1969 Vogue

We went to the farmer's market at Settle on Sunday and then for a walk in the Yorkshire Dales - a bluebell wood even. How gorgeous is that? The charity shop is open as well, and being a country town, it has a knitting and craft section - sometimes it's a tangle of disappointing acrylic, but today I got a Vogue Knitting, an ounce of brown Rowan wool for my ski sweater and 5 brass buttons for 60p.

The right front of the Country Casuals jacket is finished. I was wondering what to do about blocking. It's lumpy enough to need it! But there's no schemata. In the end I got it wet, then laid it out on the blocking board. I nearly died - it spread to double the size. I kind of patted and scrunched it back to about where I thought it should be, and it stayed there. The wool went incredibly soft and stretchy when it was wet. Because I had no idea what size it should be, I didn't pin it. The wool stayed softer even when it was dry. I did the sleeves this morning.

Last night I began the left front (taking care to make sure it is a LEFT front). I am refining my technique. For this piece, I am making myself use continental knitting for the tricky bits as well. I've been doing continental (or picking) for the easy bits, then stopping and switching to English (or throwing) for the blackberry stitch and the cabling. I could get even faster if I could do continental all the way along. I think that by the top of the jacket I'll be comfortable with blackberry. It is fiddly, but after only a couple of inches I'm getting more comfortable with working it without switching hands. Holding the cable stitches and crossing them while keeping the yarn in my left hand is harder, much harder and so far I'm dropping stitches and splitting them again. However, I'll stick at it.

Funny, isn't it? I guess most people would see me knitting in my chair and think 'how dull' or 'how peaceful' depending on their worldview of knitting. They'd have no idea of the titanic struggles that are taking place!

In many ways I wish I'd made a test garment first - I'm not satisfied with the standard of this jacket. But, it was an experiment I would have to make at some point: what happens if I buy the pattern and the yarn and just knit it? I think the answer this time is going to be a finished, wearable garment, but one that's just too badly knit to please me. I need more practice, so that's more knitting from the stash (how I yearn for expensive yarn!) and more knitting from the DVD lessons. Maybe I need to make a pile of hets?

Cabling on a Train

Now I think I'm entitled to say I can cable without a needle. I had to go to Preston for a training course today - that's 1 hour and 10 minutes knitting each way. Should I take a needle? No, let's pack a crotchet hook and see what happens. You know what? I didn't drop a single stitch. I can now officially cable without a needle.

What's made the difference is holding the stitch. With yarn this smooth, the stitches just weren't staying in place, they unravelled pretty much every time. What I do now is pull them off the needle, hold them in my fingers, work the other stitches and pop them back on the needle. It felt awkward at first, because I had to work the other stitches with my hands in an odd position, but it's coming easily now and it's wonderful - quicker than using a needle, not so frustrating as leaving the stitch to drop.

I finally worked up courage to put a tape measure over the back - it's a bit bigger than 42". I'm knitting the 42" size and, although the pattern doesn't give you a schematic (which I hate! Why not tell me exactly how many inches that piece should measure?) I think the bit extra will be the ease so I'm hoping it will fit.

Unravel and Fix

This is the back of the jacket. I cast on, three times, and kept going wrong. Finally got going once I realised that what had confused me is the fact that I'm used to working the Aran patterns on the front of the garment and simply knitting or purling all the stitches as they present themselves on the back of the garment. This baby has blackberry stitch panels, which you work on the back of the garment. Very tricky! I'd change to do a panel, then carry on working cables or whatever on the wrong side. What a mess! I've mostly got the hang of it now, though.

See the lovely ladder? That's the most I've ever unravelled, but I'd made a mistake far too many inches down to even think of going back and frogging it. Several of the panels had 4 purl stitches separating them. You decrease in three places over the first 10" or so, in order for the back to nip in towards the waist. Good idea. But, two of the panels are moss stitch, and when it got down to the last two purl stitches, I got confused and took them into the moss stitch. Holding my breath, I unravelled down and redid it properly - it worked lovely! Rather to my surprise!

Mistakes in blackberry stitch on the other hand are a nightmare and not recoverable. Well, not by me, anyway! I've made a couple, but after trying to fix the first one and realising it couldn't be done, I've simply left them. (They can't be done because you knit three stitches into one stitch, which is a lot of twisting and arranging, then on the next row, knit all those three stitches together. Which is a lot more twisting and arranging. To undo one stitch then, instantly involves you in a tangle of six stitches. Live with it, or undo the lot!)

Cabling without a needle is not going any better! I have developed the habit now, which is quicker than stopping to pick up a needle, of holding the stitches with my fingers in a certain position depending on the cable twist. Pulling one purl stitch behind two knit stitches has a different tension to twisting two knit stitches over two knit stitches. One or two twists seem to work OK, because working the next stitch doesn't automatically pull the yarn out of the loop, but most of them come undone, at once, unless I hold them tight. This yarn is particularly smooth, which doesn't help. But I think if I were going to get the hang of it, I would have mastered it by now. I will stick with my hybrid method though, because it's quicker.

I have finally finished my degree - which was keeping me too busy to post about knitting. HURRAY! As a treat, I sent off for Elizabeth Zimmerman's knitting workshop.

Sleeve Progress

When I started the second sleeve, I found the instructions for the line up the centre of the sleeve. It was me being thick, as usual. Sigh. I am still cabling without a needle, but it isn't going any better as yet. I will not give up. If other people can do it, then I can do it. It just takes me longer, that's all.

I frogged my first attempt at the raglan sleeve - I thought the right side of the cable looked sore where it hit the raglan. I made the cables twist the other way on that side, so they kind of slide into the raglan edging rather than hitting it in a lump. At this moment, I think it looks better, but I hope I haven't made trouble for myself further along the line.

Protocosy is a big success. The recipient does not want a 'proper' version in sexy Rowan yarn. He likes Protocosy exactly as it is. Basking in unusual glow of knitting with a successful outcome.

Country Casuals and no Cable Needle

Some of the twists are going OK without a needle now - but some of them I'm still finding hard. There is one where you put a purl stitch behind the work - so I can't hold it down with a finger, and that one escapes occasionally, and then there's a row where you cable four, that's two in front, knit two, then knit the two off the needle, or from the space in front of the work. That one is hard as well. I think it must be the way the yarn runs to make the next stitch that makes the difference. Anyway, I'm determined to continue practising. I've just about reached the point where it is probably quicker (not tested this theory, mind you) to work without a needle and spend ages catching the occasional escapee, than it is to stop at every twist and reach for the needle.

This is going to be a long, slow knit.

Knitting a Cosy

My friend's teapot needs a cosy. Here's a picture. I will look for a good pattern. Colour work? Cartoon character? No frills? There's so many things to decide. I'll have plenty of time to decide, because the cream Aran shrug is far from finished. It's been a busy week so not much knitting got done.

I can purl backwards quickly and easily now, so that technique was well worth learning. It makes bobbles easy to do. What I can't get the hang of is cabling without a needle. I did try, but it's so much easier with a needle! Every time I slide the stitches off the main needle they instantly and viciously unravel. Then I have to spend ages poking around with a crotchet hook to get them all back. I've given up for this now, but I might try again on a different Aran project.

No Cable Needles were Harmed in the Making of this Swatch

Actually, it wasn't meant to be a swatch, it was meant to be my third attempt at the cabled Aran shrug, but I was concentrating so hard on knitting backwards and cabling without a needle that I got one stitch out somewhere and I couldn't get the next panel straight. I've been playing with it while waiting to hear back about Cloud 3, and now I have help with those pesky decreases, it's time to go back to Cloud anyway. So I cast it off, called it a swatch and threw it in the washer with yesterday's muddy gaiters to see how the yarn would stand it. That large cone was 50p. Two strands held together make a good Aran weight yarn. From the cone, the yarn is a bit stiff and smells faintly of machine oil. Washed it softens nicely and smells only of washing powder. It doesn't smell of wool, burns brightly and leaves a blobby residue rather than ash, so I think it must be mostly artificial fibre. However it's very flexible when wet and has felted slightly, so it might have a bit of wool in it. When I make the shrug, I'll hand wash it, I think, to be on the safe side.

I've just about got the hang of cabling without a needle now - the trick is to drop the stitches off the needle, freeze, and then stop breathing until the cable is done and the stitches are safely back on the needle. Or in other words, keep everything as still as possible while working. Knitting, or rather purling backwards to do the bobbles is hard. My poor head goes into meltdown at the very idea. At the moment it takes three times longer because I have to turn the work around, see where the yarn and needles should be for each step of the process, then turn the work back and have a bash. Then I realise I've got it all wrong. Undo it. Start again. Just once or twice have I managed to purl the last stitch of the three bobble stitches backwards, but by the time I've knitted three I've forgotten again. Never mind. It'll come. It's not that I'm planning to knit that many bobbles, but think how useful knitting backwards will be for knitted-on edges.

Cabling Without a Needle

Isn't this a terrible picture? I don't know what it is about this red wool, but I can't seem to get a photo of it at all. This is the best of about 50 attempts. I tried it light in front, light behind, light from the side,with a flash,without a flash, near the window, far from the window. I give up. You'll just have to imagine it.

There's two wobbles in the last cable diamond where I dropped a stitch, fudged it for 10 rows, found the dropped stitch, picked it up with a crotchet hook and then had to undo the fudge. I'm not going to redo it.

And what am I doing, dropping stitches? Trying to cable without a needle, that's what. And I can't do it. Lucy Neatby demonstrates the art on her knitting DVD. She says something like: 'Your stitches won't go anywhere. They are not malevolent.' Well, mine are! The second I let them go, they prang about all over the place. 'Quick! Head for the hills! Hey, I know. Let's go to Skegness. Louise'll never notice.'

I need to learn, because it is going to be so much quicker. I must have spent about three hours of this week looking for my cable needle. But I'm not finding it easy. Lucy slips three stitches off the main needle, puts them to the back of the work and they stay there while she knits the next stitches, then goes back and picks them up to complete the twist or cable. I can almost, sometimes do the cable where you put one stitch behind your work, knit three then pick up the one. I have to pull it off the needle, then out, so that it enlarges, then hold it down with a finger so it doesn't head for a seaside resort, then pull it out again, because the loop will be hardly visible, it will have shrunk so much, and then, finally, slip it back on the needle to work with. Three I cannot do. The last stitch always, always, always ladders down at once.

I wonder if the reason I can't cable without a needle is connected to my lack of knitting success in general? Am I somehow not smooth enough? If I'm jerking my knitting around as I work, in both senses of the word, is it getting p**ed off at me? Or to leave the metaphor and descend to the technical, are there uneven points of stress in the fabric? It's something to think about.

The ribwarmer is nearly done - I need to watch Meg Swanson on the DVD showing the short rows at the back neck and then I can attempt the three-needle I-Cord cast off on the shoulders.

I'm practising the Portuguese knitting at odd moments - about 10 minutes a day, perhaps. It's a bit soon to decide how fast a technique it might be.