Big Bulky Cable Vest

Ready for a parade of finished projects? The combination of a deadline of leaving on a trip and the time during the trip to work on knitting has led to a great number of things being finished and/or photographed.

Of course, I also figured everything looks better with mountains in the background. (Or if it doesn't look good, you don't notice because Look! There's a mountain!)

Last time I wrote about the Cable Vest, I had finished the neck bands and was working on the armhole trim. Or I had picked up the stitches, but hadn't knit them. It took me a while to pick it up again--I'm not sure why. But with this trip looming, something got me going and I knit both sides pronto. I did three rows on each side, so that didn't take long. Turns out that's a good thing because I'll be redoing them, but I'll talk about that in a minute.

Project Stats
Started: 25 Dec '12
Finished: 8 Mar '13
Pattern: Ruffle Trim Vest by Shiri Mor
Materials: 574 grams raveled bulky cashmere (~$5-$7)
After that, I had to deal with the bottom hem. I had done a provisional cast on so I had a bunch of live stitches to deal with. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I started, but when it was time to work on it, I had decided to do a cable around the bottom, much like the neck trim.

I put all the stitches onto a cable needle and started at the bottom of the front center cable. I took half of the stitches and added a couple more so that I had six stitches--enough for a four-stitch cable with a purl stitch on both sides.

I then knit along the bottom, twisting the cable every six rows (like the neck) and working the one purl stitch together with a stitch of the bottom hem.

I think it turned out pretty well.

I threw the vest into my suitcase and worked all the ends in at some point on the trip. Probably the first night in the hotel, actually, because then I blocked it! Soaked it in the little sink and laid it out, first on the floor and then on a luggage rack.

At some point I thought maybe this was going to be a bad idea because it took all of the two days we were there for this to dry! At some point I thought it was never going to be dry, but finally it was.

And I could put it on, and pose with some mountains in the background.

I like the way the bottom cables come out of the center braid. (If you don't look too close, and really, who's going to be?)

And here is the back with its swirly twirly cable design:

I'm not too happy with the holes where the cables begin (bottom of the looping circles--see the very bottom of the design and the loops on the right and left sides). This was the first time that I had done this technique and apparently didn't do it very well. There's a "make 5" at that point, and that's a lot of stitches to get out of one stitch. I may be able to sew it up with a separate strand of yarn to get rid of the hole. I haven't tried it yet.

Also, I will be doing the armholes again, when I get to it:

I don't like the way it uncurls, especially on the back. It's supposed to roll to the front side (taking advantage of stocking stitch's tendency to curl to make it match the reverse stocking stitch on the main panels). But there aren't enough stitches around the hole and that is making it pull. I'm going to have to rip them back and add more stitches so it has lots of room to curl.

And that last thing is the colour. Since the beginning, I have not been too crazy about it. Pale blue is one thing, but this is just too washed out. I have determined I am going to dye it, at some point. (I'll wear it a few times first so that if the dyeing is a total disaster, I will have at least had that!) Although my calculations at the beginning made it look like I may be short on yarn, I actually only used half of what I had!

I will experiment with some KoolAid dyeing on the extra yarn, and hopefully have good enough results that I will dye the whole garment. KoolAid has a reputation for being splotchy and being "taken up" unevenly, but I am just going to have to risk it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

Bella's Mittens

It didn't take long! I have finished Bella's Mittens.

They are lovely. (I can say that because that's complimenting the designer, Marielle Henault, not me!)

The pattern was very well written. I would prefer to follow a chart, but made do with the line by line instructions.

The mittens did come up a little short so I added a few rows to the top and spread out the decreasing. [*Details below.] I also added two rows to the thumb.

The mitten shaping and proportion fit the hand and arm wonderfully, especially the smooth thumb gusset. Very comfortable.

The wool had felt quite itchy when I tried the mittens on, pre-blocking.

Once blocked, however, they are soft and not at all irritating. I made sure to stretch them a bit during the blocking (length and width) and they fit even better now.

Project Stats
Started: 30 Jan 10
Finished: 2 Feb 10
Pattern: Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault (free)
Materials: 115 grams from
J Crew Sweater (~$1.50)

I think I mentioned that as soon as I had unraveled this sweater, I was inspired (one might say driven) to make Bella's Mittens from it. And I think it did turn out to be a beautiful match. But once they were done, I let myself realize that the long mittens won't fit with any of my jackets. The beautiful salmon red colour doesn't match my red winter coat. (Like, at all.)

This was more of a "process" knit than a "final result" knit. I really enjoyed making them, and seeing the project through. I did not despair what would happen to them...with impeccable timing, someone from church asked if I had anything I could donate for a silent auction for the youth group. Why, yes, yes I do!

Happy bidding!

_________________________

*Mods after row 80:

Row 81: K12, P2, K6, P1, move final stitch to beginning of next needle
Row 82: K2tog, K10, ssk, P1, K6, move final stitch to beginning of next needle

Row 83: K2tog, K10, ssk, K6

Row 84: K3, ssk, K2, K2tog, K3, K6

Row 85: K3, ssk, K2tog, K3, K6

Row 86: K2, K2tog, ssk, K2, K6

Row 87: K6 (only do half the round)

Kitchener the stitches together

Red Purl KAL Afghan: August

I spent another lovely afternoon knitting with everyone at Red Purl. Amy designed this month's block with a series of "cross over" cables. It's a cable I've never done before. (!) The basic idea is to cross the outside two stitches while leaving the centre three stitches alone in the centre.

Only one in six rows has any cabling or anything complicated in it; the rest are just knit and purl in a 3x5 rib. (A very awkward pattern for me. I had to watch my knitting more than I'm used to.) But the main point is that five out of six rows are pretty easy and the square just buzzed right along.

Wendy somehow got her block started early and was over half done by the time I showed up this afternoon. She was giving me a hard time all afternoon for not catching up. She then taunted me about finishing this evening. Well, Wendy, I got mine finished too...and I didn't give myself a head start! (Btw, I hope you had a fun time with Elvis. I would have went along if it weren't soooo hot!)

For those of you who are not done your blocks, I have a slightly different method of doing the cross over that you may find a little easier. The method given in the pattern involves holding one stitch on a cable needle at some point, and I find this very very awkward. The stitch wants to fall off the needle (part of that is because I just use a dpn, not a true cable needle) and/or the needle doesn't behave and flips all over the place, getting in my way.

So, if you want, you could try the following steps. The results of both methods are identical.

1. Ready to start. We're going to do the cross over cable on the five upcoming stitches:

2. Slip the next four stitches onto a cable needle and hold to the back of your work:

3. Knit one stitch from the left needle:

Here you are with the one stitch knit and the cable needle still being held in back. (The stitch you just knit is stretched in front of the four stitches you slipped to the cable needle.)

Here's where we start differing from the pattern as written.

4. Insert the tip of the left needle into the right-most stitch on the cable needle, and slip it off of the cable needle (off the right side) onto the left needle:

You now have the knit stitch on the right needle, the stitch you just slipped on the left needle, and three stitches being held on the cable needle in the back:

5. Now knit the three stitches from the cable needle:

So now you have four stitches knit onto the right needle, and the stitch that had been slipped to the left needle:

6. Knit the stitch off of the left needle:

7. Purl three stitches and you're ready to go again:
I won't lie to you: this method is probably not a huge improvement. Either way you do it, all those needles and crossed stitches are going to feel at least a little awkward. This is when I'm very happy to work on long straight needles where I can prop the end of one needle against my hip to hold it steady. It's almost as good as a third hand.

One final detail: did you notice the string tied on my block in the first picture? I was knitting along when I noticed the yarn in the previous row was compromised. One of the two plies was cut and the yarn was very thin for one stitch. Maybe I should have tinked back right then, but I didn't. I did, however, mark the spot so I could think about whether I needed to fix it later.

It might be fine. It's only one little stitch. Or it might give out and produce a growing hole. Chances are the wool will felt together nicely and keep it from becoming an issue. Or not. For now I have decided to duplicate stitch that part of the row to reinforce it. That should be enough to keep it from becoming a bigger problem.

I noticed another weak spot like that a few rows later but was able to catch it in time and just fold the wool over itself and felt it together (like a wet splice). Too bad I didn't notice the first one in time.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been racing with Wendy...

Red Purl Afghan KAL: April

So did you miss the knit-a-long last week? Although normally on the second week of the month, it was preempted by Easter and we got together this week instead. Last Thursday, I heard a rumour that we were going to need a cable needle so I was expecting something a little Aran. I was wrong; it was quite different.

The design was called an Asymmetrical Basket Weave. Angie's directions were very clear and included the first cable in the sampler style blanket. When I saw that it was a basket weave, I was expecting something like this or maybe this,, but what we got is this:

Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but I have a hard time getting all those nice contrasting squares to actually make a basket weave pattern. And the serpentine cable was added for interest, but I'm not sure I understand how it relates to the rest.

Additionally, there is one issue with the cable that is going to come back to haunt later on: the "crossings" were not centered vertically on the pattern or on the piece as a whole.

You can see in the bottom circle that the cable starts very close to the bottom edge (after 2 pattern rows) which distorts it quite a bit. It's going to be hard to block that edge straight. And then at the top there is quite a bit of room between the last crossing and the end of the design (5 rows) which leaves a sort of "dead" cable. Never a good thing. If the cable were done one pattern row later the split could have been 4-3 instead of 2-5. I didn't see this in time to implement that change either.

I gave brief thought to changing the square to a more traditional basket weave but decided instead to just go with the flow. For one, I was pretty far along by then and did not relish taking it out. And I believe there is value in doing some things that you wouldn't chose if left only to your own devices. It can open your world up a little; new possibilities and all that. I will say I love the name Amy dubbed it: The Adam and Eve Basket Weave (because of the "snake," I assume).

Thanks to some "bonus" knitting done during a favourite one-year old's birthday party tonight, I got everything but the last four border rows done today. I should be able to finish those tomorrow at lunch. It will be good to have it done because next month's KAL is a week early (thanks to Mother's Day). That's only two weeks away!

I do have to say that the colour--Cadmium 7--is so cheery that you could pretty much knit anything and that yellow could carry it off. It makes you happy to look at it, and makes me happy to knit with it.

And to think, next year I will be able to snuggle under this and have my day filled with this sunshine all the time!