Knots
The main point of this post is KNOTS ARE BAD. Don't ever allow knots on your knitting. Got it? Then you don't really need to read further.
Why are knots bad? you may ask. Well they are kind of perverse and no matter what you do to keep them on the wrong side, they always find a way of sticking their head on the right side. So unless you're thinking of ornamental knots, like Celtic ones, which I'm not, you don't want them.
There are two reasons why knots may appear on your knitting: (1) you've made them, (2) they showed up in the yarn you've bought. Both of these usually arise when someone, either you or the yarn producer, decide to join two threads the lazy way. Yes, there are ways to join ends without creating an ugly knot. For yarn producers it's more tricky and knots do occasionally show up even in the best quality skeins.
If knots show up in your yarn, you must cut them! And treat the the rest of the skein as a new one. I get so annoyed with this, but there is no way to avoid it.
Knitters may be very tempted to simply do a knot when they need to join new yarn. After all there are a lot many ways to do this but they usually involve 'weaving in the ends' and nobody likes to do it. The bad news is that you can't be lazy in this instance or you'll regret it.
I often just join the ends together (if I'm not changing colour), by knitting with double yarn (the old and the new) for 5-6 stitches. Afterwards, if I'm knitting something with a wrong side that never shows like a hat, a sweater, or socks I don't bother to weave in any ends, just cut them short. If it's a scarf or cardigan, I'm more neat.
If changing colour, I often lazily let those ends dropping and weave them in later. Most people do a temporary knot, but I never bother (neither did Zimmerman so I know I'm in the right). There is another neat way, similar to knitting the two ends together, that is really worth learning if you do a lot of colour work. You can find it in some nice video tutorials by Sarah Hutton. The link will send you to the page I found them in, a nice, easy to follow, and free knit-a-long by Kaffe Fassett. I bet you'll like it. The links you should follow on that page are the ones that refer to 'joining' and 'weaving in', but there are a bunch of additional techniques which are also nice to learn. And you can't go wrong with these guys.
Why are knots bad? you may ask. Well they are kind of perverse and no matter what you do to keep them on the wrong side, they always find a way of sticking their head on the right side. So unless you're thinking of ornamental knots, like Celtic ones, which I'm not, you don't want them.
There are two reasons why knots may appear on your knitting: (1) you've made them, (2) they showed up in the yarn you've bought. Both of these usually arise when someone, either you or the yarn producer, decide to join two threads the lazy way. Yes, there are ways to join ends without creating an ugly knot. For yarn producers it's more tricky and knots do occasionally show up even in the best quality skeins.
If knots show up in your yarn, you must cut them! And treat the the rest of the skein as a new one. I get so annoyed with this, but there is no way to avoid it.
Knitters may be very tempted to simply do a knot when they need to join new yarn. After all there are a lot many ways to do this but they usually involve 'weaving in the ends' and nobody likes to do it. The bad news is that you can't be lazy in this instance or you'll regret it.
I often just join the ends together (if I'm not changing colour), by knitting with double yarn (the old and the new) for 5-6 stitches. Afterwards, if I'm knitting something with a wrong side that never shows like a hat, a sweater, or socks I don't bother to weave in any ends, just cut them short. If it's a scarf or cardigan, I'm more neat.
If changing colour, I often lazily let those ends dropping and weave them in later. Most people do a temporary knot, but I never bother (neither did Zimmerman so I know I'm in the right). There is another neat way, similar to knitting the two ends together, that is really worth learning if you do a lot of colour work. You can find it in some nice video tutorials by Sarah Hutton. The link will send you to the page I found them in, a nice, easy to follow, and free knit-a-long by Kaffe Fassett. I bet you'll like it. The links you should follow on that page are the ones that refer to 'joining' and 'weaving in', but there are a bunch of additional techniques which are also nice to learn. And you can't go wrong with these guys.
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