I have gradually been teaching myself to knit, and I am proud to say I finished my first cable knit project, a pillow for my son’s room.
Cable knit looks complicated, but it was ridiculously easy. Looks very impressive, if I do say so myself.
Now I’m working on a couple of dishcloths to hand out as stocking stuffers as Xmas.
One question…what’s the difference between k2 tog and k2 tog tbl? As far as I can tell they’re the same stitch.
Pictures???
When you K2tog, the stitch on the left ends up on top of the stitch on the right. When you K2tog tbl, the stitch on the right ends up on top of the stitch on the left & it has a twist in it (the yarn from the previous row looks more like a cursive-lowercase-“l” than an upside-down u.)
Congratulations on finishing!
Sorry, amarinth I don’t know how to do pictures.
I thought k2tog was a way of decreasing, not a way of shaping the stitch. Now I think I’ve been doing k2tog wrong, the directions say you put your right hand needle in the front of the first two stitches of the left hand needle and then knit. But I thought putting your needle in front of stitches made a purl stitch?
Maybe I explained badly. It is a decrease, you’re right. Both K2tog & K2togtbl are columns.
You can, sort of, think of each stitch as a column that you can follow from the bottom to the top - when you decrease, you’re going from two columns to one column, and it looks as though one column is on top of the other. So, when you K2tog, it should look like the left column went in front of the right column (to merge and become 1 column), and when you K2togtbl, it should look like the right column went in front of the left column - also at the place they’re joined, there’ll be a lowercase L shaped stitch there (instead of a “normal,” uncrossed looking stitch which you’ll have everywhere else & at the top of a K2tog).
To do a K2tog, you hold the first two stitches together & knit both of them at once.
Or another way of thinking of it is if you don’t knit into the first stitch, but you leave it on the left hand needle . You stick the right needle into the second stitch as if you were going to knit - then you stick your right hand needle into the first stitch as if you were going to knit, then you wrap the yarn around, pull it through both stitches at once & pull them both off the left hand needle.
Have I just been more confusing?
Congratulations, ivylass! I also enjoy cable work, so much so that I’m giving my best friend his-and-her sweaters as a wedding gift. The wedding was a year ago, but she’s been understanding and she’ll probably get them for Christmas. Then again, anyone who’s been my best friend for over 20 years would have to have a lot of understanding!
Just to add a bit to Amarinth’s description, knit two together winds up looking a bit like this: **|**, while knit two together through back loop looks more like this: /|.
What I usually use for a decrease which slants to the left is “ssk”, which is short for slip-slip-knit or slip two stitches to the other needle as if you were knitting them, then knit them together through the back loop.
CJ
I think that’s why it’s taken me so long to attempt new stitches…I can’t visualize how to do it in 3D from the 2D description and pictures very easily. I have yet to attempt left and right twists. (Now, my son is very good at origami and building models. He can translate a 2D description into a 3D image.)
I think I’m going to have to break down and go to some classes at Michael’s. I think I understand what you guys are saying. I understand a k2tog knits two stitches as one, but why do you put the needle in front? Isn’t that a purl stitch?