I took a little time over the snow storm to teach a couple of friends to knit. What snowstorms are good for: hot chocolate, a fire in the fireplace and joyful knitting. See DeVeria’s beautiful garter stitch, careful and even, until she became tired. Her work exhibits the beginners nemesis, the dastardly last stitch! It becomes bold and large, befuddling the knitter, who often becomes anxious and fatigued as a result. Be the boss of that stitch! Anticipate its devious desire and modestly stitch it. If its devilry persists, yank it into shape!
Knitting during snow storms is just perfect! I also love hot chocolate with peppermint booze … but you have to be careful not to drink too much or the knitting suffers!
ah yes the last stitch, it tends to grow.
That last stitch will grow forever if she doesn’t begin yanking it back now.
I suggest that you teach her to ease the excess along the row until it comes
out into the unused yarn. One prevention trick is to yank it tight at the
beginning of every row; another is to stop in the middle of a row, and train
yourself to tighten it automatically when you pick up the work again. While
she’s still doing practice swatches, another training option is to cut the
big loop and work the ends in so it doesn’t ravel, as if she had started
another ball at that point.
DeVeria has learned to yank it, and has improved quite a bit since this picture was taken. Tamar, I hadn’t thought of the cut and weave method, it would be a great jump-start to overcoming the “joining new yarn” fear, though that 1st new stitch would be extra slippery the next time encountered.