check, check, is this thing on?
One would think by now that I could knit ribbing in my sleep.
THAT would be an almost true statement, but with this pulli, I was eyes wide open, but trying something new.
So it wasUP on the mannequin to see if it worked.
Because this sweater is knit in one piece from the bottom up, after you join the sleeves to the body, you have a ginourmous amount of stitches . I used two circular needles to tame this beast.
see post from Sept. 1 – knitting-in-the-round with 2 circs
This was the first time I tried this on a large ribbed section (previously worked on St st areas) and while I was knitting it, the join area at the edge of a rib column was looking rather raggedey, crooked and uneven. I was so blithely knitting along (don’t ask how many times I ribbed into the plain knit sections then frogged) that I didn’t even notice it until the cap area was about 3 inches long. FuPhooey.
And this is where the knowledge of all the knitters who’ve gone before saved me once again. Rachel wrote awhile back when I was stressing over nasty looking SSKs: “Maybe about 10 yrs ago I read a magazine article by a woman who was given access to some of the really old knitwear in museums, while she was researching and reconstructing patterns. Can’t remember her name. Maybe Nancy Bush or Lizbeth Upitis.
What I do remember is that at first she marvelled at how perfect & smooth the old knitted pieces were, & wondered why modern knitters didn’t have such skills. Then it dawned on her that the stitch tension had evened out with wear & time.
So I try to smooth out a wonky stitch by sending its excess yarn to its neighbors, then just leave it be, figuring magic will happen later.”
So I just ignored it and finished the yoke and neck – all that’s left is the whatever I decide to top it off with! And guess what? After all the attention traveled up and away from the troublesome points as I got closer to the end, the stitches seemed to do some kind of handshake deal with each other and agreed to even themselves out – kind of like when you go late to the movies and you have to take those seats in the middle of the row and you have to ask all the people to move it a little bit here and there and they see your supersize popcorn and drink and gladly step away…
That’s magic in itself! I wish my appliances would behave like that.
I really liked Rachel’s explanation–it took all the worry I felt right along w/you in your post, and made it disappear. Sometimes we just need to let things be, eh?
And yes, after attempting a Ribbi Cardi of my own, I’d figured you’d be able to rib in your sleep. Heck, in someone else’s sleep too.
A different Rachel here to solve the mystery. The knitter’s name is Maggie Righetti, and she tells that anecdote in Knitting in Plain English. Elizabeth Zimmerman gets all the love, but my heart is with Maggie Righetti!
Coming out of lurkdome to agree with the second Rachel’s comment. I think EZ’s great, love her too, but I taught myself to knit from Maggie Righetti’s “Knitting in Plain English” and I just can’t say enough wonderful things about her common-sense approach to knitting. She gave me confidence from the very first stitch, and I’ve never hesitated to try new things, thanks to her. I’m with you, Rachel, my heart’s with Maggie too!
“Sometimes we just need to let things be…” – quoting Renada.
So looks like you’re close to the top of this bottomsUP? I love the richness of the camel color.
Ah, but it’s a careful science to figure out when “wait and pray” will result in a beautiful finished object, and when it will result in a delicate lace cardigan that would fit a linebacker.
A very timely blog, indeed. I’m picking up stitches around a neckline, thinking that the outcome makes or breaks the whole sweater, looking for holes or weird areas, and this is the part I always fret over, but as in Rachel’s comments, I do try to distribute oddness to other nearby stitches and most of the time it helps. Sometimes I do have to nip and tuck a little, though, afterwards.
Good to remember. I also do stuff in the round on two circs and one thing that helps me with ribbing is to have the ribbing on each side start and end with a K1 so that particular rib is made up of a stitch on each set of needles. I see less wonkiness immediately.
However, sometimes the number of stitches doesn’t allow me to do this so I’m glad to be reassured that gravity may be my friend this one time.
it’s true… 2 or 3 washings later, some wearings, and i tend to either forget the slightly wonky ribs and ssks or find that they’ve straightened themselves out. at the time, though, it’s hard to remember the long view.
OMGosh, thank you for having this little mishap, you have just answered a question to a problem of mine three years running. Yay, where would we be without your musings.
i can’t remember where i heard this tip–it was probably someone on the socknitters list, who said if your ssk’s look wonky, compared to your k2togs, on the every other round (non-dec. round), knit into the back of the stitch on the ssks. it pulls them right into line…
Ah, time will heal all wounds…or wonky stitches. I’m working on a project right now and I’m having a wonky stitch problem but I think it will be solved with patience and a dunk in some woolwash.
I am off to Alabama for the weekend, so I won’t be at the KIP–perhaps next time!
The person that you were thinking of is Deborah Pullen, a fabulous knitter and spinner. I took a class with her once.