Swing Knitting

What is it? 

A series of short rows "swinging"  or "dancing" of back and forth kitting making wave like shapes. There is an actual counting and mathematical system however I find it can be done on the fly. And as you would guess I'm of the do it on the fly kind of knitter. 

The right brain sort of artistic or inpatient, I can do it my way sort of person. The hat turned out well by just following the waves visually. From what I gather it's a method that was originally from Germany and  most of the knitting patterns you find are in German. One of the most requested search words on this blog is swing knitting. 

I like swing knitting very much and love the way it lends itself to "freeform" knitting. And utilizing different methods of short rows to create the shape you want is a lot of fun.

I was originally introduced to this method of knitting at the Skacel  booth at TNNA by Brigitte Elliott. She had this beautiful shawl displayed and invited us to sit down and try it. 

The very generous Skacel folks gave us needles and yarn and a pattern for a hat. The needle they supplied was a size 7 brass Addi lace circular needle, one of my favorites. A very detailed row by row instruction of short rows going back and forth looking like waves. As you may guess I got tired of looking at the pattern after a few waves, quickly figured out the rhythm of it put the pattern aside and finished the hat in no time. Great fun!

The example below done by a knitter on Ravelry shows how safety pins are used to keep stitch count and mathematical logic to it. I had a very difficult time mastering or actually having patience to place safety pins or counting stitches. But as I said above it can be done on the fly. I call it knitting to shape. Which means to stop frequently and visually figure out where the fabric has to "grow". 

Now that I've completed the two fronts of my Wing Vest I have to make a decision what to do in the back. When I found my Noro bin full of Noro yarn I also found a couple of half started projects. As usual I started something and either got tired of knitting or distracted so it got put in a bin on a time out. 

Do I use the back of a sweater I started? Or do I frog it and do a knit to shape swing knitting short row back?

What do you think? Leave me a comment I'd love to hear feedback.

Happy Knitting! 

And remember to Admire your work often!