Welcome to 2013

Hello 2013!

This post comes a *little* late, but I think it's still OK for me to wish everyone a happy new year. I started mine right by ending 2012 on the right foot.






The Vampire Boyfriend Socks.
Started : 7OCT11
Finished : 30DEC12
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed
Needles : Silver 0US

Yarn : Decent for the price. Soft. Splitty. I used one skein per sock (with left overs) and only discovered afterwards that they were radically different dye lots. I'll own up to that seriously basic knitting error. My Bad.
Pattern : Good, Love the concept. Chart easy to read and instructions clear. You have to seriously love cables to knit this on tiny needles though.
Why It took Over a Year : Knit the toe of the first sock two inches too long and grafted it together. 'Nuff said. All that stood between me and completion on the 30th was unraveling the toe and re-knitting about 30 rows....


Having cast off the bad knitting vibes from 2012, I spent New Years swatching and ball-winding, hoping to gain favor with the knitting gods...



And today I cast on Juneberry.





I feel good. It's been in my queue since the pattern was released in 2010.

And since it's New Years, here are my knitting goals for 2013.
The first one is simple (and mostly done). Re-do the queue to only include stuff that I already have the yarn for or that I plan on buying the yarn for soon. It's to help de-stash and prevent (wasteful) yarn spending.

Knit the following.

- a real honest to goodness wearable sweater. Hopefully This One in a blue or green shade of cascade.

- More and bigger lace shawls. At least one in silk. Also for the love of god stop impulse buying variegated lace! Find a reliable source of nice solid-color lace weight yarn.

- Alternative natural fibers. Try out Silk, Bamboo, And Cotton. Potentially as a fingering/DK weight cardigan.

- Spinning. The spinning wheel thing keeps getting pushed back due to unavoidable budget constraints. *cough*stupidcarandbuyingahouse*cough* But I have my drop spindle back, so spin the BFL with that. Maybe by the time I finished it I'll have the wheel to spin my other two fiber club braids with.



I think that's pretty doable. Don't you?



P.S Also, crochet something.

Side Note

Nearly four years ago, I was still a relatively new knitter. I'd been knitting for just over a year, and I had moved out of my parents house and gone off to college. By all accounts, college was pretty cool, but the thing I miss most about it, is the LYS that was an easy 2 mile walk from where I lived. I was introduced to spinning in that LYS. Spinning on a drop spindle. And while I fell in love instantly I knew that the drop spindle was not for me. I knew that I was destined for other, larger, spinning tools. I simply didn't have the time or the money for such a large indulgence.  Since then I've graduated, joined the Navy, and gone to school all over again. I promised myself as a graduation present from A-school, I would finally buy that wheel.

Now, don't get too excited. I haven't actually graduated yet. But my graduation is a mere 3 months away, so I've already started to plan. Reading books, watching videos, joining Ravelry groups. And I discovered something. In these last four years, my tastes have changed.

I always thought that when I did eventually buy a wheel, it would be the Ashford Traveler.

Aesthetics are deeply important to me, and I find the castle-style wheels to be the most attractive. Ashford is a deeply respected name, and of course, it falls into the nice $500 price range.

But in my recent research, I have found that while a majority of knitters learned on, or owned a traveler at one point, they all eventually upgraded to other wheels. I'm not currently looking to own multiple wheels, I just want one. So I started looking into the slightly more expensive wheels.

One big priority I have now is that my wheel needs to be portable, and so out of all of the wheels out there, the very very new schacht sidekick is starting to call out to me

The downside is that it's new, so there aren't a lot of people who have one yet, or people who have serious complaints about it. But it seems to have everything I want. Stability, quality, and portability.  The only real complaints I've heard about it come from knitters who own 5 or 6 different wheels, and these knitters tend to be very nit-picky about very small things. As a complete beginner, I know that I'll probably imprint on whichever wheel I learn on and love it completely. This wheel is nice because if I ever want to upgrade, the Schacht Matchless is completely compatible with it, so I wouldn't have to buy all knew bobbins and stuff.  Sure, the Sidekick is more expensive, but I've been knitting for a long time now and I'm confident that I'll be spinning even longer. They say that the Schacht wheels are like the sports cars of the spinning world. 

I think I can live with that.

Small Haul

Hey blog!

We know the posts have a been a bit thin lately. Don't worry! I've been knitting hard on the blanket, and now that it's nearly done I expect a bit more momentum here. Which reminds me, with the blanket's eminent FO-dom, I've been thinking allot about what my next project will be (and I haven't forgotten the other WIPS, either. ) Here's a small taste of what to expect in the future :

Got these at a Joann's (nearest one is 45 minutes from where I live. Yeah. )

Since the stop over was unplanned, I wasn't prepared to buy buttons for my sweater. Had no idea what size or color to get, so I grabbed these kinda randomly. We'll see if they work out or not this weekend ^^;;

Until Next

Cheers

Flutterby

A few months back, I got the flutterby pattern as a present. I looked at it, I looked at my calender and saw that christmas was coming up, and I thought to myself; "Yeah, I can knit that during my vacation!" I was so delusional that I even ordered the yarn and had it sent to my parents address, so it would be there waiting for me when I arrived. When the holidays actually came, several problems were quickly made obvious to me. The largest of them being the number off things and people I wanted to see while I was there, measured against the amount of time I had, and the degree to which drinking socially and knitting mix. (Which is, zero. Don't try it.)

The other problem, closer to most knitters hearts, was gauge. No matter what needles I tried, I could not get the correct gauge with the yarn I had chosen. (LOFT ). The closest I got was on these tiny uber size 0 needles, and when I cast on the recommended 72 stitches and started the ribbing, it was much much too big. Unable to go down to a smaller size needle, I opted to decrease my stitches to 52. After that the ribbing looked more reasonable and I finished that I started on the color work. It's probably obvious, but your gauge in sts will be drastically different from your color-work gauge, and my nice-fitting ribbing started to take on a drastic cone shape as my color work pulled and pinched everything together so tightly, that I couldn't even pull the whole thing over my knuckles, much less get it around my wrist.

ripping back and switching up to larger needles (0US ) for the color-work helped, but I think I'm going to rip back again and try it on 1s or even 2s.

I'm already resigned to the fact that these mittens are going to end up either too big, or too small, possible both, before I finish them.

WIP Woops

Dear blog,

I dedicated a huge chunk of this past weekend to my knitting, and as you may have noticed, I have a pretty decent number of WIPs floating around right now. I honestly, sincerely meant to work on each one of them in turn (especially the burnt frost hat, which really only has a few rows of decreases left. ) I also planned on starting the 2nd sock in my Vampire Boyfriend pair, so I'd have something a little more juicy to knit in class if the SHELTER scarf got 'too' relaxing. But I'm afraid I have been very weak.

From the moment I seriously started knitting my No Remorse Sweater, I became blind to all other projects.

The NRS sweater is the reincarnation of an earlier attempt to knit this pattern. It turned out to be way too complex for my current direction-reading skill, so it was frogged in favor of a simpler project. Namely, this one. Of course, I still want to knit sideways-spencer-redux eventually. Just not quiet yet. Anyway, this sweater has consumed me. I'm driven on by the one oh-so-important question : Will it fit? The other projects I know will more or less work out, but I have a lousy track record with sweaters, and I'm hanging by the seat of my pants here waiting to find out how things are going to go down.

Until next

Cheers

Xmas Stash

Dear blog,

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a good time, and got all their essential x-mass projects finished in time this year. Naturally I've been super busy visiting with my family and friends. I haven't seen any of them since January last year, so pretty much every waking moment has been spent trying to catch up. Nevertheless, knitting has still been progressing. I finished 1 whole skien on the surprise project and am about halfway done with my rosebud hat (coincidently, the first thing I've knit for myself since May.)

But thats a story for later posts. Today I want to talk about my haul.

Now, Christmas isn't about getting stuff, but I always seem to come out of the bargin with new stash, and that's not something I'm likely to complain about. Some of it I bought for myself - like the shelter I ordered a few months back - and some of it is gifts. Check it out :

First up, two skeins of brooklyn tweeds LOFT, one purple, one yellow. I've only knit a tiny little swatch, but I LOVE IT TO DEATH. It's wooly and springy and thick. It has more crunchiness and weight than other wools I've tried, and it somehow seems heavier despite being fingering weight and very fragile. Probably the only complaint about it is that it breaks if you so much as look at it the wrong way, but it's something I can definitely live with. The green on top is Classic Elite Yarns' LUSH. It's 50% angora and super squishy. It's an obnoxious spring green color that I think will be a nice change from my usual dark winter reds and blues ^__^ I'm thinking probably mittens or a smallish cowl is in this singles' future

Here's more loveliness. The Shelter is one of two skeins - I'm knitting the other up as a rosebud hat. For a yarn review, Ditto the LOFT yarn. The Manos... Never knit with it before. It's really soft and has an interesting texture that I'm dying to knit up in plain stockinette, probably with a garter boarder. The brown will probably be knit in stripes with the Manos. I've been a fan of ultra alpaca for awhile, and it can keep up with the Manos in the softness department while also being a little bit more firm and solid.

Lastly, these turbo lace circs in US1. I've heard rave reviews about these and can't wait to see how they hold up in comparisons to the knitpicks ones I've been using (supposedly they are nicer). I'm hoping to do socks and mitts and thing on them using the magic loop method.

Anyways. Thats my longish Christmas post, hopefully my next one will be an FO followed by more explicatives about gauge.

TTFN

THEO

Dream in mailbox

Dear blog,

Guess what came in the mail for me Monday morning?

This beautiful sock yarn was shipped to me from simplysockyarn and it is SOO delicious! The color is something you have to see in person to believe, and it's so soft and squishy! I can not wait to start knitting this. It's taking all of my willpower to make myself continue knitting on the sunshine shawl instead of casting on something new!

It's Dream in Color Smooshy, the colorway is Raspberry Blaze, and OMG. What a treat. It's destined to be knit up as the peacock shawl, and Boy am I looking forward to it.

Next post will be another Wishful WIP. There are so many sock patterns I want to try out that even I don't know which one I'll blog about next ^__^

Wishful WIPS

Dear Blog,

Welcome to a new line of mini-posts designed to hide the fact that I don't have much actual knitting news to report. This new series 'Wishful WIPS' will feature a new pattern each week that I wish I was knitting, and why. I'm gonna start off with a few socks, mittens, and hats, before switching it up to some truly fantasy level projects like shawls, sweaters, and blankets. That way I can pretend that my knitting is cooler than it actually is.

The first pattern is new, designed by one of my favorite knitters Glenna. C :

Kaywinnit!

These socks are so cute! The perfect combination of dainty and practical, with a pretty easy stitch pattern. In my mind, I imagine knitting these up in a fun variegated yarn, possibly a yellow-pink, pink-blue, or pink/yellow/orange combination.

I think those colors match pefectly the personality of Kaylee, the character that inspired this pattern. There's nothing more fun (or geekier) than fire-fly inspired foot-ware. Let's set that on fire! ^_-

X-mas special

Dear blog....


So, I decided sometime around december 1st that maybe I should get started on those christmas presents that I wanted to knit...
probably a bit last minute, but that's what I've been doing ever since! I feel good about my chances of success.... Natrually I wont be able to knit stuff for EVERYONE, but I comfort myself that not all of my friends WANT hand-knit stuff anyway.... and if they do they can go on the top of the list for next year.
I'll tell you what though, after this month I don't want to look at a pair of mittens ever again. I've got five pairs in various stages of completion right now, which makes the idea of knitting hats, scarfs... or pretty much anything else very attractive right now. Brace yourself for a flood of FO posts this new years!


BWAHAHAHA,
THEO

Gauge makes no sense

Ever notice how the math involved in gauge makes no sense?

Like, I knit Treads using worsted weight yarn. The pattern says size 5 needles for a gauge of 6 sts to an inch. The Bernat silky was a loose yarn, so somehow dropping 3 needle sizes worked out perfectly. Now here I am with some lion brand worsted trying to knit the same pattern again. At us2 I'm getting a measly 4 1/2 sts an inch, dropping down to 00's gives me only a 1/2 sts increase to 5 sts an inch. What? The majority of the people who knit this pattern did so using size 5 (or bigger!) ??? Is my personal knitting really THAT lose in comparison to other people? Is it really such a shock that Hey-Teach turned out too big for me despite frantic swatching? Am I just really dumb and doing something retarded with my ruler? Only time can tell. (Or, possibly, any knitting goddess that may or may not exist.)

Meh. /rant

In other news, incase anyone was wondering. Apparently, I am still a 12-year-old girl. Was at the mall the other day getting sibblings' hair cut and wondered into Claire's..... and had the teenage girl version of a 'kid in a candy shop' glee attack. I think I was hyperventilating at one point. I spent a lot of time freaking out over all of the zipper themed jewelry.... I scored this ring :

But there were dozens of variations on necklaces and earrings too. This was my first time seeing the zipper motif in jewelry, and I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. Of course, appropriate time was spent ogling the skull-and-cross-bones jewelry and the skeleton key necklaces, but those are all old hat compared to the zipper.

Oh, speaking of hats.

Ok. I think I'll stop now. Suffice it to say that, what started out as a chore (Mall, kids hair cut, remember? ) turned into an early Christmas for me. lolz.

A Sick Turtle...

Hey Blog.

Mostly, things have been going good. Progress on the sweater is... fast - I'm nearly done - and I've made sort of sideways progress on the cursed scarf (I'm probably going to frog it ). Last week I was on this whole crochet kick and I did a half dozen granny squares using leftover yarn... originally I was totally going to go for a whole blanket made out of left over yarn, but I started running out of the original colors, and I'm not sure the perfectionist side of me is ready for patchwork crochet....

Anyway, today I'm a bit sick. I'm thinking of this cold as a 'Summer Storm' because it came on so fast. Literally one day I felt great and the next day - BAMB - I feel miserable. The only warning I had that this was coming was that my sister got it first... I guess I sort of thought popping extra vitamin C and gargling with listerine would defend against it. I was wrong. This phrase "A sick turtle is a slow turtle" is stuck in my head. At college, they'd post this slogan in the bathrooms to encourage hand washing. I always though it was mildly sadistic, because there always seemed to be alot of them posted RIGHT after I got sick, like the universe was mocking me.

Anyway. Unlike Jeanne, I'm finding motivation to finish my sweater to be very low. Once it's finished, I wont have anything exciting to knit. Swallowtail and I are still not speaking, and I don't have any other good yarn on hand. (I have enough acrylic in my stash to make a few hats, but honestly, my acrylic knitting days are numbered. )

Nothing that really excites me is waiting after this sweater, so I'm dragging it out for as long as humanely possible.

Super Bulky

Dear Blog.

Remember that trip to AC Moore? The one where I went crazy and decided to start a sweater project? Well, I bought more than just sweater yarn. Two additional skeins. One, Paton's Shetland Chunky, in a very romantic shade of soft teal. The other, Lion Brand Hometown USA In a Super Bulky Charlotte Blue. I love these two skeins of yarn, and the fact that I bought them is absolute proof of my ironclad self-control. Twice, two times I went to AC Moore and petted, fawned over, and drooled on these skeins. I wanted them, Oh how I wanted them. But I knew I was on a yarn budget and supposedly working out my differences with my Swallowtail shawl. It was only on that third fateful visit that I finally bought them. If that isn't self-denial I don't know what is!

I absolutely love the color of the Patons yarn.... But the Hometown is so perfectly squishy! it makes me so happy, just squishing and squashing it. I wish I could meld the two skeins together and make one perfectly colored happy, squishy, shetland skein of pure bliss.

If I have my way, they will both become hats. One, full of cabled goodness, and the other a simple stockinette slouch with a seed stitch brim. (Yes, I love this yarn so much I'm even willing to knit seed stitch for it. That's true dedication)

I've got my hands full with other things *chough*sweaters,lace,cursedscarf*cough* but expect to see these two beauties hitting the WIP list very soon.

Cheers!

Theo

A Good Start.

Hello Blog!

First, since I know you'll ask; I did not finish Treads yesterday. I'm really close though!

Yesterday, was a bad day for me. I mean, a screaming, shouting, cursing, crying bad day. I know, but it's OK because after it was all over, I went to my friend's house and we went to AC Moore. AC Moore is where all of the pretty, cheap, acrylic yarn lives, and not to dis Michael's at all, but this particular AC Moore has the most amazing selection of brands and colors. It's nothing short of epic.

Suddenly, without really meaning to I had agreed to starting a knit-a-long. A Knit-a-long for a sweater. A SWEATER. There is nothing better for boosting morale, self-esteem, and delusions of grandeur than going to buy yarn with a fellow enabler. ( I might be her dealer but she's just as bad for me as I am for her, and that's the story I'm sticking to.)

What sweater you might ask? Why none-other than the simple and elegant $5 in Paris that has been high up in my queue for a good long time now. I love this sweater, it's really a classic, fitted look and it does stripes in a way that actually looks nice....

I don't want anything to go wrong with this project. I want this sweater to be a roaring success, I want it to fit properly, I want to be able to wear it out in public - or to work - without feeling embarrassed, or regretting some fault or another with the sweater that only I can see. To that end, today I am swatching. Serious swatching. It may be true that swatches lie, but I will swatch the living daylights out of this yarn until it tells me what I want to know.

Gauge is supposed to be 5 stitches to an inch.

on size 9 needles; unblocked 4 1/2 stitches, blocked 3 3/4 stitches

on size 8 needles; unblocked 5 stiches, blocked 4 stitches

on size 7 needles; unblocked 5 stitches, blocked 4 1/2 stitches

Regardless of what needle size I go with for the body, I plan on going down a size smaller for the ribbing. I do not want the neck of this thing draping off of my shoulders!

'Cheers,

Theo

Officially Graduated

Dear blog,

I've recently graduated from college (yay!) I had my last final ever (hopefully) on the 11th, and I've moved back in with my folks. It's summer, my favorite time of year, and I'm just chill'n for now, you know?

Started working on the olympic shawl, again. I'm really close to finishing it so that's my goal. Once I bind off on the shawl, I'll pull Swallowtail out of hibernation and work on that ^^;; I'll probably frog it and start over. Back when I started it I was still twisting my stiches, and I've also switched to knitting continental style since then. I may or may not go up a needle size too. Meh. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. My camera cable is still packed, but I promise I will pull it out soon and do a proper post with pictures, till then.

'Cheers!

Jaywalker: single, searching for sole mate.

Hello blog,

So, I finished the first sock a few days ago and have been procrastinating on the photo shoot. This is my last semester at college and even though I thought I was taking 'three super fun classes, with an awesome schedule and a light course load' I actually may end up doing MORE studying this semester than I did in the fall so..... Things might get interesting. Of course I've got huge plans for my knitting, and for the blog, too. (mostly to do more.) So we'll see what happens.

The Jaywalker:




I think the pictures speak for themselves, it's a gorgeous sock.






The knitting olympics start on the 12th. In my mind I had planned to have both finished the 2nd Jaywalker, and a birthday hat before then, but now I'm not so sure that's going to happen. There's still some time, though, I haven't given up just yet.

Pictures of the stacked eyelet cowl coming up next.

'cheers
Theo

Spinning out of control

Hello Blog!

Today's topic is about spinning. Specifically, how I really really want a spinning wheel. A few days ago, in a fit of boredom I started doing some spinning wheel research. I wanted to see which spinning wheels I liked merely by what info I could find out on-line. Granted, I'd like a chance to go window-shopping and try out actual real live spinning wheels, but with nothing but my laptop and a wireless connection, I think I've narrowed it down to two choices.

The Kromski Minstrel



The Ashford Traveler




This Video will make you an instant Traveler fan.

Sadly, a spinning wheel is just totally beyond what I can handle right now, but I can dream, can't I? I only need to hold on to this bright glorious dream until Feburary 12th. Did I mention I'm planning on competing in the knitting olympics this year? Huzzah!

And yes, this post was totally meant to distract you from the lack of Jaywalker updates. The first sock is finished but instead of taking advantage of the sunlight today for a photo shoot, I spent 4-5 hours studying kanji. School has begun!

'Cheers,
Theo

FO's for the win

Hey blog!

I'm writing today in a simi-sleep deprived state, after having managed to complete both a pair fetching gloves and a crofter's cowl. I suppose it was only a matter of inevitability that I would screw up. The fetching pattern turned out to be so freaking fun to knit (and such a darn pretty end product to boot) that I started another pair. (Of course my favorite part is the thumb. Maybe I'm just new to glove construction but I find the thumb to be particularly sweet).
Anyway, I finished the first glove, and then started the other (while watching the Syfi movie Alice, and later Bourn identity) And I totally forgot to reverse the cables for the second glove! Sigh. The crux is always in the details, right? I suppose I could have just kept knitting, but that wouldn't have done full justice to the pattern, so I frogged it @_@
I'm much too tired to begin again tonight, but I'm enjoying my little knit marathon. I've got several more projects lined up, including the finishing of the Empress coat and The 9 to 5 socks. ( I know the sock has been a WIP for a long time. And I feel bad about that, but it's day will come soon. )

Pictures and rants about why I now love knitting thumbs in a future post!
'Cheers
Theo

August ends

Hello blog,

It's slow around here. I didn't knit nearly as much during the summer as I had thought I would. I literally spent 5 or 6 hours a day doing Japanese related things, watched an indecent amount of hulu, and I managed to scratch or in some way hurt my eye. After two weeks of searing pain, an eye doctors visit, and another week of daily eye-drops, it has been determined that the 6 months of vision therapy I had last year are wearing off, and my eyes are yet again refusing to corporate. They hurt, I'm getting insane head-aches from trying to read books, or the internet, and my light sensitivity is way high. You wont catch me admitting this to my parents, but the glare from my computer screen is so painful that I've turned the brightness down to only three bars, and hulu is pretty much off limits. (I could force myself to watch it, but it only makes me blind with pain. )

The upside of this is that I've had loads more time to think....and day dream about all the yarn I want to buy/knit with.
using the Techknitter blog and videos from knittinghelp.com I taught myself how to knit continental style so that I could try color work with one color in each hand. I've knit things with two colors before, but in a random method-less way that I don't ever want to revisit. I have a pattern all picked out, (A hat. Surprised?) and some lovely sport weight yarn, but have only just realized that I do not have any circular needles small enough. My smallest circular is US 6, I need US3 and US4. I do have US2 DPNS, but..... I will kill myself before trying to knit a hat on DPNS. I hate DPNS. I guess this means I need to cross my fingers and pray for another knitpicks gift card. (And we wont mention the intense jealousy this recent palette stash has caused me. I'm trying to be a better person )

I *did* recently score the summer 2009 issue of The Knitter magazine, complete with interview with Meg Swansen and Jared Flood. Sweet =)

Also, I'm mere inches away from binding off on the right front side of Hey Teach, which just leaves two sleeves, some button bands, and a whole heck of a lot of seaming. Math has never been my strong point, but why does it feel like I'm still less than 50% done with this project?

The fall Semester starts on monday!
'cheers
Theo.

progress report

Hi guys.

Just thought I'd leave a quick little update. No photos, but the sock is progressing. The mistake wasn't as huge as I thought, only had to go back a few rows and now I've finished the gusset and am working my way up the foot. If I didn't have so much darned school I'd be finished with this sucker already but, there you have it.

Have not actually started on the arm warmer project yet, I need to go up to a needle size I don't have so. Got to get me to a yarn store sometime soon.

Speaking of which, MS&W is this weekend (yay!). Planning on going Sunday, we'll see what happens. Cross your fingers and hope it doesn't rain!

'Cheers
Theo

Hard choices

Hello Blogverse, Theo here. 

Today I'm having a bit of trouble. I recently got some giftcards as an Easter present, and I fully intended on using them to buy yarn for Hey, Teach! the cardigan I've been planing to knit this summer. The trouble is that I had wanted to order knitpicks comfy in the lilac color, and it's sold out! I don't want to wait until July to order, I'd like to have this project to be knitting during midterms, (because there's so much stockinette stitch, it'll be very relaxing. Just what I'll need! )  The problem is I don't really care for the other color options. I want a bright, cheerful color but the colors are either too bright like October, or Marlin, or else they are too pastel for me, like the honey dew. I also don't want to get a dark color because.... spring should be lighter, right? I let Sixer talk me out of ordering the chocolate brown color , so for awhile I was considering blackberry..... but after all I think that's too dark too. So now I'm thinking about the silver sage....  I don't know what I'll do. Choices, choices! 

I'm also going to order some Shine sport weight to try to do the snowball's chance in hell arm-warmers.  I hope that the cotton knits up OK for gloves. I'd have preferred wool, but the exact color I want is in the shine sport, so that's what I'm getting.

Anyways, I've been wanting to try this pattern for ages but I couldn't wrap my head around the duplicate stitch. For some reason I just couldn't get it, no matter how many diagrams, tutorials, and even videos I watched explaining how to.  However the other night I ran across a blog post by purlbee that changed everything. It's the most amazing tutorial for duplicate stitch ever and I feel really empowered now. Thanks for that! 

'Cheers

Theo