Knew Knitter Knows Knothing
 

When I was just a little girl, my grandmother taught me the KNIT stitch. That's all I ever took with me through my life and while, on several occasions, I tried to teach myself to purl (my grammie said it was just the reverse of knit) I was unsuccessful. It seemed clumsy and I just couldn't get the mechanics down.

Last week, I got the mechanics down and thought I was on my way, but there's apparently something I'm still doing wrong. My yarn wraps from outside the knitting to the inside, creating a "gobbing" effect. I get a wrapped up gob when I combine knit/purl stitches. I do great if I knit a whole row or purl a whole row. It's when I have to combine them in the same row that I have a problem.

I figure my problem to be in either technique or maybe even how I hold the yarn or even where the yarn is placed. I also wonder if I'm not naturally combining one style of knit with the other style of purl.

I do so badly want to learn to do this right -- I've so enjoyed what I've done to this point and I'm finding it has tremendous calming and therapeutic value after a long day of those pompous "Y" chromosomes I work for.

Tell me. Is there any hope for me?

Of course there's hope!!

Have you watched Amy's purling video?? She's a fantastic teacher, and she won't make fun of you if you have to try again and again...and again. :mrgreen:

:cheering:

That's good news!

Yes, I've been watching the videos (didn't know they were there when I posted this message).

It appears that I'm holding yarn all wrong and need to re-teach myself using the video as a guide -- both knitting and purling.

Can't believe how quickly I've become an addict....

It's bad enough that I'm a gardening addict who is not allowed at the garden store without adult supervision. Now this!

:drool:

It's scary how fast the addiction sets in. Pretty soon you'll wonder where that huge stash of yarn came from! :rollseyes: :mrgreen:

Already there.

I have 3 one pound skeins, and 4 smaller ones.

Sitting there, innocently enough, but with the rest of th family walking by, eyebrows raised.

I think I heard my son humming the theme from "Twilight Zone" as he passed by me last night.

:lol:

Especially watch the video on SEED STITCH. That knit/purl combo is exactly what you may be looking for!

You should probably stay away from Knitpicks then... :eyebrow:

That was very helpful -- wondering, however, how I would find individual videos that aren't basic techniques? For example, I looked for this video and didn't find it, other than the link you provided.

But then again, I'm heavily into MENTALpause, so...

:drool:

If you click on "basic techniques" look for the link that says "and more..." at the far right. That's where they're hiding. ;)

you can also get the vogie knitting book that helped me alot and it is a good book to keep even if you knitted for 10 years sometime you just for get a little stitch... LIKE MYSELF it is always nice to have when you don't have the computer handy... and stitch and bitchs books are also good and they have very good projects when you get that far in the book Jenifer