Knitted Crocheted Other

Friday, April 25, 2014

All the Little Critters and An Easier Way to M1

Recently, I made several toys from patterns designed by Barbara Prime of "Fuzzy Mitten Toys". I especially LOVE her creations, because they add so much whimsey and cuteness and she hosts a Ravelry.com forum, where you can view other knitter's works and ask/answer/get answers to any questions you might have.

Because all of the little "critters" need shaping, there is a lot of M1 and K2tog/ssks going on in the pattern. Typically, when making an M1/make 1 (knitting in the bar between stitches) a hole is created. In order to close that hole, you knit in the back loop which twists the stitch thereby making it tighter and pulling up any slack.

This works fine for most yarns that have a little "give". But on one of the patterns, I chose to use a cotton yarn, which doesn't have "give".

After struggling with the twisting of the stitch, I had an idea. And it worked!

M1 the stitch, without twisting. There will be a slight hole. On the return, twist the stitch. It closes the hole just as well, and is a whole lot easier to do because you're working with an entire stitch, not a short length of yarn between stitches.

You do need to keep track of where the M1's are, but it's not too difficult because even if you're not counting where they should be, they're different looking from a normal stitch so they stand out a bit.




Patterns used - Backyard Bandits, Mystery Knit-Along 2014 (the kangaroos) and Orangutan

Happy Knitting!

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For anyone who would like a PDF of any of the stitches posted, please either leave a comment here, with the name of the stitch and your email, or contact me through a private message on Ravelry.com, where I am also Weasiesworks.

I have gone over these charts and written patterns a number of times, but no one is infallible, so please leave a comment referring to the stitch pattern and any error you might find.

Also, feel free to ask questions. I can always try to answer them.