Understanding the Concept

I'm a 'needing to understand the concept' girl, rather than a 'give me the directions so I can be good to go' type. I'd love to be able to just follow directions, and I do follow them lots and lots of the time. But if there is something that nags me, I just can't let it go until I understand the 'why' or the concept.

Case in point, the humble 'slip first stitch' in knitting of some patterns. I've followed this instruction since as long as I can remember following knitting patterns. Sometimes, the pattern says slip the first stitch, sometimes it says to slip the stitch purlwise. I may have even seen it sometimes written to slip knitwise. I'm asked nearly every week if it really makes a difference. I've, generally said to follow the pattern. And if I'm on a knit row, I would slip knitwise, if it didn't say, and slip purlwise on the purl side.

Well, today was my day off and I actually had time to spend doing nothing in particular... quite the novel experience for me these days. What it, also, meant is that I could play with some of these ideas and really see if there was a rhyme or reason as to which way to slip the stitch. And what I discovered was quite illuminating. There is a reason to slip the stitch purlwise, whether on the knit side or the purl side. There is truly a concept, a 'why', that explains why this is often explicitly spelled out and, if it's not, you want to slip purlwise. 

When you slip the stitch purlwise, the stitch remains seated in the right position, front leg in front, when you turn your work for the next row, either a knit or purl row. Who knew, huh? It is, actually, a pretty important concept that keeps the edges or other like stitches from becoming twisted.

So, all these years, I've sometimes done this correctly, sometimes not, but only because I never understood why I was doing it. Now that I know, I can always know how to do it correctly.

I love understanding concepts! It means you just have to learn something once and can then apply it to countless examples. And now that you know the 'why', you, too, will want to slip purlwise, no?