Monday, September 1, 2008

Tips of the Trade

While trying to help a new knitter, who happened to learn the continental method of knitting (yarn in the left hand), I saw how tight her stitches were.

For those who knit continental method, it is VERY important that you NOT knit on the tip of the needle. The purpose of the tip is so that the needle can enter the stitch easily. Think of this: there's no point on the needle. How hard would it be to get the needle into the stitch? VERY hard!!! By knitting on the tip, you will never get your gauge (SEE other blog: TO GAUGE OR NOT TO GAUGE...THAT IS THE QUESTION--July 2008). If you are knitting tightly and you are knitting, say, an afghan, you're going to use much more yarn than if you knitted it to gauge. Why? The tighter the rows, the more yarn you will need to get to your length.

The reason why we have different sizes of needles is because of the types of yarns that are available: fingering, sport, DK, worsted, chunky, bulky. If there was just one needle and we just knitted on the tips, can you imagine how tight the stitches would be?

So my suggestion is this: cast onto another set of needles and knit onto the SHAFT of the needle. That's the area just passed the point. Practice your knits and purls for awhile and get used to knitting on that area. I tell my knitting newbies to think of your needles as a pencil. You don't knit on the sharpened area of the pencil, but just below it, on the yellow! If you look at your needles that way, you will be surprised how much easier your stitches will flow when you knit properly on the shaft!

So, that's my TIP of the trade today!!!

Happy Stitching, fellow knitters!!

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