A Whole Week's Knitting

The size of the piece is deceptive - I've had very little time, but it knits up real quick. This piece is the sides and back knitted together, sideways. then you pick up stitches across the centre for the back and front yoke, the the sleeves are knitted sideways in one piece. Simple, huh? It seems to be going OK, although I've lost a stitch somewhere. I don't know if I'll like it - the yarn looks very crushed. I'll carry on though, it's a nice soothing knit.

I managed to seam up the second sleeve of Turbulence one night last week. I started setting in the sleeve, but I was so tired that I went wrong three times and gave up. I'm off to do it now (Sunday) in what passes for good light in November in Lancashire.

November Project

I have sewn up one sleeve on the Turbulence U-necked sweater, but seaming isn't knitting. When I get home frazzled after a long day with only an hour or less to relax before bed, I don't want to do seaming, I want to KNIT! So I've started the simple garter stitch jacket. I think it was the word 'simple' in the title that attracted me. 'Simple' sounds good to me! Maybe I can manage simple without the sturm and drang that accompanies so many of my projects.

The pattern is from a book published by Vogue in the 1980s - a collection of vintage patterns. There is a picture of a model with 80s hair wearing the jacket - but no schemata or measurements. We have much better patterns these days. I also like knowing who designed a garment. Then you can look out for their pattern books and read their blogs or websites. It makes the garment feel more like a friend designed it somehow. I think one of the hardest things about knitting is finding the right patterns, and if you love a designer's work and their patterns turn out for you - Kim Hargreaves and Norah Gaughn spring to mind - it helps the selection process.

The yarn is also vintage. It's 100% wool in Aran-weight, in quite a nice soft green with flecks in the wool, and there was heaps of it, which is good, but it's not that nice to knit with. It's very 'grabby' and keeps making a butcher's knot around my yarn-holding finger, which is annoying as I have to keep stopping and undoing it. It's been treated to be machine washable, but this has made it very rough and hard, so it's more like stroking porcupines than kittens. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little. Imagine stroking baby hedgehogs, that about describes it.

I saw an advert for Yeoman Yarns in December's copy of Yarn Forward, so I've sent off for the shade card. Their double knit acrylic is only 79p a ball - and the advert promises it's much better quality than the acrylic you can buy on a market stall. I used Robin acrylic from a market stall to knit a 50s 'Ladies Jacket'. Luckily my knitting was so awful that it had to go to the trash can. I say luckily, because although the acrylic was a nice colour and knit well, it did look cheap and naff in a finished garment. I tried it on with the tweed skirt it was knitted to go with. The skirt is a good one in a beautiful fabric (a Paul Costelloe snapped up in a sale) and the acrylic knitted fabric looked so wrong above it. Even though I use thrift shop finds for my test garments, I still always start out with the hope that they will be wearable!

I'm already thinking that I'll need to make another Turbulence before I knit the 'real' one. This is because I'm going to add waist shaping to the next one, and knit the sleeves in the round. That's two changes to test out before launching into one knit in expensive wool. I also want to make one in a dark colour. If the boxy shape of the garment still makes my middle-aged middle looked even more middle-aged than it is, even knit in a nice dark Gothic colour, then I'll save the lovely Jaeger for another project.

Lovely Pink Silk

It's taken me over half an hour to get into Blogger today - for some reason it wouldn't accept my password while I was logged in, but the password was correct because when I logged in as Andy, it let me log in as me! Words fail me.

Computer frustration almost destroyed my pleasure in this lovely stash addition - 50p worth of lovely pink silk. But not quite - it will be perfect for poppies.

Tomorrow I'll report on progress on Turbulence - and my new project. I've had it for now.

Sleeves are Done

I don't think I'll ever dare wash this sweater - it took so much pulling, tugging and coaxing to get the sleeves anywhere near the size they were supposed to be.

The side seams are done too. I stitched it up while watching Strictly Come Dancing last night. I'm getting nervous as completion looms - it's been a long and traumatic journey!

OH!

I put the front and back of the Turbulence U-necked sweater into the washbasin, left it a few minutes and then lifted it out. The whole garment kind of sighed and relaxed. It is now the right size!!! Nobody could be more surprised than me. I'm so glad I didn't a) sling it into the garbage or b) pull the whole thing back and re-knit it in a larger size. The wonders of blocking!

Visual Colouring by Joen Wolfrom

I get it! I totally get colour now I've read Joen's book. I'm so glad I didn't give up yesterday. I'd never have had the joy of knowing that one of my knitting problems is solved!

This book is very, very easy to read and understand. The basic idea is simple - and it explains how to select a colourway that will make Kafee Fasset's 'Poppies' look stunning when I get around to knitting myself a Channel style jacket in that pattern. Some time next century. Let's not get carried away here.

I Nearly Give up Knitting for EVER!

But what would I do with my hands? I do love television, but it's not the same without knitting. So, after a whole programme of Strictly Come Dancing with not a stitch knitted, I switched on the light, got out my tape measure and had a look at the situation.

It's bad. It's pretty bad. Not only have I gone wrong in the cable AGAIN (see the ugly lump on the left?) but my tension is all over the place. I used to knit larger and larger and larger as the garment progressed. By switching to Lucy Neatby's method, I now seem to be knitting smaller and smaller and smaller. No wonder the sleeves seemed tight. Also, I have been mislead by the boxy nature of this garment's design. I thought it was the same width, as a favourite sweater, and so it is, until you get to the arms. From the armhole up it is about four inches too small.

I looked at the original swatch. No doubt that 4mm needles gave too open and stretchy a fabric. Maybe 3.5 needles would have been better, but I went for 3mm partly because I'm used to my fabric getting bigger and bigger, but also because it gave the best result in the swatch. But the sleeves, in particular, are tiny! Note to self. If your Addi needle is on the front of the sweater when you decide to start the sleeves, for goodness sake go and put the front on a piece of yarn and use the same needles for the sleeves. Don't bunch them up on an old pair so that the tension changes from - are you ready for this - 30 rows per 10 cm to 44. 44!! how can I get it so wrong? So often? I so nearly threw the back, front and sleeves out, along with Tangerine Alef for good measure.

But then I counted the stitches across the cable panel and they were exactly right. It's taken me nearly a year to master the art of getting the right number of stitches, and even though I was so absorbed in the panel, that part is still correct. And if I give up now, I'll never be able to knit. I should be used to the fact that it takes me ten years longer (at least) to master things that other people can pick up and do straight away. Giving up does not cure dyslexia. And if I don't finish this sweater, then I won't learn things that will make the purple version a success. So, I will finish this sweater. Then I'll sit in the bath wearing it and see if the cotton relaxes.

I sat up until midnight and finished the cable panel. One stitch went slightly wrong somewhere at the top, but it's so invisible I fudged it! Enough already.