Daft knitting question

morganlefay

Mmmm, love Martin's Xmas beard !!!!
Please can a knitter help me. I can do many things but not knit. This year for some inexplicable reason I have bought yarn and needles and downloaded a nice pattern for a dishcloth which I propose to knit while watching Xmas TV (hate having nothing to do ! sad woman) but when I look at the pattern it says for the second row 'Next row, k2,yo,k to end of row' Please what does this 'YO' mean ? And there's a little query on the the previous row too, you had to 'k2 in in next st' which I assume means you knit twice into the next stitch to increase the size (it's square but you knit it from point to point, not straight across the straight side). Sorry to be so dim, but will greatly appreciate any enlightenment.

twink

YO means yarn over, you knit a stitch then put the wool over the needle, then carry on knitting, its just another way of increasing your stitches, maybe someone else can explain it better

pol

YO means putting the wool forward as if you were going to purl, but you then knit the next stitch, so making a new stitch.

K2 in the next stitch means that you knit into the front of the stitch and without pushing it off the needle, you then knit into the back of it as well, so making an increase.

pol

twink

http://www.anniesattic.com/knitting/content.html?content_id=166 might help

morganlefay

Thank you so much - I knew someone here could demystify it for me ! I had searched the internet but not come up with an answer, and there's Twink with even a little picture to show me. OS ers are such nice people :beer:

carol_a_3

Good luck with the knitting, I have recently got back into it again after many years. Can I please ask where you got the dishcloth pattern from online? Did you use cotton yarn? Thanks.

morganlefay

I got the dishcloth pattern from a thread on here a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not exactly sure where, if a search is not helpful if you pm me I'l just type out the instructions which were v simple. And then the yarn..... what a performance ! I tried two shops where they looked at me as if I'd come from Mars, but in the third they knew what I was after but had none, however one of the nice ladies said that she had just used Paton's 100% cotton thread, 4 ply. It looked very fine so I bought a tasteful ball of pale pink and another of pale green - and am proposing to knit them together: it will look like a posh icecream (perhaps !) Good luck !

hardpressed

Putting the yarn over the needle gives a rather holey effect, it make the stitch double it's length. Sorry, sounds as clear as mud but when you do it you'll see what I mean.

Mermaid

hardpressed wrote:

Putting the yarn over the needle gives a rather holey effect, it make the stitch double it's length. Sorry, sounds as clear as mud but when you do it you'll see what I mean.

I think that with a dishcloth, you are after a holey effect, this will increase the abrasiveness of the finished cloth, and probably make it more absorbent too.

What is the second liine of the pattern? Just interested, as I'm trying to work out whether you increase stitches on the first row and then decrease back to the original number on the second row, or whether you alternate increasing and decreasing stitches on the same row (which I think would be the better way of doing it).

From what I know of yarn prices, using Pattons cotton yarn to knit a dish cloth will be pretty expensive, so I hope that it turns out to be the multicoloured Rolls Royce of dishcloths!

Love,

Mermaid

morganlefay

Here we are Mermaid and Carol-a, the whole thing, just as I copied it from the website. It's called 'Idiot's Dishcloth' which I thought was about right for me and it has a sort of holey border all round the edge (perhaps because of the 'yo' effect. I think it will be a Rolls Royce of dishcloths, but worth it to stop me getting bored with the interminable Xmas telly:
Quote:
This is my 2nd discloth, knitted from the oh-so-easy pattern found in the knitting book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting & Crocheting. I have found this pattern all over, so I don't know who the original "owner" is.

Use a needle sized 6 - 9. I've used 9 so far.

co4, k 1 row. Next row, k2 inc in next st, k1. Next row, k2,yo,k to end of row. Repeat the k2, yo, k until you have 45sts on the needle. Next row, k1, k2Tog, yo, k2Tog, k to end of row. Do this row until 5 stitches are left. Then, k2, k2Tog, k1. Bind off the 4 sts.

It is so easy. I've used some cheap yarn and it's wonderful to do while watching television. Not too much thinking to it. They wash up great and are very durable.

happy Christmas to all kindly knitters !
Morgan

Mermaid

I see, this cloth will grow widthwise and then you shrink it back down again to the original width. I saw my grandmother knit squares for a blanket like this. I think that the advantage is that you don't have any long cast on or cast off edges which might be tighter than the other sides and pull it out of shape.

Do post a piccie when you've finished so we can all admire it!

Merry Christmas,

Mermaid