Sometimes it seems to me that the entirety of a knitting life must involve careening from one knitterly mistake to the next. Some are not so silly--a consequence of pushing the envelope of one's skills, trying a new technique or stitch; some are GALLING--how many times while following a pattern for something knit in the round have I read the admonition to join, taking care not to twist stitches? And yet....
Well, last week's silly mistake was on the order of the latter. I started a sleeveless child's frock using a variation of the Chinese Lace pullover I've been working on. I had gone back and forth on which yarn to use: Classic Elite's Provence in Japanese Lilac (also used for this project), at around 5 sts per inch, or diVe Cotone Egitto (which I'm using for the Chinese Lace pullover) in cream, at around 6 sts per inch? I cast on 242 sts and worked for several inches before I realized that, while I had calculated the number of stitches for the Cotone Egitto, I had at the last minute decided to use the Provence--meaning this baby was going to be four or five inches too large in circumference.
If I had had a 6-year-old girl handy, I might have just kept going, but I only have a 3 1/2-year-old, and she (my lovely grand
daughter*) is only visiting for another week. Not wanting to start over, I decided instead to cut out 2 pattern repeats. So on the next round I put the first 2 pattern repeats on some waste yarn. I worked two more rounds, skipping the held stitches, and then, using sewing thread, I hand-stitched up and down the rows, a couple of stitches away from where I would cut out the extra piece, trying to make sure I caught all those slippery cotton strands.
Did I mention that this was my first steek? Here it is after cutting; luckily, all of the strands held firmly. I then seamed as I normally would, from the right side, and below is the result: not bad, not bad at all. Of course it's a different story when viewed from the wrong side, even though I trimmed the yarn ends as closely as I dared, and will flatten the seam forcefully when blocking.
This episode did make me realize something: while I'm happy to give the finished dress to my granddaughter, and chose the size so that it would fit her, it is first a pattern prototype, and second a gift. If the gifting was the first priority, I would have taken a deep breath, frogged and started over. Is that kind of sad? I'm still trying to decide.
STILL coming soon--okay, realistically I have to say sometime in August--the pattern for the Chinese Lace pullover.
Ummm...in a moment of masochistic math geekiness, I just calculated the total number of stitches needed to make the sample for my pattern (due in September) for Big Girl Knits 2: at 49 inches around and 22 inches long, with three-quarter length sleeves, at a ball band gauge (eep! I haven't even made a swatch yet!) of 23 sts/30 rows per 4 inches, or 43 1/8th sts per square inch, I got...58,908 3/4 stitches. Dear Lord. I feel faint. Better make that August or September for Chinese Lace.
*Vanity compels me to add that while I am, strictly speaking, old enough to be a grandmother, Caroline is the daughter of my husband's daughter from a previous marriage.
That was an ingenious and gutsy solution to your problem. Re: knitting in the round, I have made the twisting mistake so many times that now I almost always knit the first several rows back and forth before joining, which just leaves a half inch or so of seaming to tidy up at the end.
Posted by: Kristen | July 10, 2006 at 03:57 PM