking Tutorial

When offering to do a test knit for the Ziyal cowl, the designer shared the following smocking tutorial. Until I discovered this website, I did not know that smocking was the term for gathering of fabric. (You learn something new every day!) This tutorial explains the technique well while showing clear step by step photographs.

I hope that I am selected for this test knit. You can bet that the pattern will be featured here on KPOTD later on! (Update: I was selected for this project, and it was a great knit!)

Twisted Loop Cast On

A few weeks ago I told you that I use the long tail cast on method the most because it was the first I learned. A big downside to this cast on is that you need to estimate how much yarn it will take, and you frequently end up wasting a lot of yarn in the tail. Enter the twisted loop (backwards loop) cast on. This method is great when you need to add stitches onto the end of a row, but it is also a great way to start your knitting project.

Long Tail Cast On

The cast-on method I use the most frequently is the long tail cast on. I suppose everyone's favorite cast on depends on the one that they learned first, and I learned this one when I was 10 years old. This video may come in handy if you are trying to teach someone how to knit, or start knitting yourself.

Illusion Knitting

Yesterday I showed you a masterpiece of illusion knitting. The technique is simple, you just need to knit and purl. To learn more about illusion knitting, you should check out the following tutorial. This tutorial demonstrates how you make a simple illusion project, and soon you will be converting simple knitting charts into fabulous illusions.

Blocking Knit Lace

I have something to admit to you KPOTD readers... I often don't block my knitting projects. The last sweater I made for myself didn't get blocked (although it fits great!) I have come to see what a difference blocking makes, especially when it comes to lace projects. The following tutorial will show you how to block knit lace strips from lace garters.

Tubular Cast on Using Judy's Magic Cast on

I like this tutorial because the instructor has written down the instructions on a sheet of paper that she refers to as she goes through how to do the stitches. I now use this cast on method as a provincial cast on alternative (with an extra needle if necessary.)

My only complaint is that the needles are pretty far from the camera, but this is really a minor complaint since I learned the technique.

Steeking

Iam trying to decide if I want to make a beautiful sweater pattern into a pullover or a cardigan. Making this a cardigan would require that I learn how to steek - the process of cutting a knit garment after the fact (and without it unravelling!)

This tutorial shows two steeking methods, and I know I will be referring back to it!

Dyeing Yarn - Purple Separation

When I was first researching dyeing yarn with food coloring, I learned that purple was a hard color to dye because the red and blue dyes will separate and absorb at different rates. But in all of my attempts, I always came out with all over purple color. I decided to test this color separation in the following video:

Felting by Hand

Over the years, I have been asked frequently how I felt by hand. I created this video in response to some questions I received about making felted oven mitts. I hope that you enjoy this demonstration that I created.

Knitting with Dropped Stitches

Yesterday I showed you a variation of knit dropped stitches, today I'm going to show you how to knit with dropped stitches.

How to Knit One Below

The book where I learned about the K1B stitch has already been named KPOTD, but I wanted to share with you a video I created on how to make the K1B stitch. I love this technique, and have incorporated it into some of my own knitting designs. Hopefully this video will make the K1B stitch easy to understand!

Creating Knitting Charts in Microsoft Excel

After receiving numerous questions about how I create and share my knitting chart designs, I created a three part tutorial on how to use Microsoft Excel to draw knitting charts:

• Part 1: Setting up your knitting graph paper in Excel
  
• Part 2: Drawing your knitting chart in Excel
  
• Part 3: Saving and sharing your completed knitting chart

Creating this tutorial was the beginning of many tutorials I would create over the years, and may be the reason why I started filming knitting videos. I hope you find it helpful, it is a great way to start getting your own designs out there!

Twisting Yarn into a Hank

Believe it or not, it took me a long time to figure out how to twist a circular skein of yarn into a hank like you would find at the local yarn store. I created this video so other knitters could figure out how to make their yarn appear neat and pretty.

Dip Dyeing Yarn

This is the one of the many dyeing yarn tutorials I've created with AllFreeKnitting.com. I love dyeing yarn so much, so it's been a pleasure to create these tutorials to assist others.

Double Knitting Tutorial

How to Knit, November 24, 1941
Photographic Print
Mili, Gjon
Buy at AllPosters.com

Heidi from South Africa wrote an amazing double knitting tutorial. She wrote at the beginning of her post, "it has taken two days for the pics to upload, so I apologise for the delay in posting." She shouldn't have needed to apologize, from the quality of her images it was worth the wait!

If you have ever been curious about double knitting, you should absolutely check out her post!

Dropped Stitches

I love knitting with intentional dropped stitches. Not only does the project go faster, but the final product has a modern, yet lacy feel to it. I created the video to help explain to my readers how to make this fun stitch.

Finishing your knitting

I was really surprised with the success of this video, as it started hitting way more traffic than I expected. It goes to show how many people learn how to knit something, but don't know how to finish the project once they get to the end. The following video shows the most common bind off:

Knit-One-Below

This is a video I made to illustrate the technique found in one of my favorite knitting books, Knit One Below: One Stitch, Many Fabrics.