Anatomy of a Wrap

I wrap stitches a little differently than most knitters.

You might notice that the technique illustrated below is rather a hairsplitting one.  But I bring it to you because I use it in several different contexts, and its utility is not commonly known.  I figured it was about time I documented it. 


Here is the classic way to wrap a stitch:

1. With working yarn in back (shown here in pink), slip a stitch from L to R needle.

2. Bring the working yarn to the front, and around the slipped stitch.

3. Slip the stitch back from R to L needle and bring the yarn to the back again.

Voila, the stitch is wrapped.

Straightforward enough.  Here's how I do it.

1. Reverse yarnover.

2. Slip a stitch from L to R needle.

3. Pick up the YO with the tip of the L needle, and pull it up and over the slipped st and off the R needle.

4. Voila, the stitch is wrapped.

Did you see the key difference in the resulting wrapped stitches?

Image A shows what results from the traditional way of wrapping stitches: your working yarn is coiled around your wrapped stitch like a spring, with the tail of the working yarn, shown here in light pink, emerging from the top of the coil.

Whereas, Image B shows what results from how I wrap a stitch: the working yarn emerges from underneath itself, like a loop cast on turned on its side.

It's a subtle difference, yes, but my method makes a neater result because the wrap can't creep up the sides of its stitch when the fabric is under stress. It is this little difference in structure that makes Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff so elastic, and gives my reinforced "Eye of Ra" buttonhole its tidy edge.

P.S. Almost forgot!  Above applies to how I wrap a knit stitch, because the yarn starts and ends in the back.  When wrapping a purl stitch, the yarn starts and ends in the front, so it works a little differently.  This is why, in JSSBO, you do a reverse yarnover for knit stitches and a regular yarnover for purl stitches.

Here's what happens.  Purl sts are shown in darker grey.

1. Yarnover the usual way, and bring yarn to front of work.

2.  Slip a stitch from L to R needle.

3. Pick up the YO with the tip of the L needle, and pull it up and over the slipped st and off the R needle.

4. Voila, the stitch is wrapped.

Here's how it looks close up:

Yarn Bombs

I work in an open workspace shared by about 10 people. Sometimes it gets rowdy, and we frequently find the need to don noise-reduction headphones in order to get any work done.

Unfortunately, my heaphones folded right at the crown of my head and the hinge pinched my hair.  It was impossible to take them off without ripping my hair out.  Solution: knit a cover for them so they don't pinch the hair (really this was just a transparent excuse to engage in some yarn bombing).

It wasn't long after I brought my first prototype to work that my fellow researchers wanted covers for their headphones.  So first, I tried a series of variations on the simple knitted cylinder...

These are the guys' headphones.

Left to right: John S., John D., Erik, Ramon

Made with primarily BMFA, Heritage, Koigu, Tosh

Ramon (my most-excellent boss) finding creative ways to model his pink 'phones

John likes blue.

BMFA (Haida), MadelineTosh (Fathom), Three Fates (I forget the colorway)

The other John refused to model for me, so Erik kindly modeled both his own and John's phones!

I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I ended up doing all the guys' headphones in sequence, and then turned to the women.  By the time I started doing the women's headphones I was a little sick of playing with diagonals, so first I tried a little color work...

Erin got a Space Invaders band (made with Louet Gems).

This one made the boys jealous!

Then started playing around with hardware.  I used O-rings to connect the sides of this one around the band.  It ended up having a much more subtle effect than I'd pictured...

... so the owner of said headphones was kind enough to supplement with her own grunge imitation.  You rock, Jenn!

Francie's headphones with the big pink ear cradles always made me think of overstuffed earmuffs, so I decided to bring my vision to life...

 Pink angora with rhinestone studs!

Elaine's Bose headphones clearly called for swanky coverings...

Tosh Sock (Poseidon) with square cobalt Japanese seed beads.



Although not evident from the picture, Rivelea's headphones had a distinctively gothic theme, and the inside of the ear cradles had a spiderweb graphic. I wanted the outside to reflect the inside.

The tricky part of doing these headphones was identifying the right material.  It turned out I needed something stiffer than yarn.  I trolled around the craft store and picked a variety of materials for trial and error.  DMC memory wire was the clear winner.  Plastic spiders just for fun.

When I wasn't really paying attention, someone snapped this one of me...

 

I think it captured the mood of the day rather well!

Sage advice for any situation

A wise person once said:

So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well.  Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level.  They may be right, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference.

Sounds like it should come straight out of How to Win Friends and Influence People, doesn't it?  Well it just so happens that the person who uttered this wisdom was Elizabeth Zimmerman, in Knitting Without Tears. 

Right on, EZ.  Sorry I never had the priviledge of meeting you.
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