Celtic Critter Cardigan Breakthrough

When last we spoke about the Celtic Critter Cardigan I had come to a screeching halt.

After knitting about 15 rows I had become convinced it was going to be waaaay to big. There would be no way to know for sure until it was done since I'm knitting it bottom-up in pieces.

I couldn't face the possibility of doing all that work for it to come out wrong.

I also couldn't face the prospect of re-working the math.

This paralysis was an issue on many levels. First, I want the sweater. It's going to be really cool and I have to use the yarn for something. Second, people are asking about it. ugh.

When I saw Pam and her sister over Columbus Day weekend they were like, "Simple. Put it on a lifeline and you'll get a better idea of how big it is."

Um, why hadn't I thought of that? But I haven't acted on it yet because I've been busy.

Proper Comparison Top
Then this morning I had an epiphany.

All my sweatshirts (all three of them) are in circulation now that I actually have to walk the dogs in the morning rather than just releasing them into a fenced yard.

Today I had on a sweatshirt and was walking around thinking, "This thing is frakin' huge!" Granted, it's a size large so I would expect it to be huge. But seriously I was swimming in it.

Which made me wonder how much ease it had and how that would compare to the ease I was calculating for the Celtic Critter Cardigan.

When I started the design process I used a leather coat I like as my guide garment. Of course the fit and drape of a leather coat is extremely different from the fit and drape of a knit coat.

I should imagine there is a difference between a sweatshirt and a knit coat, but they are probably more similar than leather and fabric.

Anyway, I get home and measure the sweatshirt and it's around 40 inches at the bottom with the elastic pulling it in. The CCC is planned for 44 inches for the bottom hem!

Now the body of the sweatshirt is around 46 inches and I'm planning the cardigan for 35, so that doesn't help much.

The sleeves, which is where I was really noticing the extra fabric, go from about 12 inches at the cuff to 20 inches at the upper arm. I'm planning for 11 at the cuff and 14.5 at the upper arm.

I'm going to be swimming in this cardigan!

Mission Statement Revisited
Now the goal of this sweater is to make an outer garment I can wear over shirts and such when it starts to get chilly out. But these dimensions are ridiculous.

I had put my pajamas back on in order to crawl around on the floor measuring the sweatshirt. I thought to myself, "Hey, these pajamas are loose without being overly big."

So I tried on the pajamas and the sweatshirt over first a polo top and then a turtle neck. I really think the pajama dimensions are going to work. Not that I've measured it yet.

However, I'm going to keep the length of the sweatshirt.

Yes, I do realize this means I have to rework all the math. sigh.

On the bright side, I got these really cool pewter buttons for the cardigan at Rhinebeck from The Rams Horn.

Can you make them out?

The Welsh Dragon and some Celtic Crosses! The knots on the far right are the ones I had orginally bought. They will have to find a life on another top.

Unintentional Kneesocks

The Angora Bedsocks of Power and Fortune! are out of control.

After kicking the Skew socks to the curb last week I took a look at the other WIPs hanging over my head.

On a regular basis, I decide that I function better with only one, maybe two, projects on the go. Multiple projects overwhelm me and I get annoyed by the lack of progress on anything.

Of course just becuase I know this doesn't stop me from casting on new projects even as old ones languish.

But I'm embracing the "clear the plate" phase and decided to return to the ABSPF! because the first sock was fairly close to being done.

These keep ending up on the back burner because I keep thinking they are "too complicated" for TV knitting because of the cables. Turns out the cables are only in two little spots and I flashed right through them.

Another issue was that I saw them getting taller and taller and realized I had to increase a few stitches in order to have them continue fitting, which was just adding to the complication factor.

Since they are just bedsocks, after all, I decided to stop over thinking the matter and just started throwing in some increases every couple rows with the goal of being able to work k2, p2 ribbing.

Then all of a sudden, boom! the sock was done.

And there was much rejoicing.

Particularly becuase I was pretty sure I was going to run out of yarn during the cast off and didn't want to have to unpick the cast off and last row. In fact, I just squeeked by with a little bitty tail left, which I did my best to knot.

I'm fairly certain that situation is going to come back to bite me.

And the second sock is where?
I don't generally suffer from second sock syndrome.

I often find the second sock is easier than the first because all the numbers are there and it's autopilot knitting. Especially in a situation like this where I'm making a pattern up.

The wild card is going to be how closely I follow the "pattern." This first sock fits, but it's a bit snug in places near the top where I didn't start the shaping soon enough.

I'm torn between tweaking the second sock to reflect what I've learned for an improved fit, or working it the same as the first. I'm really leaning toward just working it the same. If I have one nice fitting sock and one poorly fitting sock the poorly fitting first sock will just annoy me and I know I'm way too lazy to rip it out and reknit it.

In the mean time, I've cast on for a new project.

Permission to stop.

That is what I gave myself last night.

As you can see, I didn't get all the way through the heel, but I got awfully close.

I worked the first set of heel shaping and then the numbers started to go off. I was supposed to have 15 sts to graft together and was already down to 14.

When I saw that I transfered the sock to a piece of scrap yarn and did my best to try it on.

I still wasn't happy about the look of the stitches along the side of the foot. The stitches were still stretching open like Swiss Cheese.

The fit along the instep and ankle area was a little harder to determine, but still seemed snug. Even though I was around seven rows short of what the area should be since I had stopped the heel shaping short, I decided it wasn't going to work out.

At that time I decided to frog it and move on. After all, it's just a sock! It shouldn't be so difficult.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the pattern. I know these issues are mostly my own fault.

It's a very clever pattern, it just not for me.

I know for a fact, from experience based on trying on my friend's sock, that if I follow the pattern as-is the resulting sock will be baggy for my little foot. I don't like baggy socks. Shoot, I don't knit socks for them to end up baggy!

On the other foot, I don't seem to have the math and spacial reasoning skills to downsize the pattern to fit me in a satisfactory manner.

All of this means it's time to move on.

Happily, the yarn does not seem any worse for wear for the abuse it's suffered. It's a nice, soft, yummy yarn, so I'm enjoying knitting with it. And it's self patterning, so it will make fun socks even though I'm going to knit plain ones.

However, I have a lot of WIPs on my plate at the moment and I need to let the yarn relax. Which means I'm returning the yarn to the hoard for the time being until I'm prepared to enjoy our time together.

This frogging business is rather freeing.

Totally Sk(r)ewed

After the last time I blogged about my Skew socks I once again abandoned them.

In my last blog post I had Kitchenered the heel shut and was ready to start working up the leg.

It was very exciting. The sock was starting to come together.

I knit forth with confidence only to have it all come crashing down.

I worked through "decrease the mini-gusset" and was ready to start the leg set up when I stopped, put it all on waste yarn, and tried the darn thing on.

The fit was terrible. I had made a little sock straight jacket.

Oh, sure it looked good from one side. It looked like a normal-ish sock.

But on the other side it was a holey, stretched out mess.

There was a gap at the top of the heel, which the pattern said to expect, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to pull the fabric together to shut it.

And the decrease line along the outside edge of the foot at the beginning of the round, was so gappy it made fishnet stockings look dense.

The fix, I thought, would be simple. I just needed more fabric to go around my foot, which meant I just needed more stitches.

Determined to figure the pattern out I ripped back all the way to the mid-toe section and increased until I had 64 stitches instead of the paltry 60 I'd tried the first time around. Seriously, I ripped back so far I might as well have started over.

The foot knit back up much quicker than it had the first time around, possible because I knew what to expect this time.

It appears I had once again begun increasing for my mini-gusset when I once again put it aside.

Of course the big issue isn't that I put it aside, again, as much as that I didn't write down what I planned to do. Nope. My old, failed notes, are still on the pattern. I have a vague idea I planned to get the 12 stitches on either side of the center of round marker the pattern calls for, but I didn't make a note of it.

Still, that sounds pretty resonable because I wanted all 15 sts for the heel this time and this entire area is were I needed more slack.

It's a good thing I was able to figure it out where I left off so quickly otherwise these socks would have died a horrible death.

I was laying there at 4 o'clock in the morning, unable to fall back to sleep, and had half decided to toss the pattern aside and just knit plain old socks with the Indulgence yarn. It really is nice yarn and it's terrible for it to be so neglected. Poor, poor yarn.

You know you have too many projects on the go when they start giving you insomnia.

On the other hand it wasn't just not knowing where I was in the pattern that was causing me to feel that way. So far I haven't been having fun with this pattern. I've been "working" on this one sock for around four months(!) and have very little to show for it.

I mean, it's a pair of socks. They should only take two weeks!

Part of the delay is because I keep thinking I can only work on them in a quite time when I can focus on the pattern. The other part is because I don't know if I'll actually get a comfortable pair of socks out of the deal.

Socks are my relaxing project, they shouldn't be such an emotional investment.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go beat them into submission.

Done: Kureyon Hat

Did you notice how close my hat was to being done in my post yesterday?

Well, I finished it!

It only took seven days. Well, it took 15 days if you count my, ahem, swatch. giggle But in general it was a quick knit.

Recap
The pattern is the Ribbed Cap from Vogue Knitting.
It takes one skein of Noro Kureyon.
US 8 needles.
My color #264 - Hot Pink, Lilac, Brown, Purple.

Of course, it's not like I actually followed the pattern. As I said yesterday, when I followed the pattern it was too big, so I cast on 80 sts and worked it in the round. I also worked the I-Cord only until it was long enough for one knot, not two.

I'm rather pleased with it. I think it's cute and fits well. And who can argue with such a quick project?

The only sad thing is that when I made it smaller it used less yarn and so the fun hot pink part didn't make it in.

Oh well, now I have a fun scrap to add to my scrap collection.

Kureyon First
I should mention this is the first time I've used Kureyon.

Oh, sure, I always admired the Noro yarns when I worked at Knitting Central and then Westport Yarns. The colors were so interesting and some of the yarns had such interesting textures. Despite that I tended to shy away from them.

I'm a bit sensative to wool. Some wool yarns make my hands tingle like they've fallen asleep, it's the weirdest thing. I've noticed the less processed yarns seem to give me more trouble. I don't know if it's the lanolin, the dyes, the setting agents or what. Some of the Noro yarns feel a bit crunchy in the skein. I've heard they soften up with use, but didn't want to risk it if my hands would go numb.

I'm happy to report I didn't have any problems at all with the Kureyon!

I'm very excited about this for many reasons. Mainly because I have several sample balls of Noro yarns to work with and it would really suck if I had to pretend they don't exist or somehow power through an allergic reaction.

Since receiving the sample yarn I've been educating myself about the different brands.

In checking out the Noro website I learned the yarn is minimally machine processed. They do as much as possilbe by hand. They also use the minimum amount of chemicals they can. So it's an eco-friendly wool. I think you can really see the human touch in the rustic texture of the yarn.

Now that I'm over my fear I think my next project using Noro yarn will be the Shrug This from the first One-Skein Wonders book out of Kochoran.

But first, I should probably finish my Skew (Indulgent) Socks, or one of the other seven works in progress I have on the go!

Hat and Again

I suppose what I should be blogging about is mom and my adventures at Rhinebeck over the weekend, but I'm not in the mood.

I did, however, upload pictures of my new yarn to my "Yarn Hoard" set on Flicker, so you can bounce over there for a sneak peek if you want.

Actually what I should be doing is working on the article I'm supposed to be writing that is due this week, but I'm deep into denial and procrastination. Of course making some progress on it might improve my mood.

Anyway.

Hat Take 1
Having failed at all of my pre-Rhinebeck knitting goals--finishing the Celtic Critter Cardigan in time to wear it, finishing any project with any Rhinebeck 2009 yarn in time to wear it, finishing a project with gift yarn from my CT friends--I decided that maybe I can have a new hat to wear.

Hats are small, right?

To that end I busted out the sample skein of Noro Kureyon I have in color #264, which is one of the new colors this year.

My orginal plan for this skein was to work a square from the Lizard Ridge blanket from Knitty Fall 06 for my Swatchy Blanket. I saw Pam's square and was enchanted.

Then I forgot that idea and instead remembered Vogue Knitting had a free one-skein hat pattern, which sounded like a fabulous idea since the Lizard Ridge blanket was a distant, pre-move idea.

The Evil of Gauge
Maybe my issues aren't gauge's fault. Maybe they are my own fault for not swatching. But that admission would be taking responsability, and heaven forbid I do that.

After all, it's a hat! By the time I swatched I'd be half way done.

So instead I just plunged in and started knitting.

Here's a tip that I might have shared in the past. If you are casting on a large number of stitches using the long-tail method, say over 100, instead of trying to guess how long of a tail to leave, tie two balls (or the two ends of one ball) together and use that knot as an anchor in place of a slip knot.

One strand acts as your tail. The other is your working yarn. You can cast on blissfully without worrying about running out. Then when you have enough stitches snip the "tail" strand and off you go.

In a case like the Kureyon yarn where each end of the ball is a different color designating a "tail" strand is more important. I decided to make the pink the tail (so it hung in front as I cast on) as I thought the contrasting rim would be cute. Also, the purple was coming from the inside of the ball and I prefer to pull my yarn from the inside.

If I had let the pink hang in back and still designated the purple as my "working" yarn my rim would have been purple, my first row would have been pink, and my second row and on would have been purple. That seemed like an interesting option as well, but I decided to be boring.

As you can see, careful consideration must be given when casting on with two different colors.

Anyway.

After a week of industrious knitting the hat was almost finished and I was rather excited that I'd meet a Rhinebeck knitting goal.

Disaster Strikes
At which point things started to go wrong.

First I ran out of yarn.

I found this hysterical since it's a one skein hat and the yardage hasn't changed. This made me decide to finally check my gauge and it was indeed off.

Since I was going to have to rework the hat anyway I decided to try it on for fit.

As you can see in the picture above it's a little too big.

First I whipped stitched it shut properly (edge to edge) and found it was baggy.

Then I choked it down by 16 stitches. I was going to just fold it over and whip stitch it, but I realized the extra fabric would skew the fit so I attached the edge to the interior so the extra flap would be on the outside. (That's the picture.)

Although the fit was greatly improved, it was still a little too big. I probably could have worn it, but I realized that if I washed it, or it otherwise stretched, it would be unpleasantly baggy.

So I choked it down to 80 sts and it seemed just right.

Since I was starting from scratch anyway, I decided to work the dang thing in the round this time. A hat worked flat might be good for a beginner knitter, but for an experienced one like myself who doesn't mind working on double points, it just requires unnecessary finishing.

Of course this meant that another Rhinebeck knitting goal had fallen by the wayside. On the other hand, I had a small project to take with me.

(Look! I'm covered in Noro!)

Hat Take 2
I'm chugging along on this new version.

Since I'm a slow learner I once again didn't do a gauge swatch. I figure the first hat counts as my swatch.

I don't expect my gauge to have changed because I'm still working in ribbing, so I don't have that no-purl-because-I'm-working-in-the-round issue to worry about. Also, I've gone from my plastic Denise Interchangable Needles to my bamboo dpns and expect them to have the same amount of drag.

I should be safe. As you can see in the picture the fit seems to be much better.

Soon. Soon I will have a new hat!