A stitch in time

I know, I'm all about the puns today. I tell myself it's because I'm English.

Or a Sun reader.

Regrettable puns are in the blood, as much as two sugars and milk for a cuppa. My Italian friends gag at the thought of milk in tea, so when I'm around them, I take a squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of sugar. Healthier?

Perhaps.

Right.

Speaking of healthy, please ignore the keyboard. I know that it seems I'm growing cultures, spores for the destruction of mankind, trying to take over the world ala Pinky and The Brain but that's my stepson's doing, not mine. You try telling males to be tidy, not to eat around the PC. See if they'll listen.

I hear germs shore up the immune system. Honest. Haven't had a cold in ages. Healthy as an ox.


I did promise you that I'd speak of increases, and other such things. The thing with the raglan topdowns, is, you start with with a certain number of stitches, which accomodates the circumference of your neck, and the tops of your shoulders. You then increase every other row until the stitch markers meet under your arm pits. As a result of this, your stitch increases are very important, and they should not be messy.

Madam Zimmerman speaks of the M1 increase, but you find that modern patterns for topdowns ask for the yb&f (yarn back and forward) increases, because they form a ridge (note the line descending from the stitch marker) and are rather decorative.


I've never come across this increase in a pattern before, so I had to search. Essentially, you knit until you get to the first stitch before the marker. You then knit into the next stitch on the needle, but don't drop the stitch off the left needle.


Then, you knit into the back leg of the same stitch, inserting the right needle under it from front to back (rather like doing a 'purling' motion underneath the knit stitch) and you should have an extra stitch. Knit normally into the stitch where the marker is, and continue knitting until you have to increase again.

This picture shows you knitting 'the back leg' (thank you Debbie Stoller) for the same stitch. It's rather like an awkward purl stitch, hence the forward part, I reckon.









Voila! You should have an extra stitch! If done correctly, you should have a ridge forming like the first two pictures seen above. It's imperative that you have the stitch markers in the correct place so that there's a neat angle coming down the shoulders.

Or else it looks a mess.

Like mine does. But that's fine, because you shouldn't be staring at my breasts anyway.



I tell myself.