Holding Pattern

I'm waiting for my Loyesaum supplies to flap their way across the continent to me...

Meanwhile, I'm putting the finishing touches on a fingering-weight shawl I've named Zzzap, based on a lovely design from Ravelry's Frankie Knits. She calls it her "lightning shawl". Hence my riff...

 [Misty likes Zzzap, too! Mostly because I haven't dealt with the loose ends yet!!]

This is a pretty easy knit, just garter, really with incs on one side and k2togs on the other. The trick is that you join the strips together while knitting them. This is what I learned from this project...it's a nice skill to have.

Knitting onto an existing work

First knit a strip or some other piece that you want to join on to. Then start knitting the bit that you want to join. When you've knit a row and are approaching the edge that you want to join together:

- you" knit onto" the existing piece's selvedge by picking up a stitch through the selvedge every time you reach it. If the selvedge has a chain edge (you've consistently slipped the first stitch of every row on the existing work), then you will get distinctive holes when you knit on to the work. If you have not created a chain selvedge, then the holes are smaller and not quite so "lacy" looking.

- Once you've picked up a stitch through the selvedge, you then pass the previous stitch you knit over this picked-up one, so you don't end up with more stitches on your needle (you pick up an extra, but make it disappear again).

- you turn the work after this maneuvre, and then you can either purl or knit the first stitch on the backside. If you PURL it, then you will create a front/back side to the work. If you KNIT it, then (especially if the rest of the work is in garter) the front and back are identical.

[here the front and back are not identical. The ridges here are the purled stitches seen against a garter background]

[this is what the other side looks like]

And, yes, this does have applications in sock-land!!! There's a great knitty pattern that uses this technique, wrapping your foot mummy-like with a self-striping yarn...looks fantastic! The downside is that you loose the inherent stretch of the knitting a bit, though.