So I just bought my very first pair of circular needles yesterday. I love them. Everything about them. They are literally my new favorite thing. I want to bury myself in infinity scarves and snoods and afghan squares, as far as the eye can see, because these things are FUN.
Wanting to get accustomed to them, I sat down last night and decided I’d make something easy–a garter stitch snood. I have a friend who lives in Vermont who’d just love something toasty for the winter. So I’m sitting, and stitching, and drinking margaritas, when I realize…something is amiss.
My edges are curling. My stitches, they’re V’ing.
Somehow, my garter stitch has magically transformed into a stockinette stitch and I HAVE NO IDEA HOW.
I confer with my houseguests, neither of which knit. They too are at a loss. I try not to dwell, and continue to knit. But it nags at me. It takes two episodes of Xena before I realize what’s happening to me.
My piece isn’t being reversed like it would be on straight needles. I am relieved to have solved the mystery, but it is short lived, for now I have two inches of curly snood I can’t bring myself to frog.
Still bloody love these needles though.
The terror that stalked me in the night–the sinister stockinette.
A mystery Shelock Holmes might have taken on, [I]The Case of the Sinister Stockinette[/I]. It’s good you sleuthed it out. Now, do you want to know how to do garter in the round without purling? Here’s a video. KNITFreedom - How To Knit Garter Stitch In The Round Without Purling
You could pick up and knit on the cast on edge of the part you decided you can’t/won’t frog. You could do ribbing or something on both edges.
I’ve used only circs for a while and the other day picked up some straight needles because they were handy. Awkward! They were just too clumsy to work with comfortably.
That video is going to be priceless for future reference. I don’t know how to pick back up on my cast-on after the fact, though. That sounds like some very, very handy information to have though–do you have any videos for that? o:
I’ve only used these for a night and I already can’t imagine using anything ese. They are SO comfortable. Plus the pair I bought were super sharp and I spent like 15 minutes poking myself with them when I got home because I was just so pumped about how cleanly they were going to pick up the yarn.
For some reason this page is displaying weirdly and the ends of lines are cut off. I even closed Firefox and reopened it to see if that would help, but no. Anyhow, I think you want to know if there is a video for Pick Up and Knit. Yes, there is one on this site and lots on youtube. It is good to know how to do it.
Unless you’re doing some special technique you knit all rows to get garter stitch when knitting flat and you knit a round then purl a round to get garter stitch in the round.
Yep, it creates stockinette, because you are always knitting on the same side. You never turn to the back. The reason “stockinette” is called stockinette, is because of stockings. They were knit in the round on double points, which made this smooth fabric for socks. It’s sometimes called “stocking net”.
Shandeh, I’m serious! Now I think I have to pout. :teehee: I’ve really wondered about that. It made sense that smooth stockinette was for stockings, probably those leggings things men wore, but where did the name garter stitch come from. Anyone know? I don’t even know where to find out.
I figured out at some point that if you want to see it on the RS of something knit in the round, you have to purposely put it there, not think about the back of the stitch showing. It’s not hard, once you understand what’s going on. Until then it can be difficult to grasp. Patterns written for flat knitting can be converted, some of them can be a little more challenging than others. For people who use charts I guess charting it makes it clear. I’ve used only one chart and it was very, very simple.
Alright, any distraction to avoid painting will work
In her book Knitting for Dummies Pam Allen traces the history of the garter stitch back the 1500s “when hand-knit stockings were a major industry in England.” Garter stitch was worked on the top of the stocking “where it needed to expand for the thigh.”
Mystery solved. Two mysteries solved, Sinister Stockinette and The Genesis of Garter Stitch. :cheering:
Just to reassure anyone who thought I was serious, I wasn’t pouting. I can see why my comment would have been funny.
I was going to delete the extra quotes that showed up in preview, but I’m leaving them in case it becomes of interest. I was only intending to quote Shandeh and I am pretty sure I didn’t click to quote anyone else. Another mystery. :mrgreen:
It looks like you clicked the “quote+” button by accident on those other messages. The Quote+ button allows you to quote several messages. Just click Quote+ on each message you want to quote, then click “Reply”, and all those quotes will appear.
I guess that must be what happened. I’m finding the pages aren’t loading right again and lines are getting cut off. Anyhow, I think you’re right, I clicked the mult-quote button without realizing it. It’s been a long day.
