Tips About Using Cast-On or Shortrowing Rags

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Anne Campbell anne.campbell@PIXIE.CO.ZA sends some information about making shortrowing or cast-on rags. E-wrap cast on over desired number of stitches using waste yarn and knit approximately 20 rows. Then introduce 1 end of No 5 crochet cotton or any strong thread of equal thickness, making it a good contrast color, knit 1 row. Take carriage out of action back to the side where you left the waste yarn, pick up yarn and knit 20 more rows and cast off. Fold the rag in half and stitch the 2 edges together. When you start knitting, pick up the required number of stitches of the rag and place on the corresponding needles. Knit 1 row with ravel cord or nylon thread, then begin with your garment yarn. She has a few of these: 2 for fronts and backs, 2 for sleeves, and 2 full needle bed for sideways knitted skirts. She always leaves the rag on until she has steamed her work. It gives a good edge to pin out and also to hang your weights on.

Kathleen Kinder k.kinder@daelnet.co.uk adds that she puts a small scrap rag on her linker at the end with a space between that and the stitched seam. This insures that she has a long enough "tail"" to control and pull back. She then draws the end through the loop and fastens it down.

Mrs. Rosemary Paul rearep@BREMNER.UTC.AC.ZA says the rag is the most useful thing she ever knitted. She made her in fluorescent pink. Start with about 10 to 14 stitches at one end of the machine and keep decreasing one side and increasing at the other side until you have worked your way across the bed, or the rag is as long as you want it. This produces nice loops along one side and a tighter finish on the other, so whichever suits you better you use. Being nice and long, it can be used on both sides of the bed with no need to cut it. This is a bias strip and she keeps it rolled up on her knitting table. Definitely an essential item if you use patterns that need quite a few stitches cast on at a time.

Kathy Pauser awawego@IBM.NET has made a bunch of scrap raps in different lengths. Cast on with 3-wrap over the number of needles desired. Knit 10 to 20 rows depending on the type of yarn and preference. Bind off around sinker post. Steam them out so they won't roll as much and will work nicely for a long, long time. She binds them off so they are completely finished. When she does shortrowing or puts half in hold for shoulder shaping, whatever, she lays one of these rags over the sinker posts, pushing needles to be in HOLD position through the rag. If you are shortrowing in sections, use a longer one and just life the end over the next section of sinker posts, push needles to hold and continue. She also uses the scrap rags to cast on and use as a base when e-wrapping a large section of needles like the body of a garment when knitting a sideways project. It saves even that little bit of time to cast on because she doesn't have to look for a small bit of scrap yarn and she doesn't have to rewind those same small bits when she takes it off. She just pulls out the Ravel Cord and sets the scrap rag aside for another use, another day. It only takes about 1 hour to make several and she's had them for years.

Joan Alsop yateholm@glinx.com also sends a list of instructions. This cast-on rag is a strip of knitting that can be done in several different ways. It is used instead of using waste yarn every time you cast on. The rag is knitted so that it is as wide as the needle bed. You can just use part of it for a small number of stitches. Here's how you do it: Let's say you want to cast on 60 stitches. You hang loops from the rang onto 60 needles, then you knit one row with nylon cord. This is important; otherwise, the rag would be knitted into your main yarn. Now you start with you main knitting and you have something to hang your weights on. This is not used with the ribber, just with the main bed. After finishing your knitting, you just have to pull out the nylon cord. The way I knit my rag is to cast on about 30 stitches at the extreme left of the bed and knit 2 rows. Carriage on right, decrease 1 stitch on the left, pull out needle on the right, knit 2 rows. Continue until you get to the right of the bed, then take off the stitches and move them over to the left and continue. ~ pulling out one needle every 2 rows, you will be making a series of loops, each one of which will hang on a needle. So you actually need to do 400 or more of these little rows to complete your rag. There are other ways of knitting a rag, but she likes this one. You can use any kind of strong yarn, not too thick. Something like the old Perla would be good. Of course, you cannot use this for binding off with waste yarn. You have to do that the usual way. The rag is very good for lace knitting as it gives you somewhere to hang your weights right away. You can do this ~ starting at the right side of the bed if you wish. Then you pull out the needle on the carriage side, which would be the left side. It just depends which way is easiest for you to work. She is right handed and prefers to do it the way she described above.

Ann Cooper janda@iconz.co.nz adds that when she knits these bias strips, she has sewn in a strip of weights such as those which are put into the bottom of curtains. She puts these at the edge to keep the strip down and make it easier to work with.

Cara Burnhauser  mailto:cara@cara4webshopping.com uses an old nylon stocking instead of a knitted rag. She stretches the thin nylon over the gate posts. She uses it not to eliminate black marks so much as to eliminate the rub or wear marks that going over the stitches more than once brings. For machines that have no gate pegs, she puts the nylon inside the head. She pierces the nylon with the point of the needle and hangs it like it was fabric.