Knitting Update: Works in Progress – Page 14

My Cables & Lace Capelet: Not A Success Story, At Least, Not Yet

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Joyce Makes Art

Cables and Lace Capelet was a pattern I wanted to knit as soon as I saw it. It had this Outlander/Scottish Highlands vibe and looked like it would be great to throw on as I walked out the door for yoga or coffee with friends. The pattern photo looked great.

(c) Berroco

I walked into this one with my eyes wide open. There were a couple of red flags: The pattern was an older freebie and of the 15 finished projects besides the sample, virtually everyone commented on size problems, as in the finished project was way too small. One commenter said it fit her 10-year old.

When my gauge swatch, properly blocked and all, revealed that I was going to have an extra 10" or so around, I figured that would make the fit just right. And, of course, I was wrong.

It looked good finished and blocking. (Blocking tip: I no longer weave and clip my loose ends before blocking, they will stay in place more firmly and look neater if you wait until after you block. So you can see my tails hanging in various places).

I was still a bit worried about the length, but I was delighted by how the lacework opened up and how good the stitch definition on the cables was. The biggest worry, though, was the collars. I had carefully knit them to pattern legnth, but upon wet blocking, the weight of the yarn seemed to urge them onward into expansion. They looked huge. I carefully patted them back into shape, but they insisted upon growing, no matter what I did.

As it turns out, they're at least twice as long as they should be. And the shoulders too are overlarge. As you can see below, they slip off, instead of giving a nice snug fit.

And I mentioned that the collar had grown ridiculously long, right? It's a horror show.

Despite these flaws, I love the capelet and I love the yarn (Madeline Tosh). And, I'm incredibly glad I didn't do the finishing work on the collar before blocking so that I can try to fix it.

My dilemna is choosing among the two potential solutions I see. The yarn is superwash, so I could just pop it in the dryer and hope for the best. I've never done this before, but I know that it works in theory. My biggest concern doing this is that I'll lose length, which is perfect right now, as opposed to circumference, which is the problem. And, really, does anyone think that donkey ear collar is going to shrink enough? I should have known that a yarn this bulky would expand beyond what the swatch predicted.

My Second option is ripping back to before the start of the collar, faking another lace repeat with reduced stitch count to give me a better fit in the shoulders, and then knitting a collar that is about half what the pattern calls for, knowing it will block out. This is probably the safer option and I'm leaning that direction.

So what would you do, gentle knitters? Any advice about superwash yarns and the folly of knitters who don't trust the pattern and listen to what their gauge is telling them? At least future knitters for this pattern will know that in my case, the pattern was written perfectly and the proper gauge, properly blocked in the small size would have produced a perfect fit for my size medium body.

Knitting The Cables And Lace Capelet

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I finished up my Cashmere Gadabout last night. It's blocking and there will be photos later on this week. Once it was drying, I picked back up with my Cables and Lace Capelet, which has been languishing for weeks while Christmas knitting got finished. And I'm so glad that I did! This project has a lot of virtues.

First is the yarn. I love Madeline Tosh. Sometimes, I cherish her skeins so much I become hesitant to knit with them while waiting to find the perfect pattern. But this yarn, her Super Bulky ASAP in the Weathered Frame colorway, was ordered just for this pattern and went straight onto my needles when it arrived.

The second virtue of this pattern is that the yarn knits up fast and pretty in the super bulky weight. I'm not a huge fan of knitting on large needles, and the size 11s are at the outer edge of comfortable knitting for me, but still within it. And overall, they are worth dealing with because it is so stinking fun to watch this pattern take shape, so quickly.

The third virtue is that it is making me feel very accomplished. If you've looked at this pattern before you know that you knit the bottom band and then, after grafting the ends together, pick up stitches to knit the body of the capelet. I'm notorious for avoiding picking up stitches, but have been gently encouraging myself to do so over my last few projects. I'm happy I've been doing that, as last night, I picked up the 133 stitches around the edges of the band without a hitch and went onto the lace. Success!

My gauge is good, even in the round. But I'm aware of pattern notes that say this project comes out too small for an adult, even though the sample project is beautiful and clearly adult sized. It's difficult to get a sense with it all bunched up on the needles, but I'll likely take it off on some waste yarn once I get a foot into the body to get a sense of whether I need to make some adjustment. Hopefully once finished, my notes on sizing will help anyone who wants to knit this down the road to get a sense of how it fits. It's such a beautiful project and this is an ideal yarn.

Knitting Gadabout

Posted on December 24, 2014January 3, 2016 by Joyce Makes Art

My Gadabout cowl started out as an experiment. I had some aran weight Debbie Bliss cashmere yarn in a natural color, leftover from a hat I knitted years ago. I had just under 300 yards of it left and it was so soft that I wanted to knit something to wrap around my neck.

So I dyed it blue and went off in search of a pattern. I swatched for a simple scarf, but didn't think the yarn had enough structure. I tried a Black Death shawlette. It was a great pattern, but I wasn't feeling the love. Then I saw , cowlThe Plucky Knitter's Gadabout and fell instantly in love. I adore cables, and these are clever but simple to knit. Best of all, you can memorize the pattern during the first 16 row repeat, making this the perfect portable knitting project.

This is a pattern that whispers to you "just one more repeat, your bed will wait." It's almost impossible to put down.

I'm about half way finished — my six 50 gram skeins limit how large I can make it. The pattern itself has three panels of cables running up its length, but I wisely cut back to two out of fear of yardage and think this should work, as my gauge indicates I'll still be as wide as the pattern calls for, given the bulk of my yarn.

I love this pattern, and let's face it, I live for cashmere. This is one of those rare patterns I feel sure I'll knit a second time. If you're looking for something to cast on for this new year, this is it!

Bad Things Happen When I Go Away

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I should have known it was going to be a bad trip, right? For openers, within minutes of my getting on the first plane, husband sends a series of photos that demonstrate that my months of careful training of the puppy are all going out the window. Immediately.

He taunted me with photos all week: dog on table, dog on bed, dog in the trash. I should have known it was going to be a really bad week. And it was, at least in a knitting way, because this is the last photo we're every going to see of my Ferryboat Mitts, knit in my beloved Plucky Knitter Trusty yarn in Corduroy.

I finished the first mitt and started on the second the night before I left, hence the fabulously bad hotel room lighting photo. But they were lovely. I couldn't stop trying them on in progress.

(Airplane lighting, even worse than hotel room lighting).

I answered a work-related call in the Atlanta airport as my flight home was boarding. Typically, I would have had better sense than to combine those two, but it was an important call. By the time I sat down on the plane, I realized I didn't have my knitting. A kind stewardess told me I had time to run back and get it. The gate agent wouldn't let me off, but said she would go get it. Predictably, she came back 30 seconds later, telling me it wasn't there and that I had to get on the plane.

Despite the efforts of some kind Ravelers and other friends to track it down, my knitting is nowhere to be found. So RIP wonderful mitts that would have kept me warm, along with my favorite copper stitch markers. Somewhere around gate T3 in the Atlanta airport, my knitting is cold and lonely. I feel sure it misses me. And I feel really sad.

Knitting in Progress: Cables and Lace Capelet

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

My Cables and Lace Capelet, in Madeline Tosh's ASAP yarn, is coming along. The construction is unusual. The strip I'm knitting, in the photo, will be the bottom edge of the Capelet when it's finished. If you look carefully, you will see the contrast yarn used for the provisional cast on at the bottom edge. When the strip measures about 50", I'll graft the live stitches on the needles to the live stitches in the provisional cast on, and then pick up stitches along the top to knit up into the body ofthe capelet. It's such a clever construction and because the yarn is bulky it goes quickly.

This was one of those patterns I had to knit the minute I saw it. And I'm enjoying the cables, which are interesting enough to hold attention but easy enough to knit through football or tv viewing. I hope to make progress on the band this week so I can get to the body next weekend.

Knitting and Gauge: Swatching for my Lace and Cables Capelet

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm one of those rare math challenged knitters and I struggle with gauge. I'm determined to move past my annual sweater-sizing debacles in 2015 and I'm starting by swatching, which can be sort of fun when you get down to it.

This week, I'm going to cast on for this absolutely fabulous project, Norah Gaughan's Lace and Cables Capelet. The yarn I'm using is Madeline Tosh A.S.A.P. in the Weathered Frame Colorway.

The pattern calls for a stitch gauge of 12 stitches to 4 inches and for this project, and equally important row gauge of 16 rows to 4 inches. After reading the project notes, I saw that a number of other knitters felt the project was too short, if not too small around, so I realized row gauge would be important here.

I knit a nice big swatch on size 11 needles. I've knit a number of projects on similar bulky yarns and size 11 seemed to have worked in the past. When I swatch, I like to have room to measure, so in addition to the 12 stitches I was hoping to have in my 4 inch measure, I added an additional 4 stitches. I also added 4 more stitches, for a total of 20 in my swatch, so I could have a 2 stitch/2 row garter border all the way around my swatch — garter stitch doesn't roll like stockinette does, and this makes the swatch a bit easier to measure. I swatched and cast off without cutting my yarn off of the ball. I blocked using my handheld steamer, slowly and carefully saturating the fabric with steam on first the front, then the back and finally the front side again, before aggressively blocking the square. (Above).

Here is my swatch after blocking. Once unpinned, it's clear it has grown in size. You can see that I've put pins in — the red pins are to measure stitch gauge, and the green ones, which are difficult to see in this picture will measure row gauge. I've used a small ruler to put those pins in four inches apart, and now all that is left is for me to count.

Stitch gauge is going to be a problem. I've got 10 stitches over 4 inches, instead of the 12 that I need. It might not sound like a lot, but since I had planned to cast on 133 stitches for the body of the cape the pattern would result in a circumference of 44.33 inches, but my cape would be 53.2 inches.

This is the lesson from Monday's post: if you get fewer stitches to the inch than your patterns calls for, your finished item will be bigger than it should be.

My stitch gauge is dead on, coming in at that required 16 rows.

I have a couple of options here. I'm a loose knitter, so I can stick with the size 11 needles, but tighten up enough to get the extra two stitches per inch. That would require conscious effort but is possibly doable. I can also change my needle size, using a smaller need to get more stitches per inch, although I'll have to watch row gauge carefully.

As I noted at the outset, a number of other knitters have noted this pattern fits very small. Do I want to risk it and stick with my gauge and see what happens? I'm a fairly small person and one knitter noted the finished project was to small for her and only fit her 10-year old. And, the swatch is over stockinette, per the pattern, but I'll tighten up a good bit knitting lace and cables, which may help with gauge.

It's a slightly risky strategy, albeit based on a clear assessment of my gauge on this yarn and what other knitters have said about the pattern. Any thoughts about what I should do? I'm leaning towards tightening up and sticking with these needles, given the size comments from others, but I haven't made up my mind entirely yet.

Swatching and Knitting

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Joyce Makes Art

I'm having one of those "cast on all the things" weeks. I like weeks like this — sad about the demise of my Flyaway Hoodie (at least until I figure out the proper size and needle size and cast back on), I decided to start several smaller projects so I would have some instant gratification and knitting always ready and at the go.

(1) The Nevermind Hat. Cute Cables. And oh my goodness, the yarn! My first project with The Plucky Knitter Snug, a mix of merino, cashmere and alpaca and I want to marry it!

(2) Olivia. I need a wrap like this so much! Something to wrap around myself on a cold winter's morning and relieve the tedium of all the black I wear to work! Olivia is going to be beautiful (if I can just get my gauge right for creating the perfect warm but slightly drapey fabric).

(3) Wilde. I like this cowl. It has (subtle) stripes. I don't know how to knit stripes — I always get that funny uneven jog when knitting in the round. So this time I'm going to buckle down and figure out the jogless stripe trick that every other knitter in the world already knows.

A word about this yarn: It is Blue Sky Alpaca's Metalico and I really love it. I purchased it for another cowl, but it was too lacy and not the warm neck hug I wanted. I think this pattern will be a better fit for me as the polar vortex descends on Alabama again.

I love starting new projects and that comfortable feeling of projects all ready to be picked up on a moment's notice for a night of happy knitting. I still plan on casting on at least two more projects before the end of the year, this capelet and this skirt, as well as starting over on the Flyaway Hoodie.