Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Tightening up that purl stitch!

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I thought I would post a quick tip on how I was able to snug up that pesky purl stitch following the cable!

I have a book by Annie Modesitt on Combination Knitting. She does a hybrid of American and Continental knitting which is very fast for her. I use it sporatically, depending on the situation. I do really like it for situations of knit/purl patterns where I'm going to knit the knits and purl the purls on the reverse side. You'll see why.

You can follow this link to see Annie's illustrations. Basically, what you want to do for this purl stitch is to scoop the yarn UNDER the right needle instead of wrapping over the TOP of the right needle. After you've slid the stitch off the left needle, then you can snug it up a bit. Going under instead of over uses a wee bit less yarn, and makes that stitch a bit tighter. (This effect is why I don't use it all the time for stockinette stitch - it changes my gauge coming back.)

The other effect of this is that this stitch is now seated incorrectly on the needle. However, it's easy enough to correct on the next side by knitting that stitch through the back loop. I hardly even pay attention any more, I just automatically knit those stitches as they come. This is the reason that I don't use the method on a true seed stitch, where I will be purling that stitch on the next row. Purling through the back loop to correct the seat saves time for no one!!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

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