I got held up finishing this hooded cardigan due to using the wrong color combos on sleeves. After a reknit I had to seem and its very difficult to see sts for mattress stitching. I turned to Morgan and she got halfway through. I ended up having to undo all her hard work and seaming on my own since I couldn’t get my seams to match hers.
You see all those coilless pins? Maybe you noticed them earlier on my socks WIP pictured last month. Its a habit. I string together pins for decreases or increases as in inc each end every 6th row 10 times and then every 4 rows 5 times. I would string together 20 pins and when I had run out[having pinned them into each new stitch] I would string together another 10 pins knowing that my increase rate was now every 4th row. It saves counting sts to see if I did all my increases and the string serves as a reminder that something is changing-in this case number of rows between increases. But there are no increases in my socks so here is the other way I use them: every 10 rows I place a pin at beginning of round//each edge. I tend to fully fashion my increases and decreases so am in the habit of placing the pins 2 to 3 sts in from edge.
Not only does the use of coilless pins assist in keeping track of increases/decreases/rows but it greatly aids in seaming. Two ways. The first is ensuring you have the same number of rows per front and back. I hope I am not the only person ever in history of knitting to get to underarm and finding myself trying to gather up 2 inches of back evenly to 1 inch of front. I used to spend much time undoing my seams trying to find the missed rows. Eventually I decided that the real reason this happens is that sometimes we spread out our knitting widthwise to admire the fabric while measuring and other times we are anxious to get to 18″ and smooth our knitting lengthwise. It effects measurements and causes that argh mismatching. The other bonus is you can put away your tape measure when knitting the matching half. You know 23 rows for ribbing[I place markers at end of pattern changes as well] and 87 rows to underarm and 50 rows to shoulder for example. It saves time for us production knitters. The second way it helps seaming is on the off chance that you get those gathers due to missing rows while mattress stitching. Here’s a picture:
See how the pins line up in rows? While seaming when I reach a pin on one side I should also reach a pin on other side. If I do I know I am right on track. If I don’t then I know I missed a row and can undo back to previous pins. I usually remove pins after I have safely reached the next pair but my pin box was upstairs and I am downstairs plus you can see it more clearly.
OK thats this weeks handy dandy knitting tips and tricks. Hope it helps and happy knitting.