It's a Truffle, not a Trifle

I'm sure you will all be relieved to hear that I have finished my Truffle Tunic! No more complaining about its unending stitches. The needle/yarn combination made my arms ache, the rough wool made my fingers sore and the colourwork was a big pain in the butt. (It's hard to believe I started this as "comfort knitting"?) But it's now done done done!

The first time I wore it, it got rave reviews from my friends. (Thank you, all.) The next day I wore it to work and not a comment from anyone. :( I guess this goes to show that we chose our friends and not our coworkers, eh?

As I suspected it does wear like a tent:

You can see it has a very simple construction--a great big T. The sleeves are super deep and there is absolutely no shaping.

A big belt is enough to tame the tent-like fit.

You may have also noticed the separate collar:

It's just a long ribbed tube pulled over my head and folded in half. It's not attached to the sweater in any way, but it looks like an attached collar when I wear it. I actually finished knitting it the evening I wore the tunic for the first time. Project Stats
Started: 4 Sep '10 / Finished: 24 Apr '11
Pattern: Truffle by Susan Crawford (was free, but apparently now must be purchased)
Materials: grey tweed wool from 2nd hand sweater (500 g, ~$5) and Blue Sky Alpaca Sport (3 skeins, $24.30)
I knit and knit while visiting with friends and when I ran out of wool I stopped. Then I worked in the ends, snipped them off and slipped the collar over my head. Voila!

Since I ran out of yarn, the collar is about 2" shorter than the pattern called for. I think that might even be good with the alpaca I used as it is very droopy "drapey" and doesn't stand tall on its own.

I am so happy to have something long enough to wear over my jeaggins. That's what started this whole project!

Knitting with an Adrenaline Rush (and Perseverance)

I have been pushing myself hard to finish my Truffle Tunic. It's just been dragging on and on. I put the front aside half way through the colourwork last November and started on the back. That was a marathon of grey stockingnette, and did not lend itself to long knitting sessions because something about the wool, needles and weight of project was really hard on my left hand/arm.

But I pushed through. Last week I finished the colourwork section on the front and was very close to the end of the back. That's when the ball of wool I was using for the back ran out.

I had a ball attached to the front yet. That's all I had left. There were some grey rows to do on top of the colourwork but I didn't want to do them until I knew for sure I had enough wool. I wouldn't know if I had enough wool until the back was done. Conundrum!

What I did was continue knitting the back with the other end of the ball attached to the front. I ended up with two halves of a sweater connected by one ever-shrinking ball of wool:

Once I had the back knit even with the front and only 4 rows of ribbing to do on each, I felt much better. Whatever happened, I could at least easily make them match. To save on possible rip-backs, I then alternated working on the front and back. Two rows on the front, two rows on the back, the ball of wool is getting smaller!!!

But I got my four rows on each part done, and then I got them cast off. I ended up with this much wool left.

Troy thinks I am a gambler at heart because I seem to keep doing this to myself. ("Not that often," I protest. Wait...the Whistler hat, the Superscarf, the Cuffed Boot Socks,...ok, ok, so those happen to be my last three projects. "Coincidence!" I now weakly protest.)

The only thing that irks me about almost running out of wool in this project is that it could have so easily been avoided. No, I couldn't buy more wool--it was recycled from a sweater, remember.

If I had knit this project from the top down, I could have gotten all the hard parts out of the way first, (made sure I liked it before I had so much invested), and I could have just knit the length until I ran out of wool. Then the only concern would be whether it would get as long as I wanted it to be. But if it didn't, I wasn't stuck with a sweater missing the top part of the pattern or a back shorter than the front. No, worst case, I would have a perfectly usable sweater that was an inch or two shorter than I would have really liked.

Well, let's call it a lesson learned and a catastrophe avoided because I had enough.

On the other hand, getting the finishing done was a lesson in perseverance. The front and back were attached at the shoulders with a three needle bind off. I followed the directions and got all 330 stitches cast off. I then tried it on by flipping it over my head. (At this point the shoulder seams were done and the neck edges cast off so it hung like a kind of poncho.)

Looking in the mirror, I could see that 1. the bind off was too loose on the neck edge and 2. the shoulder seams didn't come in far enough. (I.e. the neck opening was too big.) Ok, I am a big girl. Even though I had been thinking I would finish this thing every day for a week straight, I could take all that out and do it again...

So I did. I didn't have to take out both shoulder seams, but I did have to take out the neck edges and redo part of the shoulder seams to bring them in further and then redo the neck edges. But the big girl did it (without tears). Problems solved, so I thought.

Then while I was working in all the ends (because I was going to get this d*mn thing blocked today if it killed me...), I noticed this:

Between the yellow lines lies a perfectly good seam between the front (top) and back (bottom) from the three needle bind off. Between the red lines is a three needle bind off done from the wrong side resulting in a seam on the outside of my shoulder seam.

Ok, really, big girls don't cry....::chin quivering::

Boo hoo, I had to take it out again only this time I had already cut one end after working it in and had to worry again about the piece of wool not being long enough. But I persevered and got it done without running out of yarn. You can see it looks much better:

as it's lying out blocking.

I have the whole thing blocking, as a matter of fact:

Following my new habit of using the washing machine, I had it soaked and spun out in no time. Pinning took a little more time. After I had it all pinned, a little voice in my head said, "Should you really measure that to make sure the halves match?"

I listened to the little voice and discovered that the front was pulled a good inch longer than the back both above the sleeve increase and below. So I repinned it and now am walking away for a while...

The colourwork is not the best I've ever done for two reasons: there are a lot of very long floats in the pattern and these two yarns do not knit up in the same way at all. (More details here.) I think the results will be livable though. Time will tell.

And now I should really head outside for some work I've been avoiding for a week. (There lies my truest talent.) They promised me very warm temperatures today and I don't think that's come true. And no sunshine. I miss sunshine.

More Comfort Knitting Needed

I've been feeling a little sick the last few days. And although I try hard not to whine, in my head there is a constant drone. And yesterday I realized that I needed some more comfort knitting.

The problem with my Truffle Tunic is that the colourwork has got me down. I like it, don't get me wrong. But I was just never picking it up. I know, in my head, that the "tricky" part of the long floats would be over quickly if I would just get to it.

But I'm not getting to it.

And now I'm sick[ish] and feeling sorry for myself and really wanting some more comfort knitting.

That's when I had the great idea. I could put the front with all its colourwork on a stitch holder and start on the back. The back is just miles and miles of plain knitting--just what I needed.

And that's exactly what I did.

The stitches from the front are on a holder, and the whole thing is in a time out.

And now I am done the rows of 1x1 ribbing and started on the 3x3 ribbing. Five more inches of that to go.

That sad part of the story is that I forgot that the ribbing is done on smaller needles. So I could have actually started the back without worrying about the stitch holder. And it would have saved me one time of casting on and knitting 111 stitches and having to rip it all out. ::philosophical shrug:: That's alright, comfort knitting is so good I don't mind doing it twice.

And now I'm going to go do some more...(cough cough, sniff)

Marriage of Unequals

I started the colourwork of my tunic. (Finally got through the seven inches of plain knitting across the body and sleeves. That was a chore.)

I'm not sure how it's going to work out. The cream alpaca is a little thinner than the grey which isn't necessarily such a big deal. But it's also so much smoother and "slippery-er." In addition, it doesn't have the stretch which helps colourwork work out.

So we have:
Cream
thinner
no stretch
smooth/slippery
Grey
thicker
has give
"sticky" (like velcro, not like honey)







The grey has all the attributes you want in a wool for colourwork. The cream none. No wait, the cream has a nice halo. That's lovely in colourwork.

It's been a challenge to get the pattern to come out even. You have to be right on with a yarn like that; it's not forgiving at all. Plus this design, being an "oversize" fair isle pattern, has long sections of a single colour. Because the cream alpaca is what it is, I can't catch the long floats between stitches--the grey shows right through. So I'm trying to get it done with long floats. If they become a problem, I can always sew them down after the fact.

All these issues have moved this project definitely outside of "comfort knitting." This (and the onset of "Socktober") have slowed progress considerably. But it hasn't stopped completely.

Can I become master of the wool and make it do my bidding, or will I be defeated? We shall see...

How's the Tunic Looking?

Why thanks for asking.

I think it's going well. I am above the sleeve increases and  puttering along.

My deadline knitting (previous post) is slowing progress a little, but I still work on this when I don't have the attention span to pay attention to what I'm doing.

The shape of the sweater looks a little odd because the sleeve shaping takes place so early. The sleeves are ridiculously deep and that makes the body look shorter than it is. It'll all work out; trust me.

I only have about 2.5" done on the sleeves and have 4.5" more to do before I can introduce the second colour and all the fun begins.

One detail I really like about this design is the bottom edge. It doesn't dive straight into the 3x3 rib, but first does 5 rows of 1x1 ribbing:

This gives a very smooth line across the bottom. If you started the 3x3 ribbing right away, the bottom edge would buckle and curl, but the 1x1 rib tames it nicely. It makes the garment lie better and from further away you don't really notice the shift in the ribbing. Bravo!

I picked up some Blue Sky alpaca. (Blue Sky being merely the yarn brand; it doesn't define the alpaca in any way.) It is so dreamy and soft. Quite a contrast to the scratchy "serviceable" grey wool.

I found a new group on Ravelry by the way...it's for people who like scratchy wool. I couldn't believe there were more people like me!

And for the record, I'm not talking about itchy wool--I don't like that sensation either. But there's a lot of good...what shall we say?..."rough" wool out there, and I like it!

Back to the main topic, I'll be interested in how these very different wools interact.

One thing's sure, though, I'll be glad the cowl neck is made from the alpaca. My neck is one place I do not appreciate "scratchy" wool.

Comfort Knitting

I worked a lot of hours this week, and one night when I came home, tired and drained, I told Troy I was eating Captain Crunch cereal and KoolAid for dinner. He nodded understandingly and said, "Comfort food."

I thought of that yesterday as I started to feel bad in the afternoon and evening. I sat on the couch watching college football (Welcome back!) wishing for some knitting that I didn't have.

The summit scarf is going well, I am making progress. But it had too many short rows and things to keep track of. Plus I couldn't watch TV while doing it.

The socks I'm doing were in the car and I wasn't about to go get them. (Don't mock me! I wasn't feeling good.) Plus they were at a point I had to think about them; it wasn't just knitting round and round.)

The lace scarf was definitely too much to handle.

And then I realized: I need comfort knitting. Some straight stocking stitch in a wool I enjoyed. Rows long enough that I could knit for a while before I had to turn around. Pieces big enough that I would be knitting for a while before I had to think about things like shaping.

Lucky for me I had prepared for this situation. Just on Friday night actually, I took a fresh look through the Ravelry database for a tunic pattern for this wool:

that I raveled from this sweater from Goodwill:

I wasn't sure what I wanted in a pattern, but there were a lot of patterns I knew I didn't want. I've been looking for at least six months and had never really found anything. (I found one pattern I liked, but all the examples on Ravelry didn't really fit right, so I didn't bother with it.) And then, boom!, on Friday I found two. Maybe it's their new pattern search function. Maybe I just hadn't noticed these. Or, maybe it was because I thought this wool was a bulky weight and when I finally swatched it earlier in the week, it turned out it's more like a DK weight. Different pattern set for that--big difference!

In any case, this afternoon, I cast on for this sweater by Just call me Ruby. (The pattern is published on Knitting on the Net.) I'll be shopping at Red Purl for some white or off-white to do the colourwork. (Might be the Rowan BFL that I made Troy's sweater out of. We'll see.)

My favourite part? The "turtleneck" is actually cowl. It's a separate piece and you can wear it or not based on the weather. Look at the pattern for a picture of the sweater's actual boatneck. It's nice!

And it worked: I felt comforted. Now, however, I'm wondering if I'm crazy to start another project. But how could I tell myself no? I was all pathetic laying on the couch...giving myself those puppy eyes. Please?

By the way, my new pillow was wonderful to use as I was sitting on the couch. So comfy on my back, and I'm still loving it!