Almost there

For a while today, the Argyle vest was actually done. All done, except for weaving in the ends. But that didn't last long. The shoulders were way too big, both up-down, and sideways. So big that I didn't even take pictures, it looked too goofy. The thing with this pattern is that you can't really try it on very well before it's all done. Before cutting the steeks, it looks like a sack of potatoes (nothing against the pattern, don't get me wrong, but that's just how it looks, before you cut it), and after you cut the steeks, they are too fragile that you don't really want to pull it over your head before you stabilize them. So you end up going all the way before trying it on.


Right now all the rib has been frogged, and is back into balls of yarn.

I still like the pattern, though. I think the fit issue was mainly caused by the gauge being so different, plus not all the measurements were given, so that you could confirm you're on the right track (such as the width of the shoulders). What I'm planning on doing is first taking an inch off at the shoulder seam, and then pick up the stitches for the arm hole rib closer to the center of the body to make the shoulder bands narrower. I will also use a size smaller needle for the rib, I wasn't really crazy about the looser rib with size 3.5 mm needles. These are both fairly quick and easy fixes, and even though I hate frogging, I don't mind fixing the misfit, because I really want to wear this thing!


If I were to do this pattern again, I would either use a different method for securing the steeks (this pattern uses the crochet method), or I would work the crochet line one stitch away from the center of the steek. Now it's so close to the edge that some yarn ends have actually sneaked out of the securing crochet line, and I've had to add another line of crochet in some places.

To say something positive about the pattern, because, really, I do like it, the fit is very good basically from the arm pits down. And once I have the shoulders fixed, I think it will be one of my favorite garments. And I think I need a similar vest in shades of green, with a round neck line. Hmm...

More Argyle

First, thank you all for your kind comments about the shawl! I wore it to work once already, and it really amazed me how warm a lace shawl can be, even though it only covers your shoulders.

Now it's time to work on the vest, again. I'm just past the point where you start the arm hole steeks, and there really is a lot going on on every row. Keeping track isn't very easy, especially since I can't just follow the chart because of the different gauge. I'm about 4 pattern repeats into it:
I'm really enjoying the pattern despite not being able to simply follow the chart. I'm even thinking I need more than one of these things! But of course, let's see how this one fits first... and not to forget all the other projects that are already on my "to knit" list, some of which I already have yarn for.

Here's a close up of the neck steek:

I've never actually made anything using steeks, so this is my first time. And now I'm thinking, why didn't I do this before? It's just too smart for color work not to do it this way. So fast!

Here's also the fake side seam:


My feelings about the seam are kind of neutral. I'm not sure, if I like it or not, but if I had disliked it a lot, I would just have left it out. I don't think it's something I would use in a pattern of mine -I'm fine with no seams, if it's knitted in the round. (I feel like my hand looks very naked without my wedding band, but one of the diamonds became loose, and I had to take it to the ring doctor to be fixed!)

My blog roll was long over due for an update. It now better reflects the blogs I really read on a daily or weekly basis. There are still some missing that I like, but didn't manage to save into my bookmarks an now don't remember how I got to them, but usually I end up finding the same blogs again, so I'm not too worried. They'll pop up somewhere, I'm sure.

The finish line

I pushed myself through the finish line last night, and the modified Fina Hyrnan was born. Here she is, stretching her leafy wings on the floor, feeling all pretty:


See the part with the small leaves? That's the part I added to make the scarf bigger. Now it measures 70 cm length wise, 140 cm sideways.


It was a bit of a stressful knit because of the size issue, and then I wasn't sure how the added border was going to work. And those last few looooong rows were torture... but I like the end result, it turned out ok, I think:


Specs:
Pattern: modified Fina Hyrnan from Three-cornered and Long Shawls
Needles: 3.5 mm Knitpicks circulars
Yarn: Color Your Own from Knitpicks (seems like they changed the name to "Bare")
Size: 70 cm x 140 cm

Some Argyle

Ok, so I gave in.

I started the argyle vest before finishing the scarf... slap me on my fingers!

The colors on the vest are a dark plum that almost looks brown in some light, and an old rose-ish pink. I would have preferred even more old rose and less pink, but I couldn't find anything like that in a suitable yarn, so I went with this. The colors reminded me of something -my favorite ice cream! Look:

Blue Bunny Bordaux Cherry Chocolate. Mmmm...

I know I will have to get to a certain point on the vest, before I can put it down and do the 3 (!) finishing rows on the scarf. Three. I know, I know... but mind you, they are some very long rows! At least a half hour of knitting per row. Or maybe it was more like 15 minutes... but I know that over my lunch hour, I can only get 2 rows done, so that tells you something. It's slow going, and I don't really care for that.

Talking of speed, I had to time myself one day, when I read a couple of other bloggers' posts about knitting speed. So I took a pair of needles (chrome plated, if you must know), and some worsted weight yarn (7 Veljestä, if you insist), cast on 50 stitches, located a timer and a helper, and went to town (for my Finnish friends: "started knitting".) First try, I asked my helper to time me for 1 minute. Naah... I must be faster than that. Again. Still no improvement... So I said, let's do at least 4 minutes, and we'll reduce the measurement error considerably (the science geek that I am). I'm knitting like crazy, smoke is rising from the needles... this is going to be my record! How are we doing on time? Oh, so he forgot to push the start button. I take a deep breath and we do another retake... 4 min and 40 s later, I've got 280 stitches. Exactly the same speed as the first try, so apparently there was no measurement error working against me. Sigh. The bottom line is that I can knit 1 stich per second, no more, no matter how hard I try. And for lace and fair isle -I can't even think of how much slower that is! Quite a bit, that's all I know.

Itch

I've been so close for so long to finishing this scarf! The first time I though I was close was after I was done with the center part, before realizing it was way to small, and I had to add something to it. The second time I thought I was close was after I finished the added leaf motif, and only had the border left. And then the whole time there after. And it's _still_not_done_! My goal was to finish it this weekend and post tonight with a blocking photo. Well, as you can see, not blocking yet. I actually only have two more charted rows to go (plus the reverse side rows and the crochet bind off), but each row being well over 500 stitches, I don't think I can reach my goal. Even though the kids are already in bed, and I was going to do some TV knitting with a movie rental. I couldn't possibly stay up as late as it would take me to finish.

And then there is this. Temptation with a capital T, and I'm just ITCHING to get started! It's going to be an Argyle vest, a very necessary piece of clothing in a fashion concious girl's closet, I've decided. I went to my LYS to pick up a couple of balls of green Wildfoote that they'd ordered for me, and ended up with this bagfull of yarn. They also had more temptations -Rowans new Tapestry (this might be one of my new favorite yarns), and Malabrigo (definitely one of my favorites). It was very hard to say no to these, but I actually rarely buy yarn that is not inteded for any specific project, and I just couldn't think of what to use the beautiful Tapestry for, and I didn't think I'd need a third Malabrigo scarf... so I demonstrated incredible willpower, and walked out of the store having bought only what I went there for. With the exception of the Vogue Knitting fall edition, but that doesn't count, since it's not yarn. ;)

Modifications

It's been a hectic week, and I haven't gotten a whole lot of knitting done. There's been some changes in the family structure, I should even change the text in my profile... I'm starting to lose count of all the kids, but last I checked there's five of them that live here now. Yes, five! There's benefits to getting kids by picking them up at the airport, but I tell you folks, the benefit of being pregnant for 9 months is to be able to prepare mentally for having another kid. Even a little less than 9 months might be enough. But try 28 hours. I'll just say that it's an adjustment for all parties involved.

But I've still managed to carve out a few minutes of me-time (read: knitting time) here and there, usually late at night. A few precious minutes that help me keep my head straight in this circus. ;) The Latvian mittens didn't get thumbs yet, since all I've worked on is Fina Hyrnan.

As it turns out, I had underestimated the amount of yarn I have for the scarf by, well, a LOT. And also that Fina Hyrnan was going to be VERY small. I think the instructions say 61 cm across the middle, top to bottom, but mine didn't seem to come even close, no matter how much I'd block it. And from experience, I know this yarn pulls back some after blocking, and doesn't hold the blocked dimensions very well, so it was going to be a small scarf. A tiny scarf. So I started looking for suitable lace patterns that I could insert in between the center and the border. The border is a leaf motif, so I wanted something leafy. This is what I found:It is by no means a perfect insertion -I'm struggling a little with making the increases look pretty and planned, not look like they somehow happened by accident. But the stitch count matches with the final border, so it should all work out. In the process I have gained even more appreciation than I had before towards people who design lace garments. I never thought it would be very easy, but now I know for sure! I only have a vague idea of how the transision from this border to the next will work, and I'm almost too scared to even put it on paper -what if it'll be a disaster? I do have some plans drawn out, but how exactly it will happen, I still have a few slow rows before I have to figure it out for real.

Here's a little more detailed picture of the inserted leaf border:

Like I said, I don't think it'll be perfect, but it will make the scarf more usable because it'll be a better size.

Slow progress...

The progress on the Latvian mittens seems terribly slow, and I really had to push myself a little to get them finished. Finished but no thumbs, yet, that is.
I still like the pattern, but mailny because of the slow going caused by the level of detail, found myself wishing I would only have to make one mitten. But because I have no one-handed friends, I was forced to make two of them.

I have a feeling they will stay like this, until it gets cold enough to need mittens. A couple of months, that is. The first frosty morning, and I'll have all the motivation I need to finish them.

I've been working on a couple of other things, too, because only working on the mittens for several weeks would drive me nuts. I've made some progress on the sweater, but that is going to be another post. One thing I started was Fina hyrnan, also from the book "Three-cornered and Long Shawls":

It starts from the long edge with a provisional cast on, so the beginning is very slow... And as far as I can tell, the whole pattern has nothing too interesting in it, until you get to knit the border. But it's good TV knitting, and that's all I need right now. I got to spend all my detail-oriented energy on the mittens, and I'm done for a while. ;) Actually, the reason I picked this pattern was mainly that the size fit what I have left of this yarn. It's the same stuff I used for the Print O' the Wave, and I have less than it would take for a full size shawl.

Black Lace Socks

I have thought about posting the pattern for the secret socks that I flashed a little bit back in June.

My initial thought was to try and publish the pattern in an online magazine like I did the Wavy Socks, but I've held off on that for some reason, and finally decided to post it here. So this is what the rest of the sock looks like:

It's a delicate all over lace pattern, perfect for the time when you have to start digging out socks from the depths of your dresser. The stitches are decreased in the back of the leg a little bit to give a better fit, since the lace isn't all that stretchy. And here's the pattern:

Black Lace Socks

Lotta Breyer, 2006

Size: the pattern is for a size M (my shoe size is US 8.5 W or EU 39).

Yarn: Regia sock wool, 75 % wool, 25 % polyamide

Gauge: (stockinette stitch): 10 cm (4”) = 31 s or 45 rows

Needles: 2.5 mm

Leg:

Cast on 68 s. Join in the round and knit in k1p1 rib for 13 rounds, twisting the knit stitches. Begin lace pattern according to chart, knit firsth round. Every other row is charted, and every other row is knit plain. During the 12^th round begin decreases in the middle back of the sock. Decrease 1 stitch (alternate k2tog and ssk) every 6^th round until you have 58 s left (10 times). Knit 9 1/2 repeats of the lace pattern (9*8 + 4 = 76 rounds).

In the chart:

Empty squares are knit stitches

O = yarn over

/ = k2tog

\ = ssk

Δ = slip 2 stitches together, k1, pull slipped stitches over knit stitch

Heel:

Short row heel using 30 stitches. Decrease stitches until you have 10 stitches on both sides and 10 in the middle.

More detailed instructions for the heel:

Use the last 15 and first 15 stitches ( = 30 s) to knit the heel. Knit in stockinette stitch until you reach the last stitch of the 30. Slip the stitch to the right needle, bring the yarn to the front, and slip the stitch back to the left needle. Turn the work. Purl to the next to last stitch, slip the last stitch to the right needle, bring the yarn to the back and slip the stitch back to the left needle. Turn. Each time leave one more stitch, until you have 11 live stitches in the middle and 11 wrapped stitches on both sides. Start picking up the wrapped stitches one at a time at the end of each row, until all 33 stitches are live again. When you come to a wrapped stitch, pick up the wrapping yarn and knit it together with the stitch.

Foot:

After the heel, pick up one stitch on both sides of the heel -> 60s. Continue knitting in lace pattern on top of the foot and in stockinette stitch in the bottom. Begin toe decreases on the 91^st round after the heel or when 2.5 cm (1”) of your toes are still showing. Decrease every 10^th stitch, 3 decreases on the top, 3 on the bottom side. Continue lace pattern for 8 ½ repeats after the heel or adjust to the length of your foot. Decrease again so that the decreases align on rounds 95, 98, 101 and after that every other round, until you have 12 stitches remaining. Cut the yarn and pull through remaining stitches. Weave in ends.

Copyright Lotta Breyer, 2006.

You may copy and use this pattern for your own personal use, but, please, don’t sell, distribute, or copy it for others without my permission.

Happy feet.

Summer gauge

You know how sometimes, when you put a project away for a while, and then return to it later, you can't seem to produce the same gauge any more? Well that's what happened to this today:


You might remember it from way back in April, when I got the front done. I had just started the back piece and then moved on to something else. I picked it up yesterday and knit about 7 inches to the beginning of the gabling. 46 rows, to be exact. And then measured it against the front piece -at least 2 cm (3/4 inches) too long! That was a little too much to deal with, so I ripped it back about half way, and am trying to tighten my gauge a bit.

Now I don't like frogging, and I know nobody does, but if there isn't an obvious mistake, or unless I know I'll never wear the garment, I leave it. (This gauge issue was quite obvious and would have become a problem during piecing the sweater together, so it had to be fixed.) I like neat finishes, and all, but not to the point that I would rip back a bunch for a small error that I know nobody will hardly ever notice. I don't think handmade items need to be factory perfect, I actually prefer the look of handmade (not the sloppy kind of my first hand knit hat on 4th grade, but the more unique, crafty, one-of-a-kind look that only a hand knit garment can have), and it makes me proud. I certainly wear everything I make for myself, and I don't really get knitting "for the closet". So all of this causes me to consider very carefully, whether to rip or not. On one hand, I don't want to create garments that are too ugly to wear, but I also don't want to rip to erase a tiny small error. It's all a balancing act...

Bye, bye, heat!

I haven't completely forgotten that I have a blog. Really. We just have a visitor from Finland, namely my mom, and that has cut into my blogging time seriously. The weather took a turn for the better, and we've been spending some time sitting on the deck, knitting. This is what my mom was working on today:
They are called "the minister's socks" (Rovastin sukka), and old pattern she got from her aunt.

And this is me waving good bye to the heat that went east (you're welcome, all you folks on the East cost;)
There's no thumb as of yet, I'll finish those once I have both of the mittens ready:
And here's the inside, in case you were interested:

I thought I'd also take pictures of how I hold the yarn, since that is an issue for many of us doing color work and fair isle. Ms Grumperina brought up Nona's post and the issue of the "dominating" and the background color last week, and here's how I deal with it:

I hold both yarns in my left hand, the background color over my index finger as usual, and the dominating color on top, going over both the index finger and the middle finger. This way they stay organized and are easy to pick up and control. Here's picking up the top color (one hand is holding the camera):


I didn't completely ditch the idea of throwing the dominant color with my right hand, in fact I even tried it. But then, after thinking about it, it's just way too inconvenient and slow. I know that by practicing, I'd get faster, but there's just no way a technique, where you have to move your hand in circles all over the place, all the time, could be faster than, or as fast as a technique with very minute movements. Compared to throwing, my hand movements are tiny, and from now on I'll stick to my way of doing it.