Knits

My knitting-fu has had a bad week. I started the other Little Cables hat I think four times. Each time I managed to cast-on the wrong number of stitches. And I decided to double up the yarn I was using, but didn’t change the needle size so the resulting fabric was a bit stiff… I decided not to care and then I realised that I’d actually totally messed up so I have to start nearly over again, but I’ll use bigger needles.

I also started the C I dunno, four, five, six times? It just was looking awful around the edges. I figure out a few reasons for this:

1. The yarn was too thin for the needles so I changed those
2. The method of slipping stitches at the edges and how I purled that first stitch turned out to be an issue. I was slipping the stitch and then bringing the yarn between the two needles to purl the second stitch. This was creating a horrible looking bump. I have now (on another item) been bringing the yarn under the needles and voila, no bump.
3. The increases create an ugly bump so I will be doing a different increase.
4. I decided the yarn just wasn’t going to work at all, even with a change in needles.

I’ve decided that, despite the expense, I will get the recommended yarn. It should be here in the next couple of days (I ordered it Friday).

I was determined to finish, or get close to finishing, my second Charade sock this weekend and I was about 1.5 inches into the cuff when I decided to do a comparison with the finished one to see how I was getting on. The heels looked rather different. I started counting stitches and somehow I managed to forgot to decrease EIGHT more stitches before starting the cuff. Argh. It fit of course, but I knew it would drive me nuts and also end up being too big so I had to rip that out. It’s having a time out right now.

And the cardigan, no progress - I seriously have 7 rows on the body and the second sleeve. I gotta do this! However, I wanted something quick and easy (not that stockinette isn’t easy). I got the second part of that in the next project I selected.

The weather has definitely become chilly and I wanted a good, warm scarf to wear since I finally got rid of the store bought one I’ve used the last three years. I chose to knit the My So-Called Scarf in some Debbie Bliss Maya — one of my first yarn purchases. The pattern is dead easy to remember and I don’t really find it fiddley as others have suggested. My problem really is that the only needles I have in the right size are ridiculously long aluminium needles and they’re a bit cumbersome and so slippery that it’s easy to drop stitches off the end. However, I cannot believe how slow this thing is moving! I worked on it a good part of yesterday and today and I’m only halfway through! A single skein of the Maya has got me 30″ of scarf though so a second skein will be perfect leaving me one skein to do a hat or something else with. I do hope that this yarn softens up once washed as it is pretty scratchy. Also, I never knit with red yarn so now I totally understand the difficulty in photographing reds! The colour really is amazing though.

I’ll have to set all these projects aside this week though when another parcel of yarn arrives. My friend bought the Lobster Claw mitten kit from Morehouse Farm Merino and I will actually be knitting the mittens for her daughter. I said I’d get them done for her birthday because I have no concept of time. The birthday is a week from today and I don’t have the yarn and pattern yet (it’s in the post). Oops. Hopefully they go fast since they’re toddler-sized!

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