Oh So Wrong

April 18th, 2009

I was so confused when I wrote that last post. When your pattern is supposed to be 40 rows to 4″ and it’s only 38 rows to 4″, your finished piece is going to be longer than the pattern intended. Not shorter. At all. Reality is still firmly rooted; it’s me that’s not.

My gauge was off so the whole garment is measuring longer than it was intended (I haven’t checked width yet) but I decided that might not be so terrible. I started seaming up the sides to try it on and things seem fine so far. It’s not going to be as closely fitted as I prefer, but I think (hope!) it will fit.

Look at that nice mess of knitting.

Moving on to the next part of this neverending Sage Cardigan, and I’ve got about 6″ of the sleeve done. The pattern makes a sleeve much too long for me. Add to that an incorrect gauge, and I need to do some calculating. For some reason math and reason elude me lately, because I haven’t been able to come to a firm decision about how many rows to remove from the  established pattern. I’ve had too much progress on this thing lately to knit something I know may be ripped out again!

I’ve got this fear. Have you ever put so much work into something, and messed up so many times that your confidence not what it used to be, so you really can’t be sure it will all work out? That’s me with this damn cardigan.

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Bending Reality

April 12th, 2009

I just don’t know what to do. I’ve finished the back of my Sage Cardigan, and I just feel like reality doesn’t apply anymore. I’ve started blocking it (and never really finished as you will see), but I just couldn’t get the measurements to add up. The pattern has this handy schematic with measurements at various points, which I’ve been using to block it to shape. This is partly because I just want to see the piece nice and flat and pretty, and partly to make it easier when seaming. Well, at every dimension it’s just too big.

I just don’t understand this, because my gauge should be spot on. I measured the row gauge and that was actually a few rows short (possibly because it was slightly scrunched to get it to fit the measurements). If that was the case it should be too short! I haven’t even been able to bring myself to measure the stitch gauge yet, because I have this feeling it’ll be right and I’m still stuck with a back that’s too big.

First, I didn’t knit the larger size. I also counted stitch repeats to be sure that I didn’t knit any extras. I knit exactly as many rows as the pattern calls for! I also did the match and according to the gauge and the number of rows, the pattern schematic is spot on as to how large this thing should be.

The only thing that I can think of is that the pattern is wrong somewhere. When I can get up the energy I’m going to remeasure (now that it’s dry), check gauge again, and see how the seams match up with the two front pieces. Maybe I’m overreacting, but when the height of the garment is supposed to be 22.6″ and I get 24″ without stretching it…well that’s just wrong. I just don’t know where it’s gone wrong.

This thing is just bending reality and my understanding of the rules of reality. Ack!

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Modified Log Cabin Blanket

April 6th, 2009

I recently decided to make a baby blanket for a friend. This was partly because I’ve always wanted an excuse to knit with Berroco Comfort, and mostly because I knew she would like it. I do what I can to stay away from man-made fibers for various reasons, and ever since that first day at work I held a skein of the Comfort we’ve had a love-hate relationship. It’s just too soft to resist!

I wanted simple, garter stitch, portability, two-colored, and I just couldn’t for the life of me decide what to do. I’d thought about giving log cabin a try again, but there are just not many flattering ways to do a log cabin blanket with only 2 colors.

After agonizing, sketching, waffling, reconsidering, I finally came up with this…

If you look at a larger version of the picture (just click on it) you might  be able to tell that each color goes in a different direction. The blue garter ridges go one way, and the purple ones go another. I loved knitting this because there is minimal casting on, and the garter stitch makes it super easy.

To knit it, you just cast on the width of one square, knit as many garter ridges as you have stitches cast-on. If you cast-on 30, you will knit 60 rows (every 2 rows makes one garter ridge). When you’re done with that square, bind-off all of the stitches. Then just pick up 30 stitches in the 30 garter ridges as you would for a log cabin blanket, and knit another 60 rows. Do the same thing for the third and fourth squares, except you won’t start picking up stitches along the bind-off edge. You’ll have to seam the first and last squares together, et voila!

I think I’ll make 9 big squares (4 small squares to each big square) to make a blanket roughly 33″ x 33″. That’s a good baby blanket size, right?

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A Day to Frog

March 8th, 2009

Two projects I had to frog today, but I feel good about doing it for both of them. Maybe it’s the sun and warm spring weather we’re having, or maybe it’s these projects feel fresh because they’ve spent a lot of time in hibernation. As long as I don’t have to do too much more ripping back on these, I’m happy to do it now.

This is my second piece on the sweater I’ve been working on, and hopefully this isn’t a warning of things to come as in the previous piece. I got over halfway through knitting it before I had to rip anything back, which is a good sign. I was being pretty careful about the pattern, and following my rows cautiously when I realized there was one measely increase that I missed on the outside edge of the garter panel. Whoops! A roughly 10 row frog isn’t so bad compared to the rip-it hell of the first piece.

Compared to my slow progress before, I feel like I’m flying along on this piece despite the small stitches. Just a back piece, and two sleeves to go! Then there’s the grafting, seaming…OK maybe it’s not quite that close to finished.

I realize you haven’t seen much of this guy since before the fall. I didn’t really post anything after the swatch, but you can see it’s coming along. I haven’t touched it since before the holidays, but it was a well deserved break. At that point I had finished one sleeve (which you see above), and started the other when I realized my gauge on the sleeves was off. I probably could have fudged it, but it was just a teeny bit too tight on my husband’s arm. Since it’s been over a month I feel pretty comfortable starting all over on the sleeves.

I must say, this has been super easy and when I actually work on it, it flies off the needles. No waist shaping and a wonderful combination of garter/stockinette stitch. Such a contrast to the sage cardigan! Not only can we women be high maintenance sometimes, but I guess our sweaters are too.

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Teddy Bears

March 1st, 2009

A few months back I bought this cute little book of knitted teddy bears called The Knitted Teddy Bear. I love knitting things that are going to be useful, and I just can’t bring myself to knit all kinds of baby clothes that the little one will grow out of in a few months. However, a teddy bear can be of use for a very long time.

I had some Frog Tree Alpaca sport weight leftover from knitting Mom’s shawl, browsed through the book for the right teddy, and cast-on…again…and again… This is not a cleverly knit-in-one-piece-and-sew-closed teddy bear. Normally I avoid heavily seamed pieces whenever I can because, well frankly if you can then why not? I started losing track of what was what so I had to pin my finished pieces to a piece of paper and label them.

It looks like a mess right now, but just bear with me (pun not intended…I wish I was that clever). Once all the pieces are sewn up and the ends are all hidden away it’ll be a cute little brown bear of a thing. It’s going to be a bit on the small side, but I kind of like that. Toys don’t always need to be huge.

A bit on this particular pattern book. There are quite a few cute little bear patterns in it, and I imagine once you’ve done a few you get the hang of it. It has a nice variety to choose from, but the way the patterns are written can be wierd. It’s not wrong necessarily, but it took me a little bit to decipher some of the wording. For example…

Inc 1 st at each end of row.

When I first looked at that sentence, I thought it was telling me to increase at the end of each row. I began to wonder if this wasn’t written by a native English speaker, because that didn’t make sense based on previous rows. After a few more readings though, I realized that it meant to increase at the beginning and end of that particular row (or “at each end”). Not that this is a wrong way to describe what you’re doing, but in my experience it’s much more  common to see that written as something like “m1 at beg. and end of row” replacing m1 with whatever increase is being used of course.

So far this is a very thorough pattern. We’ll see when it comes to construction how the instructions are.

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The Sage Cardigan

February 21st, 2009

I have ripped this project out so many times. I am determined to finish it because I am so in love with the design, but I feel as if the pattern and me just don’t mesh. This time I didn’t do my increases in the right place. On the garter stitch panel you’re supposed to decrease at the very edge as it gets closer to the shoulder. Not paying any attention to the line by line instructions (I’m using the very detailed graphed out chart) I didn’t realize I was supposed to decrease 1 stitch in. Of course I should have seen this. I should have known that decreases right on the edge of garter stitch would look like a ladder. It wasn’t until I’d almost finished this piece that I realized I couldn’t live with how crappy it looked. R-R-I-P-P…

Today and yesterday I finally got the energy to pick it back up again and reknit almost to where I ended before ripping. In fact I was even going to try to avoid ripping and do a clever fix. It turns out I like actual knitting more than I like deconstructing and re-working it. This is going to be such a beauty when I block it. You may be able to tell that now the edge of the garter stitch panel has a nice (mostly) smooth curve to it. Totally worth ripping and reknitting.

I have to say one thing about the yarn. I’m using Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca and Silk yarn, and this stuff has really held up. Some parts of the yarn have been knit 4 and 5 times, and there’s only a slight bit of fuzz to show the wear. That’s no more than it would get once it had been blocked, and you can’t really tell when it’s knitted up. This is a good thing because I really need this sweater to last, what with how long it’s taking me.

This started out as a somewhat long term sweater due to the detail and the small stitches, which I am always a fan of. However, it has become a monster of a sweater due to a bit of perfectionism and a lot of mistakes. The pattern itself doesn’t seem to have too many errors, but it’s not written in a way that is easy for me to follow. It may seem silly, but there’s just too much information and I get overwhelmed.

Hopefully as I get on in this pattern I’ll have more to say. It feels as if every time I bring this cardigan it’s always the same story. Love the yarn, love the stitches, mistakes, ripping, reknitting, damn it I’m determined to finish this one.

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Love for Garter Stitch

January 18th, 2009

I seem to be doing a lot of garter stitch lately. I’ve always loved simple knitting, and the projects I’ve been drawn to the past few days prove just how much.

I couldn’t resist starting another bib. I had a lot of this purple-mauve cotton left over from Christmas knits, so I cast on right away. I love picking it up and working on a few rows when I just don’t feel like thinking.

I’ve gone through almost two whole balls of this handspun to get this scarf, and I think I’ll have a bit more than I need for a good length. I wish bits of this yarn were spun better, but overall it’s coming out nicely. I think washing it and blocking it will make a real difference, especially to clean up the edging.

I’ve got what looks like a stitch marker on there to count my rows. It’s a row counter that has 10 rings for 10 rows. My pattern repeats only have 6 rows, so I’ll skip 4 rings to start. I have two different pattern repeats to follow. When I’m following the one that increases for the scalloping I move one ring each row towards the green bead. I do the same for the decreasing towards the white bead. It’s so easy to remember, and I find it much more mindless than having to remember to tick off a row counter every row.

I can’t wait to finish it and try it out in this cold cold winter we’ve been having.

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Cute and Easy

January 14th, 2009

I like easy projects, and it’s even better when they’re cute.

Despite being simple, I did learn one little thing. Buttonholes are messy. I should do a study soon and sample some buttonhole techniques. I always end up with this strand on one side that looks loose and messy. I know they’re often hidden behind the  button, but when it’s something that won’t always be buttoned they should look crisp and clean.

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