Welcome to episode 44 of The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects. My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This week: increase stitches, Orchard on the Hill hat and finally, a sport weight project for me: Herz by Claudia Eisenkolb.
Ft knitting patterns:
Ft knitting tutorials
Ft knitting videos
Increase stitches
There are all sorts of options when working increase stitches, and usually the designer will stipulate the appropriate increase stitch in the pattern. The most common I come across are M1L and M1R, which gives you a left- or right-leaning increase stitch. If you don’t know how to do these visit the link above which will take you to a Staci Perry video. I always use Staci’s videos if possible as they are so clear, well-presented and free of unnecessary faff and chat. For some reason I find it almost impossible to keep the two M1R and M1L methods in my head and have to refer to a video or notes every single flipping time, which becomes a real bore when you have several of each in every row.
My preferred increase is KFB: knit front and back. It’s an extremely simple increase method but doesn’t achieve the same design ends as a left- or right-leaning stitch and isn’t as invisible. I’ve decided to use it for Herz, however, as I think my cack-handed execution of the M1 methods were contributing to laddering that I was getting between knit and purl sections. These are worse as I’m knitting round a marker too, so I decided all in all to use KFB, move it in one stitch when it’s by a laddered section and see if that improves matters. If all else fails I can cover it up with my hair as these increases are up high on the back.
Music credit:
“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/