Sunday, May 1, 2011

Knitting Two By Two

Remember the Long  Shawl Collar Coat I mentioned a long time ago?  Well, all of the pieces are done and they are impatiently awaiting assembly.  I got this “knitting two at a time” idea from A Friend to Knit With who got the idea from her mother.  It’s one of those ideas that are so simple and ingenious that you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
There are some ups and downs to take note of when knitting two at a time.
v    First of all, it takes some getting used to but you eventually fall into the rhythm of ::knit right side, knit left side, purl left side, purl right side::.
v    The pieces (especially on this project) start to get long and cumbersome so straightening out your pieces and untwisting your skeins from each other continually interrupt the rhythm.
v    This method helped me in this project because the pattern is written in measurements rather than actual number of rows so I was able to keep the exact same number of rows on the front panels of the coat.  I knit pretty evenly so this will make stitching up the sides easier knowing that there are the exact same numbers of rows in all pieces instead of just being the same measured length with a possible difference of row numbers.
v    The best part of knitting two by two is obvious.  When you are done, you are twice as close to the end of your project than when you started!