Knitting

One of my groups had someone who was confused over a pattern they were trying to do. I was following the discussion on this pattern and have been introduced to some interesting ideas. I want to talk about them a little and if any of you knitters out there know the correct answers to what I am talking about please do leave me a comment.

First the pattern being discussed is a needle knitted chevron. I was a little surprised that this knitted chevron is the exact same stitch pattern that I use for my chevron baby afghans. It is not difficult and since I use large knitting needles for it (13 to 17 usually), it works up quite fast. It is the same stitch pattern I have on needle right now, the red and yellow afghan for one of my grandsons.

So the person asking the question was having difficulties with ending a row having three extra stitches. The pattern involves a beginning of a knit increase in the front and back of a stitch, then in the center section you have a two stitch decrease, by doing a slip one knit one psso. The increase section is two stitches knitted in front and back of the stitch.

So here is where the discussion lead. Some one says that you always do a slip stitch purl wise unless the pattern says to slip it knit wise and that if a slip stitch is at the beginning of a row it is always done purl wise. Got all that, I hope so, this is where I am perplexed.

I have a few books that teach these kinds of things, and so far to date everything I have read says to always slip a stitch knit wise unless told to slip it purl wise. So here I am reading about this and wondering why I have never read anything that says you should slip purl wise instead of knit wise. What books have I missed (and remember I have a few but my knitting library is not as extensive as my crochet, tatting or macrame one is). I feel that now I need to research this. If the standard is to slip purl wise unless instructed to do it knit wise then I have been doing it wrong. Or maybe wrong, who knows if the person writing the pattens is slipping purl or knit wise unless they tell you.

I will have to take needles and work these stitches both ways to see how they might differ in the way the decrease will look. Is there a big difference? Well, that is too be seen when I have the time to experiment. That time is not yet, but I need to place this in memory and this blog is better then my own has been lately.

So the purl wise for the first stitch of a row is something I have never read anywhere at all. It is also something I would never have thought about if the question hadn't been asked about this other and someone said, slip knit wise, and someone else said no slip purl wise. Oh how confusing to us un-expert workers on needles.