These are the slippers I'm working on: Love Heart Slippers
I didn't realize KnitPicks had a sample knit up (or that they were even selling the book the pattern comes from). It's odd though - the book says sport weight yarn, and they are pairing it with their fingering weight yarns. Wierd.
Also, the hot pink is not really the prettiest choice. The ones in the book are knitted in a much sweeter pale pink. The ones I'm working on are a lovely soft grey.
I finished the first half of the first slipper and started work on the second, so I'm encouraged. I just hope, hope, hope they fit. I am equally afraid of them ending up too big or too small. If they end up either it will be my guage at fault because the measurements in the book all work for my foot.
If they are too small, I will give them to my mom, but I have no idea what I will do if they are too big!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Buttonholes are eeeeeeeviiiil
So, the surprise for Sbodd would have been finished last night, but I completely failed at making a buttonhole, so...it's not. But almost! I just need to look at a few reference pictures and since we were at his parents' place I couldn't look it up. :oP
Anyway, I had to tell him what it is, because I needed his DS to check the length. I have a DS Lite, so I couldn't use mine, even if I could find it at the moment, which I can't. It is still somewhere in the stuff from the move and though we've looked for it, I haven't been able to dig it out.
I only need to do the buttonhole and the tip of the button band and it will be finished, and it is darn cute if I do say so myself. Only, the bound-off edge is too tight. I should have switched to a larger needle for it. The DS slid easily into the case before and now it takes some wiggling. I'm going to try wetting it and stretching out the mouth a little. I don't think it's a terrible thing for the top to be a LITTLE tight because it will just keep the DS that much more secure, but it was tighter by far than it needed to be.
I made it out of the yarn leftover from his scarf and hat, so it matches them! I kind of wish I could make him a pair of gloves in the same yarn, but I'd have to find a pattern that uses worsted weight yarn, because all the gloves I've seen use a lighter yarn. (Well, what do you know - thanks google!)
I'm not sure I have enough left, though, and I think the color I used has been discontinued. Anyway, I have a million other things to do first, so it's not a big deal. The completionist in me just wants him to have the complete set.
P.S. This project is the first I've done that uses the turkish cast-on. It took me a couple of tries, but in the end I managed it, and it did make a good looking seam at the bottom. Also, it meant I could knit the whole thing in the round and not have to knit it flat and sew the seam, which I probably would never have done. So, yay for that!
Anyway, I had to tell him what it is, because I needed his DS to check the length. I have a DS Lite, so I couldn't use mine, even if I could find it at the moment, which I can't. It is still somewhere in the stuff from the move and though we've looked for it, I haven't been able to dig it out.
I only need to do the buttonhole and the tip of the button band and it will be finished, and it is darn cute if I do say so myself. Only, the bound-off edge is too tight. I should have switched to a larger needle for it. The DS slid easily into the case before and now it takes some wiggling. I'm going to try wetting it and stretching out the mouth a little. I don't think it's a terrible thing for the top to be a LITTLE tight because it will just keep the DS that much more secure, but it was tighter by far than it needed to be.
I made it out of the yarn leftover from his scarf and hat, so it matches them! I kind of wish I could make him a pair of gloves in the same yarn, but I'd have to find a pattern that uses worsted weight yarn, because all the gloves I've seen use a lighter yarn. (Well, what do you know - thanks google!)
I'm not sure I have enough left, though, and I think the color I used has been discontinued. Anyway, I have a million other things to do first, so it's not a big deal. The completionist in me just wants him to have the complete set.
P.S. This project is the first I've done that uses the turkish cast-on. It took me a couple of tries, but in the end I managed it, and it did make a good looking seam at the bottom. Also, it meant I could knit the whole thing in the round and not have to knit it flat and sew the seam, which I probably would never have done. So, yay for that!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Doh
gah I wish I could finish some decent sized knitting project so I could stop being so cold in the office!! I sit here and freeze and think about that shawl I'm making and wish I could warp through time to finish it. The sad thing is, I could probably finish it fairly quickly if I sat down and stuck to it, but I have a bunch of fancier things I am making for other people, so I tend to only pick up my easy peasy little shawl when I am going somewhere where paying attention to a pattern is inconveniant.
Despite my resolution not to have more than two things on the needles at once if I could avoid it, and to finish the cotton hat for K before I started anything else, I now have in progress:
--That Damn Hat
--A third candy wrapper sachet (estimate two evenings to complete)
--Surprise for Sbodd (should be able to finish this tonight, I hope)
--Shawl (you know, the one I started a million years ago with the soft Paton yarn - this has become my project to work on at times when I don't have the leisure to do anything complicated, but as a result, it's very slow going)
--Slippers for me, which I started last night in a fit of pique because I am tired of my feet hurting from the hard floor (this one was actually a lot of fun for the 18 rows I worked last night, very quick and pretty easy...of course, we'll see how it ends up)
Augh, story of my life - getting in over my head everywhere I turn. ^_^
Despite my resolution not to have more than two things on the needles at once if I could avoid it, and to finish the cotton hat for K before I started anything else, I now have in progress:
--That Damn Hat
--A third candy wrapper sachet (estimate two evenings to complete)
--Surprise for Sbodd (should be able to finish this tonight, I hope)
--Shawl (you know, the one I started a million years ago with the soft Paton yarn - this has become my project to work on at times when I don't have the leisure to do anything complicated, but as a result, it's very slow going)
--Slippers for me, which I started last night in a fit of pique because I am tired of my feet hurting from the hard floor (this one was actually a lot of fun for the 18 rows I worked last night, very quick and pretty easy...of course, we'll see how it ends up)
Augh, story of my life - getting in over my head everywhere I turn. ^_^
Friday, July 13, 2007
Mmm lace
lNote to self: It takes a long time to wind 370 yards of fingering weight yarn into a ball. Many thanks to Sbodd for holding the skein while I wound.
I didn't realize it until I put the skein around my feet (Sbodd was not free for skein holding duty yet) how soft that yarn was. I'm sure that if I did in fact knit a pair of socks out of it, they would be very comfortable socks. But, that particular skein is destined for a different use.
Yesterday I had to get out of the office, so I went to the Barnes and Noble down the street. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I found Victorian Lace Today, and with it sitting right there in front of me I couldn't resist. Which I should have done, because I think I probably paid more for it at the bookstore than I would have if I'd bought it online. :oP
It's...really challenging. I mean, I didn't expect it to be EASY, necessarily, but looking through the book, I was very intimidated. I definately don't think I could jump right into the one piece that I really, really want to do (I wish I could find a picture of it, but I'm having difficulty...ah, here we go). I think I'm going to have to try one of the 'beginner lace' projects first. I don't really mind I suppose...there are so many beautiful, beautiful patterns in this book.
Why must I always be drawn to the hard stuff?? :oP But then, sock knitting wasn't as hard as I feared it would be, so maybe the same will prove to be true. After staring at the patterns for a while they did begin to resolve themselves into French rather than Greek. I will have to do some reading up on some of the techniques mentioned, but I think I can figure it out eventually.
In the meantime, I certainly have plenty of projects to deal with already. The Witterings hat is starting to take on more of a bowl shape, which is encouraging. I worked four rounds on it yesterday and it is now large enough that I can use a single circular on it.
My second knitpicks order has finally left the WV sorting center so I hope that it will be delivered today (the last package was delivered the same day it left that place). Then I can start on the candy wrapper sachets that I want to make for Amy. I finally just ordered some tea bags online since I didn't feel like driving all over creation looking for the things. I'm looking forward to those as they are supposedly fairly quick to knit, and I could use some near-instant gratification. I remain determined to finish this hat before I start another project. I'd like to get it done while there is still enough heat and sun for it to be useful.
I didn't realize it until I put the skein around my feet (Sbodd was not free for skein holding duty yet) how soft that yarn was. I'm sure that if I did in fact knit a pair of socks out of it, they would be very comfortable socks. But, that particular skein is destined for a different use.
Yesterday I had to get out of the office, so I went to the Barnes and Noble down the street. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I found Victorian Lace Today, and with it sitting right there in front of me I couldn't resist. Which I should have done, because I think I probably paid more for it at the bookstore than I would have if I'd bought it online. :oP
It's...really challenging. I mean, I didn't expect it to be EASY, necessarily, but looking through the book, I was very intimidated. I definately don't think I could jump right into the one piece that I really, really want to do (I wish I could find a picture of it, but I'm having difficulty...ah, here we go). I think I'm going to have to try one of the 'beginner lace' projects first. I don't really mind I suppose...there are so many beautiful, beautiful patterns in this book.
Why must I always be drawn to the hard stuff?? :oP But then, sock knitting wasn't as hard as I feared it would be, so maybe the same will prove to be true. After staring at the patterns for a while they did begin to resolve themselves into French rather than Greek. I will have to do some reading up on some of the techniques mentioned, but I think I can figure it out eventually.
In the meantime, I certainly have plenty of projects to deal with already. The Witterings hat is starting to take on more of a bowl shape, which is encouraging. I worked four rounds on it yesterday and it is now large enough that I can use a single circular on it.
My second knitpicks order has finally left the WV sorting center so I hope that it will be delivered today (the last package was delivered the same day it left that place). Then I can start on the candy wrapper sachets that I want to make for Amy. I finally just ordered some tea bags online since I didn't feel like driving all over creation looking for the things. I'm looking forward to those as they are supposedly fairly quick to knit, and I could use some near-instant gratification. I remain determined to finish this hat before I start another project. I'd like to get it done while there is still enough heat and sun for it to be useful.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Options
To my delight my Knit Picks box was on my doorstep when I came home. Hurray!
The other box is still sitting in that damn West Virginia sorting facility.
Anyway, I opened the box and gleefully spent a big chunk of the evening labeling the little plastic pockets of the organizer and putting the various needle tips and cables in their places. That was fun. I take way too much bizarre pleasure in labeling and organizing.
I am contemplating getting a second binder for my fixed circular needles. The binder as I have it now is kind of full already. It will easily fit the entire Options set (including the three needle sizes and three cable sizes that are not included in the base set), but there is no way it could accomodate that set plus the range of fixed circulars (needle sizes from 3 down are too small to accomodate the screws at the end of the needle tips, so these are not available as interchangeable needles and must be purchased as fixed circulars - this is not really unique to the Options set, but is a problem with all interchangeables that use this type of join).
Knitter's Review suggests using tackle binders with bags as a cheap circular storage option. Looking at the available options online, they're about the same price as the Knit Picks binder. I wonder about durability and expandability - are the tackle binders rugged and large enough that they outdo the Knit Picks binder for value?
It's not really an issue right now; I don't have THAT many circulars to keep track of. But it's something to keep in mind down the road. We'll see how the binder holds up with the Options set in it first.
I was pleased with the Decadence yarn I got to make my cape in. It has no noticeable smell, and when I wound the ball up it squooshed nicely in my hand. I was worried about guage on that project (and anxious to try my new needles) so I put the 32" cable and the #11 tips together and started knitting a quick swatch to check my guage. I was worried because the project calls for size 10.5 needles, and I usually work a needle size up because I knit tightly, but the jump between 10.5 and 11 is a full 2 mm rather than half a mm, which is the distance between most sizes, so I was afraid that the 11 needles would end up making my guage TOO loose.
To my surprise I actually ended up with a guage of about 15-16 stitches per 4 inches, and the project calls for a guage of 12, which is kind of an issue. Even though I matched the weight and guage on the yarn, I think the decadence may not be as thick (it's certainly not nearly as heavy, which is the whole reason I wanted alpaca) as the Lion Brand Homespun the pattern was written for). Anyway, I called up Sbodd and he did the math for me (I tried to do it myself, but I couldn't find a calculator and I just didn't trust my result), so I will just be able to cast on extra stitches to make up for the tighter guage. All the shaping in the pattern occurs at the edges, so I shouldn't have any problem sticking extra stitches in the middle. I hope.
Although my stitches per inch was tight, my rows per inch were not, but I don't mind if the finished piece ends up a little longer than it was originally supposed to be.
I wasn't as pleased with the knitting experience as I would have liked, though. Part of the problem was the taper on the needles; it's quite long, and as I tend to knit close to the ends of the needles, I had some problem with the yarn slipping off. This is kind of the downside of working with nickle-plated needles. The slickness lets you get speed up, but since they don't have the bite that wood needles do you don't always have as much control. However, I got used to the addis, so I will just trust I will get used to these. I think part of the problem had to do with the size of the needle as well; there is a lot less difference between the point and the barrel of a size 6 needle than there is between the point and the barrel of a size 11 needle.
One thing that did bother me, though, because I couldn't figured why it was happening - I had a hard time getting the stitches to come back over the taper on the back end of the needle. It was like the stitches tightened once they got on the cable, which doesn't really make any sense at all. Anyway, I was a little frustrated; I felt like my stitches were sloppy and uneven, and I just had a hard time. However, as the little swatch grew (I was too impatient to knit a full 4x4 swatch, so I only got about six or eight rows, the knit fabric itself looked fine and felt marvelous. So, I guess we'll see. It's going to be an adjustment but I complained about the addi needles when I first started using them as well, and now they are fine.
It is funny, though, just how much your knitting style can affect which tools do and don't work for you. As I worked I really could see how one might like or not like different things about the needles depending on how you knit. For example, the taper - I only had a problem with the taper because I tend to keep my working stitches so close to the tip. Someone who works a little farther back on the needle wouldn't have nearly the difficulty I did. Once I had checked the guage I unraveled the swatch, wound the ball back up, unscrewed the needles from the cables and put them all away. As much as that project excites me, I want to finish the cotton hat before I jump into anything else - except maybe the candy wrapper sachets for Amy, because her birthday is next week and I'd like to be able to give them to her for her new house. I hope there will be some blooms on my roses that I can take to her as well.
The other box is still sitting in that damn West Virginia sorting facility.
Anyway, I opened the box and gleefully spent a big chunk of the evening labeling the little plastic pockets of the organizer and putting the various needle tips and cables in their places. That was fun. I take way too much bizarre pleasure in labeling and organizing.
I am contemplating getting a second binder for my fixed circular needles. The binder as I have it now is kind of full already. It will easily fit the entire Options set (including the three needle sizes and three cable sizes that are not included in the base set), but there is no way it could accomodate that set plus the range of fixed circulars (needle sizes from 3 down are too small to accomodate the screws at the end of the needle tips, so these are not available as interchangeable needles and must be purchased as fixed circulars - this is not really unique to the Options set, but is a problem with all interchangeables that use this type of join).
Knitter's Review suggests using tackle binders with bags as a cheap circular storage option. Looking at the available options online, they're about the same price as the Knit Picks binder. I wonder about durability and expandability - are the tackle binders rugged and large enough that they outdo the Knit Picks binder for value?
It's not really an issue right now; I don't have THAT many circulars to keep track of. But it's something to keep in mind down the road. We'll see how the binder holds up with the Options set in it first.
I was pleased with the Decadence yarn I got to make my cape in. It has no noticeable smell, and when I wound the ball up it squooshed nicely in my hand. I was worried about guage on that project (and anxious to try my new needles) so I put the 32" cable and the #11 tips together and started knitting a quick swatch to check my guage. I was worried because the project calls for size 10.5 needles, and I usually work a needle size up because I knit tightly, but the jump between 10.5 and 11 is a full 2 mm rather than half a mm, which is the distance between most sizes, so I was afraid that the 11 needles would end up making my guage TOO loose.
To my surprise I actually ended up with a guage of about 15-16 stitches per 4 inches, and the project calls for a guage of 12, which is kind of an issue. Even though I matched the weight and guage on the yarn, I think the decadence may not be as thick (it's certainly not nearly as heavy, which is the whole reason I wanted alpaca) as the Lion Brand Homespun the pattern was written for). Anyway, I called up Sbodd and he did the math for me (I tried to do it myself, but I couldn't find a calculator and I just didn't trust my result), so I will just be able to cast on extra stitches to make up for the tighter guage. All the shaping in the pattern occurs at the edges, so I shouldn't have any problem sticking extra stitches in the middle. I hope.
Although my stitches per inch was tight, my rows per inch were not, but I don't mind if the finished piece ends up a little longer than it was originally supposed to be.
I wasn't as pleased with the knitting experience as I would have liked, though. Part of the problem was the taper on the needles; it's quite long, and as I tend to knit close to the ends of the needles, I had some problem with the yarn slipping off. This is kind of the downside of working with nickle-plated needles. The slickness lets you get speed up, but since they don't have the bite that wood needles do you don't always have as much control. However, I got used to the addis, so I will just trust I will get used to these. I think part of the problem had to do with the size of the needle as well; there is a lot less difference between the point and the barrel of a size 6 needle than there is between the point and the barrel of a size 11 needle.
One thing that did bother me, though, because I couldn't figured why it was happening - I had a hard time getting the stitches to come back over the taper on the back end of the needle. It was like the stitches tightened once they got on the cable, which doesn't really make any sense at all. Anyway, I was a little frustrated; I felt like my stitches were sloppy and uneven, and I just had a hard time. However, as the little swatch grew (I was too impatient to knit a full 4x4 swatch, so I only got about six or eight rows, the knit fabric itself looked fine and felt marvelous. So, I guess we'll see. It's going to be an adjustment but I complained about the addi needles when I first started using them as well, and now they are fine.
It is funny, though, just how much your knitting style can affect which tools do and don't work for you. As I worked I really could see how one might like or not like different things about the needles depending on how you knit. For example, the taper - I only had a problem with the taper because I tend to keep my working stitches so close to the tip. Someone who works a little farther back on the needle wouldn't have nearly the difficulty I did. Once I had checked the guage I unraveled the swatch, wound the ball back up, unscrewed the needles from the cables and put them all away. As much as that project excites me, I want to finish the cotton hat before I jump into anything else - except maybe the candy wrapper sachets for Amy, because her birthday is next week and I'd like to be able to give them to her for her new house. I hope there will be some blooms on my roses that I can take to her as well.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Itchy fingers
My order from KnitPicks was in West Virginia on Saturday so I am hoping it will show up today. I'm very excited. Probably more so than I should be, considering. I'm in love with the idea of knitting the cape I've mentioned, so it will be awesome to have the supplies to do that - but I am still working on the hat for Karen, and I'd kind of like to avoid starting too many things now that I have gotten back down to only two WIPs. At one point I had something like four or five on the needles at once, which starts to make me twitch. Two is a good number - one complicated (the hat), one mindless (the shawl). That way I have something interesting to knit at home and something that doesn't require too much attention that I can take with me when I go places. Also, the cape is really a fall/winter garment and I have been pretty constantly too hot for the past couple of weeks, so the idea of knitting something warm and thick is kind of...daunting is not the right word - I guess it's just not really appealing.
I did also order a ball of Shine Sport in Cloud to knit myself some cotton slippers. The hardwood floors are a little tough on my feet so I wanted something softer between me and them, but all the slippers I have are designed to keep your feet warm as well as cushioned, which I don't really need. I have a pattern for ballet slipper-style...uh, slippers. Shine is a cotton-modal blend (modal is made from fiber that comes from beech trees - I had to look it up) so it should be fairly cool and all the stuff I've read on various internet sites spoke highly of it as a textile. It's also machine washable, which, again, I do not ever intend to knit anything for the feet that is not machine washable. Because, you know, FEET. I am not going to hand wash anything designed to be walked on. Anyway, I'm hoping they will be fairly quick to knit, if I can just figure out the assembly part of it. I'm really a big fan of things that do not need to be sewn together, but these have to be seamed down the middle (or, actually, along the side, I think, but I'm not sure).
I was so mad at myself - I forgot to take the pedicure socks to church to give to DB this past weekend. :oP I will have to wrap them up in tissue paper tonight and put them in my church bag so this does not happen again.
I did make good progress on the hat for K. I made it through the last increase row for a while so the next 18 rows are just straight stockinette. I've gotten better about the increases, but they're still a little tough on my hands.
There's several finishing instructions for blocking the hat and adding a band inside, that I think I may leave to Karen because they are all specific to the size of one's head.
I am regretting my choice of color a little bit. I don't like the dark blue and light blue together as much as I thought I would. To me, it kind of looks like it used to be dark blue and white and then it bled in the wash. disagrees, but he usually does when I am unhappy with my work. Not that I don't believe him, I'm just saying. It's kind of in his best interests to say it looks okay. ;o) I think what I wish I had used was Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk. Also, I'm not as fond of the stripes themselves. I think I would have liked them thicker. So if I do this pattern again, I will do it in Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk with a strip pattern of 4 rounds instead of two. Live and learn. I'm not sure I ever will do this again because I have found it to be kind of difficult, but I don't know...it might go better the second round, and I can think of a couple of people who might have use for a hat like this. We'll see. Anyway, I still have a long way to go on what I have now, and summer will not last forever!!
I worked on the hat for all of my knitting time yesterday, even though I had originally intended to make some cat toys for fun. After church and lunch, I went to Michaels and the World Market (I was looking for Japanese tea bags I could use to put the scent in for the little candy wrapper sachets I plan to knit, and thought there was an off chance they might have some, but they didn't - I can probably try Wegmans), and then I went to Best Buy and picked up Die Hard and Die Hard III (they did not have 2 or the box set, which annoyed me, but I guess they are probably expecting a new box set to come out when Live Free or Die Hard is released on DVD; I know 2 kind of sucked, but I want it anyway), and Sense and Sensibility (what? it was on sale!), and then I went back to's where he was indulging an urge to bake. So I knitted, watched movies, and ate cake and cookies fresh from the oven. It was a damn good day.
I did also order a ball of Shine Sport in Cloud to knit myself some cotton slippers. The hardwood floors are a little tough on my feet so I wanted something softer between me and them, but all the slippers I have are designed to keep your feet warm as well as cushioned, which I don't really need. I have a pattern for ballet slipper-style...uh, slippers. Shine is a cotton-modal blend (modal is made from fiber that comes from beech trees - I had to look it up) so it should be fairly cool and all the stuff I've read on various internet sites spoke highly of it as a textile. It's also machine washable, which, again, I do not ever intend to knit anything for the feet that is not machine washable. Because, you know, FEET. I am not going to hand wash anything designed to be walked on. Anyway, I'm hoping they will be fairly quick to knit, if I can just figure out the assembly part of it. I'm really a big fan of things that do not need to be sewn together, but these have to be seamed down the middle (or, actually, along the side, I think, but I'm not sure).
I was so mad at myself - I forgot to take the pedicure socks to church to give to DB this past weekend. :oP I will have to wrap them up in tissue paper tonight and put them in my church bag so this does not happen again.
I did make good progress on the hat for K. I made it through the last increase row for a while so the next 18 rows are just straight stockinette. I've gotten better about the increases, but they're still a little tough on my hands.
There's several finishing instructions for blocking the hat and adding a band inside, that I think I may leave to Karen because they are all specific to the size of one's head.
I am regretting my choice of color a little bit. I don't like the dark blue and light blue together as much as I thought I would. To me, it kind of looks like it used to be dark blue and white and then it bled in the wash.
I worked on the hat for all of my knitting time yesterday, even though I had originally intended to make some cat toys for fun. After church and lunch, I went to Michaels and the World Market (I was looking for Japanese tea bags I could use to put the scent in for the little candy wrapper sachets I plan to knit, and thought there was an off chance they might have some, but they didn't - I can probably try Wegmans), and then I went to Best Buy and picked up Die Hard and Die Hard III (they did not have 2 or the box set, which annoyed me, but I guess they are probably expecting a new box set to come out when Live Free or Die Hard is released on DVD; I know 2 kind of sucked, but I want it anyway), and Sense and Sensibility (what? it was on sale!), and then I went back to
Friday, July 6, 2007
This is your brain on knitting
Got Sbodd's hat finished and sewn last night. He wore it home since it was raining (don't ask me, I don't get it either). It looked okay, and it certainly fit better than any other hat I've seen him wear. I think I could do better, though. Someday I will.
Working with yarn that dark was HARD. I didn't really think about it at all when we picked out the color but it was really, really difficult to work with unless the light was very good. I had a hard time sewing the seam yesterday because I just couldn't see the stitches clearly until I got right up by the lamp. So, yeah, lesson for the future. Something to be mindful of.
I wound up and split my skein of Paris Rain yarn last night. I didn't want to do Amy's pedicure socks because I want to get size 8 needles. The last pair, while satisfactory for someone like me with unusually small feet, or someone like DB with unusually skinny legs (and unusually skinny everything else, honestly, but I'm not bitter), might be a little tight on a normal-sized person with normal-sized feet.
Anyway, so I wound the skein into two balls of hopefuly equal size, and I plan to try the technique for doing two socks at once and see how that goes.
But, after I wound the yarn, I paused, reconsidered, and got out the hat I had started knitting for K. I hadn't gotten very far on it last time before getting frustrated, and frustrated I was again last night, but I perservered and got quite a bit farther. I also learned to loosen up my knitting a little bit in the process, which is probably a good thing. I will probably still knit tightly under normal circumstances unless I am really paying attention, but at least I can train myself to loosen up when I need to.
The problem I've been having with this hat is that instead of being knit from the brim up and using decreases to reduce the circumference, this one is knit from the crown down and uses increases to increase the circumference. So you start out with like four stitches, which was kind of a nightmare. Anyway, to do the increase you knit each stitch through the half of the loop that hangs on the front of the needle, which is how you would normally knit, but then also through the half of the loop that hangs on the back of the needle. If your stitches are tight, this is REALLY REALLY HARD. Also, I am knitting this out of cotton, and cotton does not stretch very much at all. Wool and wool blends make strethcy yarn so even if you knit tightly you have a little give. Cotton, not so much. :oP My hands were killing me at the end of the night, but I felt very encouraged because I have a lot more hat finished (granted, it is still not very much, but enough to see progress) and I feel like I have got the hang of it. Also, I am up to something like 80 stitches on the needles total, which is much easier to work with than 4. To put it in cross stitch terms, working with 4 stitches is like trying to work in an area with a lot of three-quarter stitches. There is just so much thread in the way when you are working with three-quarter stitches that it is a lot more work to get the needle through. :oP
Anyway, I feel encouraged, and I may actually be able to finish that project. I was really contemplating pulling it out and just giving up on it for a while there.
One mistake I have made on this is using a circular needle that is much too long. The pattern calls for a 40" cable later on, once you get to the larger part of the hat, so I just got the 40" and whatever other size was handy. However, the 40" is a complete pain to work with at this stage. It's just way too long and it gets in the way.
When my Options set comes in from KnitPicks, I may switch over to those needles for this project. They are supposedly sharper than the Addi needles I am currently using, and while I still generally prefer blunts as I push on my needles, the sharper tips might be a help for this particular project.
Working with yarn that dark was HARD. I didn't really think about it at all when we picked out the color but it was really, really difficult to work with unless the light was very good. I had a hard time sewing the seam yesterday because I just couldn't see the stitches clearly until I got right up by the lamp. So, yeah, lesson for the future. Something to be mindful of.
I wound up and split my skein of Paris Rain yarn last night. I didn't want to do Amy's pedicure socks because I want to get size 8 needles. The last pair, while satisfactory for someone like me with unusually small feet, or someone like DB with unusually skinny legs (and unusually skinny everything else, honestly, but I'm not bitter), might be a little tight on a normal-sized person with normal-sized feet.
Anyway, so I wound the skein into two balls of hopefuly equal size, and I plan to try the technique for doing two socks at once and see how that goes.
But, after I wound the yarn, I paused, reconsidered, and got out the hat I had started knitting for K. I hadn't gotten very far on it last time before getting frustrated, and frustrated I was again last night, but I perservered and got quite a bit farther. I also learned to loosen up my knitting a little bit in the process, which is probably a good thing. I will probably still knit tightly under normal circumstances unless I am really paying attention, but at least I can train myself to loosen up when I need to.
The problem I've been having with this hat is that instead of being knit from the brim up and using decreases to reduce the circumference, this one is knit from the crown down and uses increases to increase the circumference. So you start out with like four stitches, which was kind of a nightmare. Anyway, to do the increase you knit each stitch through the half of the loop that hangs on the front of the needle, which is how you would normally knit, but then also through the half of the loop that hangs on the back of the needle. If your stitches are tight, this is REALLY REALLY HARD. Also, I am knitting this out of cotton, and cotton does not stretch very much at all. Wool and wool blends make strethcy yarn so even if you knit tightly you have a little give. Cotton, not so much. :oP My hands were killing me at the end of the night, but I felt very encouraged because I have a lot more hat finished (granted, it is still not very much, but enough to see progress) and I feel like I have got the hang of it. Also, I am up to something like 80 stitches on the needles total, which is much easier to work with than 4. To put it in cross stitch terms, working with 4 stitches is like trying to work in an area with a lot of three-quarter stitches. There is just so much thread in the way when you are working with three-quarter stitches that it is a lot more work to get the needle through. :oP
Anyway, I feel encouraged, and I may actually be able to finish that project. I was really contemplating pulling it out and just giving up on it for a while there.
One mistake I have made on this is using a circular needle that is much too long. The pattern calls for a 40" cable later on, once you get to the larger part of the hat, so I just got the 40" and whatever other size was handy. However, the 40" is a complete pain to work with at this stage. It's just way too long and it gets in the way.
When my Options set comes in from KnitPicks, I may switch over to those needles for this project. They are supposedly sharper than the Addi needles I am currently using, and while I still generally prefer blunts as I push on my needles, the sharper tips might be a help for this particular project.
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