Well, Ye Olde Yarn Barf gave me a hard time when I got to it. It knotted and tangled and generally misbehaved. Just like…yarn barf. Or perhaps yarn bulimia, as Tammy suggested in the Comments. Not at all like expensive organic cotton should conduct itself at all. Hope it doesn’t happen with this next ball. Yes, I performed another join on this stuff. Urp! (I’m not sure I like joining cotton at all!) I’ve finished the waist on the Unmentionables and I’m only partway into my third ball out of 7! I think the pattern overestimates or there’s more used in the wide lace on the legs than it seems. I’m getting slightly smaller gauge than the 22 sts/30 rows. Mine is 22.5 sts/30 rows. But that’s just fine since it’s still somewhat too big for my granddaughter anyway. The Sublime organic cotton DK yarn has 120 yds per 50 g skein versus the pattern’s Valley Yarns Longmeadow at 117 yds per 50 g skein so that’s not the problem either. We shall see how many skeins it actually takes when I’m done, eh?
The pattern calls for grafting the crotch seam at the end but I’m getting tired of the extra weight of the stitch holders so I’m grafting it before I start on the lace edgings. Doesn’t matter one whit in the end anyway. Do you change the order of working patterns from what the directions specify? I do it all the time. I usually start a sweater with the sleeves instead of the back, for instance. I use the sleeves for a gauge swatch since they’re (usually) small, at least at the beginning if worked cuff upward. If it’s not working out I have more to frog than a swatch though especially if I do both sleeves at once, which I do for flat but not circular ones. However it’s better than if I started the back which is often the biggest piece. It’s not that I’m too lazy to swatch. I actually made 3 for the Hepburn Cardi and still ended up frogging most of both sleeves! I think they don’t tell you quite enough information sometimes.
Speaking of the Hepburn Cardi, I’m still plugging away on it. It’s become my TV knitting because I’ve got the pattern down to instinct by now. I’m nearly up to the armholes on the fronts, which of course I’m knitting at the same time on the same circular needle. When they’re done then it’s blocking, seaming and borders. When I say it like that, it sounds like it’s almost done! Not. Well, I still have more than 2 months before its one-year anniversary which is my goal date to finish.
And speaking of cardis, I’ve been hunting for something to knit The Princess KiKi to go with her Unmentionables out of the yarn that I didn’t use for them. It’s a bright pink Smart superwash wool in DK weight and I like the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan free pattern from Lion Brand. The pattern is by Sarah Hoadley (on Ravelry as sdhoadley) and is very cute. Hers is even in a similar colour! However the yarn called for is worsted weight (17 sts per 4 inches) and mine is 22 sts per 4 inches. I can’t use a larger size because it only goes up to a 4 which would fit her now as is. I think I need to resize it for the smaller gauge and slightly larger size that I need. Also I was wondering why the pattern was knit in separate flat pieces and then the fronts, sleeves and back are arranged on a circular needle and the yoke knit up to the neck. The sides and sleeve seams are stitched afterward. Apparently from comments on Ravelry if you knit the body and sleeves circular and then try to work them all together for the yoke it’s very tight to knit the first few rows when you join it up. So I can’t decide which way to go with that. It will take some thinking, methinks.
Meanwhile, I’ve charted the lace edging for the ruffles on the Unmentionables. For the first time I made a custom stitch in Knit Visualizer for “bind off”. The first font I used looked fine on the screen but didn’t print the same symbol as the one it should have. I changed to another font with a similar symbol set and it worked fine so I don’t know what’s up there. The JKnit font is the one that didn’t work properly but one called LaceKnit worked correctly. I’m going to need to play with this some more and if there are more problems I’ll ask Nancy, KV’s programmer, for suggestions on what might be going on. She is very good at support.
You know when it’s time to get out the vacuum when you start naming the dust bunnies and counting their offspring. I should vacuum them up before they start growing carrots in all the dirt around here.
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