Goodbye, Rubbish Knitting

I hate being a bad knitter, I really do! Look at all that work, and it's all got to go! Last night I got out m-i-l's jacket and took a long hard look at it.

First, my tension seems to be fairly close but, the fabric is very soft and stretchy, so I've decided to use a half size smaller needle to give it more body. Luckily my new Knit Picks needle is the right size and has lovely sharp tips.

Second, the blackberry stitch is a nightmare! It looks messy where I start it, it looks messy when it transits into the cable pattern and it looks vile where I decreased. After some thought I decided to put two bands of garter stitch and the beginning and the ends of the cuff, and to be very, very careful when I decrease.

I will keep a row count for each piece while I knit up to the sleeves - then it will all be on one needle for the raglans and that will keep it the same size.

The moss stitch is twisted here and there - be consistent. I'll decide what I'm doing (knit into front or back of stitch) in the first panel, write it down and stick with it. The reason for confusion here is, I think, that I'm doing what some people call combined knitting, purling with the yarn under the needle, which prevents rowing out, but twists the stitch on the needle so you have to knit into the back of it.

No yarn joins at the front edges of the garment - that ought to be a no-brainer, but I obviously need telling!!

Now, sizes. Knitting the 40-42" size gave me a garment with a 48" chest. There is no schematic, so I don't know what it should have been. (Could maths tell me that? Probably. There are 295 stitches at the point under the arms where I measured. The tension is 19 stitches to 10 cm so, er, what do I do next? If I divide 295 by 19, that tells me how many blocks of 10 cm fabric I should have (I hate metric! No I don't. I hate the fact there are two measuring systems in knitting). I get 15.5. So, multiply that by 10 and I get a garment that measures 155 cm around. Well that's clearly a rubbish answer. I give up on the math.)

So, starting again, without math because I can't do it, I'm saying the thing is too big. A good 10" too big, so, you know what, I'm going to knit the smallest size, because Mrs Hill has lost weight, not to mention being far too small to wear a garment scaled to fit 42" bust.

Hm, do we have a clue here as to why my sizing goes so horribly wrong so horribly often? Every Friday morning I go for maths lessons, but so far it hasn't improved my ability to figure out knitting patterns.

I should be able to work it out! Will think about it while I'm frogging.

Poppies

When I put away the green and pink balls of yarn I bought for poppies I decided to photograph the swatches - and the failed attempt at a Chanel jacket. Kafee Fasset has no words to wisdom to offer on fit - but he does have the answer to the colour problem. He says that if the colours are not working, what you need is 20 more colours! Hopefully, now that I'm knitting Lucy Neatby's way, I'll learn how to control my tension, and by the time I can knit a garment that's the right size, I'll have the extra 40 colours tucked away in the stash ready to start knitting again. I like some of the colourways, but overall, it's just not right.

Finished the practice swatch for the Turbulence cable panel - hurray! I went wrong once at the top, but I think I'll go back to the real garment now.

DOH!!

Oh, I give up! Last night I undid the whole cable panel and sulked. I'll tell you what I did. I made the classic knitting mistake. I ignored that little voice that says, you should have 4 stitches here and you've got five. There's something not right here. Stop. Stop now BEFORE you knit another 17 rows, get to the end and then realise it's so sore you can't live with it. It was nattering me all night, but I ignored it. And I paid for it too!

I've begun a practice for my practice garment! Would that be a practice squared? Or, if it's a test for Turbulence would it be a wind tunnel? Anyway, I cast on in thick wool for the cable panel and I'm going to knit a test panel before I go back to knitting the test garment and then, and only then, will I get out the good yarn. Just as well. I would have killed Jaeger Extra Fine Merino with all this fumbling!

Take Three on Turbulence U-neck Cables

See the extra markers? I found out the hard way why the pattern told you to place markers! I didn't bother (when will I learn to stop saying that?) because the purl row you just knit all the knits and purl all the purls, why bother counting? (I must learn to stop saying that as well!!)

Because I hadn't been counting and checking the stitches of the cables on the purl row, when I did, inevitably, go wrong, I had no way of working out when, where and how. Made low growling sounds and frogged it all back.

Started again, placing markers. Forgot the famous 'AT THE SAME TIME' begin armhole shaping instructions. Made loud growling sounds and frogged it all back.

Started again. And this time I'm not doing too badly, although the stitches look pulled and lumpy, I'll have to work on that.

I'm also trying to read my knitting. I was making errors because I didn't understand why I held the stitches on the cable needle either forward or backwards. Now I'm looking at the cables as I go, thinking well, if this cable is travelling towards me, then I'll need to hold it at the front and fetch a purl stitch over this side so it can slant left, or whatever the details might be. Also, if I know that I have a row of three knit stitches and they are twisting right, then if my instructions say to work on four or two stitches, I should stop and check!

The yarn has better yardage than I thought at first - I think it will make the sleeves called for in the pattern. They are only bracelet length. I started the sleeves for some easy knitting and a rest from the cables. Bearing in mind the horrible non-matching sleeves I produced for practice Alef, I decided to go back to my old method of knitting them flat, both at the same time. If it seems to take a lot, lot longer than knitting in the round, then the answer might be double knitting. I know Lucy Neatby has a DVD on double knitting, and you can knit two sleeves in the round at the same time so that they match.

DOH!

I did 16 rows before I discovered that I'd got the cable panel for the neck of the Turbulence U-necked sweater all wrong!

I was so fed up - I mean I'd pored over the diagram - written out each row before I knitted it, kept a count of the rows, worked so carefully. It looked beautiful. I was even starting to wonder if I might move on to cabling without a needle any time soon. And then I ran into trouble: the outside cable was one stitch short. Yes, I'd misread the key - some symbols are slightly wider than others - they are over four stitches. Some symbols are slightly narrow than others - they are over three stitches. Otherwise the legends are identical.

Louise's first law of knitting:

If it is possible to make a knitting mistake, Louise will make it.

I pulled it all back in a fierce temper growling: rip! rip! rip!

I should have taken a picture - it would have been interesting to compare them. But I was mad clear through and past reasoned thought.