Lets try that again

Today - well there is the 'lets try that again' report on my lace knitting, and the - mmmmm wonder if that will work - look it does, thinking as I knit the lace project, yet another hat is finished, and more fish - another 5. Bear got vouchers from each cub for fathers day (of the tidy my room and set the table sort), and lunch was fun - Platos do such good food. And some good news - Magpie/Suzanne told me that CP needles are darned hard to loose, and my missing dpn would turn up, and she was right, a few days ago I was messaged on Ravelry "did one of my needles fall into their bag at Tuesday knitting", so yes they do appear hard to loose. But this is a knitting blog so ... on to the knitting content.


My lace knitting, I am a relatively newbie at lace, having done at most simple eyelet patterns and things with a few row only. This is my first real lace - panels of repeats, and holes and decreases that need to line up to make a pretty pattern. But - being me, even though I'm a novice - well I couldn't knit the s1k2tog, psso that was on the chart at the top of each diamond. I had to change it to a slip 2 tog as if to knit, slip back to left needle, k3 tog - so I ended up with a centered decrease not a left leaning one.

Early on I realised that life lines were needed, of course I frogged the first 6-10 rows of lace 2 or 3 times before I remembered life lines and their use. You can see the life lines here, and knitting being what it is - after I installed the life lines - well I didn't need them. Go figure. I've not completed the large chart, the one with all the gusset increases, I suspect my gauge is slightly finer than called for (nope - I have not checked, but the mitt fits so I'm close enough), so the mitt seems a closer fit than in the photos - or I have larger hands, either way I'm happy. I've put aside the gusset stitches and am now knitting lace in the round.

I've knit a few mittens in my time, and gloves, and mitts even - all had extra stitches cast on once the thumb gusset stitches were put on holders. The Wine and Roses mitt doesn't have that, you simply join the mitt in the round and keep knitting - no extra stitches. As a pattern-maker for garments - I'd describe it as flat shaping with no allowance for body depth. I'm curious here as the mitt fits, I guess the lace provides extra stretch and so extra stitches are not needed. All those yarn overs must make for a super conformable fabric.

And hats, the latest hat, the intarsia hat from the Knitters Study Group, my own design, from the hearts to the straight decreases. Now can you guess where that central decrease came from? Actually I was taught it for the BSJ and so its not part of my knit tool-kit. This hat is to small for Poppy, but after I've taken it to class next month to show teacher, it can go in my give away to baby collection.

And this here shows why I'm still struggling with Intarsia, its that distortion of the stitches from some part of the process. It happens around the edges of the motifs, and could be the stress from the yarn doubling back across the row, or the difference in tension as the yarn twists around the next colour and then double back. I had hoped blocking would improve this, and it did - only a knitting fuss pot would notice the slight distortion that remains, and no polite knitter would mention it. I guess like rowing out and other knitters issues - it takes practice practice practice.

and fish, - given how many socks I've finished this year, well the left over sock yarn is piling up, so I'm including some fishing time in my knitting week. Again I'm modifying the pattern, and introducing that central decrease to keep the fin from tipping up or down. Oh what a knit-geek I've become. This little pile represents 3 socks, Brother Amos by Brenda Dayne, Hedgerow by Jane Cochran and Salto by Rebekkah Kerner. There is something nice about using up ends of sock yarns and about almost revisiting the sock via the yarn.

Take care, knit well
na Stella