Twisted Stitches

SugarBob62 · 09-28-2012, 07:50 AM

Hi there...quick question. I have watched the how to fix a twisted stitch video. But my question is...will a knit AND purl stitch look the same on the needles? I know the leading edge of it should be in the front and slanted towards your left thumb. And I know how to flip it back around the right way.

But...I am doing a baby blanket where it has a pattern of K10, P10, K10, P10...etc. And I messed up a row and had to rip back 1.5 rows. So I thankfully got all the stitches back on the needle (without loosing row upon row like I did with another project once

). However now I'm having a hard time discerning whether a stitch is actually twisted or not. And what happens if say I fix some of them but I don't get all them back to how they should be. What happens to your work if you miss a twisted stitch and just knit it and continue on...

Antares · 09-28-2012, 01:28 PM

If you don't untwist some stitches, it can look like either of the latter two pictures on this site: http://knitwhits.wordpress.com/2006/...sted-stitches/

Once you learn what twisted and an untwisted stitches look like, you can usually scan the knit side of your work and easily find these errors.

Hope that helps!

suzeeq · 09-28-2012, 03:20 PM

Always work into the first leg of the stitch on the needle, the one closest to the tip. Whether that leg is in front of the needle or in back of it, that will keep it from being twisted. If you find on a later row that one is twisted, then drop off the sts above it, ladder down to it, untwist it and bring the stitch back up to the needle by pulling the yarn through the loops. There's a video for doing that under Fixing Mistakes on the Tips page.

MerigoldinWA · 09-28-2012, 03:40 PM

Quote:

But my question is...will a knit AND purl stitch look the same on the needles? I know the leading edge of it should be in the front and slanted towards your left thumb.

I don't relate to your description of the stitch mount. The way I think of it is that as the loop is sitting on the left needle, the leg of the stitch nearest my body should also be nearest to the tip of the knitting needle. This is true of a knit or a purl stitch.

Quote:

What happens to your work if you miss a twisted stitch and just knit it and continue on...

If the stitch is a purl stitch and it is not sitting correctly on the left needle before it is worked, it will look fine once it is purled onto the right hand needle. So if you were working a sweater and the purl was on the outside it would be fine because the resulting knit stitch on the inside wouldn't show. But since you are working a blanket and both sides will show that is not as nice.

If you purl a stitch and weren't sure it was mounted correctly before you purled it, you can turn the work immediately and look at the resulting knit stitch just below the needle (it will be the stitch below where the yarn is attached), the bottom of that little \ / should look like that with a bit of an opening at the bottom, but if the purl was backwards the bottom of the vee will be closed and actually cross over itself. If it does, turn back to the side you were working on, tink the stitch and then change the mount and purl again, check it again to make sure it is right.

If it is a knit stitch that was mounted incorrectly, as soon as you work it, without turning, the stitch right below the right needle will be crossed at the bottom instead of being open. Do it over.

By careful observation and a little experimenting you will soon be able to prevent twists. Also in case you didn't know, if a knit stitch is sitting on the left needle wrong you don't have to turn it around, just knit it behind the right needle instead of in front and it will straighten out. Presto! (the knit feels a bit like a purl because you enter the stitch with the two needle tips pointing toward each other).

Same is true for a purl but to purl through the back loop feels a bit more awkward. With your yarn in front (cause it's a purl) and working from behind the left needle, run your right needle starting to the left of the stitch loop, into the stitch so that the needle sticks out in front of the left needle between the two legs of the stitch, from there do your yarn around and purl the stitch. This will straighten it out.

That is a detailed description.

But hopefully it makes sense. It's not hard.

SugarBob62 · 09-29-2012, 04:22 PM

Ok thanks all! I think I did to the best of my abilities haha. I'm worried though that some of them might have been twisted double or something. I knitted the next row and was able to tell which ones weren't on the needle right and I flipped them back around as I knitted. And it looks OK, but I'm not sure if it's perfect. I'm either going to keep this blanket though or it will be one I donate to Project Linus, and I'm sure for either it doesn't have to be 100% perfect. It's literally only the 3rd blanket I've started making. I'm really ok at the knitting part, until I make a mistake and gotta rip back, thats where I always always have problems. But then the pattern switches, and what is knitting on one side will then be purled, to make a checkers pattern...so maybe if I have a few twisted stitches still, maybe it won't be quite as noticable...hopefully!!
The worst part is, I'm so mad at myself. I know exactly how it got messed up. I thought I accidently didn't click my stitch counter to be done with row 23, so I started working on row 24, but I shoulda actually been on row 23, so the pattern got messed up and that's why I had to rip back...ugh!! Next time I won't doubt myself hahahah.

salmonmac · 09-29-2012, 07:23 PM

Sounds like you're doing all the right things. I'm sure one or several twisted sts are not going to affect the overall appearance of this blanket. The big plus is that you're learning to recognize twisted sts. You may even be able to feel when you come to one because it will be a little more difficult to slide the needle into it.
Using a row counter is good but also take a look at the rows you finished and count them. That way you'll be less dependent on the row counter.
Please do post a photo of the finished blanket. Sounds like a lovely pattern.

SugarBob62 · 09-29-2012, 07:49 PM

Well that WAS the problem haha. I got confused because the pattern confused me because I hadn't worked on it for like a week. And I was like hmm I think I forgot to click the counter, because I counted the rows it seems to add up, but I must have been off by one row. So I thought my adding confirmed the row counter was wrong. But in fact the row counter was right now, so now I make certain I CLICK it after each row haha. So now I'll know the row I need to do next is the next number. Yeah I felt the ones that were hard to knit into, or saw they were mounted wrong. It's just a matter of if I twisted one too many times, but oh well...yeah I'm sure overall it will still look ok haha.