third time's a charm, right?
Two years ago I designed my husband a fair isle stranded sweater for christmas. I had an optimistic feeling that this was a project I could tackle. So what if it was man-sized at many stitches per inch? I had time, right? I had math skills and knitting mojo on my side. I gave him the pattern drawing, a sketch of the finished sweater and a knitted swatch. And I waited and waited and knit other stuff, just to make sure he actually was interested and not just humoring his newly wed knitting wife. And then he expressed interest in when would this sweater be made. When could he wear it? Perfect, I thought now I knew he would wear it and wasn't just being nice.
I found yarn, I did swatches, I did math, it looked good, I remained optimistic. And then I cast on. The swatch lied!! Sadly my first attempt was 7 inches too big around. Many stitches were frogged - maybe 3" worth of too big. But I was still in the honeymoon phase and optimistic and I did new math for the new stitch count, rethought the hem design and cast on again. Knit. Knit. Knit. Measure, Still 3" too big! Again with the frogging. Now I am annoyed and also stubborn and a bit forlorned and resigned to my fate. I revised the math and cast on yet again - still knitting and not sure what the verdict is this time. Mind you this is just the hem of a 7-stitches-to-an-inch mansized fair isle sweater. I'd show you a photo, but it looks almost exactly the same as this one. The third cast on is the charmer - right? right!
Moving on people. Here is some more fun times with the cheap cotton yarn and the RIT dye. There is a fun freedom to experiment with the color action when the cotton yarn is $2 for 4 oz or some such enjoyable price. I was able to get satisfying bright cherry red. The lovely mustardy yellow was achieved with dying the yarn straight yellow and then adding a touch of purple to the dye pot. I also dyed some existing light blue in the yellow bath to get the sage green. Now to knit some mitered squares.
In other news where knitting looks exactly the same as what you already did, I'm well on my way for the second petticoat sock, but I'm pretty sure I won't make be able to finish it with the yarn I have left, so I'll have to get another skein from the store in St. Louis. Oh well, you can't win them all!
In other cuteness, I caught Cena sleeping with her nose tucked under her paw. Usually she wakes up before I can get a photo of this cuteness.
I found yarn, I did swatches, I did math, it looked good, I remained optimistic. And then I cast on. The swatch lied!! Sadly my first attempt was 7 inches too big around. Many stitches were frogged - maybe 3" worth of too big. But I was still in the honeymoon phase and optimistic and I did new math for the new stitch count, rethought the hem design and cast on again. Knit. Knit. Knit. Measure, Still 3" too big! Again with the frogging. Now I am annoyed and also stubborn and a bit forlorned and resigned to my fate. I revised the math and cast on yet again - still knitting and not sure what the verdict is this time. Mind you this is just the hem of a 7-stitches-to-an-inch mansized fair isle sweater. I'd show you a photo, but it looks almost exactly the same as this one. The third cast on is the charmer - right? right!
Moving on people. Here is some more fun times with the cheap cotton yarn and the RIT dye. There is a fun freedom to experiment with the color action when the cotton yarn is $2 for 4 oz or some such enjoyable price. I was able to get satisfying bright cherry red. The lovely mustardy yellow was achieved with dying the yarn straight yellow and then adding a touch of purple to the dye pot. I also dyed some existing light blue in the yellow bath to get the sage green. Now to knit some mitered squares.
In other news where knitting looks exactly the same as what you already did, I'm well on my way for the second petticoat sock, but I'm pretty sure I won't make be able to finish it with the yarn I have left, so I'll have to get another skein from the store in St. Louis. Oh well, you can't win them all!
In other cuteness, I caught Cena sleeping with her nose tucked under her paw. Usually she wakes up before I can get a photo of this cuteness.
posted by cheryl at 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
I hear you about the swatches lying thing. I need to learn to make a biiiig swatch, especially when my gauge really changes after blocking.
Your cat is too cute! She's all like "shut off the lights, woman!"
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