I Don’t Like Knitting Ribbing
Don’t get me wrong, it’s part of knitting, so it’s an aspect of something I love. But honestly, I don’t like knitting ribbing.
Why I Don’t Like Knitting Ribbing
I’ve heard a few knitters recently state that they don’t like purling. That’s not my opinion. I enjoy purling as much as I enjoy knitting. What I don’t enjoy, is any stitch pattern that requires me to bring the yarn back and forth from the front to the back. 1×1 ribbing is just not something I enjoy doing.
You can add linen stitch to this list. And double-knitting.
Mostly, I think it’s because of how I knit. I’ve mentioned this before, but I hold the yarn in my left hand and wrap the yarn around the needle. In essence, I throw from the left. Which is a pretty good metaphor for my life…but that’s another story.
The act of bringing the yarn back and forth from the front to the back, is not a very smooth motion for me. It seems awkward. Even after all these years of knitting like this.
And obviously, I’ve knit miles of ribbing in the 30-some-odd years I’ve been knitting. But I have to admit, I always look forward to finishing the ribbing at the bottom of a sleeve or sweater, so I can get to the place where there’s (hopefully) less ribbing.
Is there any aspect of needlecraft that you don’t particularly enjoy?
Current Knitting
My current project is what brought this all to mind. I finished the front-left section of the Shaker Rib Cardigan.
The piece has already been attached. I used the 3-needle bind-off for the shoulder seam.
It looks a little wonky before blocking. But I’m pretty certain blocking will make it look a lot better.
When I started the first sleeve, I misread the instructions and cast-on the wrong number of stitches. And I only realized this after doing 2 inches of 1×1 ribbing.
So I’ve ripped it out and will re-start the sleeve. Not that getting through the ribbing makes it much easier. The entire sweater is ribbing.
I have knitted for many years and have not mastered the in the round using multiple needles. I so very much want to learn this technique. Every time I have tried when I go from one needle to the next one the stitch is all wonky. Any tips? I actually have re-written patterns that have this so I can by pass it. I do knit in the round just cannot close to a small number if stitches.
That’s why I avoid anything with seed stitch. Sometimes I customize the pattern to use some other stitch.
Hello, I knitted mittens on a csm this year, to teach myself how to use this machine. The problem was that the yarn was too big for it, then I couldn’t use the ribber. And then I really was obliged to knit ribbing for the edges, what is what I like the less. The movement is not natural at all. And actually, what I did the most this year manually during this csm training, is ribbing ! So your post was very comforting, thank you !
When I learned Continental Knitting (based solely on a description in a mystery novel), I accidentally taught myself the combination method whereby I scoop the yarn for knitting and purling. This makes ribbing, seed stitch, moss stitch, and linen stich easy, but is a pain if I need to do K2tog on the next row. I’ve worked on learning to wrap on my purl rows, but I rarely need it, so haven’t gotten very smooth at it.
Hate ribbing. Double-hate seed. LOVE linen. Go figure? I guess linen-love is based on two things: first, even though the yarn goes back and forth, every other stitch is slipped, as opposed to worked: second, instant satisfaction with beauty on both sides of the fabric.