Frog, Fix or Finish

I learned to weave two years ago.  I've woven four scarves and a cover for a throw pillow.  Beth brought the book, Kismet, into the shop and I loved how they combined knitting and crochet with weaving. I chose Wine & Roses,  an infinity scarf. I enjoy mixed media project.  

I had two skeins of Ella Rae Lace Merino Chunky (Bulky:100% Merino, 121 yards) and one skein of Jill Draper Makes Stuff Hudson (Worsted: 100% Merino, 250 yards).  The chunky yarn isn't really chunky and was close enough (for me) to the Hudson. 

 

The first new thing I had to do was weave in allllll the warp threads.  Not fun.  That's why it went into hibernation.  I knew I wanted to finish this so I forced myself to weave in the ends one morning.

 

 

 

 Tucker had other plans.  He was feeling needy because his Momma (Thing #2) was dog sitting a puppy at our house. He rarely tries to sit on my lap and never for very long; he has a very short attention span.  Would you believe he sat on my lap for an hour!

 

I kind of liked the puppy cuddles so I went with it.  I did get a little bored though and took a few "selfies" with him.

When he finally got fidgety himself, I got back down to business.

Once I finished weaving in the warp threads, the directions called for picking up stitches and knitting in moss stitch for 15".  I crocheted across the bottom to make a nicer pick up edge.  Then being that I am a selective reader, I did seed stitch instead of moss stitch.  By the time I realized, I wasn't going back.  Seed Stitch vs. Moss Stitch in a scarf - not a deal breaker.

Life being what it is, I did find six random acts of ribbing 3" down that I did have to fix though. I used the fixastitch knitting tool to work the seed stitch up. I did a yarnover bind off to create button loops.

With the yarn I have left over, I'd like to knit the Lucy Hat. Hopefully I have enough, because I think the hat/scarf combo would be awesome.

Frog, Fix or Finish

Thing #2 has been on me for years (exactly how many is a source of constant discussion) to knit her a black lace sweater.  She claims I promised her.  I know I would NEVER promise a black lace sweater.  However, she put on the guilt about never getting a sweater.  It's been a long time coming.

I finally found the pictures that spawned the idea in the first place.

Thing #2 was shopping with her BFF and texted me these pictures.  For the record, my computer shows November 2011.  She claims it's been more like 4 or 5 years. 

Given that she felt that I promised, I settled on Cascade Ultra Pima (DK: 100% cotton, 220 yards) and swatched. I tried out Sweater Wizard to generate a pattern for her.  (Jury is out on Sweater Wizard). By Hanukkah, I had all the pieces done.  I gave it to her in pieces for Hanukkah, I needed to check sleeve length.

Feeling that I'd gotten the ball rolling and it was winter, I set the sweater aside.  There it sat in a Hanukkah gift bag for the past 5 months.  I finally shook off the dust and measured the sleeve length against her arm.

I knit it a little longer, than happily bound off and blocked it.  I was feeling very happy with myself. Both in blocking and sewing, I noticed that the sleeve width was much narrower than the sweater. 

I just kept sewing away, gathering it in - not listening to the little voice that said "Something is just not right." (You get points if you know what book this came from.)

Still feeling quite happy with myself, I laid the sweater prominently so she would see it right away.  She did.  However when she tried it on, the sleeves were WAY too tight.  You're not surprised are you? Ready for the major knitting faux pas?  This is a doozy.  I forgot to knit the sleeve cap.  DUH!

I had to frog it, and begin again.  Just the sleeves that is.  I am determined to finish this.  I'm working them at the same time to insure they are even.  Cross your fingers.

Frog, Fix or finish

I knit this sweater t-shirt 3 years ago, it's called Miley tee.  I think I've worn it all of two times.  The reason being it sat shorter than I liked and the neckline kept slipping backwards down my back.  For years I've thought about fixing it.  Since it was knit from the top down, this is not a problem, at least for the length that is.

To remedy the length, it was a simple matter of undoing the bind off. Thankfully, it was easy to find the tail and pick it out. Oh, did I mention that I picked up an extra skein of the yarn?  Silky Wool (DK: 45% Wool, 35% Silk, 20% Nylon, 192 yards).  The dyelot was ever so slightly different so I alternated rounds between the working yarn of the sweater and the new skein.  Given that it is top down, I was able to try it on to determine the desired length.  Yes, in answer to your question, I did this when I knit it and thought it was fine.  Bygones. I added about 3" in length.

Since I had leftover yarn, I decided to lengthen the sleeves; from the school of "If you give a mouse a cookie" otherwise known as the "while we're at it" factor. I weighed the remaining yarn on a food scale and split the yarn evenly into two balls.

The sleeves were less forgiving in finding the tail of the bind off.  I wove it in to damn well; I had to snip the bind off.  I hated to do it, but I figured I could use the little bits for fixing the neckline.

The sleeves needed a good 4" more to bring it past the elbow. A far more attractive place on my arm, I can tell you that much! I also decided to decrease the sleeve width by an inch's worth of stitches.  In order to do the math, I had to follow the following steps (I actually wrote it down to share):

1. measure stitch gauge. 5 sts/1" round up to 6 sts.
2. measure row gauge. 10 rnds/1"
3. 6 sts/2 = 3 decrease rnds (keep it even).
4. 10 rnds x 4" = 40 rnds.
5. 40 rnds/3 = decrease every 13 rnds 3x.

 When I finished the first sleeve and bound off, I didn't fasten off in case I didn't have enough yarn for the second sleeve. Allowing for Murphy's Law and not trusting the scale (must be a female thing). Thankfully I did have enough, with some to spare.  Somewhere a long the line a random little ball of yarn appeared.  Must've been yarn elves.

Now, the neckline.  The main impetus behind finishing the sweater now versus anytime within the past 3 years was a little helpful hint I learned from Chris Bylsma in a class I took at TNNA (The National Needlework Association). She explained that when you have an especially wide v-neck, the back of the neck will slip backwards.  To fix that, she suggest working a slip stitch chain along the base of the neck.  Brilliant.

That's exactly what I did.

Post Script: The sleeves were a little shy of where I wanted them to fall and I did have that extra bit of yarn.  I lengthened the ribbing with what I had left using up practically every last bit of the yarn.

Meanwhile, the beasty boys basked in the sun.