I love knitting. We all do. I mean, what would you do sitting down in front of the telly during weekdays while watching a rerun of NCIS? Knitting, obviously! But I have to say that there are some steps when I am knitting a piece of clothing, that I wish I could just skip.
Sewing up is not too painful anymore
Several years ago, that would be sewing up and blocking. Nowadays, I deal with sewing up better. I could do mattress stitch relatively faster than I did a couple of years ago, and definitely much neater too. Blocking is not so much a big chore either because after I pin the piece somewhere flat, I can just leave it there and kind of forget about it overnight. No biggie.
BUT… as I learn more about knitting, learn more new tricks and techniques, and knit more, I realised that doing complicated thing is not the bit that I don’t like. Like Kitchener stitch, or three needles bind off — for examples, they are very useful and neat way of finishing, and I love it. It is the small, monotonic step that I wish I could just avoid, such as picking and knitting along the front and neck to make button and neck band.
Ugh!
And then doing 1×1 ribbing!
My goodness that takes forever. So is my WIP… unfortunately…
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Bored Little Piggy 
Oooo! That sweater looks like mint chip ice cream! Can’t wait to see it. As far as picking up stitches, I no loner pick up & knit. I take a smaller needle and weave it through the edge number of stitches needed (the way you would a blocking wire) and then knit off the new needle. It feels less fiddly.
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That is something I could try, but when you weave the edge, wouldn’t it be the same as picking? I mean, would it be like you just knit it a bit later when you’ve done all the picking? 😮
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It seems easier when it’s with a smaller needle it’s more like in and out, in and out.
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that makes perfect sense. Maybe next time i can try to do it your way 🙂
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I don’t mind picking up stitches, just as long I have pick up the exact number of stitches as there are bind off stitches, or cast on stitches, or rows, however which way I’m picking them up. I really HATE picking up around the neckline of a sweater because the number of bind off or cast on stitches along the edge is always more than the number of stitches to pick up. I get really fussy and fed up, picking them up, feeling unhappy with how it looks, undoing it, doing it again…
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totally.. totally agree with that. I have picked the whole button and neck band and unravel it once, and I don’t really want to do it again.
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It’s going to be a lovely sweater. I don’t love picking up stitches either, but I made a few items that required it and got used to it. I’m still working up the nerve (and money) to work on a sweater…hence more socks. (And let’s not think about the ribbing until we get there;-). Soon, this will be a wearable object and you will be quite proud. Good work!
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Thank you Dragon 🙂 I had to unravel it once because the band looked a bit wonky. Now I hope it is okay because I don’t fancy picking up from the start again 😦
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