The photo to the left is my current effort at knitting a mix of knit stitch, purl stitch, and the good ol' "Knit one, Purl one" that seems to appear in most beginner knitting patterns.
I also know what stocking stitch is (basically alternating rows of knit stitch and purl stitch) and garter stitch and feel like I'm making almost glacially slow progress.
Knitting is weird for me yet I hear from most knitters that they envy my ability to crochet, and suffer an equal amount of frustration and cack-handedness when they're trying to make Amigurumi, which gladdens the soul a little - knowing that what I'm going through is the same for would-be crocheters who make the transition from needles to hooks.
There are a lot of things I wish I'd known though when starting out.
1) "Picking" rather than "Throwing" - I had no idea that the method I was using to knit was "Continental style" rather than "English or American Style" knitting. I then went and Googled what "English Style" knitting is, and no matter how many YouTube videos I watch, or how many attempts I make, I just can't 'get' English style at all, it feels way more complicated than I'm probably making it!
2) Tight stitches. I still have this problem where after a couple of rows I can barely get the two needles far enough apart to actually insert my 'picking' needle into my 'holding the stitches' needle. WHYYYYY! I don't start off with tight cast on stitches, but as I work the stitches seem to get tighter, and tighter, and tighter until they're unworkable and I just pull the whole stack of knitting off the needles in disgust and start again. Again I've googled high and low for answers to how I prevent this but haven't found anything concrete yet!
3) Knitting patterns are....hard. I know, I had the same problem when I started out in Crochet but reading patterns for something as simple as a sock that say "You'll be working this pattern with four needles" is massively offputting. Dude, I am not a Jedi Knight, I cannot wield four flipping needles at once!
4) Changing colours at the end of rows (for stripes) is easy. Changing colours mid-row is...a minefield. I've read up on two different methods. Fair Isle knitting is supposed to be the easier of the two options, but when I try it, it just seems to leave these weird loops in my work (which I've since learned are supposed to be there on the back of the work - but I end up with them on BOTH sides! And I still haven't worked out which is the 'right' side of my work and which is the wrong side, same prob I had with Crochet!) Intarsia is the other method, but sounds even trickier.
5) Old ladies are wonderful! They know all this stuff, they've been doing it instinctively for years and nothing beats sitting down with an old lady (with a fair amount of patience) and letting them show you how it's done. They beat just about any YouTube video or tutorial out there, they just KNOW this stuff, dude!
6) Making actual things is hard. There's a good reason why there are very few nice looking toy knitting patterns out there on the internet, it really isn't a craft that lends itself well to making cute little Amigurumi like Crochet does. Most of the toys (even from well established knitters) would give a kid nightmares!!
7) Muscle memory is everything. I have slowly progressed from knitting at one stitch per hour to knitting a row of 30 in about a minute and a half (look, that might not sound fast but it's fast for me!) It took me ages to be able to switch between knitting and (for want of a better example) watching TV like you see amazing old folk doing with ease (my mother in law even confessed to once knitting in a cinema while her kids were watching some trashy movie). Muscle memory has helped loads with crocheting (I just do it now, I don't even think about it unless there's a complex pattern of stitches) and I'm hoping the same will be true of knitting
It's fun learning yet another new needlework skill and I'll keep on trying with the colour change stuff and hopefully at some point I might actually make a thing!!
Comments
Post a Comment