Simple Gifts / Choose the Right

One of my favorite hymns is the Shaker standard, Simple Gifts.



Another is in our hymnal, Choose the Right. What does this have to do with knitting, you ask? Well, sometimes the best solution to a situation turns out to be the simplest. I have begun the neckline shaping on my sweater. It involves short-rows, and in about a row and a half I will have to do a patterned row, where I want the handpainted yarn to lie on top of the finished stitch. However, that row is now a purl row, which means that I will not be looking at the face of the sweater, but its reverse. I wondered, do I knit-back-backward, a technique I learned many years ago? It accomplishes the same thing as purling, but you get to watch the stitches travel from left to right, which is not the norm if one is a right-handed knitter. [And I have not tried it in years.]

On all previous patterned rounds, I simply placed the decorative yarn to the left of the main yarn, ensuring that it would lie on top. It took me longer than I care to admit to realize that I can purl back and get the same effect if I make sure the decorative yarn is on the right. When I turn the work so the right side is facing me, the fancy yarn will be on the left, and the stitches will look just the way I want them to look.

'Til by turning, turning we come round right.