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From net to knit... (Read 65634 times)
peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #90 - Aug 20th, 2010 at 11:40pm
 
Ah -- thank you!  That idea makes perfect sense to me now.  Thank you for clarifying what you meant.  Smiley

By the way, your colorization of the salient stitches in your recent photos is genius and has really helped me attain an understanding of how those increases work.  Thanks again!
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #91 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 5:25am
 
Now I've been home for a while, and I took out some nylon mason's twine to do a cursory attempt at knitting a sling, since I've at least reached the point of being able to create an I-cord finger loop.

So I've been working at starting the pouch, and I have to say that at this point I am hopelessly &@#% frustrated. Nothing about this makes sense to me even though it seemed to earlier when I was reading the new comments and looking at the pictures.

I thought I had done row 1 correctly, then I did row 2, and then row 3 seemed like nothing was where it was supposed to be positioned for what was going to be done to it. For example, it says "s1p, k1, m1," but how do I KNIT 1 when the cord is in FRONT after the s1p?!

I feel like I'm NEVER going to "get" this. I feel once again like a &@#% imbecile. I can't think of the
last time I've wanted so badly to smash something in a rage, as I do right now. I want to make and have a sling like this so bad, I think that's what's making the frustration so damned pointed.  Angry
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #92 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 5:55am
 
I think I've begun to figure out the solutions to some of my sticking points, but I really wish for much more explicit directions and photos of the very beginning of the transition from the I-cord to the first few rows of the pouch, and the way the "yarn overs" that you do are done. As near as I can tell, there is an option of bringing the yarn over the needle in either of two directions, and I have no idea which way! (And am I correct that if you do the first one on a row one way, you do the opposing one the other way?)

Aaaand once again, what's irritating me is knowing that other people have managed to figure this out from your directions as-is, but I can't!  Angry
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #93 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 8:42am
 
Now the only thing I have to beat myself up about is having acted like such a whiner:

I've been up through the night plugging away at this, and I do believe that now I have gotten past the parts that were flustering me, and I have the symmetrical
increases happening.

It was a matter of trial and error, and some dogged tenacity (my poor cat had to hear me yell a few times  Embarrassed ) but I think I've got it. If I'm right, this is really gonna make my weekend glow! Smiley
As long as I can do the decreases right, I think I'm all set, because I think I understand how the trigger knot is done.

Thanks for tolerating my questions and storminess.
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Matthias
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #94 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 1:09pm
 
Lol... sounds like knitting will be perfect therapy Cheesy

Seriously though - slow and steady! It sounds like you probably are narrowing in on a finished sling, but I'll try to clarify for the record:

1. The chain edge. When you slip the first stitch you don't need to bring the yarn to the front, so that's an easy one - just ignore it. by skipping the "end" stitch, it makes the edge curl under nicely. In regular knitting, when you switch from a knit to a purl, say for textured patterns or ribbing, you just pass the strand from front-to-back between the needle points, which is to say between the last stitch you made and the next one to be worked.

2. Yarn overs. I just make them the "normal way" looping from back to front. In usual practice this makes a large hole, that is often used in lace knitting patterns. I don't bother with the direction because when I do the next row I take the YO off the needle and twist it the way I want. Easier than thinking ahead, and easier on the fingers.

The transition is a bit confusing because you can't see the pattern emerging until a few rows are complete. Try casting on 10 stitches as a fresh project knitting 4-5 rows and then figure out you increases/decreases on that! Try the chain edge as well. MUCH easier to see what is going on, physically easier to knit, and a huge confidence builder.

The only hurdle left is likely to be the k3tog. Those are annoying with nice soft fluffy yarn... I just work them mostly off the needles. First stitch knit, then the third, then the middle one on top.
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Matthias
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #95 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 1:17pm
 
Oh, and the 3-or-more strand diamond knot always takes me a while to relearn. I think The Ashley Book of Knots shows a method where you use some twine or tape to secure the three loops back against the main cord, which sounds like a lot of hassle, but it really simplifies things vs freehand.

It's a great knot though: stylish, just the right size and practically guaranteed to never come undone. I've used them as load-carrying stoppers in critical applications with spectra rope, which is just about the slipperiest stuff you'll ever meet.
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #96 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 7:43pm
 
Last night I did finally succeed in figuring out the things I didn't comprehend, so I was able to get the pouch started. The big victory was getting the increases to work and be symmetrical. (It was very important to me to keep it symmetrical instead of just accepting an asymmetrical project.)

Now that I'm on the second half, I just did my first row with decreases and I'm proceeding vert slowly and deliberately in effort to make sure I keep the symmetry going.

I have a pretty good knitting instruction booklet that specifies that k2tog slants right, and that while s1, k1, psso slants left, it is that SSK that is the mirror image of k2tog. So, on my first run through my first decrease row, I had done s1, k1, psso, I went and undid that and replaced it with a SSK.

One of the things that has happened to me since I started knitting is that I have acquired the ability to read what is going on in the yarn, and identify correct stitches and incorrect ones, and really see and understand the mechanics of how it's going together. When I was very novice (as opposed to what I am now, which I would call "advanced beginner"  Wink) I could not even "see" the rows. I did not know how to count how many rows had been knitted. If I didn't count from the start, I wouldn't be able to figure it out along the way.

Now that I'm half-done with this sling, I fear that I don't have enough of
this cord left on the spool to finish it.  Undecided  So this may end up being a practice piece anyway.

One last question (for now, at least):

Is there a specific reason for the design to have an odd number of total rows?
Would anything change if it were an even number?
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #97 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 8:01pm
 
Quote:
2. Yarn overs. I just make them the "normal way" looping from back to front. In usual practice this makes a large hole, that is often used in lace knitting patterns. I don't bother with the direction because when I do the next row I take the YO off the needle and twist it the way I want. Easier than thinking ahead, and easier on the fingers.


I think I understand how this would be done -- the second-time-around explanation seems to have done it for me -- but I did them on the needles, and that's most of what took me so long to figure out. Next time, I'll try it as you describe and see if I find it easier.

As for the Diamond Knot, I'm an old hand at those, so that doesn't have me spooked. I'll know eventually if it's as easy as I'm expecting it to be, since I've tied a lot of those. Haven't reached that point in this sling, yet.


I also want to mention that the other essential skill that took me a long time to master is being able to UNknit rows (as for the purpose of correcting errors). OMG that had me totally lost for so long, and when I finally "got" it, I was exultant. It's something I'm still thankful for and don't take for granted.
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #98 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 8:51pm
 
Out of curiosity, is there any reason that necessitates doing increases in a PURL row?

I found that after my ordeal to learn how to do them correctly on a knit row, and then had to figure out how to make it work on the purl row. Argh.  Undecided

So, would it make a difference to do them in one of the knit rows instead? Would there be a downside to that?
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Matthias
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #99 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 11:29pm
 
Quote:
I also want to mention that the other essential skill that took me a long time to master is being able to UNknit rows (as for the purpose of correcting errors). OMG that had me totally lost for so long, and when I finally "got" it, I was exultant. It's something I'm still thankful for and don't take for granted.

Absolutely... when I learned to knit I was using *very* expensive handspun (by me) yarn and being able to correct mistakes was essential in that samples really had to be perfect. In addition to unknitting the whole thing, dropping a stitch or two and working backward as many as 20 rows without destroying the rest of the piece became an essential skill.

Quote:
Out of curiosity, is there any reason that necessitates doing increases in a PURL row?


Nope. The increase I used is a two row jobby no matter, but the YO would work just fine in the purl rows. I actually suspect that a "make one" in a knit row could be read either way according to preference in most knitting. Lace is the only place where anyone would notice.

A perhaps more common increase is to pick up the bar between stitches without doing the YO as prep. That's morphologically the same thing, but without the extra sack that the YO affords. From that standpoint, following my pattern strictly you *should* put the YO in the purl row that precedes the knit row where the actual increase takes place.

Either way! Smiley If you are starting to get a feel for the individual stitches instead of just a list of step-by-step instructions you're well on your way to adapting the design as you see fit!

If you run out of twine, just tie in a new section with some slack and then just hide the knot and both tails inside the I-Cord. No biggie. Same if you run out in the pouch, though there I'd try to juggle things so that the join was close to the edge with the knot in the back.
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #100 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 11:49pm
 
Prior to starting this sling, I did a small practice section using yarn, on which I did some increases and decreases from my booklet. I learned about that bar increase, but I think you mentioned that it doesn't
provide much slack -- and slack is crucial because the cord I'm using doesn't stretch like yarn.

So, it wouldn't cause any problem
to do the increase that you list on a purl row on a knit row instead?
Was there a reason for putting it on a purl row? I think that I'll change that on future slings I make simply for the sake of making my increases homogenous and all done with the same technique.

I will make sure to start with enough cord in the future, because on a project this small, it seems a shame to have to splice in a new spool.

I'm nearly finished with this sling -- just another foot or so of release cord to go, and I am hoping the last of my spool holds out! Getting down to the wire. ...
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #101 - Aug 21st, 2010 at 11:52pm
 
Matthias, I'm super-curious about your background, now. Didn't you say you learned this stuff for your vocation? Would you mind elaborating?

Oh, also, is there any reason to favor the
pouch being done in an odd number of rows? Does odd or even affect anything?
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #102 - Aug 22nd, 2010 at 1:57am
 
I finished my first knitted sling a short time ago. I'm pretty sure it is very faithful to the pattern posted.

It came out looking quite good. I'm vert happy with it, and especially happy about plans to make others, and with different materials.

A few more things about this sling:
- I used a pair of 7mm double-ended needles that came into my possession when my mother, an expert at knitting and crocheting, died in 2001.
- I used bright yellow nylon mason's twine, and had about two feet of it left on
my spool when I finished -- talk about lucky!
- My favorite thing about it is the pouch. I've never had a sling with such a secure, solid, capacious pouch. It's one sling that will be able to do everything from
rocks, to golf balls, to tennis and baseballs. (Of course, I haven't been out to try it yet.)

I think that I'm going to try one with hemp
twine this week, and I'm going to play with the needle
size and gauge to make the pouch a bit less dense with stitches (by using larger needles) while leaving the I-cord gauge the same.
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peacefuljeffrey
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #103 - Aug 22nd, 2010 at 2:07am
 
Many thanks to Matthias for his exceptional sling design, and to him and others for their assistance. Smiley
I could not have done this without the help that has been graciously given.

I believe this is now far and away my favorite sling design.
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Re:  From net to knit...
Reply #104 - Aug 22nd, 2010 at 1:16pm
 
Peacefuljeffrey, glad you made it, just following this thread has been a nerve-wreacking experience.
Matthias, glad you was able to explain it the way you did, and what an exceptional sling you show in your pictures.

I did not comprehend a word of it, I knitted a couple of rectangles, like 1"x3", as a kid, and that`s it.

Wonder what my mother would make of it, maybe my Christmas wish can be a knitted sling Smiley.
timann
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