Read Online Things I Learned From Knitting by Stephanie Pearl–McPhee - Free Book Online Page B

instead of people, but it’s still intense). Swatches lie. Patterns have errors. Even if I was exacting, nothing is sure in the land of the bouclé-mohair sweater.You must move forward with thoughtful, careful maneuvers, knowing every step of the way. If you’re wrong about the dimensions of this sweater, if you go just one inch too far in the knitting, there will be no recovery.
    You move forward slowly with this sweater, knowing full well that despite all the money, all the time, all the caution and the avoidance of haste … that if you screw up and make the arms too long, you’ll have made a sweater you entirely adore … for your really tall aunt Carol.
    When confronted with this sort of challenge, I’ve learned that I need to concentrate. I need to seize quiet, peaceful times when I can focus and I need to make the most of opportunities when I won’t be interrupted. In short, I need to make hay while the sun shines … I need to wait until my husband is out.

the 29 th thing

Look before you leap.
    ONE OF THE CONCEPTS KNITTING TEACHES you (eventually) is the idea of looking far ahead. You have to acknowledge that the failure to look ahead with gauge means you might not get something that fits. Failing to look ahead with timing means you might not finish your mum’s sweater by Christmas. Not reading the pattern all the way through before you start can have tragic consequences. Even buying yarn demonstrates that knitters are looking forward in time: If you looked ahead at what you think you’ll accomplish in a lifetime of knitting, you’d stop buying the stuff right now. This foresight is good thing in humans, and I humbly propose that we take this concept a little further: that we start doing a little knitting math in this forward-thinking vein.
    I examined the number of stitches in a sock and I did a little calculating: Let’s say there are16 inches of knitting to accomplish for a sock, and that it takes about 10 rounds to add up to an inch, and that there are 68 stitches in a round. If my math is correct (and it should be; I had a thirteen-year-old check it), this means there are about 10,880 stitches in a sock. Multiplied by 2 (because, hopefully, you knit socks in a pair), this results in 21,760 stitches to knit before you will have wearable items.
    (By the way, it’s normal to need a minute to lie down now, having realized how many stitches you may have knit in your life so far or how many more you have planned in order to use up your stash.)
    Now what if you look before you leap? What if you take advantage of that human ability to look ahead and change one or two tiny variables? What if you cast on 64 stitches instead of 68? Bingo! This results in a slightly snugger sock, but now you’re only knitting 20,480 stitches to the pair. What if you make the leg or foot a little shorter? If you cut off 2 inches, you’re down to a mere 17,920!
    If you’re thinking that isn’t a big deal, you just aren’t thinking. That’s 3,840 stitches less. Ifyou still can’t see the logic, go time how many stitches per minute you knit as you work one round of a sock and then look at that number again.
    Looking before we leap has got to mean that suddenly, I am not the only one who’s doing a bit of math and then rapidly coming to the conclusion that if it’s going to save me thousands and thousands of stitches, maybe I should be checking the foot size of people before I begin to love them, and that in the meantime (since I’m already stuck with some big-footed people) my family can live with slightly snugger, shorter socks.
    Knitting is still trying to teach me …
    THAT THINGS GET KNIT FASTER
    WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WORK ON
    THEM. THAT’S WHY THE SCARF I’VE
    ALLEGEDLY BEEN KNITTING FOR
    TWO YEARS JUST ISN’T GETTING ANY
    BIGGER, NO MATTER HOW LONG
    I LEAVE IT IN THE BASKET.

the 30 th thing

It’s funny because it’s true.
    IT