I noticed, while knitting yesterday, that my current default grip actually involves holding both needles about halfway down. (The exception is for first stitches, which involve a bit of convoluted juggling.) The throwing part of making the stitch involves not only letting go of the needle, but using the left needle to kind of lever the work back so that the needle tips move in relation to my hand, rather than vice versa. And if any left-hand manipulation of stitches is required, I do the same levering motion.
Which is why I know that I can knit with 5mm bamboo needles and grabby wool ... and I'm not sure it works with any other combination of materials. Because if I let go of a needle and it slides out of the stitches? Or if I try to lever the whole shebang and it just slides the stitches around without moving the needles?
...yeah.
It's also why I am wary of ordering knitting sheaths -- I move my needles around! -- or things like http://knittingaid.com/ -- especially since the latter I would probably have to use at a weird angle (with the needles pointing up, maybe) in order to reach it, and I don't know that it functions that way.
What I really need is, like...
...well, a properly working body would be nice.
But aside from that? I really don't know.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Scarf update
More pictures of the Scarf of Awesome are up on the project page (ravelry login required). The most recent picture is this:
I am so very much in love with this yarn. (Ella Rae Jaspe Wool, colorway 10.) I can't quite explain why. Part of it is just the relief of working with worsted weight yarn on 5mm needles, after trying to wrangle sock-weight yarn on 2mm needles. Part of it is the glorious poofiness -- it seems to be fairly loosely spun, which will probably mean it will pill like crazy but I don't even care.
I have even acquired a source for more so that I can make a matching hat and wristwarmers.
Not that I am a dork or anything.
I am so very much in love with this yarn. (Ella Rae Jaspe Wool, colorway 10.) I can't quite explain why. Part of it is just the relief of working with worsted weight yarn on 5mm needles, after trying to wrangle sock-weight yarn on 2mm needles. Part of it is the glorious poofiness -- it seems to be fairly loosely spun, which will probably mean it will pill like crazy but I don't even care.
I have even acquired a source for more so that I can make a matching hat and wristwarmers.
Not that I am a dork or anything.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Circulars and other items of vexation
You may recall from last week that I am using 13" needles. And that the reason for the length is that I am almost invariably manipulating one of the needles from more than halfway down -- 13" is longer than I need (but comfortable to wield), but I need at least 7" of needle length plus a few inches of grip.
With that said, let me digress a little into needle preference. (Go here for a brief description of different needle types.) When I first started knitting, all I had were straight needles. I then found circular needles, and was very much pleased. Significantly later, I found dpns -- being the dork that I am, the first project I ever tried them with (these, though the dates are off and I can't seem to find when I actually made them; it can't have been earlier than April 2007 though) were small items that started with 6 sts cast on (three needles, 2 sts per needle, first time with DPNs, good luck trying to tell whether or not the stitches are twisted!) and involved colorwork.
I may be a bit of an overachiever sometimes.
Regardless:
Once familiarized with all three (and with the magic loop / traveling loop technique of knitting small-diameter items on a long circular), my favorite to use and own was circular needles. They can be used for knitting flat, and in fact with long items (sweaters or blankets or shawls) are easier than straight needles because the bulk of the item can sit in your lap; they can be used for knitting in the round; and if you're doing a pair of items (like socks or gloves or wristwarmers) you can do two at a time.
(Yes, technically, you can do 2aat on DPNs, either by having two sets and alternating rows or by knitting one inside the other, but it's not the same.)
Or to put it another way, there is nothing you can do with straight needles or dpns that you cannot also do with circs.
...except, as it turns out, knit when you are in my current situation.
Here's the issue. Circular needles want to be as bendy as possible, to allow for the greatest -- pun unintended but unavoidable -- flexibility. Now, straight needles and dpns have to hold all the stitches you're working with, so to be of any ose, they need to be decently long. That's why you don't see many 5" straight needles on the market.
But for circs, the non-active stitches can rest on the cable. So the actual stiff needle part a) can be fairly short, because the cable is the primary holder of stitches, and b) wants to be fairly short, in order for the circs to form, well, a circle.
So the circular needles that you can get usually have needles that are 5" or smaller.
...you can see how this might be a problem, if I need 10" of needle to work with.
Can I hold circs? Sure. But the only comfortable position has one hand on the very flexible cable part, and thus unable to actually hold or manipulate the needle in any way.
At the moment, I have precisely two pair of circs that are functional for me. They were hand-made by a friend's son, by taking a straight needle (therefore of the length I need), chopping off the knob, whittling down the end a bit, and attaching a cable. Except he couldn't get the join smooth with anything smaller than a US7, and in any case the cable part is ... rather sticky. Not to the touch, but the stitches don't want to slide. At all.
I appreciate the hell out of these circs, for the effort involved and for the intent, but they have limited usefulness for me. And it doesn't help when the things I really really want to make are a) sock-weight yarn knitted to gauge (requiring US2 or smaller needles) or b) shawls with a fuckton of stitches (requiring a nicely slidy cable).
I love circs. I miss the hell out of them. And I really wish I could use them.
(current strategy I am toying with is to use normal circular needles with some sort of clamp so I can hold the clamp and the clamp holds the needle and I don't have to kill my shoulders, but I haven't found the right clamp -- something that holds securely without damaging the needle, something that does not require constant pressure to hold closed, something that is easy to open but does not open spontaneously, something that is fairly lightweight -- so that doesn't really work.)
(I have considered approaching some of the standard circular-needle manufacturers and asking if they can special-order -- well, special-make -- circs with long needle sections. But I am a wuss, and besides which the answer is probably no, and if it were yes they'd be frighteningly expensive, and did I mention I'm a wuss?)
With that said, let me digress a little into needle preference. (Go here for a brief description of different needle types.) When I first started knitting, all I had were straight needles. I then found circular needles, and was very much pleased. Significantly later, I found dpns -- being the dork that I am, the first project I ever tried them with (these, though the dates are off and I can't seem to find when I actually made them; it can't have been earlier than April 2007 though) were small items that started with 6 sts cast on (three needles, 2 sts per needle, first time with DPNs, good luck trying to tell whether or not the stitches are twisted!) and involved colorwork.
I may be a bit of an overachiever sometimes.
Regardless:
Once familiarized with all three (and with the magic loop / traveling loop technique of knitting small-diameter items on a long circular), my favorite to use and own was circular needles. They can be used for knitting flat, and in fact with long items (sweaters or blankets or shawls) are easier than straight needles because the bulk of the item can sit in your lap; they can be used for knitting in the round; and if you're doing a pair of items (like socks or gloves or wristwarmers) you can do two at a time.
(Yes, technically, you can do 2aat on DPNs, either by having two sets and alternating rows or by knitting one inside the other, but it's not the same.)
Or to put it another way, there is nothing you can do with straight needles or dpns that you cannot also do with circs.
...except, as it turns out, knit when you are in my current situation.
Here's the issue. Circular needles want to be as bendy as possible, to allow for the greatest -- pun unintended but unavoidable -- flexibility. Now, straight needles and dpns have to hold all the stitches you're working with, so to be of any ose, they need to be decently long. That's why you don't see many 5" straight needles on the market.
But for circs, the non-active stitches can rest on the cable. So the actual stiff needle part a) can be fairly short, because the cable is the primary holder of stitches, and b) wants to be fairly short, in order for the circs to form, well, a circle.
So the circular needles that you can get usually have needles that are 5" or smaller.
...you can see how this might be a problem, if I need 10" of needle to work with.
Can I hold circs? Sure. But the only comfortable position has one hand on the very flexible cable part, and thus unable to actually hold or manipulate the needle in any way.
At the moment, I have precisely two pair of circs that are functional for me. They were hand-made by a friend's son, by taking a straight needle (therefore of the length I need), chopping off the knob, whittling down the end a bit, and attaching a cable. Except he couldn't get the join smooth with anything smaller than a US7, and in any case the cable part is ... rather sticky. Not to the touch, but the stitches don't want to slide. At all.
I appreciate the hell out of these circs, for the effort involved and for the intent, but they have limited usefulness for me. And it doesn't help when the things I really really want to make are a) sock-weight yarn knitted to gauge (requiring US2 or smaller needles) or b) shawls with a fuckton of stitches (requiring a nicely slidy cable).
I love circs. I miss the hell out of them. And I really wish I could use them.
(current strategy I am toying with is to use normal circular needles with some sort of clamp so I can hold the clamp and the clamp holds the needle and I don't have to kill my shoulders, but I haven't found the right clamp -- something that holds securely without damaging the needle, something that does not require constant pressure to hold closed, something that is easy to open but does not open spontaneously, something that is fairly lightweight -- so that doesn't really work.)
(I have considered approaching some of the standard circular-needle manufacturers and asking if they can special-order -- well, special-make -- circs with long needle sections. But I am a wuss, and besides which the answer is probably no, and if it were yes they'd be frighteningly expensive, and did I mention I'm a wuss?)
Monday, March 28, 2011
This is not a real post
...I just promised myself I would have something every weekday, and this is a placeholder. If you see it, it means I didn't get around to writing anything. Sorry!
Obligatory knitting bit: I am so seriously in love with the scarf yarn (ella rae jaspe wool) to the point that I am in the process of acquiring more skeins (hat + wristwarmers to match scarf, omnom). Not that I need more yarn but this is just awesome. Floofy without being splitty! ♥
Obligatory knitting bit: I am so seriously in love with the scarf yarn (ella rae jaspe wool) to the point that I am in the process of acquiring more skeins (hat + wristwarmers to match scarf, omnom). Not that I need more yarn but this is just awesome. Floofy without being splitty! ♥
Friday, March 25, 2011
Length really does matter
In talking about my scarf project, I mentioned that the needles I was using were 13" long.
This is an average length for straight needles, but long for DPNs. But I need this length in order to knit -- with my hands about 7" apart, a 5" DPN just wouldn't work.
There are, however, two problems with this.
One is that the thinner the needles get, the bendier they get. 5mm works fine. 2.5mm? Not so much. Since I've always got one of the needles gripped halfway down, there is a lot of flex between my grip and the tip of the needle. And flex means that stitches tend to jump off.
In my less-efficient model of knitting -- grip one, left hand at tip of needle to manipulate stitches, right hand halfway down and getting the needle where it should be; grip two, left hand halfway down so I can throw the yarn with my right hand; then back to grip one for pulling the needle through and completing the stitch -- I generally have to do the making-a-stitch motion several times before it sticks. Even with my left hand there to guide the stitches, because the right needle is gripped so far down, the "bring yarn through old stitch" movement has the tip bending enough to let the new stitch sproing off.
And I call this less efficient because there is more transfering of needles between hands. It is, however, the best method I've found for dealing with thin needles and fingering- or sock-weight yarn. The "standard" English method that I use still has my right hand several inches below the tip of the needle, enough for it to flex in the bad ways, yet I don't have the right access to the stitches. (Worsted-weight yarn, especially wool, doesn't need me to handle the stitches much, because I can just work with the needles. But with fingering-weight yarn, I need to be able to handle the stitches as much as the needles.)
The other problem is with circular needles ... but I shall have to get into that later, as there is a cat that needs my attention.
This is an average length for straight needles, but long for DPNs. But I need this length in order to knit -- with my hands about 7" apart, a 5" DPN just wouldn't work.
There are, however, two problems with this.
One is that the thinner the needles get, the bendier they get. 5mm works fine. 2.5mm? Not so much. Since I've always got one of the needles gripped halfway down, there is a lot of flex between my grip and the tip of the needle. And flex means that stitches tend to jump off.
In my less-efficient model of knitting -- grip one, left hand at tip of needle to manipulate stitches, right hand halfway down and getting the needle where it should be; grip two, left hand halfway down so I can throw the yarn with my right hand; then back to grip one for pulling the needle through and completing the stitch -- I generally have to do the making-a-stitch motion several times before it sticks. Even with my left hand there to guide the stitches, because the right needle is gripped so far down, the "bring yarn through old stitch" movement has the tip bending enough to let the new stitch sproing off.
And I call this less efficient because there is more transfering of needles between hands. It is, however, the best method I've found for dealing with thin needles and fingering- or sock-weight yarn. The "standard" English method that I use still has my right hand several inches below the tip of the needle, enough for it to flex in the bad ways, yet I don't have the right access to the stitches. (Worsted-weight yarn, especially wool, doesn't need me to handle the stitches much, because I can just work with the needles. But with fingering-weight yarn, I need to be able to handle the stitches as much as the needles.)
The other problem is with circular needles ... but I shall have to get into that later, as there is a cat that needs my attention.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
How I knit
This was going to be part of yesterday's entry, but I wanted that one to be focused on the scarf.
This entry? Totally focused on me. :D
The way I knit, the only way I can knit, is more or less English (working yarn held in right hand); there are some projects that favor Continental (working yarn in left hand) but this is not one of them. And I can't really knit without dropping one of the needles.
(Okay, "dropping" is a bad term. "letting go of" is more accurate. Except when the needles decide to leap onto the floor, but that's another story.)
I used to be able to knit fairly quickly in this manner by having both hands close to the needle tips; my left hand would be used to support the right needle while my right hand was throwing the yarn, and then would let go when my right hand was back on the needle, and it was tons faster to execute than to type.
Problem is, I can't bring my hands together any more. If one hand is at the needle tips, the other is a good seven inches or so down the other needle. I've tried having my left hand be at the needle tips, with my right hand lower, requiring either Continental knitting (which works ok for knit but not so much for purl; I don't have the wrist flexibility and/or additional fingers that I'd need) or a very awkward sort of picking up the yarn that's tensioned in my right hand and looping it over the needle, which ... is slow and awkward and, after a time, painful.
So my default is to have the right hand at needle tips so I can tension English style, and then let go of the right needle to throw the yarn. With a sufficiently grabby combination of yarn and needles -- this is why I like bamboo! -- the right needle doesn't go anywhere I don't want it to go.
The first stitch of a row is awkward because there aren't any stitches holding the needle there, so a bit of juggling has to go on to keep the needle from flying away. The last stitch of a row would have similar problems except that the left needle never leaves my hand; the stitch skitters along the left needle as I'm trying to get the right needle in, but I can hold it in place long enough to do the stitch, and that's all that matters.
This entry? Totally focused on me. :D
The way I knit, the only way I can knit, is more or less English (working yarn held in right hand); there are some projects that favor Continental (working yarn in left hand) but this is not one of them. And I can't really knit without dropping one of the needles.
(Okay, "dropping" is a bad term. "letting go of" is more accurate. Except when the needles decide to leap onto the floor, but that's another story.)
I used to be able to knit fairly quickly in this manner by having both hands close to the needle tips; my left hand would be used to support the right needle while my right hand was throwing the yarn, and then would let go when my right hand was back on the needle, and it was tons faster to execute than to type.
Problem is, I can't bring my hands together any more. If one hand is at the needle tips, the other is a good seven inches or so down the other needle. I've tried having my left hand be at the needle tips, with my right hand lower, requiring either Continental knitting (which works ok for knit but not so much for purl; I don't have the wrist flexibility and/or additional fingers that I'd need) or a very awkward sort of picking up the yarn that's tensioned in my right hand and looping it over the needle, which ... is slow and awkward and, after a time, painful.
So my default is to have the right hand at needle tips so I can tension English style, and then let go of the right needle to throw the yarn. With a sufficiently grabby combination of yarn and needles -- this is why I like bamboo! -- the right needle doesn't go anywhere I don't want it to go.
The first stitch of a row is awkward because there aren't any stitches holding the needle there, so a bit of juggling has to go on to keep the needle from flying away. The last stitch of a row would have similar problems except that the left needle never leaves my hand; the stitch skitters along the left needle as I'm trying to get the right needle in, but I can hold it in place long enough to do the stitch, and that's all that matters.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Current knitting project
I am, at the moment, working on a scarf:
This is a worsted-weight yarn (very fluffy two-ply, as far as I can tell, though I am by no means an expert on yarn construction) on 13" bamboo US8 (5mm) needles.
Bamboo needles are currently my favorite, since they are very polite about hanging on to stitches for me. It gets a bit more complicated at the beginning and end of rows, when there is only a stitch or two on one of the needles.
The pattern itself is easy to remember and easy to execute; it also seems like it would be easy to adapt to looms, except for the part where I would need a peg marker every four stitches because I haven't figured out how to read loomwork as easily as what's on my needles.
This is a worsted-weight yarn (very fluffy two-ply, as far as I can tell, though I am by no means an expert on yarn construction) on 13" bamboo US8 (5mm) needles.
Bamboo needles are currently my favorite, since they are very polite about hanging on to stitches for me. It gets a bit more complicated at the beginning and end of rows, when there is only a stitch or two on one of the needles.
The pattern itself is easy to remember and easy to execute; it also seems like it would be easy to adapt to looms, except for the part where I would need a peg marker every four stitches because I haven't figured out how to read loomwork as easily as what's on my needles.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Quick note: Needles vs looms
I have seen suggestions (made to me, or to other people) that if knitting with needles is hard/awkward/painful/impossible, knitting looms are a perfect substitute.
They are, and are not.
I have also seen it said (generally by loom advocates) that anyone who claims that knitting looms are not a perfect substitute haven't tried looms or haven't used them enough. So let me preface this by saying that I own looms, have bought looms, have used looms, and like looms.
And yet looms are not knitting.
They are in one respect: you can produce the same sort of fabric on looms that you can on needles. Pretty much anything you can do with needles -- knits, purls, twisted stitches, increases, decreases, whatever -- you can do with a loom. So if your main focus is the end result, and you don't care how you get there, looms are a perfectly good substitute for needles.
But if you are a process knitter, as I am, where the "how" matters as much as the finished result? They are not the same. They are barely comparable, except that they both use yarn, and both produce knitted fabric.
Knitting, for me, is a very tactile thing. The feel of the needles, the feel of the yarn, the feel of needles sliding against yarn or their partner needle, the motion of making a stitch, the tensioned yarn neither too loose nor too tight ... it all matters. And there is a rhythm to knitting: needle through stitch, yarn around needle, needle back out with the new stitch looped on, sliding the old loop off.
Loom knitting has its own rhythms, its own feel, whether you are doing the basic stitch (wrap each peg, drop yarn, hook each old stitch off over the new) or something more complicated. It is neither better nor worse, but it is not the same. It can't be the same, not objectively.
Subjectively, of course, "to each their own" holds true. Some people will prefer one method over the other, some will enjoy both equally well, and that is all very well.
But please, for the love of all things yarny, do not say that loom knitting is essentially the same thing as needle knitting.
Because it's not.
Really.
They are, and are not.
I have also seen it said (generally by loom advocates) that anyone who claims that knitting looms are not a perfect substitute haven't tried looms or haven't used them enough. So let me preface this by saying that I own looms, have bought looms, have used looms, and like looms.
And yet looms are not knitting.
They are in one respect: you can produce the same sort of fabric on looms that you can on needles. Pretty much anything you can do with needles -- knits, purls, twisted stitches, increases, decreases, whatever -- you can do with a loom. So if your main focus is the end result, and you don't care how you get there, looms are a perfectly good substitute for needles.
But if you are a process knitter, as I am, where the "how" matters as much as the finished result? They are not the same. They are barely comparable, except that they both use yarn, and both produce knitted fabric.
Knitting, for me, is a very tactile thing. The feel of the needles, the feel of the yarn, the feel of needles sliding against yarn or their partner needle, the motion of making a stitch, the tensioned yarn neither too loose nor too tight ... it all matters. And there is a rhythm to knitting: needle through stitch, yarn around needle, needle back out with the new stitch looped on, sliding the old loop off.
Loom knitting has its own rhythms, its own feel, whether you are doing the basic stitch (wrap each peg, drop yarn, hook each old stitch off over the new) or something more complicated. It is neither better nor worse, but it is not the same. It can't be the same, not objectively.
Subjectively, of course, "to each their own" holds true. Some people will prefer one method over the other, some will enjoy both equally well, and that is all very well.
But please, for the love of all things yarny, do not say that loom knitting is essentially the same thing as needle knitting.
Because it's not.
Really.
An inventory of supplies
Knitting supplies are, in some respects, sneaky things. They come into your house when you're not looking. I mean, sure, you start out with one set of needles, and that's fine for your first project or two, but then you need needles of different sizes. And then you discover other methods of knitting, which need a whole different set of needles. And then next thing you know, you have enough pointy objects in your house to make a life-sized echidna or three.
The equipment I have at the moment:
The equipment I have somewhere in my black hole of an apartment:
(Yarn needles are annoying little buggers. They disappear more than stitch markers do.)
The equipment I have at the moment:
- A range of bamboo DPNs, 13" long, US0 - US8
- Two handmade wood circulars, US7 and US9
- Wood straights, US13
- Set of Knifty Knitter round plastic looms
- Adjustable Wonder Sock Loom sockEFG
The equipment I have somewhere in my black hole of an apartment:
- A set of sock-weight metal DPNs
- An echidna's worth of aluminum and plastic straights of varying sizes
- A set of bamboo circulars, length tbd
- A medium-gauge knitting board
- Yarn needles
(Yarn needles are annoying little buggers. They disappear more than stitch markers do.)
Monday, March 21, 2011
Obligatory introduction post
Happy Monday, internets!
(or happy Tuesday, depending on your timezone. Timezones are sneaky things.)
I started this blog because I am a knitter, and I am physically disabled, and I am not ready to let the latter keep me from the former. Yarn is a happy thing and I'm not going to lose that!
But at the same time, I can't knit "normally". (Of course, if you get to know enough knitters you will realize that there is no "normal" when it comes to knitting. There are some common similarities, but everyone has individual quirks. Mine just happen to be quirkier than some.)
So I do with knitting what I do with the rest of my life: I adapt.
And this blog is a way of chronicling those adaptations, whether or not they work.
ObDisclaimer: This is not a "how to knit" blog. It is not a "how to knit more awesomely" blog. I also do not speak for anyone but me, and sometimes not even that.
(or happy Tuesday, depending on your timezone. Timezones are sneaky things.)
I started this blog because I am a knitter, and I am physically disabled, and I am not ready to let the latter keep me from the former. Yarn is a happy thing and I'm not going to lose that!
But at the same time, I can't knit "normally". (Of course, if you get to know enough knitters you will realize that there is no "normal" when it comes to knitting. There are some common similarities, but everyone has individual quirks. Mine just happen to be quirkier than some.)
So I do with knitting what I do with the rest of my life: I adapt.
And this blog is a way of chronicling those adaptations, whether or not they work.
ObDisclaimer: This is not a "how to knit" blog. It is not a "how to knit more awesomely" blog. I also do not speak for anyone but me, and sometimes not even that.
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