Kitties Love Yarn

Four of the swatches I'm going to need to submit are supposed to be done with the same yarn and same size needles, basically as a set - and it struck me that these four swatches would be a pretty good diagnostic.



Seed stitch. Nice and even. When I hold it up to the light there's only one "hole" that seems bigger than the others, maybe two. Given that this is my first shot at the seed stitch swatch, and most people seem to have more trouble with it than with any of the others, that's probably a pretty good sign. The catch is: I seem to have cast on too loosely. There's visible gaps between the cast-on row stitches, and the purl bumps that were made from those stitches are a little lumpy.



Stockinette stitch, back side of swatch. The big problem here - if you look at the edge of the swatch that's towards the top of the photos, there's these vertical lines running through it. Oddly, these go away as you get towards the other end of the swatch - there must be something funny about how I tension my yarn near the beginning of the row? Also, my 1x1 ribbing could probably be a little less sloppy, but if you knit your ribbing on the same needles as your stockinette stitch it will always look sloppy by comparison. All things considered this may be perfectly cromulent 1x1 ribbing.



Garter stitch. My garter stitch is awesome. It is all purls rather than all knits but I don't think that will make a difference. What is not awesome is the 2x2 ribbing at the bottom of the swatch / right of the screen: the second stitch of each pair is really loose. Advice on fixing this varies from "Try Combination knitting" to "Yank just a bit as you switch from knit to purl" to some techniques from TechKnitter that seem to involve running that stitch down and laddering it back up with a crochet hook.



Horseshoe cable. Just a big mess - I don't think those holes are supposed to be there, nor the vertical lines down the middle of each cable. I was using a really skinny cable needle and I wonder if that threw me off - I should see if I can find a standard DPN a couple sizes smaller than the needles I'm knitting with. Also, same problems with rowing out at one end of the stockinette stitch and loose stitches at the knit-to-purl transition, but even worse.

So. That's where I am. Let's see where I can get to...

...also, I've started writing the research paper. I have several paragraphs on Putting Thy Knits Into Storage For Ye Summer. I got distracted researching moth repellents - the good news is that there are, indeed, some proven ones, but the bad news is that they're also human repellents. The ultimate takeaway might be "If you like lavender and/or cedar, go ahead, won't hurt anything, your knits will come out of storage smelling like something other than musty sheep, but they're not miracle cures."

So far I've gotten to look through and evaluate two big comprehensive knitting reference books from the library, in the name of picking one or the other to buy: the Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook (1993 edition) by Montse Stanley, and Principles of Knitting (2012 edition) by June Hemmons Hiatt. I'm not 100% thrilled with either one.

Big problem with the Reader's Digest book: I don't always grok Stanley's diagrams. I looked at her descriptions of some kinds of increases and wasn't 100% sure what she was talking about, or how the diagram related to the text that referred to it.

Big problem with Principles of Knitting: Hiatt has decided that a lot of terminology commonly used by knitters is insufficiently precise (e.g. the term "front" can mean several different things when you're knitting a sweater) and so wrote the book using her own - admittedly precise! - terminology. I looked at her descriptions of some kinds of increases and wasn't 100% sure what she was talking about until I did a lot of cross-referencing. (This was another reason I'd dismissed Katharina Buss's book - it may be from lousy translation, since I think it was originally written in German, but things in the book weren't called what "everyone" calls them...) Possibly another big problem: the "big" problem. It's huge - nearly 700 slightly-oversized pages. Serious blunt force trauma potential. Do not drop on your toes. Also not something that can easily be tucked into your knitting bag. (eBook edition, anyone?)

The books are definitely aimed at different audiences - Stanley seems to aim more for the Ordinary Average Knitter, while Principles of Knitting could be used as a textbook for a college-level course in textiles. If I had to buy one of them today, it would probably be Principles - I'd rather have idiosyncratic terminology than unclear diagrams, and she also talks about around-the-neck tensioning as a thing rather than just mentioning that people do it that way in some parts of the world. Also, as noted by a Raveler - most of the stuff I'd be looking for in the Reader's Digest book can be found elsewhere, especially if I don't limit myself to dead-tree books, but there is nothing nearly as encyclopedic as Principles of Knitting.

I know there's a newer edition of Montse Stanley's book - I'm ordering it through Interlibrary Loan, in case the updated edition. (I love ILL. ILL is amazing.) Also, it turns out that the Ann Arbor library has a copy of the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitter's Handbook - just not on the shelf right now. It seems like a lot of these knitting references are in high demand, so I won't be able to continually renew any of the books...I'll just have to keep putting requests in, if I need to hang on to one for a while.

Hubby was so impressed by the results of a fairly gentle blocking (soak, lay flat on towel, pin, let dry) on my yarn test swatches from this weekend that he wants me to try the same thing with a 12" wide, 8' long scarf I knitted him a couple years ago. (Not a Dr. Who - a Linux penguin illusion scarf. It's only 2/3 as much knitting.)

I have to agree that the scarf is kind of curly, but the idea of working on something that big is a little daunting.

The sweater: Krista, which also appears as the "Shaped Lace Tee" in the book Knitting Lingerie Style, which was graciously loaned to me by a friend at work. I hope she wasn't in a hurry to get it back. Available sizes: 33.5", 38", 42.5", 47", 51.5", 56" bust; the stitch pattern is vertical stripes of stockinette separated by simple, narrow lace panels.

The yarn: Berroco Weekend, a cotton/acrylic blend. I have 5 skeins in Orchid, a light purple shade. I hope it's enough - especially depending on sizing issues, I was pretty sure I'd end up with leftovers. The price was good, and in general I trust Berroco synthetics to not feel like plastic; based on the swatch, it feels nice, but it knits a little splitty (it's constructed of a multitude of tiny plies). Most importantly for the upcoming process: it can stand up to being frogged a couple times.

The swatch: Made, washed, and blocked as much as you can block a cotton-acrylic blend! The pattern calls for size 5 and 7 needles; to get gauge for the larger needles, I needed to use 10.5! Good grief; I know I'm a tight knitter, but I suspect Joan McGowan-Michael may be a loose knitter too. Or maybe my swatch lied.

The boobs: Measured. Gulp. I'm about to share with the class here, because it's really relevant to the issue at hand... my full bust is 50", divided up 21.5" in back/28.5" in front. My high bust is 44". Shoulder to waist over the front is 5" longer than down the back. Needless to say there is no size of this sweater that will fit me as-is - I'll end up with some combination of too much fabric in back and not enough in front if I knit a pattern that assumes I'm symmetrical! I think I can add short rows to the lace pattern without it looking too horrible, especially if I do two sets of wrapped stitches and just avoid wrapping any of the stitches in the lace part - but that doesn't address the assymetry issue. Some alternatives:

Punt: Make a tee with a plain pattern instead of lace, and do "regular" short rows and vertical darts without having to worry about messing up the stitch pattern, or make a less-fitted sweater. On some level, this is probably the "smart" choice, but it feels like surrender.

Hard, but "right": In theory what I could do, and what Joan has advised people to do on Ravelry, and what I think she teaches a class on that I'm unlikely to ever have the opportunity to take, is knit the back of the 42.5" size and the front of the 56" size, keeping the side seams even and fudging the sleeves and shoulders a bit, and if this were intended as a tank that's just what I'd do - but sewing in sleeves is a nervewracking process at the best of times, and I can't imagine getting a good result from "fudging" until I have a little better handle on sewing sweaters together as-written. I'm also concerned that putting a 28" piece over my 23" high bust area will leave me with a saggy, baggy neckline; if I go down to the 51.5" size, that's a little more like right there (25.75"), but almost 3" of negative ease over the bust. Whooboy! I know Joan likes negative ease, but that might be a bit much. (And that's the size my full bust measurement would suggest I make! Assymetry, yup.)

Easier to seam, but might not look as good: it might be possible to play with the stitch counts in the stockinette panels. If I start with the 47" size, and then above the waist shaping take one stitch out of each panel that doesn't end up pointed at the shoulder seams or armholes, that would narrow the back by about an inch without affecting anything I need to sew. Meanwhile adding a stitch to each panel in the front would give me one more inch, and it could be decreased out again above the bustline. Maybe combining that with a switch to Even Larger Needles would give me enough room to play with. If I'm going to do this I might want to knit every other lace section plain, giving me 5 wide stripes instead of 9 narrow ones, and adjust the count in each by two stitches. I don't know how much this would change the character of the tee - but I'm going to find out, because I think it's what I'm going to do.

To some extent this is going to be a trial-and-error process. I will probably need to remind myself from time to time that I started with a pile of yarn, and the worst case is that I end up with a pile of yarn...which will be the point at which yes, I do punt and make a Bombshell or a Shapely Tank or maybe something cute for Daughter instead.

Casting on for the back - it's way more straightforward than the front, and it'll give me a chance to decide whether I like the wider stripes. Like I said - wish me luck!

I've just been doing more crafting than writing about crafting, I guess. Mostly socks. Almost totally socks, actually.

1) I didn't do March Sockdown, because I'd hoped to finish my February socks. Then, near the end of the month, I had a glass just shatter in my hand while I was washing it and ended up with six stitches in the side of my little finger. You wouldn't think you used your little finger a lot while knitting - but you do. Go figure.

I'm actually binding off the February socks as I type. (Well, kind of, given that I need both hands to do both tasks.) Despite the fact that they consumed different amounts of yarn, they're basically the same size. This is weird to me. The Boxcars pattern is awesome, and I see all kinds of potential in the construction technique - you could build the sock around a crocheted hexagon, for example. And this might be just the pattern I was after for some orange- and black-striped Halloween yarn.

2) For April's Sockdown, I knit a pair of Pomatomus, out of Dream In Color Starry, in this awesome light blue color with green, pink, and purple highlights. I had this sock in mind the moment I laid eyes on the yarn - and the socks ended up....well, they didn't precisely not fit me, because I could get them on, but the scale pattern looked kind of stretched out and unattractive. Daughter has very slender legs and size 7 Extra-Narrow feet - so she has a pair of awesome Pomatomuses.

I did have the usual angst over the non-rectangular Chart B. The solution was simple: just knit it. The first stitch in the chart is the first stitch in the round, no need to move any stitches, even though the chart row is shifted over a few spaces.

3) For May's Sockdown, I'm doing Cookie A.'s mystery sock (no link) in a nice, soft alpaca blend yarn in a color I would call Purple Dammit Heather. It's a little bit of an unusual choice for the pattern - the featured technique of the month is cables, and while most people's cables seem to be Really Really Cable-y, mine are kind of gentle - and I actually really like the effect. This one actually will fit me, but is a little taller than I usually like a sock. As long as I don't run out of yarn, I'm good.

4) I'm kind of designing a sock. Hubby wanted a sock that was "plain, but not." I found a pattern he liked in a book - a 2x2 rib with a wee tad of cable - but there is only a photo of the swatch, not a chart. I have work to do there. And then I will have work to do to clothe Hubby's size 10.5 Extra-Wide feet. On the bright side he likes his socks short.

5) I'm also in the Re-Engineering The Pattern phase of knitting a sweater. Not the Opulent Raglan, after all the sweater-picking angst - I decided to go with Krista, from White Lies designs. I have the yarn for it and everything. Joan McGowan-Michael actually came up with a brilliant suggestion for girls built like me - if I'm 20" across the back and 26" across the front (I'm not - I'm not quite ready to announce my actual measurements to the world. :) ), then knit the back from the 40" size and the front from the 52" size, and fit them together. This requires a bit of jiggering at the shoulder seams and armscyes, but I think I can do it. I also need to figure out how to work short rows in the lace pattern - it's a two-row repeat so odds are really good that I'll have to wrap somewhere in the lace section.

Haven't spun a lick since the end of the Olympics. Haven't picked up a cross-stitch needle since sometime in 2009. Still haven't learned to naalbind. Naughty me.

"Read the pattern first." "Listen to that little inner voice that's saying 'Yer doin' it wrong.'"

She's told us both these things, in so many words, so many times, hasn't she? But I've proven that old saying about denial - as I was knitting my hexagon, I was struck with the nagging feeling that I was putting the corners of the shape in the center of the needle, when obviously they needed to be at, well, the corners. But no, I knitted on. And on. I even looked right at the instructions when I checked to make sure I was making the right kind of increase.

Time to frog the hexagon - if for no other reason than because I think I want to use a different kind of increase that does not make me want to tear my hair out every time. It might also be time to investigate a different kind of start that also will not make me want to tear my hair out.

Had a nice, if brief, shopping trip at the LYS. Ended up buying a skein of Cascade Heritage in Tardis Blue (not the official colorway name, but it's what I'm going do with it), a skein of Opal Handpaint in a blue-with-orange-dabs colorway that translates to "Fountains" or "Water games" (and if I've got money left on Friday I might have to go back and pick up the purple one. Argh. I was trying to buy less sock yarn this year, not more...). I won a "Be Sweet" shawl kit that I need to go pick up...looking on the Internet this is a laceweight mohair rectangle knitted on the bias. I hope it's in a colorway I like - I suppose I can trade it if it's not!

Finally swapped yarn with sarbah77 - I traded a skein of teal Skacel Merino Lace for the purple Silky Alpaca Lace I intend to use for my Ravelympics shawl. I made a swatch for that - I don't think it's going to come out as big as I'd intended, but that might not be a bad thing all-in-all if I'm just after an over-the-shoulders thing. She didn't have the same dye lot as the one I had previously, but Hubby and Daughter both had a hard time identifying which ball was different, so I'm guessing it'll be okay if I have to break into it. I also made a spreadsheet indicating how much I'd have to crochet every day to end up with a shawl 32" on a side (the construction amounts to 2/3 of a hexagon) in 16 days, assuming an equal area crocheted every day. Geeky, thy name is stitchy_stitchy.

I took my January mystery sock with me to Hubby's family's football season championship game watching party, but left it in the car. This turned out to be a good idea. First of all, the game was pretty good. Second of all, I'd forgotten how many smokers there are in Hubby's mom's family...when I got home, everything I'd worn (down to my bra!), or even had in the room, smelled of smoke. The last thing I want is my knitting bag smelling like an ashtray. On the downside, it means I've got a lot of sock to knit this week. Wish me luck.

I love lace shawls. You know those beautiful gossamer-weight Estonian lace things that people describe as "breathtaking"? Yeah, my breath gets taken.

I have the sneaking feeling that making one of those breathtaking lace shawls is within my level of ability as a knitter. Heck, given infinite time and infinite yarn, I'd make dozens of them.

If I were to actually do it, though... let's describe the problem in Hubby's words.

"You realize that what you'd basically be doing is converting a yarn stash into a shawl stash."

The thing is, I don't wear lace shawls, nobody I'm likely to give gifts to wears lace shawls, and while I'm trying to develop my personal fashion statement into something that goes a little further than "I'm wearing clothes", I haven't worked up to accessorizing yet. I've made one shawl, quite a while back, and it turned out quite beautiful... and it sits in a drawer, neatly folded.

On some level, the idea of having a drawer full of knitted lace doesn't bother me; I'm mostly a process knitter. On some other level, the idea of putting hours and hours of painstaking work into what amounts to a drawer cozy bothers me quite a bit.

So right now...I look. I admire. I would go so far as to say I yearn - but I do not cast on.

I got the Doom Scarf finished on Saturday - which amazed me; I still had 10 chart/40 knitted rows to knit Saturday morning. (The deal with illusion knitting is that each row of the chart gets knitted 4 times.) I must have just gone on a huge knitting jag - I took Daughter and nieces skating but knitted instead of skating myself (rental skates do not like my feet), and I guess the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie is good to knit by.



Pattern: Tux scarf by Heidi Antila - the link is in Finnish, and the English translation seems to be gone, but the important bit is the chart.

Needles: the 6's from my interchangeable kit.

Yarn: Plymouth Encore. Not sure if I like this better than Wool-Ease or not.

Learned: Persistence pays off. The project is a huge time suck, but the results are pretty dramatic.

Note that it's longer than the seating section of the couch - substantially longer than Hubby is tall. It's also nearly a foot wide. If I ever attempt this pattern again (and someone stop me if I consider it?), sock yarn might be a better choice.

( A few close-ups, plus bonus fish hat photos. )

I still have a couple pieces of thread crochet that need blocking and photographing; other than that I officially had no knitting or crochet WIPs when I cast on for my sister's Christmas present. I think that rates a "Go me!"

I've kind of let my goals for the year go by the wayside - one thing it didn't account for enough was that "life happens", and projects came up that I wanted to do but couldn't possibly have planned ahead for. One I intended to hold myself to, though, was "Take a class on something!" - a good goal for every year, isn't it? And, much like the class on natural dyeing that I took last year, this one really brought home the idea that there's no substitute for learning from a human teacher.

Backing up a year: the first issue of Piecework that came in my subscription was the Historical Knitting issue for the year. At about that time I'd been looking for a way to make purling - or, more precisely, switching from knits to purls within a row - more efficient, and I thought I'd found it in the Portuguese knitting technique most associated with Andrea Wong, which was featured in an instructional article in the magazine - this is the method I'd heard about, also used in Peru and some parts of the Mediterranean coast, where yarn is tensioned around a hook-shaped pin or your neck. I gave it a try - and I failed, and kept right on with my old style of knitting.

I was delighted to hear a little while later that my LYS was trying to bring Andrea in to teach a class; I really was interested in the technique, and figured I could learn it from a human much more easily than even a DVD*. I was right. Purling isn't that much different from the way I do it now - but the way the yarn is tensioned makes it that much easier. Knitting with the yarn in front is a little different (and that's where I had trouble trying to learn from the pictures - the article didn't make clear that you really, really should start with purling) - but switching between knit and purl, once you've got the hang of the technique, is a quick, painless matter of flicking the yarn over or under the right needle with your thumb. We tried a little colorwork, too - you add a second pin on the other shoulder, and then just...use whichever yarn you need for your pattern. This could make some of those crazy designs where you use four or five colors in a single row of knitting much more manageable, because while you only have two hands, you could put an arbitrary number of pins on your left shoulder...

I remembered that in a class Yarn Harlot teaches about "Knitting for Speed and Efficiency", she advises students to practice the new style of knitting 15 minutes a day, and that's what I've been doing - right now I'm still kind of slow at this, but I think I'm getting better. I was right to say that this would be the perfect technique for the shadow-knit scarf (now about six inches longer than Hubby is tall, and likely to get another foot or so longer...I worked out that it's about equivalent to five socks' worth of knitting), but Andrea was also absolutely right to say that your gauge will change dramatically and you shouldn't switch mid-project. So, in light of a thought I had while sewing up the tail of my fish hat...I'm making a bunch of 20 stitch x 20 row swatches to practice proper seaming techniques on. Whip stitch is fine for fish hat tails, not so great for sweaters.

*If you want to learn this style of knitting and are not fortunate enough to have Andrea Wong come to your LYS, she does have a DVD out, another one being released in about a week, and a book-in-progress, probably released in the spring of 2010, that will cover a lot more than the DVDs.