Spitting Yarn

Maggie is coming along. I’m not holding out much hope for it to be anything other than ‘My First Sweater’. The main goal here is to learn from it, and finish it. If it’s actually wearable, well, that’s just a bonus.

I have nearly finished the back, and before I start on the remaining components, I thought I would seek your advice. Maggie has a garter stitch trim, which involves knitting a long strip of garter stitch and then picking up the hundred or so stitches required from the long edge of the garter stitch strip.

Now, my problem is this: imagine the edge of my garter stitch strip – we have ridge, valley, ridge, valley and so on, yes? I picked up one stitch per valley. I am virtually certain that the garter stitch strip is the correct number of rows long, but there were not enough valleys for the number of stitches I needed. I tried to get around this by picking up an extra stitch at regular intervals, i.e. picking up more than one stitch per valley every so often. I created the extra stich using kfb. However, having knitted a plain row after picking up the stitches, it became clear that the kfb was having a mini-YO effect, and creating a little hole at those valleys where I had picked up two stitches. So I ripped back. This time, I just picked up a stitch per valley and I increased at regular intervals in the next row until I had the correct number of stitches. This has produced a slight gathering-effect at the increase points.

I have knitted on regardless because the effect is very slight and I feel confident that blocking will reduce it further, although I don’t think it will get rid of it entirely. I don’t really mind – it’s the back of the sweater, and I’ve discovered I’m a pretty easy-going knitter. No anal obsessing for me!

But, people, does anyone know whether there is a better way of approaching this problem? If I/we can come up with a solution before I come to the front and sleeves, I’d certainly employ it. The trouble with a garter stitch side edge is that the valleys are the only places at which one can easily pick up a stitch. The ridges, are ridges – nowhere to poke one’s needle. Perhaps a different increase method on the pick up row would work?

Suggestions?

More interesting posts to come, but our beloved laptop is not at one with the wi-fi and we therefore have no capacity for uploading pics.