Knitting Fail.... sort of

A week or so ago, I helped Chey find her outfit for the day (translate: I made her wear a dress.... to school.. the absolute horror) and came to realize that almost every knit item in her closet is too small. Darn, right? I must now knit my daughter a cute little cardigan that she can wear with her dresses and skirts... my life is rough, eh?

Being that I am an incredible mother who always puts her children first (I had a rough day yesterday, give this one to me, OK?), I immediately went through my queue on Ravelry and chose the pattern and yarn for a cute, cabled, short-sleeved, cardigan. The chosen garment pattern was "Sea Princess" By Elena Nodel and the yarn was a cotton and silk blend by Misti Alpaca in a colour called Orchid, which Chey immediately took an intense dislike to.... "It's PINK! I hate pink! It's too GIRLY!"

This should have been my first warning that this project might not go the way it was intended. I persevered, however, and managed to convince Chey that the yarn was more purple than pink (slightly more acceptable, but not perfect) and cast on... The astute among you will notice that I never mentioned a gauge swatch. That would be because (don't tell anyone, particularly my knit club students), I NEVER knit a gauge swatch for a child's item of clothing. I normally pick a size larger and yarn & needles appropriate for the pattern and go... This always works out because if my gauge is tighter (i.e.: smaller), the sweater will fit because I chose a larger size and if my gauge works out the other way... kids grow and it will fit, eventually. Besides skipping this step means that  I've saved myself the 15 minutes of time (OK, more like 1 hr including washing and drying, which we should all do, right?!) it took to knit the swatch (knitters will understand the absurd nature of that statement... 15 minutes vs. many, many hours... time well spent when it comes to saving your arse because you took the time to knit the swatch, let me tell you)

Back to my story... I cast on the sweater, organized the knitting charts (one for each front, each sleeve and the back) and went to work. After several inches of smooth sailing, I checked the pattern to see when I should start the armholes (it is worked top-down) and noticed that I had made a fairly large mistake, or rather I made two mistakes, a largish one and a larger one. The first mistake was that I missed a cable cross (it was two crosses, actually)  several rows back, but as I had missed the same cable crosses on the matching front, I decided I could live with the error. That's when I noticed the larger error.. I PUT THE WRONG FRACKING CABLES IN THE WRONG FRACKING PLACE(S).... GAH!!!! Instead of placing the arm cables, you know, on the arms where they belong... I had put them on the fronts and put the cables for the fronts on the arms..... Total rookie mistake (or maybe a mistake of the too self assured??). Fortunately, the cables were easy to fudge and I was able to switch charts and blend the different cables into their correct locations. After a good smack in the head and some breathing exercises (I wish I drank alcohol at times like these... as an excuse for the error and a nerve steadying tonic, but alas, I do not drink), I worked out how to blend and exchange the charts and started back to work. The cardigan was going quite quickly, although I'll admit, not as quickly as I would have thought for a child's cardigan and eventually I came to the end of the body and cast it off.... For some reason, this is when I noticed that it seemed a tad.... large

Remember that I didn't do a gauge swatch?? Well, my thumb to the nose directed at the knitting gods has rebounded.... Gauge for the pattern: 19st=4"... my gauge: 15sts=4".... that's nearly 22% larger.... 22% larger on a cardigan that was already going to be fairly large???

That would be a sweater, not for my six year old daughter, but for me....... and it's even big on me...

I probably should have noticed sooner and if anyone points out the mis-crossed cable (some were done on purpose), I will hunt you down.

still needs buttons and to be blocked

As a final flip of the bird from knitting karma? Chey is right ticked off that she is not getting the pink cardigan that she wanted.......

Newest....

I thought I'd do a quick post to share my latest spinning/knitting project. I first mentioned the spinning in January. One of the Ravelry groups I belong to had a Sadie Hawkins Day challenge. The challenge was to spin something from your stash that scares you by February 29th. Being me, I decided to take the challenge a step further and not only spin for the challenge, but also complete the knitted garment, all by February 29th. The spinning itself was a bit challenging because the silk and cashmere didn't want to play well together. I ended up with portions of pure cashmere (the brown) and pure silk (the white). I had hoped to avoid this by spinning from the fold, but the fibre ultimately decided the yarn it wanted to be and in the end, I let it....... The resulting yarn is a heavy lace/light fingering and I ended up with over 1100m, more than plenty for a long, flow-y cardigan.

My plan for the cardigan was to try a new method of knitting from the top down developed by Susie Myers called the "contiguous" method. This method is used to knit a top-down sweater with set in sleeves in ONE PIECE! It worked really well and will be added to my" favourite ways to knit sweaters" category.

Here it is.... I finished it last night (met my goal! Yay!) I haven't sewn in the ends of the sleeves yet because I can't decide if I want to make them a bit longer. They were intended to be 3/4 length, but because the cardigan is so loose, they hang down to bracelet length. Also, I may end up shortening the cardigan a bit... I can't decide. What do you think?? Do you like it??

I think it's safe to say....

Spring has SPRUNG!!! Lookie... a flower in my garden!!!! I planted over 500 bulbs in the fall..... I'm very excited to see the continuing show through spring and early summer!




I've been spinning again. I started spinning some gorgeous silk, just before Christmas, but lost my mojo. I decided to finish the singles yesterday (I had 1/2 bobbin left to fill) and when I was almost done... the doorbell rang and the Woolee Winder I had ordered in January was at the door. This lit a fire under my butt and with the Woolee winder I was able to ply 408 meters on ONE bobbin, amazing!..... It's a light fingering weight yarn (although I haven't done the WPI to check for sure) and purdy as hell....... I am now motivated to do more spinning which is probably good, considering that I ordered a sweater's worth of Roving a couple of weeks ago and it's due to arrive at any time......

That's how it was supposed to look...

I gave the sweater to Christina..... it's looks amazing on her, whereas it looked like a sack on me (regardless of my attempt in photos to make it look otherwise)

See....



That is how it is SUPPOSED to look.... when it fits properly... :)

And now I'm knitting a scarf, a very simple 1x1 rib scarf... I want to knit something that I know, without a doubt, will turn out.... It will be knit out of my handspun. (3ply yarn, approx 8-9 WPI, out of Superwash Merino roving/top from Zen Yarn Garden's "Spin Art Fibre Club"). It's very soft and sproingy.... It'll be a short scarf (I've only got about 200m), but it will be my first "real" knitting item of my own handspun.....





and it won't matter if it stretches in the wash......

My Love/Hate relationship with silk.....

I love/hate silk. It is one of my most favorite/feared yarns to work with. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the colours and sheen of silk, the drapiness (not a word, apparently) of the fabric, the summer wearability factor, the feel of the yarn as I knit it.... I even like the smell (although I have recently discovered, and maybe it's just me, that wet sea silk smells like decomposing seaweed (probably because that's what it's derived from)..... which is kinda gross, but does remind me of the ocean, so I kind of like it anyway)...... What I don't like about silk is the unpredictability of the finished product. Maybe it's just me, but I can't seem to get the "growth" factor straight in my head. Take this, recently finished item.






It's made from Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple and crocheted.... It washed beautifully and has wonderful drape and feels GREAT on... I LOVE it! It sucked me right in to the gloriousness that CAN be silk....

Then I knit this. It is also made from Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple. The first picture is pre-wash, the second is post-wash. Notice the change in length and width in the second picture... although I do like the ruffle much better now, I wish I hadn't added length when I knit it... and I feel like it's too big for me now... but I wear it anyway.




Yesterday, I finished this..... I really wish I had taken pictures of it first because... HOLY CRAP! did this sucker grow! It was a bit long even when I finished it, but before I washed it 'cause my sH** A** (excuse my language) gauge swatches LIED and not a little lie either... I did several swatches (meaning 3) because my gauge was way too loose... I finally went down from a 3.25mm to a 2.5 mm needle... The finished gauge (which I just measured) on my sweater is 25 stitches/4" on the 2.5mm needle, not 26 stitches/4" as per the pattern instructions..... I didn't even bother to measure the height gauge because I fear the answer.... hence the HUGENESS of the resulting sweater.... It's not supposed to be a tunic damn it! The sleeves are supposed to be shorter, a 3/4 length, not a cropped length AND the V-neck was only supposed to be 1 inch lower than the original pattern, not 72 inches lower like in the pictures..... I am glad that I eliminated the hood in the original pattern...because it probably would have hung so low that I could have carried several children in it.....





and yes, I realize that the pictures aren't that bad... even kinda good... but you'll have to trust me... I don't think it's flattering on me at all... I may give it to my friend Christina, unless I decide that I actually do like it... we shall see....

I think silk and I need a break.... perhaps Linen and I will be a better match??