Category Archives: Knitting

Too early for cheating

Posted on 07 April 2006 by Kris

So, as anyone who knows me well enough may have guessed, there’s no possible way I could achieve April goal #3 without sneaking a new project in at the very end of March.

What? I wasn’t exactly going to sit and twiddle my thumbs when I was sick, and a new project is about all the excitement you can get while bumming around the house. (If you live alone and have quiet neighbors, that is…)

I started Pomatomus last Friday.

This is actually the second attempt at the leg.

I’d completed one and a half repeats for the leg over the weekend. (The pattern calls for three, but given my row gauge and how short my legs are, I could practically get knee socks out of that many repeats. And I don’t like knee socks.) I’d also gotten the heel and gusset done.

But I couldn’t quite suss out how to do the foot. Maybe it was the cold meds, maybe not, but in either case, I didn’t know what to do with Chart B. I mean, I couldn’t just start with row 12, because the chart doesn’t work that way.

So after several attempts I gave up. That’s when I ripped back to the ribbing and decided that I would start the leg on row 11 of Chart A, rather than at the beginning. That way, I could just start the foot with row 1 of the second chart.

I’m happy with it so far. I normally find that variegated yarns obscure stitch patterns, but I think the color distribution actually works pretty well here.

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April 2006 goals

Posted on 02 April 2006 by Kris

March didn’t go as well as planned. But what else is new, right? Last month’s goal round-up:

  1. Finish Eris – Not done.
  2. Finish Mom’s cable-and-bobble hat – Not done.
  3. Finish at least one sock (either the second River Rapids sock, or a toe sock) – Done!
  4. Complete at least two tiers of the Forest Path Stole – Done!
  5. Re-start Channel Pullover – Not done.
  6. Start Odessa – Done!

New goals for this month:

  1. Finish Eris (This is ridiculous. How many months has this been a goal, now?)
  2. Work on Forest Path Stole
  3. Hold off on pipeline projects until finishing at least one WIP

I have several pipeline projects. The Channel Pullover has been next sweater on the list for awhile (I already have the yarn for it, and I even started it once before deciding I didn’t like the fabric I was getting). And I think my next lace project is going to be the Tina shawl, though I’ll probably modify it into a triangular shawl – I likely won’t use a square one as much, and while I’ll definitely knit one someday, now isn’t the time. As for socks… well, I always want to knit more socks.

So to further elaborate on goal #3: I will not start a new project until I’ve completed one of the same type. No working on Tina until FPS is complete, for example. Yes, I’m aware that there’s a loophole. But I’ll try to avoid it…

As far as social knitting this weekend goes, my immune system made the decision for me – I ended the week with a cold. So, no Rebecca’s yesterday. I probably won’t make it to the Whistlestop today, either; while I’m feeling a lot better, I could use more rest. That, and I still have chores and errands to do.

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Lace and conversation

Posted on 30 March 2006 by Kris

Kristen organized a knitting get-together at Rebecca’s last Saturday, where I met Jennifer, Allison, and Erika for the first time. There were also some familiar faces: Kristen, Jessica, Marisa, and Cora. I was pretty quiet, but I still enjoyed myself.

The goal is to make the get-together a weekly thing, but this weekend is also a Whistlestop weekend. I’m trying to decide whether I should go to both or just pick one.

I will hopefully have a new project on the needles to work on by this weekend, because lately, the Forest Path Stole has been my only knitting-in-public project.

It’s a lace and entrelac stole, so it doesn’t look particularly simple. In fact, it’s apparently somewhat of a minor miracle that I can still pay attention to (and occasionally participate in) conversation while knitting FPS.

However, I’m on the 15th tier.

This means that I’ve knit each chart at least 16 times. By this point, I’ve long memorized each chart’s internal logic, which means that I don’t have to refer to my printouts very often.

So FPS is actually the easiest project for me to tote around right now. Neither of my remaining WIPs is as suitable for knitting in public. Eris is a bit too large and fiddly for me to tote around (trying to knit sleeves in the round when they’re already attached to a sweater body is not so fun). And my toe socks have a non-intuitive striping pattern, so I can’t just mindlessly work on that in public either.

I’m getting fairly close to the end here. I’m done with the lace either at the end of this tier or after tier 17, and then I’ll only have the seed stitch borders to do.

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So much for a sweater

Posted on 16 March 2006 by Kris

This is Eris before I wore it around the house for several nights in a row:

And this is Eris after:

I had really hoped that wearing it would make the sleeves relax enough, but no luck there. Unfortunately, like I mentioned in a previous post, sometimes even a quarter of an inch makes a difference.

Besides, if I’m not entirely happy with it, I’m never going to wear it, and there’s no point in having knit this if I’m not going to get any use out of it. Reknitting, here I come!

At first, I thought the problem was entirely with the gauge changing post-wash. But when the body relaxed to the point I wanted it to, and the sleeves remained slightly uncomfortable, I realized that the gauge change wasn’t the biggest part of the problem.

I’d come up with a sleeve formula on my own. I’m in between sizes as far as upper arm circumference goes, and the proportions in the pattern as written are all wrong for me, given how short my arms are. So when I realized that the gauge wasn’t the real issue, I figured that I’d screwed up the calculations somewhere.

But I looked back at my old notes, and it turns out that after a string of perfect math, I’d rounded down instead of up to get an even stitch count at the beginning. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. But given the gauge, that’s nearly a half-inch difference in circumference right there. And now I feel really silly for making that particular mistake.

Oh well, lesson learned. It’s my first sweater, so I’m entitled to some learning experiences, right?

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River rapids

Posted on 11 March 2006 by Kris

Being a San Diegan employed in a ridiculously casual office, I almost always wear flip-flops. But thanks to the recent rain, I’ve had to wear real shoes, and therefore I’ve been wearing fun socks. Like the following, which I finished earlier this week:

Pattern: River Rapids Socks (PDF) by Sockbug
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in color #6714
Needles: US1 Clover DPNs

As I’ve mentioned before, I ended up knitting these at a tighter gauge (8 st/in, to be exact). It’s mostly due to a sizing issue, as the 7.5 st/in specified in the pattern would give me a slightly too large sock. That, and I just didn’t like the fabric I was getting with the looser gauge.

The pattern calls for sport weight yarn; I used fingering weight. I’d probably have to knit the sport weight ridiculously tightly to get the right gauge (as I tend to knit loosely) and besides, I already had the Baby Ull on hand.

The tubular cast on has relaxed a bit with blocking. Even so, I need to go up one needle size when casting on for socks with this method, as it’s not as elastic as I’d prefer.

These are totally my favorite socks to date. Not that I’ve knit all that many pairs, but still. These are certainly the most comfortable pair – the yarn feels lovely on my feet, and other than the fact that they’re just a bit loose around the heel, these socks fit me rather well.

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