Monday, February 19, 2007

Knitting Seed Stich Backwards

I've made a bit of progress on the Forest Path Stole; I've nearly finished the fourth tier. Whenever I work on something like a heel flap on a sock or entrelac, instead of flipping back and forth, I'll usually knit backwards. Basically, if I had turned the work, it would be purl stitches, but instead I'm knitting to the left needle instead of to the right. I have a tutorial here about knitting backwards. Now, for the FPS, I've been turning it every row for the rectangles because my tension is a little off with the laceweight knitting backwards, though that may change as the stole grows. I might start knitting backwards. But for the side triangles with the seed stitch, it's really a pain in the bum to knit a couple of stitches and turn. So, I will knit from the right needle to the left instead of turning my work and here's how I do it. (Depending on how the current row is set onto the previous row, it could be used for rib as well.) I've used a worsted white yarn so you can see it better than laceweight.

I'm in the middle of the row here, working to the left needle. I'm at what would be a purl stitch if I had turned my work. With yarn in back, insert the left needle through the top of the stitch on the right needle and yarn over from back to front.

Pull the yarn over through the stitch and take the old stitch off the right needle, leaving the newly-formed stitch on the left needle. You have what appears to be a knit stitch on this side (it would be a purl stitch from the other side.)

The next stitch would be a knit stitch from the other side. With the yarn in front, slip the left needle into the back of the stitch of the right stitch so that the needles are coming through the stitch the same way.

Yarn over from front to back.

Pull the yarn over through the stitch and take the stitch off the right needle. And it appears to be a purl stitch from this side.

I hope this tutorial is helpful. Let me know if it makes sense (or doesn't). You just repeat to the end of the row, then you're ready to knit as usual from the left needle to the right. No turning necessary! I'd recommend practicing on a heavier weight yarn to get the hang of it before trying it on the stole.

In other knitting news, I've started my first toe-up socks and I might be hooked. I did a provisional cast on because I already know how to do that. It's pretty cool being able to try it on as you knit it and being able to maximize the yarn usage. We'll see how the backwards heel flap in SKS works out.

Lots of ice on the ground here. About two inches of solid ice. When we backed the minivan onto the two inches of ice on the drive, it didn't even compact at all!. And it's pretty much impossible to get the stuff off the drive now without about a ton of road salt. Yuck. We still haven't had a good snow. A bit of snow and then lots of ice. I guess I'm pretty much over the whole wintry thing by now. I'm ready for spring.

Edit: I hate when my updates still haven't shown up in Bloglines hours later even after manually "pinging" the feed several times. Argh!

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7 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Knitting back is pretty cool. It's not hard to figure out how to do knit stitches backwards (my Emerald Isle shawl has two garter sts on each end and stockinette lace for the rest).

For toe-up socks, I really prefer the heel and toe method in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts's "Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy." It's a short-row method, but it doesn't use the traditional wrap and turn (it uses yarnovers. sort of). I find it both easier to do and better looking when finished. If you haven't looked at the book, I can bring it to the meeting.

10:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tutorial--I'll have to give that a try! :)

Yes, Bloglines has been down all day. Bah.

3:31 PM  
Blogger Chris said...

I'll be back when I need to do short stretches of seed stitch! Thanks for the tutorial.

Welcome to the wonderful world of toe-up socks!! :)

3:48 PM  
Blogger Christine said...

Bloglines is getting on my nerves today too. I just keep thinking of all the blogs I will have to catch up on when they finally get everything up and going again.

Great tutorial! I'll have to give that a go sometime!

5:12 PM  
Blogger Opal said...

Great tutorial! I'm kind of dreading doing the FPS because of the tedium of all the small squares, but your helpful hints are making me anxious to start.

8:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

THANKS for the excellent tutorial! I'm going to mark this.

I am longing to knit on my Forest Path Stole, but right now I've got to finish baby blankets. Dang babies.

12:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found with my feedburner feed that if you view your feed and hit refresh THEN ping bloglines, the pinging works faster.

Good luck with the toe-ups!

5:24 PM  

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