Take Heed

When you don't know much about something, and that something is a weeks-long, constructive kind of craft, you may find yourself on the receiving end of some irrevocable, crappy outcome.

My wonderful knitting friends have come out (in comments and email) to advise why, sadly, my misaligned rib is not something I can fix at this point.

First, Alexandra sent me this pic, to confirm this is an accurate representation of my problem. (It is.):

She followed with this explanation:

The band you're picking up from was knit from the top down, right? And now you need to pick up stitches from the cast-on edge of that band, and knit upward in the opposite direction? (Ed. note: Yes and yes.) 


You can't make the stitches align perfectly in ribbing. They will always look a half-stitch off. You can only pick up from the cast-on edge and match perfectly knitting the other way in stockinette and garter stitch. (The same thing applies to grafting, incidentally.) It is the nature of knitted fabric. If you zoom in on the designer's photos on Ravelry, you can just see the misalignment on the collar at the shoulder line. It's not obvious because of the marled yarn (the designer) chose.

Then, Karen sent me this fascinating link to explain what's actually going on (It's from that terrific new blog I found a few days ago.)

The short answer here, is that if you're going to have to pick up stitches on rib, and you want your rib to match what's come above or below it (depending on whether you're knitting top down or bottom up), you must have cast on the first row of the original rib provisionally. (Effectively, your first row of stitches must remain live (and on a holder) so that you can just take them off that stitch holder and keep on knitting in the opposite direction when the time comes.

Needless to say, I can't go back and fix this now (unless, maybe if I undo the original knot and tink back the stitches (which is a dicey plan if I mess that up - and by the way, I just made that up, so don't take my word for it). I mean, I could rip the whole thing back but that would be HIGH.

Instead, I'm going to hope that it's not overly noticeable a) once blocked and b) given that the colour is dark. What's the bet I'll notice it forever?

I've decided to view this as a useful life lesson and knitting experiment. I'm still not at the point where I've attached the ribbon by hand and machine knit the stitches (my alteration on this project to stabilize the rib at the closure). I can tone down the freak-factor when I get to that part of the project now that this is the first of 2 of these I intend to make. In the next version, I could also stand to go down a size (using the same yarn and smaller needle) and, potentially, add 4 extra stitches to the rib on each side.

Note: I will only make another, given that I like the design, provided I can cast on the rib stitches provisionally, because what's the point, otherwise. Mismatched stitches, I don't think so! (I need to look into this potentiality more carefully.) I have to say that this pattern is not outrageously clear - nor is it very good, on balance, given that this is the outcome I'm about to experience. There are many elements that a number of experienced knitter-helpers took issue with. No one said it was a badly written pattern; everyone said it was "interestingly written" or "unusually written" or "not written they way they'd write it". Hmmm...

Updated: Age and Stage

Another long week... I'd be lying if I said Tuesday's birthday wasn't somewhat of an anticlimax. Don't get me wrong - it beats the hell out of the alternative. And my friends have been wonderful - celebrating with me (and food and wine). What could possibly mean more than friendship? However, things have been vaguely relentless lately, if only in my own mind. I don't feel old. Of course, I'm not old. But I do feel momentarily older.

What's age if not experience? And, a propos of this, allow me to share a recent discovery: phyllo brushed with butter and dusted with sugar (baked till brown) is an awesome treat. When cool, pipe on some pastry cream and drizzle with dulce de leche / chocolate sauce / berry coulis and it's divine. But really, if you can only get it up to make the wafers, that's enough. They hold up well in a ziploc bag for days.

Alas, despite years of baking under my belt (um, literally), my knitting experience is fairly shallow.

Here's where things stand:

A word to the wise: I'm loathe to mention this, but note the broken pattern at the underarm (it moves horizontally for a depth of about 5 rows). Key when knitting this thing: You've got to end the upper back piece and front pieces on the same row (see below for construction details). The pattern is 8 rows long. I ended the back piece on row 5 and the front pieces on row 8. Regrettably, the pattern doesn't clearly stipulate how to manage this and my knitting experience is woefully brief. Live and learn, I say. It's really not noticeable when you're wearing it. And if this thing works out, I will no doubt make another.

This is a strangely constructed top-down pattern:

1. Knit the back from shoulders to mid upper back (to underarm). Put live stitches on a holder.
2. Graft on the fronts (one after the other) and knit, also to the underarm.
3. Merge all stitches onto the needle, cast on some extra stitches at the underarms of each side. At this point you knit down from the finished armholes.
4. Work flat from the underarms to the ribbed hem. Here's where you're supposed to make the knit buttonholes...
5. Pick up stitches at the armscye to make the sleeves. At this point, one has an option to shape the sleeves with short rows. I intend to give them a go.
6. Pick up stitches to make the shawl collar. At this point, one has an option to use short rows - though precisely how is a huge mental leap. I intend to undertake this option too...

You'll notice that I haven't made button holes on the rib band. That's because, in a gambit to improve structural integrity, I intend to hand stitch ribbon to the wrong side of the "button band" area (the lower rib) and then machine stitch the buttonholes. How vintage-plus!

Yes, you did read that correctly. The super-tired woman with a pathological aversion to machine buttonholes is going to give it a go. I will first practice on my gauge swatch, natch, but I'm opting to be optimistic given recent experience with my vintage machine.

Here's the fascinating thing: When you fuck with gauge (remember I went down a needle size but I'm using a thicker yarn than is called for - this yields 5 stitches per inch vs. 5.5) you have to think ahead. I'm more or less happy with sizing - well, I think the finished product may be too large, but not unwearably so. (I waffled over XS or S. Went with S recognizing that it might be too large, when combined with the larger gauge. It's hard to say at this point, but I think the project might be moving in that direction...)

One thing's certain though: My button band area has gone from a 2 inch width (on either side of the centre front) to 3 inches. Why does this matter, particularly? Well, have you run across 3 inch-wide grosgrain ribbon lately?   

Updated: I think I must have been high on drugs when I came up with that sentence... Having just finished binding off the rib at the hem (i.e. the sweater shell is complete minus shawl collar and sleeves), it occurs that grosgrain ribbon wider than 1 inch is going to look bizarre, regardless of what width of band I affix it to. Furthermore, I have a comfortable inch of overlap of the two side fronts at the lower ribbing (the bottom 4 inches of the sweater). If I go with wider ribbon, I suspect it's going to pull.

The issue here is that I am trying to apply a technique (ribbon stabilizer) in a somewhat different way - different than the way described in the tutorial to which I linked above, at any rate. That tutorial shows ribbon  (the exact width of a continuous, i.e. collar to hem, button band) overlaid on that band. I can't run my ribbon this way because the shawl collar doesn't permit it. I'm likely going to ribbon-stabilize along the bottom 4 inches of rib only. That's the area that buttons and buttonholes will lie upon.

Mokuba happens to stock navy grosgrain in every width under the sun (including the presumed unnecessary 3"). My intention is to purchase some tomorrow, a day I'm taking entirely for myself, during which I will dine out for lunch and dinner - with others! - and shop for yarn and notions.

So here are today's questions:

• What birthday has hit you hardest? Was it due to life circumstance? Self-imposed perspective on what age means? A brief moment in time?

• Have you used ribbon on a button band, the likes of which I intend to? How wide was the band? How did it work? Did your machine cooperate?

Basket Case

Unquestionably, knitting allows me to access a different part of my creative brain than that engaged by sewing.

I need a kind of wherewithal (that's the wrong word, because all crafting requires this skill) to sew. I mean, it involves motors and rulers and math.

Weirdly, knitting involves all of the same elements, minus the motors (unless you count my muscles).

This project is not mindless:

What you're looking at is the upper back of the sweater (in the foreground). The neck opening is that bit of curling fabric. The side upper fronts of the sweater are the pieces that have the ribbing on either side. I'm working on the left side now, which is why it's shorter than the right side...

In fact, that crazy pattern, involving repeats of 5 (in the flat) that must match at a variety of intersections, not to mention the ribbing isn't just standard issue repeats of knit 1/purl 1, but a fancy version involving knitting through the back loop of every stitch. Haven't yet got to the sleeves or shawl collar, wherein I'll need to figure out short rows in a crazy pattern of 5 stitch repeats (or 4 stitch, when I start knitting the sleeves in the round).

I've got pages on pages of notes so far...

I've already prevailed on the wonderful knitting community for lots of help. Thereafter, I went to my LYS for further assistance on how to interpret a pattern I've been told is constructed very unusually - quite complexly. My newness to knitting means that I encounter numerous untried techniques every single time I start a project.

Why is it that my brain is soothed by this activity while the idea of fitting and sewing is so overwhelming to me right now?

Today's questions: If you knit and sew, how do you find them different? Does your brain prefer one over the other? Which is the more "purely creative" activity, in your opinion? Is that even a fair question? And to those of you who might not do either of these crafts, is there an analogy to this in your life which you can describe?

Pick Up and Knit

Now, where were we?

I was all on about theoretically being short on yarn and knitting the standard size of my latest cardigan project without alterations re: crazy ass pattern elements.

Today's update confirms that I can find a new ball of yarn in the right colour, but not in the right dye lot. (Nothing for sale or trade on Ravelry, either...) That's cool. I'm not going to freak out about it. The different-dye lot version will have to do (or not), when and if I get to the stage that I require an extra skein. It's not like I can't go all crazy contrast if I feel like it. Note to reader: I do not feel like it. I want a simple cardigan in a flattering colour that will go with everything. Navy is my version of black.

It's not that I'm not into colour, we all know this, but my colourful sweaters (butter yellow, bright blue) haven't got a lot of wear. On that front, I think the fit is more to blame for that than colour. When first I started knitting sweaters I didn't understand how to alter patterns. Many of you have advised that handmade sweater sizing is quite forgiving. I do agree, but the combo of nascent knitting skills and no technique to speak of has left me with one sweater that's too big and shapeless (this one) and another that's too small in the shoulders and vaguely obscene (this one). I don't begrudge these projects at all.

Every sweater I've made has taught me about how yarn works, how patterns work, what kind of ease I'm looking to achieve. There's no way to accomplish everything overnight. I have to say that I'm really proud of my knitting-to-date because it's the mark of lots of effort and lots of fun. Somehow it doesn't (generally) stress me out like sewing. (Yellow sweater project notwithstanding.)

I know I've expressed issues with Craftsy lately, but it seems to have updated its interface. I truly hope that solves the viewing challenges some of us have experienced. Presuming that's the case, I can wholeheartedly recommend this course, which has transformed my ability to knit for my shape. I don't know if it's on sale for 20 bucks or if that's its new price. I paid twice as much and it was well worth it.

Hardcore Knitter Section:

I want to discuss my rationale for making the unaltered size small, in a bit more detail. Let me start this by saying that Katy (who knits beautifully and has an excellent, revamped Ravelry page) has been insanely helpful in addressing mathematical and sizing questions. I cannot believe she spent hours figuring stuff out with me on the freakin' holiday Monday. I have fine crafting friends.

OK, here's what I did first: I made a stockinette gauge swatch using the needle size the pattern suggested (US6). Then I blocked it aka washed it as I will my final garment. There are lots of thoughts about whether blocking a gauge swatch really helps. I'm betting on yes, but who cares? It took 5 minutes to wash it and 2 hours to dry. I could have dried it faster with a hair dryer.

I know you know what gauge is, and why it's so important. Just so we're all on the same page, in the most simple terms, gauge is merely the number of stitches in 1 square inch. But man, in an applied sense, this is a seriously complicated topic. At its core, as long as you get the same number of stitches (as the pattern) in each direction, your finished garment will be the size the pattern stipulates. Presuming the pattern is correct, of course.

I substituted a slim worsted wool in place of the pattern-instructed DK yarn. They are very close to the same weight, and should knit 5-7 stitches per inch (spi) but the worsted is slightly thicker.

I was not not surprised to find my gauge swatch off. Pattern gauge is 5.5 and 7 in 1 inch. That means, on the horizontal plane one should get 5.5 stitches, and on the vertical plane 7 stitches for every square inch. I was getting 4.5 and 7. As everyone will tell you, being off by 1 horizontal stitch per inch is meaningful. That would impact the chest circumference by more than 6 inches - and by that I mean it would make the garment bigger!

No probs. It's not like someone smacks you for changing up the size of your needle to achieve pattern gauge. (For what it's worth - you don't even need to get gauge as long as you understand how your measurements will be impacted by not getting gauge. See below.) I went down a needle size and knit another gauge swatch. And blocked it.

That means I used a smaller circumference of needle on the same yarn with an aim to produce more stitches per inch. Since the pattern is defined, on one level, by total stitches, the more horizontal stitches per inch means the smaller the width. Smaller needle, same yarn, smaller circumference.

On the size 5 needle I got 5 stitches horizontally. That's still amounts to a final garment about 3 inches larger than the pattern's 35 inch circumference (the dimension of the size small). Given that I am concerned that the 35 inch circumference might be too small* (despite the fact that the sweater isn't meant to close over the bust), this actually works optimally for me.

(*Complicated side bar you might want to gloss over: the tighter the knit, the slighter the ease. Going down a needle size tightens the knit aka smaller needle, same yarn, smaller circumference, tighter knit. So, on a size 5 needle, I won't get my preferred 2 inches of horizontal negative ease. I'll only have about an inch. Note that simple stretching of my gauge swatch proved this to me.)

Furthermore, all of my compulsive measuring - though in the end, I opted just to follow the pattern - has confirmed every last one of my vertical measurements. This pattern advises me to knit to "inches of length" (rather than "numbers of rows") before switching to the next section. Happily, that means I can lengthen - as necessary - to ensure that there's enough fabric length over my bust so that the ribbing starts properly underneath it.

Let's leave it at this, since I suddenly feel as if this may be the least interesting topic I've covered in a long time - and I'm not exactly tackling the sexy topics these days.

But I'd love to know your thoughts about gauge. Do you totally ignore it? Obsess over it? Choose some moderate middle path? Please let's chat!

A Little Diversion

I'm democratic in my love of the crafts - and somewhat schizophrenic, apparently, as I've decided I MUST KNIT SOMETHING NOW. I don't know what it is about the spring, but warm weather brings out my inner knitter. I think it's cuz you can do it in the back yard.

I tried to use some stash yarn, but I really didn't have enough to make a sweater. I thought I was open to making whatever I had enough yarn for, but in fact, I want a cardigan. Much perusal of Ravelry and Craftsy and Knitty and my own library proved this to me.

It's really too bad that I so strongly sense Andi's terrific Miette will not work on my shape:

This pretty cardigan is just what I'm looking for - a light jacket for air conditioned surroundings and on summer evenings. I realize, especially having followed Gail's AWESOME knit along (really, go over there right now), that I can alter the pattern to suit my shape needs. But, in truth, I still don't think it's going to work on my frame as well as this one:

City Cardigan by Val Love

To make this, I have purchased a navy blue light worsted wool (the ubiquitous Cascade 220 Superwash) and that I may forgo the sleeve buttons (which are a bit much, IMO). Of course, I'm about 80 yards short, theoretically - the yarn store didn't have another skein. But I'll order it from Romni and, if I can't get the same dye lot, I'll make the rib in either a contrast colour (same yarn) or another lot of navy - as long as it doesn't look obviously different. I figure I can always shorten the sleeves or adjust the shawl neck to save on yarn in a worst case scenario.

Why is it always on the Monday of a long weekend that I figure these things out, when every store is closed and I can't find out about my extra skein options till tomorrow??

This cardigan provides optional short row shaping at the shoulder and neck, to refine its overall fit. A shawl neck will highlight my chest without calling too much attention to it, and the cinched rib which begins just at the under bust will draw the eye to my narrowest feature. That's the theory, anyhow.

As is the way with all knitting, I spent a bomb of time last night taking every measurement I have, with the intention of adjusting the pattern to suit my exact dimensions.

Alas, my knitting skills are not as developed as my fitting skills and the combination of an open front (vs. pull over style), ribbing and a "faux seed stitch" repeat (that works flat and then in the round) means that I am not ready to tackle a wholesale redraft of this to suit my size. Stitch numbers at numerous key junctures require precision and the ability to apply my math to 4 and 5 stitch repeats. If I make a mistake with my numbers in any of a zillion places, the end result could be a disaster. I'm not in the mood for that possibility.

As a result, I'm going to make the small - a 35" bust. (I've determined the negative ease in my fabric and I believe it will provide 2 inches, not to mention that the style will allow for a bit of extra give in the way the Miette will not, as the City cardi is open over the full bust. As my full bust appears to be 37" every time I remeasure, I'm hopeful this is going to work.) I will add to the length (it's top down, so I can do this fairly easily) in the event that I need more to cover the bust so that the ribbing and buttons begin below my full bust, for optimal fit without adjusting every measurement.

If anyone sees a flaw in this logic - pls. chime in!

In the meanwhile, lets chat: Have you made either of these sweaters (Miette or City)? If yes, what are your thoughts about the process and the finished result? How do you address ease when knitting?