[Nfb-krafters-korner] New member and dropped stitches in knitting

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Cindy,  Thanks a million for your email.  Since I have been  working with a 
visual memory for the past 85 years, I will have to retrain my  mind and my 
senses; I am grateful that I will have time to work on this before I  am no 
longer able to see what I'm doing!  I am awed by all you talented  ladies 
who have worked this out and can not teach us how to handle to world  without 
feeling totally handicapped. 
 
Thanks again.      Sincerley,  Cathy in  MA
 
 
In a message dated 6/6/2009 8:24:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
slerythema at insightbb.com writes:

Cathy,

As for a group closer to you, I would recommend  calling the president of 
the
NFB of MA. He or she would be able to point  you in the right direction.

As for dropped stitches, let me make this a  two part answer. First, I, and
other blind knitters, have found it helpful  to use stitch markers heavily.
Use them to mark the different sections or  pattern repeats. Once you have
the markers set up, be fastidious with  counting each and every row. An
example is that I am currently working on a  blanket and I know that I have
the border, then six repeats of the pattern,  and then the boarder. Each of
these repeats has 25 stitches and each border  is 8 stitches. I count these
stitches each and every time. It will only  take one to two (depending on
where the drop was and knitting back to it)  to notice that something is
wrong.

Now for the dropped stitch. When  you determine the section that has the
wrong number of stitches, you can  drop your working yarn and forget about 
it
for the moment. Now slip each  stitch (purl wise so that you are not 
changing
the orientation of the  stitch) from your left needle to the right and feel
how much yarn is  between the stitch. Take your time and really gauge the
length. As you slip  the stitches, you will notice which one has too, much
yarn between the  stitches. This is your dropped stitch. Slide the yarn down
on both of your  needles so you don't have to worry about any more stitches
slipping  off.

Now carefully feel the bars as you go down that row until you find  loop 
that
has come undone. Using two needles that are a size smaller than  your 
working
needles, go ahead and pull the yarn loose one more stitch so  that you pick
up the loop and place it on the needle. With the knit side  facing you, lift
up the first bar that has been undone with the left  needle. Pull the yarn
through the loop with the right needle and drop the  original stitch because
it has now been knit. Follow this all the way back  up until you reach your
current working row.

Always do this maneuver  from the knit side. So if you need to turn the work
over to finish some of  the stitches you do that. It is possible to knit 
some
and purl some but I  found it awkward and difficult to do the purl and just
easier to flip the  work over and work from the other side.

This is also a great technique  for fixing any mistakes such as knitting a
stitch that should have been  purled or the opposite. I now regularly drop a
stitch on purpose to fix  something that was off by a row or didn't like the
way the pattern made  it.

HTH,
Cindy



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