finally, some knitting!

For a blog with the word "knitting" in the title, I sure haven't posted much about that lately! Haven't been doing much knitting lately, but there's enough to scrape together for a post to prove that I haven't completely abandoned my needles.

Sooo, let's go back. Waaay back, to shortly after the Christmas Knitting Marathon. As we left off, Jason's big stripy blanket was steadily growing bigger and stripy-er. I've actually kept up a decent amount of momentum on that, and am now more than halfway done with the striped portion of it. Then it'll be relatively fast to use up all the leftovers on a quick and easy dc border around the whole thing. Jason seems to like it so far, and I'm rather pleased with the progress.

New year's resolution re: The Stash is, erm, going. I've been mostly good about not adding to it. There was a point in late January when I did buy a little yarn. I scored two skeins of Dream in Color Baby yarn (in Happy Forest and Blue Lagoon) which I'm very excited about. At 700 yds of laceweight each, I'm pretty sure I can squeeze a pair of lightweight summer cardigans out of them. The third skein I didn't really have an excuse for other than I wanted it. Tosh sock in a lovely bronzy orange colorway aptly named Copper Pennies. I'd been eyeing it since the beginning of December and had heard such lovely things about Madeline Tosh that I had to give it a go. I'm planning to make an Age of Brass and Steam kerchief out of it, and that'll be one of my next projects, right after I finish my current kerchief/shawlette thingy.

I'd wanted to start using the Tosh Sock right away, but it was just before the Super Bowl and I'd already committed to going out to a bar with friends to watch. A bar that allows smoking indoors. So, it's perfectly understandable that I didn't want to take my lovely brand new skein of not-even-wound-into-a-yarn-cake-yet sock yarn into a bar where it would become stinky with cigarette smoke. Instead I rapidly wound up my two skeins of Knitpicks Imagination in Mermaid Lagoon, snagged the easiest pattern I could think of, and ran out the door.

The result is this partially-finished Baktus. Pattern is dead simple and works rather well for showing off the variegation of the yarn. I like how it's coming out, and really need to get it finished up so I can actually wear it.

As you can see, the colors are quite pretty. They're a bit more jewel-toned in person, but this is a decent shot of them. And aside from one patch of fairly unattractive pooling, they're spreading themselves out fairly evenly.

The other thing I've been working on is a hat. You may recall me whinging back in January about a hat. Yes, we're still dealing with that. After starting it over twice, because the designer couldn't be arsed to list a fucking gauge on her fucking pattern, I sat down and did the math on adding another column of cables. The numbers came out right, so I knit the brim, increased the extra 6 stitches to get up to the right number for cabling, and knit on. I didn't bother to try it on because I DID THE MATH. And the numbers I got told me that the hat should fit. SHOULD, of course, being the key word there. When I was halfway through the crown decreases, I went and tried it on.

AND THE HAT DOES NOT FUCKING FIT.

It's still too tight. Not uncomfortably so, but just enough that if I wear it for a little bit it begins to ride up and make me look like I've got the most gigantic oblong head ever. How do I know this? Because I've knit another hat that was just a smidge too tight and I don't wear it any more because I hate having to tug it back down every five minutes. (Also, I botched part of the lace on it, but that's neither here nor there.) I don't want another hat that I don't wear because I don't want to tug it back down every two minutes. And this one will be every two minutes. Why? Because, despite having six stitches less (at my gauge, that's just over an inch) than the body of the hat, the ribbed brim is, quite inexplicably, too loose.

So I give up. That's it. Obviously the universe does not want me to have this hat. So out came the ball winder, and I frogged that sucker with a vengeance.

The yarn is now in timeout so it can think about what it's done.

I'm next going to start on a sweater, since, ya know, I've committed to knitting 11 sweaters this year and (surprise!) haven't even started one. I'm going to take another crack at a top-down raglan and actually try using a pattern this time to see if it helps. And using the Top-Down Raglan Pattern Generator, which makes up a pattern based solely on math, hopefully will end up with a finished project that actually fits.

happy post!

So far 2010 is off to a rather good start. Let's review what I've done so far!

--Case for my netbook.


I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. I designed it myself, just by doing a rough gauge swatch and some quick math (which for once I didn't botch!) Big rectangle, with a droste pattern of alternating knits and purls on the front side. I used Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn for it, which is a super bulky acrylic, which is thick and smooshy enough to make an effective case.

--Mittens!

Do you remember a while ago when I went nuts for mittens and queued fifty bajillion patterns for mittens and then proceeded to not knit any of them? Well, this pattern isn't any of those patterns. But it is mittens, so I do feel that's a step in the right direction, at least.

They're actually the mittens that Bella (supposedly) wears in Twilight. I wouldn't know because I refuse to watch it, at least without several sarcastic friends and copious amounts of alcohol. Since that opportunity has yet to present itself, I've managed to abstain from the Robert Pattinson / Twilight mania thus far.

In light of my deep and profound dislike of Twilight, it's not unexpected that I swore to myself that I'd never knit these mittens, no matter how pretty I may think they are. However, I kept seeing them around Ravelry. And then I started seeing them around my LYS. And my obsession grew. Then I came to the horrifying realization that I had yarn sitting in my stash that would be perfect for them. And so here they are. Don't judge me.

--Lastly, I knit a little something for my kitty. See how much she likes it? Squee!



The reason I took the time to knit all these things when I could be working on my Quadrat is that my Quadrat is evil. EVIL.

I know, I know. My sweater is being mean to me. Huge shock. I know.

So. I swatched. Yep, actually swatched, not my usual method of half-assedly knitting a bit and going "eh, close enough!" I knit the ENTIRE square, and then I washed and blocked it, and measured again. Came out bang-on, so I started my sweater.

First off, let me say that the cable cast-on is the devil.

So are sweaters that come with SIX DIFFERENT FRIGGING CHARTS. I knit about thirty rows of the cabling before realizing that I'd switched charts B and D, and the cabling was coming out upside down and generally looked like crap. Before going through the trouble of dropping and reknitting those sections, on a whim I measured....

And.... wait for it....

My fucking gauge is fucking off. It's not coming out smaller, as one would assume with cabling and ribbing. No, it's coming out BIGGER.

So I rip, and start reknitting, and ten rows later I realize I've actually been knitting with one size 7 and one size 8 on my interchangeable circs. Rip, start again. I'm almost done with the sleeve, and I realize that I've made one very made mistake when I ripped. I was so obsessed with not having to cast on 110 stitches with the aforementioned cable cast-on that I didn't rip the nine rows of garter stitch. Which had to be knit in a smaller needle size. Since I went down a needle size, now the cable section and the garter sections are now knit in the same needle size.

Now, the cable section draws in, as cabling/ribbing is wont to do. Which means the garter section is now slightly wider than the cable section, and is now puckery. Which means I get to figure out a way to unravel that section and pick up all 110 stitches and reknit. Because I'm sure as hell not starting this sucker over AGAIN.

Stay tuned for further adventures. I'm sure they're coming.

minor update

Onerva is done done done! It's currently pinned out, blocking. It's nearly dry, so hopefully tomorrow there will be some picture-taking before it goes off to its new home with Sarah. I'm so excited over this project -- the pattern is simple but elegant, and the yarn is just gorgeous. Hopefully she likes it as much as I liked making it.

Because I already got my yarn in, and because I'm an impatient little so-and-so, I started my Quadrat.

By which I mean I swatched.

Erm, by which I mean I started to knit my little 4"x4" square, lost interest halfway through, went "eh, I'm not quite getting gauge but the smallest size is going to be slightly too large for me so I'm just going to say it's close enough!" and started to cast on.

However, Quadrat outmaneuvered me. See, I knew I shouldn't be casting on because the reason I bought the yarn for this to knit it NOW is so that I could participate in a KAL for it. And casting on before the KAL begins sort of defeats the point of doing a frigging KAL in the first place. Well, Quadrat told me to cast on 110 stitches using a cable cast on.

The Cable Cast-On, ladies and gents, is the work of the devil at his finest. I thought that casting on in general was a pain in the ass. I thought that knitting lace was a form of torture. I thought that Intarsia was up there with dancing barefoot on hot coals and broken glass. The Cable Cast-On, my friends, puts them all to shame. I think I made it about ten stitches before the whole thing got so tight that I could barely cast on the next stitch, and then I thought about knitting that first row and how horrible that would be if it was already this tight just casting on. Ripped it out, started again.

Rinse and repeat about half a dozen times before I stuffed the whole mess into a bag and shoved the bag under my bed, and sat down to work a few blessedly mind-numbingly simple rounds on the leg Jason's sock.

Maybe in the meantime I'll actually swatch like I should...

NaKniSweMo: Day 4-7

Fuck intarsia.

I took a break on the shawl because yesterday was my brother's birthday, and I'd like to finish the hat I promised him back in August by the time he comes up here to visit me next Friday. It's a hat, a frigging HAT, knit in a bulky yarn. I'll have that knocked out in a couple of afternoons easy!

Let me tell you something, ladies and gents. The knitting gods do not appreciate cockiness. In fact, they take great pleasure in beating every last shred of smugness out of you, then they bludgeon out all your optimism just for good measure.

Hm, guess I should start at the beginning...

So way back in December, my brother decided that he wanted me to knit him a hat from a book of patterns I got for Christmas. It's a stockinette hat with earflaps and this fauxhawk made from felted yarn along the top. It's knit in the colors and pattern of a union jack. But he doesn't want it in red, white, and blue. Nope, he'd prefer if I knit it in red, yellow, green, and black. For the less mathematically inclined, three and four are different. Very different. Especially when we're talking about an intarsia pattern.

But, this is what he wants. And it's for his birthday. And I feel kind of guilty that I don't spend nearly as much time with him as I'd like to. So I rework the charts to have four colors instead of three. And then I swatch. And guess what! Cascade 128 and Brown Sheep Bulky aren't really the same thing! My gauge swatch came out waaaay too small. So I jump from size 13 needles to size 15. Still too small. In a stroke of genius, I hold my yarn double, and make gauge with the size 13s.

Fantastic! Except now I have to reskein all my yarn. Out comes the ball winder. I follow the pattern instructions, and divide it up into smaller balls. Midway through, I considered just floating the colors not currently being used along the inside of the hat, then realized that the finished hat would be way too thick. Finally got the balls divided up, and started knitting.

I had so many issues casting on for this stupid thing that after the third botched attempt, I gave up and just decided to use a provisional cast on for the whole thing since, hey, I'm going to be attaching earflaps to most of it anyhow, and I'll just bind off the extra live stitches later! I'm sure that'll be a disaster worthy of its own post, but we'll have that bridge collapse on us when we get there...

So, after an afternoon's worth of work, I get this:



But what you don't see is that it's attached to this:



As if this project wasn't already fucked from the get-go, I had a tiny feline helper decide that she needed to step in for some assistance when I got up for TWO FRIGGING MINUTES to use the bathroom.

As if that wasn't fun enough, while I was laying this out to take a picture of it I noticed that I completely botched the chart for the last bit of yellow before the red intersects. Rather than rip it out, I'm now trying to replicate my error on the top and on the left panel as well. (for what it's worth, it's not as bad as it looks in the picture, the stupid thing just won't lay flat because yay! stockinette curls like a motherfucker!)

Also, there are a bajillion ends to weave in, and have I mentioned how much I hate intarsia? Because I do. A lot.

Stay tuned for the further adventures of the hat from hell.

Oh, wait, what's that about a sweater? And something about the month of November and a big fat deadline on the 30th??

...

I have no idea what you're talking about.