Bond Machine Knitting - Short Rowing (Shaping Technique)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 12:49:10 -0500
From: "Jimmy L. Simmons"
Subject: Re: [BOND] short rowing
There are no secrets in working short rows but there are a couple
of rules.
First, since you are usually pulling more than one needle into FHP, these
needles must be on the side OPPOSITE of the carriage. If you pull more than
one needle into FHP on the carriage side you are courting disaster.
Second, after you knit the row that you just placed needles in FHP, place
the yarn UNDER the needle in FHP adjacent to the first needle to be knit on
the return stroke and over the top of the rest of the needles in FHP. If
you don't do this then you will leave an ugly hole. What happens is the
yarn will then skip across all the needles you have in FHP and be wrapped
around the one next to the first needle that is in WP.
Third, use claw weights to keep the tension on the fabric where it is to be
knitted. Place a claw weight under the outside stitches that are knitted
(both outsides). This is very important because without these weights you
will tend to drop the first stitches because the fabric is hanging on the
needles in FHP.
Jimmy L. Simmons
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 17:16:28 EDT
From: Smithercol@aol.com
Subject: [BOND] Short row shaping shoulders
>But can someone please explain the secrets of short rowing?
> And when is it a good idea to do it?
I do it often because it makes the sweater fit better. Look in the mirror at
how much our shoulders slope down from the neck. It is especially important
on vests or sleeveless tops to keep the armhole nice and snug.
This is the "long and detailed" description of short-row shaping.
Instead of binding off the stitches in steps, short row them as follows. I
begin shaping one or even two rows before the directions say because I then
knit one or two rows after doing the shaping as will be explained later.
Let's say you want to decrease 7 stitches on each side three times for this
example.
Pull 7 needles forward to holding position on the shoulder side opposite of
the carriage and knit across. Wrap the yarn around the needle in HP closest
to the last stitch you just knit. The wrap will prevent a gap.
Pull 7 needles forward to HP opposite of the carriage on the other shoulder
side. Take up the slack in the yarn and knit across to those stitches. Wrap
the yarn around the needle in HP closest to the last stitch you just knit on
that side. Hang claw weights as needed because the stitches in holding
position begin to make the adjacent stitches slack.
Pull 7 needles forward to HP opposite the carriage again, knit over and wrap
the yarn around the closest needle in HP. Continue knitting and wrapping
until you have finished the SRS. What you have done is knit less rows on
shoulder side stitches than on the inner most stitches thus producing a slight
slant. Your carriage will be in the middle of the work on one side.
There are several ways to finish at this point. What I like to do is have one
or two rows on top of the short rows so that the shoulder seam doesn't look
like stair steps, so I push the needles on the side opposite the carriage in
HP back into work making sure all the latches are open. (Note that you will
see the extra wraps on the stitches that were wrapped. If you forgot to wrap,
redo.) Knit across all those stitches in WP, then pull the other shoulder
stitches back into work and knit across to those. You have knit more on one
side that the other so I pull the other shoulder and the center stitches out
of work and knit only the one shoulder again. Take off the center neck
stitches as desired.
At this point, you can take off the shoulder stitches separately on WY or
garter bars and seam them to the front shoulder stitches as usual. The
wrapped stitches will be one or two rows below the shoulder seam and will look
like little tucks and the shoulder seam will have a downward shaping. If you
shape the front and back using the same number of stitches out of work, the
little tucks will be directly across from each other.
Shaping the front will be the same except that you are only putting stitches
into HP every other row on the shoulder side. If you shape the back, you will
want to shape the front too.
This is not as bad as it sounds!
Good luck
Colleen
Smithercol@aol.com
Author : Steph Thornton.
Last modified on : 25th January 2000.
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