C17: Day 141 – Going over to the dark side

by Suw on May 21, 2017

You know what they say, resistance is futile. I have been resisting knitting ever since my mum attempted to teach me when I was a kid. It didn’t go well. I’m left-handed, she’s right-handed, and I really struggled. I did manage to make a jumper, a black and red striped jobbie in the style of Robert Smith*, but the arms were too short. I didn’t do any yarn arts at all for years and years after that, preferring to sew instead, until I picked up crochet relatively recently.

But the problem with crochet is that it produces a very stiff fabric without the softness (drape) needed to look good as a garment. A lot of crocheted cardigans look awful, and it’s hard to find a lacy design that doesn’t look like you’re wearing a tablecloth. Now, you can find some fairly open, lacy designs for tops designed to go over other things, but crochet is very limited with respect to clothing. Makes for great amigurumi, and even scarves, but pretty shitty clothes.

So the time has now come to learn to knit. Thankfully, I have a friend who, having watched me crochet, realised that I would do better learning the continental style rather than the English style. When I crochet, I control the yarn in my left hand, even though that’s how right-handed people crochet. (The difference is that I’m generally moving the yarn around the hook as much as moving the hook around the yarn, so whilst it’s technically right-handed, I’ve left-hand-ified my technique.)

Continental knitting also allows me to control the yarn with my left hand, in a way very similar to crochet, so it feels less alien than I thought it would. And, as a bonus, my friend taught me how to do a purl row in the opposite direction to the knit row.

For those of you unfamiliar with knitting, you usually do a row by transferring stitches from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle. When you get to the end of the row, you turn the piece round and start again, moving stitches left to right again. You also have two stitches, knit and purl, which together give you that classic knitted look of lots of Vs stacked together (stocking stitch).

I’m not sure what the technical term really is, but my friend’s ‘reverse purl’ stitch actually allows you to knit right to left, so you’re basically just transferring the stitches back to where they came from. This means that you always keep the front of the fabric facing you. You knit in one direction and purl in the other. It’s genius. No continual turning of the piece, no getting your yarn tangled up, just knit… and purl… and knit… and purl…

So, now I need to practice, and maybe soon I’ll be good enough to whip up a lovely cardi, because it’s impossible to find ones that fit in the shops.

*I have no evidence Robert Smith ever wore a black and red jumper, but I remember seeing it on TV so it must be true.

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