Need a good way to squash that Cabin Fever!?
Round up a few friends and finish something!
I, with the help of Glenda Jackson, Vin Diesel, and Larry McMurtry, finished Two Sleeves…
In-the-Round…
And I liked it!
I’ll admit a Whine Fest large enough to challenge Pine Mountain ususally accompanies the knitting of the Sleeve.
I’m not sure what happened but this time it just clicked.
After a bit of panic when I started knitting down, in-the-round, it went well. At first, the replaced stitches looked larger and so did the fabric I was knitting. Very Slightly. Although I’ve read about gauge change from flat to round, it hadn’t been a problem for me before. Maybe the yarn (wool/cotton)? Maybe my tension? I examined my needles in the size being used and went to try another manufacturer, ie. started on Inox #5 (3.75mm) changed to Addi #5 (3.75mm). My unscientific squinting look at the needles through the opening in my metal gauger seemed to show that the Addi filled the hole less.
Once that was resolved, it was full speed ahead. I found that if I left the garment folded, inside out, in my lap, I could just flip the sleeve area back and forth to knit it.
Back & forth? Hmm. The beauty of the Magic Loop!
One of my pet annoyances with top-down knitting is the wear & tear the garment gets just in the making. Anything I can do to minimize that is key. The ML method allows you to keep the whole shebang pretty stationary, with minimal friction from tossing & turning; the slipperiness of the Addi’s moves the stitches well enough that changing from side-to-side to finish a round goes smoothly.
The only snag? I am not entirely pleased with my bind off (in ribbing). Anybody have a favorite, neat method for binding off ribbing?
Try the book “Simple Socks Plain and Fancy” by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Pg 52 describes and illustrates “grafting off” 2×2 or 1×1 ribbing. I will be trying it on a toe-up sock just finished last night. Good luck and I really enjoy you adventures and designs. Linda Watt
If the ribbing is 1×1 I prefer the tubular cast-off. It is beautifully neat, and very flexible.
I was just researching the tubular bind off this weekend. There are a few good tutes with pictures if you google it. I also found it in Vouge Knitting but they don’t call it the tubular bind off just “Bind off for 1×1 rib”.
I like EZ’s sewn cast-off, I don’t know whether it is used much with rib but I used it recently on the ribbed cuff of a sock and it looked nice.
Yes, Tubular bind-off. I use it for everything. Even bottom up – use a provisional cast on and knit the ribbing down. The best edge ever.
Have no advice for bind off in ribbing, as I’ve got similar problems. I think it looks good though!
Just here to echo the EZ sewn bind off and the tubular bind off. Both are beautiful.
Yet another vote for tubular/grafted bind-offs. They’re a royal pain in the butt (having just done a pair of armholes on a vest in 2×2 rib this weekend), but the end result is so worth it.
(For toe-up socks, I go with the sewn bind-off, because grafted bind-offs are tighter than I like. But grafted bind-offs aren’t too tight on arms and necks. Go figure.)
Another vote for tubular bind off! I use tubular bindoff for 1X1 and 2X2 ribbing, mostly for socks, as that is what I knit most of the time(they’re easily portable!), but also for hats and most likely for sweaters too, once I get there – practice is key to making it stretchy enough. Initially I used the directions from Simple Socks; it is a similar pattern to grafting stockinette stitches on a sock toe.
I’ve never been coordinated enough to make the tubular bindoff work so I almost always bind off everything in purl. It has the effect of keeping the fabric nicely flat and leaves a pretty, unobtrusive edge.
I finished the sleeves on my Eyelet Cardi last Saturday. Instead of Magic Loop, I used my 30cm Addi Turbos but did pretty much the same thing with flipping/twisting the sleeve back and forth to get around the circle. I found that tacking up the underarm hole helped prevent some of the pulling/stretching on the body.
Thanks everyone for the ribbing cast off suggestions. I wasn’t all that happy with my own k1p1 cast off. Now in addition to getting over the finishing hump which has seen me nearly complete a booga bag rather than attack the picking up of stitches for the front bands, I have to decide whether to pick out and redo my cast off edges!