Back to the drawing board...

Did you ever have one of those projects? You know, one of those projects that no matter what you do or how careful you are, you find yourself knitting and tinking and knitting and frogging and by the time you are finally finished, you have knitted at least two complete garments with only one to show for it? Enter Lucy two. This great pattern is beautiful when knit, but it has caused me a bit of a headache. (In no way the fault of the pattern!) As I was knitting the two fronts for this sweater, I cast off a few stitches for the neck edge, and then decreased several stitches up the neck edge. just as I would do if knitting by hand. My machine knitting mentor, Joan, suggested that short rowing the neck edge would be a smoother line for the neckline and would be easier to pick up for the edging. So, when I started the backs, I thought I should try short rowing (which I had only done once before). The backs worked out beautifully and were easy to do - until I took them off the needles and realised I had forgotten to wrap the stitches and there were big holes between the rows. That's alright, I thought, I will just rip them back to the beginning of the shaping, and rehang the stitches and do it again. There's only a few rows. So, I pulled out the rows, knitted about six rows by hand in waste yarn so that I could hang the stitches, and did it again. Then I thought I had better do the same with the fronts, even though there were a few more rows to deal with. So, I ran a knitting needle through the row right before the cast off, pulled out the knitting, reknitted a few rows by hand on waste yarn, hung the stitches again and redid the necklines. When I was working on the purple front, though, I must have forgotten to place the weight near the neck edge where the short rowing was happening, and when I took it off the needles, several stitches were pulled and/or dropped. Frustrated, I put it to the side for a bit, did the sleeves, and soaked and blocked them and the one correct front. Looking at the backs, now, though, I realised that I had 27 shoulder stitches on the fronts, and 30 shoulder stitches on the backs... Yikes. So, insert knitting needle again, frog back, knit by hand, hang the stitches, redo the neck edges. Then I realised that the purple front was ok in the short row stitches! All I needed to do was the ten rows of straight knitting from the neck decreases to the shoulder. So, I inserted a knitting needle, and pulled out the offending rows. I was about to knit a few rows of waste yarn by hand, rehang the stitches on the machine, and then knit the last ten rows, when I thought, why don't I just knit the last ten rows by hand - it makes as much sense as trying to prep this for the machine. Ok, So I have all the pieces reknit, everything is looking great. I take the three pieces down to soak in the sink and bring them out to block them on the ironing board. Now, take a look at that damned purple front. Check in particular the location of the armhole and the neck edge. Do I do a good job when I decide to screw up or what?!!!



Just to show the pieces are all there! Here are the two (correctly shaped) back pieces!

Lucy too

About a year ago I made a machine knit version of Holli Yeoh's pattern Lucy. I had bought the kit from her and loved the colours she had put together. The sweater turned out great and the daughter of a friend of mine really liked it. The only problem was, the sweater was size 2 and the child is about size 7... The Opal yarns I had used were no longer available, and so I started hunting for something suitable to use instead. About six months ago, I found Little Knits, an online wool shop out of Seattle. They had some Opal yarn on sale, and I found a variegated yarn with almost the same colours of pink and purple as the Opal. I had the pattern sized up to fit a seven year old child, and adapted for use on the knitting machine. And here it is! A little over a week worth of knitting (and unpicking and reknitting the mistakes) and this sweater is blocking, almost ready for sewing up. I am a bit disappointed in the variegated yarn. The pink and purple were a great match, but the yarn also has quite a bit of orange in it, which seems to dominate in the knitted up fabric. Hopefully the child will like the combinations.

Here is my version of a cabled Lucy. I used Holli's pattern as inspiration to create a cabled sweater. Love the colours in this bright cotton/bamboo sweater, but I always remember too late that I hate working with intarsia. The yarns get so tangled. So the project is moving slowly...


...And here is the finished Picovoli. I am not happy with the shoulders/sleeves. They are too big and so the armhole drops down too far. Joan, my machine knitting mentor, wants me to take it apart, redo the sleeves and the neck hem. A good idea in principle, but I don't have the energy or the motivation to take apart a completed project. This always makes me sad! This is way I never liked sewing for myself - I was never happy with the result. Well, maybe I can summon up the motivation after I complete a couple of other projects!

Almost Picovoli

I love the Picovoli design by Grumperina. The fitted shaping, the picot edges and the open neckline all appeal. This was a pattern that seemed to be a good choice to try and convert to a knitting machine pattern. My machine knitting mentor, Joan Frost, has a computer programme to design patterns for the knitting machine. If you have measurements, a tension swatch, and a diagramme of what you are trying to knit, she can ask the computer to produce a pattern. So, using a lovely variegated bamboo, I have been working on this machine version of Picovoli. It is close to being done; it needs to be sewn together and then the neck edging attached. We had to make some changes; the hand knitted version is knit top down, in the round, with no seams. This machine version was knit in four pieces, bottom up. I think the final result will be quite similar to the orginal.

Learning how to read the machine knitting instructions is another thing, however. I read the instructions as: decrease one stitch every row for twenty nine rows. The instructions actually mean: decrease one stitch every twenty nine rows one time... That makes a fairly significant difference in the shaping of the garment... Sigh...

The drape of the bamboo is wonderful and I am anxious to finish up and try this on!

Lace is done!

52,576 stitches. And probably another couple of thousand tinked and reknit. I never thought I could finish this as quickly as I did. Though the pattern isn't all that hard once you get it memorized, I found I was able to insert a number of unnecessary yarnovers, and skip a few here and there. It's that darn concentration aspect. I kept struggling with the diamond lace, particularly at the top and bottom borders, because it's hard to keep the diamonds straight - are you ending one pattern repeat, or in the middle of it? Is it yarnover, knit two together, or knit two together, yarnover? I finally realized that a lot of knitters wouldn't struggle with this as much as me, because most people would be sensible and use stitch markers. I disdain them. I can tell where I am in the pattern!! Why should I use stitch markers? I can count! Yes, and I can also make a lot of mistakes. Lifelines? Not for me! Did I mention I can also be an idiot?

Nevertheless, the stole is now done, complete, ready for delivery. The blocking has almost broken my back, but it is done! One word of advice to any fellow lace knitters - take off any jewelry and watches when blocking. One little catch and you've got a great big loop to deal with.

Now to enjoy summer sun and relax by the pool...

I'm knitting as fast as I can

While I have done some lace knitting in a variety of projects, this is my first big lace project. The most difficult part of lace knitting is keeping track of where you are in your pattern - at least until you get enough done so that you can read your knitting. Mistakes are more challenging in lace than any other project. A simple yarn over missed is easy enough to correct, but many of the errors require you tink back carefully. My worst mistake so far in this one is that I dropped a stitch. I noticed it immediately and picked it up again - or so I thought - until I had knitted another row and discovered big strands of unattached yarn. Had to rip back about eight rows for that one. This is a shawl/scarf I am knitting for a colleague's wedding. She is being married in a Sikh temple, hence the red colour. I know that lace doesn't really look like anything until the blocking has been done, but I keep suffering pangs of doubt that this one will come out alright when it has been blocked... Some yarn overs seem so much bigger than others. Hard to keep even tension. Anyway, it is growing quite quickly, so I should be able to tell fairly soon if it will work out.



Stewart's ribbed sweater - almost done! The knitting is complete, and like an idiot I tried to sew it together without blocking it first. So now I have to take apart what I have done so far and block it before carrying on. I love the colour and the way it looks so far, though!

I'm on a roll!

Finished this baby sweater two days ago and am very pleased with the way it hangs and how the collar sits. I was quite concerned about it right up until I got the buttons on, as the fabric didn't seem to have enough body to lie nicely. I also did several bits over as I really wasn't satisfied with some parts, so it took longer to finish than it otherwise might. I was frustrated while knitting a few times, and didn't think I would ever want to knit this again, but now that it is complete, I really like the finished look, so might be tempted. The pattern shows a bit of contrast trim around the edge of the collar. I didn't like the colour combination (pastel pink, baby blue, both with black trim) so decided to leave off a contrast. However, I might like it better if the contrast was picked up in more than just the one spot, and if the colours were better suited.

I also finished the Guess Who? gloves except for working in the ends - which might take a bit of doing... In any case, my goal is to get the two big sweaters (Stewart's Denim ribbed sweater and Kerry's 50th birthday sweater) that I have in the works completed before beginning anything else. (Can I do it???)

Guess who? Great gloves!

A couple of almost finished gloves - thanks to a great workshop by Holli Yeoh in Vancouver on April 12. The workshop was relaxing and interesting and a good time was had by all - but most important, it showed me how to use up some of these little odds and ends of yarn that I have left over! These gloves are too small for me, but will be happy with a friend's daughter. I was intrigued by the way the yarn patterned in the ring finger - look - on one hand, the tan spirals up the finger - but on the other - it falls into vertical stripes! Must have messed with my tension as I worked. I have never seen vertical stripes like this before...

This is the little Debbie Bliss classic baby sweater appeared in Vogue Knitting a couple of seasons ago. I love the Sirdar Baby Bamboo - how soft it is and how easy to work with. I hope to have this completed within a day or two.