Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Horizontal knitting

I so need my own copy of The Principles of Knitting. As soon as I opened my library copy yesterday my eye fell randomly onto the solution to a problem I've been facing with a little project I want to get started on this very week.

And that solution is: horizontal knitting!

Here's how it works, if I understand it correctly, and I think we all know by now it's entirely possible I do not:

First, on a wrong side row, purl each stitch under (instead of the usual thing you do with the yarn when you're purling, wrap the yarn underneath the needle and up, before sliding it off.)

Then, on the right side row, work a turned bar increase (slip the next stitch onto the right needle as if to knit - which will untwist the twist you put in on the purl row - then put the tip of the left needle into the closer side of the stitch you just slipped and knit into its farther side without taking it off the needle, then knit into the nearer side of that same stitch, aka knit into the front and back of the stitch.) Then put the left needle into the stitch you've been fussing with on the right side, and slip it back onto said left needle. Finally, knit into the farther side of the second stitch on the left needle, then into the far side of the first stitch on that same needle, before discarding both.

What you get is a nice horizontal line that looks exactly like knit stitches crossing your stocking stitch base. And if it works for me, you'll see a sample of it here soon, as the project I want it for is the next freebie, heh heh heh.

1 comment:

Karen said...

Mary, I'm having a hard time visualizing this, but will look forward to seeing it in action!