I've been working through a lot of garter stitch lately. I started by knitting up a new design, only to find I didn't like the way I was doing Fleegle's no-purl garter-in-the-round method. I could still see an obvious patch, covering a couple of stitches on either side of the yarn change. I suspected it is my technique rather than the method that is failing me here. So I practiced on some spare yarn, but I'm still not happy. Rather than admit defeat, I decided to bury my head in the sand for a bit, and go knit something that is a pure celebration of garter stitch.
There's no need to identify this beyond the photograph, is there?
Yarn: 70g/240m of the light purple (MC; Araucania Ranco Solid); 50g/170m of the dark purple (C1; Louet Gems); 60g/230m of the red (C2; Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid)
Needles: 4mm Addi Turbos
Pattern: Need I even say it? Color Affection, of course, by the talented Veera Valimaki
Notes: All three yarns are from the stash- and I'd had all of them for upwards of three years- so, yay, deep stashbusting!
I followed the directions as given, except I did kfb increases rather than m1 increases. I made sure to twist my colours- this kept the edge neat, but you can see the carrying yarn at the edge as a different colour to the stripe it is next to- I could not really improve this. I also managed to block the shawl into an almost perfect crescent moon shape, rather than the asymmetrical check-mark-ish shape in the pattern schematic.
It's great pattern, a simple but ingenious shape with short rows, and even though those last rows are looooong, it did not make me hate garter stitch.
Now, back to "work". Anyone with hints or tips on Fleegle's garter-in-the-round method, I'm all ears!
There's no need to identify this beyond the photograph, is there?
Yarn: 70g/240m of the light purple (MC; Araucania Ranco Solid); 50g/170m of the dark purple (C1; Louet Gems); 60g/230m of the red (C2; Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid)
Needles: 4mm Addi Turbos
Pattern: Need I even say it? Color Affection, of course, by the talented Veera Valimaki
Notes: All three yarns are from the stash- and I'd had all of them for upwards of three years- so, yay, deep stashbusting!
I followed the directions as given, except I did kfb increases rather than m1 increases. I made sure to twist my colours- this kept the edge neat, but you can see the carrying yarn at the edge as a different colour to the stripe it is next to- I could not really improve this. I also managed to block the shawl into an almost perfect crescent moon shape, rather than the asymmetrical check-mark-ish shape in the pattern schematic.
It's great pattern, a simple but ingenious shape with short rows, and even though those last rows are looooong, it did not make me hate garter stitch.
Now, back to "work". Anyone with hints or tips on Fleegle's garter-in-the-round method, I'm all ears!
3 comments:
Ah, that is a beautiful shawl! I have seen these all over Ravelry of late and am trying to avoid being sucked in, but it's a slippery slope. :-)
I had problems with garter stitch in the round as well. I tried pretty much every method I could find last year trying to make myself a simple garter stitch hat (because I'm too stubborn to give in and knit the thing flat!) and gave up completely in the end. :-(
Gorgeous! I think I'm going to have to jump on the bandwagon soon - I'm pretty sure I already have some suitable yarn in my stash...
I tried Fleegle's method on a hat, as well as Liat Gat's KnitFreedom method (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAc24nNf92o), but I wasn't really happy with either of them. They're both much more noticeable than just working knit/purl rounds.
I think Fleegle's method is probably fine when you are knitting lace shawl borders, where the stitches are worked at a loose gauge and the "join" moves over one stitch each time because of the increases. But if the joins are all stacked one on top of each other in a tube-shaped item like a hat or sweater, especially at a tighter gauge, it's very visible.
I've come to the conclusion that I'll only use that method for something that will be felted, or if I make a Shetland square. Otherwise I'll keep purling, or knit flat and seam.
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