March 2017 < Knit Yourself Happy

If you read my last post, you know how much I love the knit stitch and some of the ways it can be your favorite stitch also!

In this article, I will show you the method I use to pick up stitches along the sides and ends of a garter stitch swatch. This can expand your use of the knit, the whole knit, and nothing but the knit!

Picking up along the side edge of garter stitch is fun and easy. Since garter stitch is a square stitch (the height and width of garter is the same), you will pick up a stitch in every other row along the side edges. If you look at the edge of a garter stitch sample, you will see what appears to be “knots” along the side. If you pick up inside every knot it is the same as picking up a stitch in every other row. Instead of placing your needle into this spot, it is so much easier to pick up a single strand between the knots. This makes the picked up edge flat with no bulky garter stitch seam.

The method for picking up stitches along the cast on or bound off edge is also very simple.

Pick up every stitch in garter along a bind off or cast on.

Place your working needle under only one strand of the cast on or bind off as shown in my video below.

“Why would I want to know how to do this?” you ask, you clever dear.

The log cabin style blanket is easy! Make it in wild colors or traditional ones. The method is simple:

Cast on some stitches. Knit a rectangle in garter. Bind off all but the last stitch. This is the middle of the blanket.

Change to a new color, pick up stitches along the side edge as shown above. Knit as much as you want. Bind off all but the last stitch.

Change colors again. Pick up stitches on the side edge of the same rectangle, and the end of the first rectangle. Knit awhile, bind off all but the last stitch.

“Continue in this manner.” (Don’t you just love it when knitting patterns say that?)

You get the picture. Keep going until the blanket is as big as you want.

The blanket can have the same size sections, or mix up the sizes and colors for an original all your own. No rules.

Martha’s Log Cabin

Here are a couple of great projects you can make with this easy and versatile stitch

This is Cousins’ Mitre Square Baby Blanket by Emily Pain on Ravelry. It is a free pattern found here.

And here is a picture of the beginning of a Log Cabin style blanket I made. You can use the “recipe” above or see a pattern for it here. Easy, right?

Ah, the lowly knit stitch. Usually, the first thing that a new knitter learns is the knit stitch. Then we make a garter stitch scarf or a hat in the round. Sometimes, experienced knitters forget how wonderful this most basic stitch in knitting can be.

The Oxford dictionary defines basic as:

an adjective: Forming an essential foundation or starting point; fundamental.

a noun: The essential facts or principles of a subject or skill.

The ubiquitous knit stitch is indeed the foundation for everything in knitting. In a way, it even shows us how to purl, considering that the purl stitch is a mirror image of a knit stitch. We can cast on by knitting the stitches onto a needle.

We vary our stitches by manipulating the knit stitch. Everything starts with knit. (Well, actually, everything starts with “e”, but we are talking about knitting here.)

Notice that when we tell people what we are doing with two needle ends and some yarn, we refer to the activity as “knitting”, not “purling”. And it is certainly not weaving, crocheting, quilting or macrame, although some non-crafty people lump all of these things into one big category of “things I don’t know how to do, even though my grandma tried to show me once”.
There are a couple of ways to look at the knit stitch. If you are working a piece flat, back and forth, the fabric that is produced by the knit stitch is referred to as “garter”. This fabric is bumpy on both sides, and has furrows. Mind you, if you worked a flat piece back and forth in all purl, it would still produce garter fabric. (Remember, purl is mirror of knit, so if you only purl a flat piece, you will get the same result as if you only knit a flat piece.)

Another fabric that consists of only the knit stitch is anything that is joined into the round and worked in knit. In that case, you are only working on the outside of a cylinder of knitting, and piling knits on top of knits in the round produces stockinette stitch. The fabric is smooth on the outside and bumpy on the inside, and without the deep furrows of garter stitch. Think of a knit sock worked in the round. All knit stitch. All on the outside of the stocking. Voila, stockinette stitch.

The Poncho a la Mode is knit in the round in one piece. (Ok, it has some rib at the very beginning so the edge doesn’t curl.)

Even though this is the first stitch we learn, it can create variety of very sophisticated looking items. Some of the most beautiful blankets and shawls are made with only the knit stitch. The “Mrs. Watson” is one great example.

On huge needles, thick yarn for a garter stitch blanket looks like something straight out of a fancy catalog.
Thin yarn on tiny needles is extremely warm and can be the foundation of an amazing shawl.

And, believe it or not, the Newport Summer Shrug is only the knit stitch! There are yarn overs, but isn’t that just a manipulation of the knit? No purling in this one!

And when is a flat piece in all knit stitch not garter? You can manipulate what you are doing by starting a yarn at the other end of a circular knitting needle to create “purl” rows! Check this out! Sliding Garter Blanket. My newest pattern on Ravelry!

Coming up! In part 2 of this blog about the knit stitch, I will discuss picking up stitches around garter.

Until then, Knit Yourself Happy!

Month: March 2017

The knit. The whole knit… Part 2: Log Cabin Style

If you read my last post, you know how much I love the knit stitch and some of the ways it can be your favorite stitch also!

The method for picking up stitches along the cast on or bound off edge is also very simple.

Pick up every stitch in garter along a bind off or cast on.

Place your working needle under only one strand of the cast on or bind off as shown in my video below.

The knit. The whole knit. And nothing but the knit. Part 1

Ah, the lowly knit stitch. Usually, the first thing that a new knitter learns is the knit stitch. Then we make a garter stitch scarf or a hat in the round. Sometimes, experienced knitters forget how wonderful this most basic stitch in knitting can be.