Half-Cocked

But, really, when have you known me to be fully cocked? (oh, does that sound bad?)
The problem with taking pictures of visiting teachers is they are usually talking, so it's hard to get a flattering shot.
Would you like to hear all about the Beth Brown-Reinsel class at Knitting Central over the weekend? The trick will be telling you enough to be interesting, but not so much you won't want to take the workshop if it is in your area.
Well, that and I left all my notes at home in the dining room credenza.
First off, I totally didn't do enough swatching before class. Oh, and it was a two day class, but I only went to the first day (Saturday) because I had to work at the store Sunday. There was time to swatch during class Saturday, but it still wasn't enough to position me properly for the stuff Sunday, so I was disappointed, but not heartbroken that I couldn't go.
Of course, I think the stuff Sunday was the stuff I would have really needed because it was the charting and figuring out the armholes bit, but the handouts look really good, so I should be able to muddle through.
Anyway.
She talked about the Aran tradition (we didn't get into the symblos having meaning for each family business). And she showed us a bunch of her sweaters and discussed what did and didn't work and why, so we could get an idea of what stitch patterns to use for our own.
It kind of made me rethink what I want my sweater to look like. The one in the movie was great and the ones I've seen on Ravelry are very cool, but now I wonder if mine will be bland after seeing these other examples. But, if I'm following the same principle as the other imitators, I should be ok.
Here are two facts that seem easily researchable, so I won't be giving away secrets if I share.
Beth said Aran sweaters have boxy shapes because people first started making clothes from woven cloth and they didn't want to shape garments out of woven cloth because that was wasteful. Even though Aran sweaters were handknit people were shaping them according to what they were accustomed to.
So I'll be rebelling since I want a close fitting sweater. And I'm not going to do drop shoulders, but I'll probably do square set in shoulders so they are a little easier to figure out.
The other fact was a rule of thumb for yardage requirments. She said to refer to those standard yardage requirment charts for your size and add between 30 and 50 percent.
That made my blood run cold.
I'm using the Silky Wool yarn from Elsebeth Lavold I bought in 2004 at Patternworks with the intention of making Trud from her Book One: The Viking Knits Collection. But I've subsequently asked myself, "Do I really need all that material around my hips?"
So I've got these eight hanks of yarn and no project. Then I thought, all her patterns have cables, so the yarn works for cables, so I can use it for Inspiraton.
However eight hanks it about 1,520 yards. eek.
But that yarn chart says for my size (which was for like a 10 year old or something ridiculous based on the chest measurment) you need like 1,100 odd. So I would, hopefully, have just enough. Of course that also means I can't get too heavily patterned.
Which, I suppose, puts me back at square one.
When looking at the Trud pattern, the chest measurment is several inches more than I would need/want (which factored into my decision not to make it), it a little longer than I intend to make mine, and it has all that extra material used by the pleats.
I'm hoping that all bodes well for my ability to squeeze a whole sweater with more patterning out of this yarn.
Because, as you might have realized, it is very unlikely that I could get more of this yarn in this color and dyelot this far removed from my original purchase!

Swatching
Anyway.
I haven't had time to take pictures of my swatches yet. I kept wanting to have more done to show you and I need to do it during the day because I don't think the yarn will photograph well.
I did three stockinette stitch watches on US 5, 6, and 7 needles. I like the US6 one best. But I appear to have done my center cable on the US7, which doesn't make sense. But then I decided it was floppy, so I did my side center cable on US5, which was much nicer.
However, the whole point of the Sunday class was charting your sweater based on your motifs and figuruing out stitch count based on your swatches—which are wrong in my case.
I'm also kind of rethinking my center cable, but I might like it better on the US5 and I have to do another repeat before I decide.
On Saturday night I did swatch one of the taffy twists that will bracket my side center cable, but I didn't like how it came out. The pattern I followed was for an 8 stitch cable (Cable 4). It just didn't look good and I had a narrower one in mind anyway, so I have to redo it with just 4 sts (Cable 2).
So, again, I didn't even have all the motif stats I needed for Sunday.
Of course, I'm sure the Sunday stuff would have been useful for all the theory I would have learned, but...
Anyway.
Also on Saturday, after Beth discussed ideas for coordinating motifs, we had a chance to flip through pattern books and swatch some. While we were working on that she prowled the room and held consultations with people to discuss their ideas and offer guidance. Of course flipping through all those books totally made me waffel about my cable choices. A trip to the library might be necessary.
She also measured us, disucssed fit/ease, and figured up some initial numbers for us to aim for. The handout has diagrams for, uh, three different constructions, so we scribbled numbers on that based on the guidelines. That will be very helpful later.
Wow, looks like lunch time is over. We're still trying to wrap up the Feburary issue and I really have to get to work on my article, but I've been procrastinating very efficently.
Did I tell you anything useful or informative about the class?
Probably not. Sorry, I am trying to design my first sweater here. If I can't think out loud on my own blog, where can I do it?
Honestly, Baru will only listen to knitting talk if I bribe him.