twistedloops

Late breaking updates

It’s been a long, hard November. Lots of work = less knitting.

The phyllo-yoked pullover has been progressing slowly. Large pieces of stockinette is fairly boring knitting. My work schedule was really keeping me from knitting, and I started to worry about finishing my sweater in November. However, with four days off over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was sure that I’d be able to make great progress and finish up the sweater in the month of November. I worked on it on Wednesday night and Thursday, sewing the seams of the pieces so I could join it in the round to knit the yoke. Everything was going so well. I sat down on Friday, joined the body and the sleeves, and started knitting. About a round and a half into knitting, disaster happened. My needle snapped just before it joined the cable.

It’d felt tight, but I didn’t think there was that much tension in the process. With the needle free, the cable pulled back and stitches fell everywhere.

I knew from swatching that this was the only needle I had that would meet gauge. It wasn’t even like it would be quick to replace, it’s part of my Denise set. I assumed the project was doomed – there was no way it would be finished in November.

Undeterred by the disaster, I knew that needed to knit to calm my nerves. I pulled out the Mad Color Weave sock, grafted the toe on the first sock, and cast on for sock number two. As can be seen in the photo, I’m most of the way through the leg; only 1.5 more repeats of the pattern until I start the heel.

Luckily, as the weekend progressed, I remembered that Jennifer also has a Denise set. Since we work together, I asked on Monday to borrow one of her size 5 needles, if she wasn’t using them. Luckily, they weren’t in use, and she brought me the needle on Tuesday.

Last night I picked up the fallen stitches and went back to knitting the yoke. The sweater did not seem nearly as tight on the needle as I’d remembered. I still have no idea how I broke the needle. I managed to get a few rows into the yoke before heading to bed last night.

I still think that it will be a real challenge to finish knitting the sweater in November, but I may only go over by a few days. Participating in NaKniSweMo has taught me that knitting a sweater doesn’t have to take a long time. If it wasn’t for this month’s hectic work schedule, I’d have easily finished this project in three to four weeks. Perhaps this will inspire me to knit more sweaters in my future.

Mom has asked for this Drops sweater (Ravelry) for her birthday, December 20th. I’ve considered taking on the challenge, but she hasn’t sent me her measurements yet. I’m not sure I could do it in the worsted weight version, but the bulky version might just be finishable in that timeline.

So slow with the NaKniSweMo

There has been very slow progress on the NaKniSweMo sweater.  I measured the swatches after blocking, and there were minor changes in size.  The swatch that was closest to the appropriate gauge was the Denise US5 (the middle swatch in the photo).  This was the swatch that had spot on gauge before blocking.  After blocking, the row gauge was still fine, but the stitch gauge was now too big by approximately .25 stitches per 4 inches.

Currently, I’m working on the sleeves.  I have one more set of increases at the top of the sleeve, and then a bit more knitting and they’ll finally be done.  There was a moment, after having worked for a while on the sleeves, where I looked down and noticed that the balls of yarn were getting small.  They appeared to be about a quarter their original size (I started from the outside of the ball).  I checked the pattern, “Knit until sleeve measures 10.5 inches”.  A quick measurement of the sleeves, which were a little over 5 inches in length, and I was confident that I would easily run out of yarn before it was time to begin the increases.  I continued knitting and watching television.  I knit, and knit, and knit.  Finally, after realizing that I had been knitting for quite some time without yet having run out of yarn, I decided to take a look at my knitting.  The sleeves seemed awfully long, and there was still a little yarn remaining.  Out came the measuring tape.  The sleeves were just a tad over 10.5 inches already.  How does this happen?  Am I that terrible at judging the remaining amount of yarn?  Or perhaps this was magic yarn…That’s the theory that I’m sticking with.  It has nothing to do with my knitterly skills; it’s all just yarn issues.

Before I started the sweater, I continued to work on the Mad Color Weave sock.  I managed to make it into the gusset before the first of November.  Since then, I haven’t worked on it at all.  The sock did accompany me to KTog this week, and the general consensus was that it looks better in person than in my blog photos.  Even so, I’ll leave you with a picture of the sock progress (just imagine that it looks better than in the photo).