Quick picture
I have a quick minute to show how the grafting came out. 
Please forgive the graininess of the picture. Again with the no camera and using my cell phone for the shots. This was taken by Tesseract84, since she knew that I would never get around to it myself in a speedy fashion. So the moment I took the lifelines out and tried it on to check the new length, she said “Give me your phone! No excuses not to get it on the blog!” So here it is.
If this was taken with any real camera, you’d be able to see where my extra stitches are still in place. They need to be tinked back one by one since I am ripping from the bottom and can’t just give it a nice pull to do it in one swoop. Yes, I am holing the top in place, but this time it is because the picot edge hasn’t been sewn down and curls beyond belief. This is quite an improvment in length over how it used to be, and once I clean up the stitches and finish the edge, this sweater will actually be worn and not just keeping a box warm.
This experience has also inspired me to do a real tutorial of ribbed grafting. This will be a long-ish work in progress, but I will try to show multiple methods on how to graft the ribbing. Pictures and written descriptions will be given, and the pictures will be from a real camera.. not the iPhone. Hopefully I can follow through with that idea and get it up quickly!
Antici…..pation
Look! A promise I’ve not broken! Not only that, but I am posting the next day. I took some wonderfully cruddy pictures of what I am doing with my iPhone. No camera, so it will have to do. I’m not gunning for the newest knitting star or anything, I just feel I have something to share and until I do it again, this is going to have to do.
Upper left you can see the big picture. You can see the lifeline that has been threaded through the old Girl and the live pink stitches on the needle on the new bottom. You can also see to the right in this picture where I’ve already grafted some of the ribbing together, as well as two cables. Yes, I’ve actually gotten some completed!!
Below, you can see up close what I’ve done and exactly where the stitches were grafted. I know better than to pull out my lifeline immediately after doing something for the first time, especially when there is more cutting to be done! What you can’t see which is further to the right in the close up picture (out of frame) is where I was trying to figure out what I was doing and my gauge is painfully obvious that something (grafting) is going on.
Now that I know what I am doing, it is a breeze.
The hard stuff: Trying to figure out which row I was on, at the same time as knowing which row to cut on the original, at the same time and knowing which row was being grafted. For instance, when you graft in an 8 row pattern, one row has to be completely removed, because the grafting will replace it. For me, this was row 1. I also wanted to make sure I had enough rows in case I screwed something up, so instead of threading a line in row 2 on the original and cutting row 1, I thread 2 rows below 1 and was going to trace row 1 with my new yarn. At first this was very difficult. I had no idea where I was going, and teal looks like teal, no matter which row it is. This is why my live row is pink. I always knew where I was supposed to go on the bottom.
If I were to do this again, I would have taken out row 1 entirely. I can easily figure out which way to thread the “live” stitches to create both knits and purls if I don’t have anything there, but it was much harder to try to follow where I was supposed to go at first. After an hour and about 15 stitches, I figured it out and can now speed through it in no time.
So, is this a tutorial? …No. Maybe another time when I am not trying to quickly graft between bouts of screaming toddler. But for now, it is a very long statement that it can be done, it just takes a bit of concentration at first.
Grafting Ribbed Knitting
Yeah, I know. I promised to update more and here I am SEVEN months later…. The fact of the matter is that as a mom of a very busy toddler who does not have an off button, I barely have time to knit, let alone keep up my blog about knitting. On top of that, I needed to be inspired to post, and not just the “Oo! Look! I finished some medeocre project and I can post all these notes that are probably going to be on Ravelry even though I have no time to post the pictures to go with them” type of post. The posts would ahve been all words and unfulfilled promises of pictures, followed by an eventual photo dump. This does not make for a good blog. There was the sheep shearing day that I went to in November (I think), the 4lbs of freshly shorn wool that I bought, and the washing of some of said wool. The problem is… time. I was able to wash a fraction of it, but I have not been able to flick or comb any of the washed section, and only for Christmas was given my first drop spindle. This means there is no lovely progression of posts, and would have left many (ok.. few) a reader slightly annoying and at a cliff hanger.
So… why am I posting this? Well. I have something BIG to post about. Kitchner stitch. Anyone who knits socks top down has probably done this. I’ve done this on a few sweaters. Not a big deal. Unless….. you’re “kitchener-ing” 1×1 rib with a 9 stitch cable in the middle. On an entire sweater. In 2007 I knit the Gatsby Girl Pullover, and it was my first sweater I ever knit. Yep, I’m proud of that fact. There is a problem though. I knit this in July before becoming pregnant. California + July = that photo shoot was done in 2 minutes because I was MELTING!!!! I got pregant before it got cold and thus I wore it once. It was already just shy of being too short. In the pictures, my hands are placed on the bottom holding it so it looked like it fit. I tried. Really. But the fact is I had a baby, and after 17 months there is no denying that my body is different. I’m happy, seriously, but sad that my first sweater has been hidden in a box since it was made. I want to wear it.
Undoing tha cast on and knitting down was not going to work because of the ribbing. My knits and purls would be about a half stitch off. Unraveling the whole thing isn’t going to work because 1. It means I don’t have my first sweater in the technical sense, and 2. …Really?!?! I’m not undoing a whole sweater dammit. So I have taken it upon myself to stat over with the 1.25 balls of yarn I have left and knit for ~3.5 inches, CUT (yes, with scissors. Permanantly.) the bottom of the Girl, and graft the old with the new to make the old longer and wearable. I’ve searched for tutorials on grafting ribbing, and to be honest, the resources are lacking. My post, while long and rambly, will probably not enhance those resources. However I thought this was something that I could really talk about. Something not so run of the mill, and something that might inspire the one or two many readers I have left to do something ballsy with their own knitting.
I’ve already knit the new bottom, and I’ve already threaded my lifeline on the old Girl. I also already cut. Yep. I did it. I didn’t need wine, I didn’t need to cackle like a mad woman, I just found a stitch and sliced. The method I am doing to get this grafting done is to follow what’s already there. I left more on the old Girl than I need and am following old stitcheswith my grafting yarn. On the new bottom, I had knit an extra row in bright pink yarn, and am following where that goes with the grafting yarn. Following and keeping track with the pink is much MUCH easier than trying to figure out where I am with the old yarn. Actually, just making entirely new stitches is easier than following the old yarn, but I’ve already started so that is what I have to go with.
And this is where I leave you.. to want pictures. I’m hoping this goes smoothly, and there WILL be photos showing some of the work. Can’t promise when, but they will be here.
Long Lost Update
Well, hello there, little knitting journal. Log time, no nothing. So the big news that’s been keeping me away from typing, and knitting for that matter is that we bought a house. It was a forclosure that needed work. It wasn’t a heck of a lot, but it was when there were only 2 of us… and a wee one. Working on the place took all our free time, and Little One was at the start of her mobile phase in an old place that wasn’t baby-proof and a new place that was… under construction. Not fun times. I think knitting took a back seat for at least a month. That along wth my teaching that was scheduled on the same night as my local knitting group, I was really out of the knitting loop (ba-da ting!). I began sitting in on classes at the end of February, and my last class of this series is next week, so hopefully I’ll be back in knitting soon.
Since my lack of posting, I knit a pari of socks, Venus, and a scarf from some lush alpaca. Venus didn’t turn out quite right. I need to rip part of it out to make it fit. I’ve been trying to work on projects that if I am interupted 5 times a minute, I am not going to lose my place and have no idea how to get back. Simple things. Small things. Which leads me to my current state. I have no idea what to knit now. I’m still getting use to this alien body and learning what will/won’t work. Previously, I could make whatever I wanted, and would rock it. Now….. I have to put more thought into it. Which has turned me into a process knitter instead of a progress knitter. I like to knit lace, but honestly… when in my mom life will I wear a nice lace shawl? Purses and bags are good stash busters, but I have so many bags I store them in a giant bin. I don’t need to add to it. My hip length hair does not fit under hats, so those are out. And growing up in balmy South Florida, I never really got the concept of scarves. I guess I’m stumped and just need to figure out where to go from here with my knitting.
I’m still glancing at my yarns, and pet that angora I have, and lust after a project epiphany, but for now…..
Socks and Feet
Those socks I previously posted about? I think they are done. I think my big problem was that my needles were too small and my gauge was too tight. As I was taking a break to think about the socks, I cast on with some scrap Bunny Hop yarn that I had left over and improvised a pair of ribbed baby legwarmers. Can we say easy? They are very cute, and Baby A looks so adorable wearing them. I think I may have to knit a few more pairs. I think I finished them on Monday, and didn’t put anything new on the needles. I needed a bit of a break. I know, I know.. shocking.
Last night I decided it was time. I really want to knit a pair of socks where I follow a pattern instead of my usual casting on and going with whatever comes to my mind. I pulled out my New Pathways For Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi and started flipping through. I’ve decided to use the Riverbed Master Pattern and make the Rushing Rivulet Socks. In the book, it has all these calculations to get the perfect fitting sock. One part it says to measure the length of your foot by using a ruler and standing against a wall. I had Mr A help me with his tape measure. And because I already knew that my right foot is slightly bigger than my left, I decided to feed my curiosity and have him measure both. 1/2″. My right foot is an entire 1/2″ bigger than my left. That is half a shoe size! When I buy shoes, I have to try them on both feet to see if they are too loose on one foot, too tight on the other, or both. When I buy dance shoes, because fit is so important, I really do have to shell out at least $40 extra and buy two different sized pairs. I had Mr A check his feet, and they were nearly exact!
I think this just may break my of doing 2 at once socks. Maybe I should have a designated L and R sock so that they really can both fit perfectly.
So how common is this? People, measure your feet and tell me the discrepancy! Tell me if you can beat 1/2″!
(oh yeah, I laready cast on the toes and am using Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields)
The Socks.
Yep, it’s another post about The Socks. I miss calculated the size of my socks, and once I finished increasing for the heel and began turning, I realized that these socks were going to end up being way too big. Like, cut the toes off they’re so big. Sigh. I’ve pulled one of them off the needle and ripped back to just before I began increasing. I have to rip another half inch at least back from that. I was about to pull the second sock off the needle as well so I can get them to the same point, when I got a bit down. I was just starting to get excited about these and I like turning heels because it means I’ll have socks soon! But.. the stitches are small and it’s going to be time consuming getting them back on the needles, and I have to do all the increasing all over again. And.. I really don’t think I’m ready to tackle this at the moment. Sad as it is, I think I need to have my first ever UFO hang out in my stash drawers while I work on something else for a little bit. Maybe I need the needles back that Mr A took from me.
So in the meantime…. what to knit???
Hmm…
I must really be stressed. The middle of the day today I realized that last night I had a dream about the socks I am knitting. I dreamt that after doing a short row heel and knitting an inch into the cuff that where I had done the short rows and then began knitting around again there was the giant hole that usually occurs in a person’s first sock. It was a big hole too. And I was really bummed out.
The thing is, not only am I not yet to the heel in my sock, but I’m not even doing a short row heel….. Why must my stress present it’s self through bad knitting dreams?
The Journey, or the End?
Sometimes knitting is about the process and sometimes knitting is about the end result. And then there are the times when it’s both. Usually I have a project I am enjoying just doing and am equally excited about the finished result (Nantucket, for instance). At the moment I am working on the Toe Up Jaywalkers with Cascade Fixation. These are the first socks I have worked on in over a year and a half when Mr A stole my sock circs. (I found an Addi and am magic looping)
I must say… for some reason I am just not thrilled. Maybe the pattern isn’t right for me. Maybe the stretchy cotton isn’t fun enough. Maybe my needle is too small. Maybe I’m under too much stress because we’re about to close on Our First Home. (!!!) But I’m really not enthusiastically working on these socks, and I find myself wandering, thinking about what I can start next.
Of course I’ll be pleased when the socks are finished because, well, let’s face it. I had a sock obsessioon that began long before I even knew how to knit. I guess I’m a little disappointed in myself at the moment. It will pass.
My First Fair Isle
Earlier this evening I completed the Fair Isle drawstring bag that I was learning on at Stitches. I was already to the point of knitting in just my main color, so it was nice and relaxing to do until I came to the decreases. this was also simple and made a cool little spiral on the bottom of the bag. I must say, it has been a while since I have sewn down a picot edge, and it certainly takes a special kind of patience to do so. It looks nice, and I’m quite happy with it, but I think the anticipation was a little much and I didn’t really want to be futsing with the edge. And then there was the weaving in the ends. Not so bad, really. I just stuffed them under the floats (yes, yes.. I took the knots out first!) and made sure the stitches looked nice on the outside. This part actually went a bit faster than I thought.
So what does this bag look like?????
Ta-da!!
This is my first ever fair isle! I am so proud of it! Mr A stuck a stapler in it when I was showing it off. It also has a stuffed lion inside. It was the closest thing in reach. The colors in the picture are pretty close to actual. Hooray!
Now that the bag is complete, I’m working on the Toe Up Jaywalkers. I’ve just finished the toes and am about to start the patterned part. I am also knitting them both at once on magic loop.
Stitches West 2009
I hadn’t gotten a chance to update since my frustrations with the crochet part of the Nantucket Jacket. I took it to my Stitch n Bitch Wednesday night, and one of my friends instantly helped me figure out what was going so wrong. Before I got home, the edging around the neckline and sleeves were all finished, and my ends were woven in. It was ready to wear!!! I wore it to the City for my class on Thursday, and you bet I wore it yesterday for Stitches West. I didn’t even get inside the building and another knitter commented on it. Woo hoo!
Unlike the previous 3 years I had gone to Stitches, this year for some reason I didn’t have the itch to over load on yarn. GASP! I know. I’m still kntting my stash down, and am looking for things to do with the rest of it since I’ve eliminated nearly all of my sweater quantities of stash (that’s what knitting 6 sweaters in a row will do!), so adding more large quantities was not really in the plans. I was, however on a mission to find buttons for the Nantucket. Yes, I wore it to Stitches without buttons sewn on.
I was really excited to be taking My First Fair Isle class with Karen Alfke. I feel pretty confident in my knitting abilities. I’ve done socks, sweaters, lace, cables.. I knew it was time to move into using color, but I wanted to take a class on it instead of fumbling my distracted self through a project, unknown what the outcome will be. This class was an all day class, on Friday. It meant that when I registered we’d have to plan for Mr A to stay home and take care of baby J instead of going to work that day. In the morning as I was getting ready to leave, I was thinking “I can’t do this! I’ve never been away from her this long. I’m not going to make it to 10am!” But I got my butt inside the dew covered little Corola at 6:30am and drove south.
I met up with Aliflo, dropped some things off in her room, and went to breakfast before heading into class slightly before 8:30am. Also in class were AuntieJoJo and Braizen’s niece. In the beginning, there was lots of good information on what Fair Isle really is, where it originated, and what colors one would want to use. Karen also gave a list of suggested books, and a pattern that we were going to be using to make our draw string bag/hat. We had brought in our homework that was to start with a picot edging and 132 stitches. When given the pattern, I read ahead and noticed specical instructions if we were to have a bag instead of a hat; the eyelets to thread the drawstring through! You bet, I quickly knit those extra 5 rounds. For Fair Isle knitting, one must use BOTH hands to knit. Eep! This continental knitter had to learn English knitting. It was really tough at first, but before long I got into a nice little right handed groove. We selected little bags of colors and picked a cright color to pop. We began introducing color with some little squares in the pattern. Instantly it started looking cool. It was so fun! I could recount every second of the class, but it would end up a huge essay and probably boring for anyone not there.
During lunch I decided to see if I could find some of the books on the suggested list. I wanted to find the one that she kept referencing and showing pictures of: Ann Feitelson’s The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. Of course I had left my paper with the list in the room, so I did not know what I was looking for. I found a large booth that had many books and found what appeared to be their Fair Isle section. I flipped though a few books before what I *thought* might be the book I wanted. I flipped it open, looked at some pictures, and decided it was. It was the last of this book on the table. Woo hoo! I got in line, and even though it was 30 minutes before class was going to start up again, I barely made it back in time. Yes, the line was that long. But they were doing a good job at keeping it moving!
The rest of the class was just as great as the beginning half. We discussed steeks, floats, pinning down long floats, corrigated ribbing… I powered through, wanting to get as much of my motif finished as I could before the day was done. Karen said she wanted to look at everyone’s pieces and take some pictures of them. I was such a ham and placed my Ravelry button on the bottom corner and asked her to take a picture of mine. She already posted it to her own blog talking about her Friday at Stitches. Further acting out of character, I had Aliflo take a picture of the both of us.
(Ooo! Look at that Nantucket Jacket!)
After class was over, I gathered my things and took another lap around the Market floor, looking for another book, unsuccessfully. I didn’t buy any yarn, but enjoyed browsing. Later, a few of us spent some time enjoying drinks and snacks before I took off to come home. traffic was awful from the get go, so I turned around and got to knit and be with friends for another 1.5 hours.
I think this has to be the best Stitches I’ve been to, even though I was only down there Friday and have no plans on going back the rest of the weekend. I had an amazing class, hung out and talked with amazing people, saw amazing knitting, and got to take a break from the busy life of a mom. It was nice to be able to spend time in a bubble where the only thing on my mind was knitting. So relaxing!
