Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Short Rows!


Where has the year gone? I say it every year but it seems that the older I get, the faster it goes by. Hopefully, all of my readers enjoyed a wonderful holiday with friends and family and are ready to get to work on all the resolutions they made on January 1st. No doubt that "more knitting" is at the very top of everyone's list as it certainly is on mine!

Besides the obvious ones of not starting a new project before completing what's already on the needles, I decided, thanks to my daughter Katie, to use my time more wisely. As a Christmas gift, she thoughtfully purchased a planner for me and guarantees that organizing my life will be a snap because of it. Well, that remains to be seen but I'm definitely willing to give it a whirl.

Which brings me to my blog. In addition to sharing pictures and stories from my knitting groups and classes, I will begin addressing technical issues that plaque many knitters.

That being said, I want to discuss "short rows". Short rows are exactly that, short rows. There are several reasons for using short rows and there are many different ways of performing them. The most common way is the wrap and turn method. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion when working short rows on garter stitch pieces.

I have been approached several times by knitters that are displeased with the end result of what they believed or were told was the correct treatment of the wraps when garter stitch is involved. The problem is that they treated the wraps in the same fashion as stockinette and reverse stockinette.

This is what I wish to clarify; when working short rows on garter stitch pieces, you perform it, then ignore it! What that means is that you will go through the process of wrapping and turning, but when you come back to it, you ignore the wrap. Why? Because the wrap maintains the continuity of the appearance of garter stitch!

So now you know....Don't knit the wraps on garter stitch. If a pattern suggests you do this, I would seriously question the reason behind it. It may be because some people believe knitting the wraps closes a "hole" created by the short row, however, this is not the case. Knitting and purling the wraps is done strictly for cosmetic reasons.


In case you are not familiar with wrap and turn short rows or just need a refresher, I've included my YouTube video on the subject.




Finally, I would like to share a picture of the newest member of our family, Chester.  He is a 3 month old Netherlands Dwarf rabbit and is an absolute sweetheart!


Next blog, I will be addressing what many knitters' feel is a nasty subject - GAUGE!!!

That's all for now and I wish you good luck with your knitting adventures.

Until next time!

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