let me explaiKnit

Sweater Surgery

So, you've been knitting your fingers off on a lovely sweater, and the top is great, but despite your best attempts at self-deception, you're finally forced to face it: it's just too long.  Hits at a horrible spot, bags around your hips, completely not working.  It would be perfect if you could just take a couple of inches off; unfortunately, you knitted it from the bottom up with a ribbed waistband, and ripping out ribbing from the cast-on row is a real bear.  Or maybe you just hate the bottom ribbing, and wish you'd done a straight or rolled hem.  Or maybe it's even too short, and you'd like to have an extra couple of inches above where the ribbing is.

The answer is sweater surgery.  In most cases, it's possible to cut off the offending bottom, and reknit the bottom of the sweater in a manner more to your liking.

You're going to need a thin circular, preferably several sizes smaller than the size you knitted the sweater with; the length isn't terribly important as long as it's enough to go comfortably around the sweater (or across the front or back half, if it was knitted flat).  If you don't have a suitable needle, you can use a tapestry needle threaded with a smooth yarn or a piece of thin ribbon, but you'll need to transfer the stitches back to a needle before you can knit them, whereas with a thin circular you can knit from it directly.  You'll also need some good sharp scissors.

Turn the sweater upside down, so the area to be removed is at the top; if it was knit flat and has already been seamed, you'll want to undo the seams in the part to be removed so you can work with the edge stitches.  Select a row to become your live stitches, from which you will knit your new sweater bottom. Using the thin circ, pick up the right leg of each of these stitches.  Just to be extremely clear here: sometimes when people say to "pick up" stitches, they mean to pull a loop of the working yarn through each stitch, forming a new stitch on the needle -- that is not what I mean.  You want to actually capture the right leg of the existing stitches on the needle; no working yarn is involved at all. If you get the left leg instead, it isn't a big deal, but you'll need to knit the stitches through the back when you start knitting down, so they're not twisted. Just check them as you work that first row, and be sure you're knitting through the right leg of every stitch, whether it's in front or in back.

Once you've captured all the stitches for your new working row, it's time to cut the excess part of the knitting free.  You want to leave the first several stitches on the row above the captured row intact; these will provide the tail for you to weave in, where you join your working yarn to knit downward.  Leave about two horizontal inches worth of stitches for a 6" tail, a few more if you prefer a longer tail to work with.

Now, there are a couple of ways to do the cutting, depending on how bold you are.  You can snip a single stitch, choosing the stitch right after the tail stitches you're leaving intact, and then unravel one row stitch by stitch.  You can cut straight across the knitting a couple of rows above the needle you placed, and then unravel back down to the needle, which may require picking out some stitches one by one, depending on the type of stitch.  Or, you can cut each of the stitches on the row right above the needle, in which case it's important to remember that for that first couple of inches, you want to cut two rows above, so the tail stitches stay intact; this last option leaves you the least amount of subsequent work to do, but it takes a little more nerve.  Whichever option you choose, once you've separated the stitches on one row, the former sweater bottom will come off in a piece, and can then be easily unraveled top-down to reclaim that yarn, if you wish.

You're now ready to join yarn and knit the new bottom of your sweater, but there are a few things to note before you begin.  First, because you're now working with what were formerly the bottoms of your stitches, you're offset by half a stitch.  This isn't a problem if you're working in stockinette; because you're also going in the other direction, the new stitches will nest nicely into the old ones, and the point where you changed direction will be no more noticeable than a well-done grafting job, which is to say generally completely invisible.  However, you'll also have one stitch fewer, which means you may need to increase by one, or decrease by one fewer if you previously increased after the ribbing, in order to make your ribs come out evenly.

If you're working in something other than stockinette and you're not going straight into a new bottom ribbing, the half-stitch offset becomes an issue, because the jog will show.  The solution is to change your stitch pattern -- do a band of something else for half an inch or an inch, and then switch back to your pattern stitch, and that will fool the eye sufficiently.  If your design won't work with something like that, then you probably don't want to try this technique.

Are there other situations where this technique shouldn't be used?  Yes, of course; nothing's universal.  In particular, you'll notice that in the opening paragraph, every situation I mentioned involved a ribbed bottom.  There's a reason for that.  Ribbing is a major hassle to rip from the cast-on edge; the way you move the yarn back and forth results in the yarn being woven through the stitches as they appear from the bottom up, so you have to unpick every individual stitch, and that makes cutting the ribbing off in a piece really appealing.  Stockinette, on the other hand, rips as easily from the bottom as from the top, so for a rolled-hem sweater, it's better to unpick the cast-on row and rip upward than it is to cut.

This technique can, of course, be used on sleeves and other situations, not just sweater bottoms.  While it won't rescue every knitting misstep, it can be a real lifesaver in the situations it's suited to.

ETA: I've just recently become aware of this nice little tutorial which shows this method with pictures.  Enjoy!

What if the porcupine is winning?

So, maybe you've followed all the tips on getting started with DPNs, and it's just not working for you -- you can't get going.  Sometimes this happens; there's a lot going on when you start a project on DPNs for the first time, and sometimes managing the DPNs gets all tangled up with trying to get the row started, sort of like when you're learning to ride a bike and you're concentrating so hard on balancing that you forget to steer.  Not to worry!  There are a few items you can try for your first project that will let you concentrate on one thing at a time -- sort of like training wheels for DPNs -- and you'll be zipping along in no time.

The first and easiest suggestion is to do a hat.  You can start a hat on a circular needle -- a 20" length is good for most adult hats, a 16" length for most children -- and then switch to the DPNs when it's time to do the crown decreases.  This will give you several inches of fabric, more than enough to keep the DPNs stable, and you can concentrate on simply knitting with them, without having to manage a cast-on row on them at the same time.  If you've never knit on circulars either, I think this page does a fine job of explaining them.  You can use the pattern of your choice; I like the simple hat calculator for its versatility.  Whatever pattern you choose, when you're ready to start your decreases, move the work onto the DPNs by knitting approximately 1/4 of the stitches onto each of 4 DPNs in turn, or 1/3 onto each of 3 if you have a set of 4, leaving one DPN free for your working needle, and your circular needle empty.  It's not necessary to have exactly the same number of stitches on each needle, so divide them up in a way that works with your decrease pattern -- for instance, if there are 8 points of decrease, but you only have a set of 4, dividing the stitches into exact thirds doesn't make as much sense as dividing them 3/8 on two and 2/8 on the remaining one, so that you're always doing your decreases on a single needle.  Arrange your needles as discussed in the basic discussion, and complete your hat top following the pattern instructions.  Working the top of a hat should give you enough DPN practice to begin getting comfortable with DPNs once you've got the project started; after you're at that point, starting a project out on DPNs at the beginning will be easier.

But wait, you say, I don't want to knit a hat!  The entire reason I want to learn how to use DPNs is that I want to knit a sock, and it's too small to start it out on a circular needle!*  Okay, fair enough -- you want to knit a sock, a sock is what you should knit.  How about a toe-up sock?  If you start a toe-up sock with a short-row toe, you do that by knitting back and forth on two needles until the toe is completed, and then pick out your provisional cast-on and put all the stitches on DPNs; again, this gives you enough fabric to stabilize the DPNs, so it eliminates the early wonkiness.  If you don't have a toe-up pattern in mind to try, Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock is a pretty good one.

Another way to get started is to just cheat a bit; do the first inch or so of the project flat, and then switch to the DPNs and join.  You'll have a little seam to stitch up when you do your finishing, but it will make the start easy.

* Okay, I said that socks were too little to start on a circ.  This is not, strictly, true.  First, there are some little bitty circs out there -- several companies make a 12", which will work if you're willing to really stretch your stitches, and Clover makes an 8" circ, which will work for most socks.  However, these little bitty needles aren't really fun for most people to knit on, especially the 8" length, as the straight parts of the needles are exceptionally short.  However, there are also a couple of other methods that let you use a longer circular, or a pair of them, to knit small-circumference items. There is the two-circulars method, in which you use two circulars of the same size and any length that is comfortable for you, and there is the magic-loop method, in which you use a single very long circular (most people prefer around 40" lengths).  Both of these methods essentially employ the ends of the circs in place of the two active DPNs, and the cable(s) in place of the ones acting as stitch holders; they're explained well on the pages I've linked to, so I'm not going to re-hash it.

Using one of the various methods of circulars will let you avoid using DPNs.  I don't think that's a good reason to use them.  I think there are good reasons to use them -- one in particular is for the smaller-circumference parts of things knit on Denise interchangeable needles; the Denise tips aren't quite standard sizes, and going to one of the small-circ methods lets you continue using the same tips and ensure that there's no possibility of a gauge shift. However, avoiding having to learn how to handle DPNs isn't one of those good reasons.  I don't think it's ever a good idea to use one technique to avoid having to learn a technique that scares you, or that you find difficult.  Doing so condones the insidious notion that there are things in knitting that you can't do. I don't believe that is true -- won't allow it to be true -- in my own knitting, and I don't think you should do so in yours.

Shoot, a Ladder!

Okay, I promised a discussion on avoiding ladders when working with DPNs, and here it is.

First, for those not familiar with the term, what is a ladder?  A ladder is a loose spot in your knitting, between the last stitch on one needle and the first stitch on the next; the slightly long strands of yarn between the two stitches looks like the rungs of a ladder.  Really severe ones can look almost like a dropped stitch, and even milder ones are not a particularly desirable feature.  They're definitely the biggest concern of DPN users once they get over the initial hurdle of figuring out how to use them at all.

What causes a ladder is the strain on your knitting as you go from one needle to the next; the stitches simply want to pull apart there.  Many people find that it's worse when they use a set of 4 needles than when they use a set of 5, because the sharper angle puts a greater strain on the corner stitches, so switching from 4 to 5 may be a fix.  It's also common for it to be a worse problem with a slick yarn than a more grippy one where the stitches will hang onto their neighbors a bit.

If ladders are mild, the best solution may be to do nothing.  Slight ladders often will even themselves out, when the item is first washed and blocked, and may be helped along by a little careful easing of the stitches on either side of the ladder if any looseness remains.

If the problem is more severe than this, here are some tips to ladder-free DPNs:

Pay a little more attention to the join point itself; snug the last stitch of the previous needle right up against the first stitch of the current needle before you wrap the yarn for that first stitch.  Don't yank the working yarn here, but just make sure the bases of the two stitches are close together.

When you wrap the yarn for the second stitch, before you pull the old stitch off the needle, give the yarn a little tug; repeat this on the third stitch if you feel like it.  Don't yank on the first stitch, and for goodness' sake don't yank on the last stitch of the needle, which tends to make the problem worse instead of better.

These first two things are usually enough to eliminate your ladder issues; give those a try before you take more drastic measures.  Some more drastic measures to take:

Change the way you're coming at the first stitch.  I really prefer the method I explained in the last post, where you come up from below and to the left of the next needle to the right, but some people with persistent laddering issues do find it beneficial to come at it the other way, from above and to the right.  I don't like to do this because it disarranges your ends, which either makes them get in your way more or requires you to move them on every needle, but if you're having difficult laddering problems, go ahead and give it a shot and see what you think.

Shuffle your stitches.  Some people find it helpful to knit the first couple of stitches of each DPN onto the DPN before it, instead of immediately switching to the free needle.  This causes the beginning of the round to gradually migrate around the circle of needles, so you'll definitely need to use stitch markers to mark the beginning of the round, and any other points that are important to your pattern, such as which stitches were originally on needle 1, etc.  I'm not a big fan of this method, because it doesn't actually address the problem, only masks it by causing the loose stitches to be distributed throughout the piece instead of lined up in a column; I don't favor, generally, treating symptoms instead of causes, when the causes are susceptible to treatment.  If you want to try it, though, it is a way to handle laddering.

Make a few swatches, and see what seems to work for you.  With a bit of experimentation, you'll find the best way for you to produce beautiful, ladder-free work on your DPNs in no time.

Wrestling the Porcupine

Or, how to handle double-pointed needles (DPNs).

If last week's theme was fear of YOs, this week's was definitely fear of DPNs; I've explained their care and feeding to no less than three knitters, and the week's not over.  They're definitely one of the things that new knitters find intimidating, but in reality, like many aspects of knitting, they look a lot tougher to handle than is actually the case.

Important fact #1: Regardless of how many DPNs you're using on your project, you're never actually knitting with more than two needles.  And you know how to do that! The others are just being stitch holders.

The corollary to this is that you should never be trying to hang onto more than two needles at a time.  With wood or bamboo, and most plastics, unless you're just an incredibly loose knitter, your inactive DPNs aren't going to fall out of the stitches; with metal, it's a possibility.  If you feel paranoid, or your stitches really are that loose, put point protectors on the tips of the needles you're not using; that way you'll know they're not going anywhere, and you can ignore them.  Let go of them and let them hang out.

The hardest part of DPNs is definitely getting a project started on them.  A lot of first attempts at DPNs end right there, as the knitter struggles to make the DPNs behave, concludes they're obviously doing something wrong, and gives up.  Which brings us to:

Important fact #2: DPNs are unruly for the first few rows for everybody, no matter how much experience they have.  They flop around like landed fish, they try to cross, they just plain won't behave.  The difference with experienced DPN knitters is, they know that this is normal, and that it's not them, it's the DPNs, and they keep going.

After a few rows, the fabric below the needles will stabilize them and they'll settle down.  If you're having trouble getting to this point, you can knit the first few rows flat, and then join and knit in the round after you've got a bit of fabric started; you'll have a little seam, but on most projects it won't be a big deal.  I definitely encourage you to try starting a project on DPNs in the round from the beginning, however, once you're a little more comfortable with DPNs generally; it's a skill you're eventually going to want to have.

So, how do we get started?  Begin by casting on all of your stitches onto one of the DPNs, or onto a straight or circular needle of the same size if you're going to do too many to fit comfortably on a single DPN. When you've finished with that, slip approximately 1/4 (or 1/3 if you're using a set of 4) of the stitches onto each of the DPNs which will be holding stitches, leaving one DPN of the set without stitches.  I suggest doing it this way, rather than trying to cast onto each of the DPNs you're going to be using, because the latter can contribute to laddering between the DPNs on your first few rows, since the joins tend to get stretched out while you're trying to get subsequent stitches cast on.  Casting onto a single needle and then slipping the stitches to each of the DPNs tends to cause less of this simply because there's less manipulation going on once the stitches are separated.

If you are accustomed to casting on over two needles held together, I would not suggest that you do that for DPNs; the very loose stitches this causes don't hold the needles snugly, which makes the first row a real challenge.  Instead, use a set of DPNs several sizes bigger for your cast-on row (use a mm size that's double the mm size of your project DPNs for the same effect as casting on over 2 needles), and then knit off onto the project size in your first row.  Better still, make your cast-on stretchier by making sure you maintain a horizontal spacing between your stitches, instead of by making the stitches themselves bigger.

Once you've got your cast-on stitches separated out onto the DPNs, it's time to join.  As with any circular knitting, it's very important that you not have a twist in your cast-on row.  The first time you do this, I suggest laying the DPNs on a table in a line, and making sure all the bumps are on the same side of the needles.  Then, without picking them up, bring them around so that the first and last DPN are together; the bumps should now be all on the outside or all on the inside.  If you like to swap stitches to join, go ahead and do that now.  Now, still without picking the DPNs up from the table, take your spare DPN and insert it into the first stitch, and wrap the yarn and work the stitch.  Now, your stitches are joined, and you can't get a twist; go ahead and pick the DPNs up.  As you get more comfortable working with DPNs, you may find that you can get them sorted out and joined untwisted without going through all of this, and that's fine, but this way will always work, so it's a good way to begin.

I find the following arrangement of DPNs to be the most efficient, and keep the inactive DPNs out of my way the best.  Arrange your DPNs so that the left end of each is on top of the next needle to the left, and the right end is underneath the next needle to the right.  To knit from a needle, slide it down so that all the stitches are near the right end, and then twitch the right end of it up above the next needle to the right, so this DPN is on top of both of its neighbors.  Bring your empty DPN up from beneath and to the left of the next needle to the right, and begin working the stitches.  You should only be holding onto the needle you are knitting from and the needle you are knitting onto.  Let the others just hang in their stitches and wait their turns; if you try to hold onto them as well, you really will feel like you're wrestling with a porcupine.

When you've knit all the stitches, slide the newly filled DPN down so that the stitches are in the middle of it.  If you used the arrangement I explained above, its left end should be up and its right end down automatically, but if they're not, then wiggle the ends around so they're placed that way.  Put the newly empty DPN in your right hand, and move on to the next DPN to the left, and repeat.

A note about stitch distribution: if it is reasonably possible to do so, I suggest avoiding starting a DPN with a purl stitch.  Starting with a purl stitch is more awkward, and increases the chance of doing an accidental YO (thus causing an extra stitch, and a hole) in the "corner" of the DPNs.  It's not important that your stitch counts be balanced on the DPNs, as long as they're not so unbalanced that it makes it difficult to work; starting each DPN with a knit is definitely a priority.  So, for instance, if you were knitting 56 stitches on 5 DPNs, and beginning with 2x2 ribbing, the obvious arrangement for the 4 DPNs with stitches would be 14/14/14/14, but that has two of the DPNs starting with purl stitches; a better arrangement would be 12/16/12/16, or even 12/12/12/20, so that each starts with a knit.  It will not always be possible to avoid starting with a purl -- for instance, in seed stitch, a stitch that is purled one round is knit the next, so trying to arrange them to avoid starting with a purl is pointless -- but if you can do it without undue difficulty, I recommend it.

Next up: avoiding ladders!

Okay, I've done a yarnover. Now what?

Another couple of questions I've been asked a lot relate to what to do with a yarnover on the next row, and particularly what to do when a pattern asks you to drop the yarnovers.

When you come back to a yarnover on the next row, it won't look quite like a normal stitch, because it's not attached to the stitch directly below it.  Instead, the front leg of it is attached to the stitch on the right, and the back leg of it is attached to the stitch on the left, which causes it to sit at a pretty sharp angle on the needle.  However, if you need to knit or purl it, you do this exactly like you would work a normal stitch -- insert your right needle in the front leg in the appropriate direction, and pull the new stitch through.  It's not any different, so don't be going and trying to make it difficult.

What about when you're asked to drop it? How does that work? Again, it's much simpler than it sounds.  You can readily identify which stitches were yarnovers by their different appearance, as described above -- a loop of yarn, not attached to the row below, sitting at a sharp angle.  When you come to one of them that you've been directed to drop, just push it off the tip of the left needle, and let it go.  That's it! Once it's no longer wrapped around the needle, it will just be an extra-long bar between the stitch to its right and the stitch to its left, which produces an elongated stitch.  This can be used to beautiful effect in patterns such as seafoam stitch, where multiple yarnovers create drops of different lengths.

Speaking of which, how do you do multiple yarnovers?  It's simple; you'll end with the yarn behind the right needle, so simply bring it forward between the needles again, and then flip it over the right needle to the back a second time (or a third, etc., if you're asked to do more than two).  There's no need to do a stitch in between; if the pattern wants you to do that, it will say so.

So, um, what's this "yfwd" thing?

A yarnover, or YO, is pretty much an American term.  The British term, you may have been told, is "yfwd", or "yarn forward".  Right?  Well, sort of.

British knitters use yfwd, but they also use three other terms: yrn, yon, and yfrn, standing for "yarn round needle", "yarn over needle", and "yarn forward round needle", respectively.

Shove your bugged-out eyes back where they belong, and calm down; it's not that hard.  The four terms basically differentiate between the slightly different steps you do depending on whether your preceding and following stitches are purls or knits, and each of them stands for one of the four possible combinations of that.

Since we broke the YO down in the last post to three steps, two of which may or may not be done, let's refer back to those: step 1 is where you move the yarn forward in preparation for the YO if it's not already there; step 2 is the YO itself, where you flip the yarn over the needle; and step 3 is where you move the yarn forward again if the next stitch needs it to be there.  We'll see how each of the Brit terms indicates a different combination of those.

YFWD: This is a YO done between two knit stitches.  This is the type you're doing if you follow those bad instructions I referred to in the last post: you bring the yarn forward between the needles, and then when you work the next stitch, since it's a knit, that automatically causes you to bring it over the top of the needle.  It's the same as doing steps 1 and 2 of our YO.  And if this were the only type of yarnover maneuver that existed, those instructions wouldn't be bad; unfortunately for them, it isn't.

YRN: This is a YO done between two purl stitches.  You're starting with the yarn in the front, so you bring it all the way around the needle until it's back in the front again; you're doing steps 2 and 3 of the YO.

YON: This is a YO done after a purl and before a knit.  You're starting with the yarn in front, and you want to end with it in back, so you just flip it over the needle; it's step 2 all by itself.

YFRN: This is a YO done after a knit and before a purl.  The yarn is brought forward and then brought all the way around the needle until it is forward again; it's steps 1, 2, and 3 of our YO method.

You can see from this how the various names go with the steps that you do, and how they fit with YOs by our method.

Every once in a while, you may encounter a pattern that uses YFWD in a place where it clearly is meant to indicate some type of yarnover, but it's not between two knit stitches.  Usually, what this means is that it's an American designer writing for a British publisher, and someone has bulk-substituted YFWD every time the designer wrote YO, without thinking about whether that's the proper type to do in that circumstance.  Occasionally, however, this may mean that they want you to bring the yarn forward for some other reason, such as to slip stitches with the yarn in front, so double-check that you understand what you're being asked to do, and then go ahead and do the YO steps that are appropriate if that's what's called for.

YO is for Yarnover

Okay, let's get this thing started.  Twice this week I've had knitters tell me that they were scared of yarnovers, and afraid to try any patterns that included them, and I've helped a couple of other people figure out pattern problems that were caused by incorrect yarnovers, so this is plainly a topic on which there's a lot of confusion.

One big source of the confusion is that there are a lot of bad instructions out there.  One popular way to tell people to do a yarnover is to tell them to move the yarn to the front, and then from that position knit the next stitch.  This does, in fact, cause a yarnover to happen, but it's a horrible way to teach it.

Why?  Well, three reasons.  One, it gives the strong impression that knitting the next stitch is part of the yarnover, and this is wrong.  Two, it leaves a person with no idea whatever what to do if the stitches before and after are anything other than two knits.  And three, it completely glosses over the loop over the needle, which is the very essence of a yarnover.

Can I do better? Yes, I think so.

First, what is a yarnover?  It's a simple thing: just a loop of yarn that goes over the right needle.  It should be oriented in the same way that other stitches are oriented, which for most people means that it needs to come up the front of the needle first and then down the back.  It does not include knitting or doing anything else to the next stitch on the needle, and in fact does not use up a stitch from the previous row at all.  It does increase your stitch count for the current row by one, so if you do not want your piece to get wider, you need to balance it with a decrease; if you do want it to get wider, of course, that isn't necessary.

Now that we know what a yarnover is, how do we do it?  The yarnover itself is accomplished by simply flipping the yarn over the needle, but there may need to be a step before and/or a step after, depending on what the preceding and following stitches are.

If the preceding stitch is a knit (and for purposes of this, anything that is a variant of a knit, like a k2tog, counts as a knit), you need to move the yarn between the needles to the front, because the yarnover starts with the yarn in front.  If the preceding stitch is a purl (or a variant of a purl), then you don't need to do anything, because the yarn is already where you want it.

Once the yarn is in front, just bring it over the top of the right needle to the back.  That's your yarnover!  Wasn't that easy?

Now, if the following stitch is a purl, you need to move the yarn between the needles again, to the front, so you're ready for that following stitch.  If the following stitch is a knit, you don't need to do anything extra, but are ready to work that stitch.

So, three little steps: move the yarn forward if it's not already there; flip it over the right needle; move it forward again if you need it to be forward for the next stitch.  Ta da! And now you know how to do a yarnover, regardless of what the stitches around it are, and without screwing up your stitch counts.

Be sure to read the next couple of posts, which will explore a few other aspects of using yarnovers in your knitting.

"let me explaiKnit"??

Um, what?

Okay, let me explain this.

This is going to be a blog where I attempt to explain various aspects of knitting, as this is something I've been told I have a talent for.  So I had to work the word "knit" in there somewhere, and "explainKnit" is what I came up with.  Work with me here, okay?

Anyway.  I'm going to try to explain things, such as how to do various techniques, why they work the way they do, why you might want to try them, and that sort of thing.  This probably won't be a daily blog, but more of a when-I-have-something-to-say blog.  We'll see how it goes.  If you have something you'd like me to explain, please say so!