Monica Knits

The lily of the valley pattern is a little trickier to knit with lace weight yarn than fingering weight because it is easy to miss picking up one of the 5 loops or to accidentally pick up an extra loop. The middle of the 5 stitches in the nupp is sometimes tight or hidden behind the other loops. The other potential error is to accidentally pick up 6 sts, since for many of the nupps, the next stitch is a yarn over, which is easy to unwittingly pickup with a 3.25 mm needle. A small diameter, contrast colored dpn is used to ensure that 5 and only 5 loops are picked up. Read more ... for additional photos and discussion.
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Picot Cast On After I wrote the picot bind off (cast off) article, there were a number of reader inquiries for picot cast on instructions. Like the picot bind off, you can create a delicate finish of bobbles of good elasticity--ideal for sock cuffs. Also like the related bind off, the picot size is determined by the number of stitches cast on and then bound off together. The picot cast on begins with a cable cast on, then employs a combination of cable cast ons and clustered bind offs similar to the picot cast off. Read more... for illustrated instructions and related links.

Image 1Recently the method of picking up gusset stitches through both loops was illustrated. In this article the gusset stitches are picked up through the back loops only of the heel flap. Read more ... for stepwise, illustrated instructions in picking up stitches through both loops of a chain stitch selvedge.

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The basic heel and the ridgeline heel each used a different style for picking up the gusset stitches. In the basic heel, two loops were picked up from the chain stitch selvedge as illustrated at right. In the ridgeline heel, just the backs of the loops were picked up. Read more ... for stepwise, illustrated instructions in picking up stitches through both loops of a chain stitch selvedge.
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