The Zig-Zag Knitting board Stitch

Not much time this morning. It is payday again. So I have all that do this, get this done, have to finish that, then I can get numbers from payroll and do checks. With everyone standing around (well working while standing around ROFLOL) bugging me about when checks are going to be done. Sigh, one more time. Wow, how did it get here so fast.

I started to play with the zig-zag stitch last night. I thought I had it before when I helped someone on it, but I must have lost it. Well, I am lost more and more these days, must be a getting older thing.

Anyway, I tried and tried and that first row for the zig-zag just wasn't coming out right. So I went to the computer with my board and popped in the DVD. After following that DVD all the way through that first row, I was still wrong. So rip it out and start again. I did this several times before it dawned on me that the problem wasn't me, it was the instructions, written from the knittingboard site and the DVD. Duh, how can this be worked if I don't understand in the first place.

The directions say to leave the thin side thin and the thick side thick. The DVD shows wrapping the first row of the zig-zag then tells you that thin and thick stuff. Then it proceeds to tell you to knit off the two bottom stitches on the thin side to leave it thin. Well, bummer I didn't have two stitches. This caused me to re-wrap and re-wrap to try to see what I was doing wrong to not have two stitches to knit off.

I was getting quite frustrated trying to figure out why I was making such a mistake. Where was I going wrong? I couldn't find it. So I just decided to knit off that row and try the second. I did.

Oh boy I wrapped that second row and went wow, there's the two stitches on the leave it thin sides. Ok now I understand. Even though the DVD tells you to knit off two stitches on the first row of the leave it thin, there are not two stitches to knit off. There is only one for the first row.

You see the leave it thick is the side that will next be your leave it thin. You started with a base and on that base there is one stitch per peg before you begin your first row of the zig-zag. So you cannot possibly have two stitches for the leave it thin pegs on the first row. The leave it thick has your peg wrapped with three stitches. You knit off one of the three on the leave it thick. So the next row, row 2 and all others, when wrapped has the leave it thin side on the pegs that were the leave it thick on the row before. Now since you only knitted off one wrap you have two left on that peg, and the second row now has three stitches on the leave it thin pegs. Now you have two stitches to knit off for the leave it thin and the leave it thick.

What a mess. Just a simple little mess up in that DVD was driving me crazy. Funny I don't have a very long drive to get to that point so I got there quickly. Even the instructions from the website do not explain this little point of only one stitch on the thin side to knit off for the first row. Such a small detail to leave such a mess in learning. A lesson to remember when I am trying to help someone.

I am now several inches into that swatch I am playing with. It really is a simple wrapping method. Then once you have learned to see the leave it thin and leave it thick pegs, it becomes quite quick to work with. It is also a very nice looking piece. The slanting of the stitches is quite pretty, and the swatch is fairly thick. Oh I should have said, (don't leave anything out), I am working with two strands of red heart worsted in white on a large gauged scarf loom from CinDWood Crafts (see sidebar for link).

A long, long time ago my daddy said "Don't believe everything you see or read, as that might be only part of the whole." Boy I think he meant this one as the written and the seeing was only part of the whole. A fine example of how leaving a little part out can spoil the whole thing and make it not work right.

Ok off here and back to the work thing. I took way too long for this little break as it is.