FAQ

Polyester fiber is made of organic diatomic acid and diatomic alcohol, poly condensed and spun into synthetic fiber. Polyester fiber massively produced in industry is made of polyethylene glycol terephthalate. Trade name of polyester fiber is terylene in China. Polyester fiber is the largest category of synthetic fiber at present.

The usage of polyester fiber
Polyester fiber has excellent textile performance, taking performance and wide usage. Polyester fiber can be spun purely. It can also be knitted into textiles having various colors, abrasion resistance, washability, non-ironing with natural fiber including cotton, feather, silk, hemp, etc. and chemical fibers. Polyester fiber is suitable for shirts, coats, children clothes, indoor decorative fabrics and carpets. Polyester fiber can be used as bat wool for its good elasticity and bulkiness. In industry, high strength polyester fiber is ideal materials for cord of tire, conveyer belt, fire hoses, cable twisted rope and fishing net. It is also used as electrical insulating materials, acid filter and deckle blanket. Non-woven fabrics made of polyester fiber are used as indoor decorative fabrics, backer of carpet, medical industrial clothes, wadding and lining. Polyester fiber has excellent wearing resistance, dimensional stability, good electrical insulating properties, light fastness, rub resistance, mould proof, mothproof. At room temperature, polyester fiber is resistant to strong acid. It has bad resistance to strong alkali. Dyeability of terylene is not ideal. Polyester fiber can only be dyed by using disperse dyes under high temperature. Polyester fiber is usually made from women’s dresses, slacks and wind coats, welcomed in the market.

Q: Could a floor length gown look formal even if knitted from yarn?
Money is tight, and I don’t have a sewing machine. I have an abundance of yarn, knitting needles, crochet needles, an afgan crochet needle, and a circular loom. As I like to dress nicely for fancy occasions and fortunately have some nice gowns, I would absolutely love to knit a floor length evening gown to save money, have a beautiful gown, and have that rewarding feeli of havIng created something useful. I have knitted sweaters, scarves, and hats. I know I am capable of knitting the correct shape of the dress, but would a dress made of knitted yarn never quite look formal? I was thinking a black dress would be my best bet, as the knit pattern wouldn’t show as much.

A: I don’t think a knit gown would look terribly formal under normal circumstances, but it certainly could make a lovely sweater dress. A nice sweater dress with some pretty accessories could definitely be formal enough for any holiday party. I think it does matter what thickness of yarn, what the yarn is made of, and what size hook or needles you are capable of using. A very fine, silky yarn worked with tiny hooks or very thin needles could yield a surprisingly formal garment (compared to what people would think yarn is capable of), I think. The issue is, anything that tiny and fine would take FOREVER. You might want to try asking on Freecycle for extra yarn, fabric, and a sewing machine. You might be surprised what people are looking to get rid of. Alternatively, you could ask a friend to borrow their sewing machine for a while in exchange for knitting them a lovely hat/scarf/glove set or something.

Q: I just started crocheting last month. So far I have made a purse and some hats. At first I used Red Heart, Medium(4), it was a little bulky and not soft enough. Than I tried I Love This Yarn(from Hobby Lobby) same weight, both are acrylic, both this brand was softer and not as bulky. What kind of yarn do you use, and for which projects? Where do you buy the yarn (favorite internet site, store)? Cheapest? Which kind of yarn is best for an afghan stitch dishcloth?

A: If you wash the item made from the Red Heart yarn and then steam it, it will soften up. I use many different kinds of yarn. Each yarn has its own strengths and weaknesses, and I try to match the strengths of a given yarn to the project. For example, I just finished knitting a circular tree skirt that looks like a piece of peppermint candy, and it’s made of Red Heart SuperSaver yarn because it has to be washable, it has to be immune to moths, and it has to stand up to being stored for 11 months and subject to hard wear for 1 month each year. If I were making a sweater for a child, I’d prefer Plymouth Encore because it’s machine washable. If I were making a sweater for an adult, probably Cascade 220 would be my choice. If I want acrylic that feels good and knits up nicely, I would probably use Vanna’s Choice from Lion Brand. “Cheapest” is a relative term. I’m not really interested in knitting things that are cheap my labor is worth the same regardless of whether I’m using good yarn or cheap, harsh yarn in an ugly color. Thus, I usually am more interested in how well the yarn works for the item and how well it will hold up to its intended use.

a great place to get different types of yarn is the thrift shop. some times 3 or 4 in a bag for $2.99 or something. needles and such. and the sweater rack is great for yarn,feel the sweater,and learn to look at the seam to see if it is hooked together (good) or a cut and sew(bad). unravel and get lots of yarn and learn how that stitch works. cotton sweater will be the next set of dish clothes. big mens wool sweaters are great for yarn for wool socks!!

Q: I’ve just bought a kit with several different sized round looms. They work great and I’ve got the whole knitting thing figured out. But here’s the issue. I’m bored of single colored and striped things. I want to do little patterns like hearts and polka dots and little moose eventually. Is there any possible way to do that? ((Btw, if you could put this in as simple terms as possible, I would be so happy. :] Im still quite new and haven’t gotten the terminology down. Thank you thank you thank you.))

A: What you’re asking for (it’s called “intarsia”) is really beyond the scope of a Knifty Knitter. You’d need either a knitting frame (such as the Incredible Sweater Machine) or to learn how to hand knit. About the closest you can come is a very rudimentary Fair Isle such as this one. I suggest instead that you look into different stitches you can make on a loom. I’ve probably seen about a dozen variations. The standard stitch for a loom is a sort of twisted rib. In order to do intarsia, you’d need first to master a stockinette stitch on the loom. Intarsia in the round is a form of insanity even when hand knit, which is why it is generally done flat and then seamed. So learn to do flat knitting on a circular loom first. Perhaps it’s time to graduate from the loom and learn hand knitting which will give you significantly increased options and techniques, things you can never do on a loom or even on a frame or machine.

It is difficult to work patterns on looms. You can work hearts or polka dots on after finishing the knitting by a method called swiss darning. This is sometimes called duplicate stitch. Google in “swiss darning” and various tutorial sites pop up. Chose the one you find easiest to understand.

Q: What is the difference between rectangular  knitting and circular knitting loom?

A: You can make pretty much any pattern that you have on a flat (rectangular) knitting machine whereas on a round knitter you are pretty limited.  I recently bought a knitting machine (flat) and can do everything with it that I want including cables, rib, intarsia (making pictures with different colored wool), you name it.  It does take a while to get the hang of a knitting machine and is way more versatile.

If you want to make socks and any other tube like stuff then a circular knitter is what you need.  But…if you’re going to fork over the cash for a knitter get a flat one and be willing to sew the seams.  You’ll be much better off and get more for your money.

the rectangular loom is for knitting flat pieces like scarves and the round is more for like hats and booties, but there are ways to knit flat on the round and round on the rectangle too.

Knitting is creating material usually out of yarn, but can really be made out of anything – thread, cotton, plastic, etc. It is a series of horizontal parallel courses of  yarn, which are joined by interlocking loops in which a short loop of one course of yarn is wrapped over the bight of another course.  It can be done by hand or by machine. Hand knitting uses a circular needle, 2 needles, 4 or 5 needles depending on the style.

Typically you cast on a series of loops one one needle and then each loop is the base for creating a loop for the next row. You use the second needle to reach through the loop on the first needle, grab the yarn, and pull it through and capture it on the second needle.  When all of the loops are worked, you turn the work around (over) and start again from the other side if you are working on straight needles (flat work).  Knitting can also be done in the round using either a circular needle or double pointed needles (4 or 5).

Working the loops creates a tube of material.  Another method of “knitting” is using a knitting loom – which is a series of pegs or nails to hold the loops.  The next round of stitches is wound around and then each stitch is worked using a small hook shaped tool.   Machines use a row of needles where the yarn is laid flat over the tops of open needles and then each needle is closed and the yarn is pulled through.  Crocheting is done with a single needle with a hook at the end.

Material is created by creating a chain of loops and then going back into each loop with the hook and pulling through a new loop to create the next row of stitches.  There are many variations on how the new loops are formed from a simple single crochet – pulling one loop through the old loop  until there are two loops on the hook and then pulling another loop through those two loops until a single loop remains on the hook – to double treble – which works through a series of loops 7 times.

Q: I’m doing a project where i have to plan a charity event to raise money for a genetic condition. the condition i chose was Raynaud’s, which is a disorder that causes the effected to have extremely cold fingers. i chose this one cuz me and my mum both have it. anyway, for my event i wanted to sell gloves, like the cheap knitted-material ones you can buy at craftstores, that said “Remedy Raynaud’s, the cold fingers disorder” on them. but i didnt know how to put the words on the gloves, and when i researched companies that made customized gloves like this they only sold them in quantities of 300-400, and it was really expensive. does anybody have any ideas on how to put the wording on cheaply so i could sell them for a fundraiser?

A: You could use a stencil and fabric paint–that’s probably the least expensive method. To answer your question, though, iron-on transfers do work on cotton or cotton-blend jersey, which is the knitted fabric from which most T-shirts are made. Embroidery is also a possibility. If you have access to an embroider machine, give that a try. Or get in touch with whatever company in your town has commercial embroidery machines for putting logos on team shirts, hats, and such. You might be able to talk them into doing a dozen or so at a reasonable price. If you’re doing this plan for a project and are not really going to put it into action, why not plan around the price per pair of the 300-400 minimum requirement from the company you found, if the price per pair is reasonable?

The main problems with using t-shirt transfer paper to put images on things like this is that the material you’re choosing is a knit, and may be acrylic/polyester/etc.

Materials like acrylic/polyester can kind of melt or flatten when too much heat and/or pressure is used on them (unlike cotton and natural materials).
And knits are not solid surfaces like most woven materials are, so there will be little holes all in the image/lettering, which will only get larger when the knit is stretched to go onto a hand.

You could stabilize the knit from underneath just in the area you want to do the lettering so it can’t stretch right there (using some kind of interfacing) but could get quite fiddly.
Or you could do the lettering on something woven, then glue or sew(?) those onto the gloves.

Or you could figure out something else that you could attach to the gloves which has your wording or even a symbol of some kind (with certain kinds of glues or large “stitches,” etc.).