Part of the Master Hand Knitter program involves knitting swatches, sixteen of them for the first level. I enjoy bringing my focus to such a narrow spot. Every stich is made precisely.
Let's calculate: swatch number one requires casting on twenty stitches, ribbing for two inches, increasing to twenty-five stitches, garter stitching for four and a half inches, then binding off. So, estimating seven (rib) and ten (garter) rows per inch, the total number of stitches is 20x2x7+25x4.5x10+25 which equals a mere 1,430. Huh. That looks like a lot of stitches but it isn't in practice.
The turn at the end of one row and the beginning of the next is fraught with peril. The habit I am breaking is tightening those two stitches, the last of one row and the first of another, into the size of one. To break the habit, as I make the first stitch of the row, I pinch it to the right needle with my right index finger. I hold the stitch down in that way as I make the second stitch. Once the second stitch is safely on the right needle, I pull my working yarn to make it (the second stitch) firm. Breaking a habit takes time and I have gotten to the phase where I almost always remember to make the first and second stitches of the row with great attention. Absent-mindedly I will revert to my bad old ways.
My Prayer Shawl Ministry (PSM) group, part of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco and Biddeford (even the acronym, UUCSB, is a mouthful), has lately been knitting dishcloths to sell at the Holiday Fair (Saturday, November 20) and shawls for clothespin angels. The angels will decorate a wreath to be raffled for the benefit of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum. These two projects have given me a vast opportunity to practice my edges.
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