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Patty Lyons Shares Her Least Favorite Knitting Myths; What Are Yours?

February 9, 2015 by Sarah White

knitting myths and truthsI’m loving this post — and the conversation in the comments — from knitwear designer and teacher Patty Lyons, in which she talks about her least favorite myths about knitting. These are the things she hears people say that she wishes would go away because they’re simply not true.

There are practical things, like always slipping the first stitch (or, worse, always adding two stitches to a project so you can make a selvedge edge even if it isn’t called for in the pattern) or always making an ssk by slipping the first stitch as if to knit and the second as if to purl. That word “always” seems to cause a lot of problems.

There are some more philosophical ones, too, like “knitting is hard” and “knitting is easy.”

That one about casting on with a larger needle to make a more elastic cast on is one of my favorite least favorites, too, so I’ll let her explain more fully:

The needle creates the size of the stitch, therefore using a larger needle only creates a first row with big sloppy stitches.  The elasticity of the edge would come from how far apart you space your stitches.  When doing a long tail cast on, plant your finger on the needle to the left of the stitch you just cast on, to act as a spacer between it and the next new stitch.

You’re going to love her number one, too, but I don’t want to spoil it so click on over and check it out.

I’d love to hear what myths about knitting you can’t stand, too. Some of my favorites include “you’re doing it wrong” and “continental knitting is faster.”

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Have you read?

Knit a Linen Stitch Hot Pad

Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough. 

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern. 

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed. 

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do. 

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces. 

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls. 

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry. 

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