The Knitting Fiend

During our last knit club meeting, Doree saw me picking up stitches. She said “What are you doing?!?!” I said, “Picking up stitches for the entrelac”. She said, “That’s not how you pick up stitches!” A conversation ensued. I have to say, as far as I can tell, the whole debate centers on at exactly what point one can say one has completely picked up a stitch. That is to say: whether or not I had “picked up stitches” was a debate about semantics more than technique. (Of course semantics actually matter when reading some directions. Strangely enough, sometimes it doesn’t. )

So, to be semantically precise, I’m going to call what I’m describing in this article “pick up stitches half way so I can finish picking them up one “row 0.” I call it “row 0″, because it’s technically not working a row– it’s the second half of picking up. By describing it this way, I’ll probably satisfy Doree! (Or not. I’m still not sure she entirely likes the idea of half-way picking up a whole bunch of stitches and then doing the second half all at once. But she agrees it works just fine and you can’t tell the difference when you’re done.)

To the left, you can see that I’ve just finished the edge “triangle” of the lighter colored entrelac bits. I have one stitch on the right hand needle. There are a whole bunch of stitches on the left needle, but there seems to be a “gap” which is formed by one of the sides of the light blue triangle.

The direction are going to have me pick up nine stitches on that side edge, but as I’m picking them up, I need to work them in a “k1, p1″ pattern pluswhen I work the very last one, I will need to work a “p2tog tbl” fusing a picked up stitch with the first stitch that is currently sitting on the left hand needle.

Now there are two ways I could do this, but I’m only going to describe my way which I think is easiest when working ribbed entrelac.

Here’s how I start, I take the point of my right hand needle and stitch it from front to back through the side loop of the bottom stitch of the light blue triangle. Then, I slide that stitch onto the tip of the left hand needle making sure the stitch “sits” right. (That is, you’ll see the left leg of the yarn sitting in front of the left hand needle.)

I have now half-way picked up a stitch. Why isn’t this “fully picked up”? Well.. . uhmmm.. Because some people just don’t count pick ups that way. They don’t consider the stitch “picked up” until after you have either knit or purled into the stitch. And note: I haven’t knit or purled into it. (Other people do call this picking up stitches, and this can be confusing when you are counting rows. But, usually, it’s not confusing at all.)

Ok, but I need to pick up nine stitches eventually. But, the way I do this, you need to leave the pick up half finished for now and then “half way pick up” another stitch. So, I repeat what I just did, this time picking up the side of the loop 2 rows up along this edge.

I continue half-way picking up until I have picked up 9 stitches (because that’s my directions call for nine.) Then, I double check that I have picked up nine– ripping back and adjusting if I have not. At that point, the work likes as it does to the left.

Next, I slide that stitch on the right hand needle to the left needle tip. Then, I attach the dark blue yarn and work the second half of the pick up procedure. This is not row 1; it only seems like a “row”. So, I’ll call it “row 0″.

Ok, to work row 0, I will do this: ** k1, p1, repeat from * until you have reached the last “halfway picked up stitch”. You should be ready to work a p1. (Note, if you like, you can work all stitches through back loops; that tightens the pickups. I do this, but it really doesn’t matter much. Doree thinks it’s fiddly and doesn’t make enough difference to make it work the fiddly-ness of working through back loops.)

Now, that you reached the final “halfway picked up stitch”, you are going to get ready to purl two stitches together. Now, it really is worth doing something fiddly. So, we are going to work a “slip, slip, p2tog tbl.”

To do this, slip that last “half picked up” stitch purl-wise. Slip the next stitch purlwise. (This stitch was on the left needle before we started picking up stitches.) Slip the both back to the left needle tip. The purpose of this procedure is to change the seat of the stitches.

Now, p2tog tbl as shown to the left.. This means “purl 2 together through the back loops.” I didn’t get a very good picture of this, but you can read more in “Symmetric Decreases: Purl.”

The purpose of all this fiddlyness is to make the reverse side look prettier than if you worked a simple “p2tog”.

When you turn the work, you’ll see that the light blue stitch hides the dark blue “half picked up” stitch. Had you skipped the slipping and worked a “p2tog” the dark blue would lie on top of the light blue; that looks ugly because the dark blue “stitch” wasn’t a real stitch”. It was just the edge loop of a sideways stitch.

But, good news. The only time you work these “slip, slip, p2tog tbl’s” for the final two stitches during this whole “pick up stitches” operation. You’ll just work p2tog the normal way the rest of the rows.

Sometime next week, I’ll show how to work the light blue rows. (Which should help everyone working entrelac.) Meanwhile, bye for now.