Hi there,
I’m rather new to the world of knitting and I’m trying to start a project but I just don’t understand the wording of the instructions. I’ve actually shown it to a couple of my more experienced knitting friends and each one says that the way it’s worded is a little confusing. Anyway, here’s the bit that’s driving me mad:
‘Knit to within 2 sts of marker, knit two together by reversing the first stitch on left needle, then knitting together two stitches through back loops. Slip marker. Decrease one stitch by knitting two together (as you usually would, through front loops), knit to end of row.’
What does ‘knit two together by reversing the first stitch on left needle’ mean?? If someone could please translate this for me into instructions I can understand I would really appreciate it. Then I can get on with this pattern. It’s a throw with 56 different sized squares all knit the same. I’m getting just a little frustrated and my eyes are crossed from reading this passage over and over and over again! :whoosh:
Again, I appreciate any help someone can give me. I’m sure in the end it’s quite simple and I’ll feel like a complete idiot for not getting it!
What does ‘knit two together by reversing the first stitch on left needle’ mean??
I think it means a SSK. Reversing the first st sounds like reseating it, which is what you’d do if you slip it kwise, then slip back to the left needle. With a k2tog following the marker, this would make a paired left leaning dec followed by a right leaning dec.
I was thinking that you just twist your first st before knitting 2 tog tbl. Would that make the st look different than doing it normally? I’ve no ideas other than to literally reverse/turn around that first one…
Thank you all for your responses so far. To Debi, that’s what I was thinking it might mean but was wondering if it would make the stitch look somehow different.
To Sue, your response also makes sense to me and thought that could possibly be what they are trying to say. Perhaps I should make a small swatch using both suggestions and see what happens?
I tried them both and they look exactly the same. The only slight difference I could see was that on the one I just turned the st around, the turned st was looser than the first st on the ssk.
Debi and everyone else, thank you SO much for your responses and suggestions. Turns out it is ssk! I don’t know why they just didn’t say that in the first place. It would have made things far easier for me! Anyway, thanks to you I can FINALLY begin this throw!
It could be the pattern writer/designer isn’t familiar with the term SSK and described it the way she did it. Or it could be an older pattern. I learned to knit over 40 years ago, but it wasn’t until I started up again a couple years back and came to the internet to look up knitting that I first learned about ssk.
Doing that should tighten up the space between the stitch just knitted and the k2tog, shouldn’t it? Maybe the author of the pattern was getting a gap there as s/he knitted it.
Now that you mention it, the pattern was written 10 years ago which I guess could be why it was worded the way it was. I actually watched the video for SSK “Improved” and that’s how I’ve been following the pattern so far. My question is, is this method the same as “reversing the first stitch on the left needle”? At any rate, now that I’ve figure this out now I need to find a video on how to pick up stitches! One more question. When you knit something that is just knit, knit, knit the entire way, is there still a “right” and “wrong” side? I’m not sure if it’s my level of inexperience but I honestly can’t tell a difference.
If it’s a flat piece with no shaping, such as a scarf, afghan, etc. then no it doesn’t matter. If it’s shaped as for sweater then you would want to mark for right side so your shaping is correct for sleeves, neck etc.
:figureditout: I’ve had several patterns that mentioned “right side” in garter stitch, but it didn’t make sense to me—but none were things like sweaters with shaping. THAT makes sense now! Thanks.
THANK YOU!! That completely makes sense. Luckily, this piece has no shaping etc. I kept wondering how I was going to figure out which was the right and wrong side! I love this site, I’m getting so much useful information.
Actually it’s not a ssk, it’s similar but only the 1st stitch is twisted. Some people find they get a flatter decrease this way, it depends on your own style of knitting, it’s called the ‘improved’ ssk where you slip 1 kwise, sl 1 pwise, return to LN, knit. Use whatever works for you. I find that the original ssk is flatter for me.