Technique Tuesday – Knit and Crochet Q and A

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Answers To Your Top 3 Questions About the Technique Tuesday Crochet & Knitting Tutorials

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We've been going strong for a few months now with our Technique Tuesday crochet and knitting tutorials and, naturally, y'all have had some questions. Most of the questions have been answerable via a quick email but a few others have stood out as needing a little more attention.

In the interest of helping Build Your Skillz, we've picked the three questions asked most often or that provided the best opportunity for teaching a more specific detail of our tutorials.


Here is our first ever, Knit & Crochet Q&A!

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How do I calculate my blocked gauge?
This question come up so often it just had to take the top spot. Not only, does this one come in via our website, but just about every crochet or knitting class we teach brings another raised hand followed by the question of exactly HOW does one calculate their blocked gauge.

Well… first, you need to swatch! And, in order to swatch, you need a few things

1. The stitch pattern you want to use – whether it is the crochet or knit stitch used in the pattern you are reading or a random stitch pattern you found in a book or, heck, one you played around and came up with yourself. Pick your stitch!

2. The yarn you want to use – what yarn do you want to use to make your fabric? We know… so many choice… If you're like me, I swatch ALL THE YARN when I'm starting a design. Don't be shy… make as many swatches of your stitch pattern in as many yarns as you need to. Otherwise, you might always wonder what that cardi would have been like in that one skein of that one silk blend on your shelf. It can haunt a person…

3. Hook or needle size – you will need to determine what hook or needle size you will need in order to achieve the gauge given in the pattern you are reading. If you aren't reading from a pattern but, instead, are experimenting with a stitch pattern and don't have a given gauge, you will need to determine what hook or needle size works best with which yarn for the stitch you are wanting to use.

After you have the stitch, the yarn, and your hooks or needles, you simply need to crochet or knit a healthy sized piece of fabric for your swatch. For our fabrics, I like to make AT LEAST a 6 x 6" swatch. Sometimes, however, we need a larger swatch of the fabric to determine drape or hang. Swatch enough so you can determine exactly what your finished fabric is going to be like.

After swatching comes blocking! Whether you soak, spritz, or steam block, you must block your swatch to:
1. Set the stitches – blocking opens up lace stitch patterns and allows solid stitch patterns to relax and the stitches to line up all nice and orderly.

2. See your finished fabric – some fibers don't even begin to show their true nature until moisture has been introduced into them. Allow your fibers to bloom and relax… that's when you will have a true sense of the final fabric you will be working with in your project.

For more on the importance of swatching, be sure to read: A (slightly) Tangential Post About Swatching

Next, the counting! Once your watch is blocked and dry and you are all happy with the finished fabric, it's time to actually determine your blocked gauge. WOOHOO!

Okay… I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to the math of patterns. I think I like sizing and calculating fit and proportion as much as I do sketching and picking fabrics. Never fear… this is easy counting and here's the step by step:
1. Count the Number of Stitches across one row of your swatch.
2. Count the Number of Rows made in your swatch.
3. Measure the Width of your swatch in inches or centimeters.
4. Measure the Length of your swatch in inches or centimeters.
5. Divide the Number of Stitches by the Width of your swatch. This is your Stitches Per Inch/cm.
6. Divide the Number of Rows by the Length of your swatch. This is your Rows Per Inch/cm.

TAADAA!!

Told you it was going to be easy counting. Now that you have your Stitches and Rows per inch/cm, you are ready to Stitch On!

Side Note: For more math fun, be sure to look for (or request!) our class The OH! of Math at a yarn shop, fiber festival, or crochet and knitting conference near you.

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Can I REALLY block fabrics made with acrylic yarn?
This question comes up so very often in our classes and gained traction after we began our Blocking University series and, particularly after the (slightly) Tangential Post About Swatching. The answer is simple: YES! You CAN block fabrics made with acrylic yarn. There… moving on… Oh… you probably wanted more specifics? Okay…

The key to blocking fabrics made with acrylic yarn is heat… specifically sssssssteam heat. We use a standard garment steamer we bought down at the local big brand store. If you check out our post The Right Tools For the Right Job, you will see the exact brand of steamer we use and can even click through to purchase one for yourself… if you so desire…

The important thing to remember when steam blocking yarns made from artificial fibers is to apply the steam heat judiciously so as to not melt the yarn and stretch out the stitches. Melt? Yup… think about that plastic spoon you left a little too close to the burner on the stove. (Just me??) Most of these human-made fibers will, when exposed to heat, start to break down and melt to a certain degree. The key to steam blocking is to apply just enough moisture and heat to allow the fibers to relax so they can be blocked into shape. While you won't see a bubbling ooze of melted chemicals on your blocking board, the heat from a garment steamer or steam iron will "kill" the stitches if you aren't careful. That is, the heat will take out any memory the yarn has and the fabric will just lay there flat and even smooth and shiny if pressed with a cloth between a steam iron and your fabric.

When we block fabrics made from yarns that are all or mostly made up of human-made fibers, we just apply enough steam heat to make the fabric soft enough to pin into place for blocking. Slow and steady… nice and easy. The beauty of these fabrics is that once they are set, they are pretty much set for good! Fabrics made from these acrylic fibers will hold their shape and stand steady for years and years with little or no sign of wear. Evidence of this can be seen in the baby afghans my grandmother made for me as well as the horse blanket my mother made for my first saddle. Yes… that's my horse blanket pictured here. Over 30 years old and VERY well used.

For more on the importance of swatching, be sure to read: A (slightly) Tangential Post About Swatching.

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When I make the Adjustable Ring with slick or smooth yarns like bamboo or silk, my yarn tail slips out and the center of my motif falls apart. How to I keep this from happening?
This question came up a few times just recently in a class we taught on crochet motif construction and as a result of our tutorial on How To Make the Adjustable Ring for Working Crochet In The Round. The question was posed differently in each case but the premise was the same.


It's true that slick yarns can offer a bit of an issue when weaving in the ends of any crochet or knit fabrics but, especially in the case of center out crochet, it can be particularly distressing to see your work unravel.

We will start by saying that this is easy to prevent! If you are working with a yarn that is particularly slick and doesn't like to stay in place when woven in, make a longer tail. Easy, right? In the case of the Adjustable Ring, simply wind the yarn around your finger a couple more times than shown in the tutorial and you shouldn't have any problem. That said, we have started SO many motifs, hats, afghans, and throws with this technique that we can't even count 'em all and haven't ever had a center slip out regardless of the yarn we used. Lucky? Maybe… but we also take the following precaution… 

If you want to be absolutely 100% sure about whether your yarn tail will stay tucked away where it belongs and that the center of your work won't come undone, swatch! Make a swatch of your motif or of the top of your hat or the center of your afghan then give the swatch a good going over (rough it up a bit!) to see if the center is going to slip and break your heart. If so, try wrapping your yarn a time or two more or pick another technique like the Slip Ring method of starting center out crochet. Guess we'd better add that tutorial to our schedule soon…

So, once again, it all comes back to swatching… hhmmmm… see a theme here?

Be sure to check out our tutorial for How To Make the Adjustable Ring for Starting Crochet In The Round.

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TAADAA!!

There you have it! Our top three questions about our Technique Tuesday tutorials. We LOVE hearing from you all with your triumphs and conundrums so don't be shy about leaving comments and sending us messages via the contact form here on our site. If we can help you, we will or we will direct you to the place where you can get the best help… sometimes that's your local yarn shop… but either way we will get back to you. And you can BET ON IT - if YOU have that question, SOMEONE ELSE has it too. If we get a question often enough or it seems like a good place for another tutorial, you might even find your answers here in a future Technique Tuesday article!

Thanks for dropping by for another Technique Tuesday! Our aim is to build the skillz of our FAB fiber community here on the web and it's always FAB to hear from you all that what we are doing is helping you and your fiber friends.

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Stitch On!
S&J

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