Combining Methods

Greetings from Arizona! I’m here with a quick report from the midst of my current WIP, which is also one of my languishing UFOs. It’s the Strandwanderer Scarf by Lea Viktoria. I’m making it in  Holiday Yarns hand dyed Flock Sock yarn in a color called Fathom. The design puts the colors to work in a new way with horizontal stripes mixed with tiny vertical stripes created with short rows.

The short rows are just three stitches long and there are a lot of them, so of course I started knitting in both directions. Because I hadn’t thought ahead to set it up to do the garter stitch in my favorite way for working both ways, I was feeling a bit clunky on the knitting back rows using such small yarn and needles. So, I played around with holding the yarn in my left hand, but that didn’t help with fluency. Then I thought of the Portuguese style of knitting made popular by my friend Andrea Wong. I found a safety pin, set things up and off I went.

Needle position for knitting in opposite direction using body-tensioned yarn.

Lifting the yarn over with the right thumb.

Can I just give myself a pat on the back? It is working like a charm and I’m loving this scarf! I hope to get it done by the end of the week.

Tomorrow, my mom undergoes her double mastectomy. She is already well-supplied with knitted knockers, both plain and fancy, so once she is healed, she’ll be ready to face the world.

How do you combine methods for tricky projects?