Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Short Rows without Wraps

I hate wrapping short rows as shown above. Then you have to pick up the wraps. I have undoubtedly wrapped one stitch backwards (or upside down or just weird) and then have to so some slip-slip--slip to get the sts in the correct relationship to hide the wrap.

Imagine the frustration of a less experienced knitter who has not yet developed the eye to see the error and then to see how to untangle the problem. (This eye comes only through lots of experience.)

I researched short rows--looked at yo's, Japanese method--tried to create a memory device for the more common method. I was still unhappy--well, very annoyed that I wasn't a mindless master of this technique.

Then lightning struck. I've turned heels for years and never wrapped anything. I just turn, slip the next st and work the row. Why couldn't I just do that when I knit short rows? On knit rows and purl rows---same thing.

Well, I can! And now I do. And my short rows are neat, less visible than before.

I'm a genius.

Since the Eureka, I have tripped over this identical technique done by dozens, maybe hundreds, of other knitters. Hardly anything is new in knitting. We just, as EZ said, "unvent" the technique for ourselves.

So I'm not a genius? I'm a knitter. Much better.

1 comment:

turtlegirl76 said...

No. You're a knit wit, remember? ;)