Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Get Ahead of the Holidays, March Videos

These videos by Nell will assist those of you in the heart-felt Get Ahead of the Holidays Club for March. Here we'll cover Provisional Cast On, SKP (Slip/Knit/Pass) English/American and Continental versions, PSSO (pass slipped stitch over), and How to Pick Up from the Provisional Cast On. These are useful skills for any knitter to know!


A Provisional Cast On, or Open Cast On, is meant to be removed while the knitting project is in progress, or as part of the finishing steps. Use a contrasting color for your waste yarn to make it easy to see. In this video, Nell shows you how to do a Provisional Cast On using a crochet hook.


Provisional Cast On (Crocheted)


Next we'll do a decrease using SKP (Slip/Knit/Pass) in two ways -- English/American and Continental.


SKP (Slip/Knit/Pass) - English/American Style


SKP (Slip/Knit/Pass) - Continental Style


At the heart of this month's project, there's a heart. When you arrive at the point at the bottom of each heart the instructions tell you to slip one, K2tog, PSSO. Here's how it's done -- in both the English/American and Continental styles:


Sl1, K2tog, PSSO - A pointed decrease for the bottom of your heart.


This video shows you how to pick up your stitches from the Provisional Cast On. You'll be working from the "wrong" or reverse stockinette side. You'll see why having a contrasting color for your waste yarn is so very helpful.


Picking Up Stitches (PU) from Provisional Cast On

So, how'd you like the part where you zip out the Provisional Cast On? We love that . . . it's always fun! Oh the joys of knitting!