Mismatch

Have you ever started on a project and then realised part way through that the materials you are using are not quite right?  Time is precious, I always strive to use it wisely although this ideal is not always the case!

A while ago now I bought three skeins of yarn, they were a bargain that was too good to miss.  The yarn I buy is usually for a specific project this yarn was not and it sat for a long while in my yarn drawer waiting for the the right time and the right project.  I found one, a pattern knitted in the flat that I was converting as I knit to in the round.  I had read the pattern itself very carefully working out how I could convert it, somehow the bit about the materials did not get read.  First time round I used a needle size that gave me an item that would have just about fit my five year old.  Second time round I knit as far as the collar and as I worked out what to do next I realised that I was not going to have enough yarn.  I knew that deep in my heart I needed to pull it out but it sat in a bag for a few weeks whilst I accepted it, other projects got knitted up whilst I ignored it.  One evening whilst watching a BBC Documentary I sat and pulled out all the stitches*, it was dark to ease the pain.  I then cast on another pattern which I do have enough yarn for, it grows slowly a row here, a row there.  I am adapting again this is my third make with this pattern somewhere in between the last two in size.  It is interesting to note the annotations I made first time round this was the first pattern I knit from Ravelry at a time when I was not able to count my rows of knitting with confidence.  How time changes things, perhaps frogging my stitches will also become easier.  I hope this will be ready for the spring when the warmer weather arrives, we have snow at the moment so I think I will have plenty of time.

Apart from making sure I am reading knitting patterns correctly I have been reading some historical fiction lately.   We are doing a topic on the solar system this month and I thought it would be interesting to do some learning of my own too.  I found, quite by chance on the library shelves, the first book in a trilogy on the history of astronomy based on historical facts.  I read the first book last month and have now started the second.  The first is set in the early 17th Century during the lives of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, the second Sensorium of God in middle of the 17th Century and the scientists, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley.

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*I am hoping to use all the time spent rewriting the pattern to knit this again in the future perhaps with some purple yarn, you are never too young for purple.......

Joining Ginny

Adapting

One of the first big projects that I knit from myself was one of these.  I was really disappointed that it looked awful on, it was a hard way to find it out but raglan shaping really does not suit me at all.  I was torn over what to do with it, part of me wanted to like it as I have invested so much time on it the other part said give it away.  I am so glad I didn't give it away as eventually I realised that I could undo my knitting and reuse the yarn to make something I would wear.

So nearly a year a go I cast on that yarn to make myself a second shalom.  My original was a good fit but it has no sleeves and the 'button band' does not meet in the middle (it is not designed to!) I wanted  to have both so I had to adapt the pattern.  I know how useful I found other knitters notes on adapting this pattern to include sleeves and more buttonholes, I made extensive use of these notes, so I thought I would add mine into the pot too.

I shortened it a bit last time which was fine as a sleeveless cardigan but I wanted it longer to keep me warm in the winter. I decided that I wanted to knit this shalom as long as the original pattern, so I knitted the same number of rows.  The increases in the yoke were calculated using this useful calculator.  It took two attempts to get this to fit right.  The first time I increased too much (using the increases suggested in the pattern notes link above) and it was far too big. I hadn't measured quite correctly, I thought I needed to knit the same size!  I knit seven rows of twisted rib rather than the nine in the original pattern I wanted the yoke to finish higher up.  I wear a UK Size 10/Small.  So herewith my adaptation:

Body 
CO 67
Follow pattern knitting seven rows of twisted rib and with changes on the following rows:
8 increase evenly across row to 109 sts - see above for a useful calculator
18 increase evenly across row to 151 sts
28 increase evenly across row to 193 sts
37-39 K all stitches
40 - 44 St st
45 Divide for sleeves K30 place next 38 stitches on scrap yarn, K57, place next 38 stitches on scrap yarn K30 (117)
46 K25 P25 CO6 P57 CO6 P25 K5 (139)
47 K33 pm K63 pm K to end
55, *K to 2 sts before marker ssk sm k2tog rep from *, K to end
63 repeat row 55
69 repeat row 55
75 repeat row 55
83 *K to 2 sts before marker kfbl sm kfbl rep frp, *, K to end
91 repeat row 83
99 repeat row 83

Buttonholes were knitted using the instructions as per row 6 in rows:
6, 23, 40, 57, 74, 91, 109

Sleeves
I worked out the length I wanted these to be and used my gauge to work out how many rows I needed.  I measured the width I wanted at the cuff and worked out how many stitches I needed to have.  I knitted 83 rows, starting with 54 stitches and ending up with 24 before knitting a 5 row cuff.  My wrists are 15.5cm/6" and this gives a good fit on me.

With RS facing pick up 16sts, K38 stitches on scrap yarn K8 place marker for begining of round
1. K
2. K1 K2tog K to last 3sts ssk K1
3-6 K
7 repeat row 2
Repeat rows 3-7 until 24sts
84. P
85. K
86. P
87. K
88. P
89. BO all stitches

I had no idea if I would have enough yarn for this project, I could not really compare with the yardage that others had used.  I had a rough idea of how much I used originally, but when I started to knit the sleeves I realised that I was not going to have enough, then I remembered that I had not used all the balls I bought originally and there at the back of my yarn drawer were two more balls!  I had this much left:

This was the first time I have dramatically altered a knitting pattern.  It was most definitely a stop start process, each step needed carefully thinking before starting and I didn't always get it right first time.  I ripped a lot of stitches out but for me that is part of the learning process.  I am so glad I knit this by rewriting the pattern for myself as I have ended up with a cardigan which is a perfect fit.  I have fairly long arms, if you stretch your arms out from the tip to tip of your middle finger is your height.  I have a short body and very long legs so I can either find cardigans that fit in the body which end up sitting quite a long way up my wrists or are long enough in the arms and I could fit a small child in the body with me!

I bought some yarn a while ago which has been sat in my yarn drawer waiting for a project, this is most unusual for me I usually buy yarn for specific projects, it was a bargain and too good to miss!  I found the perfect pattern for it and then realised that it was knit in pieces which are then sewn up, I really don't enjoy that part of knitting.   It is a fairly simple pattern which I thought I could adapt knitting and adapting the shalom has given me the skills to understand a patterns construction.  So I am attempting to knitt all in one.  I have ripped all the stitches out once when I realised that I was knitting on too small a needle size!  I am keeping notes again so will update when I have finished, if I get that far!



Linking with Ginny

Knitting

Progress is interesting isn't it.  Every Wednesday lots of bloggers come together and write about what they have been making with yarn.  Usually the pictures show more rows of crochet or knitting than previous weeks, a work in progress is a project that is getting nearer the end, or is it?  What about the project that grows very slowly, or grows a bit shrinks a bit, grows a bit, stalls a bit, is that progress too?

For the last few weeks I have been sharing one project, my Shalom, which is doing just that.  I knit a bit, frog a bit, knit a bit more, frog a bit more.......and yet I am making progress.  Frogging, the art of ripping out stitches, is often seen a negative part of a project, a sign of a mistake but if we were to turn this on its head and view it positively what is it now?  Learning, improving skills, progress.  So my shalom as pictured here is not to stay, I have knitted a lot of rows this week but it needs frogging again I am just debating by how much.  I had spent all my time ensuring that the front of the cardigan looked right, the front as the pattern is written is not meant to meet, I wanted to be able to button the cardigan all the way down.  What I had neglected was the back, when I tried it on a couple of days ago I realised that the back was flapping about like a flag in the wind.  I was also a little perturbed  at the amount of yarn I had left, this project seemed to be eating up yarn at an incredible rate there was not going to be any left for the sleeves.  Not surprising really as I was knitting up a garment for two and as I am not proposing on mutating any time soon there is little call for that round here.  So now I am pondering my next move, progress it is, if a little different!

I have been busy, in the meantime, knitting up a bowl.  The pattern can be found here.  It is fulled or felted depending on your take on such things.

It would of course be rather odd to read a book by flitting about between the chapters, depending on the book, it may make no sense.  So my progress in reading has been forward through a book, an excellent one in fact.  I am nearing the end of Kith by Jay Griffiths, but I am sure I will return to it again and again.  Her take on childhood and all its many facets is inspiring, thoughtful and, for me, reassuring.  She laments the loss of so many aspects and offers her own explanations of why this may have happened.  What she doesn't do is preach or suggest what we should be doing.  This is her essay, her opinions and she leaves you to decide for yourself whether you agree or not.

As it's Wednesday I am joining in with Tami and Ginny head on over to see some progress!

Knitting

My hands have been very busy this week, mostly engaged in DIY with a little knitting on the side.  I have been sanding and painting architraves, door ones.  To look at my knitting you would think that there has been no progress on last week and physically there hasn't really.  I am good with that.  I finished the twisted rib and started on several rows of stocking stitch before deciding it looked odd, the twisted rib needed a garter stitch edge to complete it before starting on the stocking stitch.  So I ripped out the six or seven rows I had knitted and added in a garter rib.  I am liking this process, it is slow and steady but I feels good a stepping stone to designing my own patterns.....one day.......maybe!

I have been reading the wonderful Kith this week.  When you choose to parent differently from others it is sometimes hard to stay on that path, the draw to not have to 'justify' your decision making because it is different can be strong.  When you read a book like this, that confirms your decisions are good ones, it makes me happy to be forging the path that we do.

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The monochromatic picture this week is at odds with my world at the moment.  Outside my window the sun is shining, the sky is blue and life is good.  The grey world of winter has gone.....

It is Wednesday so joining in with Tami and Ginny for sharing of yarny projects.