When I’m teaching new knitters, I notice that a lot of them get caught up in the terms for the different styles of knitting. What is continental knitting? What is throwing? And which one is better?
Do what’s most comfortable
When I teach beginning knitters, I don’t tell them anything about how to hold the yarn. I let them do what’s most comfortable. Most folks intuitively grab the needles and yarn in the way that works best for them!
What is Continental Knitting?
‘Continental Knitting’ refers to holding your yarn in your non-dominant hand. For right-handers, that means holding (and tensioning) the yarn with your left hand.
It’s called this because it’s thought to be the style of knitting most popular on ‘the continent’ of Europe (as opposed to England), but I’ve spoken to a number of international knitters that reveal this generalization isn’t completely accurate. The finer-grained truth is that there are a variety of knitting cultures (with their preferred yarn-holding styles) within Europe… but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post!
I made you a video so that you can see me knitting ‘Continental’:
Most crocheters knit this way, as they are used to tensioning their yarn in their non-dominant hand.
What is Throwing?
Throwing refers to the action of moving the hand holding the yarn around your dominant knitting needle. It is most commonly used with ‘English’ knitting (where you hold your yarn in your dominant hand), but not necessarily.
Most people consider this to be a slower method of knitting… but let me tell you, I know some throwers who make my continental knitting look like it’s happening at a snail’s pace!
I made a little video of me throwing. I’m a bit slower at it because it’s not my usual style!
And more…
There are all kinds of styles of knitting that describe how you hold your hands and where you hold your yarn. We’ve only scratched the surface!
And there is no ‘best’ technique! Each style takes practice and suits different knitters!
However, if you want to do stranded knitting (colorwork), then you’ll probably want to learn both of these techniques for faster two-handed knitting.
But first – let’s move my big head out of the way so you can see the whole quilt. š
You guys saw bits and pieces in the sneak peeks last week, but here’s the entire thing – my Woodland Critters Quilt.
There are 9 different animals, 6 mushrooms, and 4 trees. You also get an alphabet so you can add animal sounds like this. . .
These examples are crib size, but I also include layouts for napping and twin size quilts. That’s the napping size hanging on the wall behind me in the top photo – my favorite size for couch use.
What’s that in front of me? It’s an owl quilt!
I took just one block from the Woodland Critters Quilt and went crazy with all my favorite colors and fun decorative stitches and made this beauty. I love how some of the owls are sleepy and some of them are grumpy. It’s super easy to make the change and I show you how in the class.
The class! Let me tell you what’s in the class!
(I can’t believe how much we packed into seven video lessons!)
I get a lot of emails from people saying they wish I could just come to their house and show them how to make a quilt from start to finish.
This is the next best thing. I show EVERYTHING!
How I choose fabric
How I true up my fabric and cut background blocks
How I quilt my blocks before adding applique
Fusible applique basics – my favorite products and how to use them
My tricks for marking faces and how to handle overlapping bits
Lots and lots of options for doing the eyes (the hardest bit)
Update ā Please be aware that Craftsy (now Bluprint) has added a subscription plan to their offerings, which changes the way instructor support happens. If you buy the class for your Forever Library, you get instructor support ā which means your questions are posted to a special instructor dashboard where I can see them and answer them. If you watch the class as part of the streaming subscription, any questions you post go to the larger class community ā not to me. I never even see them, so I can’t answer them.
It’s normally $34.99 (which I think is a terrific price for an exclusive pattern plus all that video content) but for the first week of the release I have a special discount for you. $20 off!
Use this link to get the discounted price.
And use it now – because that is a crazy price and it’s only available until midnight EST on Monday 8/10.
Here’s block #18 in the Controlled Chaos Quilt! There are only two left after this!
What Youāll Need
64 two-inch squares in color A (shown in aqua)
36 two-inch squares in color B (shown in red)
Instructions
Use 1/4ā³ seam allowances for all sewing.
Press all the seams as you go. Iām pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below.
For this block I worked in big chunks. I sewed things up in the following order. . .
Sew all your individual squares into pairs of matching colors. You should have 32 aqua pairs and 18 red pairs.
Sew the aqua pairs into large 4 x 4 squares. You’ll need four of them.
Sew the red pairs into 2 4×2 rectangles and 2 rows each 10 squares long.
Sew the long red rows together into one long rectangle 2 x 10 squares.
Sew one aqua block to one short red 2 x 4 rectangle and then to another aqua block. Repeat with the remaining aqua blocks and 2 x 4 red rectangles.
Assemble the final block by sewing an aqua/red row to the long red 2 x 10 rectangle and then to the last aqua/red row.
That’s 18 blocks done. I can’t believe we’re down to the last two!
Here’s what I calculated I’ll need to finish the quilt. I’m going to use a grey solid – I’m looking for a nice slate color. I’ll need. . .
1 1/4 yards for the sashing
5 yards for the backing
3/4 yard for the binding
I usually use Cuddle Fleece to back my quilts, but I want to hand quilt this one and I think the Cuddle Fleece will be too thick for that, so I’m going to use the same grey fabric. I’m going to big stitch quilt in a lot of different colors – it should make pretty speckling on the back and they’ll show up nicely on the solid.
I’ll be back next week with the penultimate block!
I hear you. Doing a gauge swatch is boring. You have a lovely ball of yarn in your hands and you just want to get started!
But did you know that if your gauge is off, you may end up using more yarn than is recommended? And if you’ve purchased a kit, that may mean you run out!
eep!
What does gauge have to do with yarn usage?
We’re used to thinking about gauge as telling you how big your finished product is going to be. If you’re crocheting a stuffed animal, you may not mind if the result is 1/2 inch bigger… but that doesn’t mean you can skip the gauge swatch!
When you measure gauge, you measure the height and width of the stitch.
But a stitch is made by wrapping the yarn around your hook or needle. And bigger stitches are made with bigger loops.
A bigger loop on your hook or needle uses more yarn!
If you’re a loose crocheter or knitter, that means that your loops are a bit bigger than standard… and you’ll use up a bit more yarn!
What to do
First of all, do a gauge swatch! It’s the only way to know if you’re really on target with your stitches.
Finally… this is only tangentially related to the issue of gauge, but it’s a great chart, so I want to share! There are more tidbits about calculating yardage in this blog post.
If you want to make something besides bears, you can use any of my applique patterns. Just print the pieces at 40% size. You’ll find more info about resizing a pattern here.
Here’s how to make them.
Cut two 4-inch squares of wool felt for each coaster.
If you live in a humid place where one beverage will soak through two layers of wool felt in no time, cut a 3 1/2 inch square from something waterproof for each coaster. It doesn’t matter what it looks like – it will be hidden inside the coaster. I use a shower curtain liner. š
Download the pattern and print (or trace)Ā the pieces onto freezer paper. The sheet has enough piecesĀ for 6 coasters.
Rough cut around the pieces and fuse the freezer paper to wool felt. Cut out all the pieces. Cut right through the felt and the freezer paper – it helps you get neat cuts on all those tiny pieces.
Leave a little extra seam allowance past the dotted lines at the base of the ears – that bit will tuck under the head for a neat finish.
Peel off the freezer paper backs and assemble all the pieces (tucking the ears under the head) on one of your coaster squares. I like to swipe the backs with a little dab of fabric glue stick, but you can use pins if you don’t mind your thread snagging on them every other stitch. š
Here are the colors I used for my set. I used black for all the eyes and noses. I recommend shopping Benzie Design for felt. they have a HUGE selection of colors! One sheet of felt will make three coasters.
background – denim
bear – Tahitian sunset
muzzle and belly – copper
background – enchanted forest
bear – coffee
muzzle and belly – Tahitian sunset
background – vineyard
bear – copper
muzzle and belly – cobblestone
background – loden
bear – Tahitian sunset
muzzle and belly – cobblestone
background – blue snow
bear – white
muzzle – smoky marble
background – babbling brook
bear – licorice
muzzle – Tahitian sunset
My favorite is the one with the purple background. Jo’s favorite is the polar bear. Alan is still at San Diego Comic Con so he hasn’t claimed one yet. Which is your favorite?
Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!
Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.
Press all the seams as you go. Iām pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.
Arrange your squares according to the diagram below.
For this block I worked in columns. I sewed things up in the following order. . .
Sew all your individual squares into pairs of matching colors. You should have 24 orange pairs and 26 green pairs.
Sew the orange squares into columns – each 2 blocks x 8 blocks.
Add a green pair to the top and bottom of each orange column.
Sew the remaining green pairs into 4 strips, each 10 blocks long.
Assemble the final block by alternating green columns with the columns that have the orange in them.
That’s 17 blocks done – just 3 more to go. THREE!
Did I mention just three blocks left? I’d better do the math and figure out how much fabric to order for the sashing and the back. I’ll include that info with next week’s block. š
People get stumped when it’s time to outline applique designs – and the more complicated the block, the more likely I am to get questions about how to approach that outline stitching.
Where to start?
There’s no right or wrong way – as long as you outline each piece, you’re good. But I do like to have all my lines connect (just like they would in a drawing) and I have a system that I use.
This system works for any block, using any pattern – but I’ll go over the specifics using this quilt block as an example. I loaded it up big. If you click on it you should get a larger version of the image so you can really zoom in on the details.
Here’s the order I used to outline applique pieces. . .
Start with all the pieces on top – that is, not overlapped by any other pieces:
hair
belt
shoes
Stitch all the way around each piece, then work your way out from those pieces:
dress top
arms
dress bottom
legs
face
As long as you always start with the pieces on top, you’ll always have lines to connect to. The best example of that in this block is the outlining of the face. The sides of the face tuck under the hair, and the sides of the neck tuck under the dress. So make sure the hair and the dress are stitched before you do the face and you’ll always have lines to connect to.
If you like that sample block that I used in this post – it’s part of the Paper Dolls quilt pattern. You get pages and pages of templates for different hair and outfits. It’s so much fun to mix and match them into your own designs!
Here are links to all my posts about outline stitching.
I get a lot of questions about how to choose fabric for a quilt.
I’ve got a post here with some tips for beginners on choosing what types of fabric to work with, and I include information with almost all of my quilts about the fabrics I used in my sample, but I realized I’ve never spelled out some general guidelines for choosing fabrics for a project – specifically choosing colors and prints.
Of course, choosing color is a pretty personal thing. š These are just the guidelines that I use to give my quilts their particular “look” and to make the blocks a cohesive collection.
First let’s look at the different groups I put my fabrics into.
If you really want to work with these kinds of prints, these two posts will help you out.
Using Fabric Print Wisely – this post shows how you can use prints like stripes to do some of the work for you in an applique project
Applique with Prints – this post has more info about choosing colors to pair with these multicolor prints
One-Color Fabrics
What I’m left with is lots and lots of fabulous monochrome fabric – which makes up the bulk of my stash. Within that group I have solids, batiks, and tone on tone prints (also called blenders).
When I choose fabrics for a quilt I work with these categories. I often start by choosing a category for my background blocks. I choose one of those groups and use those fabrics for ALL of the background blocks in a quilt. That makes the finished top look very cohesive.
Solids
This sample of the Lovable Mutts pattern uses solids for all the backgrounds. The quilting REALLY shows up on these solid blocks, so this is my favorite choice.
I’ve got fabric especially designed for this kind of background blocks in my Spoonflower shop. They’re 12-inch squares of solid fabric with easy-to-follow quilting lines printed right on the fabric – grouped in handy color palettes. You can find them all here.
Batiks
This sample of the Chirp quilt uses batiks for all the backgrounds. The quilting will tend to disappear in the dapply batik texture, so choose this if you’re not very confident in your quilting skills, or don’t want to put a ton of effort into the quilting.
The quilting won’t show as much as it does on solid fabric, but it will show up more than it does on a batik, so these tone on tone prints are a good middle of the road choice.
I design LOTS of blenders especially for my applique patterns, and they work for both the background blocks and for the applique – which means they’re very versatile fabrics to have in your stash.
Another option is to go for a more monochrome look. You can shop by color and get pale to very dark shades of the same color, all in different one on tone prints. Here’s an example of the Amethyst collection.
That Woodland Critters sample uses all Avocado Blenders for the background blocks.
This is also mostly easy. Warm colors are fiery – red, orange and yellow. Cool colors are watery – blue, green and purple.
Things can get tricky with neutrals – there are warm greys and cool greys, for example – but mostly this is pretty straightforward. If you have a cool background and a warm applique fabric (like that cat block above), you have temperature contrast.
Value
This one’s easy too. Dark fabrics contrast with light ones.
It can be hard to read the value contrast, especially if your fabrics are different temperatures. If you’re having trouble, try this trick.
These fabrics look high contrast because one is warm and the other is cool.
Snap a quick photo of them on your phone, then use a black and white filter on them.
Whoa! They have almost the exact same value!
Let’s audition some fabrics. . .
Even though that green/orange combination above turned out to have the same value, they still pass The Rule of Two Out of Three, so I would still use them. They have no contrast in value, but they contrast in texture (solid vs. tone on tone) and temperature (warm vs. cold).
I love red and orange together, but this combination fails. š They contrast in texture, but they are both warm, and both relatively dark. They only contrast in one category, so I’ll try again.
This one passes! It’s the same red (photographed at different times of day and not color corrected) but paired with a much lighter orange. They’re both warm, but now I have contrast in texture and in value, so I know this is a combination that will work.
So there you go – The Rule of Two Out of Three. It’s how I choose all the fabrics for my quilts.
Want an even deeper dive into what colors go together? Check out Color Theory 101.
Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.
