Whistler Hat: Calling on Plan B

I worried about it. And it happened. I ran out of the natural colour.

Now I know I said I would buy another ball no matter how little I needed, but I when I was at the point that I was sure I wouldn't have enough, I couldn't stand the thought of stopping and waiting for more yarn.

So I went to plan B.

I knit as far as I thought I could while still leaving enough yarn to work the remaining stitches in duplicate stitch. It wouldn't be quite the same, but not stringing all the yarn along the back would save a lot of yarn.

This is how much yarn I had left to add all the white stitches left.

This is the hat when I was finished knitting.

Side

Front

You can see that the colourwork stops rather abruptly!

After some work with a needle and about half of the remaining yarn, the hat looked like this:

Side

Front

But I wasn't done yet. The pattern also called for some red patterning, so I added that too:

These were the little details in the sweater that caused all the three-colour stranding that I went on and on about. Should I ever make it again, I'll be duplicate stitching it on the sweater instead.

The hat looks a little rough because it hasn't been blocked yet. I have it soaking now, and will show you the finished project in a little while.

PS: It occurred to me that I ran out of yarn because I used it for those dang Christmas gifts I was complaining about!! They strike again!

Whistler: Preparations for a Finish

Getting back to my Whistler this morning, I finally got the gumption to work on all those ends! It was a job, but I got it done.

I read that some people cut their yarn every row instead of carrying the third colour along or using an intarsia-in-the-round technique. I can't imagine!

For those interested in the details, I generally ran the end through a couple strands of the "purl bumps" on the back for...oh...7 to 8 stitches. (Or whatever worked at that location.)

Once the ends were worked in, it was time for a little duplicate stitch on the front. There was a spot where the pattern told you to skip some white stitches and to just stitch them on afterwards. And since it was before I thought of doing intarsia in the round, I followed the pattern's directions.

Here you can see half of the stitches have been done:
(Compare the right side which is done, and the left where one and half "V"s are missing.)

After the duplicate stitch:
you can see the entire pattern. Duplicate stitches are necessarily a little bulkier since the yarn is doubled there, but done right, they blend right in.

And doing it right is very easy to do. It's done with a needle and length of cut yarn. After threading the needle push it up from the back at the bottom of the stitch you need to copy:

Think of each stitch as a "V." You need to just bring the needle up through the bottom point--marked with a little orange dot in this picture.

Pull the yarn through and then insert the needle in through one top point of the V and out through the other. (I went right to left, but you could go either way.) The points are marked with little red dots in this picture:

Finally, you push the needle back down through the bottom point (orange dot) again to finish the stitch, and then you can come up through the bottom point of the next stitch (green dot) at the same time to start the next duplicate stitch:
Things move along rather easily and smoothly, and pretty soon I was done the front:

Later this afternoon, I then found time and energy to block the pieces. They're drying now:
and then it will have to wait until I'm ready to reinforce the armhole steeks, cut the steeks, sew in the sleeves, reinforce the other steek, cut the other steek, pickup stitches for the collar, knit the collar and sew on the zipper or Norwegian style clasps (haven't decided yet). That's all!

I just read on the Knitting in Color blog that Dale of Norway has started making their pamphlets available for free as pdf files. This is being celebrated greatly as many of their patterns are out of print and very hard to find. (They get expensive quick once they're out of print--like up to $229 for some booklets! Lots of ebay sellers are not going to be happy about this!)

I'm all for free patterns, but I have to admit I still enjoy pattern books and written pamphlets. According to the announcement DON is only releasing patterns online now. But I'll adjust...

I am also feeling a bit ambivalent because the Whistler pattern is included. Now, I am happy for all those people who have not been able to get a much-sought-after Whistler pattern but part of me has to ask: why did I have to buy it? But I try not to be bitter. After all, I couldn't be almost done my sweater right now, if I hadn't gotten the pattern last year.

Now, let's hope I can soon transform "almost done" to done done!