First, thanks so much to Amy for this wonderful site. I’m a beginning knitter and her videos have been more helpful to me than anything else, even Vogue Knitting, which has the curious problem of not explaining several basic stitch techniques.
I’m trying to knit a scarf in a basic faggoting stitch [yo, ssk]. I’m having a hell of a time working ssk. No matter what size needles, or how loosely I try to work, I find the stitches so impossibly tight I can barely get my left needle into the right stitches to work them. I may be doing something wrong - does anyone here know a solution?
Here’s what I do:
I yo once on the right needle
I slip each of the two stitches onto the right needle, as if to knit.
I take the left needle and attempt to reinsert it into the two slipped stitches on the right needle.
I can get the left needle into the first slipped stitch on the right needle just fine, but the second slipped stitch on the right needle is soooo tight I can’t get the needle in.
When Amy demonstrates ssk in her videos, it’s an easy process. She seems able to get her left needle into both slipped stitches on the right needle quickly and easily. I can’t. The work is so tight and frustrating, I’ve put it down - it takes me triple the time to work a row as it would to knit across, so I know my technique is flawed.
Here’s an alternate way to do the SSK. It produces the “same” result but in a different way.
instead of SSK, do this: sl1 knitwise, k1, psso
NonaKnits tried to find a superior left slanting decrease and here are a bunch of them. the one I suggested is one of her favorites and quite easy to perform (and remember).
Typically when you knit lace you have to knit a bit looser than usual. This is often hard for people to do in the beginning.
It also makes a big difference what type of needles you are using. Most knitting needles have tips that are just too blunt for lace knitting. When you are knitting lace you really needles that have a sharp tip to get in there and grab the stitches. Personally, I like Inox (the name has recently been changed to Prym for some reason). They have a nice sharp tip and come in two different types. The Inox/Prym Express has metal finish like Addi Turbos. The regular Gray Inox/Prym have an enamel finish that is good for slippery yarns.
Lastly, the type of fiber can affect this also. Cotton can be much more of a problem to do stitches like SSK with than wool because it doesn’t have any give to it.
What works for me is to stretch the stitched up a little when slipping them. And since I switched to my boye needlemaster set with sharper tips, it became really easy
I had trouble with my SSKs as well until I started slipping the second stitch purlwise instead of knitwise. It’s much easier and cleaner-looking that way.
