Love it or Loathe it - Knitting Ribbing

Although I often like to knit interesting and complex projects that include elaborate stitches, color changes or charts, I also enjoy a simple project that is easy to take on the road or knit in the company of others. My garter stitch-based Sothia shawl is one such pattern, and my current on-the-go project from my recent trip is another easy project, worked in simple ribbing. 

The first photo at the top of the post shows some swatches from my current project, and I've added a favorite quote from the book Knitting Without Tears, by Elizabeth Zimmerman. 

Autumn has finally begun to put on a color show around here, and the yarn colors choices for my project were inspired by our seasonal leaves. 
 

The swatches were worked in a worsted weight yarn and cast on with the German Twisted Cast On method (aka Old Norwegian method), which makes for a very elastic edge. This is the same edge I used in my Greyhaven Hat. The swatches were bound off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.

While some knitters profess to loathe the boring nature of ribbing, I find the mindless rhythm of swinging the yarn from front to back meditative and soothing. Perhaps because I usually choose to knit in the Continental style ('picking' with yarn held in my left hand) rather than English style ('throwing' with yarn held in my right hand), I greatly enjoy knitting rib stitch combinations like k1p1, and k2p2.

How about you - do you love or loathe knitting ribbing or fall somewhere in between? Do you have any special tips or tricks you like to use when you knit ribbing?

Getting Loopy - or Knot

Very often, instructions for a cast on begin by telling you to "make a slip knot and place it on the needle," providing the first stitch from which to cast additional stitches, as shown in the photo above.

But did you know you don't necessarily always have to start with a slip knot?  The next time you begin a new knitting project, try simply looping the end of the yarn over the needle.  I almost always use this technique when casting on in long-tail, by starting with the tail end of the yarn in front and the ball end yarn in the back.

Loop the yarn around your fingers as you normally do for long-tail method, hold it down snug over and around the needle, 

add a twist, then make the first cast on stitch and proceed as usual.  

This photo below shows how the loop stitch (on the right) and the first cast on stitch (on the left) look.

Looping the first stitch instead of using a knot is just one tiny way to finesse your knitting; however,  looping the first stitch does not work equally well for all methods so you will want to experiment to see where you like it.  

Speaking of getting loopy, awesome St. Louis, Missouri yarn shop The Loopy Ewe is holding Camp Loopy, a fun KAL version of knitting 'summer camp' with various challenges and rewards.  Some of the Loopy Groopies on Ravelry have chosen to make Sothia for one of their Camp Loopy projects.  Camp runs until July 15th, so there's still time to sign up and join this fun adventure. 

Many thanks to everyone for the abundant well-wishes and congratulations on my first 'blogiversary' post last week, and thanks for all my new Ravelry 'friends' too!

That post outlines the free knitting pattern and yarn give-away contest I am holding all month to celebrate my first year of blogging including some of my patterns, like my newest shawlette pattern Sothia. It's easy to enter, just leave a comment to any post between now and then, and the contest will remain open through July 21st, 2011.  I look forward to hearing from you!

My sister and her family recently visited from far, far away, and since it's been a few months since we've seen each other, we had a lot of catching up to do.   

 

One day during that all-too-short week, we packed into cars and drove over to Beavercreek, Ohio to meet up with my cousin and tour some local tourist sites, mainly centering around the inventors of flight, Dayton brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright.   

The national sites and museums offer a fascinating look at the amazing accomplishment of these men, who were acquaintances of my grandmother!

The Wrights' first endeavors included printing and bicycle building.  

Inspiration for knitting and crochet is all around, if you look for it, even at a historic site...

Take a little time, wherever you are, to really 'see' your surroundings and you will likely find all sorts of shapes, textures, colors and lines to inspire you. 

Short Rows and Wraps Video Tutorial Link

I love garter stitch, but that's ALL I have been doing lately as I finalize some projects.  I'll be glad to get back to some different things soon, including a new lace pattern to post here eventually.  Today I want to share a great way to pick up short row wraps, as I've been doing in these garter stitch projects.  

I know sometimes the wraps are left in place when working every row in knit stitches, because they usually hide nicely in the fabric.  However, there might be times when you want to neaten things up or when you're using more than one yarn color.   And sometimes the public side looks nice, but the back side looks messy.  

The photo above shows the back side of a swatch worked in multiple colors in garter stitch where the wrapped stitches lay neatly along the mitered corner, important if your project will be seen on both sides.

There are several techniques for picking up the wraps in both knit and purl stitch, but the one I used here, and I think my favorite method for many types of knitting projects, is to pick the wrap up, pull it over the left needle tip, and place it over and behind the next stitch on the needle, then knit them together.  This is demonstrated by Cat Bordhi in these helpful You Tube videos. 

Video #1

Video #2

Happy knitting!