Help?? How do You Make Holes in Knitting (on purpose)???
So, I set out to teach myself knitting today. Tried to learn the long tail cast-on through video tutorial. After forty-five minutes, gave up in frustration and disgust. Learned crochet cast-on instead in about two minutes, so much better (for me, crocheter). Then learned knit stitch (I think I'm doing it right). Not sure what the point is of purl stitch, but was feeling overwhelmed, so didn't even attempt to learn it. Instead, started knitting rows. This is what I have so far -- it looks vaguely okay, right? I mean, there's an error in practically every row, but aside from that, it looks like a knit piece, right?
But here's the thing. My plan was to use this to make a doll dress for my daughter's favorite doll, a 15-inch HABA doll named Lotta. Kavi loves that thing, and lugs it everywhere with her, and likes changing Lotta's outfits. I was going to knit the whole dress, but an hour of knitting convinced me that I didn't have the patience for that yet, not when crochet is SO MUCH FASTER. So I figured I'd knit the bodice and crochet a skirt and figure out how to attach them together. For the bodice, I'd make a long rectangle, fold it over and sew it into a tube. Good so far, right?
But then there's the question of sleeves. Sleeves scary. No sleeves. Sleeveless! Solved that problem, right? And I figured I'd just crochet little straps for the bodice to hang on, and attach those too. I have a blouse like that, very cute.
So I knit my merry way along, until I was showing it proudly to Kevin and he said, "But what about armholes?" And I panicked. Because I am right at the base of the dolly's arms now, and I have no idea how to do armholes! I was somehow not allowing for that in my grand plan. The end that's being sewn together, fine, I can leave space for an armhole. But I can't do that with the bit that's just in the middle of my big piece. Am I even explaining this coherently?
If I were crocheting, no problem. To make a hole, skip a few stiches, chain a few stitches above it. (Umm...not sure I know how to make a bigger hole that a triple crochet layer, now that I think about it. Maybe. Too tired to figure it out right now.) But the point being, all I know how to do right now in knitting is crochet cast-on and knit stitch, and I have no idea how to make a space for a dolly's arm to go through.
I suppose I could undo the whole thing, do it as two separate pieces, and sew them together, leaving space for the arms. That would probably be the neatest solution. But is it necessary? I just don't know!
Help???
posted by Mary Anne Mohanraj at 10:44 PM
3 Comments:
To make a hole on purpose:
Yarn over (literally bring the yarn forward, over the right needle and to the back again)....then knit the next two stitches together.
Or, attach a wee bit of ribbon on each side to serve as spaghetti straps on the dress.
Hope this helps!
Kim in IA
Kim's idea would definitely work. Or you could try the buttonhole method: when you reach the place where you want the hole, bind off the appropriate # of stitches. Let's say 3. So you knit along to that point, bind off 3 sts, knit to end of row. Turn. Knit your way back to the gap, cast on 3 stitches, continue knitting. (You can use the backward loop cast-on, v. easy.) Hope this helps.
Thanks for the help, guys, and sorry for the panic. I'm not sure exactly what it's called, what I did, but it worked. :-)
But I then ripped out the whole thing and started over, so I could knit/purl correctly. Looks much better now.
Post a Comment
<< Home