It's Not Going to Work

Or, A Tale of Two Toes, if you prefer.

Once upon a time I purchased this orange sweater second hand with the intent to harvest its wooly blend goodness.

At another time, I found the same sweater in pink, like bubblegum pink.

I used the orange for a pair of socks already (this pair) but I always had the secret wish to use them together in an awesome, albeit eye-searing, project.

When I saw a project from the book Op-art Socks, I thought I may have found my muse. I got the book from the library, carefully considered many projects and then set my heart on this swirly masterpiece:

The designer, Stephanie van der Linden, has conquered my knitting heart with this masterpiece of a design. Look how the swirl moves seamlessly from one sock to the other. Incredible. How much more awesome would it be in orange and pink?

So I set about casting on the sock - I figured I could use the toe as a gauge swatch.

First I tried it with one strand on my smallest dpns (bottom sock above and right sock below). Then I tried it with a double strand on slightly larger needles (top sock above and left socks below).

I calculated my gauge as the following:
  single strand: 41st/4" and 72 rows/4"
  double strand: 34st/4" and 52 rows/4"

What the pattern called for was 34st/4" and 46 rows/4". It looks like the double strand was pretty close, right? It's right on for stitch gauge, which determines how wide the sock is (the fit around the foot); but the row gauge is off (determining the length of the sock).

I debated about reworking the pattern to be knit from the top down so I could adjust the foot length as needed after the colourwork section was done, but the pattern has an unusual heel and it was going to be more work than I wanted.

I went to bed and hoped for inspiration to strike overnight.

It did.

I had the brilliant idea of doing a provisional cast on, working the sock toe-up (as written) starting with the colourwork section, and then coming back to knit the toe as long/short as needed at the end. Ok, now I was set...

I knit happily for the morning and got this far on the colour chart:

It was enough to see 1. I love pink and orange together. 2. It was far too big around. I had had my fears beforehand because the pattern calls for 72 stitches and I don't ever use that many stitches for my own socks, but the maths said otherwise. I followed the maths and obviously was led down the wrong path. (Happens more often than you would think.)

So I gamely ripped it out. No easy task since I had to separate the strands that had been knit together, but I persisted.

I cast on again, with one strand and smaller needles and knit the early afternoon away.

I got most of the way through the colour chart and I saw two things. 1. It is the right size to fit around my foot. 2. It's way, way too short. Where I should have about 4.5" of knitting, I have less than 2".

That is where I stopped.

I have two thoughts: 1. I could knit the chart repeating each row so that it is effectively double tall. This would be a pain in the butt to keep track of because many of the rows are already the same and I'm not convinced it will be tall enough even with that modification.

2. These yarns and this pattern are just not meant to go together.

That is where the project sits. My knitting time that day ran out and I haven't picked it up again. But after a few days in time out, I'm leaning toward thinking it deserves one more try.

Still Like Knitting

I sat down to work on a project I might even finish with just a little stick-to-it-ness. Instead I couldn't resist some new madelinetosh I had sitting on the couch. I have a pattern in mind but this is a different weight yarn so I definitely have to swatch.

Sometime last year I was in Red Purl and Amy showed me a new pattern she just loved, Scarpetta by Kirsten Johnstone.

I caught her enthusiasm and bought the pattern with no immediate plans to make it (something I don't often do). After I got home, I filed it away and didn't really think I would ever make the sweater. It's knit side-to-side (not a feature I'm fond of) and I just didn't have that "must-knit-it" vibe from it, although I loved the neckline and collar.

Months pass and then I see some yarn in Red Purl I really love, two colours of madelinetosh merino light:

I loved them both and thought they looked good together--Amy said she ordered them because they worked so well together--and I started to wonder how they would work for the Scarpetta. But I thought they might contrast a bit too much for the look I would want. But then I had the thought of using them together, alternating between the two skeins every row so they would blend into a third unique colour.

So last night when I could have been finishing other projects, I started a swatch so I could see what it would look like:

Pretty good, I think.

It was a nice evening of almost thoughtless knitting. Next up I block it and see which of the four sizes of needles I used most closely matches the pattern gauge.

Wherein the question, "What do you mean it's not the same?" is answered with, "It's not."

Confession time. Confession of dumb things I do.

Remember my recent post bemoaning the change in gauge in my Making Waves cardi?

I ripped back the sleeve this weekend and started knitting with the larger sized needles, the ones I purchased just for this project. Before I had finished two rows I knew it wasn't right.

I got a sneaky suspicion of what went wrong and checked my Ravelry notes to find out. Sure enough, I had been using the wrong size needle in the first place!! Instead of using the size I used for the first sleeve, I was using the smaller set that I had used exclusively for the last rows and cast off.

Two results:
1. I learned (again) that you can never have so much experience that you stop making dumb mistakes.
2. All is right in the universe once more: using different needles produces a different gauge and using the same needles does give me the same result. Phew!

I have recommenced the sleeve with the correct needles and all is going well.

Plus I am very relieved to have solved the conundrum of getting such different results from the "same" needles. I can't tell you how much that turned my world upside down. (Honestly, it's like finding out putting the car in reverse makes you go forward faster. It just wasn't right!) Now, deep breath. All is good.

Gauge Gauge Gauge

I've been doing a lot of swatching over the last couple weeks preparing for three projects.

1. The plarn trench coat which, you may recall, was one of this year's goals. I pulled out the pattern to try out the stitch pattern. Not even close to gauge, and not very pretty.

The mushy looking part at the bottom is in the stitch design from the pattern. Yuck!

So then I started mixing it up with crochet hook sizes and other stitch combinations. I still wasn't getting close enough to gauge. I've requested a pattern book from the library that contains another trench coat pattern. It's written for bulky yarn so I'm hoping I can get it to work.

2. I got going on the plan to knit the Bella's Mittens out of the wool from the J Crew sweater. Since I had no real information about the weight of the wool from the sweater, I thought it was especially important to check the gauge. I started with the needle size recommended by the pattern and got gauge with the first try! That's how I'm used to it working out!

So I merrily knitted away on the mittens. And despite getting gauge right on, they were a little small! That means either the pattern didn't list the right gauge or I have bigger hands than most. In any case, I did two things to compensate: first, I added some length to the top of the mitten and to the thumb. Secondly, I stretched them a bit when blocking. They're still drying, but I think they'll be good. I'll give you a look at them after I've gotten some good pics.

3. And, finally I got some new needles in the mail and could try some more on my Whistler swatch. It hasn't been straight forward. Here's my swatch piece of eight sections trying out different needles in plain and colourwork:
I'm aiming for 24 sts to 4". Starting at the bottom, I have gotten

1. 26 sts on aluminum US #3s

2. 24 sts on aluminum US #3s in continental style. Right gauge but very uneven in tension. It wasn't pretty!

3. 23 sts on metal 3.75mms

4. 23 sts on aluminum US #4s

5. 24 sts on bamboo US #3/3.25mms

Yeah! I finally got gauge on the plain stocking stitch section. (And with one of the new needles thus justifying the purchase!)

Now the colourwork section requires a different gauge and the pattern recommends moving up a size to get it. The pattern didn't specify the stitch gauge but wants 28 rows to 4".

6. 24 rows on bamboo US #4 (22.5 sts/4")

7. 24 rows on bamboo US #3 (24 sts/4")

8. 28 rows on bamboo US #2 (26 sts/4")

Ok, so the final size gives the right row gauge, but I don't like that the stitch gauge doesn't match the stocking stitch section. :sigh: Plus it means that I actually had to go down a size, instead of up like the pattern calls for. Doesn't feel right.

I've put it aside for now and posted the question on the Dale of Norway group on Ravelry. Hopefully the peeps there will be able to help.