Mother of Purl by Eig, Edith (best desktop ebook reader .TXT) 📗

[EDITH KNIT TIPS]

Bind Off Loosely

When binding off, be sure to do so loosely; otherwise you risk “puckering” your work. I often recommend to my clients that they bind off using a needle one size larger than the one they’ve been knitting with.

Watch Out for Knots and Adding a Ball of Yarn

On occasion, you may find a knot in your yarn as you knit. It’s important not to continue knitting at this point, working the knot into the row, because the knot may open, resulting in a hole in your work, or it may appear on the “right” side of your work. Instead, undo your stitches to the beginning of the row, open the knot, and attach the two ends with a slipknot, leaving a minimum of six inches that you will weave into your work later on as part of the finishing. Don’t assume that expensive yarn won’t have a knot in it. Even giants have feet of clay.

When adding a new ball of yarn to your work, the same rule applies: attach with a slipknot at the end of the row, leaving a six–inch tail to weave in later.

DROPPED STITCHES

While you’re working on your project, you may notice what appears to be a “run” in your knitting—a loop of a stitch sticking out from the body of your work. Above this stitch you’ll notice little bars, like rungs on a ladder. It’s important to prevent the stitch(es) from running farther down your work and potentially ruining your project. (If you are unable to deal with the stitch immediately, secure it with a safety pin to stop it from running.) As swiftly as possible, catch the loop with either your needle or a crochet hook. Don’t panic. No matter how bad it may look, or how far down in your knitting it has run, in most instances it can be repaired. You’ll now begin the process of picking up your dropped stitch(es). Essentially you will be reknitting your fabric.

There are several ways to pick up a dropped stitch, and here are a few suggestions. Some people use a crochet hook to weave the loop up, but I, however, find my knitting needles to be a much more efficient way of doing this because you are applying the same techniques and motions as in knitting.

[EDITH KNIT TIP]

Saving a Dropped Stitch

If you drop more than one stitch, you’ll want to pick them up one at a time, after placing the other dropped stitches on a safety pin.

Picking Up a Dropped Knit Stitch

STEP 1 A–B: Insert the tip of your right–hand needle into the front of the dropped stitch.

STEP 2: With your left hand, separate the rungs of your ladder, working the rung closest to the dropped stitch first. Insert the tip of the right–hand needle under the rung.

STEP 3 A–E: Insert the tip of your left–hand needle through the stitch on the back of the stitch on your right–hand needle, pulling it through as if to bind off. Repeat this process until you’ve repaired your work.

Picking Up a Dropped Garter Stitch. This is why as I mentioned earlier, it’s important to be able to recognize your knit and purl stitches.

STEP 1: Even though for a garter stitch you knit every row, the ridge formed by doing so consists of a combination of knit and purl. If you look carefully at your ridge, you’ll see the bottom line forming a “V” while the top part looks like a purl. The first step is to look at the first rung and to recognize if the stitch dropped from the knit or the purl ridge. Place the dropped stitch on your left–hand needle. Insert the tip of the right–hand needle into the stitch as if to purl and at the same time, under the rung, pulling it through. The stitch is picked up. Resume your work.

RIPPING OUT YOUR WORK

There is nothing worse than looking at your knitting and realizing you have made a “big” mistake. Maybe you knitted where you should have purled, neglected to increase, or just knitted a piece longer than it needed to be. In any case, you are going to have to undo or rip out your knitting to the point where you made your mistake, fix the error, and continue forward. More than any other aspect of knitting, ripping is frustrating and annoying.

[EDITH KNIT TIP]

Saving a Dropped Stitch—with a Twist

Picking up a dropped stitch on the purl side is easy. Simply turn your work so that the knit side is facing you and follow the process on page 11.

SOFIA COPPOLA

Because Sofia loved knitting so much, she wanted to be able to incorporate it into her film Lost in Translation. So she asked me to design an original pattern and knit a scarf for the film’s lead female character, Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson. The powder blue cashmere scarf is featured prominently in the Academy Award–winning film and also featured in this book.

LOOSE KNIT

One of my first forays into the world of Hollywood knitting took place shortly after I opened my shop. I was approached to teach the cast of Theresa Rebeck’s Loose Knit theatrical production how to knit. The story centered around five contemporary New York City women of diverse backgrounds who gathered to form a knitting group. It was particularly important for each member of the acting troupe to be able to knit proficiently since the loosely knit threads that bring the women together are eventually woven into a tight fabric of friendship and family. I took on the role of knitting coach and worked diligently with the group, teaching them to knit for over five months. On opening night, I was thrilled to see that I was credited as the knitting coach in the Playbill.

During the months of coaching, the entire cast would come to the shop on a weekly basis to