I have started listening to the Never Not Knitting podcasts. So many of the OPYF crowd follow Alana. Her podcasts are witty and sweet and relate to my life of knitting. Her theme song is a real hoot.
During her second podcast she talks about a sweater she was making at the time. It required that she pick up and knit the stitches around the front of the sweater. She counted over 400 stitches! She talked about how that had put her a little off the project for a time. I FULLY UNDERSTAND! I am in that place right now.
I am knitting this wonderful pattern from c2knits called Eva. I am using my own Lanas Puras Melosa lace weight yarn in Passion. It is a top down knit and is an easy pattern. I knitted it all the way down to the hem and finished that part.
Now the instructions call for me to pick up and knit around the entire front and collar of the sweater. I did not count the number of stitches. After I did that, I knitted for one inch. No problem. Now I have to knit through the front and back of each stitch and DOUBLE the number of stitches, then knit for an inch. Also, no problem. The pattern then calls for me to DO IT AGAIN! doubling all the stitches and knitting for another inch. Done. OK, BIND OFF ALL THE STITCHES!
OK, that's done. It looks wonderful. I really love the way it is turning out.
OK, time to knit the sleeves. There were already stitches on hold for this. I started knitting one of the sleeves using my Denise Interchange set. It turns out that there isn't enough bend in the cable to let you easily do magic loop. So, I switched to double pointed needles. Everyone who knows me, understands that when I knit with DPN's I get ladders. So I tried the trick of moving 2 stitches over to a new needle as I finished the yarn on the dpns. I knitted the sleeve all the way to the bottom, did the final stitches to bind of and took it down to The Fiber factory to show them my progress.
They laughed long and hard. There were so many ladders scattered all over the sleeve! My friend Terri said RIP IT OUT! You know you won't be happy with it and the gaps are too wide to use the stitches on either side to take up the slack.
I walked out with a brand new Addi 40" circular and I am in the process of doing the magic loop method of knitting.
Now your talking!
More pictures once I finish this. After a rest.
Regards,
Karen
OPYF
2 comments:
Great job Karen. Here is a trick I use for ladders. When you switch needles knit the first st on the left needle normally. Put the right needle into the second stitch and gently pull the yarn such that the new needle and old needle come together. Go ahead and knit (or purl) the stitch. The reason pulling the first st on the new needle is that as soon as you ease up on the tension it just let's go thereby causing the ladder. With pulling the second st it has the first st to hold it in place avoiding the ladder. Try it sometime. Also remember if the ladders aren't too bad they will get better after the item is washed.
Thank you Mary!
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