Category Archives: gauge

Top-down seamless cardigan

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With all that top-down-seamless-making-it-up-as-I-go cardigan button angst, I decided to go with the mustard buttons.

I had the perfectly matched sleeveless shell to wear with it.

Instead of sewing on the buttons, I used these tiny codder ( or are they cotter) pins that were in some of the button boxes from iPad aunt.  The button shank was long enough to fit through the knitted button band so I could wiggle the codder pin through it.  No tedious sewing and I can change out the buttons as I wish!

Plus I decided to just go with three buttons.

The pin nestles right into the knitting.

I love this sweater.  The colors played well together and from a distance, it looks like a solid color.  The Debbie Bliss Mia yarn felt good in my hands.  The color did bleed a bit.

The “false” seam kept the sweater from twisting.  I just did a line of reverse stockinette at the “seam” line.

The thing I don’t love is the fit.  Yes, I tried it on as I knit but after soaking and blocking, the sweater grew.

My swatch was five inches to the inch but I think I swatch too tightly (just want to get it done!) and when I’m knitting, I’m more relaxed.  This ended up being four stitches to the inch.  So it’s a bit large.  Like six inches too large.

And it stretched throughout the day.  The neckline was almost to the edge of my shoulder!

Other than starting over, I’m at a loss as to a solution. I don’t have any problems ripping it all out and starting over with fewer stitches, especially knowing that I have enough yarn.

Seems like I’m batting ZERO so far this year with sweaters that fit.

What would you do?  Rip or ???

 

And another one bites the dust

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The Shaadi Mitts I began last January then restarted them because they were too large (even with the right gauge) are no more.

shaadi-mitts

The pattern notes indicated that these mitts are challenging and I thought I was up to the task.  Well, sometime last spring I lost my knitting mojo and allowed them to languish in my knitting basket for months and months.

shaadi-mitts-july-2016

And when I picked them up again, I forgot about how to hold the dominant yarn vs background yarn.

shaadi-mitts-004-1

The dominant yarn color goes under the background yarn color where as the receding (background) yarn color goes over.  It doesn’t seem like it would be that important but it is.  Very.

shaadi-mitts-003-1

The longer strand of yarn is the one under the shorter upper yarn which makes the longer yarn stand out more.  The shorter upper yarn pushes the longer strand out.

shaadi-mitts-003-12

You can see here that the purl stitches recede in the lower section but are more prominent in the upper section where I reversed the dominant and receding yarns.  For a better explanation visit these sites: Knitting Daily, Paper Tiger, and Ysolda Teague.

shaadi-mitts-003

On the front side the circles and spirals appeared smaller in the last sections.  This was all due to yarn dominance.

shaadi-mitts-004

shaadi-mitts-004-5

(Oops!  I misspelled spiral.)

Then I screwed up the Bavarian twisted stitch.

shaadi-mitts-003-5

The mitts were still huge and I just wasn’t having any fun knitting them anymore.  What do you do about a unfun project?  Let it hibernate, rip it out, continue with the drudgery or throw it away?

Good-bye Shaadi Mitts.  Maybe another time.

shaadi-mitts-005

Got gauge?

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I had nothing on my needles so I decided to knit a swatch for this sweater. 

Knit Simple Button Cardigan Fall 2008

The pattern calls for a bulky weight and I bought Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, a worsted weight yarn.  I forgot about that bit of important information when I decided to knit this  sweater with the WOTA yarn I planned to use for another pattern.

Papaya Heather

Knitting a 4 x 4 swatch would be very important.  Gauge is 17 stitches to 22 rows.

I started with the recommended size 10 US needles and got 16 stitches to 20 rows.  Not close enough for the time investment in this project.   After completing the Musica Mitts using fingering weight yarn, size 3 US needles and colorwork, I must have loosened my grip on the yarn and needles.

So I knit another swatch using size 9 US needles.

Got gauge.  Joy.

Sell or donate? Pattern decision

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I really need to and want to declutter.  I kind of got of track the past week or so but am determined to start back up again by going through one drawer or cabinet a day.

I want to reap some monetary benefit from all this stuff and have a yard/garage sale with but that takes a lot of time (and help).  Do you find it better to donate or hold a sale?

My goal is to finish part of the basement for a proper craft room where I can organize all the many materials I use and to also have a place for my kids and grandkids to be crafty.

I decided to knit different sweater/shell/tank out of the Cascade Ultra Pima. 

Lace hem Topping from Creative Knitting July 2008 issue

It’s from Creative Knitting magazine July 2008 issue and it’s featured on the cover.  The yarn is supposed to be a worsted weight (same problem I have with the Eileen shell from No Sheep for You) but since this isn’t supposed to be knitted as tight as the Eileen, I decided I can use a knitting gauge/stitch converter and still make it fit.  What a FABULOUS tool this converter is!  As it turns out this converted to the exact stitch count for a larger size so I can knit this without having to blindly convert the shaping !