everything's in pieces

finishing sucks butt. there is no other way to put it. as i go, i am getting better and better at sewing pieces together and am starting to feel (prematurely) confident in my matress-stitching skills. i can even graft. but sewing up big ole hole-y lace-y pieces with cotton tape yarn? ugh. it is going to suck. and it's probably going to be bulky and not flattering. from now on, it's only top down in the round sweaters with skinny yarn for me... here's carla as she lay on the floor while i paced around and drank beer and screwed up the courage to go after her with purple yarn and tapestry needle.


i also f-ed up the feather and fan shawl. it's such an easy knit - how could you do that?? i can do anything, that's what makes me special... i was knitting along and got to the end and realized i had more stitches on one side of the shawl than on the other. at first i tried to convince myself that that was no big deal, but all along i knew that the damn thing was supposed to be symmetrical. so i had to do some emergency surgery on her.


i will say the one good thing about using noro kureyon is that the stitches are stiff and hold together. so they don't just fall apart and unravel when you rip back (think slippery silk and cotton). this also makes it easier to pick back up the 3000 or so stitches you just ripped. i hate ripping out mistakes. hate it hate it hate it. from now on, i will make no more mistakes. durn, though, i already made one on trellis, which i have been knitting feverishly away on. i have to redo the top of the cable at one of the shoulders - i screwed it up after this was taken. although you wouldn't be able to see the mistake anyway because the picture is crappy. and that's because my camera is crappy (and because i'm on a booze break and might have the DTs). i don't like to take pics with the flash on indoors because it looks bad, but when i don't use flash, my pictures are always blurry. you just. can't. win.


anyway, here's my one piece of advice to anyone knitting trellis: actually make a gauge swatch in the cable pattern. i of course did not and i ended up with a 6 month size when what i wanted was the 12 month size. you see, all those cable and twists really do scruntch up and shrink down the sweater. oh - and in case you get confused my the left twist directions like i me, here's what i did:

sl 1 stitch
knit next stitch tbl
slip last 2 stitches back onto LH needle
knit 1st stitch (the slipped one) tbl
slip next stitch
and continue on...

hope that helps!
bye for now,
~r

p.s. i'm knitting trellis knitpicks shine worsted (color = coral). this yarn is great - so so soft and washable. perfect for a baby sweater. might get a little heavy for a big person sweater.

posted by rockbridge @ 8:09 AM