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Knitting Class, Week 3
This was lace week, my favorite, and the first class where she was teaching things I've never seen before. Woo hoo!
But first, the instructor did explain how to do the decreases for the hat and her explanations did make sense to me.
Lace
Then she showed us a bunch of samples of lace knitting including shawls, a table cloth, and some bookmarks. I learned that I like a silk/wool blend for lacy things. And I like crochet cotton for bookmarks. And size 0000 needles, yikes.
Then we actually worked on part of a pattern for my favorite bookmark. It's only the middle; I still don't know how to do the ends. And we did it in our usual wash rag cotton yarn, so it's nice and huge, perfect for, um, a coaster?
New stitches
We learned ssk (slip, slip, knit). But it's not that easy. You slip two stitches from one needle to the other "as to knitting," meaning you put one needle through the loop as if you're about to knit, but then don't knit and just pull that loop off. And the "knit" at the end means you put the left needle through both of the two loops you just slipped, and then knit those two together from there. I never would have guessed any of that even after learning that ssk meant slip, slip, knit. And that's why I'm taking a class. Of course now with YouTube, you don't have to guess anymore.
We also learned psso (pass slip stitch over). In our pattern, we slip one stitch ("as to knitting"), then knit two together, then pull that earlier slip stitch back over the needle to bind it off.
The entire row has only 19 stitches. And I managed to add an extra one almost every time. I learned to figure out where the problem was and even how to fix the problem in all but one case. I even managed to add a stitch on the easy row (knit two, purl fifteen, knit two).
One person did manage to get through the entire pattern, but it wasn't me. Fortunately, I did get far enough to try both of the new stitches.
Other good hints
I learned a few additional valuable lessons. One was that in order to get back to a mistake, you don't necessarily need to unknit. Usually, you can just slip all those stitches, fix the problem and then slip them back. (This would not have worked with the mysterious short row on my hat, but it generally works when dealing with a gratuitous or missing stitch in the current row.)
Which leads me to my next lesson: count your stitches after every row. As I said in my last entry, it was shocking how often this helped me during my tiny, 19-stitch lace sample.
I asked the instructor whether she counts her stitches even on those giant shawls, with hundreds of stitches? Yes. Which leads me to the third lesson:
Use markers when you're knitting something large. A marker is something you can slip over the needle between stitches to mark your place. You can buy these. Or you can cut a straw into slices and use that. Or you can use a loop of yarn. I've also heard you can use those plastic bread bag tabs. For large works, if you put these at the beginning and end of the repeated portions, then you can easily count just the stitches in these portions as you finish them.
(This is reminding me about how I once decided there are tricks I never learned to help keep one from writing bugs into programming code. Like testing each (small) testable piece you add before moving on.)
The instructor also showed us how she keeps her place in the pattern. She uses this stuff that comes on a roll like transparent tape but can easily be moved like post-it notes as you finish a line. Hers is light blue.
Finally, she said never wash your wool things in Woolite. Woolite is okay on rayon, cotton and some silk, but not wool, even though "Wool" is part of its name. Instead, she recommended shampoo, since wool is a hair, and, if it comes out stiff, conditioner. Interesting, eh?
But first, the instructor did explain how to do the decreases for the hat and her explanations did make sense to me.
Lace
Then she showed us a bunch of samples of lace knitting including shawls, a table cloth, and some bookmarks. I learned that I like a silk/wool blend for lacy things. And I like crochet cotton for bookmarks. And size 0000 needles, yikes.
Then we actually worked on part of a pattern for my favorite bookmark. It's only the middle; I still don't know how to do the ends. And we did it in our usual wash rag cotton yarn, so it's nice and huge, perfect for, um, a coaster?
New stitches
We learned ssk (slip, slip, knit). But it's not that easy. You slip two stitches from one needle to the other "as to knitting," meaning you put one needle through the loop as if you're about to knit, but then don't knit and just pull that loop off. And the "knit" at the end means you put the left needle through both of the two loops you just slipped, and then knit those two together from there. I never would have guessed any of that even after learning that ssk meant slip, slip, knit. And that's why I'm taking a class. Of course now with YouTube, you don't have to guess anymore.
We also learned psso (pass slip stitch over). In our pattern, we slip one stitch ("as to knitting"), then knit two together, then pull that earlier slip stitch back over the needle to bind it off.
The entire row has only 19 stitches. And I managed to add an extra one almost every time. I learned to figure out where the problem was and even how to fix the problem in all but one case. I even managed to add a stitch on the easy row (knit two, purl fifteen, knit two).
One person did manage to get through the entire pattern, but it wasn't me. Fortunately, I did get far enough to try both of the new stitches.
Other good hints
I learned a few additional valuable lessons. One was that in order to get back to a mistake, you don't necessarily need to unknit. Usually, you can just slip all those stitches, fix the problem and then slip them back. (This would not have worked with the mysterious short row on my hat, but it generally works when dealing with a gratuitous or missing stitch in the current row.)
Which leads me to my next lesson: count your stitches after every row. As I said in my last entry, it was shocking how often this helped me during my tiny, 19-stitch lace sample.
I asked the instructor whether she counts her stitches even on those giant shawls, with hundreds of stitches? Yes. Which leads me to the third lesson:
Use markers when you're knitting something large. A marker is something you can slip over the needle between stitches to mark your place. You can buy these. Or you can cut a straw into slices and use that. Or you can use a loop of yarn. I've also heard you can use those plastic bread bag tabs. For large works, if you put these at the beginning and end of the repeated portions, then you can easily count just the stitches in these portions as you finish them.
(This is reminding me about how I once decided there are tricks I never learned to help keep one from writing bugs into programming code. Like testing each (small) testable piece you add before moving on.)
The instructor also showed us how she keeps her place in the pattern. She uses this stuff that comes on a roll like transparent tape but can easily be moved like post-it notes as you finish a line. Hers is light blue.
Finally, she said never wash your wool things in Woolite. Woolite is okay on rayon, cotton and some silk, but not wool, even though "Wool" is part of its name. Instead, she recommended shampoo, since wool is a hair, and, if it comes out stiff, conditioner. Interesting, eh?