Progress……of a sort

Firstly, I’ve discovered that Tivoli Ocean is not dye fast and that tinking back with this yarn is……challenging ><

 

Secondly, I really like top down construction. 

 

The beginning of the right front

 

Being modelled by the blond bomb

 

Looking more like a garment as opposed to an octopus

 

The area I'm not happy with.....

 

When the pattern required me to cast on 7 stitches, I mentally shrugged and obediently followe the instructions.

[I know that doesn't sound very much like me but even I can follow instructions without deviation........once]

 

These 7 stitches eventually made sense and became part of the ‘collar’.

 

Now that I’m familiar with how this part of the pattern goes I’m going to frog it & start again.

 

I just don’t like how the seamed part of the collar will look. Turquoise melded to gunmetal grey. Urgh.

 

And yes..I am picky.

 

It’ s my hobby/obsession/procrastination device/future career so I’l indulge my perfectionistic streak.

 

[It beats unleashing it on anything or anyone else in my life. *pushes away image of teen bedroom/bathroom*]

 

 

Project the 11th Progress

The fabric is curling a newborn. This will abate once the final project has been blocked [prays to any and all knitterly fates to play nice & not make a liar of me on this point.]

This isn’t the colourway I first  opted for  in the store. This is the colourway that there were enough skeins of for me to make the entire project with.

Regardless of the fact that I knit, I am not a patient person, especially when I want to cast on for a project. I’ll order a more cheerful colourway for the next incarnation of this project.

So far so good with it, apart from the fact that Tivoli Ocean, being loosely plied, tends to unravel at the merest touch. It also has a halo (fibres which radiate out from the central strand), so it tends to tangle if it needs to be tinked.

I don’t recommend this yarn for newbies or for those with low tolerance for splitty yarns. This yarn will irk you beyond all that is seemly and cause otherwise mild mannered denizens to turn the air around them blue with choice swear words [......or maybe that's just me......]

At this point I’ve reached sleeve shaping. This is a top down garment so I’ll be able to try it on as I go & make appropriate adjustments [to the garment....not me :p ]

For everyone sitting exams at the moment, good luck, keep calm, get enough sleep, eat enough & remember, you’re awesome no matter what grades you get.

 

Minarets Smoothly Rebuilt

Progress since 2nd frogging

Taking into account the fact that I’ve been out & about, as well as painting a hallway & part of a bathroom, I’m quite happy with this.

Now for the ‘smooth’ part of my blog post……it’s the time of year for the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit. The link will take you to a page explaining the whys & what nots. They have a cool Big Knit Kit & I heartily suggest that you have a look through some of their Hats of the Week.

Anyhow, back to this blog, Hazel, Sarah (Froodie) and I are now on a tiny hat knitting jag.

Behold!

My first little hat

Hat the First!

I have my work cut out to match the effort of my fellow SnB’ers!

 

Minarets meltdown

After nigh on 20 years of knitting I have discovered something new about my knitterly self……..I dislike reading knitting charts. This is quite an irksome state of affairs as, not only are charts becoming more popular in knitting patterns in general, but one also figures in the Minarets pattern that I’m currently working on.

This is proving to be a challenging knit!

By about 6 rows into the charted portion of the pattern repeats I decided I couldn’t ignore how unhappy I was with the less than stellar quality of the outcome. If I’m going to plow umpteen hours of my life into a project, I want it to at least look good &, since the garment is destined to be worn by me, to have at least an 80% chance of actually being worn.

Thus, I tinked.

When one knits backwards, it is known as tinking.

K.N.I.T  | T.I.N.K

So stitch by stitch I tinked back about 6 rows.

I tried to knit up a swatch to test whether it’s the chart at fault or my processing of it. No luck.

So I did the next best thing & knit the 29 rows of the chart on one pattern repeat of the garment.

Triumphed over chart!

 

I did it!

It looks as it’s meant to.

Reading the chart still doesn’t make complete sense to me, but now at least I know I’ll get there with it.

Eventually!

 

New Project: Minarets

The Knitter - Issue 21

 

Stitch Markers Galore!

This design is by Sarah Hatton.

It’s probably the girliest thing I’ve opted to craft for myself in a while.

It goes well now that the foundation rows have been established.

The green and orange threads are stitch markers. They were required over the first few rows so that I didn’t end up in a complete heap while trying to get my plains and purls in order.

I’ve followed the pattern faithfully so far & don’t plain to adjust anything…….yet. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m using Paton’s Smoothie DK for this. It handles well & is a dream to knit with. 

It’s a bottom up design, worked in one piece to the armhole, then divided for the back and fronts.