3-Color Stranding

I am currently working on a knock-off (using completely different colors) of this sweater for a friend of mine:

It's hard to tell at this distance, but the colorwork on the yoke and sleeves contains 3 colors per row for about half of the chart. Here's a close-up:

So here you can see that there are two shades of cream/tan--a darker and a lighter. My friend selected the colors pictured here:

The body of the sweater will be charcoal; where the original sweater is yellow, the knock-off will be red; tan will become gull gray; and cream will still be cream.

I charted this all out, and bought a little plastic device called a "Norwegian knitting thimble" or "strickfingerhut." The one I bought is pictured and discussed in this blog post. Another version is pictured (and sold) here. Expecting a somewhat steep learning curve, I decided to knit what Elizabeth Zimmerman calls a "swatch cap," i.e. a hat that is made primarily to test for gauge--and also to see how a colorwork chart works up in real life. Her philosophy is that it's better to use more yarn and end up with a useful item, rather than to save yarn but produce just another square to toss on a useless pile of gauge swatches. Also, if you're planning to knit your project in the round, you'll get a better sense of gauge if you also knit your swatch in the round.

But Elizabeth Zimmerman also says you should never knit a stranded colorwork project that requires more than 2 colors per row. I am here to tell you: she is right. I expect that really experienced knitters can make it work--and to be fair, the cap that I'm knitting doesn't look terrible, per se--but I am having a bitch of a time. I have figured out a procedure that works for me, for carrying all 3 colors at once. By "works for me," I mean that I am able to get through a round of knitting without having my hands cramp up or throwing the project across the room in frustration. What I don't mean is that the result is pretty. It's not. I can't for the life of me keep the tension even. Some stitches are all blurped out, saggy and lazy; while others are pinched tighter than Felix Unger's you know what. Here is a picture:

I love how it's turning out, in terms of the color, but the stitches are just all over the place. (Keep in mind, I photographed the prettiest section, and my hand is inside of the hat stretching the stitches out.)

Anyway, the TECHknitting blog has an exhaustive and helpful tutorial on knitting with 2 colors held in the same hand, and also 3-color knitting, here. As usual, she has pinpointed the problem: tension! The wonky tension that I'm getting is the result of trying to hold 2 colors in the same hand, when they are getting eaten up by the pattern at different rates. What happens is that the "floating" color gets extremely slack (hence the bloated stitches), while the other color gets tighter (hence the anal-retentive stitches). This is complicated by the fact that the design I'm trying to knit doesn't have a clear main color that predominates, with 2 contrasting colors that occur in similar proportions throughout the row: every color has long-ish floats on almost every row.

The upshot: I think I'm going to have to abandon the attempt at carrying 3 colors per row. The other options are either to knit with 2 colors and then add the 3rd color afterward by duplicate stitching; or to knit with 2 colors while slipping all stitches that are meant to be in the 3rd color, and then to go back over the row knitting only with the 3rd color and slipping all of the stitches in colors 1 and 2. Because the 3 colors occur in roughly equal proportions in all rows, thus rendering duplicate stitch a major impracticality, I'm going to try the latter method. I think it will turn out a lot more evenly, and will be a lot less frustrating for me even though it means that each 3-color round will require two full passes to complete. With tons of practice, I could probably get some semblance of "the hang" of the 3-color stranding technique, but it's too frustrating. I knit for pleasure. I love doing colorwork, and I love knitting with Heilo, but I'm really not enjoying this. I will enjoy it a lot more if I change how I'm doing it.

New Stash

I finished my Kerrera Hoodie. The knitting is all done, and it has been washed and wet blocked, but it still needs buttons and button loops. It turned out a little on the large size for me, which is fine. I think it's more of an outerwear piece anyway, so I'll just layer it over other stuff. I love the yarn, and I think this was the exact right project for it. I'll take pics as soon as I get the buttons and sew them on, etc. Here's a pic from when it was still a WIP--a close-up of one of the sleeve cuffs that shows off the color of the yarn very nicely. What it doesn't show is how wonderfully Peace Fleece blooms when it's washed. The sweater has a lovely fullness, sheen, and halo now, and it's really snuggly. (Yes, I'm wearing it right now!)


And here are some pretty new stash sock yarns that I have acquired over the last couple of weeks--all purchased at The Fiber Gallery.

This one is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, in the Cedar colorway. I think it's going to end up as a shawlette, but I haven't picked a pattern yet. It needs to be something relatively simple, since the yarn has so much going on.


This one is Dream in Color Smooshy in Cinnamon Girl. I think this one is going to be a shawlette as well. I'm thinking of Damson, but I'm not sure. It might be a little frilly for me. All I know is that this yarn sings to my weird fondness for certain shades of orange, and as such it begs to be made into an item that will enjoy high visibility.


And finally, another skein of Smooshy, this time in Cocoa Kiss. This yarn is definitely going to end up as a pair of socks. Not sure which pattern. I have several in my Ravelry queue that would look nice.

Start-itis

I have a bunch of things going, including 2 sweaters, 2 socks, and a stole. Crazy! Here are photos and some details:


This is the Print o' the Wave stole, by Eunny Jang, in Curious Creek Meru, colorway Dorothy. I bought this yarn at Madrona last year. She seemed to have a Wizard of Oz theme going on in her booth. Hopefully I'll get to go this year--definitely can't afford to take any classes, alas--and hopefully, if I go, I'll get more pretty yarn.


This sock, along with its mate, will eventually be a pair of Bayerische Socks, also by Eunny Jang. I'm using Louet Gems in Fern Green. So pretty! Very nice stitch definition. I love the twisted stitches in this pattern. It's super fiddly to get the leg charts started after knitting the cuffs, but I love the result so far.


This is a pair of Boot Sox I'm making for my boyfriend, without a pattern--I'm making it up as I go along. Your basic 2x2 rib, flap heel with slipped stitches for thickness, on size 3 needles, socks. I'm using Cascade 220 Superwash in a lovely olive/bottle green color that doesn't photograph well. It is the same colorway that I used (except in regular Cascade 220) for my Cassidy hoodie awhile back. Hopefully Chris will like them.


This is the hem of a sweater I'm making for my friend Le'a--I'm knocking off a vintage sweater that she got in a thrift store, I believe it was in the 1980's. The tag says it was handknit in Norway--it has a colorwork yoke with raglan sleeves, and more colorwork right above the sleeve cuffs. The original was, oddly, knit flat in pieces and seamed together (ugh--stranded colorwork flat!). Because the seams are coming apart at the armpits, I can also see that the raglan decreases were done right at the edges rather than a stitch or two in. I'm doing the whole thing seamless, bottom-up. I have the colorwork all charted out. Right now I'm only worried about 2 things: 1. The waist ribbing seems to pull in more than I wanted it to; and 2. The ribbing has a very strong bias to it. I hope that blocking will solve both of these problems. I am going to put the project on hold briefly while I knit a quick gauge cap to test this principle.

As if that weren't enough, I got bit by a new pattern bug the other day:

This is Kerrara, by Gudrun Johnston. I saw the pattern and immediately imagined it knit up in this Peace Fleece that has been in my stash for awhile, in the Superior/Baikal Green colorway. I can't photograph this yarn properly. It is a deep, steel, greenish blue. I have been on a rather small boat out in the middle of Lake Superior, so I can attest that they got this color right, at least concerning Lake Superior. I can't speak for Lake Baikal. It is an oddly welcoming and intimidating, formidable color. It beckons while it warns. It makes me think of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It makes me think of home.

Consolidated FO's

I took a bunch of FO pictures yesterday, so I'm just going to post them all at once, in the order of their completion.

First:


Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in "Aguas"
Needle: Addi Turbo Lace, US6
Mods: I knit the small stockinette and the large lace instructions, and I had just a small amount of yarn left over.

Second:


Pattern: Starsky by Jordana Paige
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool, colorway 8016 (I call it "Oatmeal"), approximately 2.5 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US10 + Knit Picks DPN's (the nickel-plated ones), US9
Mods: I added waist shaping. I changed one little thing in the chart that seemed wrong: stitches 7 and 8 in row 1--counting from right to left; I changed it to the 1/1 RPC on RS (see chart key) to match all of the other leaf-top stitches. Finally, I altered the ribbing so that it would flow into the banana leaf pattern more smoothly.

And third:

The pictures of this turned out rather blurry, but this one shows the fit OK.
Pattern: Margot by Linden Heflin
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, colorway 4245 "Pitch Black"
Needles: Addi Turbos, US6
Mods: I started out following instructions for the size 36, but my gauge in this yarn was a full stitch/inch smaller than called for in the pattern, so I did more raglan increases to get to the correct chest size. I also changed the frequency of the increases as I got closer to the armpit, doing them every 4 rows rather than every 2--I like the look of this shaping better than a perfectly straight angled raglan seam. I cast on 14 stitches at the underarms rather than simply joining the raglan seams together--again, I just prefer this kind of shaping. Finally, I added length to both the body and sleeves, prior to the split garter stitch trim. I am seriously considering adding even more length to the sleeves, but I like the length of the body as-is.

I really enjoyed all of these projects. Good patterns all around, and fun to knit. I ended up knitting Margot in 5 days, which I think is my personal record for completing a whole sweater. I think I probably knit the Liesl sweater faster, if you only count the stitches that actually ended up in the FO. But I had to rip that one out twice and re-knit because of gauge issues, and both times it was after I had completed the yoke.

Needle Weirdness

So...I was working on the sleeves of my current project (Margot from knitty.com), using my Addi Turbos, size US5, 16" circular needle. The sleeves fit onto the needle just fine, and I'm zipping along when I become aware of a "dragging" sensation at the needle tips. I thought maybe there was a rough spot or something, but I couldn't find it with my fingertip so I kept going. The dragging sensation continued. Basically, it felt like too much work to insert the right needle tip into the loop to be knitted on the left needle. I couldn't figure it out. I knew it wasn't the yarn because I had knit the entire yoke and body of the sweater on a 24" Addi Turbo US5 circular needle, and had been thrilled with the feel of knitting the yarn--Ultra Alpaca is really nice on the needles. But the sleeve...not quite so thrilling, in fact it was downright unpleasant.

I'm not sure what sent me over the investigative edge, but I finally whipped on my glasses and took a good, hard look at those needle tips under a bright light. Here's what I saw:


Can you see how flat they look, almost like they've been pounded with a hammer? By way of comparison:


This one is a little blurry, but I think it shows enough detail. Those are the 16" tips to the left, and the 24" tips to the right--both Addi Turbos. See how the 24" tips have a little point to them, right on the end? See how the 16" tips don't have that little point? I'm amazed at what a huge difference this makes in terms of the feel and the ease of knitting with this needle. I'm surprised I didn't notice this before--though I don't think I've used this particular needle all that often. I think I'll be replacing it--knitting with it was that unpleasant. (Unfortunately, I no longer have the original packaging, so I don't think Addi will exhange it for me.)

Look What I Got!

Yesterday I went to the Fiber Gallery and bought a bunch of Dalegarn Heilo to make a sweater for a friend. Look, look: yarnz!

This is ultimately going to become a charcoal gray (MC) sweater with a geometric colorwork pattern in the yoke. I'm knocking off a vintage Norwegian sweater that my friend has had for a long, long time, only this one will be in completely different colors. I'll post more about it soon--I expect to start this in the next day or two. (I'm just waiting for her to verify the chest measurement, since I came up with two different measurements, myself--on two different occasions, but still, there's a 2" difference between them!) I'm very much looking forward to knitting this project. It has already been fun charting out the colorwork, and writing out the instructions for myself. But this yarn...it's really a knitter's dream yarn. I love love love working with it, though I don't yet own an FO out of it (I have a WIP that will require frogging and re-working, thus is currently hibernating).

And when I got home this evening, a package from WEBS was waiting on the porch for me. Inside, I found this:

Ultra Alpaca Light, in black, which is destined to become Margot. This one will be for myself--I've been wanting a really simple, not too heavy, black pullover for forever, and as soon as I saw this one (it's in the Fall 09 Knitty, in case you don't want to follow the link) I knew it was just the thing. Simple with nice details. I'm actually going to cast on for this tonight. Not that I don't have enough other stuff going, but I really want this sweater! LOL. It will be my bus knitting project. It should be nicely portable even when it's almost done, because of the sport/DK weight yarn.

I tried to buy the Ultra Alpaca Light from an LYS, but I went to 3 different stores that carry the brand and none of them had enough for me in black. They each had sweater quantities of 1 or 2 other colors, but only a couple of skeins in black (and no backstock--I asked). And I really wanted to use this yarn...I think this kind of project is perfect for this family of yarns. I have 2 sweaters out of the worsted weight version, and the things I love most about them are their softness and drape. Some of the knitters' comments about this yarn on Ravelry say that they found this lighter weight yarn scratchier or less soft than the worsted weight version, but this batch feels silky and sproingy to my hand--just like I've come to expect from the worsted weight--so hopefully Berroco has solved whatever problem was causing that difference. Anyway, since WEBS has an automatic volume discount, this yarn worked out to be super cheap, so of course I bought more. There was a SNAFU with that shipment (they sent the two colors in separate packages, for some reason), so I had to send it back and am still waiting for the re-shipment to arrive. Basically, they sent me 1 skein in the wrong colorway, and 8 skeins in the right colorway. It was a totally understandable error, because the colorways are similar and they oddly have the same dyelot number...but still, I couldn't knit with it like that. If you want to see the colors, click this link and scroll down to look at the colors 4285 Oceanic Mix and 4213 Blue Glasynys. I ordered 4213; they mistakenly sent 1 skein of 4285. Still, it's a customer service WIN because they have completely rectified the error with no fuss, no muss, and they said they would automatically refund the return shipping cost to me when it arrives. Oh, and they have already sent the replacement--they didn't make me wait til the return got to them.

OK, I'm gonna go wind some of this up now. Happy knitting!

Out With a Whisper

Oddly, I am on the verge of completing the NaKniSweMoDo 2009 challenge, and I haven't even taken a single picture of the 12th sweater WIP. I'm not sure why. It has been a very pleasing project, since I'm using one of my favorite yarns (Cascade Ecological Wool--very sheepy, soft, and sproingy, this time in a color that looks so much like oatmeal that I can almost smell the brown sugar). The pattern is interesting to knit and easy to follow, plus it's knit at a bulky gauge on US10 needles, so it's relatively quick. It's knit in pieces, which isn't really my favorite way to knit but is growing on me. I love the magic of setting in a sleeve cap, and how a set-in sleeve fits around the shoulder.

Anyway, the pattern I'm using is Starsky, by Jordana Paige, in the Winter 2005 issue of Knitty. I'm almost done. The whole thing is seamed up and I'm about 2 inches away from completing the front bands/shawl collar. I'm quite pleased with it so far, though the sleeves are on the long side and the sweater is turning out to have less ease than I expected. I thought my rendition of Bernhardt was a "big hug" of a sweater--and it is--but this one...seriously. Big. Freaking. Woolly. HUG.

Anyway, I should finish the front bands/collar in short order tomorrow, so I'll snap a picture and post it prior to blocking and belting this sucker.