I tried on the sock I was working on, and the fit was pretty good. The material, however, was not working for me. I knew they wouldn't be soft or comfy, but man, this was bad. They were stiff, itchy, and just....blech. So I frogged it. I thought to myself, "You're never gonna wear this anyway, so just rip it and make something else with it." So I did. And as I was rewinding it all, I had an epiphany. Since I'm not gonna wear it anyway, and I'm just gonna frog it, I could just go ahead and close the toe now just for the sake of doing it at least once. I mean, I came all this way...But, no, you read correctly--that occured to me as I was REWINDING the stinkin' yarn. About 5 minutes too late. Genius. Oh well, I did learn alot, and I liked it so much I look forward to getting some good sock yarn to start another pair. Socks are a great project to take with you, and although I'm currently a one-at-a-time-er with projects I am definitely looking to pick up the pace with my knitting.
After I frogged the "sock" I immediately casted on for my mom's scarf. I'm using some of the Misti Alpaca and a bamboo size 11 circ. I think I'm in love. After knitting man-made fiber with those teeny tiny sock needles, knitting alpaca with this bamboo is a dream. And the pattern is icing on the cake--I adore the way that the stitches sit in groups on the needle, and the way the soft rows pass through my hands beneath the needles as I knit. I totally got into a rhythm yesterday and flew through about 7 rows of the pattern (a 202 stitch cast-on) when disaster struck. I got to the end of a row and didn't have enough stitches left to make the last repeat. Oh, shit. So I start to count back, trying to find where I went wrong, and I see it. It couldn't have been stitch #196 or even #168. Ohhhhh no. This was stitch # 2. Zero zero two. No biggie, there's still about 40 minutes 'til Sopranos starts, I can just undo the row. That works for about 15 minutes, and then I dropped a stitch. Now, I'm not great at picking up stitches in regular stockinette or garter, much less this pattern. So it starts to run. The more gingerly I held it, the more elusive the stitch definition became, and it began to just melt before my eyes. I couldn't even distinguish proper rows anymore, it was such a mess. Being the novice that I am, and the only knitter I know (with no one to ask for advice), I frogged it. All friggin 6 rows. But I didn't care. I am so in love with the pattern, I just casted on (does anyone else get bored to tears counting cast-on stitches? Under 75 or so isn't so bad, but I felt like I needed a nap by the time I got to 202. Next time I'll place stitch markers every 25 or 50 so I don't have to keep recounting all of them, and just take the stitch markers off the first time I get to them.) and just started right back up again. I looked this pattern up on-line and found out that it is sometimes called a "Trinity Stitch". Here is the basic 4 row pattern repeat, for a multiple of 4 stitches +2 :
Row 1: Purl across.
Row 2: K1, (P3tog, M3), K1
Row 3: Purl across.
Row 4: K1, (M3, P3tog), K1
What I looked up on-line was how to do the M3. When I've seen the (M) in patterns before it usually requires you to pick up the "bar" in between 2 stitches and knit into it, thereby "making" a stitch. But since this was M3, I knew that wasn't going to work. As it turns out, M3 in this pattern means to K1, P1, K1 all into the same stitch. It is a beautiful pattern, and the P3tog's make what looks like tiny blackberries in this yarn color (which also complements my skin tone very nicely, a great thing when you're spending hours a day looking at it. Yes, I have to stare at this pretty consistently lest we have another 6 row frog). I absolutely adore everything about this project, and I'm thinking of knitting one for every woman in my family. Speaking of which, the Michael's craft store nearest me now carries 100% wool in the exact same colors I have planned to use for my MIL's felted handbag. It's Paton's (make) but I can't remember the type (model?). It is only $4.99/skein and it is in the perfect colors. It sounds too good to be true. I must do some research and find out if this wool is any good for felting, or if it'll be a pain in the butt. I'd rather pay more and go out of my way for ease and guaranteed results on my first felting project.
I am dying to take some pictures of my alpaca scarf project, but my batteries are dead. Hopefully soon.
After I frogged the "sock" I immediately casted on for my mom's scarf. I'm using some of the Misti Alpaca and a bamboo size 11 circ. I think I'm in love. After knitting man-made fiber with those teeny tiny sock needles, knitting alpaca with this bamboo is a dream. And the pattern is icing on the cake--I adore the way that the stitches sit in groups on the needle, and the way the soft rows pass through my hands beneath the needles as I knit. I totally got into a rhythm yesterday and flew through about 7 rows of the pattern (a 202 stitch cast-on) when disaster struck. I got to the end of a row and didn't have enough stitches left to make the last repeat. Oh, shit. So I start to count back, trying to find where I went wrong, and I see it. It couldn't have been stitch #196 or even #168. Ohhhhh no. This was stitch # 2. Zero zero two. No biggie, there's still about 40 minutes 'til Sopranos starts, I can just undo the row. That works for about 15 minutes, and then I dropped a stitch. Now, I'm not great at picking up stitches in regular stockinette or garter, much less this pattern. So it starts to run. The more gingerly I held it, the more elusive the stitch definition became, and it began to just melt before my eyes. I couldn't even distinguish proper rows anymore, it was such a mess. Being the novice that I am, and the only knitter I know (with no one to ask for advice), I frogged it. All friggin 6 rows. But I didn't care. I am so in love with the pattern, I just casted on (does anyone else get bored to tears counting cast-on stitches? Under 75 or so isn't so bad, but I felt like I needed a nap by the time I got to 202. Next time I'll place stitch markers every 25 or 50 so I don't have to keep recounting all of them, and just take the stitch markers off the first time I get to them.) and just started right back up again. I looked this pattern up on-line and found out that it is sometimes called a "Trinity Stitch". Here is the basic 4 row pattern repeat, for a multiple of 4 stitches +2 :
Row 1: Purl across.
Row 2: K1, (P3tog, M3), K1
Row 3: Purl across.
Row 4: K1, (M3, P3tog), K1
What I looked up on-line was how to do the M3. When I've seen the (M) in patterns before it usually requires you to pick up the "bar" in between 2 stitches and knit into it, thereby "making" a stitch. But since this was M3, I knew that wasn't going to work. As it turns out, M3 in this pattern means to K1, P1, K1 all into the same stitch. It is a beautiful pattern, and the P3tog's make what looks like tiny blackberries in this yarn color (which also complements my skin tone very nicely, a great thing when you're spending hours a day looking at it. Yes, I have to stare at this pretty consistently lest we have another 6 row frog). I absolutely adore everything about this project, and I'm thinking of knitting one for every woman in my family. Speaking of which, the Michael's craft store nearest me now carries 100% wool in the exact same colors I have planned to use for my MIL's felted handbag. It's Paton's (make) but I can't remember the type (model?). It is only $4.99/skein and it is in the perfect colors. It sounds too good to be true. I must do some research and find out if this wool is any good for felting, or if it'll be a pain in the butt. I'd rather pay more and go out of my way for ease and guaranteed results on my first felting project.
I am dying to take some pictures of my alpaca scarf project, but my batteries are dead. Hopefully soon.
posted by Brenna at 12:18 PM
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