Yesterday I was determined to figure out where I when wrong with Susan! So I asked two of my knitting friends for help. Always good to get multiple views!
First, I put a life line in the row below the first armhole bindoffs. All three of us counted twice before agreeing that I had the exact number of stitches called for in the pattern.
I check for the correct number of armhole decreases, and placed another lifeline. More counting by all three of us. Surprise! Two stitches shy of the number required by the pattern. I knew that 2 was the magic number because I had four stitches on the needles when I stopped knitting and I needed six! But where did I lose 2 stitches?? Back to the pattern. Reading it aloud to my friends, I found this line: next row (RS)
I had completely skipped over the M1k direction and went immediately to continue “until armhole measures” 7.5 inches. That error was confirmed when I checked my notes:
Frog!
Now to reknit the last three inches – again! But first, M1k, twice!
It seems there are some rules in life that you just keep relearning. The same is true in knitting. I think the #1 Rule in Knitting should be “LOOK AT YOUR WORK — OFTEN!” Sometimes I just get going on a pattern and knit, knit, knit. Like I did today working on my “Imagine When Gradient Shawl.”
I bought this kit about a year ago from Tolt Yarn and Wool at “Pitch and Stitch” with the Mariners. It included four skeins of Yoth Yarn in gradient shades of blue and the “Imagine When” pattern by Joji Locatelli. The original pattern was done in one color, but Veronika Jobe of Yoth Yarns included her notes for doing a gradient version in the kit. The sample they were showing was to die for!
Yoth Yarns in Blue Gradient
In my last post I wrote about how I misread the directions by not reading closely, but after that I was off to a great start!
Shawl Details
The bottom edge of the shawl has a picot edge and the top edge is straight. Here is a photo of the photo on the back of the pattern, “Imagine When…” by Joji Locatelli. The lines are beautiful!
Imagine When… by Joji Locatelli
I worked sections 1, 2 and 3 with no problem. Then I changed to the second lightest shade of blue for section 4 with no problem. When I started section 5 with the darker blue, I was sure that there was a misprint in the pattern and WS / RS were mixed up. I searched on line for any errata, but finding none I just continued on — big mistake! At first it looked sort of OK —
At Start of Section 5 with Third Blue Shade
If you are beyond the beginner knitter stage you probably see the problem already! But I didn’t see it when I took this photo.
Then with only 12 more short rows left in Section 5, I laid down my knitting to admire it….and then I saw it….
Almost done with Section 5
Why did the straight edge change to a picot edge? And why isn’t the point of this section tucked beside the point of Section 4?
Full View
And why is this section inverted? Oh, No………..remember when I thought WS and RS were mixed up in the pattern and just kept on going? It wasn’t the pattern — it was me!
Frogging 62 rows right now just seems unsurmountable. So into time out it goes! I think July 5th may be when it comes out.
I’m thinking about tattooing my thumbs with GG on the left and PILL on the right. I think those two simple tattoos will save me from some costly knitting mistakes.
Can you guess what the tattoos mean?
Edit: For some reason the original post only had one photo. Here’s the second one —
I love spending time with my granddaughters. Finn, a freshman at Cornell University, lives 3000 miles away and I don’t get to see her nearly as often as I did when she was younger. Oh, my, do I miss her! But Gabriella, 7and 3/4 as she says, lives just 20 miles away and I see her often.
This week I spent a day with her and the morning was filled with games, conversation, lunch —
Lunch on the Deck
and play time in her “tree house” while I knit on the deck.
The Tree House
A play date with her friend highlighted the afternoon. They usually play on their own and I get lots of knitting time, but this day they couldn’t decide what to play and everything seemed to involve me — tag, hide and seek, dodge the Groovy Dolls (variation of dodgeball!). By 3:00 PM I was exhausted! So out of desperation I said, ” Hey, Girls, would you like to do some knitting?” After a resounding “YES!” Gabriella found her knitting box on the top shelf where it has resided since late winter and we set about the task. Her friend, Chelsea, had never knit before so I started her out with a bit of yarn and some needles. Gabriella is working on a knit stitch blanket for her doll and Chelsea decided on a knit stitch dish cloth. They diligently worked on their projects and I spent time coaching and fixing dropped stitches, accidental yarn overs, and wonky-looking errors! We had a great time and I promised another lesson soon! Bring on the Purl!
Number One in my compendium of Rules for Knitting is now official:
#1. Stop, Look, and Listen to Your Gut
I finished two washcloths that I intended to give to my nephew and his wife along with a cake of Wool Fat Soap from Churchmouse Yarns and Tea as a thank you for a recent favor. My nephew is an Admiral in the US Navy, so I thought appropriate designs would be a Navy eagle in white and a Navy anchor in blue. I found patterns on Ravelry and decided to use Cascade Yarns Luna for the washcloths.
The Navy Eagle in white knit up quickly with a nice subtle image of the eagle —
Navy Eagle Washcloth
After several brief looks and a suspicion that RS and WS may be reversed in the Navy Anchor washcloth, but no detailed follow up, this is what I discovered AFTER IT WAS BLOCKED and PINNED!!
Navy Anchor Washcloth
Do you see it? About 1/3 of the way up it went from stockinette to seed stitch! How the hell did that happen?? And to add insult to injury, it doesn’t even look like a friggin’ anchor!
Off to the yarn shop to buy another skein of blue Luna. Hmmm…. can you frog and reuse cotton yarn AFTER blocking???
Best Heel and Gusset Ever!Ready for Michele to check the sleeve length!
The Bad —
Space Girl Summer Sweater
After doing a gauge swatch and changing needle size, I did the math and figured it would be the size I wanted if I knit a size smaller. Well, that was a real MBF! (Math Brain Fart)! After completing the first 35 rows, I realized that with more stitches per cm than the pattern called for I needed to go UP a size, not DOWN. Frogged! I’m getting good at frogging — Jerry could hear the “rippits” from his outdoor studio!
Hummingbird Studio
The Ugly —
Mystery Shawl Border
Looked good — until I was 3/4 of the way across and realized my stitch count was WAY off and no way to correct it except to — you guessed it — FROG IT!
I think I’ll cast on the second sock and call it a good knitting day…..
I took my husband’s advice and frogged the mystery shawl back to the lifeline on row 142. Believe me, my husband is not an expert on knitting. He’s an expert on many things, photography, birds, gardening, politics, etc., but not on knitting. He knows three vocabulary terms about knitting — knit, purl, and frog it! But in this case, he was right. Take one look at the wonky ladder above and you can see why!
Thanks to the life line, this wasn’t as painful as I had anticipated. Then on to the next row. Row 143 reads, “K2, kfb twice, knit to last 4 sts, kfb twice, k2 (248 sts).” When I got to the last 4 stitches, I realized that I had only kfb’ed once at the beginning of the row! Back I went. Second time I actually had the required 248 stitches!! Row 144 was simple — Knit! I did and still had 248 stitches at the end of the row! Yahoo!! I then inserted a second life line. I’m adding a lifeline every 2 rows until I finish clue #3!
Two Life Lines Are Better Than One!
Then I was ready to start the dreaded Garter Stitch Lace Ladder! Here’s how it is supposed to look — a far cry from the first photo in this blog!
Garter Stitch Lace Ladder — the Pattern
So I did what any sensible knitter would do — I did a Scarlet O’Hara. I put it off until my Tuesday Morning Knit Group! Maybe Claudia can give me some advice….
It started out OK, but rapidly went south. I was working on clue #3 of the Michelle Hunter Mystery Shawl KAL and down to the last 6 rows — the Garter Stitch Lace Ladder. Half-way through my stitch count was off and I couldn’t figure out why. As I closely examined my knitting, I noticed that my “ladders” weren’t stacked, they were offset! Yikes! To make matters worse my lifeline was on row 108 and I was on row 149. That will teach me to get all cocky with thinking “this is easy so I’ll wait to put in a lifeline on row 152 — the last row of clue 3!”
The Garter Stitch Lace Ladder Mess!
So I started tinking (knitting backwards) and, you guessed it — dropped stitches, hanging yarn overs, and a general mess! Then I tried to put in a lifeline on row 144 but didn’t come up with the correct stitch count. The thought of frogging back to row 108 is very depressing, so I put it down for today. I’ll take it to my knit group tomorrow and seek the wisdom of the expert knitters in the group. Problem solved, at least temporarily.
Top-Down Sweater
So then I turned to the Purple Top-Down Sweater. I finished the body of the sweater on Monday, so I started picking up stitches to complete the neck. After picking up 40 stitches, it looked like hell — so I ripped them out and put that project aside.
Cascade Silk Heritage
Since I had finished the Love Socks on Monday, I thought I’d move on to the next socks in the queue — striped socks in Cascade Silk Heritage carnelian red and white for my granddaughter, Finn, who just accepted the offer to attend Cornell University — red and white are their colors. But Bubba/Gramps thought that idea was a little dorky, so I put that aside.
Space Girl Summer Top
The next project in the queue is the Space Girl Sweater — I want to do the short-sleeved version in white Cascade Ultra Pima to wear this summer. I have everything I need — the pattern, the balled yarn, the needles. Yet I hesitated because of the dreaded swatch! I know, I know, I must do a gauge swatch to make sure it will fit when completed. I get it! But I hate knitting a gauge swatch — it seems so non-productive. At least it is somewhat mindless knitting, and since nothing else seems to be working today (not sure if it is my brain or my fingers…), gauge swatch, ready or not, here I come! Oh, oh, I just looked at the clock and the morning is shot in the ass and it is early dismissal day at school. Time to shower, dress and pick up Gabriella. Just where did my Wednesday morning knitting time go??
It’s been a wild start, but I’m all in with the Michelle Hunter Mystery Shawl KAL. When the first clue hit the streets I was online reading her blog, watching her videos and drooling to get started! I cast on my Rylie yarn in the color, Sea, shortly after arriving at my Thursday Morning Knit Group at Apple Yarns. Continued working on it in the evening and thankfully inserted a lifeline after row 28, before the start of the Star Stitch section. At about row 38 my stitch count was off. I tried to tink a row, but dropped a couple stitches and had a mess on my hands. Ah, the value of a lifeline! I frogged back to row 28 and started over. All went well the next day and I made it to row 59 (there are only 60 rows in Clue #1!) and something didn’t look right — either the pattern intentionally had a section of purl rows on the RS, or I was backwards! I checked the photos of the eager beavers who had already posted them and sure enough — I had to tink back to row 54! Why, oh why, didn’t I add another lifeline??Now I’m finally done with Clue #1! At the end of the first clue, Michele wrote that her first skein now weighed 72 g. So proud that mine was 73 grams! Right on.
Mystery Shawl KAL
Love the pattern! Adore the yarn! Thank you, Michelle Hunter! I’ve already learned a ton of new things! The main things I’ve learned — Lifelines are very awesome. More frequent lifelines would be even more awesome!
Twisted Stitcher 