Problems with soaker cuffs...

[Perogi]

I asked about picking up stitches the other day to add cuffs to my soakers and thought I had it down but now I'm running into trouble...I did it on one soaker that I wanted ribbed cuffs but now I have a soaker that I want to do ruffles and one that I want to do rolled.

So let me see if I can explain the problem I am having....I am picking up stitches by inserting the needle up through a finished stitch at the edge of the leg hole and knitting into it using circs. The issue is that by doing this I am putting the "bump" on the outside and I need it to go on the inside. So what happens is that my nice flat knit side ends up on the inside of the cuff and the bumpy "wrong side" ends up being the side that is showing. Which doesn't work for ruffles or rolled cuffs. I have tried and tried and tried to figure it out but I'm having a total mental block and can't get around it.

Please help, I'm driving myself crazy!!! :)

[Susan_WW]

You need to pick up the stitches from the right side of the garment instead of the wrong side of the garment. HTH :)

[Loralyn]

Let's see if I can explain this well. With the right side of your soaker facing you, insert your needle through 2 bars of an edge stitch, wrap yarn around and pull through. Many people find it easier to insert a crochet hook and pull through a loop and then place it on your knitting needle. HTH!

[littleturtlemama]

yep, you don't want to be going UP to pick up the stitches, but going DOWN. So, with the outside (public side) of hte soaker facing you, you'll stick the needle (or crochet hook) down between the stitch wrap the yarn and pull the needle back through. Be sure that you are picking up in a ratio of about 2 stitches for every 3 stiches/row on the leg, otherwise the cuff will flare too much.

[Perogi]

Okay, so if I'm sticking my needle down into the stitch, aren't I purling? I tried that and it just felt like I was purling and I thought that I should be knitting....

[twouglyducks]

The first round you aren't knitting or purling... you're just getting loops of yarn onto your needle.

[ravingcutie]

Do you have a crochet hook? I think it makes it much easier. That way you're just pulling up loops and aren't tempted to "knit" or "purl".

[Perogi]

I'll take another stab at it...

[Perogi]

:didit :cheer I just went around with my needle and picked up all the loops without knitting into them at all and once I had all the loops I started knitting. Somehow that helped get me over the unforgiving preggo mental block that was holding me up and now I'm flying! :knit Thanks ladies! :)

[pamelamama]

:superb

[twouglyducks]

That is how I do it, too. Glad you figured it out. It's frustrating when you just can't visualize how to do something.

[Susan_WW]

Yay! :cheer

[Loralyn]

Here's something else that may help with your future knitting. When something says to pick up stitches on an edge you are simple picking up a bar and putting it on your needles. When something says to pick up AND knit on an edge, you are going to be pulling through a loop. You can think of it as a knit stitch by thinking of a knit stitch as entering the front and going to the back, wrapping the yarn from left to right around the needle and pulling through. It is a knit stitch, but you are simply creating a new stitch to then do whatever the patterned stitch is when you come back to it.

So glad you got it!!! Preggo brain is a serious epidemic :p. You know that they've proven that a preggo brain actually shrinks and doesn't return to its normal size for up to a year afterwards. I use this excuse often, lol. edd 6/14 with my #7, our #9 so I really get to use this often, snicker.