Revelations
You don’t always have to do that…really!
Casting on the way your mother or grandmother taught you is another. There truly isn’t one best cast on. And my customers, students and friends know I’m always forcing a new cast on or cast off down their throats. Sometimes you need a firm cast on….for cuffs of sweaters, let’s say….well that certainly would not be an appropriate cast on for a cuff of a sock. (Unless you were knitting it for cranky Aunt Martha and you were being a little bit passive aggressive. )You always could use a needle a few sizes larger to make the sock cast on looser, but then the cast on edge would look sloppy. That’s where learning a few different cast ons is helpful. The “channel island” cast on is a stretchy, yet firm cast on. Although it’s a wee bit tricky to learn, you can use it for most ribbed edges.
And casting off – well there are more than 30 ways to do that too. Thirty, who knew? Until I opened my shop and the knitting addiction took over, I thought I was pretty clever knowing 5 ways. I still don’t know all 30 something ways in the “Principles of Knitting”, but I’m getting there as the need presents itself. If you clicked on the link for the book, did you catch the price? Over $300! There is talk that it will be re released in November of this year. We'll see. I did a post on it a while ago, and I really would like to own a hard cover copy of the book.
I think one of the coolest and relatively new technique coming into use in the past 30 years or so is the SSK – slip slip knit – instead of the k1, s1, psso. You can cut out a couple of steps and achieve the same result. And save a few seconds doing so. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, saving about 14 seconds per socks really isn’t something to write home about, but still. 14 seconds. Imagine what you could do with that in the course of a year of knitting.
All my laundry doing days I have done the same thing – whites first, light colours second and darks last. Because that’s the way you do it, right? At least that’s the way I was taught to do it more than 40 years ago. I never really questioned why, I just figured whoever taught me that had a good reason for that method.
Then one day a few years ago, I figured out why this method was taught to us girls in grade 8 home economics – wringer washers! You would want the hottest, cleanest water for your whites!
It totally amazed me I would – for years – do something that once had purpose, and was now no longer necessary.
So, I started wondering if there were other “always do it this way” things I – or others - did without questioning. I couldn’t think of any immediately that I did, but I could think of several knitting related “always” that my wonderful customers and friends have told me. And some of them aren’t valid anymore too.
The first is “knitting the first stitch of every row”. That was a common practice for a long time. Even Paton’s Learn to knit pamphlet taught that one. But that book also taught new knitters to whip stitch their seams – something that is generally frowned upon now. There are seaming methods, such as the mattress stitch, that make an invisible seam from the outside, and a lovely finish inside.
Casting on the way your mother or grandmother taught you is another. There truly isn’t one best cast on. And my customers, students and friends know I’m always forcing a new cast on or cast off down their throats. Sometimes you need a firm cast on….for cuffs of sweaters, let’s say….well that certainly would not be an appropriate cast on for a cuff of a sock. (Unless you were knitting it for cranky Aunt Martha and you were being a little bit passive aggressive. )You always could use a needle a few sizes larger to make the sock cast on looser, but then the cast on edge would look sloppy. That’s where learning a few different cast ons is helpful. The “channel island” cast on is a stretchy, yet firm cast on. Although it’s a wee bit tricky to learn, you can use it for most ribbed edges.
And casting off – well there are more than 30 ways to do that too. Thirty, who knew? Until I opened my shop and the knitting addiction took over, I thought I was pretty clever knowing 5 ways. I still don’t know all 30 something ways in the “Principles of Knitting”, but I’m getting there as the need presents itself. If you clicked on the link for the book, did you catch the price? Over $300! There is talk that it will be re released in November of this year. We'll see. I did a post on it a while ago, and I really would like to own a hard cover copy of the book.
I think one of the coolest and relatively new technique coming into use in the past 30 years or so is the SSK – slip slip knit – instead of the k1, s1, psso. You can cut out a couple of steps and achieve the same result. And save a few seconds doing so. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, saving about 14 seconds per socks really isn’t something to write home about, but still. 14 seconds. Imagine what you could do with that in the course of a year of knitting.
Since you’re reading this on the internet, you have the greatest knitting resource literally at your fingertips. Google searches. If you want to know how to do something, google it. You’ll be surprised at what you can find. (Funny, Microsoft Word does not recognize “google” as a verb! I have squiggly red lines under it, but it’s recognized as a noun. Hmm.)
So, my fellow knitterati, I must be getting out of bed and get ready to go down to the shop now. It’s cold outside. Minus 26.6 degrees. A perfect day for you to be knitting by the fire, sipping a cup of something warm. Enjoy.
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