Fudge Friday: Distractions
We’re back to Fudge Fridays where I confess my knitting mess ups.
This design was a take on an artist’s smock. I loved this little cardigan. It had three buttons up top and flared open. On the back was a pleat with an “artist’s palette” with 10 different colors of yarn, knit in intarsia.
I designed the cardi for Knit.1 magazine, a funky little publication now out of print, to be knit in pieces from the bottom up. I was on a tight deadline (as always), but had written the pattern. I started with the back. The pleat was dead center of the back and as it went up to the neck, stitches were decreased on each side (in black).
I confess, I was watching a baseball game (my team, the Yankees - I was born in the Bronx) and my husband was talking to me. I shouldn’t have been anywhere near anyone for the set up, at least, but…you guessed it: I miscalculated and the pleat wasn’t centered.
It wouldn’t have been that bad if I only had to take out the cast on, but I was at the underarm before I realized it!
ALL THAT RIPPING IN 10 DIFFERENT COLORS! I was so upset that I had wasted all that time and now the deadline was even tighter. But, in the end, it turned out perfectly. It’s still one of my favorite pieces.
Lesson: Pay attention to the set up!
The Pleat Back Smock pattern is available from the Vogue Knitting store here.
Fudge Friday: Rotten Heel
We all mess up sometimes. It’s part of being human. And I’m going to use this space to discuss the times I’ve done it in knitting. Hey, you never know…maybe I’ll occasionally even use the space to talk about the times I’ve messed up in life. I’m calling it Fudge Fridays because I’m trying not to use the other fu… word.
Recently, I designed socks. (If you’re interested in testing them, follow me on Instagram, or sign up for my testing newsletter). They’re highly cabled with a smidgeon of lace. I think the main cable looks like a delicate shield, and I love how the cables to each side complement the main cable.
The good sock - blocking.
In any case, this particular sock was being knit from the cuff down, meaning I was having a grand time knitting all over cables. Now, in my head I knew that there was a difference in gauge between the cable and the Stockinette stitch sole, but I thought (wrongly) that I could adjust for this after the heel flap was done by having more gusset decreases.
Turns out I couldn’t because it makes the gusset too long, making for a baggy sock. So, R I P went the gusset, R I P went the heel turn, R I P went the heel flap. And as all you sock knitters know, those are the parts of the sock where you use the most energy. The rest (cuff and foot) are usually smooth sailing.
This is the moment I decided to rip. You can see the sock is off the needles. Here goes…
I was a bit frustrated, but after sitting awhile to think about it, I decided to decrease before I started the flap. Voilà. All better!
Math Monday: Mystery Yarn - The Adventure Begins
Way back in a far away time that seems eons ago (October 2017) my good friend Lee and I went to Rhinebeck, otherwise known as the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, and not for the first time. Up to that point, we had gone every year for a good many years. For a bunch of reasons, we haven’t been back since, but once this is all over…
As we trolled through the outside buildings on a warm autumn day we came across the Harrisville Designs’ booth. Besides having their own great yarns, Harrisville also does custom spinning for a number of other well-known brands of yarn. We stopped in our tracks when we saw that they were launching n I g h t s h a d e s and spent awhile admiring it. I bought a sweater’s quantity of their lovely WATERshed. Lee kept looking. And then she called me over to the sale bin.
See our Harrisville bags?
Inside was a rustic two-ply wool that was unlabeled. We asked about it, but the only thing the kind Harrisville lady told us was that it was a mill end and that it was 100% wool. Harrisville spins for Brooklyn Tweed, We were both a little smitten. Lee bought 5 skeins. I bought the remaining 3. Occasionally, Lee or I would talk about the yarn, yet neither of us ever did anything with it.
All 8 skeins nestled together!
Fast forward to January 2021. I was doing my semi-annual stash purge and once again came across this yarn. I was still in love. Now you should know that I never to design with any yarn that is discontinued or that I know will be, and certainly never with homespun or an unknown yarn. But this yarn was calling out to be a textured pullover. My 3 skeins wouldn’t do it. So I called Lee, asked her if we could trade - she gave it to me - and it started. The pullover is done, but not yet released.
Over the next few Mondays, I’m going to be writing in this space about yardage. We’ll be estimating and calculating. Yes, it’s math, but don’t be scared! It’s not trigonometry and it’s really rather simple. How will it help you, the knitter? You can calculate yardage you’ve used or how much you need, or how much you’d need if you change an element in your own knitting - like making short sleeves instead of long, or lengthening the body of a sweater. Or perhaps you have your own mystery yarn and want to know if you have enough? Once we’re through, we’ll figure out how we can estimate yarn weight based on yardage.
Analyze this!