Stick a fork in me because I'm done! (kinda)

Right. Apologies for the smeared mirror. But I'm done! Well, sorta. There are bits of strings all over the place, but I'll sew that up later on tonight while watching Prison Break. I have to tidy the strings and ends away.
Back of Loll. I'll retake pictures when the weather is brighter, but just thought that you'd appreciate a view of the back. The cardigan is a bit short, so I'll be wearing longer bottoms underneath the cardi. My style is much more casual than spit and polished, but some more length would have been good. Note the shaping at the waist. It's a nice touch that makes this pattern pop.
Finally, I've licked short row shaping. It was raining cats and dogs yesterday, and the internet was off, so I thought well it was better late than never. The blogs "Nona knits" and "purlwise" do have some good hints on how to do it, but I had to spell it out myself. I'll share my observations on short row shaping in a later post.
Close up of the curve of the neck. A slip stitch rib around the neck. Fab pattern!

The Nitty gritty.

I thought that you'd like a round up of this pattern. I consider myself an intermediate knitter: as in, I know how to follow a pattern, am not afraid to rip, change or make alterations to pattern when needed. I think my outlook is more advanced than my skills to be honest.

Needles: 5.5 mm needles . The pattern called for 5 mm needles, but due to the elasticity of the Rowan Calmer yarn (and my first time knitting with said yarn), I had to go up a size. The fronds at the end of the sleeves, back and sides call for 4mm needles. In retrospect, I should have also gone up a size (4.5mm).

Yarn: The pattern calls for 8 balls of yarn, but I actually used seven. I think it's because I went up a needle size, or something. I might use the other ball of yarn to make knitty's shedir. I need a cap.

Methodology: I did the sleeves first, both at the same time because the pattern for the sleeves had no shaping (and I was afraid of the pattern) and it was a nice way to 'work' into the architecture of the pattern. I'd advise you to do that if you ever start an unfamiliar pattern. Do the sleeves first. I then did the back , and you remember the dramas I had with that (two posts down), and the fronts for the last. Picking up the neck line and knitting it around was straight forward, so yay.

It's been so long since I've actually knit a garment, and have forgotten how long it takes to sew up. I also wanted my sleeves to be perfect re: the set in, so I ripped and reripped. The hubster actually gave me some good advice in terms of working from the top arc of the sleeve to the end of the armscye, so that if there is any bundling, it's all in the arm pit.

I did the smallest size for this cardigan because I have a 34" bust. The other size up was 38" and that had too much ease for me. The pattern seems to work on six stitches, and I didn't want to push my luck in adding an additional three stitches, but if I were to do it again, I might do so. I wish it had been 36" for the upsize, because of more room with tops underneath as well as installing a zipper. I'm not going to do that now, but I'm still thinking about it.

So, I'll tidy up Loll, wait for better weather to take some pictures.

:)

I swear, I'm defecting to crochet...

Really, I think Loll has broken me.

I have stands what I thought I stands, and I can't stands no more, to paraphrase Popeye (terribly), but seriously, this pattern although cunning (tip my hat to Ms. Hargreaves, yes), is the yuck.

I cannot follow it blindly believing in its clarity and competence. I have to be doing schematics on graph paper before I commit it to yarn, because I refuse to tear stuff again and again.

First of all, I'm at the neck shaping, and it says that I have to rib 8 sts then slip them on to a holder and neglect those while I knit and shape the neck on the other side. So twenty rows later, I have a shaped neck (as seen on the right - although it's folded over) and a pretty steep step to the right which doesn't match the back (hint: where the magenta coloured thread is).

WTF?

I've actually read the pattern three times, and really, it doesn't make sense, not in the schematics provided (God bless schematics, never trust a pattern without 'em), or in the reality. I know that Helen (my knitting svengali) always says that I need to be 'zen' with the knitting and such, but come on now, you mean to tell me that they couldn't sort this knitting pattern out, especially with the book in it's third or fourth printing?

Ugh.

Thanks for the comments in my blog. I seem to be petting them with great fondness and feeding them sticky cookies.

I thought about the buttons, honest - but I attempted the button holes - but they break up the stitch border, so I'm doing the pattern without button-holes and installing a zip, a tip from the beauteous poster at A Mangled Yarn.

Now I can understand why people decide to do top down knitting - it seems to be less open to nonsense.

It doesn't help that I remember crochet being something of a morale booster, wherein you could do an activity in a couple of days, instead of the months it's taken me to do this pattern. I have four assignments due June 11. Four. Yet, I've fobbed off studying time, friendships and yes, even food so that I can get this top done for the summer.

And yet.

And yet.

So, after Loll, I'm going to take a little break from knitting for a while - and turn my hand to crochet.

The main factor which tipped my decision to crochet is the new Teva Durham (apologies if the name is spelt wrong) Loop d Loop crochet. Every pattern is inspired, and I'm tempting to trade in her Loop d Loop knitting book (although it hasn't come from Amazon as yet), because there are so much more exciting things in her crochet version.

There's this fab orange crochet coat that I want - I must have. It's destined to be on my back - or me just doing it and probably selling it to someone for the price of the yarn, and just put it down to process, instead of product.

There's this cute top in Stoller's Stitch and Bitch Crochet that I'm eyeing, called cup cake. The only thing that's stopping me, is me wondering if it's too cute for my tastes. But I can wear it with a denim jacket, and make it edgy.

So, I've called Rowan yarns, asking them for help with the pattern, they say that the designers might call me today -depending on my place in the queue.

Sigh.

Don't look at me that way, it was an honest mistake.

This was my major mistake in Loll. If you look closely on the top right of the first photo, this was my problem. I misread the directions. After the shaping, when you're now trying to increase, the instructions are as follows: "Inc in first st (rib to within 2 sts of marked st, M1,P1,M1, rib 3- marked st centre st to this group of 3 sts, M1,P1,M1) twice, rib to last st, inc in last st".


So.

Did you understand all that was written here?

Me neither. Somehow, I got four stitches in the increase, where there should have been three. So I had two rows of four and two rows of two going up the back of pattern. I should have taken a picture and posted. My apologies, I had to rip it back before I lost my nerve.

Never mind the paper-clip, I hate stitch markers; they are entirely too awkward, so I use whatever comes to hand, and this paper-clip was here.

The second picture shows the pattern as it should be. After increasing all the stitches should stick to the pattern of three purl, one slip stitch. Helen (my sort of svengali) says that I should be 'in touch' with my knitting, in terms of knowing when things are going wrong. She is right in that you have to be very 'aware' of the pattern.

There hasn't been a point where I have felt that knit this pattern could be knit on automatic. There are loads of techniques that I've had to learn ever since casting on. I think this pattern would have been better if it had charts, so that you could actually see how things should look before you make a honker of a mistake. If I were to do this again, I'd chart it. I think for any pattern that seems too complex, I'm going to sit down with some graph papers and get my chart on.














This is the back of Loll, finished. The red markers are important to the pattern. I'd recommend that you do them. They also show how much I had to rip back to, because the entire pattern was off kilter. I literally had to tear down ten inches of knitting. Being the chicken I am, I asked Helen (the local Rowan consultant at John Lewis) to do the deed quickly, which is why I have no pictures of my glaring mistake. Mea culpa. The ripping process still painful, but hey, it got done.

I now have the fronts to do, and hope to have them done by Mayday. There's a bit of bother with the problem of the left front that I need to work on. *sigh* I also need to look for buttons for this thing. Strangely, the pattern doesn't really give much in terms of directions for button holes. It just gives you directions for one and says you're on your own in terms of button placing and spacing for six button holes.

This cardigan needs buttons because I live in the UK, and no matter how sunny the day is, there is the sly lick of wind that gets into your clothes. The thing is though, I'm stumped as to what sort of buttons I should get. The colour is more a raw umber, and I want buttons that go with it. Should I employ a whimsical red, or go with more complimentary colours?

I will say this, I do like the drape and feel of Calmer, and wish it wasn't half as expensive as it is.

I mean, there's this South African company that makes an acrylic yarn called 'Pure Gold' called 'courtelle'. It is similar to Rowan calmer in terms of the texture and the feel, but it doesn't have the elasticity that Calmer has. Too bad man, it's like £2.45 for 100 grams of yarn, and the feel and colours of the yarn are sweet. Haven't knitted with it yet, but I intend to do something top down with it.

The colour of the yarn is called 'coffee' which is the best colour for me in this yarn right now, especially since I intend to wear this cardigan all summer - in order to get my money's worth from the yarn.

ahoy there, me scurvy dogs, I've cast off sleeve island - with loot to boot!

I bought this cool toilette bag from Nell today! As you can see, it's already in use. Isn't it cute? I've coveted it ever since I saw it on her etsy site - to the point where I joined etsy- just to buy the bag. It's drawstring, and a good heavy material, which is grand, because the ones in the shops feel like tissue paper, if you know what I mean.
I can't sew a straight line, alas, so I leave it to those who do. Which is unfortunate, since I have a sewing machine upstairs in my room! :P Hah.

Finally finished the sleeves for Loll. They are the same size, and length and absolutely perfect, I think. It's good to have two sleeves on the needles at the same time. It's great when they are done. They take up a fair bit of yarn though, about three balls. I can make a top in Calmer with three balls - just a basic raglan top.

Do you know those graph books with the .05cm squares? They don't sell them in the UK - or they rarely do, anyway. If and when I come across these books, I get charged a speciality price for them . So, everytime I go on the continent (or know of someone who's going away), I tend to request these 'specialist' grid books. The europeans tend to use them to write with instead of the UK/US ruled sheets . I find knitters graph paper (in terms of printing out from the internet and inks) to be expensive, so this is a good subsitute. I use two types of pens - one an ordinary ballpoint for the lines, and an erasable ballpoint (like the papermate version) for the actual marks - so that I can erase and add at whim for the first few minutes.
I had to do this; after serveral rips of Loll (the Calmer is a top yarn, it takes repeated rippings beautifully) a knitter's chart seemed appropriate. I can actually see the fringes and the purl stitches and how they come together beautifully. Loll is a very clever pattern from Madam Hargreaves. It's simple to look at, but the thought that goes into the engineering of stitches and the construction of the pattern is cunning. The fact that I can appreciate this through the little earthquakes of tantrums and the shimmer of tears, shows how cunning Madam Hargreaves is indeed.

I'm on the back piece now. Ideally, I'd have prefered doing Calmer on metal needles instead of bamboo. I find that the Calmer sticks to my bamboo needles a tad, and I can't knit as quickly as I'd like.


Remember Kim Hargreaves 'Blithe' ? The one I bought? Somehow the pattern is saying, "Jazz, you really want to do me in Rowan cashsoft, or a luxury blend. You want me to hug your curves, to be a smart and sharp vest on an autumn day. You want something with memory to hold the horizontal rib and horizontal ridge. Cotton isn't really me. C'mon, throw me a bone here."

The thing is, I'm thinking about it. *bites knitting needles*. I'm leaning towards doing it in a cushy sort of yarn. Alas, the kit came with five balls of Rowan 4ply yarn, so I need to make a decision.

I also need a simple, straightfoward pattern to do. Something preferably in the round, topdown - I've never done it before, but it can't be difficult, no?

Projects in queue

I finally broke down and bought a Kim Hargreaves kit. Personally, I wish that she'd just sell her patterns, or publish a book of 'em, instead of selling them only with the yarn. I can understand her reasons why, but... *sighs* I'm just wishing, that's all. I bought the Blithe in cotton 4ply, with that lovely yellow colour. In retrospect, I think Blithe would look nice in Rowan's cashsoft - their 4ply version, in a stronger colour.





That's my colour for Blithe. The other colours in the 4ply were too dark, too soft, or just too bland. I think I've choosen the best colour for me.













As it is, I'm doing the Loll cardighan, but in Coffee, instead of Driftwood as shown in the photo. With my complexion, biscuit, tan or 'blonde wooden' colours don't fit the yellow undertones. For the amount of money that Rowan charges for the yarn, I wish the colours were a bit more saturated. Like, if they had a luscious aubergine (instead of the purple touched with the grey tint that they have now), I'd have done Loll in that colour.

Loll has been a challenging knit so far. The fringes took an age to get my head around (cast on and cast off 6 sts), the slip stitch reverse stocking stitch is cunning, but I'd advise you to make your own charts for this pattern and do a swatch. Normally, I'm good with specified tension, but for Calmer I had to go up half a needle size (from 5mm to 5.5mm) to get gauge. I'm doing decreases and increases carefully to keep the ribbing pattern - but I haven't seen a Loll that's failed to impress or thrill its wearer.

Watch out!

Wherein I cry glistening, emo tears

I am attempting the Kim Hargreaves pattern from the Rowan Calmer collection called http://http://www.colourway.co.uk/rowan/calm/calm.htm Loll.

I forget how to do the link so that it forms a word.

Now, a bit of background.

I'd classify myself as an intermediate knitter - as in, I can follow a pattern, do fair isle, and am able to figure out where I've gone wrong. My second knitting project was a jumper (the first was the ubiquitious scarf), and I think mentally, I'm strong enough rip stuff back without crying (I've gotten tougher over the years).

But this pattern is kicking my candy ass all over the place. It left home with lollipops and ass kicking, and somehow turned up at the step of my flat with the latter. So far, I've had to rip the sleeves back, and am looking to rip all 30 rows of fronds (on the bottom of said pattern)back to the cast on. *sob*

The Rowan consultant at my LYS loves the loll pattern, to the point of her knitting it once and looking to do another one because it is so clever. After watching me struggle with said pattern, she's like: "How long have you been knitting?"

Says I, "Two years, I reckon."

She leans over and breifly squeezes my hand. "You're a baby, all you need to learn is how to do continental and awareness with your knitting and you'll be fine."

That told me.

I think I'm going to put my Loll away for the while and focus on how to do lace.

Also, I need to read on how to do pictures for this blogger. Baby steps.