So here I am at work, drinking a Starbux chai latte and listening to the second movement of Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto (my FAVE)…and my goal for today is to finish the Sideways Grande Hat that I’ve been working on as a stash-buster. I mentioned in one of yesterday’s posts that I will be slightly modifying the pattern to my taste…but I’m not to that point yet.
Yesterday, my goal was to finish the 14 1/2 inch section done on the largest needles. For this pattern we use 4 different needle sizes. When I started this, I was thinking about using my set of inter-changeable circulars and just switching the tips when it came time to change size. But unless I’m knitting something in the round, I really prefer to use straight needles. Then it hit me:
When you are knitting and need to change needle size, just knit the next row onto the smaller needle.
So I’m knitting on size 10’s and it’s time to switch to size 9’s. All of the stitches are sitting on the size 10, which is in my left hand, and my right hand is holding a size 9. So I knit that row and now all the stitches are on the size 9 needle. Then I drop the empty size 10, and pick up the other size 9 and now I’m all set to knit on the smaller size!
I was SO excited when I discovered this…then I realized how simple it is, and I can’t believe that I have been knitting for 7 years and I’ve never thought of this.
(p.s. you can also do this with circulars if you don’t have an interchangeable set…YAY!)
Sarah Mayland 