The ballband dishcloth
Sitting in the wind yesterday must have made me sick because I don't know how else I would have picked up a sore throat and started feeling lousy otherwise. My illness is your gain in that it means I'm going to write about knitting, something that has been infrequent lately.
I didn't want to work on the blanket, so I thought a dishcloth might be the answer. I decided that I would try Mason-Dixon Knitting's ballband dishcloth. I know, everyone has made one, but I haven't. And you know why? Because I can't figure out how they're knitted.
My previous course of attack has been simply not to bother trying. In other words, when in doubt, don't. But I'm not feeling well, so I can't feel any worse if I don't figure it out, right?
OK, I can't figure it out. Or I can't figure out what to do now that I've made it to row 4. Specifically, I don't understand this yarn forward and yarn back business. I've checked Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book and googled the terms, but I've yet to find a satisfactory explanation of what exactly I'm doing here. (I found something for yarn forward. Is this what I want to do?)
The other question is, am I supposed to rejoin color A regularly, or does it get carried somehow when I get to row 7? In row 3 I'm supposed to join color B and knit with it. When I get to row 7 it says nothing about rejoining, but I'm not sure how color A got there. The thought of lots of ends to weave in makes me feel sicker.
Is that clear? I'm sure enough of you have either made the pattern or have the book to explain what isn't exactly clicking in my brain. Keep in mind that I had to start over twice, once because I didn't leave enough of a tail and the second time because I realized I should have been starting with the contrasting color instead of the primary. What I'm saying is that if you think you're spelling it out too much, you're not. Trust me. Stupid mode is back and thriving.
Labels: dishcloth, knitting, knitting books, knitting questions
posted by the secret knitter @ 10:44 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I think you are making more difficult than it really needs to be. I don't have the pattern in front of me, but I remember it being pretty simple.
Your first question about the yarn forward: When you are knitting the B color rows, there are stitches of color A that you slip every time. They help make the brick like shape of the finished project. When you are purling the back side before you slip that stitch you have to pull the yarn in front. So, bring your yarn to the front. Slip the Color A stitch. Return your yarn to the back and continue purling. (If you leave the yarn in the back when you slip that stitch, it overlaps the stitch on the RS of the cloth) It may sound odd, but this is a case to just trust the pattern.
Your second question about rejoining color A: I just let it hang while I worked with color B and then picked it up when it was time to use color A again. (the same goes for color B) I didn't pull it too tight when I did that first stitch of the color change, because if I did, it would create a pucker on one side of the cloth. And to be honest, one side(I think the right side) looks different than the other because I had a stand of yarn I was carrying up, but since it was a wash cloth, it didn't seem worth it to me to have all that rejoining and all of those ends. When you are picking color A back up, just make sure you are leaving enough yarn that the rows of Color B are able to lie flat.
I think you better pay a visit to your LYS. Sounds like you could use some actual visual demonstration of the pattern. Good luck. They are so worth figuring out.
when you figure it out and see how easy it is, you will get a kick out of your earlier confusion. amanda's explanation sounds good and allyb's suggestion of going to the lys works, too. you'll figure it out, but if you think i can help, feel free to email me and i can try to explain. you'll get it, though, and once you do, you'll love it :)
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