E as in Elizabeth Zimmerman and her EPS

I don't purl, I knit back backwards when I knit flat. Really, it's Elizabeth Zimmerman's fault.

Mostly I knit in the round, which comes from various influences: my main knitting instructor Karen Alfke, a feeling that there's a body logic to it, my laziness about finishing work, and having bought a few of Elizabeth Zimmerman's books early on when I took up knitting seriously several years ago.

But when I knit flat, my purl rows run much looser than my knit rows. To get gauge I usually go down two or three needle sizes from the one called for in a pattern.

After reading several of EZ's books, I bought a set of the Knitting Around videos and watched all three over a couple of days. I rewound the bit about knitting back backwards a couple of times. It fascinated me, this technique that eliminated flopping the whole thing over at the end of every row.

(Note that that linked sites reverses the terms from the way EZ, Karen and I use them. What I refer to she shows as purling back.)

A couple years later, knitting back backwards came up in a conversation with Karen. I finally tried it out in a couple of small tests. Recently I finished an entire sweater using the technique.

Besides eliminating the flop, this technique also helps my hands. I've had tendinitis in my hands and wrists more than once. I pick, so mostly use my right hand, the one with the most issues. For me, KBB switches the hand that does the major part of the work and involves a very different set of moves. Each hand almost gets to rest every other row.

And it turns out I KBB slightly more tightly than I knit. Occasionally I knit back enough more tightly to get a bit of rowing out, but so far not so much that it still shows after blocking. I come much closer to pattern needle sizes - when I knit from a pattern.

Before I took Karen's Unpattern class, I'd had exposure to the idea of designing your own sweaters from basic guidelines in Elizabeth's books. It made sense to me, as I'm the kind of shopper who's alway looking for something that's not 'in' this season.

So, it came as a bit of a surprise when I realized this fall that I'd never actually knit any of EZ's ideas.

The EPS sweater I'm actually knitting for Margene's KAL is not the first one I started when I decide to knit an EPS project a few months before. It's not the second, either.

I plan on doing saddle shoulders for this sweater. I also have a three-rib braided cable on the sleeves and plans for a four-rib up the front - my first big cable project. And I want a steeked V-neckline with the ribs flowing up the sides as smaller cable. That last will be my first steek and a challenge, as I'm using a Merino though Aran-weight yarn.

That's a lot of new things to try in one sweater. But my first planned EPS sweater had trickier cable placement, a zipper, and a double-knit collar to also learn how to accomplish. The second used a sock-weight yarn in a simple hemmed stockinette body. After struggling with a provisional cast-on based on Judy's Magic Cast-on and tiny stitches that kept mysteriously increasing in number, I decided a larger gauge might be best for my first attempt at the hard-to-picture instructions for the saddle shoulders. I really want to try those saddle shoulders.

At this point I'm almost done with my sleeves, lacking an inch or two on the second. These did take a couple tries to get the cables and increases worked out the way I wanted them.

I want to try out some shaping techniques I learned at Madrona on the body - more new things in one sweater. These will fall before I connect the sleeves to the body. Though this sweater is the first where I've knit separate sleeves and body in the round, bottom-up, I think I won't feel like I'm doing an EZ sweater until I get to the point where I Unite the parts. That's really where Elizabeth's way of looking at things differently and coming up with logical and/or clever methods kicks in.

I think EZ's attitude in Knitting Without Tears that anything's possible and nothing except split yarn is really a mistake is good to pass on to new knitters. Beyond that, I think most knitters will need a bit of experience to understand and feel comfortable with her patterns. Her terseness seems to me based on an assumption of some basic knowledge that a few projects provide. How much experience is needed depends on your experience with other craft and construction techniques. Anything that gives you experience in imagining how things go together and what construction steps actually create will help you here.

So now I'll go imagine a bit more of my sweater.

Note - You know you're really tired and need to go to bed when you fall asleep not reading but while actually writing. Thus the Monday Musings tag on a Tuesday post.

Comments

[margene]

Enjoyable musings to read on your knitting journey. The plans sound wonderful and I look forward to watching as you take each step.

[RobinH]

I think you're right about EZ assuming a level of experience. I got Knitting Without Tears for Christmas, and am finding it fascinating and useful- but it's useful to someone who has knit from patterns/adapted from patterns for 20 years. I wouldn't recommend it as a 'beginner's learn-to-knit' book. It's more like a 'learn to design your own stuff' book, for advanced beginning knitters and up.

I do want to try the KBB technique, though- it's supposed to be brilliant for entrelac (which fascinates me!).

Interesting that you think of picking as being more stressful on the right side. I think there have to be about as many different ways to knit as there are knitters- it seems like everyone evolves their own way of holding the yarn and needles. I found, strangely enough, that I hold my wooden sock needles differently from the metal ones (because the wood flexes, which bugs me- I prefer the rigid metal needles- but the TSA does not understand my pain.)

[Birdsong]

Oh, I just love reading all this wisdom you have gained from EZ's efforts... she was a big influence on my knitting too. I have never made an EPS either, but have tried several other things from Knitters Almanac, including modifying a project I had grown to hate into a Tomten jacket I still have and wear... she really made me a fearless knitter!

[Laura]

I've often wondered if most people who dislike purling pick their stitches. I throw the yarn with my right hand, and I *love* to purl (therefore I have no incentive to learn this interesting technique). It's one of those questions that I'm sure I'll never have an answer to, but that's okay. Glad *you* are enjoying this interesting technique, though. Wow. A whole sweater knit flat without turning it over. Cool!

[Karen B.]

I still can't wrap my head around knitting backwards, no matter how I try to conceive of it.

Good on you for grokking it. Safe travels!