Somewhat later, after responding to toddler demands for a second breakfast…

I’ve finished the main knitting on the Baby Ull roses cardigan. I want to soak and block the body before cutting the armhole steeks, to see how much of the “embossing” effect I can get rid of. And at the moment I don’t have the energy for all that and then the finishing, so it’s resting. In the meantime I cast on for the Niebling Yahoo group KAL, the birch catkins doily. It’s reasonably easy to knit so far (mind you, I’m only up to round 31); all the hints the group had have helped with that. I find I’m getting into the “one more round” trap of wanting to keep knitting, just to watch it grow. I can see why knitting Niebling doilies seems to be addictive, judging by the people on the list. Ours is not really a doily house, so I have no idea what to do with it once I have it finished. I guess that makes me a process knitter, at least for these.

Susanna Hansson is coming to town at the end of September, and I’ve signed up for the workshop. It calls for “Knitters with experience making mittens and doing complex colour work”; given I’ve only done the one stranded piece and never knitted mittens, I guess I should knit a pair before then! I’m thinking of the endpaper mitts, or maybe the new ones from Knitting Daily, depending on what I have in my stash.

I took photos of each swatch and the hat, and will post those later. Fortunately Ravelry now allows for slurping from my blog so I don’t have to clutter up my Flickr feed with project photos. There were a lot of swatches, but those were fun (even if I did have to do a lot of practice swatches). Except for the seed stitch swatch, which was not fun.

The report on blocking was fine. I found the questions difficult to answer, since so much of what I do is because it feels right (using the intuitive side of my brain) and having to come up with the right words for explanations was a little tricky. I felt like I was trying to explain what I see, and wasn’t sure whether I found the right vocabulary. Time will tell, I guess.

Anyway, so Level 1 is more or less done. I have no idea whether I’ll pass or need to resubmit any of the swatches. If so, I hope the feedback is something I can understand and incorporate in the reknitting process, something to learn from.

At some stage I’ll probably do the next level, but for now I have a few other projects in the queue.

I think it’s an interesting comparison. No wonder it’s sometimes hard to figure out what knitters actually mean by any given term.

Bibliography:

Knitter’s

The Knitter’s Handbook: Essential Skills & Helpful Hints from Knitter’s Magazine, 2005, XRX Books.

Stanley

Knitter’s Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide to the Principles and Techniques of Handknitting, Montse Stanley, 1993, Reader’s Digest.

Vogue

Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book, 2002, Sixth & Spring Books

I’ve been trying out different methods of getting the stranding to work (with some success, despite the embossed look). I tried the “weave every second stitch” method, but that shows through too much. And then I tried weaving every 3 stitches. Since the yarn is so fine (32 stitches per 10 cm/4 in) in the end I decided to weave only on a gap or 6 stitches or more on the body, and more often on the sleeves, as that’s where the little fingers might catch.

Baby Ull cardigan

Dale Baby Ull cardigan

The photos were taken on the sundial in our front garden, while the tulips were blooming.

If you want to see what the finished article should look like, pictures are available on the Dale site (on pages 2 and 5 of the almost 3 MB PDF download) as well as Ravelry, both the pattern page and my project page.

I have the blocking report almost done, just proof-reading to go. I’m not worrying about the details too much on this one, it’s probably not my finest writing but I figure if all the useful information is there, that’s the important thing.

I have knitted and blocked the hat, just need to sew on the i-cord loops. I’ve knitted all the swatches, and blocked all but two. Except for, someone on Ravelry asked about doing traditional versus modified SSK decreases, and the answer was to do the traditional method (the one where you slip both as if to knit, whereas I usually slip the second stitch as if to purl), so I’ll have to reknit that swatch.

The major remaining items are to write up the cable pattern, answer all the questions, and fill in the tags for each swatch with the pattern information. In theory it’s doable by the end of the month, let’s see if I actually manage it. Getting over my insomnia would help.

Koolhaas hat in Malabrigo

The pattern as written works up to 16″ unstretched, which I decided wouldn’t look good when stretched to fit my 23″ head. It took a bit of swatching until I ended up with 5.5 mm needles, which result in a nice feel to the fabric in that crossed cable pattern. It ended up 18” in circumference, and stretches to 26”, which fits comfortably. If I make another one for me, I’ll do the extra repeat for the men’s size, as this one only just covers my ears.

I like the colour, and the pattern, but I don’t think they go together all that well; the colour changes override the pattern. If I knit it again I’ll knit it in a solid colour, and save the kettle-dyed yarns for a plainer pattern, like a brioche stitch or fishermen’s rib. You can see the difference on the designer’s site (or Ravelry).

It’s rated an intermediate project, which is probably fair. I found it a fairly straightforward knit; you do have to pay attention in the decrease instructions and it helps if you can cable without a cable needle, but nothing in the pattern is particularly difficult or hard to understand.

Personally I got more out of the double-knitting class, mostly because I was interested in the techniques. Lucy’s style works well for me, I like her self-deprecating comments and her notes and exercises on the handouts were clearly written. The swatches were fun, and I got Lucy’s DVD on the subject for when I want to delve more deeply.

These swatches for double knitting show a checkerboard (note that the edge is closed on one part, and open on the other), a basic tube, and a knitted-in pocket on the top swatch (note the part where the stitches are doubled, that’s the pocket-in-progress).

The tapestry with short rows class was more difficult for me. The actual technique of knitting short rows wasn’t the problem, it was the tapestry bit that I found difficult. It’s obvious that Pat and many of the people taking the class have a much stronger artistic bent than I do (I’d call myself creative rather than artistic), and some of them came up with wonderful designs. I’d need to spend a lot of time figuring out designs on paper before wanting to commit them to yarn. For the more artistic people around, I can see the techniques being inspiring and the potential results stunning. No picture of my pathetic swatch from this one, as I didn’t like it enough to want to keep it.