I have a genetic connective tissue disorder. It’s not going to get better. It will probably get worse. I’m not going to stop what brings me joy, but I do have to listen to my body’s pain and adapt.
Machine knitting allows me to do a lot on bad days, but I still love hand knitting and crocheting. When I can’t muster the strength to push a carriage or walk to my studio, I can usually hold a project to stitch on the couch.
I’m not a doctor. This is what has worked for me and might work for you. Talk to your doctor about your situation and symptoms.
Talk to your doctor. Be clear about what you want from them.
“This hand pain has negatively impacted my life and daily activities. I need recommendations for strengthening exercises and pain management that are not just medication.”
Please advocate for yourself and your needs. It can be difficult if you’re not used to speaking that way, but a doctor has limited time with you during an appointment, so you need to be clear and direct.
1) Slow Down
Literally. Slow the tempo of your stitching. Sometimes slowing down alone will lessen the pain. Try to notice when in the stitch forming process hurts or feels awkward. Use that knowledge to start modifying how you stitch.
2) Change How You Stitch
Try another method of holding your tools or yarn. Try another way to form the stitch- switch from continental knitting (picking) to English style (throwing). Change your crochet hook hold from the knife hold to the pencil hold.
I hold my right hand completely still since my right wrist, thumb, and first finger are my most painful joints when stitching. My left hand does all of the yarn tensioning, yarn throwing, and any movement of the needles or hook.
3) Wear Compression Gloves
Try to find a soft, non scratchy material. Pressure can help reduce swelling and pain. The glove itself will help retain warmth, which can help painful joints.
4) Wear a Brace or Tape
Consult your doctor or physical therapist for properly fitted brace and kinesio tape placement, but you might need more than just compression gloves.
5) Take Breaks
Set a timer or a specific number of rows and make yourself rest after each interval.
6) Heat or Ice Packs
Use whichever makes you feel better or both. You can find reusable packs online that can be both microwaved for heat and frozen for icy needs.
7) Prop Up with Pillows
Use your couch throw pillows or buy a specialized pillow (I’ve seen breastfeeding pillows suggested) to prop up your elbows or whatever body parts get fatigued the most when you stitch.
8) Use Pain Patches or Medicine
If your doctor okays them, use over-the-counter pain patches like Icy Hot or Salonpas along with NSAIDS or acetaminophen when your pain requires it. You don’t have to suffer through pain without medication when you need it. If it’s bad enough, ask your doctor about pain medication.
9) Work on Small or Lightweight Projects
I’ve noticed heavier yarn weights weigh more! (No waaaay!) More weight leads to more fatigue, so choose lightweight or small projects on rough days. Bulkier yarns mean larger motions for stitching, and those can cause fatigue faster than smaller movements.
10) Check Your Posture
Are you craning your neck or hunching your back? Try to achieve good posture so hurt and fatigue don’t enter your body from other places while you focus on your hands.
11) Stop to Stretch
Ask your doctor or physical therapist for stretches and strengthening exercises to help your hands. YouTube has a lot of hand yoga videos that can help if your insurance doesn’t pay for physical therapy.
12) Come Back Tomorrow
It’s okay to stop and admit stitching just isn’t going to happen today.
It’s okay to be disappointed you can’t stitch today.
Tell your project “see you soon, raccoon” and come back tomorrow.
Be nice to yourself. Sometimes your body just can’t.
The 2024 Oklahoma Yarn Crawl recently wrapped, and my gosh was it FUN! If you haven’t checked out Part One of my recap, read it first here.
Twelve fiber businesses from across Oklahoma got together to put on the state’s first yarn crawl. Yarn shops, dye works, a working farm, and a mini fiber mill dot the state map, and fiber lovers made the trek to each one during the August 16th to 24th (excluding Sunday) special event.
Each shop had their own special charm and yarns in addition to special events just for the yarn crawl. Some fiber businesses aren’t usually open to the public every day of the week, but they all kept special hours for the crawl.
My friend Susan and I had five of our twelve yarn crawl stops stamped, and set off early in the morning to visit our first shop of the day.
We learned our lesson trying to hit five stores in one day, so we broke up the remaining seven yarn crawl locations into two days— Thursday and Friday,August 22 & 23, 2024.
Each shop we visited was wonderful, and I hope I can convey something special about each one, as they all have their own unique charms and strengths. Oklahoma has a widespread and vibrant fiber community, and the yarn crawl really showcased that.
It was a two and a half hour drive to our first shop of the day, the westernmost in the crawl
Cozy Corner Knits – Enid
I’m fairly familiar with the western part of the state because I have family there. It’s full of farms, oil wells, and wind turbines, but that’s about it. I used to think there wasn’t much else worth visiting in that part of the state.
Cozy Corner Knits is such a welcome addition to that part of the state.
The shop is easy to find if you ignore Google and trust your eyes and common sense while driving. Maps had us take an odd detour through a really cute neighborhood before telling us to turn the opposite direction from the shop we could see right there just across the street.
That wasn’t the shop’s fault at all, so consider calling ahead for directions to any shop if your map app has your route doing silly things.
Cozy Corner Knits is very neatly laid out with a knitting area near the front window and nice displays guiding you back to the classroom area at the rear of the shop.
Susan and I had such a fun time chatting with the owner, her husband, and another customer that it was after 1:00 before we knew it, and we needed to move on to our next stop.
I had briefly considered not visiting Cozy Corner Knits because of the drive out to Enid, so I’m glad Susan convinced me that we absolutely needed to see all of the shops to experience our first yarn crawl to the fullest.
I stuffed some yarn with subtle sparkle from Feederbrook Farm and some gorgeous orange Emma’s Yarn Super Silky into my yarn crawl tote, and we were off to the next one.
You can learn more about Cozy Corner Knits at their Instagram or Facebook pages.
It was about an hour’s drive to our second stop, Susan’s favorite of the trip,
Oklahoma Mini Mill – Guthrie
Oklahoma Mini Mill (OMM) isn’t usually open to the public for walk-ins since they’re a working mill and conduct most of their business online, but one of the owners gladly gave us a tour after she stamped our card. We got to feel some amazing fibers at different stages of processing. It was really interesting to be able to feel the different lanolin contents of wool as the cleaning and fluffing (industry standard term, I’m sure) progressed.
I’ve seen a friend hand process llama fiber before but never really paid attention to this part of the yarn process before, so this visit was very educational and interesting. We even got to touch some amazingly soft bison fiber that costs around $30-35 an OUNCE, and I think that’s the cost before processing.
Oklahoma Mini Mill mainly focuses on processing fleeces for hand spinners, so they process fibers until they are ready to be spun but don’t do the actual spinning. Customers send their fibers to be cleaned and blended into fiber batts. They can even add in special things like this angelina sparkle.
Another neat factoid about OMM: They don’t waste any wool! Pieces that aren’t suitable for processing and spinning are saved and used as insulation.
I didn’t purchase anything from OMM while we were there during the yarn crawl. Most of their business is actually online through Etsy, which I’ll link below.
Oklahoma Mini Mill also vends at the Fiber Christmas in July show, so there is yet another incentive to attend Fiber Christmas if you haven’t yet!
You can learn more about Oklahoma Mini Mill at their website, Instagram, Facebook, or Etsy pages.
Guthrie had two stops on the yarn crawl. Next up was in historic downtown Guthrie
Sealed with a Kiss – Guthrie
Sealed with a Kiss brought in trunk shows and debuted HowdyDo, a new locally dyed yarn inspired by the women of the Wild West, during the yarn crawl.
We missed their Lunch in the Loft event by a couple hours because I forgot to check ahead with every yarn crawl stop like I meant to. Learn from my mistakes and check each shop ahead while planning!
Sealed with a Kiss had a really nice selection of knitting accessories as well as bags, fashion accessories, and even some non knit garments. It’s a yarn boutique but not just a yarn boutique.
I bought a wonderfully sparkly shawl pin. I just can’t resist sparkles.
You can learn more about Sealed with a Kiss by visiting their website, Instagram, and Facebook pages.
Susan and I got a hotel in Edmond for the night that ended up being less than 10 minutes from our next stop
Kristy’s Fiber Arts -Edmond
Kristy’s Fiber Arts is a dyeworks that features Kristy’s hand dyed yarns with a few other yarns alongside them.
Susan and I grabbed a coffee and waited in the parking for 10AM, the daily yarn crawl start time, but Kristy saw us and another group in our cars and invited us all in early.
We had a great time browsing and chatting, and Kristy shared a little bit about how she names her colorways. A lot depends on who or what she’s thinking about when she dyes. Mine would all end up being named after my chickens or food!
Yarns were organized by weight. I love to see hand dyers working with more than just sock weight yarn. I want those pretty colors and one-of-a-kind skeins in lace and bulky weights, too!
Kristy also stocked pretty macrame cord, so I made note of that for my mom, who does really nice macrame work. It was the most colors of cord I have ever seen in store, so if you like macrame, Kristy’s Fiber Arts is a great stop for it, too!
I bought some orange yarn and a mini skein kit from her at Fiber Christmas in July this year that I really liked, so I was excited to see what I missed that she’d have in store. The green and black yarn made me think of my younger brother, so Merry Christmas to him! I hope he’s not tired of beanies!
The next stop was also in Edmond-another dyeworks.
A Chick That Knitz – Edmond
A Chick That Knitz used to be a “full blown” yarn shop a few years ago, but they weren’t as able to focus on dyeing yarn as much as they wanted, so they took a step back and opened as a dyeworks with exclusively their own yarn and limited days open to the public.
I’ve followed A Chick That Knitz online for quite a while, and I was excited to see their planned pooling yarns in person. The concept is simple— knit in one stitch, perhaps stockinette or garter stitch, for the main color of the yarn until you come across the color pooling bit (this is the section that isn’t the main color) and perform a special stitch.
It’s simple enough, but because each hand dyed skein is unique, it really enables you to create a one-of-a-kind item.
A Chick That Knitz has much more than just planned pooling yarns, but those were something I had been waiting to see for a long time because they’re how I learned about this way of using planned pooling. I’m in their area a few times a year, but the timing never lined up before to be able to see their space, so I’m glad I finally got to experience it during the yarn crawl.
I bought planned pooling yarn from their website after the yarn crawl ended.
You can learn more about A Chick That Knitz at their website, Instagram, and Facebook pages. Also look at their cool chicken logo!
The cloud ate my pictures from our next stop alongside most of my pictures from A Chick That Knitz, so I’ve linked some of their Instagram posts to show you their space.
MoonDrake Co. – Oklahoma City
When we reached MoonDrake Co. dyeworks in Oklahoma City, it started to hit me that our yarn crawl journey was almost over. The public part of the shop is on the small side but is nicely organized. Wool and dye scents wafted from the back room, and I really enjoyed that. Wool and lanolin smell is so comforting to me.
Because the display area was smaller, it was easy to see the many different types of yarn bases MoonDrake uses in their yarn lines.
I went home with a large skein that was actually two skeins —one of a stubby yarn and one of a cashmere/mohair blend— that were meant to be worked together into the same project. I also purchased a really pretty neon tweed yarn that I am looking forward to working with.
I really wish my photos hadn’t been eaten because the display did a really good job of telling the neon tweed line’s color story. They’re gorgeous, vibrant, and fun.
Our final stop on the 2024 Oklahoma Yarn Crawl was
Yarnatopia—Oklahoma City
I’ve been to Yarnatopia a few times over the years, having pleaded with Chris to stop by on the way to or from visiting family. I really enjoy stopping by. The shop is a very nice size and has a really nice Malabrigo yarn wall. I know others appreciated it, too, because it had been picked through by the time we got there, and the yarn crawl had two days left!
I found some really nice “hi-viz” yarn to make a hat for my dad (he always requests a hat for Christmas) and a very nice slub yarn by Emma’s Yarn. (I tried to buy from all different brands but didn’t realize the sock yarn I bought from Cozy Corner Knits was also Emma’s Yarn. Guess that means I need to look into that brand more since I really like what I’ve seen so far!)
I really like the “Yarnatopia” yarn-wrapped letters on the wall, but I don’t think Chris would go for that in our house….
We were both pretty tired at the end of the Yarn Crawl and had a two and a half hour drive back to my place. Susan had another hour to go after she dropped me off. I think we’ll attend a few more days of the yarn crawl next year rather than trying to squish everything into three total days. We’ll be able to spend more time at each shop and participate in events that way, too.
Every shop owner I talked to seemed very excited about the results of the yarn crawl for their business, and the crawl still had three days left to go when Susan and I made our way to the central Oklahoma area shops.
Many of the dyers had sold out of colorways and had to tell crawlers when they’d be back in stock. I ended up making some purchases online or through Etsy after the official crawl dates were over to find colors, bases, and fibers I liked the most.
I knew of many of these businesses before the yarn crawl, but I had only managed to visit about half of them before the event. I have family in the western part of the state, and I’m already thinking up alternative routes that would allow me to drop by and see shops again on my way out and back home.
The yarn crawl did a great job showcasing how amazing and varied the Oklahoma fiber community is. I loved seeing each dyer’s different color stories and the variations in each shop’s different brands and specialties.
I had a wonderful time meeting Oklahoma’s fiber talents, and I can’t wait for The Second Annual Oklahoma Yarn Crawl 2025!
Thanks for joining me on this road trip recap of the 2024 Inaugural Oklahoma Yarn Crawl! Have you ever been on a yarn crawl as a customer or as a host? Do you plan your own yarny road trips?
Twelve fiber businesses from across Oklahoma got together to put on the state’s first yarn crawl. Yarn shops, dye works, a working farm, and a mini fiber mill dot the state map, and fiber lovers made the trek to each one during the August 16th to 24th (excluding Sunday) special event.
Each shop had their own special charm and yarns in addition to special events just for the yarn crawl. Some fiber businesses aren’t usually open to the public every day of the week, but they all kept special hours for the crawl.
The shops encouraged fiber lovers to visit each one by creating a “passport” that is stamped, clipped, or marked in some way to prove that a crawler visited. People who traveled to each shop were eligible to enter a prize drawing, in this case, for a basket full of fiber goodies worth $600!
(I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally need that much incentive to visit a yarn shop! That was just icing on the cake!)
They also created a special tote bag for the crawl, and each shop offered a free stitch marker for the visit!
My friend Susan and I decided to do our first yarn crawl together. We visited the *five* shops on the Eastern half of the state in one day, which was a mistake…
As fun as it was, it was a lot of driving, and our schedule really limited our ability to appreciate each shop fully. By the time we made it to the fourth shop, we were exhausted, and we had more driving and another shop left to visit.
Next year, we’re definitely splitting the Eastern half of the yarn crawl into two days so we can spend more time at each shop!
Each shop we visited was wonderful, and I hope I can convey something special about each one, as they all have their own unique charms and strengths. Oklahoma has a widespread and vibrant fiber community, and the yarn crawl really showcased that.
Get Stitchin’ – Tulsa
We started out in Tulsa at Get Stitchin’. It’s now Tulsa’s only yarn shop, and it’s the shop I’m most familiar with since I offer machine knitting classes there (when healthy).
Get Stitchin’ frequently has fun events throughout the year for things like Knit in Public Day, Spin-Ins, shop milestones, and more, and the yarn crawl didn’t disappoint. They use their space to showcase small fiber businesses and feature local artists year round, and they brought in even more for the yarn crawl.
I went home with some yarn from Rachel Wolfe Designs and some amazing buttons. Look at that sparkle!
Get Stitchin’ really went all out with meet and greet and fiber artist showcases! You can learn more about Get Stitchin’ at their website, Instagram, or Facebook pages.
Next up was
Community Fibers – Claremore
Community Fibers is in an office-like building that is divided into different rooms rather than one large retail space. Each turn into a new room reveals more yarn fun and bright displays, and I think they really utilize the layout well.
There is an area where visitors can try out new styles of knitting needles and crochet hooks AND they have a book lending library, not to mention the coziest couches ever to sit and craft in.
Community Fibers worked with Leading Men Fiber Arts and had a build-your-own shawl kit for the yarn crawl that came in both knit and crochet versions.
Hand dyed yarn is my favorite, so I love finding new-to-me dyers, especially in local shops.
I bought some really fun rainbow speckle yarn.
You can learn more about Community Fibers from their website or Instagram.
Susan visited our third stop years ago, but I had never been to
Shepherd’s Cross – Claremore
Shepherd’s Cross is a farm outside of Claremore with a Christian-based missions focus. Their big barn is a shop with items made from artists both local and international with revenue returning to the artist or mission. They have a fiber museum, teaching area, and outdoor areas where you can observe the farm as well as seasonal things like a pumpkin patch.
We had to leave sooner than we’d wanted to be able to make the next two shops by 5PM closing, but Susan and I decided to visit again and make a day of it so we had plenty of time to explore their fiber museum. There was so much more than I expected at Shepherd’s Cross.
I bought some fluffy pencil roving to level up my spinning abilities (hopefully). It was very reasonably priced, so I am not quite as intimidated to use it as other gifted fibers in my stash.
Shepherd’s Cross has a “Sheep to Shawl” Wooly Weekend in April where you can watch the sheep be sheared, see the wool cleaning and carding processes, watch hand spinners making the yarn, and then see different fiber art crafts in action to turn the yarn into a shawl.
My energy was flagging after three stops, but we had two more to go! Fourth up was a hidden gem in a tiny town
Hometown Yarns & More – Deleware
One of the owners of Hometown Yarns also took machine knitting classes from my mentor Pamela Carrico, so I got a bit of a sneak peek last year while the shop was being set up.
Under construction no more, it’s really cute AND they had shop pets-two rescue kitties and a dog! I love meeting shop animals. They’re adorable and can be a little distracting from the most important thing (yarn!), but oh so snuggly and sweet. (I wish my cat was that well behaved.)
Hometown Yarns & More had so many amazing creative fiber arts showcased. There was rug hooking, oxford punch, knitting, crocheting, weaving, and more that I know I’ve forgotten.
They also dye their own yarns in house and present them at the most reasonable price I’ve ever seen for a hand-dyed yarn. Honestly, I think they’re under-priced at around $16-20 per skein depending on the fiber content. Getting beautiful, one of a kind yarn like that is a heck of a deal.
I bought these gorgeous greens to make an Ambah O’Brien-inspired shawl. They included a soak sample pack for washing and blocking the finished project, too!
I’ve mentioned this one quite a few times here on the blog. We went to my mentor, Pamela Carrico’s shop, one of my favorite places, for our fifth and final stop on the Eastern half of the Oklahoma Yarn Crawl.
Carrico’s Creative Corner – Bartlesville
The shop is on the smaller side and attached to her house, but the walls are covered in shelving with loads of wonderful cone yarn. Pamela carries handwork yarns, too, as well as the SilverReed LK150 mid gauge knitting machine, which was set up to showcase machine knitting.
Pamela knits samples on her knitting machine so you know what yarns will look like when they’re worked up and lets you know if they’re good for the washer and dryer like they claim or if you need to take special care of them. She can tell you how they feel on the machines and which machine gauge works best with different yarns.
Pamela blends yarn together frequently in her work to create gorgeous, one-of-a-kind pieces. When I started thinking about things made of yarn as fabric like she taught me, I really noticed a change for the better in my knitting. I’ve visited her numerous times since 2018, and I always walk away having learned something new. Even if Carrico’s Creative Corner is small, it’s always a welcoming experience full of wonder and inspiration.
I bought some fun specialty yarns to match yarn in my home stash along with the yarn crawl tote. I’m really excited to play with these and make some fun textures and borders in the future.
You can learn more about Carrico’s Creative Corner by visiting their website, Instagram, Facebook, or Etsy pages. (Some social media handles are named after the design side of business, CMO Designer Knits).
Along the way…
The 2024 Oklahoma Yarn Crawl was the first yarn crawl for my friend Susan, myself, and many yarn and fiber enthusiasts I know. Susan and I ran into some of the same groups of yarn crawlers as we visited different stops. It was really fun to see what they were looking at from each shop and hear what part of the state they were from.
I’m really glad that these Oklahoma fiber businesses got together and hosted this event to show off our community and give us another opportunity to meet others within it. As our Eastern Shop day went on and my fatigue increased, I didn’t take as many pictures as I intended, but I made sure to correct that for the Central and Western Oklahoma shops in next post’s Part Two.
Be sure to check out these awesome shops the next time you’re nearby!
Thanks for joining me on this state-wide stretch of my machine knitting journey! Did you also attend the Inaugural Oklahoma Yarn Crawl? Are you planning on joining the next one? I sure am!
Christmas Covid is the gift that keeps on giving, and recovery has been rough. It’s Fiber Christmas In July time already!
I’ve been through a slew of tests with more to come, but I’m finally able to break through the covid brain fog enough to feel confident writing again.
My yarn rep stopped by a few weeks ago and gave me some yarn samples for inspiration, so I thought I’d share my opinions with you.
Disclaimer: All opinions are honest and my own. I was given this yarn for free with no expectation of review or endorsement.
Jody Long Delish
is a 50/50 extra fine merino wool/mulberry silk blend you will want to pet and squeeze repeatedly the second it gets into your hands. The color palette is well-rounded for a that is newer to the market with a nice blend of neutrals, pastels, and brights in its 16 colorways.
With an MSRP of $19.99 and MACHINE washable and DRYABLE labels on the tab, Delish seems almost too good to be true. Skeins are 50 grams each with 230 yards per skein (that’s about $0.09 per yard), which makes sweater quantities (1200-2200) fall in the $120-200 range. For a luxury yarn, that number feels about right.
Delish is OEKO TEX and Mulesing Free wool certified.
I carried my sample skein in my purse for days and made all of my friends squish it and rub it against their face. It feels amazing.
How It Worked Up
Delish flew through my standard gauge machine at Tensions 10 and 8, and I suspect it would be nice even at Tension 6, although that might produce a fabric that is too tight to show off the yarn’s wonderful drape. According to the label, Delish is a CYC 1 Superfine/Lace weight with a recommended hand knitting needle US3 and crochet hook D. It is a good yarn weight for lace work and could also be treated as a light fingering weight yarn with nice results.
Machine Compatibility
Standard
✔ worked amazingly
Mid-Gauge
✔ lower tensions
Bulky
✔ will work, but not the best choice
My sample skein was only 25 grams (retail version is 50g), so I didn’t test at as many tensions as I ended up wanting to.
I had zero issues with yarn breakage or tangling, but this yarn will stick to itself if you give it the chance. I ran into quite the yarn tangle while winding it into a cake on my yarn swift.
Laundry Care
I was most excited about the machine washable and dryable aspects of this yarn, and while the label is technically correct— you can do it— you shouldn’t.
My swatches did not appreciate being machine washed, and the second I pulled them from my machine, I wished I hadn’t done it.
Delish developed a very nice halo after washing, but it was also pill city. That doesn’t bode well for high-wear areas in garments.
halo and the beginning of pilling
The yarn also lost a lot of its pleasant sheen.
Here’s a refresher on how I treat my swatches when testing yarns:
Fresh off the machine — Set Stitches, Lay Flat, Measure, Record Gauge
Hand Wash, Flat Dry, Measure, Record Gauge
Machine Wash Cold, Flat Dry, Measure, Record Gauge
Machine Wash Cold, Machine Dry, Measure, Record Gauge
I think this method gives me a good feel for how a yarn will wear when worn. If I am concerned about a fabric dropping or I know the garment will be particularly heavier, like a skirt, I will hang the swatch and put a claw weight on it for a few days to simulate the weight and pull of the garment.
Always treat your swatch like you will treat your finished object!
A small part of me knew the machine wash and dry labels were probably too good to be true. I was disappointed, yes, but Delish did maintain its drape and wonderful hand feel after machine wash. It lost a bit of its sheen/vibrance after washing, but the halo was a nice trade off. The pilling wasn’t unexpected since the yarn does like to stick to itself, but I will note that the pilling issue wasn’t as present with hand washing.
Final Thoughts
Jody Long Delish is a really nice, luxury yarn at a decent price. It flows well through a knitting machine and wears fairly well if you treat it like a luxury yarn—which means NO machine washing or drying. (This may be a hot take, but if you put in the time and money for a sweater’s worth of yarn, you should be hand washing it anyway.)
I have to be very picky about what I spend my energy on now with Long Covid, and I’m probably a little more disappointed that I might’ve been in the past about the machine washable and dryable aspect not turning out as well as I’d hoped.
I still plan on buying some of this yarn.
While I originally wanted to make myself a nice cardigan using it, I think making a lacy shawl will show off the yarn’s wonderful drape and feel and take advantage of its lightweight warmth while avoiding the inevitable pilling in the higher wear areas of a cardigan.
Thanks for joining me on my machine knitting journey! I love hearing from you!
Contact me if there’s something you’d like me to cover in future posts, or feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
In-person classes are on track to resume at Get Stitchin’ in October. I am in the process of getting internet access in my studio for future Zoom classes and streaming sessions. Hooray rural life!
You might have encountered one of these problems before: the yarn stopped flowing through the tension unit and the tension wire bent all the way towards the carriage and needle bed, the carriage jammed, an entire row knitted at a much tighter tension than you wanted, the yarn broke.
If you are experiencing problems when you machine knit with hand knitting yarn, your yarn preparation (or lack of) might be the problem. Here are some things to consider about different yarn put-ups and the ways they can affect your tension while knitting.
various types of yarn put-ups
Hank Must be wound into ball or cake before use
Donut I absolutely hate the donut put-up, so I’m going to rant about it!
It does nothing other than look pretty on a shelf. Hand knitting will cause it to fall apart. Putting it in your bag after purchase will cause it to fall apart. Looking at the outer layer cross-eyed will start it on its slinking, unwinding, collapsing journey!
Unstable put-up Uneven tension Needs to be contained Flops around
Yarn Ball Can roll away Needs to be contained in a basket or bucket Yarn can get caught under the weight of large balls causing uneven tension
Skein Center pull often results in “yarn barf” and/or collapsing skein Needs to be contained Outside pull means flopping/traveling/rolling skein and uneven tension as yarn enters machine Outside pull means stopping after a row to pull out enough yarn to knit a row every time to avoid flopping
Cake Manual-recommended put-up for Silver Reed LK150 Flat top and bottom Should not roll Most even tension of all put-ups mentioned so far Require ball winder and swift
Cone Best put-up for machine knitting Even tension Large yardage Not a commonly used put-up for hand knitting yarn
You aren’t an awful knitter if you don’t knit from yarn cakes or cones! But they are the best put-ups that are least likely to cause issues.
I’ve knitted center pull from a skein before. Everything turned out fine, but I did have to stop and fix a few tension issues as I knitted.
I knit from yarn balls all the time, especially for scrap yarn. Sometimes they jump out of their container when I’m knitting quickly and I have to chase them down. It happens.
Knitting from less than ideal put-ups just means I accept I might encounter problems and have to fix them.
A Note on Yarn Cakes
Ideally, yarn winders should wrap around the sides of the cake and not on top or bottom.
If your yarn winder wraps the yarn around the sides and over the top and bottom, the cake will flop and turn like a yarn ball and add additional tension as it does. This is not an ideal cake for machine knitting, but you can make it work by pulling yarn out periodically so it doesn’t have to flop and roll.
Flopping that happens to an “ideal” cake that isn’t wound over the top/bottom likely means there is not enough lead length of yarn from the cake to the tension unit to the carriage (such as the yarn sitting on the table instead of the floor behind the machine), so be sure to give your yarn ample space as it feeds into the tension unit.
Finding Cone Yarn
There are many places to find cone yarns online, but PLEASE visit your Local Yarn Shop first!
If they don’t have any cones, just ask. Most shops are more than happy to custom order yarns. (Just remember some distributors have minimum orders and it might take a bit to meet that number!) And if you don’t have a yarn ball winder and swift, most LYS will wind the yarn you purchase there into cakes for you.
My Local Yarn Shop, Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK just became an Ashford dealer! I don’t weave or spin much, but do you know what comes on cones? Weaving yarn!
(Disclosure: I teach classes, sell Silver Reed knitting machines, and sell my work at Get Stitchin’, but I’m not paid to promote it. I mention it because I both sell and shop there.)
Carrico’s Creative Corner in Bartlesville, OK, my mentor Pamela Carrico’s shop, has a wonderful array of cone yarns as well as hand knitting yarns. Pamela sells cone yarn by the pound, which is a great option for knitters who don’t want to commit to an entire cone and thousands of yards of one color. She also often has new old stock of discontinued yarns that were made especially for machine knitting.
In the end, the amount of preparation you do when machine knitting with hand knitting yarn is about what you’re willing to put up with. You may be willing to deal with a ball rolling around or unwinding from the outside of a skein before knitting every row, but if you find yourself constantly encountering tension issues and uneven knitting, look to your yarn put-up and preparation first.
Thanks for coming along on my machine knitting journey! How do you prep your yarn? Are you strict about it, or do you knit from whatever you feel like using at the time? Let me know in the comments!
That’s right! It’s nearly time for our next seminar!
Hand and machine knitters, you won’t want to miss this!
We’re learning how to design a custom fit knitted sweater!
Attendees will learn measurement tips and tricks to accommodate various body type needs and draw a body block schematic based off of their own measurements.
We’ll discuss ease—what it is, what it means for fit, and how you may not actually wear the “size” you think you do because of it.
That’s not all! We’ll talk about how material choice affects garment fit and design considerations you should consider when adding elements to your sweater.
Hope to see you there on April 1, 2023 from 10:00AM – 4:00PM at Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK.
Sometimes you just want to scroll the internet and see what others are doing with their knitting machines. You might use Facebook groups or your Instagram feed, but what about Pinterest?
I’ve used Pinterest since it began in 2010. I planned my wedding by making mood boards and plotted out interior designs for our first house. Now I use it for nail art inspiration, bullet journaling spreads, hair styling tips, and yes, machine knitting.
Pinterest’s machine knitting recommendations for me
I’ve been making stockings lately, so I searched Pinterest for punchcard patterns.
search results for machine knitting punchcards
Not bad! But I should’ve specified “Christmas punchcards”….
Sometimes Pinterest gets hand knitting, machine knitting, crocheting, and other yarn crafts confused, but that’s okay!
They’re at least knitting charts!
Don’t be upset if your search brings up hand knitting or even cross stitch charts! Remember that you can hand transfer lots of lace patterns and hand select colorwork patterns, so even if a chart wasn’t originally meant for the knitting machine, you can still put it to good use!
You can check out my Machine Knitting board on Pinterest here and follow it if you want.
my machine knitting board
What sites do you use to find machine knitting inspiration or patterns? I’m always on the lookout for new inspiration!
I bought this yarn in 2020 to review, and, well, 2020 (and now most of 2021) happened. Now it’s on clearance, but if this yarn seems like it’s for you, you might find a good deal on
All opinions are honest and my own. I am not affiliated with any company or individual mentioned or linked unless otherwise noted. I purchased this yarn myself and did not receive compensation for this review.
About
Fiber Content
90-% Acrylic / 10 % Yak
Yardage/Meterage
219 / 200
Ounces / Grams
3.5 / 100
Yarn Weight
4 / Medium / Worsted
Made in
China
Availability
Local Yarn Store, Online
Put up
Skein
This yarn is on clearance for $6.99 at the time of this post, so if it’s something you’re interested in, grab it while you can. The clearance price brings the price per yard down from $0.06 per yard to $0.03 per yard.
Originally retailing for 13.99, Touch of Yak is part of Lion Brand’s “Touch of Luxe” collection. The listing mentions “Yak fiber is as soft and warm as cashmere, with wonderful drape,” but with 90% of this yarn being acrylic, any drape you achieve will be from steam blocking or “killing” the acrylic.
Colors are soft, muted, and generally neutral. Now that it’s on clearance, three colorways remain.
Care Guide
Hand Wash
Yes
Machine Wash
Yes
Flat Dry
Yes
Machine Dry
No
I machine washed and dried this yarn with no problems. To be honest, I couldn’t tell any difference made by the minimal presence of yak fibers compared to any other decent machine washable and dry-able acrylic.
Knitting Machine Compatibility
4.5mm Standard Gauge
No
6.5mm Mid-Gauge
Yes
8mm / 9mm Bulky Gauge
Yes
This is a worsted weight yarn. I wouldn’t put it through any standard gauge machine, but it worked fine on other gauges.
Touch of Yak in Waterlily in a warm light Pattern: Mirror Cable Mitts on ravelry
Performance
This yarn knitted up fine. It wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t terrible to work with. When I transferred stitches to form cables, the yarn was annoyingly splitty, but plain knitting was fine. The stitch definition was fine for cables and the finished project looked nice.
There’s really nothing to point out if you treat this like any decent acrylic. The yak is nowhere to be found, especially if you’ve worked with 100% yak fiber before. If you haven’t, you might be able to convince yourself this yarn is softer than another mid-range acrylic, but really, it’s not anything special. There is a slight halo of potential yak fiber if you squint. Maybe?
Blocking
This yarn is 90% acrylic, so block it as such. Too much heat will “kill” the acrylic and freeze it in place. “Killing” acrylic is literally melting the plastic it is made of. You’ll achieve a great drape with this but lose any other properties acrylic might offer.
Careful steam blocking is my blocking method of choice for all yarns, even acrylics, but you should make sure you do not leave your steamer in one location for too long.
Touch of Yak in Water Lily wound into a cake
Final Thoughts
This yarn is fine. That’s it. It’s fine. The “touch” of yak is barely noticeable. It feels like almost any other mid-range acrylic. It’s soft, it works, it’s machine washable, and even though it says not to, it really is machine dry-able. The color range is limited, and the yarn is now on clearance. If you like a slightly softer than normal acrylic and you snatch it up, this could be a good yarn for you provided you aren’t picky about colors. Just don’t expect anything that actually touched a yak when you purchase this.
I give Lion Brand LB Collection Touch of Yak a 2 out of 5 score.
Have you used Lion Brand Touch of Yak before in your machine knitting? What about in your hand knitting? What kind of projects did you use it for, and what did you think of its performance?
Are there other properties you think I should include in my yarn reviews? What yarn should I review next? Let me know in the comments!
Today I’m sharing the first of many patterns on the new site! Meet
Sarah in Lace
Ideal for hand dyed or natural yarns with slight color gradient, this cowl will let the yarn speak for itself.
The simple lace repeat is suitable for confident beginners familiar with yarn overs, decreases, and simple cables.
Cables on each side create a scalloped, slightly rolling edge in place of the standard garter stitch edging. The length and width are easy to modify–just add lace repeats to achieve your desired size.
Gauge is not vital to this project, but you do not want a tight fabric.
This pattern includes tips on how to modify the edging cables as well as how to adjust both length and width, but please note adding repeats will require more yardage.
This is the hand knitting version of this pattern. (But don’t worry, if you don’t want to translate it to the machine yourself, the machine knitting version will be out soon!)
You can find this pattern in my Ravelry Store as a Free Ravelry Download right here!
It’s available to non-Ravelers, too, so don’t worry about signing up unless you want to. All the pattern details and updates are on the Ravelry page along with extra pictures.
I designed this cowl for my lovely friend Sarah of DoubleDutchYarn back in the fall of 2019 for a juried craft show she was featured in. A lot of life has happened since then, and I’ve learned to take better and more numerous photos.
Here is the only one I have of the original Sarah in Lace cowl!
This creamy alpaca goodness was so soft. It draped like a dream. I just couldn’t help rubbing my face on it, which was a bad idea since I’m allergic to alpaca! The temptation of that delicate yarn halo was just too much.
Poor Sarah felt so bad when I told her about my eyes watering while I wore a bandana over my face to knit this up, but she didn’t know about my allergy, and my fellow allergy sufferers know some things are just worth it.
Sarah offers small batch, locally curated yarns. When you shop with her, you’re supporting local farmers, millers, dyers, and of course, designers like me.
And be sure to stay tuned! This isn’t the only time Sarah and I have collaborated with yarn!
Silk City Fibers is a wholesale coned yarn retailer that boasts more than 50 types of luxury yarn for knitting and weaving. Known in the past for their 100% rayon chenille yarn, they became part of Orchard Yarn & Thread Company, Inc., better known as Lion Brand Yarn Company in 2019. Perhaps due to the pandemic, in 2020, they opened up their online store and no longer require a wholesale account to purchase their yarns.
Cone put-up allows for much more yardage per item, and though the price per cone may seem daunting at first, remember to consider price per yard and the amount needed for your project. If you’re really buying in bulk, Silk City Fibers offers a discount after 7 cones and even more after 15 cones.
I remember hearing and feeling some concern about Silk City Fiber’s “luxury” yarn status when learning of their purchase by Lion Brand, but instead of seeing much of a change in Silk City Fibers, I have noticed a positive trend in Lion Brand Yarn’s lines with nicer, softer acrylics and new, sustainable and/or recycled yarn blends.
As a former yarn boutique employee, I’ll admit to some yarn snobbery. I’ll also admit that I wrote off Lion Brand Yarns very soon after I started knitting because I did not like what they offered, but my, have things changed for the better since then.
I’ll be reviewing more Lion Brand Yarns and Silk City Fibers offerings in the future, so stay tuned, but for now, here’s one of my Silk City favorites:
All opinions are honest and my own. I am not affiliated with any company or individual mentioned or linked unless otherwise noted. I purchased this yarn myself and did not receive compensation for this review.
Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu Color 016 Orangeade in different lighting to demonstrate slight sheen from rayon-bamboo
About Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu
Fiber Content
51% Cotton, 49% Bamboo-based Rayon
Yardage/Meterage
1,050 yards per pound
Ounces / Grams
1.2 lbs
Yarn Weight
*3 / Light / DK
Made in
**
Availability
Online, some LYS or Weaving shops
Put up
Cone
*There is not a yarn weight listed for this yarn. Instead, you can estimate its yarn weight by “wraps per inch” around a standard No. 2 pencil or comparing it to yarns with known sizing.
**I was unable to find an exact location where this yarn is made, but many Silk City Fiber and Lion Brand products are made in China or in America with source fibers from varying countries.
Cotton Bambu comes in a very limited color palette of 12 solid colors. There is a slight sheen in the yarn due to the bamboo-rayon, as seen on the right in the picture comparison above. Allergy sufferers or those who are averse to animal fibers will enjoy the smooth cotton and bamboo-based rayon fiber content.
At 1,050 yards per pound and 1.2 lbs per cone, you’re looking at just over 1,200 yards per cone and around $0.25 per yard.
You can purchase Cotton Bambu from both the Silk City Fibers and Lion Brand Yarns websites. Your local yarn or weaving shops might carry Silk City Fibers yarns, but stockists are not listed on either brands’ website. You may be able to find old colorways or fiber combinations through Etsy or eBay sellers.
Care Guide
Hand Wash
Yes
Machine Wash
Yes
Flat Dry
Yes
Machine Dry
Yes
When I first purchased color cards and then cones, this yarn was recommended dry clean only, so I’m glad to see its updated care status listed online.
Cotton Bambu machine washes and dries very well, but it is important to always work from measurements from a washed and dried swatch to account for any changes or shrinkage that could possibly occur in the wash.
If you decide to lay it flat to dry, know that it will take quite a while to dry fully and you may need to flip it so the underside is not damp. I noticed after steaming garments, so they were not soaked as they would be in a wash cycle. This is not unusual for cotton yarns as they are very absorbant.
Knitting Machine Compatibility
4.5mm Standard Gauge
Yes
6.5mm Mid-Gauge
Yes
8mm / 9mm Bulky Gauge
Yes
This yarn works well at upper tensions on the 4.5mm standard gauge machine and works well with the ribber attachment. I most frequently use it on my mid-gauge SilverReed LK-150. I have not used it on a bulky machine, but it is an appropriate weight and would likely work well on any bulky depending on what fabric you are looking to create.
Swatches, Performance, and Blocking
If you’re curious about how I swatch yarn, please read this post.
Stripes of various Cotton Bambu colors from a work-in-progress
Cotton Bambu runs smoothly through the machine and patterns well using a punch card. It makes a nice rib using the ribber attachment. If you need to rip out work due to a mistake, it loses a bit of its twist. Loose ends will un-twist and fray due to being a smooth, plant-based fiber, so be sure to securely weave in ends before washing.
If your cat decides to claw up a cone, the individual threads that make up the yarn will run and pull for a bit, so be sure to keep your yarn safe from predators when photographing and storing! I assume catching this yarn on needle hooks might have similar results with individual threads of the yarn pulling.
Mid-gauge SilverReed LK-150 swatch at Tension 4, washed cold on gentle and dried on low:
Before
After
20 stitches
4″
3.875″
30 rows
4.5″
4″
Cotton generally shrinks some in the wash, but as long as you are working from the gauge of a “finished” or washed and dried swatch, you should not run into problems. (I cannot stress the importance of this enough!)
Though there was some shrinkage, there was minimal to no fuzzing or haloing of the yarn in the wash and no loss of stitch definition whatsoever in my swatches.
Using the above numbers, my swatch shrank about 3% horizontally/stitch-wise and about 11% vertically/row-wise.
If you’re worried about shrinkage, the rayon-bamboo content does more than simply add to a garment’s drape. Cotton Bambu blocks very well and gives you quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to any surprises you might find in your finished garment. I’ve been quite thankful for its blocking ability before when I miscalculated a stitch conversion factor and wound up with a garment that was just a bit too short for my liking.
Standard-gauge Brother KH-890 swatch at Tension 10, washed cold on gentle, dried on low, and gently steamed:
Before
After
40 stitches
6.5″
6.75″
60 rows
6.5″
7″
When I say “gently steamed,” I mean that I passed the steamer head above the yarn swatch and used it to iron out wrinkles and unroll the sides of the stockinette stitch swatch. I did not pin or mark desired dimensions and pull or push the fabric to create stretch, I merely used the steam to relax the swatch to see where it would go without coaxing.
You cannot “kill” cotton as you can acrylic, and bamboo-rayon doesn’t quite “kill” like a normal acrylic will and lose all of its elasticity, but steaming Cotton Bambu does increase the drape. The cotton content prevents and protects the rayon-bamboo from behaving as a fully acrylic yarn will.
Using the above numbers for my standard swatch, my steam blocking was able to increase the horizontal/stitch gauge by around 4% and the vertical/row gauge by around 8%. Over something like the 15″ body of a garment, that is an increase of over an inch of length.
Blocking can make a significant difference, and if you need more give than a gentle block, Cotton Bambu will be able to stretch more than I demonstrated, but it does have limits due to the cotton content. I suggest double-checking your math instead of relying on the yarn to save you as I had to do!
Pattern Ideas
I’ve used Cotton Bambu in many projects and have plans for many more for both customers and myself. Click the pattern name for a link to the download page of each pattern.
Left: Kelso by Meghan Kelly (hand-knitting pattern) in Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu Color 116 Grass. $8.00 USD on Ravelry. Sample knitted on SilverReed LK-150
Both of these patterns involve hand-transferred lace. Irene Woods’s pattern includes very detailed information on the lace in a circular yoke for those who have not tried it before.
Lion Brand CoBoo
I have not been able to officially confirm this, but I believe Lion Brand’s CoBoo yarn is Silk City Fiber’s Cotton Bambu yarn.
Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu and matches in Lion Brand CoBoo
Lion Brand CoBoo comes in 3.5 ounce, 232 yard cakes, is 51% cotton and 49% rayon-bamboo, and has the same care instructions. (The online listing description states 50/50 content, but the actual ball band label reflects the 51/49 ratio.)
While CoBoo comes in 20 colors, it features many exact matches to Cotton Bambu right down to color names (Grass, Steel Blue, and Orangeade are pictured above). It also has the same number of plies and the same twist.
Lion Brand’s website list price is $5.99 per cake, which puts price per yard around the same $0.25 as Cotton Bambu, but you can find it on sale for as low as $2.99 per cake on JoAnn’s website depending on their sale of the week.
Final Thoughts
Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu is a wonderful yarn, and at $30.99 a cone, it feels pricy. Silk City Fibers touts themselves as a luxury brand, after all, and I feel they live up to it with Cotton Bambu. At around a DK weight, Cotton Bambu makes substantial but not heavy garments appropriate for spring, summer, and fall or year-round wear in warmer climates. Its drape adds to the luxurious and smooth feeling of this yarn against the skin.
For a similar drape and smooth feeling and the same ~1200 yard amount in Berroco Comfort DK, a 50/50 Nylon Acrylic blend with 178 yards per skein at $3.75 per skein, you’d pay around $27.00 (about $0.23 per yard). I think a cotton blend costing about the same as a nice, quality acrylic yarn is a very good deal. (For a review of Berroco Comfort in Worsted weight, check out this post.)
With only 12 colors to choose from, Cotton Bambu has work to do in the color department. Three of the twelve Cotton Bambu colors were added very recently, so I am hopeful for more colorways in the future. Lion Brand’s CoBoo version it better at 20 colors. If you’ll be working with a smaller amount of yardage or you want to do colorwork, I’d opt for the CoBoo version.
In fact, if you simply want to try this yarn before you invest in an entire cone, I recommend choosing the CoBoo version first.
Cotton Bambu is a wonderful yarn and one of my absolute favorites overall for any type of knitting, but price and limited color palette affect its rating when I look at it more objectively. The fact that a more colorful and widespread/readily available through big box craft store version is around detracts a bit from its rating, for me. Combining all of that with great drape, a smooth and sleek feel, and a decent price, I give Silk City Fibers Cotton Bambu a 3/5.
Have you used Silk City Fibers Cotton Bamboo before in your machine knitting? What about in your hand knitting or weaving? What kind of projects did you use it for, and what did you think of its performance?
Are there other properties or categories you think I should include in my yarn reviews? What yarn should I review next? Let me know in the comments!
ELY Knits 