♪ >>dean: hi, welcome back to hometime. well the question is what gives a house "curb appeal"? we're going to explore that today on hometime. >>miriam: yep. we've been tracking the street view elements on this new home under construction here. that'll include roofing, natural stone, stamped concrete and garage doors. >>dean: so by the end of this show, we should have a pretty good idea of what this home's curb appeal is all about. >>miriam: yep. i hope you can stick around. ♪

>> got a new guy. >> well it's about time. >> where's the gig? >> gmc. proud to lend a helping hand to hometime. ♪ >>miriam: one thing we want to do is show some of the details going into the deck and the screen porch out back so we'll visit that part of the construction as things come together here. but let's focus right now on what's going on out front. as we start our porch roof, we're going to be using the same material as we're using on the rest of the house roof. the main element is this dimensional shingle. there are a few other things in this system that you should know about. the first is a leak barrier. this is going to go over the most vulnerable parts of the roof. and then we'll have our roof deck protection which is going to go over the rest of the sheathing. the guys are using an underlayment that's reinforced with fiberglass which is a lot lighter than conventional felts or tar papers so there's more

roof protection on each roll. here's what they're using to cover the membrane and the underlayment. this is a fiberglass asphalt shingle and it has kind of a layered look to give it a more dimensional look up on the roof. this particular color blend is known as midnight blush, and the overall effect is going to be similar to traditional slate but at a much lower price. each one is 17x40"s so they're going to on pretty fast. and even though the shingles are the most prominent element at this stage, there are a couple of other important ones we should talk about as well. mike schrader is here with his crew to get us started here. now i know the starter strip is pretty important at the beginning. you want to talk about how these guys get started? >>mike schrader: sure. the starter strip goes down first of course with the desired overhang of the shingles depending if there's gutters or extra fascia. it's a factory made starter. it's not made out of a shingle. the perforated produce comes bundled up in two and you break them in half along this edge. the sealant strip goes down at the bottom as to seal to the

back side of the first course of shingles. all the edges are straight and square which makes it kind of nice. you're not working with a hand-cut edge. >>miriam: as far as the layout with a roof like this, how do you go about laying it out? how do you go about putting them up and stuff. >>: first of all what we do is we determine the exposure of the shingle. this is a designer shingle. it has a larger than normal exposure. in his case, we'll snap our horizontal lines 8"s per course. from that, we'll jump over to a vertical line. and this has a 10" wide path so you split that in half into a 5" offset or a step pattern to gain a stair style starting point. from that point, we use a full shingle and we can just follow them up and it moves pretty quick after the starting process. >>miriam: so the purpose of it going up at a diagonal is? >>: mostly it's a color blend. shingles nowadays are blended. they're not solid colors. and if you don't run them up according to the manufacturers' specifications, the colors will clash. they want to have it broke up a little bit so it doesn't clash on one side or in clumps. they're a good shingle. rigid enough to work with.

really they don't flop around on you. good shingle. >>miriam: and what about the ridge? how do you deal with the ridge? >>: the ridge cap is a perforated product not made out of the shingles anymore. these are double thick shingle product. gives it some extra life. and they're perforated. there's 3 per piece. and basically what you do is you fold them each way just to crack that perforation loose. couple of times if they're hot. and pull them apart like that. and when you apply them, of course you snap a line down one side of the ridge or the hip whichever you're applying them to so you can get a straight edge. and then there's 2 nails per side. and there's a sealant strip on the bottom so it will stick to the one that you laid it on top of so everything is sealed down. everything is to prevent wind blow off of some sort. >>miriam: exactly. so what can somebody expect from a roof like this? >>: very low maintenance. an asphalt roof especially with a designer shingle like this that is now considered a lifetime

shingle, it shouldn't have any problems from leaking or shingles blowing off because of all the extra sealants that's on the bottom of these shingles right from the factory. this should be a problem-free roof for quite a while. >>miriam: well they're getting a great start especially considering we've had some iffy here and there. so thanks so much for your help. we appreciate it. >>:thank you. you bet. >>miriam: after roofing comes the siding, and for this home it's a combination of lap siding and shingles but both are in the form of fiber cement. the shingles are actually 4 foot panels that give you the look of cedar but with a lot less maintenance. it can be prefinished in a variety of colors but the plan here is to paint it after installation. the next thing to go up on the house is going to be the stone out front. now they're using a natural material known as "quartzitic sandstone". it's quarried in oklahoma. and this is a thin veneer format meaning it's about an inch thick rather than the 3 to 4"s of a full

veneer. but the front porch, steps and sidewalk have to be poured before starting the stone. so that's being done today. the guys have already prepped the forms, gravel and rebar for a stamped concrete treatment which should be very interesting because they're adding the color right on site. >>bryan cipala: we're basically forming up our porch here in anticipation that the stone, thickness, mortar and elevations are all at one particular height for them. >>miriam: well the way they have these all set up, the concrete is going to come right over the rigid foam insulation so when they take off the forms, it's going to create just the right spot for the stone veneer that's going to be going on later. >>: basically the installation is serving as a void for the stone crew that's going to be coming in behind us. we'll have a nice overhang about 2-1/2"s around the perimeter of the step and the porch. they'll come behind us, insert their stone underneath that 2" overhang. >>miriam: now here's the color and texture that they are going for. the color is a blend of 4

different pigments that they put in a dissolving bag and then they put it this bag for shipping. so when the concrete truck arrives, they just take out the dissolving bag >>: we'll just throw those in and we'll get it mixed up. >>miriam: toss it into the concrete truck. as it mixes, it works it's way into the mix and you get the color that you want. so bryan ... >>: yes. >>miriam: i have a question. i know you're really busy but for people who may not be familiar with stamped concrete, do you want to kinda go through what happens when you do it? >>: ahh, yeah. basically the concrete will show up. we'll be adding the color to the truck that we'll be mixing for anywhere between 8 to 10 minutes. and then we'll just start pouring out the concrete from the far end all the way to this end. the process is the same as traditional gray concrete. we will lay it down. we'll smooth it out. make sure it has a nice crisp look to it. >>miriam: it's a little bit muddy out here today but the guys are glad that the truck is able to back right up to the

porch. it's a lot easier than carrying all the concrete by buggy. i know with the aggregate that you're working with that could be varied. so what do you use for this treatment? >>: this particular application we have a 6-1/2 bag dampable concrete mix. basically they eliminate a lot of the aggregate rock and put in more sand. so you get kinda a more fine finish and a more crisp look with your stamp when you stamp it. >>miriam: it's always a good idea to agitate the concrete a little bit to make sure there's no voids or air bubbles and make sure that the concrete fills every nook & cranny. how do you finish the concrete before you spread the release agent and then apply the stamp? >>: well we'll be finishing the concrete - trowel finishing it to take out any imperfections, any voids. making sure that the concrete is totally level so the impression of the stamp looks uniform as the stamp impression is being installed. >>miriam: i think we'll talk about concrete curing rather

than drying that's because it's a chemical process. it's what makes it hard. sometimes it can take days even weeks for it to fully cure but it can get pretty hard to work with pretty quickly so these guys work as fast as they can. >>: here we have a decorative edger from 7"s from our outside form in, we're going to have a nice 7" border going around the perimeter of the porch. the outside perimeter of the border is going to be stamped with roman slate. and on the inside of the porch, it's going to be ashlar slate. so you have 2 different stamps going on but there is a visual there that kinda complements each other when it comes to the 2 different stamps in the area that you're stamping. basically the border is there. it just kind of dressed the inside of the work up a little bit. >>miriam: and then this is kinda part 1. you're going to do the porch and then the walk and the back for, right? >>: that is correct. you know, if you could control a smaller portion of concrete when you're stamping it, you have a better end result. after we have it installed and have it fine-tuned

in and finish, then we'll start placing our secondary color that we'll be broadcasting across the top of the concrete that we laid. it also provides us a bond breaker between the concrete and the stamp so the concrete doesn't stick to the stamp. >>miriam: how do you know when it's actually ready to start stamping? >>: ahh, it's kinda an instinct thing. sometimes in some situations we can stick our finger into the concrete to kinda see where it's at. and then we kinda know when to start. knowing where we're going to finish at from an impression standpoint. you want to make sure that you have the consistent stamp throughout the concrete install so you have the same impression from where you start to where you finish. at that point, we will start installing our ashlar slate pattern on the top platform of the step. we'll be using probably 3 to 4 stamps that kinda interlock with each other. they have different stones on each stamp and as you stamp the concrete, you want to turn the stamp to have a different layment of the stone. the stamp itself varies between a quarter

inch to a half inch and you want to make sure you get that full depth of the stamp impressed into the concrete. >>miriam: so it needs to be soft enough to take the deepest impression. >>: exactly. soft enough to take the deepest impression but at the same time, too, it has to be soft enough where we're still able to run the consistent stamp design through the duration of the pour. >>miriam: yet firm enough where you're not going to sink into it. >>: that is correct. you want to stand on the stamps and we have a rubber whomper that we use to impress the stamp into the concrete. a whomper, yeah. >>miriam: it is? >>: or a tamper...a whomper. >>miriam: i like that. so how long do you have to work on the concrete? >>: from laying it to actually stamping it and fine-tuning it, i would say we probably have a 3 hour window from start to finish. >>miriam: now bryan is going to let the release agent sit overnight and then come back and wash it off. he's also going to

put a sealer on it but he's going to wait on that and do that at the same time that he does the driveway. >>: once the concrete is set up and hardened, we'll come the next day pull our forms. then we'll do a light wash on it. after spraying it off, we proceed on to adding a little bit of dish soap to water to breakdown the release color. fine-tune that in. not scrubbing too hard but just enough to get the detail between the 2 colors. after that dries, we'll put a sealer on there and that's kinda the final product. >>dean: now most garage doors face toward the front of the house. great for access but not so great when that door opens and everybody in the neighborhood sees the mess you've got going. it can be a little embarrassing. all it takes is a little bit of organization. now what we really like are these heavy duty cabinets that come in a lot of different sizes. tall utility cabinets. base cabinets. different types of uppers. even a workbench. so that helps to get some of the clutter up and out of the garage into those cabinets. now another thing we like are these track systems. you get them up on the walls. you can take the tools you don't

have in the cabinets spread them across the walls so when you're looking for something, you just pan the wall. easy to find. these come with a lot of different hangers. well first of all you have sort of your general purpose ones. these you can use for hanging hammers, ladders, all sorts of different things. this is kind of a unique one down here. you can see it holding a bicycle tire. these are for hoses. on this one, a ladder rack here. and this is a netted bag that will hold all your basketballs, volleyballs and baseballs. and believe me we'll just scratching the surface here. now one thing that's really neat is this little locking feature. you get it into position up on the track. then you turn it sideways like that. it locks it into place. in pulling a few of these elements, you've have the best looking garage in the whole neighborhood. >>miriam: well bryan and the guys were able to finish the porch using about a half load of concrete. for the driveway, it's going to take more like 2 full loads. they've already got the first half of the driveway done

and now they're working on the second half. the basic steps are very similar to what we saw on the porch, but of course the driveway covers a lot more square footage. so besides the spreading, finishing and stamping, there's also the issue of control joints which you always see on large stretches of concrete. and that's to limit the visible impact of any cracks that are bound to occur because of changing weather conditions. >>: there are 2 options you have when trying to prevent concrete from cracking. one option is to saw cut the joints in the next day. today we decided to hand tool cut 'em in. we're controlling where the concrete should crack. we're able to chisel the joints after we stamp it to give it that look of chiseled edge stone. we're making the concrete look like roman slate. a piece of stone. so the edges of the control joint we want to chisel them to look like a piece of stone. then we'll proceed on to applying the secondary color and then start stamping. for people to control this much concrete which is about 23 yards of concrete, you

need all hands on deck to attend to the concrete and stay ahead of it. >>miriam: now i know this is a roman slate pattern which matches up with what you have on the edge around your porch, right? >>: that is correct. along with us installing a nice concrete, we like to have areas of stamped color tie-in with each other. so with the porch in the middle, we have an ashlar slate square pattern and around the perimeter, we have the roman slate which ties with the driveway. so we'll tie-in all 3 pieces of concrete together so visually you can kinda see the concept that we're trying to portray. >>miriam: okay, and then you'll be back to do the walk. >>: that is correct. we'll be back to do the walk. we have our step and porch. that height is established. our driveway height is established. both of them have proper drainage. now we have the sidewalk in the middle where we can meet the 2 together. >>dean: bryan still has a couple of steps left on the stamped concrete but once the driveway is set up, the masons got rolling on the sandstone veneer out front. that's jason cavanaugh and chris davis working the trowels out there. they got all the preps done yesterday so they can really go

to town today slathering on mud and putting stone in place. the color blend is known as deep forest which has some dark blues and grays. sizes range from 6 to 24"s long and 4 to 14"s high. that means the guys can set it in a fairly random fashion so it looks more rustic and less formal. and using this thin veneer format, the masons will tell ya, it goes up really, really fast. so jason, what you're using here is actually real stone, right? >>jason cavanaugh: yes it is. it's just the face of a real stone. this is a face and what they do with a normal stone is about 4"s thick. and what they do is they'd cut the face off. and then it's easy. you can stick it to any wall. >>dean: so the reason for this is it's cheaper to ship. it's quicker to install. >>: mmhm, quicker to install and you don't need a footing to put it on. you can put it in the middle of the wall. just stick it right on there. >>dean: and so how does it go on? how does the installation differ from let's say installing regular thick 4" veneer stone. >>: well a thick 4" veneer, you

start at the footing and you put mud down and you keep stacking it. this you don't need to stack it. you stick it. you put some mud on the back of the stone. and it just ... give it a little wiggle and it just sticks right to the wall. >>dean: and that's sitting on top of a mesh. >>:well, we've got the tar paper. and then this is our weep system which any water does get back there, it weeps down the tar paper. comes out the weep system. there's little holes under here so we want get to there. it comes out the holes and then we put our mesh on and we put a brown coat on and then the stone goes right on top of that. >>dean: okay. then what do you do once it sets up? how do you strike the joints and stuff? >>: well what i do is i grab my grout bag and i get some mud in there. and we put the mud in the joint

first. you start from the back and let it come out the front. and then you let that dry for a couple of hours and come back with a stick and just tool it out. >>dean: just like decorating a cake pretty much. >>: yes, pretty much. >>dean: once you strike that i mean it looks like you have no idea how thick that stone is. >>: correct, yeah. because all you see is the very face of it. >>dean: and talk to us a little bit about the corners. how do they create that total illusion that it isn't ... >>: well the corners ... this is your full stone - would be this and the face. >>dean: so if you were installing regular veneer stone, the whole piece of stone would be in there. >>: it would, yes. the whole piece of stone would be this thick square right here. what they do is they take a saw and they just cut both sides out so when you put in on the wall it would look like a full stone. >>dean: now it's just pretty incredible the way they do this now today. >>: oh, yeah. and the labor is a lot cheaper with this kind of stone than a full stone. >>dean: as an exterior cladding, the sandstone weathers really

well because of its high compression and low absorption qualities. that's what you look for in any climate, especially ones with a lot of freeze and thaw cycles that put a lot more stress on building materials. >>miriam: things are really moving along quickly now. bryan has finished up the stamped concrete. jason's wrapped up the stone work and i'd say our last landscape is about 90 percent there. now bryan did have a chance to put in the sidewalk. he sprayed off the release agent. that's looking really good. once he gets a sealer on there, we'll be able to call that done. and the masons finished off the stone work so now you can get a better feel for how the sizes and colors actually look up on the wall. one of the last major items for the front of the house is going in right now and that is a set of garage doors. these typically take a few hours to install. these are sectional doors with 4 panels each and the typical technique is to attach some hardware and hinges, assemble them in the opening, put up the tracks, attach the spring and then set up the opener. with the

garage out front on this house, the garage doors play a big role in the home's curb appeal, so the carriage style design and trim is going to be a big plus. jim lundberg's has been our point person for this particular project, and they're making really good progress, huh? >>jim lundberg: yes we are. yes we are. we're almost done with the first door and we'll start working on the second one fairly quickly. >>miriam: excellent. now this is what they call a carriage style door. >>: correct. this is our carriage style wood door. custom made. and the carriage style has a look of the doors want to open up like a carriage style doors. >>miriam: exactly. and the arch top? >>: yep. it's a custom made that the builder wanted us to match the arch of the opening. and i think we did a pretty good job. >>miriam: yeah, i think so too. and this is cedar, right? >>: yep. western red cedar construction. it's a 4 layer constructed door. they're built by the amish in a small community in ohio. each panel is individually constructed. there's a lot of labor that goes into it. yeah. but they are

built in a factory so we can keep the cost down and make them affordable for everybody. the doors are insulated with an expanded polystyrene insulation. r-value of about 5 which is more than most wood doors. >>miriam: is this pretty heavy duty? >>: yes. it's a heavy duty door. heavy construction. so obviously the door is going to need springs and those kinds of things as well. so we use a heavy duty commercial grade hardware. first grade hinges. these obviously weigh a lot more than your standard door. so use a double roller, heavy duty hinges. it's a commercial grade hardware that we put on these doors. the track system they're made according to the weight of the door. this one is heavier than most because the door is heavier so our track has got to be heavier as well. the spring is counterbalanced to the exact weight of the door so you'll be able to open and close it just like any other door. >>miriam: now with a heavy duty door, you're going to need a heavy duty opener. >>: correct. >>miriam: so you're going with a 3/4? >>: 3/4 horse opener. is a solid rail construction. belt drive. and it's a state of the art opener. completely silent. it's

got an electric eye in the actual opener so when you walk in the garage, your lights will turn on automatically. you could go with a chain drive. they're just noisier. so the belt drives have proven over the winters and they work very well. >>miriam: i think these really complement the house the aesthetically i think, don't you? >>: yeah. i was very pleased when i saw it. i think that they really pop from the outside and it really, really looks good. typical installation time on a door like this, generally speaking, it's going to take 2 to 3 times longer than a regular door because these are put in the way we use to put in doors 30 years ago. so it's a little different. a lot more care is taken. it's not a builder door. it's made for a custom home. >>miriam: building a house, it's a good idea to have all the exterior elements done before you put in trees, shrubs and sod so you don't have workers in there tearing things up with ladders and tools. it's also a good idea to have all the landscaping done before you seal up stamped concrete. the sod is done so bryan is back with the sealer and the driveway and the sidewalk here look really good.

>>thank you. >>miriam: what exactly ar using for the sealer? >>: we're using a acrylic sealer. it's 100 percent soluble. it kinda stands up against our minnesota winters when it comes to the salt and sand. >>miriam: this is 2 coats, right? >>: that is correct. we power washed the over broadcast of the secondary color. and then we applied a curing compound to the concrete for curing purposes. the second application is fofor the sheen to kinda interlock the colors with each other. >>miriam: and what about maintenance? >>: i would say, applications with just foot traffic like the sidewalk and front porch, i would probably recommend sealing it probably every 2 years. as for the driveway just the wear and tear of surface tags, i would say probably every year. >>miriam: well i have to tell ya, it turned out absolutely gorgeous. really, really nice work. >>: thank you. >>miriam: thanks for helping us out. >>: thank you. >>miriam: there's still some work to do inside, but as far as the exterior goes, this home is pretty much done including the materials that we wanted to show you: the slate-style roof. the sandstone veneer. the garage

doors with the arched trim. and the stamped concrete that we just saw bryan sealing up. now what you see from the street is a great example of what people mean when they talk about "curb appeal". i hope you enjoyed seeing it all come together. for dean and the guys, i'm miriam johnson. thanks for watching. ♪ >>dean: visit hometime at pbs.org. we've got more details about our projects. tips on owning and maintaining a home. and a great glossary of building and remodeling terms. stop by and see us at pbs.org. >> man. what we need is some elbow grease. >> yeah, you can... are you kidding me? >> gmc. proud to lend a helping hand to hometime. ♪

>> hi. i'm brett bara. welcome to another episode of "knit and crochet now!" today we're stitching beautiful comfortable pillows. kristin nicholas will share one of her signature knit designs, and drew emborsky will lead us through crochet cables. that's coming up right now, so stay tuned. if you love kristin nicholas' signature colorwork designs, this next project is a great one for trying your hand at her techniques. hey, kristin. >> hi, brett. how are you? >> i'm good. how are you? >> all right. >> so, your signature thing is making really elaborate

colorwork-embellished projects, and this is--i love this because it's very you, but it's a little simpler, so i think that-- >> i tried to tone it down a bit for you, 'cause people say i'm way too over-the-top too much, so-- >> well, it's great to be over the top, but i think some people need maybe a starter, a starter for the kristin nicholas fabulousness, so i think that this is really great for that. >> well, this is really, really easy. basically it's a pillow which is knit as a square, and then i'm gonna show you how to do embroidery on the top of it, and the big thing is the mitered corner. but i've got a few new little techniques that i want to share with you first. >> ok. >> now, i've been knitting since--well, at least 30, 35 years, and about a week ago i learned a new thing which everybody knows, but i was just slow to catch on. it's called a provisional cast-on. >> all right. >> and my friend tanis taught me, and basically what you're gonna do is-- you'll love this-- a crochet cord, just a simple chain. >> but aren't you the one who always says, "knitters

won't crochet anything"? >> well, that's true, but there's a reason to use this for this project, and so basically you just crochet a single chain. >> basic chain. very easy. so just show us, for those knitters out there, again... >> how easy it is? >> ...how do you make the chain, yes. >> you take your hook, you put your yarn in it, and you turn and twist. >> ok, very easy. just grab the yarn and pull it through the loop. >> and twist, and that's it. >> ok. >> ok, now you leave it open at the end, and now you're going to pick up your knitting needles. >> ok, so you just leave that loop hanging there. >> you leave it hanging there. you try not to let it rip out. >> you could always pull it so it's a little bigger... >> yeah, bigger. right. right. ok, and now what i want to do is in the back of your crochet-- your chain, you've got this bump. there must be a correct name for it, but i call it the bump. >> we actually call it the bump. the bump at the back of the stitch... >> the bump, ok. so you take the bump and you put your needle through the bump. >> ok.

>> and i'm gonna start off with my purple yarn, and i'm going to pull it through, and i'm gonna do that all the way across my stitches. >> so in every bump. >> in every bump. it's a little tricky when you're first starting. and you go all the way across to pick up your stitches. so you see how they're hanging on there? >> mm-hmm. and then so you are really casting on the loops onto your knitting needle that way. ok. >> and it looks like this after you've done a few rows of stockinette stitch. >> and we should say that you really do want to use a yarn that's a contrasting color. this is not just something we're doing for camera. in real life, you would also... >> you want to use a scrap yarn. you could use cotton yarn, acrylic yarn, anything. this is a wool yarn that i'm knitting with now, but you can see how it's-- the stitches are into there, and it makes this little-- actually, pretty little chain there. that's the chain

from the crochet. ok, now i've done 12 rows of stockinette, which is this section, and i want to change my color, and i'm gonna do a garter ridge. a garter ridge is this stripe. it's made of 2 rows, and i'm gonna do that by changing to the green and knitting 2 rows. >> ok. >> and-- >> well, this was stockinette, which is worked by one row knit, one row purl. >> exactly. >> and then garter, which has this bumpy texture, is every row purl. no, every row knit. >> every row knit. so i'm just gonna knit across, and i don't tie my yarn. i just knit with it. >> mm-hmm, and then you weave in the end later. >> i weave it in later. so i'm gonna just go quickly. i do the continental. i just want to show you-- >> and you also knit through the back loop, which is your sort of personal quirk, and then later, when you purl, you-- >> yeah, i fix it, right. everybody has their own way to knit. >> there's a lot of different ways to do it. >> right. so i just want to show you how it looks after a couple--after 2 rows.

ok, i'm gonna turn. see how it looks just basically like stockinette. >> mm-hmm. >> now when you do the knit row on the back side of knitting, and you get the bump. right there. >> yeah, there we see it. >> and as you build them up, now you're gonna alternate colors here. >> so it's kind of hard to see because it's a dark color, but the purple here is also the garter stitch, so basically this section is just knit every row. >> now, when your piece is finished, you've got a nice big square. you've got these ridges-- 4 and 3. >> mm-hmm. >> you need to pick up the stitches around the edge. i am gonna show you how i do that. i've picked up all these on the selvage edge. i pick up every second and third row, so i'm gonna skip this row, i'm gonna go in and pick up the stitch. >> mm-hmm. >> and then in my next row, i'm gonna pick up another stitch...

>> mm-hmm. >> ...skip this row, pick up another stitch, and as you can see, you then get to here, where you've got your provisional cast-on, and watch this. i'm gonna rip this, if it works... and it's gonna--the stitches are gonna become live. >> oh, it actually unzips... >> it unzips, exactly. >> ...mm-hmm. >> and then i can pick these stitches up and go around, so they're live. >> so, want to show us how to put them on the needle, or is there anything-- >> yeah, i dropped one, but you basically get the right idea here. >> you just insert your needle through them, and when i unzip my provisional cast-on, i do it one stitch at a time. you're very brave. you probably, like, rip the whole thing out... >> ...the whole thing off, yeah. >> but for us mere mortals, you can do them one stitch at a time, and then you don't have to worry about dropping them. >> ok, the next thing is you would pick them all up around, and you have to mark

every corner stitch, and you pick one of the stitches to be a corner stitch. >> ok. >> so i put a marker, i have my corner stitch, and i have another marker, and i first picked up all the stitches around and knit-stitched. now i'm going to purl these up to the marker. this is gonna complete--because i'm going in the round, i've got to knit a row, purl around to get the garter ridge look. >> and now you're in the round, because you've picked up all the way around. >> i'm going on a circular needle. >> yeah, even though it's a flat piece, you're going all the way around, ok. >> when i get to here, i'm gonna slip this marker. >> and now let's just point out that this is where we are. you're right here on the corner. >> right. the corner stitch you always want to knit, but before that, i slip my marker, i increase a stitch by doing just a 1/2-inch cast-on. i knit my corner stitch, and i increase on the other side. every time i come to that, every other round, i do the increase. >> every other round... >> and it makes it grow out. i'm doing it on the purl round.

you could do it on knit round, but i'm doing it on the purl round. ok, and when it's-- >> and that's it. doing those increases on both sides makes this nice miter corner. >> makes the miter. >> nice. i never knew how to do that. >> very easy, and then to do this really easy, you've got a piece that's finished that's just 2 colors. >> mm-hmm. >> and i always like to put a little bit more into it. so this is embroidery, and wait till you see how easy this is. you turn it to the back, and i am going to just take a couple stitches to anchor, and i am going to come up-- i'm gonna skip my first row, and i'm gonna come up one row up...and now what i want to do is i'm gonna take my needle, and i'm gonna go over one stitch and under the next, over one stitch and under the next, over one stitch and under the next. >> ok, and so that's just like a basic kind of running stitch? >> running stitch, yep. >> that's so easy. >> and then you give a tug,

and that's it, and you go all the way across. >> ...great dotted lines. well, that's a really easy way to add some extra color and still get that pizzazz without having to struggle with bobbins and everything else. well, thanks, kristin, for showing us how to make this really great pillow. and next up we're visiting with ellen gormley, a well-known crochet designer and author. let's hear what she has to say. >> i really don't remember learning how to crochet. i learned from a great aunt who lived next door at some point. crochet was always around our household. i know my mother probably taught me at some point, because we made a granny square blanket together for my grandmother when i was 12 or 13 or so, and somewhere along the line, they taught me to crochet with some books to help me out. i picked up crochet again while i was in college and i was living alone,

looking for a hobby to do in my spare time, but the designing didn't happen until later, when i had the kids and was looking to find a way to spend my time and earn some money for the family while staying at home with them. so all the books on my shelves called my name, and i started looking through saying, "maybe i could be in one of those books one day," and that's how designing started for me. i first started with a book company, a major book company. i tried to submit some designs there, had a little bit of success, but then a whole new world of crochet opened up to me, and i discovered that there were magazines and guilds and groups and communities that i never knew of before, so i began submitting to everybody i could find to and got some more success with yarn companies and some of the major magazines, which kept me just addicted to submitting. though i've been published

many times in magazines, i'm thrilled to be designing my own book that will be coming out in the future, so i'm hard at work now and creating color schemes and textures and putting things together, and just really excited to see how the book is taking shape and really excited to see what it's gonna look like one day when it's a finished product in my hand and share it with consumers who followed me through my magazine career the last 5 years. the way that i really got into designing was by searching for groups, and i found the knitting guild of america and the crochet guild of america. i'm currently a member of the crochet guild of america, and i'm actually the mentor coordinator for that program. it's a great nationwide guild that you can find by just going crochet.org on the internet, and there's large communities of people where you can talk

about your passion endlessly and not bore them like you do your family, like i do with my family. i can talk about crochet with these lovely people from all over the world. there's groups. you can answer questions, you can ask questions, you can share tips on ideas. there's conferences and classes to attend, test your skills with some of the guild's programs, the crochet guild of america's programs. and those people who are interested in making crochet a career can apply for professional membership nd be assigned a mentor, a professional person in the industry who can walk you through and be your support and sounding board and help you while you work your way through. and so, as mentor coordinator, i help hook people up-- no crochet pun intended-- to hook people up with a crochet professional who will help them

reach their career goals in the crochet world. most recently i've been having so much fun with blogging, reaching consumers directly through writing. i write just about every day on my go crochet blog about what i'm doing and what the career of crochet entails. i get to name drop fun crochet designers who i know and share the experiences of what it's like to be a creative person who also is full of family and fun, too. there's little bits of all of my whole life on it, but 90% of it is crochet-related fun and activities and tidbits of what's going on in the crochet world. >> welcome back. next up, drew emborsky is here to untangle the mystery of crochet cables with a gorgeous crochet pillow. hey, drew. >> hi, brett.

>> how you doing? >> doing great, thanks. >> good. this is beautiful. >> thank you. >> i love this trellis kind of cable pattern, and then you've got something else going on going on over here. >> it's done in 2 panels. this is just a simple cable twist, and these have 3 different cables going on so that the stitches move to the left and move to the right and also twist. >> fancy. >> so let's get started. >> is this hard? >> no. well, it's not hard. you have to pay attention, but it's not difficult. if you have basic crochet skills, you'll get through this. >> ok. >> and we'll walk through-- what you basically need to know how to do are double crochets. almost all of this is double crochet, so-- >> oh, great. >> and we'll look at that. we're going to do the brown panel first, which are the simple twists. >> ok. >> and i chained the number of stitches it called for in the pattern, and i'm going to do a double crochet, which means you yarn over, insert the hook in the next chain, pull up a loop... >> mm-hmm. >> ...yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over, pull through 2 loops. that's just your double crochet.

so we're going to get to the end of this row doing all double crochets, and then the cables that i do in crochet are built upon front post stitches and back post stitches, and that's how you would make ribbing if you're doing the cuff for a sweater or something. >> a lot of people freak out about post stitches. we get a lot of reader mail at the magazine of people asking about post stitches. >> i think it's because they look so dynamic and they're so pretty and they're so complicated-looking, they're intimidating, but really if you just do it step by step, they're quite easy. >> it's like once you get the basics of it, they're really not hard. >> so our first stitch on this row is a front post stitch. normally you would go through the "v" on the top for a regular stitch, but for a post stitch, we're going to wrap the stitch around the post of that stitch, so you yarn over and go around it like that, then just pull up a loop and finish your double crochet. the next one's a front post, so i'll do that one, too.

>> so you just go around the post instead of into the top of the stitch, and that's really all there is to it. >> right, and you can see how they're kind of coming to the front a little bit. >> mm-hmm. >> well, the next 2 are back post double crochet, and that's on the back side, so you yarn over, and you can kind of just turn it over a little bit and go around the post o you pull up a loop, you pull 2 loops and pull through the 2 loops. we'll do it again. yarn over, turn it over a little bit, go around that post, pull up a loop, pull through 2 and pull through 2. now you can see that kind of pushes them to the back. these are in the front, these are in the back. that's what this little swatch will show right there. see how they pop up? it's like ribbing. >> and where is that happening on the pillow? >> all this pillow is over this ribbing. it's basically this. >> oh, ok. >> so you start every section of it with this. >> oh, this is like the foundation row... >> exactly. >> ...at the beginning. gotcha. >> so we'll do a couple more, just so we have some to show you that basic twist on.

we have 2 front, go through it there, and then 2 in the back. we're going to pretend this is the end of the row so i can show you the next row, which is a twist. >> ok. >> so you'll chain the number of stitches indicated, which in this pattern is 2, and that's to turn so you get the height. if you didn't chain at the end of every row or at the beginning of the next row, it would pucker at the end 'cause the stitches are so tall. >> which is, like, the number 2 thing we get reader mail about, which is, "why are the ends of my rows crazy?" so chaining is important. >> if you have that little trick down that you chain at the beginning, then they'll always look nice and straight. so now i have front post stitches here, and the basic twist of this is you'll do a front post stitch but not on that first one. you skip it. >> mm-hmm. >> go to the next one and do a double crochet, front post double crochet, and then now you'll go back to that one you skipped and do a front post double crochet. >> so you literally twist in front of the one

that you worked. >> exactly. you twisted it. and then the pattern is just you twist it one way and you untwist it the other way. it's not that difficult at all. >> all right... >> as long as you can do those post stitches. >> mm-hmm. >> so now on the pink part of the pillow, we have 3 different cables, and the cables cause these raised stitches to travel to the left or to the right or to twist, which this twist is the same one that we just saw with the brown. so the first one on the pattern, you just do a front post double crochet. now you're going to do a cable where the next stitch is a back post, but you skip one, so you skip it, make a back post double crochet, then make a front post where you just were. and what you can see here is you've caused this line to angle. see how it's angling now? >> yeah. >> 'cause you've crossed the 2 stitches that you were just using. >> so that's what gonna give us all of these slant-ating lines. >> and the next one, you do it the opposite. you skip one

stitch, and then you front post around this, and then you back post around the one you skipped, and that causes this line to go this way. >> mm-hmm. >> so now you can see that they're going out and in, out and in. >> ok. >> and you just keep doing that across. you skip one, do a back post double crochet, then you do your front around the one you skipped. so you do end up using every single stitch. you just skip them sometimes. skip one, do a front post double crochet, then do a back post double crochet, and then you front post in the last one. >> ok. well, that doesn't seem too bad. >> well, post stitches are really, really great, 'cause they give great texture, lot of movement, and they also make crochet a lot more drapey and stretchy. sometimes stitches can be real stiff. if you use a lot of single crochets, they're real stiff, and this makes it, you know, something that's more wearable.

>> yeah. and so do you work these 2 panels separately and then seam them? >> mm-hmm, work them separately, seam them up. the back of this pillow is just straight double crochet, so it's super-easy. so if you need to practice your double crochets, do the back first, and then you get some fun buttons that match and sew them on. >> oh, ok. decorative buttons. >> mm-hmm. >> very nice. so do you have any suggestions for ways to customize or alter this design? >> what you could do is you could maybe do it striped for, like, every 4 rows. just change the color. or you could, if you prefer this more structured straight part, you could make this much, much bigger by chaining the number of stitches for the pink part, for the brown part, so then the majority of it would be these straight panels, and then a little bit of it would be the cabley traveling stitches. >> thank you, drew, for demystifying cables for us on this lovely pillow. and now it's time for our square of the week segment, so stay tuned.

it's time for another square of the week, and this week, we're working on a crocheted square for our sampler afghan, and this is the puff square, and it's made out of all these really interesting puff stitches which are not a popcorn and not a cluster, but a puff which is made by a series of yarn overs, as you'll see shortly. and the puffs are offset so that they really are kind of, you know, stacked really close together, and you get this great texture. it's very, very thick and nice. really cozy, and on the back, it's just this really nice kind of even-looking pattern. so i'll show you how to work this stitch. it starts with a row of single crochet for a foundation, and then on the next row, you work the puffs, and i've here got one row that's already worked just to show you what one complete row looks like, and then the next row is again all single crochet. so i'm going to show you how to work the puff stitches.

and one interesting thing about this pattern is that the puffs are actually worked on the back as you go, so facing you when you're working the puffs, it looks like it's the backside of the square, but you'll see all the action happening on the other side. so it's time to do a puff, and the way that the puff stitch is made is yarn over, insert the hook into the next stitch and pull up a loop, then you yarn over again, insert into the same stitch, pull up another loop. you do that 5 times. so yarning over, inserting, and pulling up a loop. that's 3. 4. for the last one, yarn over, insert back into the same stitch, pull up a loop, so you've now got a zillion loops on the hook. i think there's actually 11 of them. and to complete the stitch, you yarn over, pull through all of loops at once. now, i'm not gonna lie. it's a little tricky to wiggle through all of those loops. sometimes you'll catch on a strand of the yarn. just take

your time and be patient. if you need to pull it out and work the stitch again, not the end of the world. so after the puff stitch is completed, you work 2 single crochets, and when you work that next single crochet, it really helps to kind of anchor the puff stitch and help it really poof out the way you want it to. so then when you turn and look on the other side of the work, you can see that you've got your little puff there, and when you work the next row of all single crochet, that also helps the puff to really be completely defined the way you want it to, so i'll show you one more puff. yarn over, insert into the next stitch, pull up a loop, yarn over, and insert again, pull up another loop, that's 2. 3. 4. 5. it starts to feel a little awkward to work into the same stitch so many times, but this is one with a little practice isn't so bad.

and then to complete the stitch, yarn over and pull through all the loops at once. now i'm getting a little stuck, which is a real common problem with this stitch, and you have to sort of wiggle it. if you feel that it's getting caught on the strands, just kind of take a break and keep working at it. sometimes once you get the loop most of the way through, you can see where it was stuck and you can sort of finesse it. and we're gonna then work a single crochet into the next stitch. that one's giving me a little bit of trouble there. and a single crochet into the next stitch. and again, you can see the puffs really taking place on the other side of the work. and when we work the next row, which is gonna be a single crochet all the way across, it'll really puff out even more. and so that's really all there is to it. you just have to be a little patient with those

tricky puffs, and once you get them, you'll be well-rewarded with a nice textural square. so i hope that you have a lot of fun with this one, and again, check our website for this pattern. well, thanks for watching, and i hope you've learned a thing or two today to get you started on some handmade pillows of your own. i'm brett bara, and i'll see you next time on "knit and crochet now!" information on today's program can be found on the web at... "knit and crochet now!" is made possible by boye needles and hooks, for over 100 years providing tools and accessories for all your knitting, crochet, and general craft projects. additional funding made possible by f+w media, where you can find knitting and crochet instruction in publications from north light books, krause publications, and david and charles. and by...jimmy beans wool is a full-service yarn store online. at... you'll find instructional videos, project ideas, hundreds

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