(Untitled)

[nimbrethil]

I'm wondering about slipping stitches.  Specifically, I've noted that a lot of patterns are emphatic about whether you should slip a stitch purlwise or knitwise.  I assume they do so because it makes a difference in the FO, so I wonder what a knitter can assume when there are no explicit instructions.  My inclination is to always slip knitwise,

Comments

[bienegold]

What they said, with the addendum that if it ends up looking funny, try slipping knitwise. I've had some sneaky patterns on occasion. >(

[sarakate]

Slipping knitwise changes the orientation of the stitch, so you should only do it where you want to change the orientation. Usually the reason why you'd want to do so is because you're going to do some other manipulation -- for instance, if you're doing a sl1-k1-psso, you slip knitwise because you want the left leg in front, so when you pass it to the left and over the subsequent stitch, that leg ends up to the left of the stitch, rather than the right leg twisting across in front. If all you're doing is not working the stitch this row, but coming back to work it later, usually you want to preserve the original orientation. If in doubt, try it both ways and look carefully -- does the stitch end up twisted, and if so, do you *want* it twisted? Do it the way that gives you the intended result