A monthly update of all the projects piling up on and under my coffee table. You can read all previous months here.
The coffee table is starting to look a bit out of control. I've made progress on two projects and I started two new projects - one more successfully than the other. I've ignored one project entirely and I'm trying very hard not to start another.
So a fairly normal month.
First project is Bao Bao, another large shawl by Isabel Kraemer. The pattern is available to buy on Ravelry.
The shaped stripes use a dip stitch pattern. It's VERY easy to work. You can see a tutorial here.
I'm using John Arbon Yarnadelic in Ordinary Joe (stoney beige) and two of their new shades Blue Monday (denim blue) and Toxic (the neon lime) for the contrast stripes and edge. It should only take one skein of each shade.
I still have 6 repeats of the dip stitch stripes to do before I use the neon lime. I'm very excited about it but the rows are getting very long.
If you like the look of this stitch , Isabell Kraemer has used it in lots of other items including a jumper, cowl and hat.
Another project with very long rows is my neon pink mohair scarf.
This is a new version of our Simple Shawl pattern using My Mama Knits Float Your Goat in the neon pink Blooming Minosa.
I'm using this laceweight mohair with a 4.5mm needle. The fluffy mohair stops it looking stringy.
The Simple Shawl pattern was originally worked in a 4ply and a DK (our latest version is in Rico Painted Power Cotton) and we have a laceweight version too (with an eyelet border).
I've only used 12g of yarn so far. I did intend to use all 50g of Float Your Goat and see how big it gets but I'm now thinking it might end up too long.
My newest projects are another mini shawl/neckerchief and a chunky waistcoat. One is going very well and the other is on it's way to the pouffe of doom.
Let's start with the happy one.
This is Bréid by Kate Davies.
It's a small triangle which can worn as a cowl or headscarf.
It has an all over stranded colourwork pattern with garter stitch and i-cord edges and i-cord ties.
I'm using Kinross 4ply in Cromarty and Quartz. Kinross is so soft once washed which I think will be perfect for something worn close to the neck or forehead.
You may be wondering why there's an area of vertical stripes amongst the flower motifs. These are stitches for my steek.
Bréid is a flat triangle but it's knitted as a tube in the round. This makes the stranded colourwork much easier. When you work in the round the right side of your work faces you so you knit every stitch. There's no need to purl to make stocking stitch. That means when you do stranded colourwork every round is worked as a knit round. You don't have to purl back along a row stranding colours.
The triangle shape is made by decreasing one stitch at the beginning and end of each round. So I'm knitting this triangle from the long top edge down - making a cone.
To turn this cone into a flat piece of fabric you cut it open after you've finished knitting.
So that you're not cutting into the main fabric, extra stitches are added between the first and last stitches. In this case there are 9 steek stitches. Because I'm doing stranded colourwork I need to carry each colour across those steek stitches hence the vertical stripes.
Once cut, those extra steek stitches can be folded back to create a 'clean' edge.
There are different ways to secure steeks. I've only ever done it one way - a crocheted steek. See here at Kate Davies website.
But this pattern suggests needle felting the steek to secure the cut edge and recommends this tutorial on MDK.
Needle felting is basically stabbing your wool with a sharp needle to felt the fibres together. You need a non-superwash 'sticky' yarn that wants to stick to itself. In theory Kinross 4ply fits that description. I've spoken with Clare at Wee County Yarns and she suggests washing the cowl BEFORE needle felting. Kinross is a greasy yarn that needs a good wash to make the fibres bloom and I might not get a good result needle felting a greasy yarn. Maybe I should do a test first.😆
My second new project has not gone well at all.
I mostly did all the right things but unfortunately I think I need to rip it out and start again.
So. We recently got a new chunky in the shop - King Cole Dalesway Chunky. It's an acrylic wool blend. It comes in 14 shades and is easy care and economical. In the same week I received an email from Elizabeth Smith.
Her weekly emails are worth signing up for - she includes tutorials and pattern inspo from her own design range.
That week she was showcasing her Nordic Trail waistcoat - a chunky waistcoat with a straight forward lace design. Tank tops and waistcoats are very popular in the shop and it's knitted seamlessly (which appealed to me) so I decided to make one as a shop sample.
Nordic Trail {photo credit: Elizabeth Smith}
I did a gauge swatch. Not everyone does a gauge swatch and that's ok. You just have to be aware that what you make might not come out the size you expect.
You can read more about swatching here and why they can be misunderstood here.
I usually swatch for shop garments because they are bigger projects which take a long time and they need to fit a body.
When knitting shop samples, Sue and I try and get as close to the written instructions as possible. When you see something in the shop, or on the website, I want you to feel you can make it too without being given half a dozen pattern modifications.
So I swatched the Dalesway. The pattern suggests a gauge of 14.5sts and 22 rows on 6mm needles.
The Dalesway label suggests 14sts and 20 rows on 6mm needles. Not too far off.
I've always been a loose knitter but recently I've found I'm not as loose. So I started my swatch with a 6mm needle. Normally I would start at 5.5mm. Once washed and dried my swatch came out at just over 14sts and 20 rows. Almost perfect!
I ignored the loose row gauge, thinking I could just adjust the number of rows to suit the measurements.
This was my first mistake.
I cast on using the 6mm, with only a small question as to why I was knitting tighter than normal. Perhaps the acrylic blend yarn was moving slower on my needles or perhaps it was a middle age rage.
Nordic Trail is knitted from the bottom up to the arm holes. You then work on each front separately and then the back before joining the shoulder seams and picking up stitches for the neck and arm bands.
So I cast on a lot of stitches (important for later) and knitted up to the armholes. The fabric felt different to my swatch. Looser. But I didn't double check, I'd already done so much knitting - all of the bottom half - surely it would be alright????
This was my second mistake.
I then knitted the right front. All the way up to the shoulder. When I sat back an admired my work I realised the proportions were ALL wrong. The bottom half of the waistcoat was much shorter than the top half. I double checked the measurements and then remembered my row gauge was off in the swatch. I hadn't adjusted for that like I planned. But I hadn't adjusted as the pattern hadn't allowed for it.
The bottom half of the waistcoat is knitted to a specific length. So it didn't matter how many rows I worked, I just had to split the back and fronts once I had 30cm of body. However the top half of the waistcoat incorporates neck and armhole shaping and IS worked over a specific number of rows. I knitted the pattern as written but my armhole was nearly 6cm too long as my row gauge was so much looser. In fact it was now measuring 18 rows over 10cm.
At this point I should have checked the stitch gauge too. But I didn't because I was so focussed on fixing the row gauge problem.
This was my third mistake. Or maybe just the second mistake again.
I decided to reduce the number of rows between the decreases. This goes against my normal policy of not modifying patterns but I thought (clutching at straws) it would be a good example of how you can adjust patterns for your row gauge.
Although, despite removing 6 rows from the pattern it was still too long. But I ignored that. It wasn't too too long.
I then completed the left front too and started on the back. Once I got far enough up the back, that it began to look like a waistcoat, I laid it out.
And it was waaaaaay too big.
Not only had my row gauge grown but, obviously, so had my stitch count. What was suppose to be a chest circumference of 41"/104cm was now measuring 46"/120cm. My stitch gauge was now 13sts.
The fabric felt so much looser than the swatch and not a good representation of that yarn and pattern combo, which for a shop sample, I was trying to achieve. If I were making this for myself, I could just accept it's bigger than expected or I could gift to someone. But as a shop sample... I'm afraid it's getting ripped back.
And it might spend some time in the pouffe of doom before I try again... using a 5.5mm needle.
What have I learned for this? Probably nothing as I've made these mistakes before. But I need to remember:
- Gauge swatches tell me my stitch and row count at that moment. Once I start the larger project I should check my gauge (adjusting for any estimated changes once washed).
- Consider the wider implications - if my row gauge has changed then it's very likely my stitch gauge has too.
- Read the pattern through to make sure I can easily make any adjustments I need to accommodate my gauge. And the MARK IT ON THE PATTERN.
- And stop compounding mistakes by hoping for the best.
But isn't that what all knitters/crocheters do? Hope for the best?!?!?
