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I've finished most of the neckwarmer. I wish I could visualize a finished project from the pattern. If I could, I wouldn't have bound off all the edges, but just left the sts live. I don't like the way the final steps are in the written pattern, so I'm picking up sts on each side, one at a time, to add a garter st border that will hopefully cure the curling. After all the work I've done on this, I'm having difficulty with figuring out a way to finish this one off. I may still frog what I've done on the edges, frog back to live sts, IOW, frog the BO sts to live sts and add the garter sts there rather than picking up sts around each side.Found this on Ravelry this morning... Here's the artist, Clara's, blog. Isn't she cute?
A recurring theme with many knitters is "I hate grafting" and all of it's other names such as Kitchenering. I don't understand this. It is so fricking easy to do, on the needles or off them. Is that (some) knitters, in addition to being terrified of numbers (as needed for multiply sts by inches to find out the correct CO number) are terrified of anything that involves a yarn needle? It's so simple. Are you afraid or hate grafting? If so, why????
Kathleen has a beautiful lace scarf pattern on her blog!
She is cute.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the issue with grafting is either. Doesn't bother me any more than weaving in ends...which I don't love, but certainly doesn't freak me out. Last week at Stitch &...I showed someone how to graft the toe of a Christmas stocking closed. She's a pretty experienced seamstress (I do hems) and said "Oh, that's just like such and such stitch." and proceeded to graft like a pro. I didn't tell her that this was something that strikes fear into the hearts of even experienced knitters, so she didn't have a chance to get worked up.
Really though, it isn't difficult...it's a stitch pattern like any other. Relax people, relax. :)
I like grafting, especially the kitchener stitch. It's seaming I hate, I think because my eyes are not what they used to be - it's hard to line everything up.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's not difficult. Sometimes it's the mental attitude that you start out with which makes the difference between success and failure with it comes to all those different methods of knitting, grafting, etc.
ReplyDeleteLove the cowl. Is that the pattern you sent me?
Actually, the zinnia pattern in my book looks a lot better if you do the beginning half twice and kitchener it, which is how I originally had it. But then I realized a lot of people would have it as a UFO forever, so I reverse-engineered the flower heading back downwards. I prefer it kitchenered, but I figure others can now have it whichever way they prefer.
ReplyDeleteI love sewing needles, and I'm really good at grafting when yarn is off the needles. I can see what needs doing when it's flat.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have trouble picturing the stitches flat when they are on the needles, and memorizing a poem is not the same as really getting it and doing it with my eyes. I can do it but it's slow and clumsy.
So when I do socks that need grafting/kitchenering, I use Lucy Neatby's Toe Chimney. This allows me to graft the toe with flat stitches. I love this method (see http://www.tradewindknits.com/tbsoctoe.html for photos and how-to instructions).
So for me, it's not a needle-phobia at all, it's that thing where you look at something and your mind flips back and forth between ways of understanding what you are seeing. I need stitches to be flat for me to imagine them flat.
I often finish socks differently than grafting, but my foot is very pointy with the 2nd toe longer, so I don't like a flat finish on my socks. I kitchener afterthought heels more often, because a heel is not pointy and it needs a flat finish.
I'm talking too much...
Hey! Just saw that you liked my Calendar Doll! I just wanna say thanks for showing you like it!
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And great blog too!
~Clara M.