I finally finished Mikey’s Bob Dobbs Sweater (with a skull pattern instead of Bob). I will be posting a picture as soon as it is washed and dried…which should not be such a feat since I can stick it in a machine!
I finished my Spiral Doily from yarnover.net. Its been washed, blocked and doing its job on top of our end table for about a week. I even took a picture, which I will post this weekend with details of the adventure it was, if it kills me.
And now, instead of finishing that second Red Sox sock, I of course picked up another project on my “Future Projects” List. The Emma Jacket from Knit Picks. I am about 65% done with it now, which means I post entirely too slowly for my knitting. Or it means I don’t post enough. But, I do have some beef with this pattern…it only cost me 1.99 for it, so I probably shouldn’t have any gripes…but, it isn’t very clearly written and it took a lot of time on my part to figure out what I was supposed to do, when I was supposed to do it and how the outcome of it would be.
Of course it helped when I figured it was being knit from the bottom up…with every other seamless sweater I’ve knitted, its been top down…had to switch modes there. Once I figured that out it was almost smooth sailing. Then I had to find out on my own after increasing for 2 inches I had to add the first short row, then after I had knit 4 inches total I needed to add the second short row…all the while increasing. Then after I had knitted and increased 6.5 inches of fabric, I was to put the increasing on hold while I did the waist shaping. Then continue on with the increasing until I was done with the increasing.
I started out increasing to the total stitches I needed, then doing short rows and then having a big ‘?’ mark on my face when I got to waist shaping and yeah…total confusion ensued! After some creative math, that took about half a day to do, I figured out how I should have knit it, ripped back almost all the way for the third time (third times a charm) and knit it correctly. What could have prevented this big confusion folks? A simple sentence, something to this affect:
Continue with next steps of the pattern (short rows, etc.) while alternating knit and increase rounds until you have reached the Total Number of Body Stitches.
Would have had that magic light bulb light up in my head if that sentence was there instead of:
Alternate knit and increase rounds until you have reached the Total Number of Body Stitches.
Followed by the instructions for short rows.
Sleeves were uneventful, except for the fact that I decided to venture out and knit both sleeves at the same time, its kind of like double knitting without crossing the yarn to bring the fabric together. So, instead of having a thick sleeve, I have two sleeves knitted at once. You can find a great tutorial in this Knitty article that explains how to do that, thus ending second sock and second sleeve syndrome:
Extreme Knitting: 2 Socks in 1
Pictures were taken of that also and I will be posting about this in a more detailed post this weekend as well.
After the Emma Jacket, its off to do either Snow White or the Gray Flannel bag from “Pursenalities.” Two projects that I am extremely excited to dive into after this jacket is finished. I must say though despite all the beef, this jacket is turning out nicely so far.
So, here is what it is looking like right now, pre-skull motif.
Its all knitted up, all stitches grafted in the appropriate places.
When Mikey tried it on…it looked as though the neck was very awkward. It came up very high on his neck. I don’t quite get why because I followed the pattern and pattern errata exactly…which required me to frog back at times, because I hadn’t followed part of it right. I also made sure to take his measurements before starting on the project, so I know I knitted the correct size.
When I got to the neckline, I noticed the stitch count was off, although I checked my stitch count constantly and it even matched up in the parts of the pattern leading up to the neckline…so I’m thinking there is more errata there that hasn’t been discovered yet…either that or I missed something major…both possibilities are very realistic. Anyhow, when I reached this point, I decided to continue, but for the stitch count I had. I had two options there, continue on for the stitch count I had or add an extra row that would make me decrease the number of stitches in the front of the vest. I went with what made sense to me and I probably should have decreased in the first row to get the stitch count I needed. C’est la vie!
Right now, this vest is sitting on the kitchen table for a little bit, before I muster up the courage to frog the neckline and start over on it. I don’t like re-knitting stuff and really its not the re-knitting, its the re-grafting of the neckline facing. The first time, took a lot of patience and concentration and it took a fair amount of time to do since I’m not an expert at it yet. Don’t get me wrong, I love how the neckline facing looks all done and pretty, its just a lot of work to graft it down.
I have found Cotton Ease really easy to deal with. I wasn’t sure if I was sold on it when I bought it, but its working quite well. So its a nice, cheap alternative to other yarns you could use for this pattern.
In the meantime, I’m going to start on this doily pattern, because we need one for one of our side-tables in our living room. Its time for a side project…and I really don’t want to get started on the other Red Sox sock, cause the first one was really boring to knit.
