One of the trickiest techniques, the most fiddly and, frankly – IMHO – one of the annoying of any project (depending on the amount) is summed up in six seemingly innocuous little words….

Pick up and knit X stitches

Do I see a shudder slipping down your back bone?

It’s like that short little instruction is smirking at you when you read it….

Pick up and knit X stitches.

Picking up stitches can be footery and I, for one, have certainly made a mess of it – I can recall trying to pick up stitches along a curved edge 5 times! (6th time was the charm)

Thankfully, although the Lush cardigan requires you to pick up stitches along both the top AND bottom edge of your lace yoke, there are no dreaded curved edges, but if you are not au fait with stitch-picking up then I thought I would share with you a couple of videos and sites that you might find useful…once you get good with the amount of picking up you may have to do, of course!

Before you start there are two important things to bear in mind-  you always pick up with right side facing, unless you are directed otherwise. Secondly, as I quickly discovered, it’s not knitting stitches as in  in- around-through-off, when we use two needles to create new stitches – you are picking up and simply drawing through a loop.

But where do you pick up? There are some fantastic online pictorials that will give you simple images to follow, and a really great blog on the subject from Tin Can Knits. Knitty.com has some great articles on techniques and picking up stitches is no exception. I think Knitty is one of the best go-to places for information on techniques; I have used it right from the get-go with knitting and they’ve never let me down.

You might also want to check out this video from Knit Purl Hunter, who looks at both horizontal and vertical picking up.

 

Personally, I prefer to use a crochet hook when picking up and one that is a good few sizes smaller than the recommended needle size. I did this with my last lush yoke after I was disappointed with how the new stitches look…long and saggy.

It was on the Tin Can Knits forum on Ravelry that I got this tip and have used it ever since. I find that the smaller crochet hook makes a neat new line of stitches, rather than elongated or droopy.

Have you picked up all those stitches yet? Top and bottom? Well done – now is the exciting bit…watching that long rectangle turn into a circular yoke.

Short rows are next – now short rows I have no helpful tips for – I suck massively and I am always just a little bit disappointed with how my wraps look in the end. Thankfully, Ysolda has a really interesting video tutorial on wrapless short rows and I think this is the technique I will try with my Lush.

My Lush…is about 2 repeats longer on the LH yoke as it was last night, not bad I suppose, considering I have been working all day and writing various things all evening…maybe if I stop writing blog posts I will get more knit?

I may not post tomorrow (dental surgery with anaesthetic = drowsy Weezie) but I will be watching for the Wednesday Club casting on – those KAL-ers who have had to wait on their yarn to arrive, or have wanted to chum those who have had to wait for yarn to arrive!  Looking forward to seeing all the progress!