Saturday, December 22, 2007

Ribbing is a problem for many people. Not the technique itself because it's just a series of knits and purls, but that first purl after a knit segment tends to be loose and if you're like me it drives you crazy. nonaKnits figured out how to make improved ribbing when knitting flat, but ribbing in the round still vexed me. Her method doesn't provide good results (IMO) when knitting in the round so I searched Ravelry and then internet in general and discovered that others had problems too, but no one had definitive answers. So I played around with knitting in the back of the first purl, wrapping the yarn clockwise instead of counter clockwise and finally settled on a method that IMO looks great.

Purl into the first purl stitch after knits like you always do EXCEPT wrap the yarn under or clockwise instead of over the top. This twists the purl stitch. On any other purls following do them normally. Continue this method as long as you're ribbing.

A warning: Because that first purl is twisted this method is not reversible because the knit on the opposite side looks funny. So use it for ribbing that will in the round with the RS facing out. So no flipped brims.. ;)

7 comments:

Vickie said...

Thank you for sharing this technique. I have good results ribbing in the combination style; unfortunately, the ribbing tends to be a little too tight. Your knitting projects are beautiful.

laura said...

you are magic! it's knitters like you that make knitting more beautiful and less frustrating. thank you!

Bluebird49 said...

Hey Jan--thanks for such good info on ribbing. I've always thought that my ribbing --especially at the first of the rows in the round looked, well, just sloppy! Now, I've got to do a small project to put your invention into use! You should do a litle video for YOUTUBE. Lots of people are pputting knitting videos up to help people along.

I'm haing problems with Saartje's Booties (pattern on her site-lot's of Ravelry folks are doing them). I can't seem to come out with the right number of ridges--how do you get 5 garter ridges when you've done 8 rows? Have you done any of them?

Anonymous said...

HI Jan, I need your e-mail address to get you the spreadsheet.

Sarahg said...

I'm knitting a blanket and I'm having this problem after I finish my cable and start the first purl stitch. I'm getting ladders. I'm not sure if this technique will work since it's a blanket and the stitch isn't reversible. Do you have other suggestions I could use? I'm not happy with how it looks.
Thanks!
Sarah

Jan in CA said...

Hi Sarah, This technique I've got here is mostly for knitting in the round. To do this knitting flat you'd knit into the back of the twisted stitch on the reverse side. See the link I've got within the post to nonoknits website. She has how to do it flat.

Technically though most cables are not reversible unless you are doing a reversible pattern. The most that would happen is you'd have a twisted stitch and in the whole scheme of things it probably won't even show. ;)

Jan

Sarahg said...

Thanks!!!