My last post was over three years ago. It's been awhile, huh? Since last writing I have been taught to knit by a dear friend. Today's post is about my latest knitting adventure.
The other day I was contemplating how machine knitting could work, which led me to consider that a similar process could be accomplished by hand. Well, fingers.
I had bought some ribbon-like yarn on sale a few weeks ago. I liked the color and purchased it despite having no idea what I'd do with it. Let's call it crafter's optimism.
In dreaming up a finger knitting technique--which is akin to knitting with your fingers as four vertically held crochet hooks, instead of using one knitting needle--I realized the as-of-yet-purposeless yarn would be perfect to test this idea.
My intial test proved quite successful. Except I don't have much use for a two-finger thick scarf. I tried attaching the two ends. It was an improvement but I'd probably never wear it.
Grabbing my other skein, I tried to knit some patterns using size 15 needles. (One of the many crafting treasures inherited from my grandmother.) Despite the super thick needles, I found the stiches to be too tight. The finger knitting had had a pleasant looseness to it.
I decided maybe a braid using three finger-knitted ropes would work. I could have sworn I had purchased three or four skeins of the ribbon yarn, but couldn't find more than the two in my crafting room. I settled on trying a twist of two ropes.
The struggle has been finding a way to connect the two ropes at every twist/overlap. I experimented with using the size 15 needles to knit a row across the two at every twist, but that made it hard to get my fingers back into the stiches. I spent probably an hour or two trying out possible solutions.
I've ended up knitting the twist connections with my finger knitting technique. The process overall involves having both ropes on one hand, knitting on the accesible row of stitches, and swapping it all to the other hand to work on the other rope.
With my luck I'll find that third skein after I finish this project. I recently convinced myself that I'd never purchased a certain french grammar book because I couldn't find it. I ordered a different french learner, only to find the grammar book while looking for the skeins.
My scarf is well on its way to being complete. Or it would be if my cat wasn't preventing me from working on it right now. While writing this post he chose my lap as an ideal nap spot.
I never did get around to looking up how machine knitting actually works.
