Grab Those Stitches! (Video Tutorial)

This month is all about creating amazing surface textures with the magic of grab stitches. This is a really fun technique that, I’m willing to bet, is new to a lot of our readers. There are several really cool things about this technique. First, the texture grab stitches create is really amazing! Second, grab stitches make a reversible fabric that looks great on either side. That reversibility is on full show in this month’s Confident Knitting pattern by Jimenez Joseph, the Saturnus Cushions. The light blue sample shows off grab stitches on the stocking stitch side of the fabric, while the orange sample features single grab stitches on the “wrong” or reverse stocking stitch side. Finally, once you get the hang of the technique, it’s something you can really run with, unleashing your creativity and creating unique textures.

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Knitting Know-How: Join, Being Careful Not to Twist (Video Tutorials)

We’ve been thinking about beginning knitting more than usual here around Arnall-Culliford H-Q, as we’ve celebrated the arrival of Skill Set and Field Guide No. 18: Beginnings and watched our retail manager, Lou, start her own knitting journey. Knitting, like any hobby or specialised pursuit, has its own lingo. Phrases that, once we’ve been knitting awhile, we gloss over without a thought, and that would rarely be explained by a knitting pattern. Phrases like “join, being careful not to twist".

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There's more than one way to start a toe-up sock! (Crochet Provisional Cast On and Grafting Video Tutorials)

I love that my day job focusses on helping knitters learn new techniques. And I find it particularly fun when I can suggest using techniques in a way that might not be immediately obvious. Today, I’ve got a pair of video tutorials for the crochet provisional cast on and grafting, skills that you’ll use individually time and again over the course of a knitting career. But they’re also a pair that work together particularly well. I’ll dive into some of their more common uses in today’s post, but I also want to highlight a perhaps less obvious application: they make a great way to start toe-up socks if Judy’s Magic Cast on isn’t your cup of tea.

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