knitting is a hereditary disease

My strategy for not getting lost in the Fiber Trends felted clogs pattern

Posted on 01/15/2008 by Andrea | Comments (4)
Filed under : Knitting, Tips

In the last episode of Cast On, Brenda mentioned that she loves the Fiber Trends felted clogs, but she hates knitting them because it's so easy to get lost in the pattern.

I kind of feel the same way, but I love them enough that I know I'll be making lots of them in my time. They'll make great gifts. In the process of knitting these, I've come up with a triumvirate of tools for not losing my place in this rather convoluted (but completely genius) pattern. In case they're helpful for anyone else, I thought I'd share them here. Basically, it involves documenting in the pattern and in your knitting where you are at any given time. Doing it this way, I was able to knit the soles of these clogs without ever having to rip back ONE stitch.

1. A Post-It Note.
The Post-It Note marks the section you're currently knitting. I line it up so that the left-hand side of the paper aligns with the first stitch in the section I'm working and the sticky side is just above the line I'm looking at.

Once you're finished working a small section (e.g., a bunch of M1s or a section of knitting before a wrap-and-turn), move the Post-It note so the left-hand side of it now aligns with the next unworked stitch you'll be working. ALSO, before beginning to knit that next section, you'll now need your cable needle:

2. A Cable Needle.
Once you move the Post-It to its new location, you want to mark in your knitting the last stitch you just worked. I stick a cable needle through the stitch I just finished working and also through the knitting below (just to keep it secure). This is your lifeline. You know that all the knitting up until this cable needle followed the pattern and you don't have to worry about it anymore. If your next task is to knit 24 stitches, for example, it'll be really easy to make sure you've actually knitted 24 because the cable needle should be back at the 25th stitch. It'll also be hard to forget where you are in the printed pattern because that Post-It note is sitting there telling you what do to next.

Here's a close-up of what I'm talking about:

(You could also use any movable stitch marker or safety pin. I used safety pins at first, but I found the cable needle was the fastest and easiest, because you can slip it in and out easily without having to open it.)

3. Some Hershey Kisses.
Hershey Kisses, safety pins, bottles of beer. Anything that you have several of and doesn't move of its own volition (I was going to say cats, but that wouldn't work). I used Hershey Kisses because they were the only thing I had seven of that were easily within arms reach. Plus then you can have a built-in reward when you're done knitting.

The Hershey Kisses are for those times in the pattern where it'll say something like (M1, K2) seven times. You don't really need the Hershey Kisses, but if you really want to be foolproof about knitting this pattern, it's just easiest to have seven items handy and move them one pile to the next as you finish each (M1, K2).

And that's it!

If you do these three things together, you'll actually be able to knit Felted Clogs even if you're not in a soundproof room, even if you're absorbed in watching that episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer where the girl's mom who really wanted to relive her cheerleading glory days switched bodies with her daughter and then started sabotaging the other cheerleaders using voodoo. This complicated pattern will actually start to resemble relaxing and relatively mindless knitting. I swear.

And for anyone else who's knitted these, let me know if you have any other tricks for getting through this pattern! I plan to knit lots more of these in the future.

4 Comments

I was going to recommend against using bottles of beer until I got to the part where you move your markers from one pile to another. It hadn't occurred to me that you wouldn't *consume* the markers as you went. *grin*

- said Sharon Rose (01/15/2008, 9:57 AM)

Ha!

I definitely can't guarantee that these tips are so foolproof that one could consume seven bottles of beer and still be able to knit without having to rip back one stitch.

- said andrea (01/15/2008, 9:57 AM)

Great tips! It's been a while since I knitted some of these, but I definitely remember multiple times trying to figure out if I had knitted 24 or 25 stitches, going back and staring at the knitting trying to figure out where the last increase was so I could start counting, and how many repeats have I done? Then again, I'm not sure Hershey kisses would work for me, as I would definitely eat them!

- said Janelle (01/15/2008, 9:57 AM)

Great tips! To keep track of those long stretches of knitting I count forward on the needle and place a locking stitch marker on the needle where I need to stop. This keeps me from obsessively counting backwards every 3 or 4 stitches, which is what I found myself doing when I placed the marker at the start of the stretch.

- said laura (01/15/2008, 9:57 AM)