Thank you so very much, Roxanne Richardson! What a surprise to be watching and hear you mention my podcast. I'm perhaps your biggest fan; you were one of the very first knitting podcasts that I stumbled upon when I re-entered the knitting universe a couple years ago. I am deeply honored that you, above all others, find what I'm doing to be worthy of a mention. Your passion for vintage is noteworthy and everyone should know how courageous you are to tackle these old patterns that omit important instructions. I'm grateful to be part of a community that supports one another. Thank you again for all you do.
Hi Roxanne. Tonight I am finally able to catch up on your videos. First, let me say that, in my opinion, you are doing a superb job with the connection between your Technique Tuesday videos and your Casual Friday podcasts. You don’t just show us a new technique but give us options and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each option. I don’t see how you can improve on the videos. Casual Friday’s are a great lesson in history and you are so successful in showing us how you resolve the issues you encounter. I find it fascinating! I totally get why you take knitting classes. Makes perfect sense. I first learned to knit as a child over 55 years ago but as I grew up I got back into for a time in my 30’s and then again in my 50’s. I love taking classes! Before the pandemic I had been taking them most every week for 8 years. I miss my teacher and my friends in our group. We do both knit and crochet and learn so much. Hopefully we can resume at some point. I totally get your desire to learn everything you can about a subject. If I still didn’t have to work, which is no picnic doing it remotely, I’d be learning a lot more. I’m also very glad that you were able to see your mom. Having lost mine a little over a year ago it’s very hard. And to make matters worse I can’t get down to Florida to see my dad due to this pandemic. Very frustrating! And it must have been great seeing your daughter too! I can’t wait to hear about the sweater you are making for her. It’s lovely! The clock is a beautiful piece with a great story! Thanks for sharing with us! I do remember that video about how you get to your mom’s. I deal with dementia and the elderly in my work. Hopefully it will not progress too fast. 💕
I really enjoy the technique Tuesday videos as well as the time into the casual Friday ones. I'm a long time knitter, but I've never been able to match row gauge because I usually have to drop 2 needle sizes to get stitch gauge. So anything more "complicated" than a scarf, a hat, a shawl, or blanket has been way out of my comfort zone until I recently. My other complication is that I'm allergic to wool (trying a skein of super wash merino to see if I have a reaction); so knitting with all the yarns that the patterns call for has been difficult - until I discovered your technique & casual videos. I feel as if I'm getting a personal tutorial from the technique videos and that the casual videos are a peek inside the process of how you constructively get inspired for your projects. So yes both are absolutely wonderful and I enjoy them immensely.
Hi Roxanne, Thank you for this video. I have always appreciated the connection between Casual Friday and Tech Tuesday. You are the first one that helped me appreciate that I am the "boss" of my knitting! (and crochet) I was frustrated by great elements of great patterns...now I simply combine the elements I like; thanks to your teaching and a bit of hand holding 🥰
I watch all of your videos. Sometimes you show how to modify a shape or do a technique and I may not use it until a year later, but I know I can count on you to have a video to help me. I watch your Friday videos to be amazed at how you figure out a pattern without the written pattern. I can knit many things but not without a pattern. I just love to watch and listen to you deconstructing a knitted item.
I think that when you start a project and continue the step by step approach it makes it easier to understand all the techniques, I really learn when you discuss design and options.
Comments on a couple of things. First. I tune into your Casual Friday videos because it's you doing them. You have the knack of intelligent story telling with knitting as your context. You're like a doctor of knitting, worrying about being useful to your patient readers (yes, you are very useful). You share your enthusiasm for the craft your watchers love, too, in a way which makes knitting the star, and brings attention to and honours the genius of our knitting predecessors. Your links are like additional supplements where we can dig deeper at our leisure (very fortifying). I watch the Technique Tuesday videos as well, just to see how a good teacher teaches. They're like visiting a workshop where a master knitter is tinkering away, and I leave with better tools in my bag, which might come in handy one day. Second. About your sweater. It seems that you've discovered the design flaws inherent in a commercial garment, which colour may amplify, if you were to knit that exact sweater with some colour additions. But you'll need to rejig the design anyway due to the gauge differences. Once you have a better idea of what your changes will look like, you can then consider where to put the colour. You could go crazy and embrace dissonance. Knit a coloured front cable column, continue it into the inside of the pocket but end the exterior colour to include the pocket ribbing but nothing below. Could you play with a horizontal striping on the back? Maybe just one partial stripe Intersecting with a coloured cable? A thin edge of the wrist ribbing or bottom of the sweater? Red buttons? You'd be playing with the idea of "cable sweater", "bespoke vs. commercial", setting on its ear what a traditional cable sweater should look like. Aesthetic and artistic choices are essentially about ideas. Your ideas. What would Roxanne Richardson do?
I know this is a month after you posted this but I've been binging, digesting and playing catch up today. I love that you're teaching me to read my knitting and question it too. It's inspiring to be challenged. I have one observation regarding the red color in the gray sweater you're contemplating. What would you like to highlight? Where do you want eyes to rest when looking at it? The cables? The buttons? The pockets? The color to highlight? Your knitting is art. Sometimes less is more. Only you can decide but I know it will be lovely. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Hi Roxanne, I absolutely love your videos! Whenever I want to learn/experiment with anything knitting related, I always check to see if you have a video on the subject first. I really appreciate that you put everything in context and present why a technique works as well as highlight nuances to help your viewers know when to use the given technique. As I have started modifying garment patterns to better fit me, I have found it incredibly difficult to find information on what measurements on the body correspond to important aspects/measurements on the knitted garment. For example, this summer I was knitting a bottom up, seamless, drop shoulder tee that I blocked before separating for the sleeves and realized that it had less ease than the pattern intended. So many knitting books I’ve looked at recommend that you have a lot of ease to ensure that the top will fit over your shoulders but despite looking in about 5 knitting books (and lots of online searching), I couldn’t find a good explanation of how much ease was actually needed. The books mostly just provided rules of thumb and didn’t explain where to measure on the body to ensure that the armscye depth would be sufficient given the width of the sweater. All this to say, technique videos on substituting sweater construction/shaping would be very appreciated and I would find it incredibly helpful if they included (when possible) what body measurements will influence parts of the shaping/construction.
I had to go get the china in my kitchen from my husband’s grandmother as the pattern was nearly identical but I knew ours was from England. It is the Garden Bouquet by Johnson Bros. of England and has been on our hutch since she passed 30 years ago. So many fond memories! The history and stories you share are a bonus to the knitting 🧶 and I so enjoy it all!
Your technique videos have been very helpful to me. I am a new-ish knitter who a) has tight tension, and b) knits mirror continental. The way you describe why, as well as how, makes it easier for me to translate right to left, and vise versa.
I love watching ur channel...ur dedication to sharing ur knowledge is so refreshing. U inspire me to learn and do more. Please continue as u feel is best. One thing I would love to do but feel it is too challenging is design and make my own sweater. Would u ever concider going thru the process step by step. I am sure there r many people interested n willing to financially support u thru this process. So if u are running out of ideas......... thats my suggestion. I loved ur sock pattern KAL from last summer but got lost in the process.
Hi Roxanne, Personally, I feel that you’re reaching the goals you’ve set out for in your videos. I have been applying and incorporating the techniques you’ve posted since before you started the casual Friday videos. The Friday videos provide great insight into your process and, aside from being informative, they are enjoyable to watch. Like you, I enjoy acquiring knowledge, regardless of how ‘useful’ it is to me at a given moment...so your reasons for taking classes make perfect sense to me. Thanks for taking the time to share your knitting knowledge and process!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge & thinking process. I had a goal this year of learning something new on each project I chose to do; so far have pretty much done that. (There will be a grab bag of finished objects at Christmas! That’s an idea I picked up at a spinning demonstration last year-rather than making specific gifts there’s a variety to choose from.) I have so much to learn yet!
Roxanne, your videos are my go-to when I am trying to figure something out. The very reason you described- for the "putting it all together." Now with that said, I still struggle a bit with execution and have to watch/listen to multiple times, the things you demonstrate and talk about. (Maybe I'm am just not a sharp tack!) But what I am hopeful to have you do is some online classes incorporating some specific things such as the shoulder shaping when trying to modify a pattern, etc. In fact, I am currently thinking through that very thing for a cardigan I started about 4 months ago, but substituting the yarn has meant recalculating for a different gauge. Your videos have helped me stick with it! Please consider a Zoom, or some other interactive class. I am sure I'm not alone in wanting to be one of your students.
I look forward to see how the reverse engineering sweater turns out. I would definitely mirror the front cables on the side with the button holes. The cable next to the buttons flows beautifully into the v-neck.
Re: mirrored cables and red accent cable. My opinion: Keep all the cables going the same direction. The cables are a _large_ design motif and the overall effect is more harmonious if they all twist in the same direction. Red accent cable: I’m not crazy about the red accent cable idea, but you seem attached to it and that’s okay - it’s *your* sweater. But I strongly suggest that the red accent cable twist in the SAME direction as all the other cables. Let the _red_ be the accent that draws the eye. If you double-accent the cable by making it red *and* reverse-twisted, it would look like a cable that belonged to another sweater, wandered away, got lost and ended up joining your sweater. It would not ‘belong’. I’ve greatly enjoyed your past multi-installment project reports (vintage sweaters, yay!), and look forward to the future reports on this project.
I appreciate what your goal is when explaining processes because there is a disconnect between knowing how to follow a pattern vs making the adjustments for style and/or fit. Your analytical thinking about knitting is contagious and is an avenue that I hadn't considered and I find it extremely useful and inspiring. Continue Please!!!
I love love your history segments and deep appreciation of how to honor it. I kept a few of my mom's dishes which were given to her mother by the family for whom she was a governess in Germany before WWII. All the best as you help your own mom.
Oh Roxanne you brought back lovely memories of sitting in our car ,eating ice cream and watching the 9.o’clock ferry leave Luddington each evening, and the beautiful sunset of course. We visit our son and his family each year who live in Canton MI and we took a trip to Luddington for a few days 2 years ago, we stayed at a beautiful inn. I am in Worcestershire in UK and I have just realised we should be sitting on their deck in Canton right now , But of course everything got cancelled , so waiting for a vaccine so we can go next year. Thank you for you videos. 🤗🤗
Hard to believe so many people in the U.S. think the Midwest west is a bunch of "flyover states," when you have such beautiful views, isn't it? I hope you are able to enjoy the Lake Michigan sunset next year. :-)
Maybe consider donating your box to a museum. They can be interested in collections from a certain time period or they could direct you to who would be.
I love the way you teach in your technique videos and I enjoy how you share your thought process when working out a design or alteration. You ask for ideas for videos and I have discovered the opposite of kfb which is not widely known although there is a description of it on the interweave web site. If you think of kfb as knitting into the back and then the right leg of a stitch then the opposite is knitting into the back and then the left leg of the same stitch. The new stitch grows out of the right side as opposed to kfb where the new stitch grows out of the left side. These 2 increases look good side by side too especially in garter stitch.
Can you give me an example of why you would want to mirror an kfb, rather than just knitting them so that the bump appears where you want it to be? When you work the two side by side, are you working them so that the increase bumps are adjacent to each other, or away from each other? i.e. V- - V or - V V - ?
I recently completed a scarf worked diagonally in garter stitch. It continued modularity with increases along both sides. I liked how it looked when the increases were worked 2 stitches in from each side. In this case the purl bumps of the increase faced the inside of the scarf. I also like using these increases after a 2 by 2 rib border. The increase is worked in the knit stitches and the purl bump hides nicely in the purl fabric. The increase direction in determined by which side of the k2 I want the purl bump. These increases also work if you want decorative purl bump increases along a central line like a raglan. In this case the purl bumps would face away from each other. I thought other knitters would want to know about this option but you would have a better grasp of whether that is true.
@@kathleencarty149 I'm always curious about why people search for a mirror to the kfb, because I have found that getting that bump in the place I want is possible if I plan correctly. For example, in your scarf, you could work a standard kfb in the 3rd st from the end and get the bump mirrored with the bump after the 2nd st at the start of the row. That would be the "classic" way of mirroring a kfb. I haven't knit the kfb in every type of knitting scenario, though, so I'm trying to understand when that might not be possible. Is it that it's easier to visualize what to do or to place the bump where you want it by using a different technique than to use a different placement? It's an interesting technique, I'm just trying to get in the minds of knitters who might find it to be a better option than the typical way of getting symmetry with this increase. With a single stockinette column raglan line, for example, marking the actual seamline stitch (with the marker *on* the stitch) and then working the standard kfb prior to the seam line stitch and the mirrored one after it might make more sense to knitters who don't understand the kfb, slip marker, kfb method. A two-stitch seamline would work nicely with the two different kfb incs, because you could have a marker between the two sts and do the right-bump one before the marker and the standard one after the marker. (Using the classic method, you'd probably place the marker prior to the two sts, work a kfb, sm, k1, kfb) Again, I'm just trying to understand *why* someone might prefer this to strategic placement. Thanks!
That last scenario is when I first started using the 2 techniques because I kept forgetting to replace the marker in the correct position after making the increases otherwise the marker just gets farther away and the increase would be missed at least for me.
@@kathleencarty149 I spent yesterday really exploring the mirrored kfb and I have come up with some good reasons to use it. I usually use it when I want the increase to be invisible, so in garter or ribbing, and tend to not use it in stockinette, where it is visible. I've come up with some real advantages to the mirrored kfb, particularly for raglan increase lines, so I thank you for the suggestion!
I personally have trouble visualizing what I am doing with the yarn when I make a particular stitch or use a technic, so I like your videos that show step by step, sometimes with more than one color of yarn or whatever. You help my brain go from the literal project in my hands to the general knitting in my brain, if that makes sense. Also, when my husband’s father was downsizing, he let us choose things that we could take home, and we chose 3 display objects that had special meaning, look nice together, and fit on one shelf together. Better a beautiful display of beautiful memories than boxes of keepsakes in a closet somewhere. So I really like your approach with your family’s dishware🥰
I love the extreme details of your technique videos. Some people just teach the "how to" of a stitch... Your way makes it so much easier to learn, understand, and ultimately adapt, when needed, which is far more useful. You are my go to for tutorials. I noticed that the sweater you're wearing (my favorite that I`m still hoping to test knit) has mirrored cables whereas the ones on the mannequin are not mirrored... Just wondering if that as just a random design choice, or if it was for ease of crossing the cable the same way?
The cables on the cream sweater were redesigned so that I could start them as closed cables from the top down, and were worked at either end of the same row, rather than as separate left and right fronts from the bottom up. they are 18 sts wide, rather than 16. I didn't notice until you pointed it out that they weren't mirrored. It's likely that between the sweater redesign, and trying to find the right top-down set-in sleeve set up for this particular sweater on top of calculating and tracking the top down shaping that I didn't even think about it. It was nearly a year ago, so no telling what was going through my mind at the time! Most likely it was just the by-product of top down construction, which I only use if absolutely necessary, specifically because there is so much to keep track of at the start.
Thank you! Your old clock... we have almost the same one that comes from my husband's family. Out here in California, we were able to find a clock repair person who fixed it for us. It loses about 5 minutes a day.
Interesting to hearing your pre-project thoughts and how you sort it out and mentally visualize what might look good . Helpful to talk it out . Sometimes in the middle of talking to myself LOL I have an eureka moment . As far as feedback , I am a fan of when you are doing these changes , and you pull out the spread sheet , show the math involved , even simple as a quick graph paper drawing . I love to know the how as well as the why behind things . ex: short body, need to change the rate , # of rows for inc/ dec or things beginners like myself need to know , X stockinette stitches plus measurement of these cables = circumference. ( Could be a HUGE beginner mistake :P ) All things you have done in the past , so cheers to you!!
I love the idea of a connected strip of red from the back to the front. If you are concerned about the break in color where the ribbing on the pocket crosses the cable on the front, why not knit that section of the pocket ribbing red and then change back to the gray? That would be an uninterrupted strip of red.
Hello I would omit center back cable and mirror then all facing inward or outward but center back would have the middle omitted an move cables closer slightly to close back middle space and slightly move all cables evenly to balance it. Thanks for sharing and it's fun to think about something with different opinions and ideas 😊 Ahymsa
The center back cable occupies the space on the back that is occupied by the button bands on the front. Moving the cables on the back closer together would prevent them from meeting the front cables at the top of the shoulders.
I appreciate what your goal is when explaining processes because the disconnect between knowing how to follow a pattern vs making it to your own taste is where I struggle. How do I change a pattern drop sleeve to a raglan for example. How do I modify the rate of increases or decreases? How do those modifications affect the final outcome? There are several books that probably are wonderful resources but I am more of a visual & hands on type of learner.
I enjoy your technique videos for the how and why, otherwise I’d just look it up in a book. For the cable sweater remake, I’d probably do the reverse stockinette stitch behind the cable in red. I find the negative space shape intriguing. I’d also probably leave the pockets off, putting them in the side seam.
I'm now curious about half coloured cables. Is that intarsia? Does that even work as well as it would seem or would the between-crossing red side look odd? Would be an intriguing philosophical reference, original sweater DNA with new life ; ) as per mirroring I'd wonder if one could do a celtic-esque cable in the center that was a combination of the mirrored forms. Thanks for the brain food!
What about doing only a part of each cable in red, sort of like the Interlock pattern on Ravelry? Hmmm, but then there’s the issue with the mirroring (or not). Oh, or, since they’re quite wide cables, doing red interlock on *each* side of cables?? And perhaps the button band also?? I’m not sure what I picture in my head would be the actual result (and would certainly mean using a lot of bobbins!!), but thought I’d throw the idea out to you. It’s such a beautiful sweater - adding another colour sure does add a lot of complexity!!! Thanks for another fascinating video. :-)
I’m a beginning knitter and I’ve learned so much from watching your videos. Thank you. Have you gone into detail in a video about the spreadsheet you create for each project, and also, have you explained about graphing a pattern? As I’m progressing in my knitting, I want to be able to visualize the stitch pattern and I think graphing would help me. Also the spreadsheet would be a way to look at a project conceptually that might work well for me. If you have these videos, could you give me links. If not, these would be subjects I’d be very interested in.
Roxy, might you consider changing the top of the sleeve to be a saddle sleeve with the sleeve's middle cable running up along the shoulder terminating at the neck band...This could be where you put your red because it would be visible from both front and back without busying up either the front or back. Also, about the pockets: if you are using a smaller yarn and smaller needles with more stitches, can you distribute the cable overage between both cables and the pearl in the middle. Could you line up the pocket ribbing with the cables using a smaller gauge?
The spacing of the cables on the front needs to match the spacing on the back so that the cables meet at the shoulders. Changing the size and/or spacing of the front cables means changing the back cables, too. Because there is a center cable at the back and purl columns flanking it, changing the size and spacing of all of the cables causes a ripple effect back to the front, in terms of where the cables are positioned and how the pocket would be positioned. My choices (as I see them) are to widen the pocket in order to cover both cables OR to move the pocket so that it covers the other cable completely, and reveals the edge of the one currently covered.
@@RoxanneRichardson Roxy, I really and truly appreciate your videos. You are a scholar of the knitting world, and we need you. I love to knit, but I only knit for myself because I am getting older and my hands hurt, lol! About the reverse engineering project: have you drawn it out yet using color so you can "see" where to put the red, if at all?
Tidbit#2 - I had never thought about using grams to figure out yarn usage. I am that lady who is literally dividing the yardage on the ball ban by 1800 each time, figuring that I'd have extra in most cases, which would be best. Are you suggesting grams is an easier measuring calculation?? (Note: I use 1800 because I usually end up crocheting the sweater... which I can do faster and I know crocheting uses more yarn. )
The number of sts you can get out of a ball of yarn will depend on the yardage and gauge, etc. of that yarn. So when I calculate how many sts are in a project, and I see how many sts I get with a ball, that's telling me how many sts I'm getting with that 50g or 100g ball, so I can divide that stitch number in the total stitch count to calculate the number of balls I need of this particular yarn for this particular project. I might get 9500ish sts from a ball of worsted weight yarn if I'm working at 5 sts/in, but that doesn't mean I'll get that many sts from another ball of yarn that has different yardage and/or if I'm knitting at a different gauge. If you use the same yarns over and over and you work at basically the same gauge, experience will help you make that prediction about yarn usage.
I missed the episode last week...personally, I would leave the cables alone and do the button band (and collar) and the pocket tops in red. Maybe also the sleeve cuffs. Whatever I ended up doing, it would be symmetrical
I have Rowan Magazine from when they were first published. There are several sweaters that I would like to create that has color work. However, all the patters are knitted in pieces. So, firstly, how difficult is it to do stranded color work without knitting in the round/or wha is the technique to do this?. Secondly, what things do I have to consider if I wanted to modify the patterns to knit the flat patters using circular needles? I love following the podcast btw.
It might work, but we all have to remember, as she's said many times, that Rox is "color challenged" (color blind) show sketching the colors might not work for her. But it's a great idea and I might try that myself - even if I can't sketch a person or a 3d shape, but I can do a box.
Re:red yarn. What about running the red on each side panel & down the underside of the sleeves? I can’t see the undersides of the sleeves to know of they’re cabled.
Full skeins remain in my stash for use in a future project. Partial skeins go into a drawer/bin and are used for swatching or for use in a pattern where a small amount of color is needed.
Make the dishes part of your life. Not every day - that's not really special. Instead, pick one day of the week and use the dishes for that "special" day for a meal. Using them once a year or even once a month isn't enough. Are you going to put red buttons on your sweater?
Thank you so very much, Roxanne Richardson! What a surprise to be watching and hear you mention my podcast. I'm perhaps your biggest fan; you were one of the very first knitting podcasts that I stumbled upon when I re-entered the knitting universe a couple years ago. I am deeply honored that you, above all others, find what I'm doing to be worthy of a mention. Your passion for vintage is noteworthy and everyone should know how courageous you are to tackle these old patterns that omit important instructions. I'm grateful to be part of a community that supports one another. Thank you again for all you do.
I don't know why I didn't check this out before, but hi now! Rox, now I have connected with Billie, and we're both in NYC!
Hi Roxanne. Tonight I am finally able to catch up on your videos. First, let me say that, in my opinion, you are doing a superb job with the connection between your Technique Tuesday videos and your Casual Friday podcasts. You don’t just show us a new technique but give us options and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each option. I don’t see how you can improve on the videos. Casual Friday’s are a great lesson in history and you are so successful in showing us how you resolve the issues you encounter. I find it fascinating! I totally get why you take knitting classes. Makes perfect sense. I first learned to knit as a child over 55 years ago but as I grew up I got back into for a time in my 30’s and then again in my 50’s. I love taking classes! Before the pandemic I had been taking them most every week for 8 years. I miss my teacher and my friends in our group. We do both knit and crochet and learn so much. Hopefully we can resume at some point. I totally get your desire to learn everything you can about a subject. If I still didn’t have to work, which is no picnic doing it remotely, I’d be learning a lot more. I’m also very glad that you were able to see your mom. Having lost mine a little over a year ago it’s very hard. And to make matters worse I can’t get down to Florida to see my dad due to this pandemic. Very frustrating! And it must have been great seeing your daughter too! I can’t wait to hear about the sweater you are making for her. It’s lovely! The clock is a beautiful piece with a great story! Thanks for sharing with us! I do remember that video about how you get to your mom’s. I deal with dementia and the elderly in my work. Hopefully it will not progress too fast. 💕
I really enjoy the technique Tuesday videos as well as the time into the casual Friday ones. I'm a long time knitter, but I've never been able to match row gauge because I usually have to drop 2 needle sizes to get stitch gauge. So anything more "complicated" than a scarf, a hat, a shawl, or blanket has been way out of my comfort zone until I recently. My other complication is that I'm allergic to wool (trying a skein of super wash merino to see if I have a reaction); so knitting with all the yarns that the patterns call for has been difficult - until I discovered your technique & casual videos. I feel as if I'm getting a personal tutorial from the technique videos and that the casual videos are a peek inside the process of how you constructively get inspired for your projects. So yes both are absolutely wonderful and I enjoy them immensely.
Hi Roxanne,
Thank you for this video. I have always appreciated the connection between Casual Friday and Tech Tuesday. You are the first one that helped me appreciate that I am the "boss" of my knitting! (and crochet) I was frustrated by great elements of great patterns...now I simply combine the elements I like; thanks to your teaching and a bit of hand holding 🥰
I watch all of your videos. Sometimes you show how to modify a shape or do a technique and I may not use it until a year later, but I know I can count on you to have a video to help me. I watch your Friday videos to be amazed at how you figure out a pattern without the written pattern. I can knit many things but not without a pattern. I just love to watch and listen to you deconstructing a knitted item.
An excellent mantra for the goals of learning: “It’s not about the mittens”. Get that on a t-shirt. 😄
I think that when you start a project and continue the step by step approach it makes it easier to understand all the techniques, I really learn when you discuss design and options.
Comments on a couple of things. First. I tune into your Casual Friday videos because it's you doing them. You have the knack of intelligent story telling with knitting as your context. You're like a doctor of knitting, worrying about being useful to your patient readers (yes, you are very useful). You share your enthusiasm for the craft your watchers love, too, in a way which makes knitting the star, and brings attention to and honours the genius of our knitting predecessors. Your links are like additional supplements where we can dig deeper at our leisure (very fortifying). I watch the Technique Tuesday videos as well, just to see how a good teacher teaches. They're like visiting a workshop where a master knitter is tinkering away, and I leave with better tools in my bag, which might come in handy one day.
Second. About your sweater. It seems that you've discovered the design flaws inherent in a commercial garment, which colour may amplify, if you were to knit that exact sweater with some colour additions. But you'll need to rejig the design anyway due to the gauge differences. Once you have a better idea of what your changes will look like, you can then consider where to put the colour. You could go crazy and embrace dissonance. Knit a coloured front cable column, continue it into the inside of the pocket but end the exterior colour to include the pocket ribbing but nothing below. Could you play with a horizontal striping on the back? Maybe just one partial stripe Intersecting with a coloured cable? A thin edge of the wrist ribbing or bottom of the sweater? Red buttons? You'd be playing with the idea of "cable sweater", "bespoke vs. commercial", setting on its ear what a traditional cable sweater should look like. Aesthetic and artistic choices are essentially about ideas. Your ideas. What would Roxanne Richardson do?
I know this is a month after you posted this but I've been binging, digesting and playing catch up today. I love that you're teaching me to read my knitting and question it too. It's inspiring to be challenged.
I have one observation regarding the red color in the gray sweater you're contemplating. What would you like to highlight? Where do you want eyes to rest when looking at it? The cables? The buttons? The pockets? The color to highlight? Your knitting is art. Sometimes less is more. Only you can decide but I know it will be lovely. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Hi Roxanne, I absolutely love your videos! Whenever I want to learn/experiment with anything knitting related, I always check to see if you have a video on the subject first. I really appreciate that you put everything in context and present why a technique works as well as highlight nuances to help your viewers know when to use the given technique. As I have started modifying garment patterns to better fit me, I have found it incredibly difficult to find information on what measurements on the body correspond to important aspects/measurements on the knitted garment. For example, this summer I was knitting a bottom up, seamless, drop shoulder tee that I blocked before separating for the sleeves and realized that it had less ease than the pattern intended. So many knitting books I’ve looked at recommend that you have a lot of ease to ensure that the top will fit over your shoulders but despite looking in about 5 knitting books (and lots of online searching), I couldn’t find a good explanation of how much ease was actually needed. The books mostly just provided rules of thumb and didn’t explain where to measure on the body to ensure that the armscye depth would be sufficient given the width of the sweater. All this to say, technique videos on substituting sweater construction/shaping would be very appreciated and I would find it incredibly helpful if they included (when possible) what body measurements will influence parts of the shaping/construction.
I had to go get the china in my kitchen from my husband’s grandmother as the pattern was nearly identical but I knew ours was from England. It is the Garden Bouquet by Johnson Bros. of England and has been on our hutch since she passed 30 years ago. So many fond memories! The history and stories you share are a bonus to the knitting 🧶 and I so enjoy it all!
Your technique videos have been very helpful to me. I am a new-ish knitter who a) has tight tension, and b) knits mirror continental. The way you describe why, as well as how, makes it easier for me to translate right to left, and vise versa.
I love watching ur channel...ur dedication to sharing ur knowledge is so refreshing. U inspire me to learn and do more. Please continue as u feel is best. One thing I would love to do but feel it is too challenging is design and make my own sweater. Would u ever concider going thru the process step by step. I am sure there r many people interested n willing to financially support u thru this process. So if u are running out of ideas......... thats my suggestion. I loved ur sock pattern KAL from last summer but got lost in the process.
Hi Roxanne, Personally, I feel that you’re reaching the goals you’ve set out for in your videos. I have been applying and incorporating the techniques you’ve posted since before you started the casual Friday videos. The Friday videos provide great insight into your process and, aside from being informative, they are enjoyable to watch. Like you, I enjoy acquiring knowledge, regardless of how ‘useful’ it is to me at a given moment...so your reasons for taking classes make perfect sense to me. Thanks for taking the time to share your knitting knowledge and process!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge & thinking process. I had a goal this year of learning something new on each project I chose to do; so far have pretty much done that. (There will be a grab bag of finished objects at Christmas! That’s an idea I picked up at a spinning demonstration last year-rather than making specific gifts there’s a variety to choose from.) I have so much to learn yet!
Roxanne, your videos are my go-to when I am trying to figure something out. The very reason you described- for the "putting it all together." Now with that said, I still struggle a bit with execution and have to watch/listen to multiple times, the things you demonstrate and talk about. (Maybe I'm am just not a sharp tack!) But what I am hopeful to have you do is some online classes incorporating some specific things such as the shoulder shaping when trying to modify a pattern, etc. In fact, I am currently thinking through that very thing for a cardigan I started about 4 months ago, but substituting the yarn has meant recalculating for a different gauge. Your videos have helped me stick with it! Please consider a Zoom, or some other interactive class. I am sure I'm not alone in wanting to be one of your students.
I look forward to see how the reverse engineering sweater turns out.
I would definitely mirror the front cables on the side with the button holes. The cable next to the buttons flows beautifully into the v-neck.
Re: mirrored cables and red accent cable. My opinion: Keep all the cables going the same direction. The cables are a _large_ design motif and the overall effect is more harmonious if they all twist in the same direction.
Red accent cable: I’m not crazy about the red accent cable idea, but you seem attached to it and that’s okay - it’s *your* sweater. But I strongly suggest that the red accent cable twist in the SAME direction as all the other cables. Let the _red_ be the accent that draws the eye. If you double-accent the cable by making it red *and* reverse-twisted, it would look like a cable that belonged to another sweater, wandered away, got lost and ended up joining your sweater. It would not ‘belong’.
I’ve greatly enjoyed your past multi-installment project reports (vintage sweaters, yay!), and look forward to the future reports on this project.
I appreciate what your goal is when explaining processes because there is a disconnect between knowing how to follow a pattern vs making the adjustments for style and/or fit. Your analytical thinking about knitting is contagious and is an avenue that I hadn't considered and I find it extremely useful and inspiring. Continue Please!!!
I love love your history segments and deep appreciation of how to honor it. I kept a few of my mom's dishes which were given to her mother by the family for whom she was a governess in Germany before WWII. All the best as you help your own mom.
Oh Roxanne you brought back lovely memories of sitting in our car ,eating ice cream and watching the 9.o’clock ferry leave Luddington each evening, and the beautiful sunset of course. We visit our son and his family each year who live in Canton MI and we took a trip to Luddington for a few days 2 years ago, we stayed at a beautiful inn. I am in Worcestershire in UK and I have just realised we should be sitting on their deck in Canton right now , But of course everything got cancelled , so waiting for a vaccine so we can go next year. Thank you for you videos. 🤗🤗
Hard to believe so many people in the U.S. think the Midwest west is a bunch of "flyover states," when you have such beautiful views, isn't it? I hope you are able to enjoy the Lake Michigan sunset next year. :-)
Roxanne Richardson Me too !!
Maybe consider donating your box to a museum. They can be interested in collections from a certain time period or they could direct you to who would be.
The red doesn't have to be interrupted by the pocket band. You can do part of the pocket band in red by just switching the yarn.
I love the way you teach in your technique videos and I enjoy how you share your thought process when working out a design or alteration. You ask for ideas for videos and I have discovered the opposite of kfb which is not widely known although there is a description of it on the interweave web site. If you think of kfb as knitting into the back and then the right leg of a stitch then the opposite is knitting into the back and then the left leg of the same stitch. The new stitch grows out of the right side as opposed to kfb where the new stitch grows out of the left side. These 2 increases look good side by side too especially in garter stitch.
Can you give me an example of why you would want to mirror an kfb, rather than just knitting them so that the bump appears where you want it to be? When you work the two side by side, are you working them so that the increase bumps are adjacent to each other, or away from each other? i.e. V- - V or - V V - ?
I recently completed a scarf worked diagonally in garter stitch. It continued modularity with increases along both sides. I liked how it looked when the increases were worked 2 stitches in from each side. In this case the purl bumps of the increase faced the inside of the scarf. I also like using these increases after a 2 by 2 rib border. The increase is worked in the knit stitches and the purl bump hides nicely in the purl fabric. The increase direction in determined by which side of the k2 I want the purl bump. These increases also work if you want decorative purl bump increases along a central line like a raglan. In this case the purl bumps would face away from each other. I thought other knitters would want to know about this option but you would have a better grasp of whether that is true.
@@kathleencarty149 I'm always curious about why people search for a mirror to the kfb, because I have found that getting that bump in the place I want is possible if I plan correctly. For example, in your scarf, you could work a standard kfb in the 3rd st from the end and get the bump mirrored with the bump after the 2nd st at the start of the row. That would be the "classic" way of mirroring a kfb. I haven't knit the kfb in every type of knitting scenario, though, so I'm trying to understand when that might not be possible. Is it that it's easier to visualize what to do or to place the bump where you want it by using a different technique than to use a different placement? It's an interesting technique, I'm just trying to get in the minds of knitters who might find it to be a better option than the typical way of getting symmetry with this increase. With a single stockinette column raglan line, for example, marking the actual seamline stitch (with the marker *on* the stitch) and then working the standard kfb prior to the seam line stitch and the mirrored one after it might make more sense to knitters who don't understand the kfb, slip marker, kfb method. A two-stitch seamline would work nicely with the two different kfb incs, because you could have a marker between the two sts and do the right-bump one before the marker and the standard one after the marker. (Using the classic method, you'd probably place the marker prior to the two sts, work a kfb, sm, k1, kfb) Again, I'm just trying to understand *why* someone might prefer this to strategic placement. Thanks!
That last scenario is when I first started using the 2 techniques because I kept forgetting to replace the marker in the correct position after making the increases otherwise the marker just gets farther away and the increase would be missed at least for me.
@@kathleencarty149 I spent yesterday really exploring the mirrored kfb and I have come up with some good reasons to use it. I usually use it when I want the increase to be invisible, so in garter or ribbing, and tend to not use it in stockinette, where it is visible. I've come up with some real advantages to the mirrored kfb, particularly for raglan increase lines, so I thank you for the suggestion!
I personally have trouble visualizing what I am doing with the yarn when I make a particular stitch or use a technic, so I like your videos that show step by step, sometimes with more than one color of yarn or whatever. You help my brain go from the literal project in my hands to the general knitting in my brain, if that makes sense. Also, when my husband’s father was downsizing, he let us choose things that we could take home, and we chose 3 display objects that had special meaning, look nice together, and fit on one shelf together. Better a beautiful display of beautiful memories than boxes of keepsakes in a closet somewhere. So I really like your approach with your family’s dishware🥰
I love the extreme details of your technique videos. Some people just teach the "how to" of a stitch... Your way makes it so much easier to learn, understand, and ultimately adapt, when needed, which is far more useful. You are my go to for tutorials. I noticed that the sweater you're wearing (my favorite that I`m still hoping to test knit) has mirrored cables whereas the ones on the mannequin are not mirrored... Just wondering if that as just a random design choice, or if it was for ease of crossing the cable the same way?
The cables on the cream sweater were redesigned so that I could start them as closed cables from the top down, and were worked at either end of the same row, rather than as separate left and right fronts from the bottom up. they are 18 sts wide, rather than 16. I didn't notice until you pointed it out that they weren't mirrored. It's likely that between the sweater redesign, and trying to find the right top-down set-in sleeve set up for this particular sweater on top of calculating and tracking the top down shaping that I didn't even think about it. It was nearly a year ago, so no telling what was going through my mind at the time! Most likely it was just the by-product of top down construction, which I only use if absolutely necessary, specifically because there is so much to keep track of at the start.
@@RoxanneRichardson I had a feeling it was something along those lines... Still gorgeous!
Thank you! Your old clock... we have almost the same one that comes from my husband's family. Out here in California, we were able to find a clock repair person who fixed it for us. It loses about 5 minutes a day.
Interesting to hearing your pre-project thoughts and how you sort it out and mentally visualize what might look good . Helpful to talk it out . Sometimes in the middle of talking to myself LOL I have an eureka moment .
As far as feedback , I am a fan of when you are doing these changes , and you pull out the spread sheet , show the math involved , even simple as a quick graph paper drawing . I love to know the how as well as the why behind things . ex: short body, need to change the rate , # of rows for inc/ dec or things beginners like myself need to know , X stockinette stitches plus measurement of these cables = circumference. ( Could be a HUGE beginner mistake :P ) All things you have done in the past , so cheers to you!!
You didn't say we couldn't get more thoughts on the cable sweater. Haha! What if the red cable just came up out of the grey pocket?
I love the idea of a connected strip of red from the back to the front. If you are concerned about the break in color where the ribbing on the pocket crosses the cable on the front, why not knit that section of the pocket ribbing red and then change back to the gray? That would be an uninterrupted strip of red.
Ginger Tunstall I had the same question-why the assumption that the pocket ribbing had to be all grey?
Hello
I would omit center back cable and mirror then all facing inward or outward but center back would have the middle omitted an move cables closer slightly to close back middle space and slightly move all cables evenly to balance it.
Thanks for sharing and it's fun to think about something with different opinions and ideas 😊
Ahymsa
The center back cable occupies the space on the back that is occupied by the button bands on the front. Moving the cables on the back closer together would prevent them from meeting the front cables at the top of the shoulders.
I appreciate what your goal is when explaining processes because the disconnect between knowing how to follow a pattern vs making it to your own taste is where I struggle. How do I change a pattern drop sleeve to a raglan for example. How do I modify the rate of increases or decreases? How do those modifications affect the final outcome? There are several books that probably are wonderful resources but I am more of a visual & hands on type of learner.
I enjoy your technique videos for the how and why, otherwise I’d just look it up in a book. For the cable sweater remake, I’d probably do the reverse stockinette stitch behind the cable in red. I find the negative space shape intriguing. I’d also probably leave the pockets off, putting them in the side seam.
I love the idea of the coloured cable beeing mirrored!
I'm now curious about half coloured cables. Is that intarsia? Does that even work as well as it would seem or would the between-crossing red side look odd? Would be an intriguing philosophical reference, original sweater DNA with new life ; ) as per mirroring I'd wonder if one could do a celtic-esque cable in the center that was a combination of the mirrored forms. Thanks for the brain food!
What about doing only a part of each cable in red, sort of like the Interlock pattern on Ravelry? Hmmm, but then there’s the issue with the mirroring (or not). Oh, or, since they’re quite wide cables, doing red interlock on *each* side of cables?? And perhaps the button band also?? I’m not sure what I picture in my head would be the actual result (and would certainly mean using a lot of bobbins!!), but thought I’d throw the idea out to you.
It’s such a beautiful sweater - adding another colour sure does add a lot of complexity!!!
Thanks for another fascinating video. :-)
I’m a beginning knitter and I’ve learned so much from watching your videos. Thank you. Have you gone into detail in a video about the spreadsheet you create for each project, and also, have you explained about graphing a pattern? As I’m progressing in my knitting, I want to be able to visualize the stitch pattern and I think graphing would help me. Also the spreadsheet would be a way to look at a project conceptually that might work well for me. If you have these videos, could you give me links. If not, these would be subjects I’d be very interested in.
I found your Playlist on Charts. I will watch those.
The first one I did is here: th-cam.com/video/rz-ZTPNouU0/w-d-xo.html
A more recent one is here: th-cam.com/video/gtXrZ-DEQ04/w-d-xo.html
Roxy, might you consider changing the top of the sleeve to be a saddle sleeve with the sleeve's middle cable running up along the shoulder terminating at the neck band...This could be where you put your red because it would be visible from both front and back without busying up either the front or back. Also, about the pockets: if you are using a smaller yarn and smaller needles with more stitches, can you distribute the cable overage between both cables and the pearl in the middle. Could you line up the pocket ribbing with the cables using a smaller gauge?
The spacing of the cables on the front needs to match the spacing on the back so that the cables meet at the shoulders. Changing the size and/or spacing of the front cables means changing the back cables, too. Because there is a center cable at the back and purl columns flanking it, changing the size and spacing of all of the cables causes a ripple effect back to the front, in terms of where the cables are positioned and how the pocket would be positioned. My choices (as I see them) are to widen the pocket in order to cover both cables OR to move the pocket so that it covers the other cable completely, and reveals the edge of the one currently covered.
@@RoxanneRichardson Roxy, I really and truly appreciate your videos. You are a scholar of the knitting world, and we need you. I love to knit, but I only knit for myself because I am getting older and my hands hurt, lol! About the reverse engineering project: have you drawn it out yet using color so you can "see" where to put the red, if at all?
Love your ideas on color modifications, you could have just one pocket on the front or hidden pockets on the side seam. ❤❤❤☺ love your channel.
Love your history stories. Did you show the china pattern? Did I miss something? I hope you can show it.
I did show it - around the time when I mentioned my mom's husband showed me an oval dish.
@@RoxanneRichardson Thanks, Rox. I guess I was just looking down at my knitting first go round! Very pretty.
Tidbit#2 - I had never thought about using grams to figure out yarn usage. I am that lady who is literally dividing the yardage on the ball ban by 1800 each time, figuring that I'd have extra in most cases, which would be best. Are you suggesting grams is an easier measuring calculation?? (Note: I use 1800 because I usually end up crocheting the sweater... which I can do faster and I know crocheting uses more yarn. )
The number of sts you can get out of a ball of yarn will depend on the yardage and gauge, etc. of that yarn. So when I calculate how many sts are in a project, and I see how many sts I get with a ball, that's telling me how many sts I'm getting with that 50g or 100g ball, so I can divide that stitch number in the total stitch count to calculate the number of balls I need of this particular yarn for this particular project. I might get 9500ish sts from a ball of worsted weight yarn if I'm working at 5 sts/in, but that doesn't mean I'll get that many sts from another ball of yarn that has different yardage and/or if I'm knitting at a different gauge. If you use the same yarns over and over and you work at basically the same gauge, experience will help you make that prediction about yarn usage.
I missed the episode last week...personally, I would leave the cables alone and do the button band (and collar) and the pocket tops in red. Maybe also the sleeve cuffs. Whatever I ended up doing, it would be symmetrical
Hi. Could you discuss the beautiful sweater you are wearing in this episode?
I'll be talking about it in the next Casual Friday.
I have Rowan Magazine from when they were first published. There are several sweaters that I would like to create that has color work. However, all the patters are knitted in pieces. So, firstly, how difficult is it to do stranded color work without knitting in the round/or wha is the technique to do this?. Secondly, what things do I have to consider if I wanted to modify the patterns to knit the flat patters using circular needles? I love following the podcast btw.
Have you tried sketching the sweater, using color in different places?
It might work, but we all have to remember, as she's said many times, that Rox is "color challenged" (color blind) show sketching the colors might not work for her. But it's a great idea and I might try that myself - even if I can't sketch a person or a 3d shape, but I can do a box.
@@cydnicaldwell1337 agreed but even seeing the contrast might help. Glad this helps you!
What if you turned the arm cable into a saddle shoulder?
Re:red yarn. What about running the red on each side panel & down the underside of the sleeves? I can’t see the undersides of the sleeves to know of they’re cabled.
Love the podcast. You said you don't mind having leftover yarn - particularly in worsted weight. What do you generally do with the leftover yarn?
Full skeins remain in my stash for use in a future project. Partial skeins go into a drawer/bin and are used for swatching or for use in a pattern where a small amount of color is needed.
Technic Tue- thanx for fishing pole and not just fish 🐠.
Could you photoshop some of the ideas to see how they would look?
Make the dishes part of your life. Not every day - that's not really special. Instead, pick one day of the week and use the dishes for that "special" day for a meal. Using them once a year or even once a month isn't enough. Are you going to put red buttons on your sweater?