That Damn Loop

The Bias Loop is the project that drove me crazy! It looks pretty good in the picture, but it's full of my knitting flaws. Because of the lace weight yarn I got over my urge to knit this twice. There was no tearing out, no going back, just forward.

The problem began on the provisional cast on, which I executed as the pattern suggested, with a crocheted loop out of cotton. I didn't look at that again as I knit and purled for ever. During the process the stitches caught on my jewelry (is my gauge too loose?), and I became bored out of my mind.

Months later, when I got to the part where I was supposed to undo the crocheted chain and put the live stitches onto another knitting needle I met with more disaster. My lace weight yarn had embedded itself into the cotton, and the lace weight stitches were nearly impossible to disengage from that crocheted chain. I wasn't about to forfeit all that knitting, so I persevered and in about two hours, and with the aid of scissors, I managed to get live stitches onto a needle. After that I wasn't about to try the Kitchener to merge 84 stitches with 84 stitches. So, I did the 3 needle bind off. In spite of my efforts to keep the cast off loose, the resulting seam is tight and bunchy. With the fine yarn, there is no way I would try to undo anything. So much for my "Twice Knit" philosophy. By now, I wanted this Loop off the needles and out of my sight.

After blocking and a photo shoot I put it in the mail for Maren. She reports that she loves it.

The story isn't over. I couldn't get this Bias Loop out of my mind. The fact that it's bias makes it drape beautifully, and if I had managed to execute the Kitchener there would be no seam. What could I do?

I rummaged in my left over yarn bin and came up with some sport weight merino/wool yarn and decided that I would try again, only on a smaller scale. But first, I knew there should be a better way to do the provisional cast on. Looking through my books, I found instructions for making a cable cast on using waste yarn in a different manner. This time I crocheted stitches directly onto a knitting needle, and then knit into those stitches with my loop yarn. Much easier than knitting into a crocheted chain. Yes!

Using this method I caste on 24 stitches. In less than a week I had knit almost to the end of my ball of yarn. I was very easily able to undo the provisional cast on this time. Yes, again!!! I brewed a cup of tea, and managed to do the Kitchener to merge those 2 sets of 24 stitches all in one sitting. The result? Here it is. A pretty close to flawless Bias Loop. And even though I knit this as a sample, just to see if I could do it, I think I'll be wearing it.


As a matter of fact, I can see making lots of these to wear. I used less than 175 yards and I can wear it long and draped, or double it around the neck. I may like this better than a regular scarf. And, with less yarn and less time, why not? It's too bad I didn't' make this before attempting the lace weight version, but in all honesty, I don't think I'll make another one of that magnitude. I like the short and sweet one better.