Needles & hooks

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Full of Mystery

I had a lot of fun with the yarn party this weekend and I learned a lot of things about the dyeing process. Unfortunately, I left my camera at my friend’s house, so no pictures of my new yarn until I get it back.

In the meantime, I’ll show you my latest stash enhancement:

That’s a lot of pink and white. Why? Because I’m walking a Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. It’s a 60 mile walk that benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In addition to the fundraising and physical training I need to do, I wanted to make a knitting contribution as well. And I picked up a lot of pink yarns to inspire me. So right now I’m working on a pattern. I’ve got a number of ideas and I’ve been swatching through them to see what works. So far, I’ve ripped it out a few times. Don’t worry, when I’ve got something workable, you’ll be the first to hear.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in following my training progress, you can visit my training blog. I have links to information about the Walk and the Foundations that benefit. There are also links to my secure on-line donation site so that you can make a fully tax deductible donation to sponsor my walk. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

And if you can’t afford to make a contribution at this time, at least make sure to keep track of your health by visiting the doctor regularly and doing self-exams. Breast cancer is very treatable if caught early.

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Getting my Fingers Dirty

Over the weekend, the postman brought me this:

And I grabbed some of this:

Yup, that’s a lot of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (worsted weight) and Color Your Own (fingering weight). Some friends are having a slumber party and we’re going to play with dye. Just the PAAS and some Kool-Aid this time.

But the postman also brought this:

Which contained an ad for this:

That’s Yarns to Dye For: Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting by Kathleen Taylor. Obviously, I ran out and bought it.

Forget simple Kool-Aid dyeing, I want to make self-patterning sock yarn!!! Now I just have to figure out where to wind a 40-foot skein….

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Other weekend activities

In addition to finishing the socks for my sister, I made some firm progress on a couple of other projects.

On Friday night, I worked a few rows on Charlotte’s Web. I’m just about to do row 101. Still alternating colors 3 and 4.

I sewed up the side seams for Marcel’s Sweater. Now I just need to find the sleeves and sew them up and then set them in. It’s so close to being done, I kinda feel like I should press on through. It’s still cold enough to get a wearing out of it.

I also tackled the problems with Zig Zag. When last I left it, I had ripped out the completed collar because stitches from the front were pulling too loosely. After some examination, I decided the best solution was to rip out the front and redo it. So I did.

Here’s the front as I’m ripping out the yarn and carefully inserting the needle into the live stitches (Look Ma! No lifeline!):

I reworked the base row very tightly and took care with the short-row wrapping around the neck as well. Further, when I re-did the 3-needle bind off, I worked across the back of the neck instead of the front neckline, allowing more control over the front stitches when picking up for the neck. Unfortunately, I somehow got my working needle and my holding needle confused for working the neck and I did it on a size 5 instead of a size 6. It’s a little tight. I’m not sure if it will bug me enough to go back and fix it.

Here’s the whole thing after I re-did the front and finished the collar.

I tried it on and it fits well. It’s a little more clingy than other examples I’ve seen, and I attribute that to working it with only one strand of yarn, not having blocked it yet, and to gaining a little weight since I started it. There’s no pictures of this yet — I was wearing a black bra and this top really needs a camisole under it.

After I finished it, I got started on the sleeves. Here they are, about 5 inches in:

So, if you’re keeping track, I did a little work on all of my active projects over the weekend. Must be time to be starting something new.

Yesterday, Vicki asked me about the afterthought heels. I only had one small hole problem with these — when I picked up one of the stitches between the two sides, I only went one strand in from the edge instead of two. This wasn’t enough to support the pull of the heel, so there’s a little hole. But it didn’t bug me enough to redo. I thought they fit my heels pretty well, even though my foot is smaller than the sock. The only concern I would have is that there isn’t really a gusset to accomodate the increase in foot width in that area. In some stitch patterns, there’s enough give to the knit that it shouldn’t be an issue. I have my doubts with the stranded pattern I used. I’ll keep you posted if I have to redo them.

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So long socks?

Over the weekend, I finished the Crusoe socks for my sister. I wanted to mail them to her on Saturday, so it was a mad dash to knit on the heels before the post office closed. But I made it.

As I explained before, I did afterthought heels with these. Here is the front and back before I worked the heel:

Here’s the back after I inserted the needles to pick up the live stitches:

And after I pulled out the purple waste yarn:

Unfortunately, I inserted the needles in the wrong direction, so I to do a bit of fussing to shift them all around. I made sure to do the second one properly.

And here’s a finished sock:

I have my concerns about how well these will fit my sister. For one thing, the foot is HUGE! But then I’m a size 8 and she’s a size 10. Further, the ankle section is a little tight, because the stranded pattern has a tighter gauge and goes all the way around. But I sent them off. She can try them on and tell me what needs to be changed and I’ll fix them. There are worse things in the world than working on Koigu socks!

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Charlotte’s Wreck

Saturday when I was working on Charlotte’s web, I noticed that a few rows back I had made a mistake of some sort. It looked like suddenly I had swapped SSK and K2Tog everywhere they appeared. I puzzled about it some, but I pressed on and completed another few rows. However, on Sunday it nagged at me and I decided I had to fix it.

So I yanked it off the needles.

I can hear you all gasping. With it off the needles, I was able to slowly, slowly unravel it one stitch at a time, back to the row I had done in error, which happened to be a right-side row. As I undid each stitch, I inserted the needle into the purl stitches that row held, and I got them all back on the needles. With all the stitches of the row ready to be knit again, I had averted disaster.

Looking closely at my knitting, I realized that I had forgotten to move my chart-marking PostIt note after the last time I worked on it and that I had repeated row 3. This was easy enough to correct and I was able to move on.

Since then, I brought it with me on my travel and am up to row 97.

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Clapotis Adjustments

When I finished Clapotis a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I didn’t like the way that the stitches next to the ladder differ from each other and that I suspected it had to do with the way they twisted. I thought the key would be to mirror the twists and have the top leg on the twist either always point toward the ladder or always point away from the ladder.

Last night I swatched it up (you knew I was going to). The color is a little dark (it’s cream on forest green but the flash washed it out too much), but the detail is a lot easier to see than the last time I did a technique swatch for Clapotis.

Column 1 shows twists where the top leg leads out to the ladder. This means I do the normal twist through the back loop on the left side of the ladder stitch. In my work, this side is a little tigher and tends to curl in toward the ladder. You can see that mirroring this side makes both sides curl in toward the ladder a little (highlighted with the arrow).

Column 2 shows twists where the top leg leads out to the stockinette section. This means I do the normal twist on the right side of the ladder. I find that this edge tends too look a little more ragged (probably because of knit-to-purl tension issues) but that overall, they look flatter and more like the stockinette sections.

I haven’t decided which kind I’ll use for my next Clapotis. I think that doing as in column 1 will produce a fabric that will retain more of the curl even after blocking, at the risk of making the stockinette sections narrower. If I go this way, I might go so far as to alter the pattern in order to add another stitch to the stockinette sections so they are 6 stitches wide.

How do I mirror the twists?
A normal twist is accomplished by knitting or purling through the back loop. This causes the stitch to twist to the left or clockwise.

A mirrored twist is accomplished by twisting the stitch to the right, or counter-clockwise. To do this, slip the stitch as if to knit (this twists it). Transfer the stitch back to the left needle without twisting it further. Then knit or purl normally.

To do Clapotis
The normal pattern is: KKK T K* T
K = knit
T = twist (or ktbl)
K* = the ladder stitch: purl or “move markers and knit” (whichever you desire)

The mirror pattern for column 1: KKK MT K* T (MT = mirrored twist)
The mirror pattern for column 2: KKK T K* MT

Caveat: My instructions above assume knitting where the stitch mounts normally face to the left. If you are a combined knitter and normally knit into the back loop (because your stitch mounts face right), you already have to make accomodations for twisting. The mirrored twist I describe above will give you a twisted stitch, but it may already be how you twist your stitches.

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What to pack?

I’m heading down to DC for work this week. Unlike last week to CA, my flights will be short. However, I think I’ll have a lot more down time in the evenings. So I need to pick another project to take.

Last week’s travel project was a pair of socks for my sister in Koigu. They used up some of the stash I got in the orgy, but the project called for an extra ball, which I bought and now may not need. However these will be done quickly, maybe even tonight, so they can’t be the only project.

I could bring Charlotte, but she’s growing out of the needle she’s on. And the needle she needs is in Zig Zag, which needs some TLC so I can start the sleeves. So it looks like I might start another Clapotis. I’ll have to see what I get done tonight.

Here’s my sisters socks. They match the Shawl Collar Jacket I made her last year. It’s the Crusoe sock pattern from Knitty, only I’m working them toe up with an afterthought heel.

Here’s the front of the socks:

This is the back. You can see the purple rows that I worked where heel will go. I’ve got about 2 or 3 more inches on the ankle portion before I’m finished.

And here’s a close-up of the stranding pattern:

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Clapotis Completed!

Last night I finished the Clapotis for my friend R. Good timing because I’m seeing her tonight.

Here’s a photo of the finished beast:

I used 3 balls of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted yarn, 100% wool, in Daffodil. Due to yarn concerns, I made 1 fewer increase repeats than the pattern calls for. I had some yarn left over, but probably not enough for to have completed that last increase.

There was some pooling in the second ball, and I figured out that my gauge relaxed some in this section, which accounts for it. However, it’s far more obvious in the cruel view of pixelation than in person. Had I not relaxed my gauge, I probably could have made the full pattern. However, as it is, the finished size is exactly what the pattern specifies. I won’t be blocking this one because I hope to give it away tonight, so it will retain the curlyness.

Now for a few close-up arty shots…

From the back (almost neater than the front):

From the front:

This shot shows how the column of twisted stitches on either side of the ladder differ. I think it has to do with the direction that the stitches twist in. For my next one, I’ll twist them to mirror.

And finally, all folded up in a tight ball, ready for the gift bag:

In other news, the Crusoe socks accompanied me on my most recent trip. I’m just about finished with the ankles and ready to bind it off and do the heels. I’ll show you tomorrow.

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Up To My Neck In It

Evening knitting is mostly about unwinding and not having to think too much. Thus, the more tedious or complicated details get left to times when I have more brain cells to deal with them. Like the weekends.

So I seamed the shoulders to Marcel, knit the neck and bound it off. It fits pretty nicely. I now have to sew up the sides and the sleeves and set the sleeves in. The sewing bits are pretty mindless, the sleeves might be less so. If I weren’t travelling this week, I’d get to the sewing at night and the sleeves this weekend. Who knows now.

The other challenging task I faced was finishing the front of Zig Zag with the short-row shaping, 3-needle bind off/join of the shoulders, and adding the neck. I got to the point where I was ready to bind off the neck. I paused to really look at it and decide what kind of bind-off I wanted to do when I realized that somehow in transferring stitches from holders to the neck needle, I dropped a stitch down the front. It only ran a few rows, but it’s prominent in the front zig-zag pattern. So I had to rip the neck out to fix it. Here where I left it.

This minor set back gave me an opportunity to revisit the rest of the front. There’s some looseness in the stitches near the neckline. I’m not sure whether it’s just a little slack that worked itself out while knitting the neck or whether I wasn’t as tight as I could have been during the short-rowing around the neck. I may decide to rip back to the end of the zig-zag pattern (Chart B) and redo the neck shaping section. But that would require carefully unbinding-off the shoulders. I’ll let it rest and see what I want to do.

In happier news, I’ve made steady progress on Charlotte. I’m into the 3rd color alone, somewhere in the mid-70s as row counts go. It’s a little too densely packed on the needle to stretch it out and give you a good photo. And the next length up in size 6 is currently holding the back of the neck stitches in Zig Zag.

And I finished my second ball of yarn for Clapotis. I’ve completed 10 repeats of the straight section. Given that I did 3 repeats before the first ball ended, I’m on target for 3 repeats with the last ball and then the decrease section. Here’s the whole thing:

And a close-up:

There’s a lot more pooling in the later part of the second ball than I would prefer. I’ll have to see what the other colorways I have look like unbound, but I may work the future Clapotis’ with two balls at once to break it up.

I also cast on for some Koigu socks for my sister. I carried these around with me and worked on them while waiting to see They Might Be Giants play a little show at Borders. I’m using the Crusoe pattern at Knitty, but I’m doing it toe-up and with afterthought heels. I’m past the toe shaping and into the rounds for the body of the foot. However, I forgot to take a picture. That’s okay, you had enough pics for one day.

Oh, can’t forget, I also won a little door prize at a moving sale. I picked it up yesterday. It’s a “scarf kit” containing a sample-sized ball of Colinette Firecracker (in a bright multicolor) with instructions for a drop-stitch scarf. However, I can’t figure the directions out. Instead of ladders, I think I get long loops. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl.

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And they’re off!

I started dropping stitches on Clapotis last night. So far, 4 stitches dropped. For me, the thrill isn’t so much in the dropping as in seeing how dramatically it changes the fabric after you do do.

Concerns about whether 3 balls of yarn would be sufficient and observing how wide it was getting caused me to only complete 5 of the increase repeats. It was pretty wide already and dropping the stitches only makes it wider. My gauge wasn’t off enough to account for the difference in size, so I guess I should check it again, just to make sure.

I also learned a few things about the pattern that make it easy to keep track your progress. It’s already been observed that the amount of yarn you need to do the increase section is the same as what you need to do the decrease section. Many people weigh their work after the increases and reserve that much yarn for the decreases.

What I found was that you only start dropping stitches in the straight section. So if you count how many stitches you drop before you run out of yarn, you can work that many again with your last ball before you need to start working the decreases. And if you only start balls of yarn before working the right side row and don’t weave in your ends immediately, you can use the tails as a place marker instead of having to remember how many you worked.

The other tip is that you can use the number of dropped stitches to count how many repeats of the straight section you’ve done. Handy!

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