Written 8/20/07:
I found out I've been doing the purl stitch wrong. THE PURL STITCH. Don't laugh. (I said don't). Somehow I developed my speedy continental style of knitting about 10-15 years ago (out of a book, mind you) with a twisted purl stitch, because that just made more sense to me at the time, it was faster, and I didn't notice a difference.
Until.... I was mostly done with the Crazy Weave scarf when I happened upon a little note by Barbara G Walker in one of her knitting tomes, about continental style knitting and it's common mistake of twisting the purl stitch. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I read that! No, no, no....
So I had to learn to purl correctly. This week. I changed my tactics in the middle of the scarf. (And, BTW, old habits die hard!!!) Look at the difference in my ribbing on the crazy weave:
Top half is the old way, bottom half is the correct way. See the diff?I obviously needed to learn this crucial point, and I'm very thankful I had checked out that BGW treasury from the library. But there is a certain nagging feeling I have that this new knowledge is going to cause me angst!!!! Angst in the form of all the UFOs that are halfway done...wrong! Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggh!
Can't think about that. Must study. Must study. Must study....
Wow. I had to post that, even if it's 3 weeks later! Of course, I was not about to start over on the crazy weave scarf, seeing that I'm 4/5 done. I decided to do 3-4 "weave" repeats in the normal purl stitch, and then complete the remainder in the twisted purl stitch I'd already used for most of it. It's now a design feature. Mmm hmm;-|
2 comments:
Wow. I can really see the difference! I used to knit in a really strange manner. It worked, but it confused the dickens out of anyone that tried to teach me a new technique. So I switched to plain vanilla continental. Sometimes I wish I had kept going with my own quirky style.
Yes, it even feels better (smoother) when I do the correct stitch! Well, now I know :)
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