Friday, September 24, 2010

All this time...

All this time, I thought I knew how to pick up stitches. I mean, I've been picking them up, but unsuccessfully. I knew all along that something didn't look right, but I continued on with my absurd picking up technique anyway. I would look at knitting books and stare at the instructions for picking up stitches and think, that's what I'm doing - why do my projects look so...bad? On a whim, I watched a video on YouTube and finally learned the error of my ways!

All this time, I have been picking up a stitch with my left needle and then knitting it with my right. The result was this twisted-looking line of stitches that pulled very far away from the edge they had been picked up from. What I didn't understand until now is that your left needle is not involved at all in the process: it's just the right needle, the stitch and the working yarn!

The funniest thing is that all this time, I thought I was right! This makes me want to go back and reknit things so that I can pick up the stitches correctly. Well, not really. But from here on out, I will.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Knitting and Learning



I'm working on the body of the top-down raglan. I really love the Spud & Chloe yarn; I'm glad I gave it a second chance. The more I think about it, the more I realize the sock yarn I am alluding to is really not responsible for my dislike. I'm pretty sure the culprit was the size 1 needles I was insisting on using even though it felt terrible. Note to self: frog the socks that have sat untouched for who knows how long and use it, but not on size 1's! When I started the body, I thought I was a 0 ease kind of gal, but as I'm trying it on every couple of inches I am realizing that I am indeed a negative ease gal. How much negative ease? That is yet to be determined. I guess I will just have to make another sweater to find out! For now I am accepting this sweater for what it is and enjoying the learning process : )

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