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

I’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.”

Next Pattern:

I’ve been enjoying knit amigurumi animal patterns lately (see also: this adorable knit pigeon) and of course being a knitter I love llamas.

So when I saw this little llama pattern I knew I had to share it.

The appropriately named Llama patter from Annie Ahn calls for fingering weight yarn, and it uses two colors for the body and three for the little blanket. The pompom can be made to match or in another color. All of these parts take tiny amounts of yarn so you can use whatever scraps you have left over from socks or other projects and change colors whenever you need to.

It might also be fun to use some mohair or other fuzzy or textured yarn on this one to give your llama a different look. In all the project uses between 100 and 150 yards, or 91-137 m, of yarn and the llama comes out about 10 cm/4 inches tall.

The body of the llama is worked in one piece, so this project is suited to intermediate knitters or those who have comfort working in the round and with all those little pieces.

This one is made to be small so you can carry it around with you (it would be super cute on a keychain or as a zipper pull) but I think it would be a lot of fun to knit this in larger yarn, too, to make a bigger llama. You could even make a whole family in different sizes just by using different weights of yarn and corresponding needles.

The details are so cute, from the shaggy hair to its little accessories, but you could make it plain or change it up by knitting a tiny scarf or even working a little fair isle pattern on the legs or body. So many fun possibilities!

The pattern is available on Ravelry in English and Korean.

[Photo: Annie Ahn]

Next Pattern:

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