Speed knitting

Well...... I find this a bit depressing! I knew knitting continental style could be faster than throwing - (yarn in right hand) but this really takes the biscuit:-) How fast is that?

I'm a thrower and although I can knit reasonably fast, now I'm knitting bigger projects, it would help if I was a little bit faster than I am! Knitting styles have always fascinated me. Everyone seems to knit just a little bit differently from each other. I was teaching a class the basics of knit a few years ago and the other teacher said I knitted weirdly. Weirdly? Yes, she said. You move your whole hand putting the yarn around the needle. But I can knit fast, I said. Yeees, she demured. With the word 'but...' hovering in the unspoken conversation. Okay, I said. How do you 'throw' and why is your method faster? So I got a demonstration of the yarn wound around the index finger and she literally 'threw' the yarn from the index finger around the needle and the rest of her hand didn't seem to move. Oooh, I said. You see how this could be quicker, she said. Yes, I said, but couldn't seem to get the hang of it as I kept wanting to knit 'my way'. Sigh. So I quietly forgot about my weird away of knitting and carried on as normal:-)

But now I'm wanting to knit faster and I'm thinking, should I learn this quicker throwing method or should I learn the continental one? It does seem even faster to me..... Or should I bother?

This is something I have been thinking about for a while now and more so since I watched Ysolda's video comparing throwing and continental knitting styles. I've watched and watched this to try and compare my knitting style to Ysolda's (she's fast!) and mine just looks different and is a lot slower! I mean, I know it shouldn't matter as I can knit and make everything I want to using my method albeit slower. My mum knits like this and her mum did too. So in a way I am continuing a family tradition. Would I be cheating if I modified my style so I could knit faster? More to the point, can I? Am I too set in my ways:-) These are the habits of a lifetime, the things you do automatically, like driving, playing the piano and knitting complex patterns. If you stop and think about what you are actually doing, it all falls apart;-))

Well, these are the thoughts buzzing around in my head while I am knitting away.

It's funny. I was knitting buttercup watching miss marple, who is forever knitting:-) and every time she had the knitting out I was watching her knitting style. Forget the plot - which I know pretty well off by heart anyway - and watch the knitting! She - Joan Hickson - is a thrower but holds the needle on top of the hand instead of under, with the yarn wound around the pinkie. Not so much movement maybe? I'm sure one of my grans knitted like this and it brought back memories of me with my 'grown-up' knitting, furiously knitting beside them trying to keep up!

So is speed so important and am I analysing this way too much and taking the fun out of the whole process? Or am I just curious enough to take my knitting one step further?

Buttercup and serendipity

Wow! I didn't mean to be away so long. Five days? How did that happen? Well, that's what happens when you get bitten by the buttercup bug. Sounds addictive - and it is! But you will be pleased to know that Buttercup is now officially finished, bar photos of me wearing it in good daylight - if you are very lucky. I may use the dummy instead if they look too awful to post:-) Today the weather is rainy, dull and misty - did I say dull? No light whatsoever to take decent photos of the lovely buttercup. So, we'll have to make do with the slightly bleached photos I took after blocking. But it's the details we want to see!

Okay. First up we have the gorgeous feather and fan neckline which you saw modelled before on my dummy (in a slightly brighter yellow). On the flat, you can see how the eyelet pattern aligns with the edge of the feather and fan stitch. I blocked the crap out of all the lace edgings so I could get nice stitch definition but maybe I went a bit too pointy on the neckline?! Hoping once this is on it will settle into more gentle curves:-) This pattern is noted for being a bit 'low' on the chest so I will probably wear a long sleeved tee underneath anyway.

Nicely blocked feather and fan lace edging at the bottom - if I say so myself:-))) Love, love, love it! I really hope this does keep its shape as I like the ripple edging. Not bad matching with the vertical eyelets either. I didn't manage to complete the whole of the increases that the pattern stated though as I knew once I got to the sixth out of the seven increases I was running out of yarn big time and the full length just wasn't going to be. So I sat down and thought of lots of alternatives:

1 - reducing the rows between the increases - but I thought it could go out too much too quickly and look a bit bell-like:-)

2 - knit as long as I could and then knit a simple edging that would match the pattern of the sleeves. Not a great option but maybe the only realistic one.

3 - Alter the feather and fan repeat. It uses 18 stitches repeat (6x3).

The main problem was that 18 could only be divided evenly after the full seven increases. So I was stuffed, I thought. Then while knitting closer to decision time, it dawned on me to change the 6 to a 5. 5x3=15 stitch repeat. And guess what? I was on 240 stitches which divided by 15, sixteen times. Evenly. What are the chances of that? Serendipity!!

So that's what I did. And I decided to go with the flow and add a few more rows of feather and fan for the bottom edging. I was aiming for 4 repeats but as I was rapidly running out of yarn, I thought three was pretty good and looked nicely balanced. Just as well as this was all the yarn that was left.....

A very, very close thing indeed! I couldn't have planned it better if I tried. Knitted as long as I could have with the yarn I had and just enough to cast off - with all my modifications. I'm thinking that watching far too much miss marple has stirred my brain into gear on this one:-)