Mind. Blown.
I’ve been knitting for around 9 years. According to my Ravelry profile, I signed up in 2011 but I state that I started knitting in 2012…so who even knows. In that time, I’ve learned a lot of stitches. I’m pretty loyal to my decreases though, SSK & knit 2 together, unless something else is called for that’s what I always do. Always.
Turns out I’ve been doing my SSKs wrong THIS WHOLE TIME.
Instead of slipping as if to knit, I’ve been slipping as if to purl. What I think happened is that at one point I learned about the “improved” SSK where you slip as if to knit, then slip as if to purl. From there, I didn’t double-check what I was doing and started slipping purlwise and didn’t realize I screwed up.
I realized this is likely why all the projects I knit with SSKs as a design feature have never looked quite right.
Because of this, I took a look at a few of the projects I have on the needles. Remember the Halloween-y chevron scarf I showed you guys yesterday? I’m pretty sure this is why I’m not super satisfied with how it looks. Also, I had been working on a Strangling Vine Lace Scarf by Nicole Hindes (Ravelry link) and hadn’t loved how it was turning out - I think it was because of the SSK issue. So, the project went from this:
To this:
This poor yarn has been ripped out several times now. Originally I started a shawl with it and then decided I wanted to do the scarf. I’ll be honest though, I had more and more misgivings about this yarn as a scarf. I worried that the silvery bits would be too scratchy. So, back into the stash it goes until the perfect project presents itself.
I’ve learned that I shouldn’t ever assume I’m right and it never hurts to double check.