Even More Tools

Kollage has moved their square needle manufacturing to USA. I love their new pointier tips. And when I saw they have collaborated on stitch red with Jimmy Beans Wool, I got DPNs in all available sizes.

More tools

I am loving my new Hamanaka double sided crochet hooks. They have great ergonomic triangular handles and fantastic pointy tips.

I got these from Stitch Diva studios in California, USA.

New tools

Just received this in mail today. New tools to add to my toolbox. Can't wait to get started with a few projects. Waiting to complete a few test knits before that. More DesiLoop designs coming up too.

Testing call for new design - Contiguous Sweater (Baby and Child versions)

I have found out over the various years of knitting that it is very simple to get neat ribbed bands in contrast colors. The trick is to always knit the first row(or picked up row) on the public side of your knitting fabric.

BTW, the above sweater is the child version of my latest design that is currently in testing on ravelry. You can sign up to test for

• child version here
• baby version here

Test is open till Nov 30th, 2012, after which the pattern will be available in the above versions, covering sizes 3mths to 16T.

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Make Snag Free Knitting Stitch Markers

After reading about and being intrigued by how one comes up with a snag free stitch marker, and after trying my hand at making a few myself, I am proud to say that I have been able to decipher it. Here is how I did it.

Materials:

• Beading Wire (preferably Nylon Coated)
• Your choice of main beads
• Crimping beads
• Wire cutter
• Crimper tool

Instructions:

Step 1: Gather your supplies

Step 2: Cut equal lengths of beading wire for how many stitch markers you want to make. I cut 3.5" (around 9 cms). You can cut shorter or longer depending on the drop you want.

Step 3: Take one piece of beading wire and fold it in half (don't hard bend the curved end) to feed in a crimping bead, followed by your desired main bead/s, followed by another crimping bead

Step 4: Using the crimping tool, crimp the last crimp bead put in, right at the edge of the folder wire

Step 5: Push all the other beads towards the crimped bead and crimp the first crimp bead to lock everything in place

That's all you need to do and you are done.

Here are some of mine.

If you end up using this tutorial, I would appreciate a link back to this post.
Happy Knitting!

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