I took a couple classes at this month’s Vogue Knitting Live again this month, and it was nice to get back to it! I took a class on Japanese stitch patterns from Gayle Roehm, who has translated several of the Japanese stitch bibles currently available and also teaches quite a few classes on the subject. She took the class patterns from garment patterns in Japanese knitting magazines, so they aren’t things from the stitch bibles. I got through all three of the class patterns – here are my swatches.
I halfway suspect I wasn’t supposed to block the modular thing on the left. Here it is unblocked
My other class was on mattress stich, which I had never done before. I mostly just use backstitch or similar to sew my sweaters together. However, mattress stitch turns out to be pretty easy and definitely does look nice! We knit swatches to get ready for the class, and then stitched them together in various ways – stitch to stitch, like you would do on a shoulder join; row to row, like for a side seam; and stitch to row, as you would do to sew a sleeve to the body of a sweater.
I left some of the stitches loose to help me remember what the stitches look like. This is a very useful technique, which I will definitely put to use!
I didn’t get much other knitting done this weekend, but that is OK. It was still a very knitty weekend 🙂 How was yours?
Quite A Yarn 
As you use the mattress, you’ll see your tension improve and that’s when the magic really happens!
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🙂 It seems very useful!
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I like mattress stitch for seaming. It is easy enough and looks nice.
The Japanese stitch patterns are really cool. I like the green one a lot:)
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Yes, it does look pretty great! They are nifty stitch patterns – I like them too!
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It was great knitting with you this weekend. I am so thankful for our Sunday calls. I finished John’s socks, which is thrilling.
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It is always great knitting with you as well! I love our Sunday calls as well. We keep up through the blogs, but it’s nice to really talk 🙂 So glad you finished the sock! What’s next?
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Oh I love mattress stitch, it’s magic! I also love the look of the modular thing you made. What would you use that for?
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I think the modular thing would be for a little texture scarf. That’s the only thing I can think of it would be used for 🙂
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My weekend was very knitty, too! I took 3 classes and taught 4. I also took a class from Gayle Roehm, but looking at your swatches, I know we weren’t in the same class!
I took two classes on short rows, and I’m ready to tackle DH’s upcoming sweater. Onward!
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Wow – you had an extremely knitty weekend! She was teaching a couple, from what I remember. What was the one you took on?
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You learned some great things.
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Smart idea to leave some stitches loose to remember how they were done!
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Thank you! I’m hoping it will help me remember what I was doing 🙂
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