Yarn and giveaway prize provided by Jimmy Beans Wool. Opinions are my own. See site policies.  Meet Yarn Citizen, a new line of sustainably sourced and affordably priced yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool. This yarn is made from ends leftover from the process of milling fiber into yarn, diverting them from landfills. At the same time, the low cost of these ends allows today’s review yarn (Yarn Citizen Harmony Worsted) to retail at under $15 per 100g skein at the time of this writing. Read on for a brief review of this yarn for both knitting and crochet, and enter to win a kit featuring a sw ..read more

Intarsia knitting often leaves us with a few (or a lot) of ends to weave in. Weaving in an end incorrectly can leave you with little eyelet-looking holes where new colors are joined. And weaving in an end in the wrong place can result in a too-bulky appearance on the right side, affecting the appearance of the finished design.  In intarsia knitting, good tension is the key to achieving a correct looking finished design – that is to say, not squished or stretched. Good tension comes from knitting yourself a large gauge swatch and blocking it to confirm you’re knitting the correct amount o ..read more

If you feel anxiety when it comes to knitting intarsia, you’re not alone. This tutorial, which includes a video demonstration of the tips and concepts covered, should help assuage that anxiety. Today is all about how to knit better (cleaner, crisper, more even) intarsia joins. In intarsia knitting, changing between one color and another is referred to as a join. You’ll encounter a few different kinds of intarsia joins, depending on the pattern you’re knitting. There’s joining a new color to start knitting a section in that color, and there are vertical, diagonal and horizontal joins. “Horizo ..read more

Notions were provided by the companies mentioned. Opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see site policies. It can be time consuming and frustrating to have to re-count rows over and over again as you knit, especially over long stretches of stockinette stitch and with hard-to-see yarn. Here are 3 easy ways to keep track of your row or round count in knitting. (The best part: none of these involve a post-it note.) This tutorial was designed with Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along knitters in mind. As someone who’s knit two adult-sized versions of the vest*, the back pan ..read more

Prizes shown were contributed by each company. Opinions are my own. The Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along giveaway prizes have all been assembled. (If you don’t know what a Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along is, this post will fill you in.) That means it’s time to reveal what they are and how to enter to win this awesome package, worth about $225. Read on for details about what’s included and from whom, and find the giveaway entry form at the bottom of this post. Good luck! About the prizes First up, Brooklyn Tweed, the yarn brand the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest was designed with, has genero ..read more

After announcing the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along, I had a couple of knitters reach out who are super excited to make the vest, but are brand new to intarsia (and in one respectably brave case, new to knitting). This post is all about rounding up the videos & written (blog post) tutorials that might come in handy as you knit the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest. There are 10 videos, 7 about intarsia, plus a bonus 11th video, the first video of this knit along. September marked 13 years since I started blogging & Hands Occupied, so sometimes it is surprisingly easy to forget all of the ..read more

First off, welcome to the first blog post of the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along, running for the month of October. Everything you need to know about knit along logistics can be found in this blog post. Since the book/pattern reveal was just last Tuesday, I realize folks might still be waiting for yarn and books to arrive. For that reason, we’re starting the knit along with a lesson* in gauge, everyone’s favorite subject in knitting! For real though, the topic of how to knit intarsia that doesn’t look squished, stretched, or otherwise suspicious consistently comes up in emails & comme ..read more

Yarn provided by Fairmount Fibers. Opinions are my own. See site policies.  For this month’s review and giveaway, we’re taking a look at two new yarns from Manos del Uruguay that can best be described as sisters. Why sisters? Marla and Sami are two different yarns spun from the same fiber at the same weight, and their color palettes are designed to coordinate with each other. For the purposes of this review, I swatched Marla in Nube (light blues, greys and whites) and Sami in Natural side by side in knitting and crochet. Comparing the two yarns, the primary difference is that Sami ..read more

At first glance, a round pillow featuring a coneflower motif knit with intarsia colorwork might seem pretty straightforward, but for folks looking to work on their intarsia and sweater knitting, the Intarsia Flower Pillow was designed to give you the chance to do a few things (besides make a cute pillow, of course). The Intarsia Flower pillow is a great way to practice intarsia colorwork on a project that’s perhaps less intimidating than a full sweater. Since we’re knitting a round-shaped pillow, the pattern features increases and decreases in some of the same rows as intarsia colorwork, whic ..read more

Lifted Increases (RLI & LLI) are a way to increase your stitch count by adding a stitch in between two columns of stitches. Make 1 stitches (M1L & M1R) are also increases made between stitches. Make 1 stitches, whether right or left leaning, are worked by pulling up on the strand of yarn running between columns of stitches, twisting it, and knitting into it. The twist results in a tiny hole and more tension on your finished knit fabric. More tension can mean more curling, particularly if you’re increasing a lot at once near the edge of your knitting. This can be desirable, but sometim ..read more