In perusing the various knitting forums and articles online, I often find myself having to smile at some of the lies we tell ourselves and each other.
Lie #1: "You can block it into shape"
Only to a very small extent, and not for very long. If your thing isn't mostly the right shape when you finish knitting it, blocking is only a temporary fix. The instant it gets damp, or you look away, or your recipient washes it, it will go right back to the shape it was when it came off the needles.
Lie #2: "You can felt it"
Once again, not really. "You can felt it" is the grand booby prize of knitting. Let's face it, you may as well just throw it away. "You can felt it" is basically the kiss of death. Unless you are knitting something that is designed to be felted, felting it won't make it any better than it is right now. Just rip it back and start again.
Lie #3: "You can tame the curl in stockinette by doing _______"
I've tried it, and no you can't. Whether someone is advocating aggressive blocking (see Lie #1 above), a crocheted edging, or anything other than "not knitting it in stockinette," they are lying. Stockinette gonna curl, it's one of the big rules of life, and there's not a darned thing you can do about it.
Lie #4: "Don't worry about measurements, you can try it on as you go"
This is typically advocated for top-down sweaters and socks. Once you spend an entire evening trying it on - including all of the fiddling, tugging, putting it on waste yarn, and trying not to accidentally pull the needles out - you will realize that you would have been better off if you had just measured yourself to begin with.
This method takes all the hazards of measuring yourself and it makes you do that repeatedly, in the middle of the project, with a piece of curling, rumpled knitting instead of a measuring tape. What's not to hate?
Image courtesy Flickr/mararie
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