Monday, 28 May 2007

Knitting

After Friday's quick stop at the yarn store for straight needles of good quality, I have in my hot little hands yet another skein of sock yarn, and a couple sets of small circular needles. My goal for the weekend was to learn to knit correctly, rather than my way. Since I did not buy the specific item I went to the store for, 3.5mm new straights of good quality, I will work on my crappy old needles. I really hate these crappy needles.

Its time to learn how the rest of the world knits. If I can do that then I can convert everything to my way. And then I can do something I have wanted to do for several decades.

I have loved lace knitting forever. For years I hid my inability to interpret simple knitting instructions. I pooh poohed fancy knitting, as something that could be done far more swiftly in crochet (which it can), and hid my secret shame. Now that I am in this 12 step program (12 skeins of sock yarn, 12 sets of socks, leading to 12 skeins of lace weight - its is my personal principle of smaller and smaller needles.) I am determined to knit a loveliness of lace. It remained out of reach to me until a few weeks ago when I realized what I do differently than most people. I always work in the back loop on the knit rows, and the front loops on the purl side. I can tell you that it is quick to work because there is no yarn over, but it also tends to be very loose in comparison to most people.

If I really want to be able to knit lace, I have to understand regular knitting. So I am learning to start my stitches at the front, and purl with a yarn around the needle. After this simple stockinette vest
(yes it is an acrylic yarn) I am going to practise on dishcloths to learn to combine the fancy stitches, to do the right sort of tension. Right now, it's slow and feels strange, but when I understand it, when I can see the form of the stitches in my mind, and build them to suit, then I know that I will be able to translate the stitches to my way of working and I will once again be able to move at the speed of light. Or I will just keep working the more common way.

It's like Forest Gump's box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Or where you will end up.

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