KarenJoSeattle

Fortuitous Timing - Short-Row Shaping Top-Down and In the Round

So, this sweater, my Motley Crew-neck NaKniSweMo sweater, has a close fit with zero to minus an inch ease in the bust. And I have a fair amount of bust.

Therefore, besides the side shaping I have planned, I also want to try the short-row bust shaping technique. You know, where you do some short rows under the bust to give things a bit of room and keep things from pulling up so much?

Two of the classes I took from Pat Brunner at Madrona last year covered this technique. I got out my handouts, asked some advice of a friend, and set off.

This sweater is knit top-down and in the round. That involved some interpolation of the instructions. The first time through I found myself closing the gap on a shorter row as I knit beyond the previous turn on my way to the next in a widening wedge of stitches. Things looked good, though, at least fro the front. The turning stitches became very obvious on the back side of the knitting.

Then I also found myself purling back with my goal number of turns already completed and no obvious way to head back the right direction without adding another odd-numbered turn. And I couldn't figure out why.

Just hours before I found myself in this stalemate, I'd read Margene's post where she linked to the second issue of a(nother) new on-line knitting magazine, Knotions. I'd noticed an article on short rows for bust shaping so had browsed through it, since that was something I was in the process of doing for the first time. But at that point I thought it was working.

Jody, the editor/owner of Knotions, briefly covers the differences for both top-down and in-the-round. With a top-down project you invert the wedge so you still knit the wider rows first.

I tinked. I re-knit. When I made my final turn after a purl row I had all of my goal turns and the same number on each side plus now headed in the right direction. Since I'd tried out the yarn-over method of short rows, I just knit two together as I came to each of my first set of gaps on the left side of the sweater front. I continued across the back and closed the right front gaps when I got to them. There I switched to SSK as it looked better to my eye. While on the left I knit together the yarn over and the following stitch, on the right it was the stitch and then the yarn over. These yarn overs look a bit wonky due to the turn, so I wanted them underneath the regular stitch not on top.

I haven't tried the sweater on again, yet, but it looks like everything worked out just fine the second time around. I'm still not sure why.

Magic (Cast-on) Toes

Well, it's a start.

I needed two tries to get my cast-on right. I used Judy's Magic Cast-On. I finally remembered that Cat Bordhi's book had an explanation that worked for me, though I should say I'd done the cast-on a couple of times before I had that book.

Since the Knitty article, Judy figured out how to start this without a slip knot. That version is the one on Judy's site and in Cat's book. With this twist you have no lumps, bumps, or holes at all. Just remember to pull up the extra yarn tightly as you switch from one needle to the next. That little area of laddering is the only issue I've had once I get the technique going.

This cast-on works best with circular needles. They let you pull one side onto the cable and get the needle out of your way. Cat said at the workshop I took from her that you can start with a circular and switch to DPNs after the first round. I just can't see why I'd want more needles in there when I'm working on small stitches in a constricted space.

I love this cast on. It give a better, smoother toe than any other technique I've used, toe-up or top-down. I still find the whole toe bit fiddley, and I tend to make my socks too large, but that just gives me things to work on improving.

Cables in the Round

In the last two days I've cast on nine times and knit four cuffs for my EZ EPS sweater.

I think this one works, finally.

For some reason yesterday I just couldn't getting my knitting brain to kick in. First I couldn't knit the first row and join in the round successfully. Then I didn't catch that the issue I had with my cable came from not accurately converting the pattern to circular knitting until I'd knit a second cuff.

The 'Wrong Side' rows for the 4-rib braided cable of my swatch are symmetrical so I could just convert knits to purls and purls to knits. (Ignore the unidentified error in the middle of the cable panel below for this discussion.) (K2, P2)x2, P1, (P2, K2)x2 became (P2, K2)x2, K1, (K2, P2)x2 without regard for which direction the stitches traveled.

But the 3-rib braided cable I used for the sleeves has a first row of K3, P4, K2, P2, K2. When I first converted this I forgot that I would not just knit this wrong side row from the right side, but also in the opposite direction so I needed to knit P2, K2, P2, K4, P3. (No, I didn't swatch this cable - officially. Sleeve = swatch) I'm sure I've learned this idea before but (Ssh, don't tell anyone) this is my first non-class or fooling around cable project so this time I had to learn it for real.

The other wrong side rows read Knit the Knit Stitches and Purl the Purl Stitches so no issues there. That actually lead to some confusion as I only had a problem with one row and it was the first one after the cast-on.

Then today, after spending the afternoon looking at Roman art from the Louve and panels from the Gates of Paradise with a very large number of other people, my brain tried and failed to figure out a clever way to start this cuff with a couple rows of something akin to the 2x2 ribbing before morphing into the cable.

I went back to my original plan to start the cable at the sleeve edge and am finally pleased.

While working on the swatch I had an 'Aha' moment and a 'Duh' moment simultaneously. If I intend to knit my sweater in the round, I knit my swatch in the round. Since it usually takes me a couple of needle sizes to get a good gauge, this can take a lot of time and yarn.

However, I also knit in the round on two circular needles - which are knitting opposite sides of the swatch totally independently and can be different sizes. I used a purl row to mark change in needle size on my swatch after I came to this realization.

I made sure to measure row gauge in the center of each side where it would have less influence from the change in gauge.

Note I used my new size 7US Addi Lace needles. I really, really like the way these feel and knit. I do need some shorter ones for this project.

The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Maple. The first photo above shows the color most accurately. Jaeger no longer exists, but Cucumber Patch does still have some.

A as in Absence, Air Travel, Allergies, and 'A Few Days Late'

...And an Apology for being away from the blog for so long.

I spent a week in California helping my mother to clear out 20 years of stuff and dust in her house so she can put it up for sale. If you remember when we last left our heroine, she (me) planned to replace a house with one to share with Mom that will suit Mom's current and future needs better than the ones either of us own currently.

We ended up with all of my siblings and a few accessory family members there for the weekend, too. I'm the oldest of five, so we had lots of help. Plus, my mother works much harder than most 80 year olds. I expect her to be around for another decade, at least, especially given her family history. And we finished the whole house in a week. Anyone who has been through this with a parent will appreciate the effort that took.

Fortunately for me, Vicki runs a fairly loose ABC-Along, so I can feel OK posting these Photos several days late for A now that I've re-emerged. They are still in alphabetical order.

I caught the Airporter bus just as the sun rose and the city started moving around.

Just as I ran out the door, I realized in my late-night packing I hadn't wound the yarn I planned to knit on the plane.

Luckily for me (I'm on a streak), Stephanie had recently blogged on Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton knitting from a skein. As in 'Don't Wind Your Yarn Into a Ball'. You just untwist the skein, lay it over your knees or other support, and twist it back up when you stop.

This works surprisingly well with the set-up on a plane - no ball to roll away and a handy tray as support for the hank. You do lose the ability to hop up quickly when the restroom becomes vacant.

Vicki-note the purple squares in that photo. I started on the group project. Unfortunately, that last square is not much further along, though it's been past that point twice since this flight.

I tossed the whole pile into my purse as I got off the plane, then managed to pull the needle out of the knitting while digging something out of my purse. The other tries related to techniques that didn't work as well as I liked.

That pretty much covers the last week and a half worth of knitting , until today. Today I attended the first of two workshops on socks with Cat Bordhi (of the knitting around on two circulars and Moebius knitting). See here for a good description of what a workshop with Cat feels like. Details tomorrow.

It's About Time - An FO

                               

Yarn: Mountain Colors 4/8s in Silverbow (no longer on their site), knit at 5.65 (wrong project - more like 5.25) stitches per inch on US5/3.75mm and US4/3.5mm for hems and bands.
Pattern: Karen Alfke's top-down Unpattern done as a cardigan with a slightly scooped crew neck
Started August 16th
Last button sewn on  December 10th.

The pattern gives you a framework for designing your own sweater in any yarn in stockinette stitch. You can make a pullover or cardigan with almost any neckline or collar and edging. It does require stockinette for the proportions to work.

I enjoy working with the Mountain Colors. If a yarn splits at all, I'll have a problem with splits due to something in my technique that crops up as soon as I build up any speed. I had very little problem with splitting even on long rows of stockinette stitch.

Even though this sweater took four months to complete and got toted around on buses and ferries quite a bit, the yarn shows no sign of pilling or wear. I had a couple of places I had to do a fair bit of manipulation of the yarn to fix errors or other issues and it stood up to that very well.

The color runs are so short they give zero chance of pooling or flashing but are long enough to get a sense of all the colors used. The colors in this colorway all have a blue-gray tone and really work well together. I'm sorry they no longer produce this one and so were several people who saw the sweater in progress.

I did picot hems on the bottom, sleeves, button and neck bands. To coordinate I used Yarn Overs for the increases along the raglan sleeve line. The only thing I'd do differently would be to make the cuffs a bit narrower. I allowed a bit of room for the double layer of fabric but when wet blocked the hems actually held the fabric out wider. On the body this gave a nice bit of shaping but the cuffs turned out just a hair wide.

Because my purling tension varies quite a bit from my knitting tension, my gauge knitting flat and in the round can be very different. I pick (continental style) and so purl loosely, plus purling feels less comfortable on a long row. Instead of purling I knit back backwards on the flat knitting of the body. (I still haven't written a post on that, have I?) This put my gauge flat very close to that of my in-the-round sleeves, maybe even a little bit tighter.

This link contains photos and a video (scroll to the bottom) of what the author refers to as purling back backwards but which matches what I learned as knitting back and what Elizabeth Zimmerman calls knitting back backwards in her books and videos. This is a useful technique also for those times when you don't want to turn your work, such as on an edging, entrelac, or in crowded conditions like a plane or bus. I've used purling back very little but it comes in handy to avoid having to flop thing over for, say, the few stitches of a garter stitch edge.

The delay in sewing on the buttons happened when I decided the plan to use split off plies of the yarn for thread as I had for blanket stitching the button holes actually wasn't a good one. Also, The too-large needles I had frustrated me and damaged the sewing-up yarn.

Because I'm currently in a small town in California where we spend about two months of the year, I don't have all my normal supplies. I also don't have access to the kind of shopping I'm used to, which resulted in my arriving at the local quilting supply store five minutes after they closed and a trip to WalMart on a weekend before Christmas.

Obviously, I felt desperate.

It was worth it.

Not a lot, but some progress has been made and life could be much worse

This evening I headed out to my newly reorganized hardware store here to look for the foam insulation sheets Robin suggested in the comments for the a previous post to use as a blocking board for my Mountain colors top-down cardigan. Apparently they haven't completely restocked yet and no foam boards could be had.

They did, however, have packages of a smaller size of the foam puzzle mats I use in Seattle, complete with cute edging pieces. These should easily store here and give me a familiar surface for pinning and drying my sweater.

I like these because they break down to a storable size, the pins stick in easily without going through to the floor, the knitted pieces don't slip, and the foam doesn't soak up the moisture so things dry a bit faster on them.

Plus, in a few minutes I am going to go up and do a little workout and nice stretch on that cushy surface since it's too late to want to soak and pin my cardigan tonight.

I did get the sleeves hemmed after I got home from the hardware store. I'm ready to soak and block first thing tomorrow, given that for me first thing starts somewhere around noon.

Today even at noon I'd barely started at all. I just couldn't wake up. My sister's party was over by 9:30, as Sunday counts as a work night for most of the guests, and we had things well enough picked up by ten. I lay down for a moment and woke up enough to go to bed at 12:30.

Then I just couldn't wake up today. I got the decorations down, but I haven't mopped the kitchen. Didn't I just do that yesterday? And I didn't get out to the stores until after 6PM.

Besides the too much food and wine and champagne last night, I think I suffered from having in the house today too little of the good stuff I normally eat. The cupcakes turned out really yummy, and looked fine with the glaze on them. But cupcakes, even vegan gingerbread with cranberry fig relish spread on one, don't have the same effect as my usual heavy on the fruits and vegetables diet. And alcohol gives me hot flashes, though much milder than the ones I got a few months ago.

When I got home from shopping, I had an e-mail from my Seattle house sitter/Garden Guy. If you missed it, Seattle had a day of snow Saturday; unusual at all and a bit more fell than normal in the usual rare snowfall. Then they had a rainstorm that came second in all time since records have been kept - about 130 years, I think. Six billion gallons of rain, according to this report. And it hasn't stopped.

We had a leaky window in our 19th floor unit. According to the response from our concierge, windows leaked all over the building.

Last year I missed the record wind and power outages; this year the record rain. Here in California we had sixty degrees worth of sunshine today. I think I'll go do that workout and contemplate my good fortune.

Measuring

In the last class on my cardigan, I had trouble with measuring my back piece to determine if I had enough done to start shoulder shaping. By my figuring from earlier measurements, I still had more to knit.What I got in class indicated I should start my shaping.

This really was the first measurement on this piece that could not be worked around if I didn't get it right. I could tolerate a bit of variation in the finished length. If the back turned out a bit too narrow or too wide, I could adapt the front pieces or button bands.

If the armhole turned out too short, though, the sweater would not feel comfortable. If too long under the arm, the sweater would look a bit frumpy and poorly fitting.

While knitting I'm careful to lay my piece on a flat, smooth surface occasionally to measure accurately. In class I measured on the wooden work table. My measurements there came out bigger than I got at home, for some unknown reason. The sproinginess of this yarn maybe be a factor.

So today, before knitting any further, I decided to do some more definitive measurements.

First, I lay out my piece and loosely pinned it out without stretching. This did take a bit of repinning and repositioning to make sure things lay straight. I also pinned out the edges unrolled to try to get a better idea of the width.

When I measure my actual gauge it comes out a bit tighter than my swatch, but I wasn't getting a width that matched that gauge. Once pinned, my length measurements matched what I had gotten before at home. The width, however, did come out close to that predicted by my new gauge.

As a double check, I wanted to measure my piece hanging as it would when worn. I pinned out the needle end of  my piece, which worked for me without transferring the piece onto a length of waste yarn because I knit the piece flat on a circular needle. Again, I tried not to stretch out the piece and to get the top line straight.

I propped my blocking-board-equivalent against the wall and carefully pinned the piece again in a few spots as it hung from the needle. Then with one hand I just pressed it flat to shape while I measured. The measurements here matched the previous within a quarter inch in all directions.

So now I know that I do indeed need to keep knitting before I start my shoulder and back neck shaping. I expect I'll need to do this pinned measuring again on this and the other pieces.

Linen Stitch

Linen stitch, also called Woven stitch, makes a dense, firm fabric with little give or stretch. While it has a tiny bit of drape when done at a reasonable gauge, it can easily become stiff as a board if knit tightly.

This firmness makes it a good choice for home decore type projects like pillow covers or for items needing a stiffer fabric such as tote bags.

My current linen stitch project is a throw for my cats. I hope that the texture of this stitch will allow it to stand up to the occasional kneading from a cat.

Offset rows of alternating knit stitches and stitches slipped with the yarn in front create a mesh of stitches that do  more resemble a woven rather than knitted fabric in its characteristics.

The slipped stitches produce a texture that lends itself well to using two or more colors. Knit two rows in each color, starting with a right side row.

Here's the stitch as I'm doing it.

Start with an odd number of stitches.

Row 1 (RS) K1 *slip1wyif, knit1, repeat from *, ending with a K1

Row 2 (WS) Purl

Row 3 K1 *knit1, slip1wyif, repeat from * until two stitches from end, K2.

Row 4 Purl

Note that Row 1 starts and ends with K1 while Row 3 starts and ends with a K2.  This offsets the stitches in Row 3 from those in Row 1.

Knit Surfing

No wonder I so often get behind on reading blogs. I keep finding new ones to add to my Bloglines list. Lately I've explored many of the links from one blog to the next and on to the next. I've ended up in some interesting places.

I try to stay with just knitting-themed blogs, but even that seems to get away from me sometimes. This week I spent some time reading back through a blog called Posie Gets Cozy who's author knits very little. Actually, today when she planned to start a cabled sweater and said it would be a first sweater, the post made for the first knitting content I've seen there.

Alicia does craft, in fact has just finished the final draft of a crafting book, but she does more sewing-based stuff. I don't sew much or well. She cooks a lot, too, when not up against deadlines. Many of her meals or food ideas wouldn't work for me due to my milk allergy and habit of not eating red meat.

So why am I there? Well, there's a feeling at crafting/cooking/gardening/making things and your life blogs that feels familiar and comfotable to me. And I like her writing style, though she gets more 'mushy' about things than I do - things like Clover the corgi puppy. The site needs a Cute Overload warning label right now.

And then I had to go back to find out what happened to Audrey, the recently previous corgi. And I got mushy. So, now I'm stuck on yet another blog and my sweater is not done. Blog reading slows my knitting way down.

At the other end of the blog spectrum, TECHknitting has resumed posting. Yes, I found an entire blog of knitting geek heaven - nothing but knitting techniques. A blog of well-written and illustrated posts on techniques.

The most recent post (September 28, 2007 - the posts don't have a permalink) covered a new method for left-leaning decreases that better matches a partnered right-leaning decrease. The one before (September 24, 2007) explained why the left-leaning decrease turns out so wonky as usually done.

I tried this new decrease on my sweater yesterday. How could I resist something called 'Sip Yank Twist Knit.' That sounds so much like making a left-leaning decrease feels when I do one.

What she's done is to take up the slack that gets inot the top stitch and transfer it to the stitch that will end up hidden on the back of the decrease. Then she twists that stitch to keep it there.

The top photo shows my first execution of this technique. My previous over-sized SSK stitch shows in the second, I hope.

Cool, huh?

Oh, and if you really want to challenge your mind, That Laurie's guest posts during the Yarn Harlot's push to a book deadline will do it. Laurie discusses various facets of top-down yoked sweaters, including some to use a limited amount of hand-spun yarn in the yoke. Unfortunately, That Laurie doesn't have her own blog.

Or fortunately - I do not need another blog to read.

 

Row Markers

This week I only had yesterday to do errands and chores in the city, so I got no knitting done. Today, however, I had three appointments. For two I rode the bus and so knit a good four inches on the little Silken shawl. Tonight I got a bit done on the cardigan sleeve -- just enough for photos to go with the explanation of my chain of markers I promised.

I learned this tip for keeping track of row repeats while increasing or decreasing from Karen a few years ago, I think in a general tips and tricks class.

   

I usually use a chain of locking stitch markers equal in number to the row on which I need to do an increase or decrease. The last marker on one end is a different color than the rest. In this photo I decrease every ten rows on my top-down sleeve so I have nine orange markers and one green.

Alternatively, make a chain of knotted loops with some waste yarn. You want as many loops as your row repeat.

 

   

As you start your first round or work your first set of decreases or increases, place one end of your marker chain between the first and last stitch of the round. Each time you come back around to your chain, slip it to the next marker or loop, always going in the same direction. I work toward the green marker or toward the tails of the yarn chain.

After you slip your chain to that last marker, knit one more round. When you come back to your chain, do your increases or decreases before and after the marker chain and also slip the chain back to the first marker.

I keep track of the number of decreases/increases I've worked using hash marks on the photo copy of the pattern where I keep all my notes on that project. Every once in a while, I count my decreases to ensure that I've marked down all of them.

I use the same chains placed a few stitches from the edge to mark row repeats in flat knitting, too. When I make or delete stitches at the beginning of a right-side row, I pass the chain on the wrong side coming back without doing any increases or decreases or progressing the chain to a new marker. If I have shaping at both the beginning and end of my rows, I use a separate marker chain for each. I find I forget all too often that I'm on an increase/decrease row by the time I reach the end.

Crochet Cast-On

The Crochet Cast-On or Crochet Edge Cast-On makes an edge that matches the standard bind-off. This cast-on can also be used as a provisional cast-on using a separate piece of yarn. It has the advantage of not needing to pick up stitches in the chain. With care it can be done using two knitting needles. It can also be done with a larger needle if a looser cast-on is needed.

The stitches are formed around the knitting needle using the crochet hook.

Use one knitting needle and one crochet hook of equivalent sizes.
Make a slip stitch and place it on the crochet hook.

Hold the crochet hook to the right of the knitting needle with the working yarn (the end coming from the ball) behind the needle.

Bring the crochet hook in front of the knitting needle, under the yarn, and grab the yarn with the hook.

Pull yarn through the loop on crochet hook and slip that first loop off the hook, leaving the new loop on the crochet hook. One stitch will have been formed on the knitting needle.

Move the working yarn between the hook and the needle and back behind the knitting needle. Bring the crochet hook in front of the needle ready to grab another loop of yarn.

Continue until you have one less stitch around the needle than you want. Slip the loop from the crochet hook onto the needle knitwise, checking that it is mounted correctly.

If you will use the cast-on as a provisional cast-on, using a separate piece of yarn, cast-on a few more stitches than you need to stabilize the tail end.