Knot Again

Off the needles

I was merrily knitting along through the decreases on Clapotis when... I ran out of yarn.  So, I pulled out the few yards I had left of the middle ball, and started working with that... only to run out again.  ARGH! 

I'd put a lifeline in one repeat back from when I started the decreases, so I COULD rip back to there, but I really didn't want to.  I was so close!  I even counted it out.  I was a whopping 96 stitches short of reaching the end.  I did manage to come up with a different solution.  I ripped back 3 repeats of the decrease rows (not too bad, considering the rows were so much shorter here than on the straight row section), and then on the two middlemost stockinette sections, I knit 2 together and worked the rest of the scarf with those two sections being 4 stitches wide intead of 5.  Since I had about 3 repeats of 12 rows, each of those k2tog saved me 36 stitches, for a total of 72 sts.  But, since the rows were already shorter, it also made me skip the first 2 of the final rows, which saved me another 12 and 11 stitches respectively, for 95 stitches saved total.

So, when all was said and done, here's all I was left with:

WHEW!  Squeaked through by the skin of my teeth.   And I don't think you can tell unless you look close and know what you're looking for.   

Now I need to give it a wash and block so I can show off the finished product.  It won't be much of a blocking... I do NOT want to take out the natural twist of the scarf.  But, the two ends curl fiercely (I pinned it down for the picture), and the dropped stitches don't look very neat... I think they still want to be in their stitch shape, so I think they need a washing to forget their former incarnation.

I also finished the two front pieces on Ribby Cardi:

I did the neck shaping on the wrong side.  On the left front piece, that just meant p2, p2tog, p to the end.  But, to make it mirror correctly on the other side, I had to do some fancy footwork needlework.  I THINK I may have made up a new stitch in order to do so.  I'd call it ssdsp2tog (for slip, slip, double slip, purl 2 together).  I had purled to the last 4 stitches of the row, then I'd slip the next 2 stitches knitwise, and then insert the left needle from right to left to transfer them back onto it, and then purl them together, and then purl the last 2 stitches.  Transferring them back to the left needle was tricky, but I only had to do it a few times, so it wasn't too awful.

In doing the neck shaping on the wrong side, I found that the decreases are closer to invisible on the right side and almost invisible on the wrong side... which may be handy to remember if I ever get around to designing something... although it may feel slightly more bumpy when you pinch it between your fingers than RS decreases do.  I can't imagine why this is, as it uses the same amount of material.

So, now I'm at the point where this needs to be blocked, too.  I think I may just steam block it for now.  Other than the curling, I don't really think it needs it.  The pieces match up in size, and I don't really need to stretch them out (I've lost a bit of weight this year, so I'm afraid it may even end up being too big for me).  So, I hope the steam blocking is sufficient, at least until after it's all the way completed.

Clapotis math

Back when I finished up the first ball of yarn, I figured out how many stitches I'd done, and the divided that number by the stitches per row on the straight section to figure out how many repeats I could get out of the second ball.  I figured I'd have enough to do 9 full repeats, with enough extra to finish out the partial repeats of the first and last balls (I got through the set up and increase rows and 5 2/3 repeats of the straight rows with the first ball, and I assume the final ball will do pretty close to the same amount).

So, now I've gotten to the point where I figured the second ball would get me to, and here's what's left of that second ball:

Not bad, if I do say so myself.  I'll do one more row, just in case the third ball runs a little short, and then I get to switch over to the prettier yarn again.  YEA!

Thanks ladies...

for bringing me back from the brink of insanity.  I knew I could count on you.  You're so right... it probably won't be too noticeable when I'm wearing it like a scarf.

So, I'll be starting back up on Clapotis now.  If I really work at it, I can probably finish up with that 2nd ball tonight.

While I was toying with losing my mind, though, I worked on the 2nd sleeve of Ribby.  I knit through an entire skein in a day and a half, and then it took another day to finish up the main part and do the sleeve cap shaping, so I'm all done with the 2nd sleeve.  At that rate, I figure it'll take at least 5 days of concerted effort to finish up the fronts.

I'd show you a picture, but really, it looks exactly the same as the last sleeve, so it's not all that exciting.

ARGH! What to do?

I've knit almost all the way through that odd-colored second ball of yarn, and the color difference is more noticeable with more of it there to look at:

Now I'm trying to figure out if I should keep going, or rip back.  I really don't want to rip back... I've got so many projects I really want to do waiting in the wings, and if I let myself be too much of a perfectionist, I'll never get anything done.

OTOH, I realized last night that if I had done 4 rows good ball, 2 rows bad ball, it would have probably resulted in a more cohesive fabric, and probably cut down on the pooling problem, as well.  I wonder if it would make it look striped, though.

*sigh* I'm not good at these kinds of decisions.  What would you do if you were in my position?

PS... is it wrong of me to be irritated that the lady I bought this from couldn't be bothered to send me matching skeins?  I know they're hand-dyed and that different batches might not match, but shouldn't I have been able to get 3 skeins from the same batch since I ordered them at the same time?

Too much to talk about.

I keep finding myself wanting to wait to blog so that I can talk about 2 things together (and only one of them is available now), or wanting to talk about one thing that is not available yet before another that is available now, and in waiting, I end up totally buried in things to talk about, and the prospect of putting that long post together is daunting enough that I procrastinate and procrastinate.

So, I'm going to break up what I have to say into a few posts based by topic.  I hope you don't mind.

First up... Progress.

I've now finished the back and one sleeve of my Ribby Cardi:

I knit and knit and knit on these (the body is an inch longer than the pattern, and the sleeve is just over 3 inches longer... so it really seemed to go on forever) until I just got sick of Ribby, so it's now been set aside for a little bit. 

Now I'm back to working on Clapotis.  As of the last time I mentioned it, I'd found that one of my skeins of yarn didn't quite match the other two, and I was hoping to get another that would match it better.  My friend MJ had some skeins of this same colorway, and offered to trade me for one if it matched my other two better.  When we finally were able to get together, we found out that hers were not even close to mine... they were all even darker (much) than my odd-man-out skein.  So, it appears there isn't a ton of consistency in the dying, and so I figured ordering a new one was even less likely to match  my two than the one I had, so I'm just using what I've got.

Apparently my big push on Ribby sapped some of my overall knitting oomph, because I haven't gotten much farther (just a couple of repeats):

The difference in the two balls of yarn is pretty dramatic in this picture.  It's not that bad in real life (I asked my husband, and he doesn't think so either).  Mostly, it just seems to be missing the light pinks that are so prevalent in the other two balls, and if you look close, there is an orangey muddiness in spots of the green.

I did take out a little bit of yarn, like I had before, to keep the pooling from stacking up too much.  Hopefully I won't have to keep doing so, or I'll have to shorten the Clapotis by a repeat, and I'd rather not lose any length.

I was inspired enough by the afghan I finished to start another one from the same book.  This one is much easier to remember, as the center panel is all one pattern, rather than 2, like the other one, and I haven't had the problem of messing up in this one like I did so often in the other and having to rip out my work.  Here's that:

I'm using a different yarn (Lion brand Soft Cotton), because I love the color, and the Caron Simply Soft only came in a very light washed out purple and a bold deep purple and I didn't like either one.  The Soft Cotton isn't as nice to work with, although it's not awful by any means.  I do hope it softens up a tad more with washing.

I've been trying to teach a few of my friends how to knit.  One of them was working on the project that got me into crocheting in the first place (knitting came about 6 months later after I was seduced by all the fantastic knit patterns out there)... charity crochet, specifically, a leper bandage.  So, I pulled out the one I'd started (I had to set it aside when we needed to get serious about moving last year, and I hadn't worked on it since), and started working on it.  And then I started one in knit, as well:

I'd originally planned to see which method was faster, but I forgot to time myself when I started working on them again, so I guess that's out.  Either way, it's perfect mindless knitting/crochet.  Just plain garter stitch or just plain single crochet.   I have found out that all #10 crochet thread is not made alike.  The DMC I pulled out of my stash for the knitted one is very cord-like, and not very soft (I'm debating ripping it out and starting over with something I know is softer, like Aunt Lydia's).  I don't know what brand the crochet one is in... it's better than the DMC, but probably not as soft as Aunt Lydia's.

If you're interested in information on making leper bandages for charity, go here and here is the original pattern for the leper bandages (it's a .pdf file... they used to have an html page, but it looks like they've put all their patterns in .pdf format).  LDS Humanitarian Services has patterns for all kinds of other charity projects as well.  They're also a great place to donate money for charitable purposes... all administrative costs are paid by the LDS church, so 100% of any donations go to those in need, and they help people of all faiths and nationalities.

What I've been up to

Plans for posts kept falling through the last two weeks, so this post is for catching up a bit...

On the afghan for my new neice, here's where I was on March 12:

By April 11, I'd finished the body:

Now, I've done 4 of the 5 rounds of the border, but I haven't got a picture of that.  I should be finished fairly soon, though, so I can show you the whole thing.

As for Ribby Cardi... I'm working on the 2nd sleeve.  I completed the 2 fronts and the first sleeve up to the point where I finished 1 ball on each.  I'll show a picture on that when I've got the 2nd sleeve done to that point... shouldn't be too long.

On Clapotis... it's on hold.  The 2nd skein that I just thought was a little darker than the other 2 actually has some orange in the green areas that isn't present in the other 2, so I need to order another skein and hope it matches better.  It obviously won't be from the same dyelot as the 2 that do match, but I don't think the one I've got is, either, so I think I have a decent chance that it'll be a better match.

I started working on my sister's scarf as a reward for finally doing my taxes (at the last minute... for which I feel rather stupid... we're getting a pretty big return from the federal government, because I had no idea how our move would affect things and didn't update the W-4 last year).  Here's how that's going:

I do not like the way it's pooling (I'm beginning to think pooling is my nemesis).  Please tell me what you think... will adding 2 stitches to the sides and going up a needle size help?

Also, I'm wondering if I should add another row or two before I start the lace pattern, because the yarnovers look a little too close to the cast-on edge to me.  Would that prevent the knitting from doing that lovely ripple along the edge?

Lots of knitting progress this week

I knit the back of Ribby Cardi up to the length the pattern states before doing the armhole shaping. I'm still trying to figure out whether I should lengthen it or not. Too many things I own are too short, and a lot of the Ribby's I've seen are short in my book. But, I measured another sweater I have that is a length I like, and the measurements, both from the underarm down and from the shoulder down are really close to what the pattern lists, so now I just don't know.

I've also knit the fronts up to 7":

I did the last couple of ankle rounds on my 2nd Fuzzyfoot, and then knit the heel flap and turned the heel... only to find out that I'd knit the heel flap 2 rows too long, so I have to frog the heel turn and those 2 rows and then redo the heel turn (if it was the first one, I'd just leave it and do the 2nd to match, but since it's the second one, I'll frog). I didn't feel like taking a picture when I'd be frogging though, so nothing to show here on that.

I also got Clapotis back on track. I frogged a couple of inches, and as per MJ's suggestion (which was the same thing the LYS owner I asked about it suggested), I eliminated a few inches (I chose to take out most of a length of green... about 10"), and as you can see, that helped immensely:

I was afraid the pooling would just start up again later, but it didn't, and I came to the end of the first ball of yarn just after dropping the 6th stitch. I estimate that I was able to knit 12,145 stitches with the first ball, and that took me through the increase rows and a little over 5.5 repeats of the straight rows. The 3rd ball should do the decrease rows and the same number of repeats. I used those numbers and figured that the 2nd ball will do 9 repeats plus enough to complete the partial repeats of the other 2 balls. That's more repeats than the pattern calls for, but I think the length will be about the same.

Have I mentioned... I love this yarn, I love these colors, and I love this pattern. It's all completely addictive, and it's all I really want to work on.

All Clapotis all the time

       

Since I started this project, I haven't hardly been able to work on anything else. I did try to work on the baby afghan a couple of times, but I think I ripped as much (or at least nearly as much) as I crocheted.

Here's how far I'd gotten on that:

               

If it weren't for all the ripping and re-doing (and the lack of working on it out of frustration), I'm sure I could be done with the entire main panel by now, and be working on the edging.

So, about Clapotis... here's some progress shots:

         

I've gotten through 4 repeats of the straight rows, and I'm ready to drop the 5th stitch. I'm trying to decide whether to do so or not. Can you see the way the green has been pooling for about the last few inches? I really don't like. I'm also trying to figure out why it started pooling so strongly. It had been doing fine on the straight rows for a while, and then instead of the small staggered pooling, it suddenly started to stack up in wide stripes.

Would it help to rip back a few inches and redo it, or would it just turn out the same?

Also, I still haven't come to the end of the first 200 yd. ball. I don't know how much farther it will go, but this is longer than I realized it would. The other thing I could think to do would be to rip back to where I switched from increase rows to straight rows, and do another repeat... or take one out (although I think I'd rather have it wider than narrower... it's only about 14" or 15" wide now, so it's narrower than the pattern... I would think that would mean that I'm not using as much yarn per row, and I could end up with a really long piece, so widening it ought to be okay, right?). I don't know whether that would fix the problem or not... it could still end up pooling weird.

If you have any recommendations, I'd sure appreciate them.

I knit myself to sleep

I cast on last night for Clapotis (actually, I did so a few times). I got through the set-up rows, and about 2 1/2 repeats of the increase rows. Here's a couple of progress photos:

               

       

               

       

Notice anything unexpected?

I am not using stitch markers.  A BIG thanks to Stephanie for the idea. Basically, you purl the stitches you're going to drop... actually (and I'm not sure if this was what she meant, but this is how I did it), you do a ribbed row... purled on the front and knit on the back. Here's the details, if anyone wants to do the same:

On the WS row after adding a yo, make sure you knit the yo.
On the RS rows, p1 (instead of k1) in between each set of k1 tbl
On the rest of the WS rows, knit all stitches that were purled on the front

It's that easy, and you can keep track of the stitches to drop w/o having to use any stitch markers.  SLICK!

Here's a pic of the back:

               

       

This is a really cool pattern! Once you get past the set up rows, it is really easy to do, and actually fairly easy to remember... even with the modifications I made. I didn't want to stop knitting on this at all... in fact, I worked on it, until I was tinking as much as I was knitting because I was so tired I couldn't count any more... and then I set it aside and dozed on the couch a little before I could get up and go to bed. It's a fantastically engrossing pattern, and I haven't even gotten to the dropped stitches yet. I can totally see more of these in my future!