Down, but not out

Hello all.

If you follow me on Twitter then you will already know that Saturday was Not A Good Day To Knit.

Firstly, my challenge shawl. I have been feeling unwell for most of the week with a stomach upset, so hadn’t really felt like knitting much. I knew that the pressure was really on now to get finished so I had knitted like a crazy thing on Thursday night trying to catch up. I had gotten to the second lace repeat and things were going fairly well, and I was really loving the way the shawl looked. But then, when I counted the stitches, one side somehow had six more stitches than the other.

I had no idea what to do other than rip back to the lifeline that I described inserting in my last post. I decided that I would quickly count again before ripping, just to be sure, and as I was counting I noticed a dropped stitch on the side that had less stitches. When I tried to pick it up with my trusty crochet hook, it unraveled a few more rows, but with a lot of muttered cursing I managed to pick it back up. However, I then held up the shawl to try to spot where the stitch count had gone wrong and noticed a whopping error, about 4 rows from the beginning. I actually cried a little from sheer frustration, and realised that I would need to rip the whole thing out, and start again. There was no way on this Earth that I was now going to complete the challenge on time, and I was so frustrated with myself that I couldn’t face casting it back on. I spoke to The Northerner, to tell him that he had won, but he said that he had been thinking that there was no way he could finish his project either, as he had been away with his family for a few days and had forgotten to take anything to work on. After talking it over, we decided to call it a tie.

 

I think that I learned a lot from this project, even though I had to rip out, and would like to share my thoughts. Before I do, I would like to point out that I really love this pattern, it is clear, easy to follow and very well written. All of the mishaps were definitely my own, and not the fault of the pattern writer.

So, this is what I learned:

• I over-estimated my knitting speed. I somehow thought that something knitted in 4 ply would grow as quickly as something knitted in DK. Erm, not quite.
• I over-estimated my skill level. Although I was familiar with most of the techniques in the pattern, I wasn’t fluent with them, which meant that when I tried to knit quickly I quickly got into a mess!
• There were too many new variables. I had new needles in a new material, a new yarn weight, a new type of yarn, new type of pattern and a couple of unfamiliar techniques to contend with, which blew my beginner knitter mind.
• I tried to knit too quickly (partly as a result of overestimating my knitting speed). Being on a deadline added pressure that I just didn’t need.
• I didn’t allow for error. No lifelines, no extra time allowed for illness, or other problems
• I didn’t allow myself to grow. I got frustrated when I made a mistake, which lead to more mistakes, which lead to more frustration. I should have been nicer to myself, I am a beginner after all!

So as you can see I learned a lot! I have ripped the shawl out and put the yarn away for now so I can work on something a little easier to build my skills before trying again. I have some time off work coming up at the end of March, so I would like to pick it up then and work through it, slowly this time.

After that, I decided to pick up another shawl that I had been working on, the Patty shawl from Let’s Knit Magazine 62 (on Ravelry here). Again, this is a great pattern and is really interesting as it is presented both as a chart and as written instructions so is a great way to learn charts if you’re new to it. I had chosen to use a different yarn than called for in the pattern, and unfortunately it just didn’t look right, so I decided to rip that shawl out as well to put the yarn to another use. I plan on returning to this pattern at some point in the future with a different yarn.

The yarn that I ripped out was quickly put to use to cast on the “Age of Brass and Steam Kercheif”. So far I think this looks pretty awesome and is growing quickly (plus I get to use my Knit Pro Symphonie’s yay!!!)

 

You can find the pattern for free on Ravelry here, and my project page is here. The yarn is Sirdar Crofter DK in the Burnett colourway.

So, that’s all for now, I know that this went on a little so thanks for sticking with me! I’m hoping to catch up on FO’s that I haven’t had a chance to post about over the next week so stay tuned.

Happy knitting!

February challenge – quick update

Hi everyone!

In my last post I mentioned that I had made a mistake in the shawl, and had somehow managed to mess up my stitch placement. I put the project aside for a couple of days whilst I thought about how to deal with the mistake, and tried to work out how visible it would be when the shawl was worn. In the end, I decided that the mistake would be quite obvious as only a couple of rows after the mistake there was already an obvious “step” in the pattern. So, I decided to put in an afterthought lifeline by threading dental floss though the last row before the lace pattern as I wasn’t sure where I made the mistake. After putting in the lifeline the project looked like this (as well as smelling minty!)

Then, after checking about 10 times that I had grabbed all the stitches, I took a deep breath and ripped back. This took me back to the last right side row before the chevron pattern began and was a good thing as the lifeline did not grab 2 of the stitches so I had to add them on the next row. After ripping I had this:

 

 

Getting the project back on the needles took a while!

Now, I have very carefully worked back up the first lace pattern repeat and hopefully will have some actual progress to show you in my next update (planned for Friday).

Thanks for reading!

February Challenge Update 2

Hello all!

This is just a quick update to let you know how I’m doing on the challenge. I have managed to complete the body section of the shawl and have just finished the first repeat of the lace pattern. I am progressing faster now that I have gotten used to the yarn / needle combination although I have also been knitting a pair of mitts for The Northerner which are made with Aran weight yarn so when I switch from the shawl to the mitts it feels like I am knitting with spaghetti! The shawl now looks like this:

Please excuse the picture, I fell over earlier and hurt my leg so I can’t stand up to take a better one! Also isn’t my project bag cute? It’s covered in cats and balls of yarn and is awesome!

Back to the shawl, I am still in love with the colours and the yarn is simply amazing to knit with. The needles have grown on me from being unbearably slippery to allowing me to knit faster than normal because they don’t grab the yarn like my bamboo ones do. However I have found that they have the irritating tendency to start coming undone and I keep having to tighten them up. This usually happens in the middle of a row so is a pain to say the least. I’m not sure if its something I’m doing, or a trait of the needles so if anyone has any thoughts on how to stop it please comment and let me know!

I have also encountered another problem: just as I was settling down to write this post, I noticed it. A mistake, 3 rows back. I must have gotten some shaping in the wrong place because part of my pattern is now out of alignment (even though the stitch count is fine). I’m now agonising over whether to rip back, and risk not being able to get the project back on the needles, or carry on regardless and just accept that it will be a bit wonky. I’m leaning towards the latter at the moment, but I’m going to think about it over night and decide tomorrow.

Finally, my thought for the day. You know you are an obsessive knitter when: you hear some work colleagues discussing wool and have to restrain yourself from rushing over to correct them on their misunderstandings of the properties of merino.

February Challenge Update 1

Hi all! Since my last post I have been busily working on my challenge as and when the Northerner and I have a chance to sit down together. Here are the updates thus far:

First, the yarn:

I bought the yarn for this project from a lovely lady called pegottyhopf on eBay, she calls her yarns “Mollycoddle” yarns and they are hand dyed in Herefordshire. Her shop can be found here and I really recommend taking a look as she has some gorgeous yarn! This yarn is 4 Ply, and consists of 75% wool and 25% nylon which feels lovely to work with.

This is the yarn in the hanks as it arrived in the post. I was completely blown away by the colours!

The yarn after winding:

Day 1:

Made a good start on the shawl after freaking out slightly at how slippery my KnitPro Nova needles are (this is the first time I have used them, I got them as part of the Comby sampler set). I kept dropping stitches and having to pick them up again which was a little frustrating! I’m used to knitting with wooden needles so this was quite a change for me.  However, I persisted and at the end of day one had this: It’s not a lot admittedly but I was fairly happy with it, as it was new yarn, on new needles, and I was using a couple of new techniques that I had never used before. The stitch markers in the photo are very pretty Rose Quartz, and are from this shop on eBay.

Day 2:

I was progressing fairly well up the body part of the pattern, but had to stop rather abruptly because the MacBook Pro decided to break which necessitated fixing it, thus I only got about 2 rows done.

Day 3:

Today I made good progress, getting about half way up the body section of the pattern, and it now looks like this:

Looking good thus far, and I’m thrilled with the way that the yarn is knitting up, the colours are spectacular!

That’s all for this update, my next planned update will be probably Wednesday or Thursday. Stay tuned for more progress!

The February Challenge!

Hello all!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to be working on a knitting challenge in the month of February. However, instead of doing a solo challenge as I was originally planning, I have teamed up with my fiancé thebarnet over at vox-tower.com to present a joint challenge.

From my perspective, the challenge is to complete the Die Eerste shawl pattern (on Ravelry here) in one month. This is my first shawl pattern, my first time working on something lacey and my first time using 4 ply yarn, so I’m hoping that it will really stretch me as a knitter and that I will learn a lot. I will talk about the shawl a lot more when I post my first progress update (which will probably be on Sunday) but suffice it to say, it is completely stunning and I am in love with it. For now though, here are the competition rules:

The Rules For the February Challenge

1. These rules must be posted to each participants blog before the challenge commences

2. The Challenge runs From February 1^st 2013 to February 28^th 2013

3. Each person must produce a minimum of two blog posts per week providing progress updates

4. The projects must be worked on at the same time unless by prior arrangement

5. Victory conditions:

• Projects must be completed by midnight GMT on February 28th 2013

• thebarnet must build and paint the new Flames of War starter set (excluding the V1 flying bomb)
• YarnRush must complete the “Die Eerste” shawl such that almost all of the purchased yarn has been used up
• If both projects are not completed by the deadline, the challenge is considered a tie

The Prizes

• A Grande drink and cake of choice from Starbucks
• thebarnet – £10 of World Of Tanks Gold
• YarnRush – A £10 gift voucher for Yarn
• And, of course, eternal bragging rights

Let the challenge commence!

Are you taking part in a challenge this month? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!