Thursday, May 28, 2009

SSK is an ugly stitch

Well, the newness of Facebook is starting to wear off and I'm now returning attention to my other online interests.

I'm still working with Jo Ellyn Wheeler and Carolyn Faircloth on the TKGA Master course. Today we worked on the three swatches concerning decreasing. And I learned something that amazed me. I mean, really. I just sat there staring at it. I knit almost exclusively sweaters, which require shaping, a lot of it. I had vaguely heard of the term 'full-fashioned' but had yet to knit a pattern requiring it. Usually, your right-hand side of the garment decrease is an SSK (slip knit-wise, slip-knitwise, return both to left needle and knit the 2 together through the back loops), and the left-hand side is K2tog. These two are supposed to mirror each other but seldom do. Enter full-fashioned. This is the opposite, i.e. K2tog is on the right-hand side, SSK on the left. The regular way produces a vertical line up the side of the garment. Full-fashioned produces a series of 'slashes' pointing outwards at each decrease. Okay, to each his own.

Here's the part that amazed me. K2tog on the right-hand side MIRRORS K2tog on the left. I am NOT KIDDING. As soon as I take pics of my swatches, I'll point it out. Try it and see, I'll never do that ugly SSK again!

Also OTN, Prairie from Anny Blatt Timeless Classics from the Knit Collection.

2 comments:

Linda said...

The Facebook newness has worn off for me too - don't think I've looked this week in fact.

Don't you love learning new knitting stuff? Something wild to try when you've got five minutes to kill? Knit a 3-stitch Icord, but PURL the center stitch instead of knitting it. You won't believe what comes out.

Michelle Brennan said...

I'll have to try that!