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Monday, September 24, 2007

Left decreases, the evil twin
part 2 of right and left leaning decreases

includes 8 illustrations
In this second of a four parts, we look at right and left leaning decreases. K2tog, the most common RIGHT LEANING DECREASE was the first post. Today, the two most common LEFT LEANING DECREASES: slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over (psso) and slip, slip, knit (ssk).

This post has two parts.
  • How-to for  psso and ssk
  • Just WHY psso and ssk are sloppy and different-looking from k2tog.
After today's post, the background stuff is all out of the way, and TECHknitting turns to SYTK and CHM, two new methods for left leaning decreases.

PART 1--TUTORIAL on PSSO and SSK

To make PSSO, there are three steps:

1. (below). Slip the first stitch (red) at the tip of left needle onto right needle KNITWISE (left arm forward)

2. (below) Knit the next stitch (green). The result is two stitches on right needle--the one slipped (red) and the one just knit (blue). Insert the tip of LEFT needle under the left arm of the red stitch (in other words, so the stitch is not twisted) and lift the red stitch over the blue stitch and drop the red stitch from your needle. (The blue stitch stays on your right needle)

3. (below) This is the final result, after the red stitch has been lifted over the blue stitch: only the blue stitch remains on the needle--one stitch where there were two before. The red stitch has been pulled to lie on top of the green stitch, and the slant of the red stitch (leftwards) dominates the decrease.

To make SSK, there are three steps:

1. (below) Ssk starts the same way as psso: you slip the first stitch (red) at the tip of your left needle onto your right needle KNITWISE (left arm forward)

2. (below). For the second step of ssk, you slip the next stitch (green) from left to right needle the same way--KNITWISE, left arm forward. Then, you flick the standing yarn over your right needle, and knit the two stitches together from this position.

3. (below) Here is the final result: The blue stitch is pulled (knitted) through the red and green stitches. Just like psso, only the blue stitch remains on the needle, leaving one stitch where there were two before. The red stitch has been pulled to lie on top of the green stitch, and the slant of the red stitch (leftwards) dominates the decrease.

PART 2--WHY LEFT LEANING DECREASES LOOK SO FUNNY
(COMPARING LEFT AND RIGHT LEANING DECREASES)

OK, so now we're ready to talk about the two main reasons why left leaning decreases are all bumpy and slouchy. First, If you look at the diagrams for both psso AND ssk, you'll see that you are manipulating the FIRST STITCH on the needle--the red one. You're manhandling it pretty severely, actually. In both psso and ssk, you grab that red stitch and stretch it out as you slip it from left needle to right needle. This draws extra yarn into that first stitch as the surrounding stitches play "pass-along." In other words, by sliding the first stitch from one needle to another, yarn that would ordinarily lie in surrounding stitches gets pulled up into the loop of the red stitch.

Second, you're changing the orientation of the red stitch--when it was first knitted (assuming you're not a combination knitter) it lay RIGHT arm forward. Slipping that first red stitch KNITWISE makes it lay LEFT arm forward. At the point where the orientation changes from right-arm-forward stitches to left-arm-forward stitches, slack develops in the yarn. This is because the change in orientation makes the path of the tail yarn is shorter between the red stitch and green, drawing even more yarn into the first (red) stitch, and this is true in both psso and ssk.

Compare this sequence with k2tog. In k2tog, the top stitch is the SECOND stitch (green stitch), and it is never manhandled at all--it is never pulled up loose, never passed from needle to needle, and its orientation is never changed. (Click here for diagram, click here from more info on k2tog.) The stitch behind the top stitch (the red stitch in the k2tog diagram) never has a chance to pass any slack yarn along to the green stitch--that red stitch is nailed down behind the green stitch in a 1 step motion--it (and all its excess yarn) gets squeezed behind the green stitch before it ever gets a chance to play pass-along with the green stitch, and the one-step motion of k2tog reduces the opportunity for other stitches to pass along too much yarn, either.

The upshot is that, in left leaning decreases, the multi-step procedure means that the first (red) stitch is drawn up all big and sloppy. Then, even more yarn is delivered to the red stitch by the change in orientation. As you can see from the diagrams, psso is the worse offender--you manhandle that red stitch not just once (passing it from left needle to right) but twice (as you grab it and draw it up big in passing it over the blue stitch).

In both psso and ssk, this bumpy, loose, sloppy red stitch is then left to languish on the surface of the fabric. As the photos below demonstrate, left leaning decreases really are the "evil twin," in looks, at least, when compared to right leaning decreases. As you would expect, the extra manhandling of the top stitch means that psso ends up somewhat looser and sloppier than ssk. Yet, although ssk is somewhat better, it also does not approaches k2tog for tidiness. Here is the photographic evidence:


The upper part of each photo is the right leaning decrease--knit two together (k2tog)--which is included for comparison purposes--nice and even, aren't they? The lower part of the first photo (above) is slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over (psso), the lower part of the second picture (below) is slip, slip, knit (ssk). Nice and sloppy, huh?
(Don't be confused that these samples are laid on their sides, that's just for illustration. Each swatch was knit so the cast-on edge is to the right, the cast off edge to the left.)

In sum, the stitches in the left-leaning columns are uneven from row to row, especially compared to the more even stitches of the right leaning columns. SSK (bottom of second photo) looks somewhat better than psso (bottom of first photo), but neither looks terrific.

(ALTHOUGH, as I said at the beginning of this series, the loose sloppy top stitch in ssk or psso has a tendency to tighten up as the garment is worn and washed. And, as ssk or psso is tightening up in this way, k2tog is loosening up. With wear and blocking, the second stitch that got squeezed behind the first stitch in k2tog eventually manages to give up some of its slack, and the rightward leaning top stitch of k2tog gets a bit sloppier. It's true that ssk an k2tog never look exactly the same, but they look a whole lot more like twins after wearing and a couple of washings than they do when you are first creating them. So, once again, all this stuff about improving your left-leaning decreases is, in some measure, a marker of wanting everything to be perfect RIGHT AWAY and RIGHT NOW.)

Ahem! Well, if my little green screed about right-now-ism hasn't deterred you, if you're a perfectionist, or if you just like to fool with stuff, the next post shows SYTK (slip, yank, twist, knit), an improved left-leaning decrease. 

--TECHknitter

This is the second of four posts. The other posts are