I cord from a mill

Some time ago, TECHknitting posted on "how to knit I-cord." Since then, however, a nifty new tool (machine?) has become indispensable here at ChezTECH--an I-cord mill.

My recent love of these gadgets surprises me. From reading reviews and talking to knitters, I-cord mills seemed expensive and prone to malfunction. However, as more and more projects demanded I-cord, another look was in order. So, when a German-made I-cord mill jumped into my basket at the LYS, I didn't put it out again despite the expen$e, but paid and took it home.

Once home, I read the instructions, threaded the mill and started cranking. Disaster! The stitches skipped. The needles snagged. The end result was a terrible, loopy mess. Changing yarns did not help. Although sock yarn made a better result than anything heavier, the results were still un-usable.

If one project after another hadn't called for I-cord, the mill would have stayed in the reject basket along with the snapped bamboo needles and the bent dpn's. Yet laziness eventually won out: each time an hour or three was spent mindlessly churning out I-cord by hand, I would think "there HAS to be a better way." Out would come the mill for another try.

After several months, experience showed how to make a few inches of passable cord. Frustratingly, however, just at that point, the whole business would usually start skipping. Long story short: the mill never really worked right, and one day, it pretty much broke. Towards the end, however, it did seem that if the mill had been a little heavier and better made, further experimentation would have eventually made it possible to actually produce usable I-cord.

Fast forward in time, and trip to a big-box fabric store revealed a better-made, heavier-duty (and cheaper!) mill (Embellish-knit) perched on the check-out counter. What do you know? This mill too somehow jumped into my basket and after being paid for, made the trip home. This time, the machine was made of clear plastic. Being able to see what was going on was a huge plus. Close attention eventually lead to success, and the point of today's post:

How to Use the Embellish-Knit I-cord Mill

The first part below is the theory. If all you want is the plain how-to, skip down to part 2: tips for using the machine.

Part 1. The Theory of the I-cord Mill.

The I-cord mill is basically a tiny knitting machine. Now, knitting machines often seem very mysterious to hand knitters. Why do knitting machines use crochet hooks for Pete's sake, and what's with the little latches? And how in the world can you knit with so darn MANY of those hooks?

As you know, in hand knitting, the stitches waiting to be knit, as well as the already-knit stitches are parked along the shaft of the knitting needles. Each stitch is slid along the shaft in turn, until it is perched on the tip of the left needle. At that point, the knitter operates the right needle to pull a loop through the waiting stitch thus creating a new stitch. (Mirror image knitters reverse these directions.)

It would be difficult for a machine to duplicate these motions: The work would have to slide in exact increments to a precise spot so the knitting mechanism could draw the new loop though each old loop in turn. Then, each already-worked stitch would have to be slid away again. At the end of each row, the work would somehow have to be turned, somehow without tangling the yarn, and the process repeated. Easy for the human hand, but the very devil for a machine.

Needles

To knit by machine, a different kind of needle has to be used: a "latch-hook." Although it looks mysterious, the name pretty much says it all: a latch-hook is a hooked needle which can be latched shut. The parts of the latch-hook needles in the Embellish-Knit mill are the hook, the partially-grooved shaft, the knob and the latch.

HOOK: The hook part consists of a curved end, like a crochet hook.
SHAFT: The hook perches atop a shaft. The shaft has a slot or GROOVE along part of its front. This shaft-groove is where the latch inserts.
KNOB: Towards the bottom, the shaft has a knob on the front. As explained below, the knob runs in a track around the inside of the mill.
LATCH: The latch is a little arm which swings up and down. It is held into the shaft-groove by a pin which acts as a hinge. In the most upright position, the latch smacks the hook on the nose, thus "closing" the needle--latching it shut.

Before we leave the needles to look at the mill itself, does it worry you that the latch doesn't close smoothly onto the hook? It did me. Coming from a hand-knitting background, that latch looked like an accident waiting to happen: one false move and that clumsy-looking latch would snag the yarn. But, as clumsy as the whole set-up looks, it works. The secret is that yarn movement along the latch is directional. The yarn never comes down onto that nasty latch top from above. Instead, the yarn slides along the latch: either up over the top of the closed latch or down off the bottom of the open latch, thus sliding smoothly right past that dangerous-looking little lip.

Mechanism

The I-cord mill features two tubes, one inside the other. Each tube, made of plastic, has some stuff molded into its walls.

The outer tube is the casing of the mill. One main function is to hold the mill together. The other main function is that it has a track molded into its walls--a circular track which is high on one side and low on the other. The knobs of the needles sit in this track.

The inner tube also features molded plastic: into its outer walls are molded slots, and the latch hook needles slide into these. This method of connecting the latch-hook needles to the inner tube is quite clever: the needles are held at a fixed distance from one another, but they remain free to slide up and down.

At the bottom of the inner tube are the mechanical guts of the mill. The inner tube rests on a gear wheel, and this gear-wheel connects to the handle-gear. When you crank the handle, the interlocking gears make the inner tube spin. As the inner tube with its attached needles go around and around, the knobs at the base of each needle are forced around the circular track. Since the track is high one side and low on the other, and since the needles are free to slide up and down their slots on the inner tube, the needles following the track are forced first up, and then down, then up again. Interestingly, spinning the inner tube with its attached needles is the only thing that requires mechanical energy, the rest of the knitting is actually done by gravity.

How the knitting happens

If you look down on a mill, you will see that there are four needles. As it happens, there are 4 stages of knitting each stitch. This means that as each of the four needles passes a certain position, it is performing one of the 4 stages of mechanical knitting. In order to make the illustrations easier to follow, the needle occupying the first stage position is always marked with a big red asterisk * in all of the illustrations of this post.

The four positions (one for each stage) are labeled on the illustration below.

First stage: The needle is poised in the air, high above the lip of the inner tube with the latch open (ie: in the downward position). Wrapped round the shaft of this needle, and disappearing down the throat of the inner tube, is some yarn put there on the last go-around. As the needle passes through stage 1, the hook catches the running yarn and begins to descend. (The arrows on the two below illustrations indicate the direction the needles are moving as they pass through those stages.)


Second stage: As the needle passes the second stage position, the sinking needle is forced against a loop of yarn which was put there on the previous round. As the needle begins to sink below this loop, the loop catches the underside of the latch and swings the latch shut, thus trapping the yarn which the hook just caught in the previous stage.

Third stage: The needle reaches its lowest point, far below the rim of the inner tube. The yarn from the previous round slips up over the latch hook, pulled upwards by the path of the yarn through the inner tube. Meanwhile, however, the yarn caught back at stage 1 remains under the hook of the needle, trapped there by the closed latch.

Do you recognize this? The fact of the yarn sliding up over the needle is, in effect, the pulling of one loop through another: this is the act of knitting, and stage 3 is where it happens.


Fourth stage: The needle starts to rise again. However, the yarn trapped under the hook ever since the latch closed on it back at stage 1, does not rise with it. This is because all the yarn is being pulled down the throat of the inner tube by a weight hanging on the finished I-cord as the cord exits the machine. The weight forces the loop to stay near the rim of the inner tube. As the needle slides upwards, the yarn, staying low, forces the latch open, and, as the needle rises higher, slips free of the latch to stay wound around the shaft. Now we are back to the beginning: we have a needle high in the air, with the latch open. This needle has a turn of yarn around its shaft, and this needle, poised and ready to hook on, is about to pass by the running yarn being fed in at stage 1.

As stated above, these stages depend on one important thing: the yarn disappearing down the throat of the tube must be exerting a pull downwards at all times (this is the gravity part). This yarn (which is actually the I-cord) must always have a weight hanging from it. If there is no weight, there is nothing to keep the yarn headed down the tube, nothing to prevent the yarn from rising into the air as the needle goes up at stage 1; nothing to prevent a horrible, horrible mess from developing. Also, it is the downward tug of the yarn which flips the latches open and shut.

Part 2: Tips to make the mill work smoothly

Getting started:  Run the yarn through the little arch on the front of the machine, over the notch in the rim, then down the throat.   Clip the weight onto the protruding tail and rest it on a table.  Trap the yarn being fed it with one finger against the outer barrel of the machine.  You can now control the yarn feed by barely lifting the weight free, while barely lessening the pressure of your finger. There must be some weight to pull the yarn downward, but until you get some yarn on the needles, you have to manually control the feed.

Turn the handle until the first hook catches the yarn.  Turn further until the second hook is just about to catch.  With a crochet hook, lift the yarn up so the second hook passes under the yarn.  Turn the handle and allow the third hook to catch the yarn, lift the yarn and allow the fourth hook to pass.  From here on in, you let every hook catch the yarn, and you do not need to control the feed any longer.


The big three tips are:

• hold the FEED YARN LOOSE,
• KEEP the WEIGHT ON, HIGH UP, and
• make sure the LATCH has cleared.

Loose Yarn: Tip number 1, the most important tip of all, is that, once you have the machine started, keep the yarn being fed in LOOSE. If there is any tension AT ALL, the mill will skip. This means you have to pull out swoops and lengths of yarn as you go, piling it somewhere safe as you work. This really cannot be overstated: ANY amount of tension is too much--even pulling yarn out of a center-pull ball is too much, even feeding yarn into the mill directly from a yarn swift is too much. The mill will not work correctly unless the yarn being fed in comes off a LOOSE PILE of yarn. Put the cats out, and pile up the yarn.

Keep the weight clipped on high up, near the machine exit: Next most important:as stated above, keep the weight on the cord being knit. The mill comes with a handy weighted clothes pin you simply clip onto the tail. Keep moving this clip up to the very top of the cord--just where it comes out of the mill. The thicker/heavier the yarn, the more often the clip has to be repositioned. In any weight yarn, if you let the clip get too far from the machine exit, it starts swinging around in wild loops as you turn the crank, and the needles start skipping.

Loop over latch: The last of the big-three tips is to make sure the latch comes open EVERY TIME a needle moves into the stage 1 position AND that the bottom of the latch rise up CLEAR of the loop.

If the latch does not rise up high enough to come free of the loop around the shaft -- illustrated above -- you will get a horrible loopy mess. Best practice would be to start off very slowly, holding the mill to eye level and watching the latch on every stitch that goes by. If the yarn is not sliding down below the bottom of the latch, you must poke it down. Then, tug the I-cord coming out at the bottom and re-position the weight so that there is sufficient tug to hold the loop down as the needle rises, thus opening and freeing the latch as the needle rises into the stage 1 position.

Some additional tips

Yarn guide: Feed the running yarn in under the yarn guide (the little arch on the front of the outer tube), otherwise, skipped stitches.

Tangling: The feed yarn wants to tangle with the I cord. To prevent, feed the yarn in from up high, like a shoulder-height bookshelf. Coming from above, the feed yarn cannot tangle with the I-cord coming out of the bottom.

Excessive cord length: The cord gets long fast and starts sweeping the floor, a bad idea. It'll get dirty, and the drag makes the mill want to skip. Double the cord back on itself (knot it, use a bobby pin, safety pin, whatever). When the cord gets to an uncontrollable length, I cut it. It is easy enough to graft the cord together: just put each of the 4 stitches on a dpn as if it were a tiny row and graft as usual. Also, if the cord gets too ridiculously long, the excess weight starts to cause problems.

One-ply yarns present a special problem: You can mill these, but they're hard to start because the yarn keeps wanting to break when you first put the weight on.  Mini Mochi is like this, so is Brown Sheep single ply Lamb's Pride worsted. Instead of starting with a single tail of yarn, crochet a chain of yarn long enough to hang down the throat and clip the weight onto the chain. Hook one of the crocheted loops around the needle in the first stage position, skip the next needle, catch the yarn on the next needle and skip the last needle. Hang the weight and carefully start turning. Sometimes the yarn will still break, but usually, the crocheted chain means that several strands are holding the weight, not just one, so there is less tearing.

Weight and kinds of yarn: The real issue is not so much the designated weight of the yarn you want to mill. Rather, the FLUFFINESS of the yarn makes the most difference. The hook might split a fluffy yarn so that the yarn doesn't stay caught under the hook as it should, and this makes a horrible mess. If you use a smooth yarn and keep a sharp eye on the latch of the needle at stage 1 you can mill worsted weight yarn (the kind of yarn usually knit at 5 stitches/inch). However DK is less nerve-wracking, while baby or sock yarn goes along a mile a minute.

Limber up the machine: When you first get it, ithe lubricant has been globbed on in one or two spots, rather than being spread around. Also, the gears are a bit stiff. So, before trying to mill yarn, take the mill out for a little test-run: without threading in any yarn, just crank the handle maybe 50 or 75 times and admire the gear mechanism which makes the needles go up and down. Also, if the hinges don't swing freely, consider a drop of plastic-safe lubricant on the end of a Q-tip, wiping up the excess so you don't grease up your yarn.

Cleaning: The space between the first and second tube is open. After milling out a bunch of i-cord (?? guessing here--maybe 50 yards? maybe more?) the dust from the yarn will have mixed with the lubricant on the track to make the mill hard to spin. Needles will start to skip and the whole mill will feel rough. I myself simply took the machine apart--there are screws all over--cleaned it, lubricated the track and the hinges of the latches and reassembled. (I wiped everything down pretty well, too, so as not to grease up my yarn.) To keep track of what everything looked like and where all the pieces were supposed to go, I took photos and notes at every stage of the process.

Here is a photo showing I-cord milled in all weights.

The gray yarn to the left is 1-ply Brown Sheep worsted weight. This is the heaviest yarn the mill is capable of working, and it took some doing: three tries to get started, and use of the crocheted chain trick to prevent tail breakage. This relatively fluffy yarn required to be pulled down by hand every single turn for the first six or eight inches because the weight was not initially equal to the task of holding down yarn of this bulk. As the I-cord got longer, its added weight helped with the correct operation of the mill, and after a foot or so had been made, the working went much faster. However, it was clear that the closest attention would have to be paid for the entire length of cord: the yarn was at the very outer limit of the mill's capability, and it often seemed that the hook would split the yarn. The point of milling this was to show the machine's capacity: this isn't really a yarn for milling under ordinary circumstances.

The red yarn is 4-ply Cascade 220, a worsted weight, the gold colored yarn is Dale of Norway Heilo, a DK weight, the yellow is Dale of Norway Baby Ull (Baby/sock weight). All three were easy to start and easy to mill, although the Cascade had to be fed carefully and have the latch cleared a few times by pushing down the loop around the shaft.

The last yarn--the white yarn to the right--is Knitpicks Merino laceweight. This yarn is quite thin, and also required the use of the crocheted tail trick. It was easy to mill, but the final product is so thin and so very much like string that I can't imagine using it for much except shoelaces (hmmm...)

Good knitting--TK

ADDENDUM, November 2012:  A lovely commenter, Lynne, sent along a link to this WONDERFUL You-tube video of trick for churning out I-cord faster than you can imagine, turning the mill at high speed with a POWER DRILL.  I am in awe.

Thank you Lynne for the link, and thanks to Dutch Hollow Acres for the video!

You have been reading TECHknitting on "Using an I-cord mill: tricks and tips."

Garter stitch in the round, no seams, no wraps, no turns

Fleegle's brilliant genius has been celebrated on this blog before, and there is cause for celebration again, today. Fleegle has figured out how to garter stitch in the round without purling or seaming or wrapping or turning. Curious? Go to the how-to now.

Thank you Fleegle!

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on: Fleegle's method of garter stitch in the round

Uneven knitting, part 2: bunching, big stitches and lumpy fabric--the problems of too-long runs

This blog has previously discussed the problem of uneven fabric which results from "rowing out," uneven stockinette--uneven from row to row. Today, we have the related problem of knitting which is uneven from column to column. Sometimes, this problem is easy to identify, expressing itself in bunchy vertical columns across the face of the fabric, as shown in the photo below. Sometimes, however, this problem expresses itself in quite a mysterious manner, with just a few "too big" stitches showing in an otherwise perfect row.

When you first begin knitting, unevenness is, of course, unavoidable. But some knitters remain plagued with this issue. In my experience, this mainly results from a positioning problem called "too-long runs."

To explain: When we knit, we have two needles--the holding needle and the working needle. (For most knitters, the left is the holding, the right the working, but for mirror image knitters, this is reversed.) To knit a new stitch, three things have to happen, and two of them concern positioning.

• The stitch about to be knit has to be pushed or drawn away from its neighbors, onto the tip of the left (holding) needle--positioning issue #1
• The stitch has to be knit
• The newly-made stitch has to be parked on the right (working needle) far enough out of the way to permit the next stitch to be made without falling off in its turn--positioning issue #2.

Obviously, each of these things ought to happen the same way each time--each stitch about to be made should be drawn forward from the pack of waiting stitches by the same distance, each new loop drawn through ought to be the same size, and each newly-made stitch ought to be parked out of the way by the same distance from the tip of the working needle.

The problem of the middle stage--drawing the same amount of yarn through each time to make consistent loops--we will save for a later post, it being a problem of feed tension. For today, we are only looking at the positioning issues of moving the stitches toward being knit, then out of the way afterwards. In other words, these positioning issues cause the problem covered by today's post: the problem of fabric uneven across the columns.

One root of this problem is that in knitting, you are in the odd position of trying to slide stitches around while also holding--clamping, actually--those very same stitches in one place as you grasp the knitting needles so as to operate them. The second root of today's problem is that knitting is complicated, and positioning your hands just right can be a bit of a chore. The natural result is the tendency of not wanting to shift the hands too often--of making as many stitches possible before re-positioning the hands.

It has been my observation that knitters who create smooth fabric have overcome this tendency. They re-position their hands every few stitches, or even, every stitch. But knitters whose fabric is not-so-smooth tend, perhaps, to hang on to the needles, shoving forward a bunch of stitches at a time, knitting all these--perhaps as many as 10 stitches or even more--without repositioning their hands on the needles. In other words, these knitters do not reposition until it becomes absolutely necessary to do so because there are no more stitches reachable on the left needle, while the newly-made stitches are about to fall off the right needle tip.

As you can imagine, when using this bunch-wise system, the first stitch to be knit is separated from its left-hand neighbor by very little distance, while the last stitch of the bunch is drawn very far from its neighbor--a neighbor being held back to be the first stitch of the next bunch. Similarly, the first stitch of the bunch to climb aboard the right-hand needle is held a fair distance away from its right-hand neighbor--the last stitch of the old bunch--while the last stitch to climb aboard is jammed and crammed up against the other stitches newly-made in the same bunch.

The evil is that the running yarn--the yarn coming from the skein--has to run a further distance between stitches in widely-separated bunches than between stitches of the same bunch.

If this is a one-time random event--maybe the knitter was trying to get in a few last stitches before running for the phone--the result is the mysterious set of too-big stitches in the middle of an otherwise good row. This sort of problem can usually be blocked out: as the knitting flexes, the small amount of excess yarn stretches from one place to another.

However, when this sort of distortion is systemic, the fabric cannot recover. In other words, if the hand routinely takes bunches of roughly equal numbers of stitches, the fabric soon begins to distort into vaguely vertical columns, each column representing the width of the bunch-wise knitting. Fabric knit bunch-wise, where uneven amounts of yarn routinely lays between stitches in adjoining columns, is unlikely to ever lay smooth, not even when properly blocked.

Once the problem has been laid out, it becomes easier to understand positioning adaptations made to solve this problem. One reason why the old-time production hand-knitters used knitting sheathes or belts to hold the needles was to separate the holding function from the knitting function. If the needles and fabric can be supported without the hand clamping the stitches to the needle, the hand becomes free to guide the stitches, smoothly and evenly bringing each stitch to the working tips and taking it away again, always moving the stitches by the same amount. In machine knitting, this problem of uneven runs has been solved by having an entire bank of needles, one for each column, and these needles are fixed in position, so that the running yarn always travels an identical distance between adjoining stitches.

For the modern hand knitter, the cure is to reposition the hands and the stitches often, keeping the runs short--a few stitches, at most. Slower initially, yet soon the hands take the situation in stride. Keeping runs short by moving the stitches evenly up to the left tip and away from the right becomes one more automatic gesture among many made by the knitter's hand, a smoother fabric resulting.

PS: This post is part of a three-post series. The other posts in this series are:
Uneven knitting, part 1: Stockinette fabric--how to tame "rowing out"
Uneven knitting, part 3: Fixing the loose knit column in ribbing, textures and cables

--TK

You have been reading TECHknitting blog on "uneven knitting--bunching, big stitches and lumpy fabric."

Now it starts

Now we come to that part of the year when knitting shows its true value. Frenzied gift-knitting is past. The sun never truly lifts overhead--setting early, rising late, it merely tracks along the southern horizon. Sometimes dawn brings white snow reflecting blue shadows, blue skies. Some days trees crack and cardinals mob the feeder. But most days dawn to low gray monotony, sparrows scrabbling under the lilac bush.

Indoors, maybe, something good is in the oven. Each kid is plugged head-first into a glowing entertainment rectangle. The knitter sits down for a little while in a comfy chair with two mismatched needles and some scrap yarn. "A swatch? A baby cap?" asks the spouse carrying another cup of coffee. "We'll see how it goes" says the knitter, the mind's eye instantly crowded with caps become swatches; swatches, caps--a knitted bridge to winters past.

Or maybe cabin fever has gripped everyone and the knitter takes refuge in mindless stockinette: 4 different socks worked leg-tubes only, the fifth on the needles, all shaping waiting for that day (Lord, let it come soon) when the kids head back to school. Heels stack up, waiting to be knit in silence.

The knitter alone has a different rhythm: winter solitude blossoms into complex cables, endless counting, immense projects. One bright winter's day, the knitter hunts out the afghan pushed aside by last spring's daffodils. Silently counting the squares still to work, optimism swells--why it's more than half done!


Photo: Elizabeth Shoshany Anderson

This bright optimism lasts the evening through. Needles flash. The moving luminescence in the hand commands close attention. Dark thoughts flit away from the lit circle of work.

It may seem the knitter moves the knitting forward, stitch by stitch. Yet in these short days, it is knitting which moves the knitter forward little by little towards a time surely coming. In our hands, the gray days transform into a summer camisole, perhaps, or a baby swaddled in color, a baby not yet timely, yet kicking to get out nonetheless. Knitting carries the knitter the long winter along, towards the life of spring.

Happy new year--

--TK

Avoiding "nipple in the middle:" some tricks to improve hat tops, glove fingertips and motif centers

You may be knitting a pattern starts or ends in the middle, and you may find that the very center stitches are humping themselves up into an unattractive stitch-nipple, a "knipple" as Adri has cleverly named it in the comments. 


One common example is the top of a bottom-up hat. The instructions will often tell you to stop when 8 (10? 12?) stitches remain on your needles, then draw the running yarn though these last remaining stitches. Other common examples include the fingertips of gloves, the tops of mittens and the centers of knitted motifs knitted from the edge to the center. When you thread the running yarn onto a sewing needle and draw the yarn through the last round of stitches remaining, these last few stitches look sloppy--they form an elongated nipple of stitches. This is bad enough on a 3-d object like a hat top, but is a truly sad way to finish off a flat motif (hexagon, square, circle).

This same sort of nipple-in-the-middle can form when starting in the middle: a top-down hat, a hexagon or octagon motif for a patchwork blanket, or a shawl or blanket knitted in the round.

Below are several tricks to avoid this problem, worked both top-down and bottom-up. If you already HAVE this problem, this post ends a couple of tricks to get rid of the nipple, even after the project is finished.

AVOIDING AN ENDING KNIPPLE

Trick 1: Stop one round sooner

In this trick, instead of working to, say, 8 stitches on a hat top or motif center, you'd stop one round (and one set of decreases) sooner, when, say, 16 stitches remain. Drawing the running yarn up through the larger number of stitches helps prevent a nipple because the stitches have to stretch further to the middle, thus flattening them. However, if you draw the yarn through this final round too tightly, you may end up with the opposite problem: a pucker instead of a nipple. Therefore, adjust the tension with a mild hand.

Trick 2: Kitchener stitch (aka grafting)

Instead of drawing up the running yarn through the final few stitches, you can Kitchener stitch (graft) the last few stitches together. This makes a flat join instead of a rosette, and finishes a circularly-knit object with a pleasant oval center. This is the classic ending to sock toes, and one of the ideas behind the "truly flat hat top," but this idea also works with very well for glove fingers and mitten tops.

Trick 3: Smaller needles

Knit the last few rounds with a smaller needle, then finish off by drawing the tail end through the last few stitches. This trick simply puts less yarn in the middle, so there is less yarn to pouf up.

Trick 4: Do not wind the yarn around more than once to hide the tail

Recently, while experimenting with new tricks for gloves, it came to me that glove fingers need a different ending technique than that I had been using for hats. When ending hats it has been my habit to draw the yarn through the center stitches not just once, but to continue around the circle again maybe two or three more times, in order to hide the tail end. While this is a simple solution to hiding the tail, the downside is that all this extra yarn makes quite a hard knot: a knot which might look unattractively nipple-y and, when worked on gloves, is quite annoying to the sensitive fingertips. Even for hats, I believe I will avoid winding around in the future.

The simple fix is to go around with the tail once, plus ONE extra stitch to avoid any gap, and then to skim in the end elsewhere, so as NOT go around again and again through the center rosette of stitches. For glove fingers, this works particularly well when combined with working the entire fingertip on a smaller needle to yield smaller, firmer stitches: the resulting thinner fabric allows greater dexterity when wearing gloves.

AVOIDING A STARTING KNIPPLE

Trick 1: The disappearing loop cast on

There are several ways to start from the center out. The famous "Emily Ocker's" cast-on, of which you may have heard, actually results in quite a bulky set of center stitches PLUS hard little knots. I prefer the knot-less disappearing loop cast on. Disappearing loop is particularly effective when combined with the previous trick of using smaller needles. In other words, if the disappearing loop cast-on, as well as the first few rounds of the knitting are all worked on smaller needles, the amount of yarn available for nippling-out out in the middle is markedly reduced.

Trick 2: The umbilical cord cast on
The umbilical cord cast on is a waste-yarn method. A small tube is knit in waste yarn and the item being knit is started at the bottom end of this tube. Working a waste-yarn umbilical cord means your first garment stitches are more likely to exhibit even tension, which helps eliminate the nippling effect--firm tight stitches are less likely to nipple up than loose or uneven ones. Like the disappearing loop cast on, the umbilical cord cast on can be started on smaller needles to reduce the amount of yarn in the middle of the work.

FIXING THE PROBLEM AFTER THE FACT

Trick 1: Unpick and draw through

A few years ago, after one of my kids lost a winter hat for the nth time, I was looking over some old hats to get through the rest of the winter, and found one I'd knit years ago. This old-timer featured nipple-in-the-middle. The kid refused to wear such an object, so the fix went like this: In the first round of this top-down hat, I snipped a single stitch, unpicked and unraveled the yarn and caught the live loops on a thin set of dpn's. Once the live loops were securely caught onto the dpn's, I re-finished the center as if the hat had been knit from the edge-in. In other words, the fix was to run the unpicked and unraveled end through the live stitches. In principle, this is the same idea as snipping a stitch and unpicking a row to get live loops on the needle, on the way to changing the length of a garment. Another, slightly different way of conceptualizing this trick is that you are treating the first round as a waste-yarn provisional cast on.

Variations: Now, it may happen than when you snip and unpick, the resulting tail is simply not long enough to draw through the live loops. This is most likely to happen when the end has been worked in and snipped off before discovering the nipple problem. It would, of course, be difficult to firmly splice in additional yarn so close to the end. Luckily, however, there are three good solutions to this problem.

First, the classic solution of hand-sewers when faced with a too-short end is to insert the needle into the fabric most of the way and THEN thread it with the too-short end.This trick can be adapted to the top of a hat: insert the needle into perhaps three or four of the top (ending) stitches, until only the eye of the needle remains exposed, and then thread the exposed eye with the short end. As the needle is drawn through, the short end, will, of course, pop loose of the needle, but not before it has been worked through the few stitches into which the needle was inserted before threading. The needle is then re-inserted through the next several stitches, then re-threaded and the process repeated until the short end has been worked through all the live stitches PLUS one (to avoid a gap). The needle is then skimmed in through some stitches on the inside of the garment, the tail threaded on one last time, and the needle drawn through, losing the end of the short tail in the woolly loops in the back of the fabric and thus skimming it in.

The second solution to a too-short end is unravel enough extra stitches so that the tail IS long enough to thread onto a needle, and then draw the tail through these stitches, adjusting the tension so that a small attractive hole is created in the center of the work. In other words, when you unpick/unravel enough stitches so that the tail is long enough to thread onto a needle and draw through, you may find that you have so many live stitches that it would create a pucker if you were to draw the tail through tightly. Therefore, instead of drawing the tail through tightly, adjust the tension so that the tail draws the live stitches together into a neat rosette framing a small hole.

While a small hole looks very well in the middle of flat-knitted motifs such as blanket squares, it may not look so well in the middle of a hat. You can, obviously, cover the hole with a pom-pom or a tassel of one sort or another, but a third, more structural alternative is to unravel even more stitches, until your end is long enough to Kitchener-stitch with, and then Kitchener stitch shut the opening, making a fine oval ending to the formerly nipple-y hat. Alternatively, once you've ripped back far enough to yield enough yarn for a splice, you could do a Russian join or a back join (or a felted join or an overcast join or an overlap join) then proceed as though ending a hat instead of starting one.

Trick 2: Draw through without even bothering to unpick

A different situation with nipple-in-the-middle happened when I knit a cotton bag. Although started with the usually-reliable disappearing loop cast on, the stiff cotton did not squish together as wool would have, and the result was a nasty bump. As it happened, this bag was to be lined, so the inside of the bag would be my secret alone. Being fairly lazy, my fix was to simply thread a needle with a strand of the cotton yarn, locate the third round in, then draw the yarn through those stitches from the inside. Below is a photo of the outside, after the fix.


In other words, the stitches of the third row in were simply drawn up with a single strand of cotton yarn without even bothering to unpick them. This trick pooched up the nipple to the inside where it would never show (photo below) while tightening up the outside into true respectability (photo above).

This trick would obviously not work on a glove finger, but for utility knitting such as a cotton bag, it was an effective solution with no snipping involved, and an elapsed time of perhaps 30 seconds.

Photo credits: Barry Toranto.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting "eliminating nipple in the middle from knitwear: get rid of the bump"

Drawstrings and baby caps

A knitter wrote to me today asking about how to make a drawstring for a baby cap.
I believe that the best sort of drawstring is no string at all--drawstrings have the horrible potential to come loose and strangle the baby.

Illustration 1: If drawstrings absolutely must be used--as in a family heirloom christening cap for example--their danger can be lessened (but not eliminated!) by sewing the drawstring to the cap while leaving the extending ends to be used as ties, but keeping these ties as short as possible.


Illustration 2: If the cap will be too large for the baby's head unless the drawstring snugs the cap up, then sew the drawstring to the cap in the already snugged-up position.


Illustration 3: I believe that a safer modification for a drawstring cap is to thread the drawstring through the eyelets, sew it down, and then work the protruding ends into a frog and frog-closure.


At heart, a frog is nothing but a knot, and a frog-closure is simply the little loop which slips around this knot, acting as a loop-buttonhole would. I think that frogs are safer than buttons, as they cannot be pulled (or bitten!) loose by a teething baby. Frogs come undone from their closures easily, it is true, but this is actually an advantage: you WANT the frog to pop loose with very moderate pressure, for safety's sake.

Addendum 11-18-09: I forgot to say: the illustration shows a single knot. However, if that is coming out too small, consider making the protruding end a bit longer, then folding the end back on itself, and THEN tie the knot in the doubled-back end. Also, make the frog-closure loop smaller than you think: it'll stretch out through use.

--TK You have been reading TECHknitting on drawstrings and baby hats.

Two bits of knitting theory: the "work-to-glory" ratio and "product-plus-process"

Today's post is also available as an mp3 file: click here to hear TECHknitter on "Two bits of knitting theory--the podcast."

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I’m working a project now which I simply love—love far more than an ordinary knitting project.


This scarf is a simple lace rectangle, worked in the very easy "sea foam pattern" and made from Kauni Effectgarn lace yarn. But it isn't really the pattern or the yarn which are the subjects of this post. This scarf is merely a springboard. Thinking about why this particular project should be so special has dredged up two bits of knitting theory, and (fair warning!) I mean to inflict them on you today.

Theory 1: The "work-to-glory ratio"

This bit of knitting theory comes from my friend Carol (Rududu on Ravelry, where she is a Bobby Award Winner and a member of the Hall of Fame).

A quick-to-knit item which turns out beautifully is the ideal subject for hand knitting, it has a good work-to-glory ratio. Conversely, a hard-to-knit item which does not ultimately inspire has a bad work-to-glory ratio. Naturally, there are also items which are hard to work but result in a great deal of glory. Knitters must decide for themselves where the balance between work and glory ought best to lie to give the maximum possible results, the biggest "bang" for your knitting labor.

The scarf which inspired today's post has the best work-to glory ratio of any project I have ever worked. The gorgeous yarn of which it is knit transforms the simple lace into a simply gorgeous fabric. Even if you're not as excited about this project as I am, it's an unmistakable illustration of the concept. This all-garter stitch lace can be made by any beginner, but the use of a beautifully-spun, long-repeat, well-dyed yarn substantially ups the glory quotient with no additional work on my part whatever.


Yarn: Kauni Effectgarn lace yarn
Lace Pattern: Sea Foam, with several rows of garter stitch worked as a foundation, and 3 extra garter stitches on each side edge, modified by working 1, 2 and 3 yo's, rather than the more usual 2, 3 and 4 yo's. (This would also finish with several rows of garter stitch at the end before the bind off.)

Theory 2: Product Plus Process

When non-knitters look at hand-knit goods, most tend to focus on the result, on the product. "Why spend 42 hours making a pair of socks? Wal-Mart sells 'em for a buck a pair" is their attitude, their tolerably obvious attitude. Confirmed sock knitters, however, find that mass-made socks cannot be compared to hand-made--the custom fit, the warmth, the exact colors of a hand made sock cannot be duplicated. This excellence is sometimes the very heart of a successful knitting project--the seamless toe, the beautiful work, the perfect fit, the non-binding sock on the achy foot. Knitting as product (and, as a very superior product which you simply couldn't buy anywhere!)

Often, however, hand-knitted objects add another dimension, a process dimension. See your kid standing near the door in hand-made socks, ready to pull on shoes and head out? Those socks are loving that child--the kid is wearing a hug on each foot, and the knitter and the kid both know it. This is process and product combined: knitted object as connection between people.

Further, the knitter also remembers where the sock was knit--sitting on the sofa at home, perhaps, or on a splendid vacation, or maybe at the sick-bed of a beloved relative. Each stitch captures the tick of the clock while the curtains stirred the breeze, the vista of mountains unscrolling through the train window, the love and concern for the person in the bed. Process and product combine again: the knitted object as connection to personal history.

The same half-started lace scarf which inspired today's reverie about the work-to-glory ratio also carries a great many strands of this sort of connection. The Kauni lace yarn from which this scarf is being knit was bought in Zurich Switzerland, a city which I had the great good fortune to visit on vacation. Eva Grimmer, the owner of the Vilfil yarn shop there, had this ball of yarn as a display on her counter. It was the last Kauni lace yarn in stock, and she very kindly agreed to sell this display ball to me.


From its appearance, I assumed that the ball was machine-wound and came from the factory like that,. However, after allowing me to buy her display, Eva let drop that she had wound it herself, by hand while watching TV. "It wasn't difficult" she said "because I studied mathematics at University." As I knit on this yarn, Zurich, Eva, her shop, her astonishing mathematical winding and her generosity in selling me the hand-wound ball are all present before me, many strands of connection.

Excellence of fit, that is product. Object as connection to person and to history, that is combination of product and process. The more I knit, though, the more I think that there's even yet another quality of hand-knitting, a pure process aspect perhaps not much discussed, and that is the ephemeral joy of the knitting itself.

All hand-knits carry the invisible story of their own knitting--not just where they were knit, but also how--the color and texture of the needles which slid through the yarn, what the stitch markers looked like, how the yarn first looked on the shelf, how the project looked when first cast on and when half-finished, how the skeins of yarn then looked half-collapsed in the knitting basket. The older I get, the more foreground are these ephemeral joys.

Beyond the good work-to-glory ratio, beyond my connection to Zurich, my half-started Kauni scarf offers a great deal of this sort of joy, too.

Watching the yarn unwind from the smooth, even layers Eva put there is is a pure process joy. In fact, watching those smooth layers come undone with each tug on the running yarn is as much of a joy as the actual knitting itself. More joy comes because the yarn is dyed in long repeats. As I knit, the color of the ball keeps changing--first it was a green ball of yarn with colored innards, but now it is an orange ball. When the scarf is finished, its secret mother--the changing color yarn ball--will have been used up, but the pleasure of the changing color ball will stay with me until the scarf itself is lost and fades from memory.

This sort of ephemeral joy is sometimes so strong, it may result in unfinished garments. I think many knitters have a half-finished project somewhere--a project never to be disposed yet never to be finished. Sometimes, the pure process pleasure of the project underway outweighs any pleasure the finished product could bring. For many years I had a project like this too, a mohair hat. As a finished product, it would have been another hat, one of many, but as a project, the sharp golden lace needles against the green mohair with the hot-pink stitch markers was an experience in itself. In pure process knits, the knitter takes the project out every few months just to add a few stitches and savor, or even just to pat the yarn.

--TK YYou have been reading TECHknitting on two bits of knitting theory: the "work-to-glory ratio" and "product-plus-process."

Short rows: method

Today TECHknitting shows short row how-to: basic, wrap-and-turn, Japanese and so on.

VARIATION 1: Basic short rows
(category: no-wrap, no-lift)

As stated in the last post (theory of short rows) short rows are made by sneaking little short rows into the middle of the work--rows which don't go from edge to edge. Illustration 1a is a schematic of these in their most basic form.

• Rows 1 and 2 (black) ordinary rows, each goes from edge to edge
• Row 3 (yellow) ordinary row, goes from edge to edge, colored yellow for reference
• Row 4 (dark blue) partial short row--starts on the right edge like an ordinary row, but is stopped short of the left edge when the work is turned at the bright blue turn-point (also called a "turn-loop"). This is a partial short row because it touches one edge (right edge) but not the other.
• Row "Sh" (red) a fully short row--starts at the bright blue turn-point, is worked towards the right edge but is stopped short when the work is again turned at the pink turn-point. This is a fully short row--it reaches neither the right edge nor the left edge.
• Row 5 (green) partial short row--starts at the pink turn-point and is worked all the way through to the left edge. It is a partial row because it touches only one edge (left edge) but not the other. As it travels past the left edge of the red row (dotted green line) it must be worked into the underlying yellow row (dotted yellow line)
• Row 6 (purple) ordinary row, goes from edge to edge. Where it travels past the left edge of the red row (dotted purple line) it must be worked into the underlying partial dark blue row (dark blue dotted line)
• Row 7 (black) ordinary row, goes from edge to edge.

Illustration 1b shows this same schematic, a bit simplified, translated into actual knit stitches.

Of the greatest interest to us are the turn-loops--the bright blue and pink bits at either edge of the fully short red row. As you can see, when you simply work to the turn-points of a short row, then turn and work back, the turn loops at the short row edges aren't connected to the stitches alongside. In other words, the red row is only connected at the top (to the green row) and the bottom (to the dark blue row) BUT ISN'T CONNECTED AT THE LEFT (the bright-blue turn-loop does not touch the yellow stitch alongside) NOR AT THE RIGHT (the pink turn-loop does not touch the dark-blue stitch alongside). Instead, the fabric has two HOLES at these turn-points.

A very great deal of human ingenuity has been devoted to closing these holes, and different techniques have arisen. The most common techniques involve extending the turn-loops so that they are "wrapped" around the stitches alongside them. As explained in greater detail below, the wraps can either be left in place or be further operated upon by being "lifted" (also called "being unwrapped"). In fact, many different short row techniques can be categorized by the exact combination of "wraps" and "lifts" employed. As you can see, at their turn-points, the most basic short rows shown in illustration 1b have had their turn-loops neither "wrapped" nor "lifted," and so these basic, rather primitive short rows we've just been looking at are categorized as "no-wrap, no-lift."

VARIATION 2--"Wrap and turn" basic short rows
(category: wrap, no-lift)

These are the first, simplest variation on short rows. Here's the how-to in a stockinette fabric, supposing you are working from the smooth (knit) side.

Illustration 2a Knit to the spot where you wish to turn. This means to knit into the very last stitch of your short row. In the illustration, five dark blue stitches have been knit and the fifth stitch is the last stitch knitted before step 2b.


Illustration 2b: Slip the next stitch on the tip of the left needle (yellow) to the right needle and bring the running yarn (bright blue in this illustration) AROUND the slipped stitch. In other words, bring the yarn from the back to the front (towards you) between the yellow stitch and its neighbor to the left.

Illustration 2c: Replace the slipped stitch onto the left needle. Steps 2b and c together are the "wrap" part of this maneuver--you have wrapped the bright blue turn-loop around the neck of its neighbor to the left--the yellow stitch.


Illustration 2d: Turn the work. "Turning" means

• turn the work back-to-front so you are now looking at the purl side of the fabric,
• the darker-colored needle formerly in your right hand is now in your left hand while the lighter-colored needle formerly in your left hand is now in your right hand, and that
• in the ordinary direction of work, you will now be purling back towards the same edge you set out from in illustration 2a.

In addition to turning the work, you must also switch the running yarn (red in this illustration) forward into position for purling.

Illustration 2e: The running yarn has been brought forward (towards you) and one purl stitch has been created. Now that the work has been turned and one purl stitch worked, you can better see how the bright blue turn-loop is wrapped around the neck of the yellow stitch.


When all the stitches required by the pattern to be purled have been worked, the short row is ended. In this illustration, a 4-stitch short row (red) has been worked. On the next stitch to the left (dark blue) repeat the wrap steps (same as steps 2b and c) but this time, working from the purl side.

Illustration 2f shows the final result after the blue stitch has been slipped, wrapped with the running yarn (pink in this illustration) and replaced on the left needle.


Illustration 2g: Turn the work again, and knit the bright green row. Now you can better see that the pink turn-loop is wrapped around the neck of the dark blue stitch alongside.


(Just a little preview of what is to come: the very next variation on short rows in this post is exactly the same as this one right through the end of this step, 2-g.)

Illustration 2h: In this simplified variation of wrap-and-turn, the knitting simply continues. As you can see, this means that the bright blue turn-loop remains in where it now is, wrapped around the neck of the yellow stitch, and the knitting simply goes on without any fuss or fanfare on through to the end of the row.


On the next row, simply purl all the way back. As with step 2h, the turn-loop (pink in this case) simply remains in place, wrapped around the neck of the dark blue stitch as the work goes on in the usual way. Illustration 2i shows the finished fabric.


If you compare illustration 2i to illustration 1b, you'll see that they're the same with one exception: in illustration 1b, the bright blue and the pink turn-loops are not connected to the stitches alongside of them, while in illustration 2i, they are.

This variation of short rows is created by "wrapping" the turn-loops around the necks of the stitches alongside. Once the wraps are created, they remain in the fabric--per illustration 2h, you simply knit or purl into the top of the stitch with the wrap around its neck. Because the wrap is left undisturbed and never "unwrapped" or "lifted" off the necks of the underlying stitches, these sorts of short rows are categorized as "wrap-no-lift" or "wrap-unlifted."

For many kinds of knitting, wrap-no-lift short rows are just fine--for one example, many knitters use these for sock heels where the stacked diagonal line of the unlifted wraps make a pleasant pattern. For another example, when working in garter stitch or reverse stockinette, these wrap-no-lift short rows are actually are the best kind to use. The wrap creates a sturdy attachment, while the little bump created by the wrap remains hidden because the turn-loops are indistinguishable in the midst of the naturally bumpy fabric.

However, as you can see in illustration 2i, in a stockinette fabric, these unlifted wraps (bright blue and pink) show on the surface of the fabric. So, of course, some clever knitter of long ago said to herself "I bet I could get rid of those little bumps there," and she did, by inventing...

VARIATION 3: Wrap and Turn and Unwrap short rows
(category: wrap-and-lift)

The point of "lifting" the wraps (also called "unwrapping") is to hide them so they don't show on the smooth face of a stockinette fabric. This is done by lifting the wraps off the necks of the underlying stitches. Once lifted, the turn-loop becomes a loose loop sticking out of the side of the fabric, and this loose loop can be hidden by knitting (k2tog) or purling (ssp) it together with its neighboring stitch (that being the stitch around whose neck it was formerly wrapped). The k2tog or ssp preserves the attachment between the short rows ends and the fabric, while getting rid of the bump.

As stated earlier, unlifted and lifted wraps are identical up through illustration 2g, above. Illustration 2g shows the bright-blue wrapped yellow stitch about to be knit. In making lifted wraps, we stop there and don't go on to step 2h. Instead we "lift" the blue wrap off the yellow stitch. Specifically, the right needle is inserted under the bright blue turn-loop and used to pry ("lift") it up off of the yellow stitch. The result will be as shown in illustration 3a, below: the bright blue turn-loop now protrudes from the side of the short rows.


Normally, of course, we wouldn't abandon the bright-blue turn-loop just waving around in the air like that. Illustration 3a is just for ... well... just for illustration purposes! Really, what we do is lift the wrap off and deposit it straight away onto the left needle, where it should come to rest with its right arm forward (untwisted) as shown in illustration 3b, below.


As further shown by the purple arrow, the lifted loop (bright blue) and its left-hand neighbor (the yellow stitch it used to be wrapped around) are now to be knitted together.

Illustration 3c shows the actual knitting together--this is an ordinary k2tog (scroll link for description).


After the bright blue turn-loop has been k2tog'ed with the yellow stitch, the work proceeds to the end of the row, and then the work is turned. Per illustration 3c, in our illustration fabric that would mean that after the k2tog, only 1 more stitch remains to be knit before the work is turned to the purl side.

On the reverse fabric face, purl back to the (dark blue) wrapped stitch. Now comes an awkward series of maneuvers to disengage the pink wrap from the blue stitch. You will find that you aren't really lifting the pink wrap off the blue stitch, but rather are slipping the wrapped stitch off of both needles and, while this assembly hangs in the air, using both needle tips to wiggle the blue stitch out of the pink wrap's embrace.

Once the blue stitch and the pink wrap are disengaged, they are placed onto the left needle in the order shown shown by illustration 3d, below. Specifically, the blue stitch goes on first, and it's very important that it be placed LEFT ARM FORWARD. The pink wrap goes onto the left needle next, and it is also placed LEFT ARM FORWARD. (FYI: laying these two stitches left arm forward is the same re-orientation maneuver as the first step of slip-slip-purl--ssp--a left-leaning decrease made from the purl side--more on this just below.)


Following the purple arrow, you will now purl the stitches together, working through the BLUE stitch first. The reason to purl them together in this position is to force the blue stitch to the fabric surface in an untwisted manner, while forcing the pink turn-loop behind, where it cannot be seen.

Are you having trouble purling these together from this position? It is admittedly awkward, so if you need further help, please click on this link, and scroll to the part about "Left-leaning purl decreases" also called "slip-slip-purl" (ssp). This identical situation of purling two stitches together from the left-arm-forward, second-stitch-first position is covered in great detail at the link.

After ssp'ing together the blue stitch with the pink wrap, work to the end of the row, and turn again. The fabric is now worked further in the usual manner. As shown in illustration 3e, unwrapping the turn-loops by lifting them off the necks of their neighbors, then k2tog'ing/ssp'ing them together with these neighbors makes a beautiful fabric.

In illustration 3e, all the distracting coloring has been removed, leaving only the pink and the blue wrap still colored. As shown, it is nearly impossible to determine where the short rows are located, and the wraps are well hidden.

VARIATION 4. Digging or Pinning
(category: lift, no-wrap)

The trick of this variation is to avoid wrapping but retain the lifting. The rationale is twofold: avoiding the extra yarn inserted at the "wrap" stage, as well as avoiding the extra manhandling of stitches which accompanies the wrapping and lifting (unwrapping). Nevertheless, the short rows must be attached, and the end result of lifting--where the turn-loop is k2tog'ed or ssp'ed together with its left-hand neighbor--looks very well indeed. So how about the best of both worlds--not wrapping but still lifting? There are two ways to lift without wrapping.

DIGGING:

If you go back to illustration 1b, you'll notice that the unwrapped turn-loops, both bright-blue and pink, are laying between the edges of the short rows and the stitches alongside. It would be possible to simply dig these turn-loops out of the fabric, lift them onto the left needle and either knit (bright blue) or purl (pink) these stitches together with their neighbors. Once lifted out of the fabric, these turn-loops would be treated just as are the turn-loops in illustrations 3b and 3d.

PINNING:

Digging the turn-loops out of the fabric can be challenging because they're hard to see. Here's a trick to make it easier using a pin--either a coil-less safety pin or a bobby-pin.

As shown in illustration 4a, as each turn-point (bright blue and pink) is reached, then instead of wrapping the turn-loops around the neighboring stitch as in variations 2 and 3 of this post, the turn loop is instead caught on a pin. If using a safety pin as shown, simply fasten it shut around--not through--the turn loop before turning the work and knitting or purling back. If using a bobby pin, simply slide it onto the turn loop and leave it there, hanging--same idea as a J-shaped cable needle, only smaller.


As shown in illustration 4b, when the time comes to lift the turn-loop onto the left needle, the turn-loop can be grabbed very readily by simply grasping the pin and pulling the loop onto the left needle that way.

After the turn-loop is safely on the left needle and oriented whichever arm forward is required, the pin is removed and the work goes forward as shown in illustrations 3b (knit side) and 3d (purl side). The turn-loops, not having been wrapped or otherwise manhandled, are shorter and tidier.

VARIATION 5: Japanese Short Rows
(category: slip, lift, no-wrap)

Japanese short rows combine the no-wrap/pin variation of part 4 with one more trick: slipping stitches. Slipping a stitch means there is even less yarn to stretch out, making Japanese short rows the tightest and tidiest (as seen from the knit side) of any short rows. Shown below is how the work would proceed if you were starting on the smooth (knit) side of a stockinette fabric.

On the knit side, knit all the stitches right up to the turning point. Attach a pin (safety pin or bobby pin, makes absolutely no difference) around the running yarn, in the same manner as in illustration 4a. Turn the work. Now on the purl side, SLIP the first stitch from the left needle to the right needle without working it.

Illustration 5a shows the purl side of the fabric. The pin has been set, the first stitch (red with blue dots) slipped and the next stitch (red) purled.


A quick note about color and orientation: in illustration 5a, the slipped stitch is colored red with blue dots. The red is to indicate that this slipped stitch is now part of the fully-short (red) row, the blue dots are to indicate that this stitch started off life as a stitch from the partial row BELOW the red row--the dark-blue row. By slipping, this stitch has been stretched up into a bridge position: it is now a member of the dark-blue row AND of the red row. Note that this dotted stitch has been slipped "purlwise" which means it was slipped open (untwisted) and right arm forward, as shown.

Purl until you reach the purl turn-point. Again set a pin around the running yarn, turn the work and and again slip the first stitch from the left needle to the right needle purlwise. Next, knit to the end of the short row, finishing by knitting into the top of the stitch you first slipped. Illustration 5b shows the end result: the purl side pin has been set and all the knit stitches of the red fully-short row worked back, ending with a knit into the top of the slipped stitch.


Another quick note about color and orientation: the stitch slipped in the purl turn has been colored red with green dots. The red is to indicate that the stitch started life as a member of the red fully-short row, while the green dots are to indicate that, by slipping, this stitch has been stretched up into a bridge position between the red and green rows.: the stitch is now a member of the red row AND the green row. Again, this dotted stitch has been slipped purlwise.

Doesn't Illustration 5b look familiar? In fact, except for the fancy dotted slipped stitches, the situation is exactly the same as the classic wrap-and-turns showed in variations 3 and, especially, 4. If you tug the blue turn loop onto your left needle with the attached pin and then remove the pin, you'll have the same set-up as in illustration 3b, and you continue the same as shown there. In other words, the turn-loop on the pin is pulled up onto the left needle right arm first, the pin is removed, then a k2tog is performed to work the turn-loop together with its left-hand neighbor. The fabric is then worked to the end of the row and turned onto the purl side.

In the next row, when you have worked through to the purl turning point, you purl the stitch previously slipped. Next, using the right needle, you re-orient the next stitch on the left needle so it lays left arm forward, then, grasping the pin, pull the turning loop onto the left needle, also left arm forward. You will now have two loops on your left needle which should be laying the same as illustration 3d. These two loops are now purled together from this position, as per the instructions accompanying illustration 3d.

Illustration 5c shows the finished product from the back. You will note that the turn-loops have been pulled into "bars" across the back of the fabric. This is because they had to be pulled across the back of the dotted slipped stitches in order to be k2tog'ed or ssp'ed.


Illustration 5d shows the Japanese short rows from the front. The turn loops are colored but the rest of the fabric is not. If you compare this illustration to illustration 3e, you'll see that the fabrics are pretty nearly the same, but the Japanese short rows have fewer stitches. Having fewer stitches would translate to a tighter, tidier fabric, at least from the knit side.

SUMMARY

Variation 1 are the the most basic kind of short row a basic short row, unwrapped and unlifted--a no-wrap-no-lift short row.The problem, of course, is that not wrapping and not lifting leaves end stitches of the short row unattached to the fabric stitches alongside of them, resulting in holes at the turning point.

Variation 2 are the basic wrapped short rows, where the wrap is simply left in the fabric, a wrap-no-lift short row. By wrapping the running yarn around the neck of the fabric stitch alongside before turning the work, the short row ends are connected to the fabric, eliminating the holes. When the wrapped stitches are again encountered, the wraps are left in place unlifted--the stitches with the wraps around their little necks are simply knitted or purled as if nothing was different about them. This works well on a bumpy fabric, such as garter stitch or reverse stockinette stitch, but on a smooth stockinette fabric, the wraps show as bumps.

Variation 3 are wrap-and-turn short rows with the refinement of unwrapping the wraps when you encounter them again. These wrap-and-lift short rows smooth the stockinette front face of the fabric by lifted the bumpy wraps and hiding them on the fabric back via a k2tog (knit side) or ssp (purl side).

Variation 4, digging or pinning the turn-loops results in lift, no-wrap short rows and digging/pinning is a further refinement to part 3. Instead of adding extra yarn to the turn-loops by wrapping them around the necks of their neighbors, the turn-loops are kept tight and afterwards either dug out of the fabric or pulled up by means of their attached safety or bobby pins. Not-wrapping not only keeps excess yarn out the fabric, but it also means the stitches are manhandled less--less flicking about of stitches and running yarn. The structure of the resulting fabric looks exactly like the finished fabric of part 3 (shown in illustration 3e) just tighter and tidier.

Variation 5, Japanese (slip, lift, no-wrap) short rows, represent the ultimate refinement. Not only is the turn-loop kept tight by wrapping it around a saftey pin instead the neck of its neighboring fabric stitch, but the first stitch after the turning-point is kept tight also, by slipping it (same idea as a slipped-stitch selvedge). When the turn-loop is reached, it must be pulled by the pin out of the fabric and worked together with its left hand neighbor, and this pulling tightens the fabric even further.

Which method to use?

The wrapped-and-lifted method (variation 3) is probably the default. It has ease of execution on its side (no digging, no pins to be set and unset) and it looks reasonably well on the smooth knit side of a stockinette fabric. However, in a very bulky yarn, or a very slippery yarn, keeping the short row ends as tight as possible is a worthy goal, and for this purpose, the lift-no-wrap short rows (variation 4) probably have the advantage. However, you must balance this advantage against the cost--either the turn-loops have to be dug out, or pins have to be set and then unset, either of which is quite a bit slower than wrapping/unwrapping.

Japanese short rows (variation 5) are the ultimate in tight, good-looking wraps on the knit face but have a disadvantage on the purl side of a bar along the fabric back. I personally don't use Japanese short rows for this reason, but take this with a grain of salt. I'm lazy, and don't use the dig or pin variation either (variation 4) despite thinking that this looks better than ordinary wrap-and-turn (variation 3). Notwithstanding my laziness and aversion to the bar, however, I suspect that in a couture knit--perhaps in a silk ribbon for an ultimately-to-be-lined business suit, the ultra-refined Japanese short row would be the best of all.

Bottom line: as in all things knitting, different techniques have different strengths and weaknesses, and different knitters have different (and frequently strong) opinions. You must select for yourself from the smorgasbord of short rows, of which 5 different kinds are here presented.

POST-SUMMARY GEEK NOTES

Further variations exist also:

• Yarn over short rows: instead of wrapping/unwrapping, a turn-loop can be made into a yarn over (yo) and this yo is then worked together with the neighboring left hand stitch from the fabric proper when the fabric has been worked to the yo location. This works especially well as an alternative to the dig variation -- variation 4. A yo can also be substituted for the pin in Japanese short rows, with the yo made after the slipped stitch.
• M1 short rows: the turn loop can be ignored, ie: the work can be left as in illustration 1b, with the edges of the short rows--the turn-loops--left unattached. Then, the last stitch of the short row can be k2tog'ed or ssp'ed together with the neighboring stitch out of the fabric. Lastly, the stitch count is brought back to the original number by lifting a new stitch, m1 fashion, out of the tail of the stitch just to the left of the new k2tog or ssp.

I have no doubt that yet further variations exist, and confidently anticipate hearing of them in the comments, because, let's face it--knitting ingenuity is boundless!

(Whew. Most illustrations in a TECHknitting post yet...)

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on short row methods--basic short rows, wrap and turn short rows, Japanese short rows.