Apparently, I've been purling incorrectly for, well, since I learned to purl, what, two years ago (I'm in my third year of knitting) now! It took learning to knit backwards for the Lady E and Danica and then doing the first heel of a Jaywalker to realize it. I kept wondering why all of a sudden when I purled my stitches got twisted, but when I knit backwards they were fine. I mean, obviously, I know how to purl, and knitting backwards was the problem, right? Umm...no. I pulled out some of my earlier projects to reassure myself. Nope, now that I know what I'm looking for, every other row is twisted in all of my stockinette! I checked three or four different projects, and they're all the same. Why I never realized it before, I have no idea. (It does explain, however, the really cool texture to the heels of my Sockotta socks! I might continue to do that for sock heels.) I do know what a twisted stitch looks like, and I really do know how a stitch *should* be seated on the needle. I guess it has been so long since I've had to do any purling, since most of my projects for the past year have been garter or stockinette in the round, that I just never realized it. It doesn't seem to affect ribbing at all, though, except perhaps to make it tighter on sock cuffs? Could be why I've been having a problem with them being too tight? I checked
The Knitter's Handbook, my new Bible, and
I Can't Believe I'm Knitting!, and I guess you're supposed to go over the needle and through, not under it and through. It makes sense, I just have to train my hands to do it correctly.
Oh, and I've done another inch or so on the raglan, a couple of squares on the Lady, and am almost done with a heel on the first Jaywalker. The two of them have been sent to seperate corners for laughing so hard at me, and will continue to be seperate entities until I have had my say and finished
the damn things them. It does make them go faster, I will admit.
Oliver! started rehearsals this week, and is going well. We've just been learning ensemble music and dialect this week. Honestly, if a group of 8 to 15 year old energetic kids singing their hearts out and trying to learn a Cockney accent isn't enough to crack you up with cuteness, I can't really think of what would. Sickness is starting to go around, though, so I'm expecting their next few rehearsals to be a bit sparse. Hopefully, they'll all be okay. I hope the adults and students will be, too, of course, but they're just not as cute. They start choreography tomorrow - that should be fun!
And the apartment is DONE! Everything is unpacked and put away and clean and pretty! We desperately need a dresser or chest or something for the bedroom - all of our clothes are hanging up or on the one upper shelf or on the closet floor - and the only places to sit are the floor, the bed, the toilet, or the two desk chairs, so we can't really invite company yet, but it's getting there! And it's OURS! Steve will be up this weekend again, can't wait!
2 comments:
If you knit with the yarn in your left hand, you can go under the stitch to purl, then knit through the back loop to un-twist the stitches - that's combination knitting. It changes slants of decreases and increases, so you'll need to be aware of that. Or you can just retrain yourself to purl wrapping over, not under. The way I keep it straight is to think of the yarn wrapping around the needle in the same direction (over from left to right) for both knit and purl.
hmm...that makes sense. I can knit continental, but prefer English. I've been doing the knitting through the back loop on the Jaywalker heels to straighten them, and I might continue doing it on those, at least, for guage's sake. I like the idea of thinking about it always going the same way, whether knit or purl, too, that will help! Thanks!
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