And now for the rant...
OK, just to bring us all back up to speed, the Knitting Lessons Learned from the mohair sweater were
Now, remember Frieda? And remember how I showed you my careful math, and told you that I figured out how many stitches to add to the ribbing, and how many before the waist shaping, and how many after, and so forth? Good.
The other night I sat down with Frieda, as a break from Via (almost done, but still making my hands hurt). I was knitting happily away, watching Harry Potter on the telly, when I let my eyes wander over the sweater pattern, thinking blithely of how fun it would be when I was done with the boring stockinette back and could move on to the pleasurably challenging cabled front. And then it hit me.
Cables. Complex cables.
Which need specific numbers of rows to make them come out right.
Specific numbers of rows that can't be added proportionally throughout the sweater, but must be done all at once as an 11-row repeat.
It turns out, my friends, that sometimes Lesson #3 cancels Lesson #2 right out. To which I can only say, DAMMIT!
Honestly, this could have been much more of a disaster. I only had to rip about half the back (I would show you the sad rippage, but Photobucket is not cooperating), and the ribbing is still good to go. And I was adding 12 stitches anyway, so it works out. But now my question is, do I want a sweater that's going to be a full two inches longer below the waist shaping, and not at all above it (or, I guess, vice versa)? Will that be proportioned bizzarely? And also, am I being stupid? Is there a way to add the rows proportionally but still maintain the cable pattern? These are mysteries I will have to ponder.
But for the time being, I am positing a new Knitting Lesson, which shall replace Mohair Sucks as #1.
Knitting Lesson #1 is now THINK IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
Sigh.
- Mohair sucks
- Do math, and distribute proportionally
- Think of the sweater as a whole, not just parts.
Now, remember Frieda? And remember how I showed you my careful math, and told you that I figured out how many stitches to add to the ribbing, and how many before the waist shaping, and how many after, and so forth? Good.
The other night I sat down with Frieda, as a break from Via (almost done, but still making my hands hurt). I was knitting happily away, watching Harry Potter on the telly, when I let my eyes wander over the sweater pattern, thinking blithely of how fun it would be when I was done with the boring stockinette back and could move on to the pleasurably challenging cabled front. And then it hit me.
Cables. Complex cables.
Which need specific numbers of rows to make them come out right.
Specific numbers of rows that can't be added proportionally throughout the sweater, but must be done all at once as an 11-row repeat.
It turns out, my friends, that sometimes Lesson #3 cancels Lesson #2 right out. To which I can only say, DAMMIT!
Honestly, this could have been much more of a disaster. I only had to rip about half the back (I would show you the sad rippage, but Photobucket is not cooperating), and the ribbing is still good to go. And I was adding 12 stitches anyway, so it works out. But now my question is, do I want a sweater that's going to be a full two inches longer below the waist shaping, and not at all above it (or, I guess, vice versa)? Will that be proportioned bizzarely? And also, am I being stupid? Is there a way to add the rows proportionally but still maintain the cable pattern? These are mysteries I will have to ponder.
But for the time being, I am positing a new Knitting Lesson, which shall replace Mohair Sucks as #1.
Knitting Lesson #1 is now THINK IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
Sigh.
posted by Ashley at 6:01 PM
6 Comments:
Oy! Ouch! Well, you might be able to add them proportionally if you move where the cables fall vertically... I should stop here, and let an experienced knitter take over. I'm not sure if that would look right. Or wrong.
I may well be missing something, but why do you have to move the cables? can't you just keep the cable pattern correct as written, but just knit a few more rows of it and adjust the shaping?
That new rule is an excellent one that I must learn to follow myself. I would hate to even offer a suggestion here for fear of making things worse so I'll just cross my fingers for you - useless, I know. Good luck!!
Yeah, I learned the mohair rule the hard way as well! I used mohair and tried to mess with things and it turned into a mega frogging event! sorry this happened to you, but its a learning experience I guess (even though it stinks). Happy knitting!
Mohair is evil. I learned to knit on a a turtleneck with LaGran mohair yarn and it was so hard to see my mistakes (which were numerous) not to mention incredibly itchy that I frogged it and made a lovely shawl Meg Swanson designed. It's light and warm and it's a perfect shawl. In fact, it would be a perfect blanket.
No clue on how to fix your cable/shaping problem, I'm afraid.
Can you believe I cannot find Dorothy Dunnett at Amazon? I'm going to have to search the used book stores in the area. EBay has it, but I live in the San Franciso Bay Area and surely somebody out here has them.
Mohair, you are EVIL ... yet so pretty. So, so worng.
And math? And complex cable math? SO EVIL.
I'm sorry. That sucks!
Post a Comment
<< Home