WOYWW 512 Backwards Knitting, Wrong Hymn Tunes and Wise Cracks

Yes, I know I haven’t been around for a few weeks – same old story, I’m afraid, too busy with other things, and also I haven’t been too well. The only creative stuff I’ve been doing is my knitting, but it’s been far from uninteresting!

One of my favourite ways of knitting is in the round with a circular needle, because you never turn the work. You just keep knitting and not purling because the reverse side is always away from you. I prefer to use a circular needle for knitting back and forth, too, rather than normal needles, because the weight of the knitting sits in your lap and it’s a lot more comfortable and less effort to do, but of course you do have to purl on alternate rows, turning the work between each row, 

This week I have discovered something extraordinary – Backwards Knitting! I have been knitting all my life and have never come across this before – I love Youtube and Pinterest which have taught me so many new techniques, and there’s always something new to learn, whatever you are interested in. People do come up with the most extraordinary ideas, and this one really works!

The idea behind Backwards Knitting is that rather than knitting alternate knit and purl rows, you do not turn the work, but on what would normally be a purl row, you knit backwards! I know, it sounds really weird… Here’s the link to the Youtube video I found, that shows you how to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIo-m6vfd-U&list=PL-OKjxuL-AQjZSbuz-CZHAXDUrqi_yELt&index=12&t=0s

Here are my written instructions how to do it.

Normal knitting starts the row with LH needle full, and the RH needle empty. With the knit side facing, knit to the end of the row as normal.

To knit the next row backwards, do not turn the work. You are now beginning a row with the RH needle full, and the LH needle empty.

How to do backwards knitting

1.  Insert LH needle into back of stitch on RH needle (LH needle goes behind RH needle).

2.  Wrap yarn around LH needle, anti-clockwise.

3.  Pull RH needle towards you, up and over the tip of LH needle, passing the existing stitch over the yarn you wrapped around the LH needle.

4.  Release the loop. Stitch complete, on LH needle. Continue to the end of the row.

You never need to purl again!

I find this is very good when you are working with two colours. Without the weaving of the yarn facing you (on the purl side), you can see the pattern much more clearly, on every row, rather than just on the knit rows, so you are less likely to go wrong.

When I first started doing this, it was a real struggle, and I wondered if it was worth the effort because it took me so long to work one row, but already, on the next backwards row, I was getting better at it, and although it’s still slower than a normal knit row, I am improving with practice. It’s rather fun to do, and I have a feeling that my tension is improving, too.

I am making very good progress up the front of the purple circles jumper. I have yet to design the neck on graph paper.

Blog Photos

A while back, when Google changed things again, I discovered that all the photos on my 8-yr-old blog had vanished, and so began the huge task of replacing them all. Working backwards, I have now got to July of last year so progress is being made, if slowly. I am trying to do at least one post a day. The trouble is, something has again gone wrong with the link between Open Live Writer (the programme I use for composing my blog posts) and Blogger – something to do with Google changing (deleting?) Picassa or something, so I now have to do a work-around to get posts with photos to publish, which takes twice as long as normal, but hopefully this glitch will get sorted eventually. What a pain it all is. It’s going to take at least a year to get it all complete by my reckoning.

Shoshi in Silentio

A couple of weeks ago I got laryngitis and was completely voiceless for a week. (Everybody was congratulating my hubby and saying how fortunate he was…) To call him downstairs for meals I had to thump on the floor with a crutch, which reverberated round the house very satisfactorily. I have felt really tired and had to rest a lot after unavoidable periods of busyness during the whole period. I am now speaking again, but in church on Sunday, wasn’t able to sing a note, until the final hymn when I simply had to force myself – it was a well-known hymn but the organist had chosen the alternative tune, because the normal tune had, unusually, been used for an earlier hymn in the service. My hubby was sitting behind me and for the whole of the first verse of the hymn, he bellowed out at the top of his voice the wrong tune!! There was a certain amount of confusion all around us and I turned round and sang the correct tune as loud as I could manage it for the next couple of verses until he got the message!! Never let it be said that my hubby is without conviction, and loudly, to boot! I’m not sure when I shall ever be able to sing again!

Wise Crack

While I was without speech I had an emergency dental appointment with toothache. He found a crack in one of my wisdom teeth which he filled with a temporary filling, and I have to return tomorrow to have the permanent one done. I am a total coward when it comes to the dentist and shall be very glad when it’s over.

Butterfly Mint

This week my hubby bought two cat mint plants for the garden, to encourage Ruby not to think about trying to get out. The trouble is, we don’t think it’s the right sort of cat mint. On the label it said, “Cat Mint. Encourages butterflies and bees.” Lol! It’s butterfly mint, not cat mint at all! We pulled a few leaves off to see how the kitties would respond. Ruby wasn’t interested, and Lily was frightened of it!! Doing a bit of online research my hubby found that there are different varieties of cat mint and the ones he bought were apparently the wrong ones. It may be, of course, that our two kitties are in the 30 percent minority who can’t smell the stuff. That would be soooo typical.

Yesterday we went shopping in Totnes and on the way home, called in on someone who said they’d got a spare cat mint plant we could have, and when we brought it home and showed it to the kitties, they both expressed an interest in it, but soon got more interested in being fed! The person had said they would get really interested in it when it’s growing in the garden and has the sun on it, but it’s definitely better than the butterfly mint, that’s for sure.

A fun shopping day

Lovely fun shopping in Totnes and I got some new clothes in my favourite ethnic style. Click here for details. One or two things that I got:

Not a lot else has happened recently.

Here’s a kitty funny.