Rebecca Danger

Basil KAL Day 7+Tutorial Tuesday: How To Sew A Smile

So, somehow we are coming up on The Peanut's 1st birthday on thursday. This has been the longest and shortest year of my life, for sure. I have been thinking a whole bunch about this time last year. In all of my thinking, I have decided that we are going to celebrate Peanut's birthday as a 3-day event, since I went into labor at 4:30 am on May 1st last year and he wasn't born until 1:34 am May 3rd. I was in labor with him for 3 days, so it is only fair he gets a 3-day birthday, right? I knew you would understand my thinking.

Here I am, in labor, 1 year ago today:

Remember this picture? I figured this was all we would get at this point since there was no baby to take a picture of this time last year....

Well, I figured showing you how to make a smile on your Basil would be the perfect topic for Day 1 of Presley's B-day week. So here we go!

Wanna a know a little secret? Mr Danger embroiders all of the faces on my samples! I am kinda sucky at it (at least I think I am), and he is great at it, so he is the face maker in the family. I do know HOW to do it though, so I am going to go ahead and explain....

So, the great part of embroiodering on knitting is the sts and columns act as a grid, which makes it almost like cross stitch. Makes sense, right? Ok, now that you understand that, to make a mouth first, I mark the center of where I want the mouth to be: (See another tapestry needle for marking? I buy these things in bulk....)

Then I count out however many sts I want out on each side to mark the far sides of the mouth. In this case, it is 5 sts over on each side:

For the embroidery iteself I like to use a black yarn in a yarn weight or 2 heavier than what my project is. So, in this case my dino is knit in sport, so I used a worsted weight black yarn for the embroidery. You don't have to do this, it is just my preference. Really any scrap yarn will work.

Using black yarn and a tapestry needle, I start my end a ways away from where my mouth will be and come out in the side marker for my mouth. Coming at it from a ways away means I can hide my end when I am done:

I leave a short tail of yarn from my starting spot I will trim up when I am done:

I made little like dimples, or cheeky bits on my other Basils, so I will on this one too. You make it with a like "V" on the ends of the smile. So, from my starting spot, I put my needle 2 sts "up," the back through my start spot:

See the little line it created? I do the same thing angled up from the start spot: (I know, my explanations are sort a crappy. Just look at the pictures....)

See, cheeky bit:

 

Ok, on to the mouth itself. I skipped over a stitch, then ran it under 2 stitches:

See how it made one stitch of the mouth and then my working yarn is coming out 2 stitches over?

I back stitched over those 2 stitches, and went under 2 more stitches:

See how that is starting to make a smile?

I continue this across the face, back over 2 and under 2 stitches with each go, until I come to the other side marker:

With my final back stitch I don't go under anymore stitches, I just come out in the final marker spot. Then I go up 2 stitches, just like on my first cheeky bit:

Angle down, and go up 2 more stitches:

Then I put my needle through right by where I finished stitching, and pull it through to the other side where my starting yarn is, to hide my tail:

(This is like I showed you yesterday, just trim those tails flush with your fabric) See, happy smile!

My first cheeky bit was a little lame though....this is why Mr Danger does my faces, since at this point I would go snip this smile out and start again. And then I would probably do it a third time. And maybe even a 4th and 5th time until I was completely happy. He does it right the first time, every time.

Yeah! Finsihed Basil! Didn't the yarn choice come out very dinosaur-y?

I had to show you this side too, since I love how the yarn pooled. The 2 colors where so similar, the green blended into the stripes.

 

And such a happy smile!

How are you Basils turning out?

 

 

Basil KAL Day 6: Finishing!

Woo! Finishing! That means we are almost done with our Basils, right?

OK, the thing I get the MOST questions on is finishing. Don't be scared of finishing, remember you can always snip out your yarn and try again if it doesn't come out to your liking the first time. 

To start, here is how I finish places like the nose or tail where you pull your yarn through stitches to close something. First, take your yarn tail and thread your tapestry needle on to it. Then, find where the yarn tail is coming from and stitch across into the other side of the closure, like so (or maybe "sew"):

Then stitch across the opening again, coming from a different angle this time:

Keep doing that, stitching from a different spot each time, until you feel like it is sufficiently secured. Now it is time to hide that end. This works anywhere you need to hide your ends in toys. Push your needle straight through where you have been stitching:

Push your needle out the other side:

Pull your yarn taught through:

And snip your yarn flush with your project:

Tah-dah, end is gone!

 

This stitching across the opening dealy works great on your cast on of the body, too. Again, stitch across from side to side, following the above directions.

Ok, in this particular project you will likely end up with holes where the neck and tail join in:

 

To stitch this type of hole up, again thread your tapestry needle on to your yarn tail. (If you need a longer tail for finishing, just knot a piece of yarn to the edge of the opening that you are stitching up. You can hide the extra tail by pulling it through and trimming it flush like I showed you above.) Then just stitch across from one stitch to the stitch across any sort of gap:

Keep doing that:

Whipstitching until the hole is no longer:

Make sense? Good. Let's move on to the legs! I love this project because the stripes make it easy to line up where they go. I go ahead and mark where I want my legs to go with tapestry needles first:

Then I go ahead and pin the legs on with the tapestry needles:

You can also use straight pins, but I really like tapestry needles. They are easier to see in your knit, and therefore easier to remove when done. Once you are happy with your leg placement, begin to whipstitch around the top edge to sew the leg to the body:

Do that across the whole leg, up over and around:

When I come to the ends, I like to "turn the corner" if you will, adding an extra stitch on the side for extra strength:

Once I feel my leg is sufficiently stitched down, I run my tapestry needle under the stitches I just made:

Then hide my end by running my tail through, pushing it out to the other side, and trimming it flush, like I explained above:

Once I get the front legs attached, I double check I still like how my back ones line up:

Then I whipstitch on the last legs. Got it? Good. See, finishing isn't really scary, right?

Ok, tomorrow I will finish up my KAL with how to do the smile. See you all then!

 

 

Basil KAL Day 5: Final Tail and Leg Bits

Just a short post today, a couple things on the tail and the legs. Monday I will wrap up my KAL here by going over all the finishing.

So first of all, after your finished the neck and head, you are going to want to move on to the tail. To do this you will just slip your stitches from the waste yarn back onto your needles. You will just want to slip them purl wise so as not to twist your stitches as you move them. I find it helpful to lift up on the waste yarn to make the transfer easier, like so:

Also, I find it easiest to just leave the waste yarn in the stitches until you have them all moved on to your needles:

Then you can just pull it out all at once, with no danger of dropping any stitches. Though you can start anywhere on the tail, since the decreases make it all the same, I like to start here, where my needle is inserted into the stitch:

Ok, I felt like the tail was pretty self-explanatory, so those were my only notes for you. For the legs, I went ahead and knit them Magic Loop, since I like it much better than dpns. When I cast on, I like to leave a long tail that I can use to sew the legs to the body once I am done knitting:

I use the same jogless jog technique I mentioned earlier on the legs to knit the stripes. For the heel, to secure the tail of the last CC round, I knit the next round in MC as the pattern states. Then I stop and knot the CC tail to the working yarn before moving on:

When I go to work the heel flap, I go ahead and do the jogless jog by lifting the stitch from the round below as I knit the 3 sts in round 32. You can see the 2 sts being knit together here:

That's all the notes I have from tail and leg knitting! I will go over finishing Monday.

Ok, off to knit 3 more legs!

 

Basil KAL Day 4: Notes On The Neck And Around For The Head

I am cracking myself up today looking at the pictures I took this morning versus this afternoon since I went and got my nails done in the middle.....which is good, because I typed this 1000 word post out and typepad ate it the first time, so I had to retype the whole flipping thing.

Today I am going to go over a little trick to make the decreases on the neck easy, and a fairly in-depth tutorial of how to turn from knitting the neck to the face. I get questions on this a lot, so this applies on any pattern of mine where you knit a flap/gusset, then pick up sts for a head/foot.

On to the neck! First of all, in any of my patterns where you are starting a stitch mid-round with a new yarn (like on Herman style legs where you have a new beginning of the round after putting the legs on your circular needle) this is how you do it. Basically anywhere you begin to knit but your working yarn is not attached. Hold your new yarn behind the stitch to be knit:

And begin to knit with it as if it were attached:

Also, when I say to knit "across the gap," it means to continue working with the first stitch knit, to begin working in the round (as opposed to back and forth). In this picture, I have knit 1 round and started my second round, see how the yarn stretches from the back needle to the front needle?

And now for a little trick! Round 1 of the neck starts out with (K2tog, K13) twice. Since I am repeating what is in those brackets, I went ahead and K2tog, K13'ed, placed a marker, then K2tog, K13'ed to the end of the round. Then, every time I came to the marker on a decrease round, I knew that was where my repeat would be. Nifty, nifty, huh? I love stitch markers.

I thought I would mention, too, you will want to stuff as you knit on the neck. This is way, way, way easier than trying to go back and stuff once done. After knitting the 3 pattern samples I found the best way to get the neck to stand up on it's own was to super-stuff it. I also found making a solid "base" of stuffing, below the neck in the body, helped Basil to hold his head up once finished. See the lumps in the neck and chest here? Those are my extra stuffing lumps.

Alright, on to the head turn! First, you will knit the first 5 sts of the round, and move them so they are the only sts on your needle:

Then turn your work around and move the last 5 sts of the round onto the same needle. Slip them purlwise, so as not to turn them while transferring:

Move the rest of the sts of your round to a second needle. I will be working only the 10 sts on the front needle here, where my yarn is attached:

Then work the back of the head (/gusset/heel) sts:

See how the yarn is coming from the right side above? For the first round of the head, you are going to start by working these stitches again, like I have here, and the yarn is attached to the other side now:

Now it is time to pick up stitches along the gusset edge. See those lovely "chain" stitches along the edge of the gusset? My needle is pointing at one:

These were created by slipping the first stitch of every row while knitting the gusset flap and will make it very easy to pick up stitches. You are going to make a stitch out of the hole under each chain. Here I am lifting a chain for you can see where your stitch will be created:

Go ahead and put your needle into that hole as if it were a stitch and work it as you normally work a knit stitch*:

Once you run out of chains, you will want to pick up a stitch in the space between the last chain and the first of your held stitches. I am pointing at where I will pick up my stitch here:

Mah-nah! 7 picked up stitches along the edge of the gusset:

Move on and knit half of your held stitches onto the same needles. Then move to a new needle and knit the other half of the held stitches. See that next gusset edge? You are going to do the same thing and pick up 7 more stitches down that edge:

Voila, a new round is created, heading in a different direction than the rest of your knitting.

So there you are, ready to knit you dino face! Your first stitch of the round is the first stitch on the bottom needle in this picture, closest to where my working yarn is attached, and you will knit clockwise when looking at this picture. Be sure to finish stuffing the neck before getting too far on the face knitting, too. It will amke life much easier.

If you are feeling a little confused, the "point" my dpns are making here point towards the bronty-body. You are looking at the head upside down, the first stitch of the round is in the side of the top of the head. 

Make sense?

*Alternately, you can "twist" these sts (knit in the back loop) as you pick up to eliminate the hole that picking up stitches like this can sometimes create. This is normally how I do this, but I didn't for this demonstration.

I am going to have to skip my KAL post for tomorrow since I will be at Martingale (my publisher) for a photoshoot for my next book all day! It is due out this November, since I know you were wondering. I will do a KAL post Saturday to make up for tomorrow though, so make sure to tune in then!

Be sure to leave me your questions and links to your Basil progress in the comments here!

 

Basil KAL Day 3: The Whole Round 52 Shenanigans, Plus A Bit on Stuffing

The irony of me doing a KAL on the blog is here I end up sitting by myself in front of my camera knitting. Not so KAL for me! Ha!

Alrighty, I am sure many of you are terrified by the whole Round 52 bit, so I am going to walk you through it step by step today. Hang on to your hats, this is one photo heavy post today! (No joke, there's 29 of them, eesh!)

So first of all, once you get to round 52 it is time to start stuffing. This is probably one of the things I get the most questions on when I talk to people in person. Here is the deal with stuffing: it is art. No, seriously. Think about it as sculpting. 

So, first step is going to be to look at my samples (or dig through the finished projects on Ravelry) and find the shape you like. As you stuff, you will want to keep that shape in mind.

To start I want to make a nice flat "base" of stuffing to flatten out the bottom of the dino so he will sit flat when I am done and not roll all over the place. I grab a good chunk of stuffing that looks like it will fill the base to start. (Oh and I know this is kinda a crummy picture since it is hard to see how much is there, but you try photographing stuffing!)

Then I smoosh it across the bottom

 

Then I grab another generous chunk and stuff that in too

Throughout stuffing, I periodically smoosh and moosh the critter from the outside to arrange the stuffing

As I said with sculpting, using small chunks, I add some stuffing to the front....

Then the back.....

And I will stop and moosh some stuffing down to the bottom of the middle to fill out the body.

That's how I do it! Add stuffing to the front, back middle, and keep looking at it from a distance to see where more stuffing is needed. I will even check the bottom to see how it looks, that I am getting the shape I want, and see where it needs more stuffing.

Make sense? If I see a crater, I add a small piece of stuffing. If I see a lump, I moosh it down with my hand. All the while, I add pieces of stuffing to shape the body from the sample I have chosen. This takes me FOREVER, by the way, so don't feel like you are taking too much time. The stuffing makes the finished item. You are sculpting your dino's personality right now!

Learn from my mistake.... With this project it might be a good idea to put point protectors on the ends of you dpns as you stuff. I didn't and managed to slip to 2 sts. Ugh.

This is what my dino looked like before I started on R52:

Ok, let's get started with Round 52. Knit those first 15 sts. Mine are on that front needle there.

Thread your tapestry needle with a piece of scrap yarn. The scrap should be like 12" or so, I think mine was ridiculously long. Then just slip those sts you just worked purl wise (so you don't turn then are you go) onto your tapestry needle.

I go in bundles, once I get 3-5 sts on my tapestry needle, I slip them onto my yarn and start on the next 3-5

Tah-dah! First 15 sts on my waste yarn

On to the last 15 sts of the round. These will be the ones on the next dpn back. Makes sense, right? Slip those on over like you did with the first 15.

Voila, sts on waste yarn. (I always tie my waste yarn in a little knot since I am paranoid the sts will slip off the yarn. This is ridiculous, they are not going anywhere. And when the sts could go somewhere, like when stuffing on my dpns, I did nothing. Go figure.)
 

I went ahead and placed makers after the 20th stitch on both my front and back needle so I know how far to kitchener.

And then I got to town kitchenering. Knit, slip, purl. Purl, slip, knit. I just repeat that in my head the whole time. (Here's a video on Kitchener stitch if you need help.)

 

Here's a trick! Generally when I am finishing I just stitch shut any hole created by knitting this in sections like this. But, you can minimize the hole. When you have one stitch left to kitchener, knit it and slip it as usual

Remove the marker

And then go ahead and purl into the next stitch (the one after the marker that you are not "suppose" to be working.)

Go ahead on to the back sts and purl and slip and remove the marker

Then knit the next stitch, again the one your are not "suppose" to work

Awesome, I love it. Now trim you tail if you need to (mine was still like 20") and just leave it to finish later. Once you go to finish it, you can sort of cinch down the tail to close the gap.

Okey dokey, divide those remaining sts evenly to you dpns and you are ready to work the neck!

First I add some more stuffing, small bits at a time are key.

Again look for lumps, or craters, or places that need it. I found one here, see the ripples since there isn't enough stuffing in there? Do you like that I am pointing at it?

Push the stuffing in there....

And repeat. Now see the dip by his rear? 

I keep doing this (obsessively) until I am happy with how it looks. Here's mine ready to move on to the next step!

Phew! That was quite the post. I will go over more tomorrow! Let me know if you have any questions on this.

 

Basil KAL Day 2: Why dpns and Jogless Jogs

Ok, so today I thought I would start out by telling you why I picked dpns for this pattern. I know you are so used to me and my "Magic Loop is the only way!"-ness. But I knit Basil using Magic Loop the first time through, and it was actually a pain in the butt for this particular project. It is big enough, with the 100 sts around the main part of the body, that I kept losing the "loop" of my Magic Loop. Not so awesome. So, I decided it should be done on dpns. 

I have done mine on 3 dpns, knitting with the 4th, but I am finding it might be easier to have your project on 4 dpns and knit with the 5th. Like so:

But, like I say with all of my patterns, use whatever method of knitting in the round you prefer. This was just a thought as I was knitting through and talking about it!

On to Jogless Jogs! I get lots of questions about how to get rid of that jog at the beginning of the round when you are knitting stripes in the round. Honestly, I generally ignore it if it is on the side, or on legs. But, if you want to get rid of the jog, this is my favorite method.

First of all, with 8 round stripes, and being a toy, I do not carry my yarn for the stripes I just cut it. So I am going to give these instructions for this project, specifically how to get rid of the jog and then finish the ends. Ready? Let's knit!

When you are ready to switch colors, cut your yarn from the last color, leaving about a 6" tail:

Join in your new color and work the next round as usual.

On the next round, grab the 1st stitch of the last round with your needle:

Slip this stitch up onto your needle so your first stitch of the round is actually 2 sts:

Now, knit these 2 sts together. Continue the rest of your knitting as usual. This will make for nice smooth, jogless color joins:

When you are ready to finish your ends, turn your work to the inside and tie the 2 ends in a knot.
And cut both ends with about an inch or two left:

Tah-dah! Nice managed ends:

That's all for today! How's the Basil progress coming along KAL-er's?

 

Basil KAL Day 1: Casting On and Picking Yarn

Ok, I have never done a KAL here before, so bear with me! One of the hardest things for me in teaching is to know how fast to go. I am a pretty quick knitter, so when in-person teaching, I always feel like I whiz through things to quick for some folks. So, for this KAL, I am going to take it pretty slow, since I don't know how much knitting time you get in a day, or how quick you all knit (although I already see a bunch of finished Basil's on Ravelry, speed demons!), and I want to keep my posts from being like 3 pages long.

I'm ready to go, here are my yarn and needles!

 

I am going with Lorna's laces Shepherd Sport on Us Size 3's, just like in the pattern sample. This time though I have picked Carol Green as my main color and Envy as my contrast color. It is going to be a greeny dino!

I had some of both yarns left over from something else, so I am starting with 32g of Envy and 66g of Carol Green. I think this will be enough, but I have extra yarn if I need it. I like to keep track of yardage by using a scale and weighing my yarn. I know some folks don't like that, but I have pretty good luck using this technique to keep track of yardages used (as long as I remember to weigh before I get started. Oh, and write that weight down). I use a simple kitchen scale, in pink to make it more fun. If you have never heard of this method before, you look on the yarn band where it will generally tell you something like "100g/220 yards." From that you can do the math and find that you will have 2.2 yards of yarn for every gram. Make sense?

Ok, so now that we got the weight deal cleared up, here's my criteria for picking yarn, in order of importance for me:

1) Colors! I look first for a yarn that has good bright, brilliant colors. 

2) Is it washable? I know many people like to work with pure wools, but when making toys, I think washable-ness is a huge factor. I have changed on my opinion on this too after having a baby. Now it MUST be washable, if it is destined for a munchkin, as this dino is going to be. Yup, The Peanut is getting a dino at the end of this KAL.

3) Softness? Since I knit A LOT (although a lot less now with a baby than I once did), I like to make sure whatever I knit with is going to be soft on my hands. I personally feel like the softer the yarn, the more enjoyable the project. Since knitting is suppose to fun, this is a big factor for me.

4) Price/do I have some? This is the last thing I think about.....luckily many of my favorite toy knits yarns are quite reasonable and my stash is quite large!

If that doesn't help, my two favorite toy yarns are anything from Lorna's Laces (especially the worsted), and any of the Berroco Comfort yarns. But, the nice thing about toys is really anything you have will work.

Ok, on to the needles. I get a lot of questions on how to pick the right needles for your project, so here's how I do it. 

First, I know that I am a very loose knitter. When I am working on a project with gauge, I generally have to knit on needles 1-2 sizes smaller than the pattern calls for. I always take this in to account with my toy knits.

The goal of your needles is to get a final fabric that is somewhat thicker than you would normally want for a garment. A garment you are going to want to focus on drape, a toy you are going to want to focus on the fabric not showing through the final fabric. So, you will want to check the yarn band for what the recommended size of needle is (mine is a US 4), take into account your personal knitting style (loose like me, or tighter, or...), and pick a needle. Remember, if your fabric looks to loose, you can always start over again with a smaller needle.  Or, if you are finding it hard to knit, you can always go up a needle. I know I am on too small a needle when it hurts my hands to knit. AND, the "right" needle size if up to your personal preference of what you like for the final look.

I don't mind some stuffing showing through, so even though I am a loose knitter and my yarn recommends a US 4, I went with US 3's because I like how it works up in the end. Not too tight when knitting to hurt my hands, but tight enough for the finished fabric most of the stuffing doesn't show through. As I am typing this, I think a lot of knowing the right needle size comes from practice! So, be comfortable trying different yarns and needle combinations, and learn from each monster you make. This will help you be able to see what you like and what you don't, and change your knitting from there.

Alrighty, I think that is a pretty good start for today. Now that I am done typing, I am going to go get cast on..... Make sure an leave me any questions in the comments below! And, I made a Rav project for this guy too.