Blocking for the win!

Posted on August 25, 2019 by knitigatingcircumstances

A few weeks ago, I reported being stalled on my Sparkling cardigan. I had knit the back and both fronts, but was worried that the armscythes were all wrong: my impression was that they were too deep and too long and the slopes were off. This would mean that the shoulders were too narrow, and that the sleeve placement would be wrong on the finished garment. I felt that the best option would probably be to frog down (ie, to rip out the finished knitting) to an inch or so above the start of the armhole decreases on all three pieces. Given the mohair yarn and stitch pattern, this was not an option I was interested in pursuing.

Thus stalled, I switched to other projects (finishing a lovely cashmere lace shawl), before making decisions on Sparkling. It was Doug who convinced me to block the pieces first and see if the armhole shaping would improve. I needed to not only increase the width of the shoulders, but also increase the width generally, as the cardigan was on the tight side. So, I did a careful wash and block of the pieces:

This morning, I sewed the pieces together.

I decided to use backstitch instead of the more labour intensive mattress stitch. On this garment, I wanted a firmer seam rather than the invisible seam mattress stitch would provide. I also wasn’t interested in attempting mattress stitch over this stitch pattern. I think it made a very nice seam (and one which took almost no time to whip together). Win-win!

As you can see, the blocking seems to have helped. The shoulder hits about a half inch short of where it should ideally be, but I think that this difference is negligible.

The general fit is good and it fits exceptionally well across the back. (You may also notice my new hair cut in these photos!)

The armhole depth is still large, but I want to be able to wear this over a variety of clothing and I also don’t want a tight fit, so I am pretty confident it will work.

I can still shorten the armhole depth pretty quickly by removing the shoulder seams and ripping out a few rows and then re-seaming. What do you think? The big issue for me with cardigans is that I get hot very easily and I think having room under the arm is not a bad thing.

The real test will come once I get the sleeves knitted up, but I am much happier now. I also avoided ripping out mohair! Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK (and it is Doug’s birthday) and the weather is supposed to be fantastic. I am hoping to get some work done on the sleeves while relaxing in my garden!

Laceweight cashmere shawl

Posted on August 11, 2019 by knitigatingcircumstances

I recently finished the cashmere shawl which began as travel knitting for my holiday to Canada in May.

The pattern is the Tadami Cashmere Scarf by Ito Yarn & Design. It is made with 5 balls of Ito Karei, an incredibly soft, 100% cashmere yarn, which has some tweedy nubs in it. I have used two balls of the Turquoise and three of the Light Gray. The yarn is woolen spun, and blooms beautifully when washed.

The pattern is incredibly simple; with the exception of the first and last three rows, every row, front and back, is exactly the same. This is why I picked it as a travel knitting project (along with the fact that the yarn weighs practically nothing and the whole project can easily fit in a small handbag).

The rows of eyelets give it a pretty, lacy structure, and highlight the delicate nature of the yarn. Except for one incident on the Nanaimo ferry when I had to rip out a good 6 inches or so due to accidently shifting the eyelets by one stitch, this was a very uneventful knit. I knit half of it while on holiday, in beautful places like this (the porch of my friend Jill’s home on Lilloet Lake):

The rest of it was knitted back home in England. It is pretty mindless knitting which menas it is ideal for knitting while holding a conversation, sitting in a meeting, or even touring around a National Trust property (here I am knitting it at Clivedon):

Despite the fact that it is very, very long, it never got to that point where it felt endless and I wanted to throw it across the room. In fact, the whole thing took less than three months start to finish, only about half of which time I was actively knitting it.

I am a bit concerned that the turquoise does not really suit me. However, once it is washed and blocked, the Ito Karei is so lovely it is hard to resist, so I might change my mind about that. (I was hunting for the scarf today so that I could get some photos taken of it, and discovered Doug wearing it. I may have to knit him a scarf with this yarn!)

Mine is the first finished Tadami project on Ravelry (and only the second project altogher) and I suspect it is because of the awful photo of the project on the pattern page. If that photo was the only thing I had to go on, I would have never begun this shawl. I think the problem is that it is sold as a scarf pattern when it is really a shawl pattern. The fabric is so light and airy it deserves to be worn in a way which shows it off. Luckily for me, I bought the printed pattern at Loop in London, which has a far better photo of the finished piece, so I was tempted to try it.

The weather is awful here in the UK this weekend, with floods and power shortages, gale force winds and fallen trees. This means that it is an excellent time for knitting! I hope that you find the silver lining in the clouds this weekend.

Stalled

Posted on August 4, 2019 by knitigatingcircumstances

For a while I was steaming along on my newest project, Sparkling. I managed to finish the back and knit both fronts:

And then I got stalled. There are a number of reasons for this. First, as I reported before, I am having troubles with my shoulders and back and this has meant less knitting. I have a great physiotherapist and have started pilates as well and I hope to get that problem sorted soon.

The second problem is with the project itself. I talk a lot in here about how important it is to knit to your measurements and not blindly follow the pattern. Also, about the importance of knitting a swatch and then (perhaps even more importantly) paying attention to what the swatch is telling you. I should perhaps practice as I preach: I kept merrily knitting away on this, even though I had a few niggling doubts.

My swatch clearly gave me a gauge of 23 x 48 in the bubble stitch. The pattern calls for a gauge of 23 x 52-60 (yes, that’s what it says!). There must be a great deal of variation in how much the bubble stitch compresses the row gauge between knitters. Anyway, I didn’t think about the row gauge as I made the decreases for the arms and for the V-neck, and that affects the slope. It also means that the armscythes are quite deep as I was counting rows rather than inches; they are a good 9.5″ deep unblocked.

If the only problem was that the armscythes were too deep, I could just pull out a few rows at the top of each piece (because this is knit bottom-up). However, I am also worried that there are too many stitches decreased at the arms and at too long a slope. Just look at the above photo: it doesn’t look right to me. The shoulder is too narrow and the armhole keeps getting wider and wider. The annoying thing is that this was bothering me the whole time I was knitting, and yet I never stopped to think things through. Also, I never went back and checked the pattern or the photos. I realise now that in my head the sleeve was shaped a bit differently than in the pattern photo (for one thing I thought it had wide ¾ sleeves) and so I was ignoring the voice in my head because I also had a false picture of the sweater to go with it.

So, the question now is: what to do? Do I painfully rip back to the beginning of the armholes and re-knit the top portions, or do I blaze on ahead and put my faith in blocking? Or do I just rip back a few rows to adjust the length of the armscythe and not worry about the width of the shoulder? Also, do I knit the sleeves as written, or do I go with the picture in my head? I started one sleeve but it feels pretty narrow, so maybe a re-think is in order in any case. Until I decide I am stalled.

I must say that the situation isn’t as bad as it sounds. It could still be that it is just my head messing with me. What I need to do is take out my tape measure and carefully make measurements and spend some time thinking about the shape and construction of the sleeves and armscythes. I plan to pull out Shirley Paden’s book Knitwear Design Workshop, and look at her algorithms for sleeve and armhole shapings and then make some comparisons. This takes concentration, however, and I have been more in the knitting-blindly-along and not in the think-about-what-you-are-doing mode of knitting lately.

Regardless of what I decide, I must say that this fabric is gorgeous! I just love it! It is so light and fluffy, and it has great texture. I love both the inside and the outside of the fabric (you can see both in this close-up of the v-neck shaping):

I am having trouble with WordPress today, and with my laptop as well. I have now written this post at least 5 times, and used three different browsers and two laptops. I am ready to throw my hands up in the air about now and declare defeat. Clearly my knitting is not the only thing that has stalled.

I hope that your knitting (and everything else) is not stalled and that you are enjoying a peaceful Sunday!