The Knitting Fiend

Ok, the swatch looks hilarious. I knit it that way out of pure laziness. When I test “new to me” stitches, I just start working the stitch pattern using the swatch I began a while ago. Can you believe every section of that swatch is between 26 and 28 stitches across? And I used the same needle diameter to knit every stitch? Every now and then, I increase or decrease a stitch to fit the stitch pattern, but I don’t make any other changes.

The dramatic changes in swatch width are due to the tendency of some stitches to spread or draw in.

Look at the width of “Four Row Elongated Garter Stitch!” Did you know normal garter stitch usually spreads wider than stockinette? Obviously adding the elongated row caused it to spread even more. I’ll admit, I wasn’t exactly surprised by that.

In contrast, Twilled stripes, shown second from the right, really draws in; that’s not surprising since it’s a decorated 5 x 2 ribbing, and ribbing always draws in.

Ok, I don’t have much more to say about this silly looking swatch. But, I did want to show it because I may refer back to it from time to time when I discuss designing things.

Reading my referrer logs, I noticed a number of people were trying to figure out how to knit into the front and back of a stitch (”kfb”) as required to “knit twice into the same stitch”. That’s a common method of increasing a stitch, which does not create a hole. It is nearly, but not quite, invisible.

Unfortunately, while Google sent them here, I didn’t actually show that technique until now. So, here it is, fully illustrated! (Remember, I drop the yarn while I hold the camera in my right hand. So, the yarn positions are shown, but my right hand has vanished!)

1. Knit the first stitch:
   • Insert the tip of the right needle as to knit into the stitch on the left needle tip. (Above, left.)
   • Yarn over as you normally do to knit. (Above, center)
   • Draw the yarn through as you would to form a stitch but don’t pull the stitch off the left needle tip. (Above, right)
2. Knit the second stitch:
   • Insert right needle tip in back loop of the stitch you just knit into. Notice, I insert from right to left. (Below, left.)
   • Yarn over as to knit. (Below, center.)
   • Pull through to finish knitting the stitch. This time do pull the left stitch off the left needle tip. (Below, right)

In the photo to the right, I am getting ready to knit the next stitch. Notice the first two stitches on the right needle are coming out of one stitch in the row below. There is no visible hole, but the stitch in the row below has a slight surface distortion. This would be nearly invisible in most projects.

A number of blog visitors emailed to tell me they were happy to hear I’d taken in Blackie and given him a home. I thought some might want to see how he’s doing.

Here, Piewacket, is walking slowly past his chair. “His chair?”, you ask. Well, I made some chair cushions this week, and accidentally placed one on this chair. I say accidentally because I specifically made the cushion to use on the wooden chairs Jim finished two weeks ago. As soon as I placed the cushion in this metal chair, Blackie jumped up and stayed there. So, I experimented and put cushions on a number of chairs. He likes this one.

I guess I’ll leave the cushion there for a while.

Piewacket and Orange Puss seem to be more democratic about chairs and move around, sometimes picking one chair, then another. Despite their different attitudes about chairs, and the three cats seem to be co-existing. That’s progress!