Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Running in ends

The other day I mentioned the trick Trish passed on to me about how to run in ends neatly after the fact - as opposed to dealing with them as you knit - but I couldn't find a picture of it.


Well, here you go.  Basically, you slip your needle diagonally through the loops of a series of purl stitches, and then turn to another angle and do it again.


I find this approach to be sort of hypnotic and meditative.  And I like the subtle scar left when the end is neatly tucked behind the knit stitches, like arms behind one's back, whistling, and pretending all is well when actually it's chaos in the kitchen. 

(I wrote that specifically for people who enjoy a good mixed metaphor.)

(ha.  actually that is the sort of misstep I would normally edit out and didn't this time because I liked the image of a stick person with scars for arms doing a suspiciously innocent whistle.)

(but as my dad used to say, Don't apologize for the food, they might not notice, so I will stop calling attention to myself now and get back to this technique for running in ends.)


If you do it right, you may see a bit of contrast colour on the purl side, but it's invisible in the front.



Related news: the long-suffering fingerless gloves. 

In addition to being totally sidetracked by my briefly hectic social life - another story for another day - I got Trish to try on one of the finished gloves and it was a bit snug for her (her hands are larger than mine, which is why I got her to try one on.)  So clearly I need take a few extra hours and do three sizes for this glove.  Can you stand it, how awesome this pattern is going to be when it's finally done??


I wore these ones out on Sunday.  They were FABulous.  I could go on and on... but then I wouldn't be knitting, and I'm super excited about something else I'm working on so I'll stop here and see you tomorrow!