Wrapping

So last night, after I posted about switching the Spiral pattern from k2tog, k2, yo, k4 to slip1, k1, psso, knit 4, yo k2, I gave it a try. The resulting pattern came out perfectly! However, rather then adjusting the stitches to spiral the pattern, the stitches remained and the pattern adjusted around. I know, it doesn't make sense.

But trust me, something wonky was going on.

So, in true Knitting Sisyphus Style, I frogged back the 10+ rounds I did last night and decided to go back the pattern as written. On the bus this morning, I found the solution to my problem. I'm sure for some of you, this is an obvious fix, but for those of us who don't know, I've take made a little slide show of my solution. DIM THE LIGHTS!

Wrap Over

This is how I've been wrapping my knit stitches. From the back, the yarn wraps over the top of the needle, down and around to the back.

This is the resulting stitch. Now, the stitch facing this way is fine if on the next row it would be knit or slipped. However, when k2tog....

...it results in a twisted stitch. This is unacceptable! There is a way to get the an untwisted k2tog when the stitches are facing that way.

Slip the two stitches to the left needle [I'm left handed, btw].

Then slip them back to the right needle, so they were facing the correct way to result in an untwisted k2tog.

Now doing this isn't that big of a deal, but it was getting pretty tedious in the context of size 2 needles, fingering weight yarn, knee high socks and 10 k2tog's every other round. Not a happy girl was I.

The Remedy

Rather than wrapping the yarn over the needle, I tried wrapping it under then up and over.
I normally wrap this way after a yarn over and have noticed that the stitch after the yo always faced the opposite way of the other knit stitches.

So I gave it a whirl, and this little adjustment resulted in a perfectly untwisted k2tog without the hassle of slipping because the stitches are already faced in the right direction! Whoo Hoo!

I can learn! I can learn!

Now, of course, this results in my spirals going to the right, rather than the left in the original pattern. I'm okay with that.

And a final close-up. I really must say this yarn is great. I've frogged back the same section about 4 times and it's not even getting crazy fuzzy. So happy about that! Nothing more I hate than wasting yarn because I can't get my act together!