Stingy Instructions and A Bag of Snakes

September 15

What I am about to comment on is in no way a criticism of the book but some observations in general about how instructions are written up in knitting patterns. The fact that almost all of my adult life has been focused on making knowledge accessible to learners of all abilities and differing styles of learning has also influenced how I view knitting instructions and probably not the opinion of the majority of knitters.

That said, I am taking issue with the last instruction on page 117 where it says:

Next Rnd: Work 24 sts, pm, k22, k2.

Now don’t get me wrong I love all the abbreviations and the code for the sake of simplicity but the simple phrase “in the established pattern” would be most helpful after “Work 24sts”. This would leave no doubts in the knitters mind and would not take up much room.

Then in the very next instruction at the top of page 118 and then again where it is repeated for the right hand glove is a circumstance I have come across quite often.

What is being asked for is to increase 2 sts. every 3^rd round, 7 times. As the instructions ar written there is room for interpretation as to whether it is 6 or 7 times. Just adding the word “more” to the phrase: “then every 3 rnds 6 times more” would clear it up or the phrase “for a total of 7 times”. Again it does not take up much room. It is not until the knitter does the math and figures out that in order to have a total of 62sts, the increases must happen 7 times does it become clear.

It is not a big deal and experienced knitters would figure a lot of this out just from looking at the photos but as well it would not unnecessarily complicate things just to add those few words and have no doubts.

I laughed when I went to knitting group Saturday morning and as I was bringing out my gloves , Suzanne said, “Oh that’s like trying to sort out a bag of snakes.” A much better description that the metal octopus metaphor. Those connecting wires are very ornery. I have also learned not to set down my work until I have completed the rounds on both gloves. Setting down the needles midstream is dizzying if you cannot remember where you finished off. But if just such an emergency should occur, it is better to stop in the middle of a side of one of the gloves than to stop between gloves.

I also learned about M1R and M1L. I guess I have been doing M1L all this time and didn’t recognize the difference in the slant of the stitches. You need to use a M1R on one side of the gusset and a M1L on the other in order to get the stitches to slant in towards the gusset. It looks so very neat and tidy. I finished the gussets last night and am moving on to covering the knuckles tomorrow.