Knitting backwards is actually a method of purling without having to turn the work.  It won’t work for things like ribbing or seed stitch; the whole row has to be purled.  But, even with that restriction I have found this to be a tremendously useful technique and really, once you get the hang of it, it’s kinda fun!

I am a “thrower” not a picker.  So these instructions are geared toward throwers - knitters who carry the yarn in their right hand and manually wrap it around the needle to make a stitch.  I’m sure there’s a way for “pickers” to manage this technique, but I have no idea how it would work and apologize for not being able to cover both bases.  But I can only show what I know how to do :)

Position of the right hand

The position of the right hand isn’t really any different than it is when you’re knitting in the regular way, that is, not backwards :) It’s one of the advantages of this technique.  Your yarn, your needles and your hands all stay right where they are, uninterrupted by having to turn the fabric around to purl.  At least in my case, this does wonders for my tension!

Inserting the left needle

Insert the left needle into the back of the first stitch on the right needle.  The yarn is behind the needles, being held with the right hand.

Catching the yarn

Slide the needle back under the yarn and sort of scoop it forward.  Keeping a moderate tension on your yarn makes this simple.  You can wrap it manually but you will have to watch your tension carefully if you do it this way.

Pulling the stitch through

Then just pull the yarn through and drop the stitch off the right needle.  Picking up the yarn and drawing it through are all one motion even though they’re shown here as two different steps.

New stitch on the left needle

This business of purling from the right side of the fabric is useful in many ways.  It’s indispensable for Entrelac and very helpful for some types of bobbles (makes working them a lot less annoying!) and short rows.  It saves so much time not to have to stop, turn the work, get your hands and yarn in position, etc.  For me, it means there’s better flow to the work process - things move along more smoothly.

Pretty good tension

My tension isn’t too bad when I purl in the regular fashion though I tend to purl a bit more loosely than I knit.  When I’m knitting backwards, my tension pretty good and my stitches are nice and even - so I use this technique a lot.  It improves my knitting :)

See you on Monday!

...as in my brain doesn’t seem willing to wrap itself around anything but “quick and simple” these days.  I’ve been feeling guilty about it for a week now mainly because I’m making very slow progress with the sweater.  I get a couple of rows knitted and I don’t want to look at it any more.  So a bunch of small, simple interim projects have presented themselves and I’m going to try not to feel guilty when I work on them.  Well, I can try :)

Fuzzy Short-Row Scarf

I started this for an acquaintance.  I prowled through the stash looking for something to speak to me and getting worried that I wasn’t going to find enough of anything to do the trick.  When it occurred to me that I had two colors that might go together and that the short-row scarf would combine them in a fun way, I was off (as in “off and running” - we all already know I’m off my trolley!).

Mitt mit Gusset

I’ve done the thumb gusset on the mitt, but I’m not very happy with it and I have to wonder if I’m making this harder than it needs to be.  Wouldn’t be the first time :) I suspect this is going to get frogged back several rows and re-thought.

I get to keep this one :)

The scarf is almost done.  I’m planning on trying the 2-circular method for the hat which will have a fuzzy brim and a cream colored body.  The gloves will be the sideways gloves I made before except about 10 stitches longer with the eyelash incorporated into those 10 stitches and the rest of the glove in cream.

I have reservations about the light color as I manage to spill things on every light colored thing I own, sooner or later.  Generally sooner.  But what the hell - if you’re going to dance with the devil, don’t just waltz - boogie!

Where are my treats?

I love the American songbook, those old standards from the first half of the last century.  I like a lot of types of music, actually, but these songs with their sweetness, sentimentality and innocence just knock me out, not to mention voices like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Rosemary Clooney or song writers like George and Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter.

Until about 6 weeks ago, there was a Boston station that played this kind of music exclusively and it was my favorite driving muisic.  Then one Monday morning, I turned the radio on to discover that they had changed formats, without warning, to the real oldies - pop music of the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Pout…

So I began to pursue the idea of streaming sudio - web “radio” stations and to look around for a station that might play this kind of music.  And I found one :)

AccuRadio

The bad news is that while service is free, it is, unfortunately, only available to PCs at the moment.  They indicate that MAC support is under construction and should be available soon.  And you should probably be driving the internet in DSL or cable.  A modem isn’t going to cut it.

The good news is that this is quite a site.  Have a look at the interface:

Accuradio Interface

It shows the title of the song, the artist and album, the composer(s), label and year of release.  Below is a display of the album cover as well as the covers for the last two numbers aired.  On the left is a list of artists.  If there are any you can’t stand, check the box and hit the save button.  Click the Sub-Category tab to further refine your preferences.

I was in heaven!  My lap top only has an adequate speaker system, but headphones solves that problem nicely.  Ahhhh....

Listen to a young Sinatra (the one who could actually sing...) doing “Luck be a Lady Tonight”

A lady wouldn’t flirt with strangers
She’d have a heart.
She’d have a soul.
A lady wouldn’t make little snake eyes at me,
When I bet my life on this roll...

Or Patti Page singing this picture postcard of a song, “Old Cape Cod”.

If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

Or Dinah Shore’s utterly simple and heartbreaking version of Jerome Kern’s beautiful “The Last Time I saw Paris”.

A lady known as Paris, Romantic and Charming
Has left her old companions and faded from view
Lonely men with lonely eyes are seeking her in vain
Her streets are where they were, but there’s no sign of her
She has left the Seine.

Or Joni Mitchell’s sweet, bluesy version of “At Last”

At Last my love has come along
My Lonely days are over
And life is like a song
At Last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you

Now wait just a durned minute! Joni Mitchell?!?!?!?

I liked the songs Mitchell wrote, back in the day, when she was one of many voices protesting and wailing in the wilderness - but I was never much of a fan of her voice or, at least, what she did with it back then.  I simply could not associate this subtle, nuanced delivery with the strident whine of my youth.  Serious cognitive dissonance here!  So I went and looked at the album which was released in 2000.

Both Sides Now

Except for the title song and one other, all the pieces on this album belong to an older era.  If they are anything like the lovely, torchy “At Last” this CD should be astounding.

And then I got another stick upside the head - Rod Stewart has released not one, but two CDs of old standards!  He delivers well and amiably enough, though nothing I’ve heard so far has carried the passion of, for example, “Forever Young”.

And there’s more…

Linda Rondstadt (whom I remember performing barefoot with The Stone Pony) has done several collections of old standards with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, lush productions sung with great heart and absolute clarity.

Bette Middler has a CD of Rosemary Clooney hits which includes a duet with Ronstadt doing a very entertaining rendition of “Sisters” from “White Christmas”.

I had always loved the old voices doing the old songs.  It appears that new voices are doing the old songs too!  Awesome!

One last note about AccuRadio.  It does many more styles of music than just standards and the American Songbook - Classical, Country, Jazz, Broadway, Hip-Hop, 80s and Celtic, to name a few. 

I’m fairly new to this streaming audio thing.  I know there are other web stations out there, as well as any number of radios stations that also web-cast.  This is something I am going to enjoy exploring!

Gawd, I love technology :)

Apologies everyone.  Today obligations exceeded time - you know how that is.

I have been working on the mitt and have completed the thumb gusset.  Yesterday I was so spaced out that I got to the center cable and realized I forgotten to do it (the cabling, that is) two rows back.  So I sat there and fumed for a few minutes and then decided to see if I could drop the stitches down, cross them and then crochet them back up.  Guess what?  It’s possible - but it’s also fiddly as all get out.  I was pleased that it worked, but I can’t say it saved me any time.  Tinking back two rows would certianly have been easier, but a row is only 60 stitches; if a row were 150 stitches, the drop-down, cross and crochet-up technique might indeed save some time.  It was a gratifying maneuver to pull off in any case.  Even if I didn’t save any time, I learned isomething.

I’ve also been working on the hat-scarf-gloves set I decided to make for myself.

And, I’ve cast on another fuzzy scarf as a gift.  Short rows and fur in blue and scarlet.

I’ll show you all of this on Thursday.

Tomorrow, I’m having Mr. Peabody set the way-back machine to the 1930s and 40s for a musical interlude :)

I hope all your Tuesdays were fine!

I admit, I didn’t do much knitting over the weekend.  Instead, I sat down with my graph paper, pencil and marker and drew.  I haven’t done it in a while (as my cramped hand will attest) but it was very gratifying - not to mention lots of fun.

The rest of the time I fooled with the blog.  Yes, I’m one of those annoying people who has to throw everything up in the air once in a while just to see what it will look like when it all comes down again!  Nah - it’s just that I like playing with colors - knitting or graphics - they’re both color puddles for me to splash in :)

I have made some font changes - nothing extraordinary.  They should be fine but, please, let me know if things don’t look right on your screen.

There are a couple of new additions on the sidebar.  “How do I do That???” will house the tutorial posts.  There’ll be more coming and I hope you all find them useful.  “Patterns” holds the one original pattern I’ve come up with so far.  I’m planning to add more as I noodle around with things.

There is also a new little graphic bar between posts.  I’m not a wonderful programmer, so again, let me know if this is wonky on your screen or throws things off.

It should look like this:

Also, there’s a new banner :) This is also subject to periodic change as the whim strikes me.

Everybody should play with their blog!  It’s such fun - except it’s hard to know when to stop messing with things :)

Happy Monday!

This started out as a visual description of the SSK process.  I read the term for the first time quite a while ago in the Barbara Walker books and while I understood that it was a decrease, I couldn’t for the life of me understand how it was done.  I’d get as far as slipping the stitches and inserting the left needle and I’d run into this: “Knit these two stitches together from this position”

Hunh?  I can’t knit from this position!  It’s backwards!

This probably tells you more about how my mind works (or doesn’t) than you wanted to know.  I’m middlin’ bright and I can figure out most things.  But this one had me stumped for a very long time.

So I wanted to provide something visual in case there were other knitters out there like me who couldn’t make sense of the written description.  And then it seemed if I was going to do that, I might as well do the basic decreases in general.  Who knows - it might be useful to someone.

Knit two Together

Knit two together (K2tog)

This decrease slants to the right.  You do it exactly as you would knit one stitch only instead of inserting the right needle into the first stitch on the left needle, you insert it into the first and second.  Then you knit them together as though they were a single stitch.

Slip, Slip, Knit

Slipping the first stitch

This decrease is called slip-slip-knit (SSK).  Insert the right needle into the first stitch on the left needle as though you were going to knit it - but don’t knit it.  Just slip it over onto the right needle.  Do this again with the next stitch on the left needle.  It’s important to move these stitches one at a time.  If you pick them up and move them together, the finished decrease won’t look quite right.

This process move two stitches over, twisting them so they’ll lie properly when the procedure is finished and sets you up for the next step.

Inserting the left needle

Hold the left needle in front of the work and insert it, from front to back, into the first two stitches on the right needle (the ones you moved).

Bringing the yarn over

Bring your yarn over and down between the right and left needles.  In the picture, the right needle is at the back.

Completing the SSK

Now just lift the two stitches over the yarn, up and off the right needle.

And there you have it!  A left-leaning decrease!

Slip one, Knit one, Pass the slipped stitch over

There is another common, older, decrease method that also slants to the left.  It’s the “slip one-knit one-pass the slipped stitch over” technique.  This may show up in your patterns in a couple of guises: SKP (slip-knit-pass) or sl1-k1-psso.  You start by slipping a stitch, just as with the previous technique but you’re only slipping one stitch this time.  Then knit the next stitch.

P’ing the ss over :)

Insert the tip of the left needle into the slipped stitch (which is on the right needle behind the stitch you just knitted).  Carefully lift it up and over the knit stitch and drop it off the right needle.  Decrease complete.

Most modern instructions direct you to use the SSK method for a left-leaning decrease.  I have found both methods useful under various circumstances.  Play with them and see which suits your knitting style and which is more pleasing to your eye.

Opposing decreases

In the circle is a pair of stitches.  The one on the left is a K2tog - it leans to the right.  The one on the right is the SSK and you can see (I hope) that it leans to the left.  Many patterns, lace especially, take advantage of the directional tendencies of these decreases.  No, you won’t be struck by lightening if you use one or the other exclusively - you want a decrease and all three of these methods give you that result.  But using one or the other in the right place can yield a more symmetric fabric and may be more pleasing to the eye.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Noro Silk Garden actually arrived yesterday. Since the sender required proof of delivery, and because I was out most of yesterday, all I received was a notice from the post office telling me I could pick up the package after 7:30 this morning.  So at 7:30, I hied my little fanny downtown and picked up the package.

See?

Can’t have enough color!

It’s darker than I had thought, but very beautiful.  It goes from violet to teal to charcoal to bronze with slight passes of pink and gold.  I’m really interested to see how this works up having read, many times, about its striping propensities.  This will be really fun stuff to work with!

The Slk Garden came from W.N.W. Wool Needlework Discounter in British Columbia.  Check them out; their prices are very good and their shipping is reasonable.  I’m especially impressed that this came from the west coast of Canada to the east coast of the U.S. in 7 working days.  I’ve had orders from the midwest take more time than that.

This is theoretically slated to become a stole.  We’ll see how that works out.  I’ve put it away for now (sob!) because I want to get the sweater finished :)

Unfortunately, I seem to have decided that a scarf-hat-glove set would be a nice thing to have.  So yesterday, I made a stop and purchased yarn for that too.

Even more color!

I did cast on for the scarf last night, but didn’t do a lot of work on it.  The sweater was guilting me out, lying there in its tote being snide.  I assume it was feeling insecure in its neutral shade compared to the splashy flash of the Bernat Boa.  I assured it that it was a much better and much more versatile yarn and that the sweater would get much more use and wear than the funky winter set, but it refused to be soothed until I picked up the needles and worked a few rows.

I bought a couple of sweaters yesterday.  Heresy for a knitter?  They are a simple tunic style in solid colors, round neck, split hem.  They are gorgeous. 

Gold and Violet

The fabric content is 65% rayon and 35% nylon and the yarn is a slightly thick-and-thin combination of fuzz and shimmer.  I stood there looking at the fabric and realized that I couldn’t buy that kind of yarn for less than $100.  Per sweater.  The sweaters were $9.99 each.

The Silk Garden will look spectacular with both of them.  I think the winter set will look cute with them as well.  Some days you just get lucky :)