Knitting Tips

Thank heavens there are lots of smart people in the world, especially smart knitters, because their clever discoveries are what help me survive the struggles of learning to knit.

I'm pretty much a self-taught knitter, in that I've learned mainly from knitting books, knitting blogs, on-line videos, and such.

My first knitting project, three years ago, was a baby afghan. I figured it would be best to start with an afghan because it had four straight sides, so I wouldn't have to worry about creating a curve or anything fancy like that.  I chose a design with a three-row repeat. I figured that would be manageable, too.

Little did I realize that within the 3 rows would be 7-stitch repeats. Oh, mercy. I'd start a row with the best intentions in the world, but by the time I neared the end of it, I'd realize I'd screwed up the stitch repeats somewhere along the way. I'd ravel. I'd try again. 

Then someone told me to put markers after every 7 stitches along a given row. Voila! The pattern was now manageable. I just had to see to it that I did the correct stitches within the 7-stitch section. A new world opened to me. There was meaning in life again.

The latest voila! moment came last week. I read online that when knitting a design, it's wise to weave a different colored thread (crochet thread, dental floss, whatever) through the stitches every few rows. I'm working on a sweater with a 4-row repeat, so on the 4th row, which is a purl row, I go back and weave a length of crochet thread through it. That way, should I need to ravel back a few rows, I know that if I ravel back to the white thread, I'll be at the 4th row of the repeat and that I'll then commence with row #1 again. Does this make sense?

If you look carefully at the photo here, you'll perhaps see the white crochet thread woven through two of the rows.

To me it's a little bit of insurance, sanity insurance. It takes just a few minutes to weave that white thread in, and it's worth the time and effort.