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Archive for April 2006
Garter and Rib Pattern
Techniques: k, p, k-b, p-b
Finished this square last night. It required the most stitches by far. 49 x 56. It was a joy to knit. Needed a lot of attention. At first it seemed a little too wide compared to the other squares. But the k-b and p-b stitches pulled the fabric in quite a bit after 4 or 5 rows. Phew!
Notes to myself: 1) Listening to podcasts, especially the funny ones, and learning a new stitch pattern at the same time can spell disaster. 2) Pay attention to a new stitch technique. See every step and every twist and turn. That knowledge will be needed when undoing stitches one by one. 3) Make sure to use the right color for each square! I realized that I used the wrong color for the this square and the last square. ARRGGHHH!!! I will have to remember to change the colors for two of the future squares so that I won’t risk running out of any color.
Here’s another shot of the square that shows the texture better.
Next square is named Rose Fabric. Two colors will be used. I can’t wait. But this needs to be interrupted momentarily so I can finish the feet of the socks before the class next week. I’m a Virgo. Just want to get them done so I won’t worry about it. You can see them in the photos. They are never too far away! I also want to do a couple of small experiments that I’ve been wanting to get to. I will post on them!
Oh! Almost forgot! There’s a Knit-Along for Learn to Knit Afghan. Check out this Yahoo Group, Square-A-long.
Twisted and Crossed Ribbing
New techniques: k-b (knit in back loop) and p-b (purl in back loop)
It was nice to take a breather from sock knitting and finish another square for the afghan. We won’t be meeting for the last class until 5/5. So I put down the socks, launched iTunes on my Mac, played knitting podcasts and music and knitted up the sixth square.
It wasn’t the first time I tried k-b and p-b, but I sure got a lot of practice with this square. Awkward at first, especially p-b. But I eventually found a good angle to insert the needle through the back loop. Knitting this way causes the stitches to be twisted and looking tight.
From bottom up in the photo, the first section of ribbing is called Twisted Ribbing. The next is Crossed Ribbing. Twisted Ribbing looks tight and sharp-edged. The Crossed Ribbing has a rounder look and not as tight. But both are tighter than plain ribbing. Good alternatives.
Several people didn’t show for the sock class last Friday. Couple of ladies just didn’t show. Annette was taking her husband out to a play. Without her it was a bit quiet. It was also quiet because everybody was either working on picking up stitches or heel turns. Serious stuff. I managed to do only five or six rounds of knitting after picking up stitches. I couldn’t believe it. Two hours just went by in a flash.
I had a hard time understanding the sequence of picking up stitches for the gusset. I even missed a few and had to break out the DPN to fix the problem. I think the trouble was that there was very little time to visualize it. I have to understand how things work. I get frustrated if I am only following instructions. But it all came to me while driving home. I had to think in terms of knitting only one sock to see how it flows. Then add another sock in the picture. It’s really hard to describe with words. I think I am going to create an illustration. I know others were also having problems understanding it just from verbal instructions. Maybe a picture will help.
I am really enjoying knitting two socks on one circular needle. I’m finding out the best ways to hold the knitting at different points. It is starting to flow smoothly. I’m also excited to learn knitting without a pattern. It’s not as scary as I thought! I can also see the possibility of modifying a pattern to knit two on one circ. It shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Well, I haven’t tried yet. Who knows!
I am so ready for the class today!
The heel flaps and turns were done last night. I want to start on picking up stitches right away when I get to class this evening. There is no noticeable change of behavior of the colors on the heels. I guess that’s good? But I feel kind of disappointed. I tried different ways of slipping the first stitch on each row of the heel flaps. Looking for the best way to create a neat edge for easy stitch pickup. What I really wanted to do was to recreate what I learned in my first sock class. But darn, I couldn’t figure it out until the flaps were almost finished. What I should’ve done was:
WS, sl 1 k-wise with yarn in back, then purl across. RS, sl 1 p-wise with yarn in front, then knit across.
This creates little bumps (or pearls) on the sides, making it easy to see and pickup sititches. Oh well, next time.
