#knitting methods

Basics part 1

In Scandinavia we love knitwear. It’s what helps us survive the damp, cold, dark, frosty climate.

Many think that our knitting is a little magical. I will try to break down how we do it. (It might take a while, and I won’t update regularly)

First of all, we call it: strikke/sticka.

The word means noose. Like a loop/sling. Because it’s using loops/nooses. We do have the word knitting, it’s ‘knytte’, but we only use that when you actually make a knot (knude). So it’s usually used for net making. Using ‘strikke’ denotes that the loops are lose and can glide and unravel.

In Danish and Norwegian we call knitting needles: pins (pinde). Because a needle is considered a sharp, whereas a pin is blunt. In Sweden they also use needle (nål).

A knit stitch is called: Ret/rett. (As in: right.) A purl stitch is called: Vrang (As in: wrong)

Basics part 2 (Basics part 1)

I’ll show it with pictograms first. Then photos in later posts.

The knit stitch.

The thing with Scandinavian knitting, is that you never need to change hands. You can hold your hands in the same position on the needles, you mainly use your fingers to move the yarn.

Scandinavian knitting happens on the pin tips.

You always start in the first position: Both hands holding the needles (not shown) and the yarn wrapped over the index finger, (and maybe ring finger too)

In the knit stitch let the right hand needle go through the first loop on the left hand needle, from the backside.

You go all the way through. Then use the index finger to wrap the yarn around the right hand needle.

Then you drag the yarn back out through the loop the same way. It’s a good idea to use right hand index finger to hold.

Taje the new loop onto the right hand needle. And let go of the old loop.

Even if one is not a knitter at all, the popularity of sock knitting is evident from just looking at the variety of sock-knitting books available to say nothing of beautiful sock yarns!  As mentioned in my post on Laurie Perry's book, "Home is Where the Wine Is," she opined that some knitters have an almost "cult-like devotion" to sock-knitting.

If we are going to compare a kind of knitting "devotion" to religious devotion, I could make this comparison:  Sock knitters only become "fanatics" when they insist that socks are the only things to knit (like certain cultists who believe their spiritual bias is the only truth)!  In knitting, this can happen not just with the insistence on knitting only a particular item but when some knitters decide "The Continental (or English or Portuguese or whatever) method is the only way to knit!" 

Still another viewpoint which sometimes can approach the fanatical is a dogmatic belief that "sock yarn should only be used for socks!"  Rubbish!  Most sock yarns are a versatile fingering weight and can make up into beautiful -- and durable -- shawls, gloves, even fine-gauge sweaters!  However, if a particular knitting devotion is almost "cult-like," fortunately, it seems to be a harmless one.  At least I have never heard of mass suicides committed by the People's Temple of Circular Knitting or the Branch Sock Knitters!

So, returning to sock knitting in itself, there are plenty of advantages to making them.  Socks have the advantage of being a "portable project" as well as being nice gifts that are relatively quick to make up.  If you have been seeing a man for a few months who seems to be nice but you are not quite sure he merits a sweater, socks are a nice "intermediate" gift.  If he comes up with a thoughtless line such as, "You went to all this effort and expense when for the price of the wool you could have bought me a dozen pairs at a department store?" then you know he deserves to be dismissed as easily as he dismissed your gift!  If he shows the proper appreciation, then he might be worth keeping around for a little while longer!

Another advantage that many knitwear designers have discovered about socks is, being small, socks are the perfect size for trying out different patterns.  Not only do you get a sampler, you get a garment as well!

One aspect of sock knitting that some consider a "down-side" is that most of us have TWO feet; therefore, some sock knitters feel let down when it's time to begin the second sock and even delay finishing the pair.  This feeling is often called "Second Sock Syndrome."  I came across Deborah Robson's quote about knitting both socks at the same time in "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber.  Curious about what her method could be, I sought out Ms. Robson on the Internet and found her.  She graciously and promptly replied that she would have two sets of needles and two balls of her chosen yarn.  Then she would (1) knit the cuff on Sock A, then the cuff on Sock B; (2) the leg on Sock A, the leg on Sock B; (3) turn the heel on Sock A, turn the heel on Sock B; (4) pick up the gusset stitches on Sock A, pick up the gusset stitches on Sock B; (5) work the gusset on Sock A, work the gusset on Sock B; (6) work the foot to the toe on Sock A, work the foot to the toe on Sock B; and finally, (7) work the toe on Sock A, then work the toe on Sock B.  That seems to be the best method I have found so far.  Please feel free to let me know if you have a better one.