So since I started knitting in public I've discovered that knitters are not shy about telling you you're doing it wrong. I know it comes from a good place, but that still doesn't stop me from wanting to cry and fling my needles. (I tend to take these things personally, can you tell?) Not to mention I was getting extremely confused by all the different terms flying about. Combination knitting? The heck is that?
Finally after having to relearn some stuff (with Nell's patient guidance) I came to my senses and surfed over to KnittingHelp.com. Oh my gosh. Suddenly things started making sense. Turns out I was combination knitting, which is fine for stockinette dishcloths but not so great for patterns that call for increases and decreases because of the way stitches are oriented on the needles. So it's probably best to learn straight Continental now rather than have to figure out workarounds for combination knitting.
It was totally amazing to me to watch the little videos and finally understand what was going on. The motions of knitting have never made sense to me, but now they do. It blows my mind how quickly I'm picking up things. Not that I can do anything beyond knit and purl yet but... I think part of the reason I was so anti-knit was because I didn't think I could do it, that it was too hard, and I'm so happy to be proving myself wrong.
I was just thinking this morning that the Internet is such an amazing resource for knitters and crocheters. I can't even imagine how much all this information has increased my learning curve, to say nothing of the joy of looking at other people's beautiful work and sharing my own. It's a really good time to be a fiber artist.
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4 comments:
Oh good lord, you silly goose, knitting really is only two stitches done a whole lot of ways.
I love combo knitting! but of course I am a little strange in a lot of ways.
You have had knitters tell you without asking that you are doing something wrong? I've heard of this but it has never happened to me. Course I have been told twice recently that I have a "don't fuck with me" aura when I walk in a room. Or possibly it is the obvious glazed over "I am so not listening to you" look that I get when people try to tell me what to do without my asking.
Hope to see ya tomorrow night
See, now I knew as soon as I looked at your stitches that you were doing combination knitting, and did I tell you you were doing it wrong? I did not. Because I am awesome like that. :-) And, sweetie? If you can knit and purl, I swear to you, you can make damn near anything. Cross my heart and hope to die.
I soooo love KnittingHelp.com too. I still go there every time I have to Kitchner the toe of a sock and watch the little video.
I combo knit (and I wonder if a lot of crocheters do because it's such a more natural motion) and the way I deal with decreases is, no matter what the pattern says I just think about which way I want it to lean and either slip, knit, psso or knit, slip stitch back to left needle and slip next stitch over. It works for me but YMMV. :-)
*wanders over from Ravelry*
You know...I'm the exact opposite of you. Crocheting, to me, seems like that thing that's way too hard and I'm never going to get the hang of it.
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