Knit Two, Purl Two ... What in the World!?

This weekend I brought along my knitting. As Baby Girl napped in the other room, I sat in a cozy chair and watched TV. My knitting needles made a satisfying "click, click, clack" sound as I worked the yarn.

I had completed about 1/3 of a dish cloth in a straightforward knitting stitch. Nothing fancy. I decided to experiment with something a bit different, so I switched the pattern to "knit two, purl two".

Everything went okay ... for about three stitches. I quickly realized that I obviously did not know how to purl. I thought I remembered how. Apparently not. I just kept trucking, though, and finished my row.

The stitches looked really funny --- all twisty and tight. My rows and rows of neat knitting were followed by a mess of craziness. I surveyed the damage and thought to myself, "Hey, who cares? It's only a dish cloth, for heaven's sake. The whole point of the exercise is to experiment and learn."

So I tried to do another row. Knit two, purl two. Oh man, it was worse than the last. I'd really made a mess of things, and had mysteriously managed to add about a dozen new stitches to the row. My dish cloth was a disaster.

I stopped, gave a frustrated "huff", and unraveled all my work. Ben gave me a curious look out the corner of his eye.

"I forgot how to purl," I informed him.

"Oh," he replied, not really grasping the situation. I guess the term "perl" means something completely different to a computer programmer.

In the end, I managed to find a "How to Purl" tutorial on the internet. It seems I was pulling the yarn around backwards, and that it why my stitches got all twisted. I started over and am working on perfecting "knit two, purl two".

My skein of yarn came with a cool pattern for an afghan. If I can get the hang of the stitches, I think it would make a neat project for over the winter. I guess I should at least finish one little dish cloth first, though.