Peasant Stitch

Garter Stitch is our first stitch as a beginner knitter, and once we can go through the movement without thinking, we quickly move on to more adventures. It's not often we turn back to visit our old friend, being rather dazzled by the laces, twists, cables and drop stitches that offer a showcase of our skills. In fact, Garter Stitch is probably thought of as the stitch of country peasants from long ago. We imagine them turning out endless piles of family clothing, being too busy with the harshness of everyday life to be occupied with the fancies. (Remember Mortica's roll of knitting in "The Adam's Family"?)
So then, why are we becoming aware of what Garter Stitch can do? Well, have you noticed how designers are featuring it in bags and jackets lately? It fits right in with the traditional look of older cultures, coming up quite a winner with bright colors to create a woven look. As you know, Garter Stitch lies flat and needs no edge stitches. In fact, its edges are attractive and smooth and seam together effortlessly. It lends itself to embroidery, with the nubs easily threaded through with a wool needle. Those same nubs are very useful if you want to pick up a straight row along the surface of your knitted piece and add a ruffle of lace or such. If you are using a flamboyant yarn, something unobtrusive like Garter Stitch is the perfect background to let your dream yarn make an exclamation.
If you would like to see just what you can do with a few short lengths of plain knitting, pick up a copy of Jean Greenhowe's "Jiffyknits" booklet on "the exciting new craft for Garter Stitch strips". Uses double knitting yarn (8ply or worsted) throughout with 4mm (US 5 UK 8) needles. Everyone has those. My favorite is "The Mummy's Mummy", an Egyptian mummy dancing with his partner beside a gramophone. Note that none of these patterns requires shaping but are cleverly constructed, with no project requiring more than one ball (25g - 1oz) to complete, so they're ideal for scraps. You've no doubt seen Jean's colorful booklets at your local yarn store.
For those who haven't done any knitting with double point or circular needles, you achieve Garter Stitch by knitting one round then purling the next. On straight needles, you can also purl every row. I have seen pictures of a South American male doing this and holding the wool over his left thumb (between thumb and forefinger). The right needle scoops it through the stitch on the left needle, pulling the stitch off at the same time with the work thus going very fast. You must keep your thumb close to the stitch with a generous slackness in the working wool. The skein of wool traveled from his thumb over his left shoulder, around the neck and nested in a holder on his right hip. I enjoyed trying the different rhythm of this knitting.

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