It's taken months to get this far. No, really.Holidays are great. I’ve just come back from a week 'oop north' and I’ve had a fabulous time. I knitted, wrote, ate, walked, read, drank wine and watched some birds.
On the knitting front I finished a hat that’s taken me far too long to complete (lace am hard), did some of a gorgeous red slouch and started out on my first ever design project. Well, I say design project, it’s more of a redesign. I’m taking a pattern I’ve made before and adapting it. I decided that would probably be the easiest way to get into designing my own knits. So far I haven’t managed to quite get things looking the way I want, so currently I’m testing out various techniques in order to work out how to get the hem right. At the moment stocking stitch on giant needles or attempting a frill are the front-runners. I’ll let you know how I get on.
But it’s the hat I’m really pleased with. This hat has been a nightmare knit. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to frog and redo it. Partly this is my own fault - I didn’t swatch and it turned out my tension was much, much too tight, and it soon became obvious that the hat wouldn’t fit round my head. In my defence, though, the tension square was in the complicated lace pattern, rather than a nice, sensible stocking stitch, and I just couldn’t work out how to count the damn thing!
I started again on bigger needles, much bigger needles. But I was still knitting very, very tight. So tight in fact that moving the yarn on the needles was actually hurting my fingers, and several times when arduously pushing stitches along needles I pushed too hard and the stitches popped of the end. That involved much swearing and dropped stitches, I can tell you.
So then I learned to knit continental. Sounds a bit dirty doesn’t it? Unfortunately it’s not. This has cured my too-tight knitting problem. Honestly, it’s fantastic - it’s practically impossible to work too tightly. Continental knitting is great and I highly recommend it. In fact I’ll probably blog about it in the very near future.
However, a new knitting style meant starting that hat again. You might be surprised to hear that I still didn’t do a tension square. But guess what? It worked anyway! The hat is knitted. It only took two false starts, not to mention the time I took it to the pub and talked/drank so much that I lost a stitch and had to undo the whole thing. Or the many unknittings that took place due to dropped stitches or missed yarn overs.
The knitting is indeed done, though, and I’m very proud. Now I’ve got to block it and do something that says ‘Break yarn, thread through rem sts, draw up and fasten off. Not entirely sure what that means but I’m sure I’ll work it out, and when I do I'll post photos of the completed piece.
But it’s the hat I’m really pleased with. This hat has been a nightmare knit. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to frog and redo it. Partly this is my own fault - I didn’t swatch and it turned out my tension was much, much too tight, and it soon became obvious that the hat wouldn’t fit round my head. In my defence, though, the tension square was in the complicated lace pattern, rather than a nice, sensible stocking stitch, and I just couldn’t work out how to count the damn thing!
I started again on bigger needles, much bigger needles. But I was still knitting very, very tight. So tight in fact that moving the yarn on the needles was actually hurting my fingers, and several times when arduously pushing stitches along needles I pushed too hard and the stitches popped of the end. That involved much swearing and dropped stitches, I can tell you.
So then I learned to knit continental. Sounds a bit dirty doesn’t it? Unfortunately it’s not. This has cured my too-tight knitting problem. Honestly, it’s fantastic - it’s practically impossible to work too tightly. Continental knitting is great and I highly recommend it. In fact I’ll probably blog about it in the very near future.
However, a new knitting style meant starting that hat again. You might be surprised to hear that I still didn’t do a tension square. But guess what? It worked anyway! The hat is knitted. It only took two false starts, not to mention the time I took it to the pub and talked/drank so much that I lost a stitch and had to undo the whole thing. Or the many unknittings that took place due to dropped stitches or missed yarn overs.
The knitting is indeed done, though, and I’m very proud. Now I’ve got to block it and do something that says ‘Break yarn, thread through rem sts, draw up and fasten off. Not entirely sure what that means but I’m sure I’ll work it out, and when I do I'll post photos of the completed piece.
Lace detail. I admit you can't really see it. You'll just have to wait till its blocked and off the needle.
The Slouch. More photos when it's done.
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