Sitting Here,

Swatching, with cotton yarn no less. The last couple of days we've had temps in the 80s, and it seems too warm to knit the wool sweater project I'd been planning to  start next.  Instead, I'm going to make a tank top to go with the lightweight cardigan I finished a year ago last June.

Fall weather here, even winter weather, is sometimes warmer than a good part of our summer weather, so this top might even see use in the next few months.

Here a Swatch, There a Swatch

And the needles go, click-click here and a click-click there...

I started another round of swatches for the nameless sweater. By the way, once I actually complete this sweater, then it gets a name. I have one in mind already.  Part way through one of the swatches, I decided I needed to go up a needle size. Hmm, I was knitting with US #10, and I'd tried #11s and thought they were too big. Do I own #10.5s? I couldn't remember, and felt too lazy to go search.

What happens if I add a little broken rib?

But wait! In the way past days, I'd entered my knitting needles into my Ravelry account. I used my cell phone to check my Rav account, and yes! I do indeed own some US #10.5 needles. So I put the cat off my lap, moved the dogs off my feet and found the needles. Swatching continues.

More messing around.

I think I'm getting close. I hope I am.

Sweater Update

I swatched. (Silly spell checker doesn't believe "swatched" is a word.) I even blocked my swatches. I measured my blocked swatches and myself. I tested making decreases and increases and came up with a plan. 

Now, well not right now, I am knitting. And knitting.  Bottom up, knit fronts and back together and split at the arm scythes. The only way to know if I've nailed this sweater is to knit on, and see what happens. I'd really like to know before the weather warms up. I've already cast on twice. Now I'm most of the way through the waist decreases. The plaited basket weave is a bit of a slog, and I'm not an especially fast knitter; one row might take over 20 minutes. On the positive side, the stitch patterns are easy to remember, and once I get tot the armholes, there will be fewer stitches to knit, and no side seams needing sewing. Back to knitting!

I Think I Found A Winner

Ohhhh. I found this stitch this morning. A lattice stitch. I really like how it looks in this yarn. Plus, its simple and easy to remember. Back to experimenting.

Because Michelle Asked...

Or one woman's mistake is another woman's treasure.

Okay, here is how to make the normal plaited (as its called in my stitch book) basket stitch.

Multiples of 2 stitches;

RS - Knit into the back loop (from behind, not between loops) of the second stitch on the left hand needle (LHN), leave stitch on LHN and knit the first stitch on LHN (through the front loop, or the usual way) then slip both off LHN. Repeat to end.

WS - P1 (the part I forgot), Purl second stitch on LHN thru the front loop (aka, the normal way), then purl first stitch and slip both off LHN. Repeat until one stitch remains, P1

And here is how to make the crazy zig-zag stitch;

Multiples of 2 stitches
RS - as the right side above.
WS - Omit the purl stitch at beginning of row. It becomes <Purl second stitch on LHN thru the front loop (aka, the normal way), then purl first stitch and slip both off LHN.>

Look Here for picture.

Have fun!

And More Learning

After the swatch in the previous post, I decided to try swatching most of those same stitches side by side to see how they'd behave. I figured out how many stitches I wanted and cast on, placing markers for each section. Maybe its harder to swatch different stitch patterns next to each other, rather than stacked. I can't see why is would be. It took me about 5 tries to finally get my swatch going. I'd cast on, knit a few rows and then say, 'whoa! That doesn't look right.' So I'd rip it back and try again. I finally figured out what was wrong on most of the patterns and got every thing going. Except for the plaited (woven) basket stitch.  That was still turning out all messed up.
"How could this be? Its a simple enough repeat."

Well, that's where I made my mistake. Thinking it was so simple that I didn't pay attention to the pattern, and forgot that on the wrong side, you have to start out with a purl stitch. That little purl stitch made all the difference.

Left side bad, right side good.

I'm fond of the plaited basket stitch and want to use it, I just need to see if I can shape it.

One other thing learned. Bulky yarn that's been tightly wound into a ball for the last 5 years probably isn't going to produce a good swatch. Better to skein, wash and dry first.

Learning and Planning

I've two hand knit sweaters that saw much use over the last week or so. Both are raglan sleeve, top down construction in a chunky to bulky+ weight yarn. One is a hooded pullover, the other is a cardigan.  Because of the yarn (actual) weight both were very saggy around the shoulders, and not snugging up against the back of my neck. I was actually considering frogging and re-knitting the cardigan at a tighter gauge. Instead, I decided to add a row of crochet chain stitch around the shoulders and back neck of each sweater. It didn't take very long at all, and the sweaters fit much better now, and the hood on the pullover fits better. I learned something too. Next time I'm knitting a top down raglan, I'll use a very firm cast on for the neck edge, and figure out a way to reinforce the increases as I continue to shape the neck.  Depending on the yarn, I'll probably work with a smaller needle size to get tighter gauge. If I'm working the other direction, bottom to top, well, bind-offs tend to be tighter anyway. But, when I knit the hooded pullover, I intentionally made a neck seam to give that area more support, and it still ended up needing reinforcement.

On to planning. Pretending to be a wise knitter, I swatched different stitch patterns with the yarn from the frogged Pinwheel sweater. I craving cables, but doubt that cables and the hand dyed color of the yarn are a good match. There are plenty of other types of stitch texture to explore, and so I started. I even included a cable section, just in case I was wrong about the cables. I wasn't.

From left to right, starting on US 10 1/2 needles; stockinette, double moss, seed, purl ridge and switch to US 10 needles, seed, brioche, linen, stockinette, an absolutely hideous attempt at some crossed stitches (very bad instructions in the book I was using), ugly cabled section where I played with traveling cables and other things, risotto, woven basket (what I was trying to do further down, different stitch book) and blanket rib. The stitch count remained the same throughout the sample, except for the linen stitch where I needed to decrease by one stitch to get a odd number. I think its interesting to see the variation in width.

Here are some closeups of the parts I like;

The double moss, seed, brioche and linen bits. The double moss and seed look very close in gauge to the stockinette. The linen looks woven and is somewhat stretchy. The brioche is thick and cushy with deep ribs, and is very stretchy.

See how deep the brioche stitch is? I can also see the stitch mistake in the linen stitch.

From left to right; blanket rib, woven basket, risotto. The blanket rib is thick and stretchy. The woven basket is not stretchy at all, and is maybe only 2/3 the width of the stockinette at the beginning of the swatch. I think the colors of the yarn look very nice in this stitch. The risotto stitch is much stretchier than the woven basket, and its a reversible stitch, it makes a thick, cushy texture.

About halfway through the sample I was ready stop and toss it all in the dye pot, and I very nearly did.  Sticking with it payed off, I really like the last three stitches. If I'd given in to the call of the dye pot, I might never know how fun these stitches are.

Now its back to swatching, making larger samples of the stitch patterns in the last two pictures. I want to use at least some of them together, and need to find out if they play nice together. I'm sure at least a few of them will.