The weather has turned cool here in Texas, which makes me extra happy to have finished knitting Mr. Greenjeans in Red, pictured here in a very damp state lying brazenly on the guest room bed. I worked on it every chance I got over the weekend, which means it got grassy debris on it from sitting at the band hall waiting for errant buses to take us to band competition, and it got as bored as me, no doubt, at the annual pledge drive sermon at the UU church (I hope it enjoyed my quartet's lovely renditions of "Teach Your Children" and "You've Got a Friend (In Live Oak UU)" as much as I enjoyed belting them out). It did need a bit of blocking, to smooth out the ribbing at the bottom a bit, and to de-curl the edges of the sleeves and the neck band. The neckband did come out very nice, though, due to me actually picking up the correct number of stitches and knitting the correct number of rows. Once Mr. Greenjeans is dry, I will find and sew on a button, then wear and wear and wear! Finally I knitted something to wear that I like a whole bunch and of which I am not irritated by any parts.
Not only did I block this monster (and interestingly enough, it did not bleed out any color at all), but I finally blocked the surplice top, so perhaps nice photos of both apparel items will be available this week. The little irregularities in the neckband on this one seem much better now, and the lace panels look flatter. You may recall that the surplice top was made in naturally dyed cotton (Nashua Ecologie Cotton). It's fairly off-white, but it lost a lot of dye when I soaked it. If you make something with this yarn, be sure to wash it separately!
Frustration with Yarn
My happiness at soon having not one, but two wearable items made by me was dampened when I decided to get started on my next project. I plan to make the beautifully named "Scarf with the open and solid diamond lace edging from Weldon's, 1904" from Victorian Lace Today, out of Schaeffer Anne for my stepmother's Christmas gift. So, I hauled out my book, my needles and the yarn. I cheerfully placed the hank of yarn on my swift and started to ball it up. After trying both ends of the yarn it became very, very clear that the yarn had not been skeined skillfully. It doubled back on itself, twisted around itself, and generally did not act "nice."
But, the colorway is such a beautiful collection of shades of turquoise. I really want to use it. So, I listened to football on television for three hours and slowly but surely wound the yarn into a ball. I wish I could report that I have rewound it and am ready to swatch, but, alas. There is still 1/4 to 1/3 of the yarn left to wind. AAACK! This evening, I will see how far I get once I return home from the exciting "Festival of the Bands," which features performances by all our District's high schools and middle schools. It would be way more exciting if I hadn't already seen each of the other high schools' show at least once, and a couple of them twice. My Redwood Pagoda Lace socks will accompany me--who knows, I might get darned close to finishing them tonight!
Showing posts with label blocking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blocking. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Thoughts on Finishing
Speaking of finishing, I had almost finished blogging the photo of this yarn on Flickr when my browser aborted. Goes to show me that the glitches of the past couple of weeks are NOT over just because I feel a bit better emotionally.
So, to reconstruct my brilliant earlier thoughts...look at that yarn. Isn't it pretty? The colorway is called "Playing with Matches," and I just love the twists in it. Reminds me of the way people ply their hand-spun yarn and get that great effect of two colors changing at different times. This is one of the lovely things I got at the last Loopy Ewe sneak up. I also got two colors of Yarn Love with bamboo in it: Romance and Violets (I love violets almost as much as pansies). And to top it off I got two colors of ShibuiKnits Sock, which is incredibly soft merino. They are dusty greens and a very bright colorway with red, orange, turquoise and avocado colors.
I really want to knit with the Urban GypZ stuff, but it will have to wait its turn while I get to the shiny blue sock and holiday gift socks that must get done. Maybe when I finish Mr. Greenjeans I will do two socks at once.
Finishing
In the past week or two I have noticed multiple knitters bemoaning the fact that their knitted items were good until they did the finishing, which is when something went wrong. They are so disappointed that all their hard work led to a less-than-satisfactory product. I must admit that this has also happened to me, especially before I learned some finishing tricks.
Finishing is often neglected in knitting classes. This is inevitable in some ways, because usually the students finish projects after the actual class is over, so the teacher no longer has the student's undivided attention. That's why in an ideal world, I think, LYS owners would schedule finishing classes at least once a month, so that students would have ample opportunity to learn skills such as mattress stitch, three-needle bind-off, stretchy bind off options, grafting, skillfully sewing in sleeves, weaving in ends, and things like that.
Of course, if I designed such a class, I'd have a section on "ways to avoid icky finishing techniques." During this time I would extol the virtues of top-down knitting, circular knitting and this topic...
How to Avoid Grafting
As a grafting-challenged person (say it with me, awwwwww), I tend to do things that let me avoid that skill. That's one reason to favor toe-up socks, though a skillful three-needle bind-off can do fine for cuff-down socks unless someone has very sensitive toes.
I also would be incredibly pleased if designers, especially designers of long lace shawls, would change from having you knit two halves then graft them in the center to using a provisional cast-on and knitting from the center outward in each direction. That is so much easier and less likely to end up with some ruined lace. True, some directional patterns would need to be re-done to go the other way and other just wouldn't work starting from the center and going down, but lots of shawls would be fine done the way I describe. I know I have converted more than one item, myself!
Blocking
There is one more important finishing technique that sometimes gets neglected, and that is blocking. I know some people never block knitting. I guess if you are a polyester lover you rarely have to! Of course you need to block lace, but cotton, wool and other natural fabrics of all types can benefit from blocking. That is why I NEED to block the surplice top I "finished" a few weeks ago. It really won't be "finished" until I take the time to block it a bit, especially around the collar edge and lace section. It will lie down better and have the "swing" it should have, once I block it.
Now I feel very guilty for watching a Weird Al Yankovitz (perhaps this is misspelled?) movie last night instead of blocking that top! Well, maybe over the weekend...that will be my next free period block of time!
Moral to this? Blocking is important. Do it. Finishing techniques matter! Learn them!
Resources:
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancy Wiseman: Very thorough reference with good illustrations.
Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters: Give Your Knitting that Professional Look by Sharon Brant: Even more thorough, but more advanced, so there is a lot of stuff to plow through.
The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Margaret Radcliffe: This is the one I use most, because it is compact and has very clear illustrations and examples.
Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Kartus: This is about fixing mistakes, but it also covers finishing mistakes. You should own this if you are not a total and complete expert.
KnittingHelp.com: If you want to see little movies and stuff so you can learn that way, this one is great. Many people are extremely devoted to this site.
So, to reconstruct my brilliant earlier thoughts...look at that yarn. Isn't it pretty? The colorway is called "Playing with Matches," and I just love the twists in it. Reminds me of the way people ply their hand-spun yarn and get that great effect of two colors changing at different times. This is one of the lovely things I got at the last Loopy Ewe sneak up. I also got two colors of Yarn Love with bamboo in it: Romance and Violets (I love violets almost as much as pansies). And to top it off I got two colors of ShibuiKnits Sock, which is incredibly soft merino. They are dusty greens and a very bright colorway with red, orange, turquoise and avocado colors.
I really want to knit with the Urban GypZ stuff, but it will have to wait its turn while I get to the shiny blue sock and holiday gift socks that must get done. Maybe when I finish Mr. Greenjeans I will do two socks at once.
Finishing
In the past week or two I have noticed multiple knitters bemoaning the fact that their knitted items were good until they did the finishing, which is when something went wrong. They are so disappointed that all their hard work led to a less-than-satisfactory product. I must admit that this has also happened to me, especially before I learned some finishing tricks.
Finishing is often neglected in knitting classes. This is inevitable in some ways, because usually the students finish projects after the actual class is over, so the teacher no longer has the student's undivided attention. That's why in an ideal world, I think, LYS owners would schedule finishing classes at least once a month, so that students would have ample opportunity to learn skills such as mattress stitch, three-needle bind-off, stretchy bind off options, grafting, skillfully sewing in sleeves, weaving in ends, and things like that.
Of course, if I designed such a class, I'd have a section on "ways to avoid icky finishing techniques." During this time I would extol the virtues of top-down knitting, circular knitting and this topic...
How to Avoid Grafting
As a grafting-challenged person (say it with me, awwwwww), I tend to do things that let me avoid that skill. That's one reason to favor toe-up socks, though a skillful three-needle bind-off can do fine for cuff-down socks unless someone has very sensitive toes.
I also would be incredibly pleased if designers, especially designers of long lace shawls, would change from having you knit two halves then graft them in the center to using a provisional cast-on and knitting from the center outward in each direction. That is so much easier and less likely to end up with some ruined lace. True, some directional patterns would need to be re-done to go the other way and other just wouldn't work starting from the center and going down, but lots of shawls would be fine done the way I describe. I know I have converted more than one item, myself!
Blocking
There is one more important finishing technique that sometimes gets neglected, and that is blocking. I know some people never block knitting. I guess if you are a polyester lover you rarely have to! Of course you need to block lace, but cotton, wool and other natural fabrics of all types can benefit from blocking. That is why I NEED to block the surplice top I "finished" a few weeks ago. It really won't be "finished" until I take the time to block it a bit, especially around the collar edge and lace section. It will lie down better and have the "swing" it should have, once I block it.
Now I feel very guilty for watching a Weird Al Yankovitz (perhaps this is misspelled?) movie last night instead of blocking that top! Well, maybe over the weekend...that will be my next free period block of time!
Moral to this? Blocking is important. Do it. Finishing techniques matter! Learn them!
Resources:
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancy Wiseman: Very thorough reference with good illustrations.
Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters: Give Your Knitting that Professional Look by Sharon Brant: Even more thorough, but more advanced, so there is a lot of stuff to plow through.
The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Margaret Radcliffe: This is the one I use most, because it is compact and has very clear illustrations and examples.
Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Kartus: This is about fixing mistakes, but it also covers finishing mistakes. You should own this if you are not a total and complete expert.
KnittingHelp.com: If you want to see little movies and stuff so you can learn that way, this one is great. Many people are extremely devoted to this site.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Shiny Green Sweater, Slightly Better
I'd been promising a better photo of the Shiny Green Sweater I finished a few weeks ago, but the one that a friend took last week still hasn't been sent to me. So, I took one for myself, in the bathroom mirror. I'd hoped the "special undergarment" I bought would look nice, but nope. I think I will get either a solid black or solid white 3/4 sleeve shirt to wear under it.
It's all wrinkled because I hadn't folded it well. I think when I am all settled from home improvements and travel in a week or two, I will reblock this, and see if I can get it to be more the size it was when it came off the needles--the sleeves hugged my arm, and the bottom hugged my hips. I think in trying to make sure the lace was well blocked, the rest stretched out.
Live and learn, only this is live and learn on expensive yarn!
In other progress, I began a cable rib top to my sock, only to find that the cable I was using made the sock not put-on-able. So, 2x2 rib it is. A nice, wearable sock. And this way I can zoom through sock #2 in planes, cars and airports, and try something fun for the next pair. One of the new ones in Knitty maybe.
As for my hair. Well, I got it re-colored yesterday and allowed my new hairdresser to put me in rollers and "set" it. I ended up looking a bit like Tammy Wynette. This photo is after it calmed down considerably. I must say it is silky and smooth.
It's all wrinkled because I hadn't folded it well. I think when I am all settled from home improvements and travel in a week or two, I will reblock this, and see if I can get it to be more the size it was when it came off the needles--the sleeves hugged my arm, and the bottom hugged my hips. I think in trying to make sure the lace was well blocked, the rest stretched out.
Live and learn, only this is live and learn on expensive yarn!
In other progress, I began a cable rib top to my sock, only to find that the cable I was using made the sock not put-on-able. So, 2x2 rib it is. A nice, wearable sock. And this way I can zoom through sock #2 in planes, cars and airports, and try something fun for the next pair. One of the new ones in Knitty maybe.
As for my hair. Well, I got it re-colored yesterday and allowed my new hairdresser to put me in rollers and "set" it. I ended up looking a bit like Tammy Wynette. This photo is after it calmed down considerably. I must say it is silky and smooth.
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