The Unknit

I spent the end of last week in Cape Girardau at the Erlbacher Knitting Machine Company Homecoming & Crank In.  I had a great time with friends I made last year and new friends I made this year, learned some great tips, and got some in person help on timing my ribber better.  One of the most helpful things I learned was how to unknit faster and better on the machine.  I had been doing it with my pick tool, lifting the stitches off one by one. I learned how to pull up on the yarn and the new stitch pops off and leaves the old stitch right where it should be.  I got pretty fast at it after a couple of times.  You need to raise needles in order to park the yarn carrier out of the way, but I usually have needles raised already because I am working on a heel or toe when the need arises to unknit.  Either I loose track of where I am and end up increasing where I should still be decreasing ( or vice versa) or I am not paying attention and keep decreasing past my target needle.  Well, the latter situation cam up this morning so I took a video while I unknit. A slotted yarn carrier is helpful so you don’t have to cut the yarn, but if you don’t have one, cut the yarn and you will need to make a join of some kind when you are ready to get back to knitting the yarn off the cone or bobbin. I have not come across this process on a video or Sock TV before, so here it is. It’s much easier to see it than to try to have it explained in words. I have the camera in front of me, so its a little awkward, and my hands get in the way a little.  Near the end, my camera angle is off, but you have seen the important stuff by then. If I need to to it again, I will try to take a better video next time.