Hello Girls!  How’s life treating you?  I know that between new jobs and family obligations you haven’t got much time these days, so I’ll just keep trying to babble on for the three of us.  Just remember, it’s not my fault that I go on about my knitting ad nauseam!  :0)

So, first off, the Rogue.  Great sweater and am looking forward to wearing it should I ever actually finish knitting it.  I may also have to mount a successful diet to get into it because it’s turning out a little on the small side, but that would be good for me anyway (she says after having eaten several chocolate covered coffee beans in an attempt to stay awake at work. Work is sloooooooooooooow. Dead. Worryingly dead, so it’s not always easy to stay awake while waiting for there to be something, anything to do.).   Anyhoo, I had to re-knit the sleeve several times, the first because I realized I wanted to extend the pattern all the way up the arm after having done most of the chart, then because I increased incorrectly, then again because I increased incorrectly, then because I got confused on when to cable.  Hopefully the second will go better.  I should finish the first soon, but I’m not holding my breath.  Knitting is going badly lately.  I’m still also not happy with the hem, but that might be my inner Hermione speaking.  I’m waiting to finish and wash it.  I have lots of hopes for the washing of this sweater as I’m also hoping it will grow as so many knits do when washed.  And then when I am done and it’s washed, possibly re-knit and finally ready to wear, I’m going to have a plethora of this yarn left over.  Unfortunately there won’t really enough for another whole sweater, but a lot all the same.  At last count, I’d used 6 of 16 skeins and had finished the body and hood with only the sleeves left to go.  O_o  Talk about not getting your yarn amount right!

Oh yes, and the wearing of the Rogue is provided I can pry my cat off of it. Sydney seems to think that I specifically knit this to benefit her and her sleeping quality.  Wanna bet that if I knit her a blanket out of the same yarn she’d never set paw on it?

In the meantime, I ordered some yarn.  Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy worsted 100% cotton to be exact.  I got several colourways in a sale at Patternworks in the hopes that I could use it to make Californian Noro Striped Scarves for Christmas this year.  It came in the mail today and I’m pretty disappointed that the colourways are all pretty much the same.  I don’t think it will look horrible to mix them, but that pretty, stripey effect will either be seriously watered down, or disappear entirely.   Soooooo, what to do.  Since KOCT does not make a contrasting colour that I like, I asked myself if I couldn’t use a different yarn for the contrast.  After all, if I could do that, I’ll have enough yarn to make the whole family a Noro scarf for Christmas.  And perhaps even a few friends.  Perhaps y’all are a little smarter than me and can already see where this is headed.  It took me about 5 min. to realize that gee, I’m going to have a whole lot of 100% cotton worsted weight yarn in a fairly neutral colour left over from the Rogue, wonder if I could use that? In the immortal word of Homer, D’Oh! 

Still, I’d like to ask if any of you have mixed yarns/yarn brands in the same project and if so, did it turn out well?  I’ve seen it done on Rav, but not actually having seen the results up close and in person like, I’m still a bit wary.  

And for something non-knitting for a change, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’ve found some fabulous new teas lately, did I?  There’s a tea shop a few villages over that is filled to the brim with tea-like goodness.  I’ve gotten hooked on Lemon Rooibos, Orange Cream Rooibos (even though I don’t usually like orange flavoured things, this is FABBITY!), Bourbon Vanilla (black tea based) and Rooibos Snowflurries (similar to the Orange Cream, but without the cream and with spices).  There’s also The Rooibos Cherry Blossom which is good, but not as good as the others.   It’s all Ronnefeldt tea (German) if you want to google. Good stuff.  I am feeling a little guilty though; all this tea means that I’ve almost abandoned my old standby of Earl Grey.  Very disloyal of me, I know, but having the variety is nice all the same.  And yet, none of them tops my all time fav of Harney and Sons Chocolate Mint tea, for which I need to buy shares.  Summer’s coming up and that makes the BEST EVAR iced tea.  I’m thinking there must be some heroine or crack in it because it’s seriously addictive.  I don’t think I’m going to make it through summer with my four pound stash (gluttony ho!).  I’ll have to be eking it out with the Lemon Rooibos which is also good iced.  Good, but not as good.

First, thanks for your opinions and help.  I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and thought about what everyone told me.

It took days. Not hours, not a couple of evenings, but days to fix my hem.  First I waited to see what people thought I should do, then I thought about it some more, finally I decided that I should do it the hard way and rip out the hem and re-knit it.  That just might have been a bit of a mistake.  I was careless while knitting – Note to self: Do not knit anything, except maybe a plain sock shaft, whilst watching a new series of Dr. Who.  You will make mistakes and have to re-knit the whole thing.  More than once.  Finally I got it re-knit and was very happy with the results of the new three stitch edge, then I sewed it on, leaving the grafting until I got the bulk sewn on so I would know just how long I needed to knit the hem.  Doing it that way meant that I could add or subtract rows as needed to fit the sweater, if you see what I mean.  Once I’d finished sewing all but the last couple of inches of hem on, I grafted the hem together.  Unfortunately, when I kitchener stitched it together, my rows did not match.  the third row on the right side matched with the second row on the left side and it looked funny.  Soooooooo, even though I’ve been there, done that, I unpicked the kitchener stitch whilst trying to catch all of the provisional stitches.  This is easier said than done.  Apparently those prov stitches aren’t like normal stitches and don’t even leave you the option of frogging a row or two so you can pick up the row below.  After several, and I do mean several, hours of trying, I looked at the clock and decided that 2:30 am is possibly not the best time to continue trying to figure out how to save the rest of the hem (the last time I did this, I frogged all and re-knit, but that was only a hat, not a 40 inch hem).  I dreamt of picking apart stitches.  I thought about how to fix the problem while I was walking the dog, while spring cleaning, while bathing, eating…you get the point.  When I finally picked it up again, I figured I would try and pick up stitches a couple of rows back on the prov stitch side and then clip the yarn and frog.  That didn’t work since the cables are five stitch cables with more than one cross in them.  So I soldiered on frogging and untangling and finally got to the point where I felt confident that I had all the stitches in the right order back on the needles and then knit the other side to match up to the newly frogged side.  Then I regrafted, with the same results.  To make a long story short, I finally figured out that if I started the graft on the other needle, it would work out.  Unfortunately, this just leaves it uneven on the other side of the hem, but at that point I just couldn’t be bothered and just finished sewing on and weaving in ends.

And yes San, my inner Hermione is still here.  I’m still not happy with it.  In the end, I knit the hem too long and now it flairs at the bottom., Plus I think there might be a row or two too many in the pattern repeat where I grafted.  I may re-do it again, if I can work up the nerve, but I may just finish the sweater and see how it looks when done.  You know, this really would have been a very simple sweater if I had just knit is like the pattern says.  Maybe I’ll learn one day.  In the meantime, it looks more or less like this (see how it flairs?):

What did I learn from all of this?  I need to take some knitting courses and really learn how to knit and not just wing it all the time.  Maybe I would have fewer problems.

So, since I am totally a creature of habit and have very plain, very specific tastes, I’m once again knitting the same sweater for myself.  Yes, I am one of those people.  I find a shirt/trousers/PJs I like and I buy six.  With a little luck, I will purchase 6 different colours, but I purchase six nonetheless.  It’s not quite as silly as it may seem.  You see, this ensures that I will actually wear what I buy.  I already know I like it and will wear it and get worn it does.  All too often when I try something new or different, I wind up wearing it for a very short time, decide I don’t care for it after all and then it never gets worn again.  At least I know if I buy the same, plain t-shirt that it will get worn – except for maybe the ones where I thought I’d break free of my mould (pun intended), go crazy and get the same t-shirt in bright blue and neon green for a change.  Those never got worn.  Not even under other clothing.  Creature of habit, see?  The point being that I will never be one of those people who proudly announces that they have never knit the same project twice.  I’ve knit the same project more than once several times and will continue to do so.  As a matter of fact, there’s a Noro scarf in cotton just calling my name and that would be my fourth. (They are addictive.  Stay away from them if you haven’t caught that particular fever yet.)

Moving right along….I’m knitting myself a second Rogue.  The first was knit too loosely and I washed it too warmly (it got mixed in with the non-hand knits) and it’s no longer looking so good.  That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it.  Since it is the second of this pattern, I thought I’d do it at least a little differently and add a snazzy hem at the bottom:  

Unfortunately, you can see that this didn’t work so well.  I made a few errors, e.g. I should have added more stockinet on the side/bottom of the hem.  Actually I did, but then I had to attach that side to the sweater to get the defining edge between sweater and hem so that left me with just one row of stockinet at the bottom which is rolling upwards in a rather unattractive manner.  I need to do something about this.  I can:

• Remove the hem, frog and re-knit with more stockinet on the side of the band which should then roll in on itself and look good.
• Remove the hem, frog and re-knit a normal stockinet stitch hem as the pattern suggests
• Attach i-cord to the bottom row as Elyoung from Ravelry suggested (will link to her later as she is lovely and very knowledgeable and also loves Alice Starmore designs as much as I do.)
• pick up a row of stitches at the bottom and knit some purl rows that will curl inward on themselves
• pick up a row of stitches at the bottom and knit stockinet and then tack that down on the wrong side

What I need now is opinions without prejudice.  Disregard time, trouble, preferences and tell me what you think I should do to fix this.  Or do you have another idea?  Maybe I’m missing something or don’t know something I should.  I’d love to hear your opinions.*

*My uncle always says, ”listen to my opinion and then do what you want”.  The decision will always be mine to make and the blame will be on me if it doesn’t turn out the way I want it to.  Still, it’s good to hear what others say, especially if they aren’t telling you what you want to hear.  Sometimes you need to hear that, which is why I’m not telling you what I’d rather do.  Does that make any sense at all?

Dear Girls (and I have to call you girls because it makes me feel terribly old when people refer to me as “this lady” or similar.  “This Lady” is some other woman that my mother referred to when I was a child and “This Lady” was always OLD and basically had one foot in the grave.  Ergo, you’re girls, because if you are, then I am.  Makes perfect sense, no?

 Anyway, Dear Girls, have either of you realized that we’ve now been knitting for 6 years?  I think Tara’s been knitting for a bit longer, but it all got started 6 years ago (March 10^th to be precise).  By this time, we probably all had yarn and needles and were starting off with our first project.  Mine was a scarf, because why start with a potholder when you can mess up a really BIG project?  I think I stopped after a foot or so because it was so bad – I think I managed to increase a stitch at the edge as I turned the work on almost every row.  Instead of fixing it, I just decreased on the next round.  As you can imagine, the results were not even accidentally attractive. I ran across that piece a couple of years ago and it was so shameful that I threw it away. I did go on to finish that scarf and I did give it to my grandmother with the excuse that grandmothers always wind up with the strange art projects their grandchildren create. I haven’t seen it since, but I am neither surprise nor offended. I’ve gone on to better things since and those do get warn, so everyone’s happy all around.  

 What were your first projects? Do you still have them? Are they being used?  I know my second project, socks which we knit because Tree really, really wanted to knit socks and we all got pulled along with her, are still in use and were on feet as late as two weeks ago.  The sock thing turned out pretty well in the end as we really could knit by the time we finished them.  Are yours still in use? Time to share!

Hey girls!  As San mentioned in her last post, none of us have been particularly avid bloggers since last Dec., but I swear this year is turning out to be the Year of the Significantly Bored Sloth.  Nothing is happening, there is nothing to report and life is generally pretty boring.  OK, I will have to be getting a new car soon, but I’m putting that off as long as possible as it’s not a pleasant prospect, but other than that, there just ain’t anything goin’ on.  My last two phone calls home made me realize that the most exciting things to happen to me in the last month were procuring and installing a new toilet seat and purchasing a shoe horn.  That’s how bad things are girls.  I work, take care of my geriatric puppy who nearly takes more tablets than my 90+ year old grandmother, and sleep.  Woot.

I don’t even have anything of interest to report in the knitting dept.  Since I finished my heathered hoodie, I haven’t really been able to settle on anything.  I’ve finished two pair of socks and started another.  Then I tried to knit a scarf, but couldn’t find a design I liked to go with the yarn since my original idea turned out to be unfeasible.  Then I cast on a pair of socks which I promptly frogged since I didn’t care for the look the pattern created in that yarn.  I’ve now gone back to a plain pair with a cable thrown in on the sides to keep me from falling asleep while knitting them.  It seems like every time I come up with an idea I think I might be enthusiastic about, something goes wrong and I wind up scrapping the project.  I hope it’s a phase and will end soon.  I don’t want this turning into the Year of the Discontented Sheep you know.  Maybe things will change when I get my new needles.  One can hope. 

Oh, we did have a cold snap and I found out what life is like at -6°F.  Not cold by some standards, but colder than it usually gets here.  The dog spent two weeks hating me since I made her wear her jacket.  I could just hear her calling me stoopid for making her wear this stoopid jacket and telling me she hates me for being so mean.  Her facial expressions can be quite eloquent at times.  It’s gotten all warm again now though and is even threatening to get up to 50°F this weekend.  Whatever happened to real winters?

I’m off for a toddle with my geriatric pooch now.  Have a good day everyone!

Hello strangers!  How is it we’re in the middle of February and we haven’t posted over here yet?  For my part I blame chaos.  Why not?  Chaos can make things incredibly busy and also incredibly murky and unclear.  That’s my beginning of 2012 in a nutshell.   I feel like that incredible pattern you’ve been dying to knit that then gets all confused and funky while you’re working.  Result: you throw needles and yarn across the room, scream, and/or run around crying or flailing about.  So here’s a breakdown of my “project” notes:

• Worked even through December, finished Gryffindor Common Room project, wrapped up knitting classes, put Flutter Sleeve Cardigan in hibernation, began Bayside Pullover (sample knit)
• Family arrived for holidays, continued in pattern for Bayside, have teaching gig interview (gig A)
• Long car rides throughout southern and central California, continued in pattern for Bayside
• Finished Bayside, family left, blocked Bayside and shipped to Hannah Fettig
• Caught up on sleep, knitting classes resumed, Flutter Sleeve Cardigan resumed
• Tutoring resumed sporadically, had new teaching gig interview (gig B)
• Got new teaching gig (B), stopped knitting classes, finished major Flutter knitting
• Started new teaching gig (B), schedule next interview for gig A, continue button bands on Flutter

And that catches you up on me through today!  Does it sound as chaotic written down?  I think the only thing that’s missing is the continued angst about my job search that made up most of January.  But February seems to be making up for it a little so maybe it’s not so bad.  How’s 2012 treating you?

4.5×4 does not equal 22. Really, it doesn’t. It equals 18. You need to be getting 18 stitches to 4 inches and not 22. Also, when you’re getting 5 stitches to the inch and want 4.5, you need to go UP a needle size and not down. Going down a size will give you more than 5 stitches per inch. Truly.

And just for the record because I think it’s important to mention this after my last post, I’m now working on Jared Flood’s Fenimore in the last of my Capercaillie Hebridean 3-Ply.  This pattern does have errata and the pattern page mentions that patterns downloaded after a certain date would have those errors fixed.  This says to me that yes, Mr. Flood does care (which I did really suspect anyway) that his patterns are well written and that there is probably a reason why the other pattern does not have errata, possibly due to publishing rights.  I’d still like to ask Mr. Flood about this because I’m curious, but it’s a good reminder that it’s always good to wait to get the whole story before making a judgement.

Finally, the Noro Striped Scarf I did for my co-worker whose birthday is today and who is retiring tomorrow was well received.  I’m extremely relieved as it was a lot scratchier than I thought it would be.

Not my colours, but they are totally hers and she loves it.  Yay!

Dudes, two weeks.  I finished an entire sweater in just two weeks! Who’d'uv thunk it?  Actually, all in all it took three, but only because I had to cast on 47 times to finally get the size right.  After I finally figured that out, it only took me two weeks from start to finish.  There is a lot to be said for stockinet stitch. 

The sweater is Seneca by Jared Flood (the sweater is as of yet unwashed/blocked).  It looked, compared to what I’ve been knitting lately, relatively simple and quick, yet still elegant and stylish, so I was thrilled to start it and keen to finish before I leave for my annual delve into the Fog of Central California so that I could just take it there and not have to ship (again, potential thieves, there is NOTHING to steal in my flat.  Believe me. It’s not worth the effort unless you want an 8 year old telly and a whole lot of second hand furniture. Besides, a number of large dogs live on the property and one isn’t particularly friendly.  She’s old, she’s grumpy and she doesn’t like people. Really, you just don’t want to go there.).  Where were we?  Oh yes, the sweater.  As simple and quick as this sweater was, I had a few problems with it, mostly related to the way the pattern was written.  Between experience, guessing and looking up comments on Ravelry, I did get there in the end, but it took a bit of effort. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to slam the designer because I like the sweater and Flood is pretty well known and respected and I would prefer not to have random rotten things being flung at me, even if only over the Internet.  I’m just wondering what you expect when you purchase a pattern.  What is reasonable when you shell out $7 for a sweater pattern?  Do you expect known errors to be fixed? What about corrections of things that are unclear? Is it reasonable to want the designer to at least publish a list of errata and/or explanations?  In this particular pattern, the designer says to align the underarm stitches on the sleeves with those of the body and then goes on to tell you how to attach the sleeves.  Nowhere in the pattern does he tell you what to do with those “aligned” stitches.  I know it’s fairly obvious to any knitter with experience that you probably need to graft or join these stitches, but he never tells you to.  There are also stitch counts that are blatantly wrong, which again, are obvious if you’re paying attention.  Some of the pattern is also correct, but a bit confusing and you have to really read the pattern well to understand it.  Granted, I think the designer can and should expect this of you, even if you did pay for the pattern.  All in all though, I did get the sense that this pattern was written in a big hurry with no particular care, like he had to design something quickly to make a deadline.  While that may be true, I would think that either the designer or the publisher would have an onus to print the errata and let there be known that there are problems, no?  As far as I could tell from surfing the web, such errata does not exist.  It makes me wonder if anyone who is making money off the pattern cares that there are mistakes, or if there is a reason for the lack of errata.  Do you guys know anything about this?

Another thing that bothers me a bit are some of the comments on the sweater in Rav.  Most people are fairly innocuous and just mention that the pattern isn’t particularly well written and that there are things you should know.  Some of them are pretty scathing though.  One even mentions that “such and such effect” is just an indication of how poor the design is.  Maybe this person knows what they are talking about and they have the knowledge to be able to say such a thing, but do they? How do you know if this is the case or not?  When does a person go too far with comments like that?  I do remember once making some pretty scathing remarks about a certain sock book and the pattern therein.  It was for a basic sock for beginners, yet the pattern really required knitting experience.  Was I too pretentious with my remarks? Did I go too far in criticizing the level of skill needed to understand the pattern or was I right and the designer should have put a little more effort into the technique descriptions?  I know I certainly didn’ t have much of a clue about knitting when I wrote those comments – for the record, I had knit a scarf and then we moved onto socks because the most experienced knitter in the group wanted to learn to knit socks, so a pair of socks was my second ever project.  So was I really just being arrogant in assuming I knew enough to criticize her assumption that anyone purchasing her book would actually know something about knitting socks before attempting a new method?  Now that I know how to knit, I can understand that a designer would find it quite tedious to write every pattern as if for a beginning knitter, yet how do beginning knitters learn if they don’t get that help? 

Just for the record, I’m not looking to start a heated debate, I’d just like to know if there are any rules of ettiquette that should be followed regarding patterns, and that from both sides of the coin. 

Finally, I’d just like to say that some of the “major flaws” that showed up in other people’s versions of this sweater are either absent in mine, or I’m just a lot less picky.  Yes, there is a bit, and I mean a bit, of puckering from the dramatic decreasings, but the sweater looks just dandy when worn, especially as the cotton helps pull the sweater into shape when you’ve got it on.  It’s not a sweater to be laid flat and looked at, it is a sweater that needs to be worn.   I also did have to weave in at the back in one or two places where the sleeve join coincides with the wraps and the stitches looked a bit loose or uneven, but that’s by far not the first time I’ve had to do that, so I don’t consider that a major design flaw.  I might just knit poorly for all I know.  All in all, it’s a good sweater and I’m quite pleased with the outcome, especially considering that I had my doubts while knitting.  Not only did I have the questions about the pattern, but that was the first yoke construction I’d done and for a while it looked fairly wonky like it was being knit for an Oompa Loompa with an unfortunate and uncomfortable skeletal deformation, but it all turned out well in the end and I think my aunt will be over the moon about it.

Remember way back when we talked about cable design and the Lent Scarf?  Well, I finally finished it Sunday!!! (while watching my New York Jets play their worst game of the season, argh!)  Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out and will figure out how to share the chart I created next time.  For now, here’s a pic:

As you can tell, it’s still unblocked (haven’t had time yet).  This is about the fifth revision of the cable chart.  I worked the Trinity cable over 70 stitches and the chart is worked over 69 rows.  If I had to redesign it, I’d possibly change the background from reverse Stockinette to either seed or the rib stitch in the original design.  I confess I got so caught up in working out the design of the cable that I didn’t want to mess with the background at this point.  Still, it was a good experience, and I’m glad I stuck with it.   Once I do the final weaving in of ends and blocking, I’ll post pics of the whole thing.  Hopefully it won’t take an age, lol.

I know I’ve told you guys before that a lot of people ask me how I ever hit on the idea of knitting sweaters in cotton, especially Aran sweaters which are thick and heavy in and of themselves.  The answer I always give is that even people in California like Aran sweaters, but wearing wool even on the coldest of California days will give you a heat stroke. Thus, if you want Aran, you buy/knit cotton.  Ergo my love affair with Knit Picks Simply Cotton worsted.  It’s the perfect weight for Aran knitting, it’s not splitty like many cottons are and the colours are really nice, especially the heathers.  So, when you agreed, San, to do my Christmas knitting for me, you got stuck with KP Simply Cotton for hats.  

In the meantime, I kind of felt bad about this because I knew you were knitting at least one of the same hats I was, namely the Milanese Lace Topper which, being lace, requires SSKs and K2togs.  I have to admit that these are a total pain in the fingers with the cotton.  I did not enjoy knitting it, or the Lotus Hat.  Cables are fine.  You have to be a bit more careful with cotton than wool when doing cables because the yarn has no give and will not help you cover up holes or funny stitches, but on the whole, they’re not a problem.  Lace, on the other hand, becomes a bit of a nightmare when you have to try and get under the slipped stitches to knit them together.  Still, I think the results are fabulous and I love the finished products.  They’re not only pretty, but extremely comfortable.  There’s nothing like good cotton next to your skin.  I also think they hold up better than the cotton/micro fibre blends.  Even though many of those are good and I’ve used a lot of them in the last 5 years, you still notice the plastic qualities after a while and they’re never quite as soft as cotton is.  Cotton is my comfort fibre.  I don’t care that it’s heavy and that a bulky sweater can be weighty (the Pink St. Brigid was 1.6 kg or 3.5lbs).  It’s comfortable and that’s all that matters.

So now that you’ve worked with it, what did you think San?  Did you like knitting with it? Was it worth it? What did you think of the finished hats?