Well, [Insert Four-Letter Word].

My new project is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Bavarian Jacket, one of her many clever garter stitch designs. It's an EPS (Elizabeth's Percentage System) pattern, which means that you take your gauge and multiply it by your wanted circumference to get your key number, K, and then everything that follows is a percentage of K.

So I found my K, cast on 50%, and knit the back. Then I knit the left front. Then the right front. Joined it all together. Knit up the collar. Ran i-cord around the whole mess, knit up the sleeves and started shaping the cap and that's when I realized...



... I've been shaping the armhole using percentages of the number of stitches I cast on for the back, 1/2K.

The only way to fix it would be to rip all of that i-cord, undo the seaming at the shoulders, and rip all three pieces back to armpit level.

I'm not going to do that.

Instead, I'll compensate. I had already compensated without realizing. When knitting the back, I noticed that my misreading of the directions gave me a very short armhole, so I pulled it back and lenghened it, and then I knit the fronts to match. Once I figured out my mistake, I also ripped back the sleeve so that I have three garter ridges instead of five before the sleeve cap shaping begins. And I've made sure that I used the right number to calculate how many sleeve stitches I should have.

Please excuse me while I go beat myself over the head with something heavy.

Project Management

When it comes to knitting, I may have several things on the needles at once, but I pretty much only actively work on one thing at a time. I may not finish it before I pick up something else, but I'm not one to work on this for a bit and then pick that up and then just a little on that one over there.

Ideally, I like to have one sweater project, one or two sock projects, and maybe one lace or other project going at once. Any more than that and I start to feel pressured and anxious about the projects I haven't touched in a while.

Right now I have two lace projects going, and I haven't touched either in weeks. I'm not certain lace is for me. I don't so much mind that it's repetitive, as all knitting is repetitive in some way, and I don't mind counting because I find that oddly relaxing. I think the main problem is that I don't want lace. It may be fun to knit, but I don't have that desire for the finished product, so there is little impetus to make the lace project a priority.

You may have noticed that I have more than a couple of socks going at the moment. I let this happen because I needed something to get me back into the knitting groove after a short bit of ennui, so I let myself cast on for whatever I wanted, and that happened to be lots of socks. It's starting to bother me, though, and I'm thinking of frogging two pairs and letting the yarn mature in the stash a bit more. I have a priority list for getting through the rest.

But all of my sock knitting has left my poor hands cramped and sore, and I've been yearning for something to knit at a larger gauge, something substantial. A sweater. I've been holding off casting on because I already have the Hex Coat going, and I like knitting the Hex Coat, so I tell myself I should just work on that. However, I have almost finished one front of the Hex Coat -- we're talking mere inches from completion -- and I've decided that the fronts are probably the most interesting bits, with the undulating center portions. After that it's two sleeves and one loooong back in moss stitch, and then the other front for a treat before knitting on all of those hexagons, which I fear will be fussy. So I have refrained from knitting on the Hex Coat, because if I knit on it much more, I won't be on the good part any more. Besides, a major advantage of the Hex Coat is that I've decided not to rush it, so if I'm not feeling it, I'm not going to feel guilty about not doing it. Maybe I'll treat each piece as its own project, and break it up with other sweater projects in between.

The upshot of all of this? Justification for casting on a new sweater-type project. Something that's not too hard on the hands and that I'll want to stick with until it's done.

Somewhat Cowl

I finished this a while back and promised pictures, so here goes:



Details:
Pattern: Somewhat Cowl from Knit and Tonic
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk, Brick
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 4
Satisfaction: Moderate

Notes:
This may be the best fitting sweater I have knit to date. I list below Stupid Things I Did ("STID") so that others interested in this pattern may avoid my mistakes.

STID #1: When swatching, I found the yarn too slippery for my usual Options needles, so I pulled out the Needlemaster kit and found the aluminum needles just about right. Of course, when I started actually knitting the thing, I quickly grew tired of the Needlemaster joins and stiff cables and went skimpering back to my Options, and the slippery needles gave me a looser gauge.

STID #2: Like a good little knitter, and knowing that alpaca and silk can both grow when wet, I washed my swatch and took my stitch gauge from the washed swatch. Sure enough, it had grown. What I didn't do, not because I didn't think of it, but because I was too lazy to do it, was measure the difference in the row gauge and adjust my knitting for it. Therefore, when I completed the sweater and washed it, it was slightly larger around than I anticipated (see STID #1), but much longer. My carefully placed cowl now shows a little too much cleavage, and the whole thing is too long.

More STID include:
-Stitch markers? I don't need no stinkin' stitch markers! Wait, why aren't my increases lining up? [rip]
-Pattern says, "cast on x, pm, cast on x," and Carla casts on x and keeps going, only to wonder a few inches later why it seems a little small. [rip rip]

Notes on the yarn:
Knit and Tonic likes to say that bulky is as bulky does, but her figure is much different from mine. Drapey is not good for everyone. On some figures, such as mine, a yarn with some structure can make a world of difference as far as skimming over some lumps and bumps. I'd love to show you a picture of this sweater on, but I'd have to buy some sort of slimming camisole and learn Photoshop before I'd really consider it.

Further, the yarn just doesn't have enough body to keep that cowl standing up. The couple of times I've worn it, I've spent the entire day futzing with the collar trying to get it into that just right spot where it makes a cowl rather than a big U-neck while still maintaining a bit of modesty. I'd consider making this again in a worsted wool, with long sleeves.

And, lastly, be forewarned: this yarn bleeds! When I washed the swatch I made the mistake of drying it on one of my good white hand towels, and it left an orange outline. I had to rinse the sweater several times before the water was only tinged with orange rather than tinted, and then dried it on darker old towels. Because of this, I've since sent it to the dry cleaners. The wrinkles across the middle are from where they folded it over a hanger.

UPDATE: After writing this up and taking the photo, I decided to try on the sweater to see how it had fared from the dry cleaning -- and it FITS! The neckline is just about right, the short rows are back where they belong, and it hits at the hip again. Woo-hoo!!!

Anyone know where I can get one of those slimming camisoles?

Sneak Peek

The first Norwegian Stocking is done. I might be wearing it now. Let's just say my left foot is much warmer than my right.

I departed from the pattern in a few ways, and I'm rather pleased with the result. I'll show you what I did when I get the second one done. If you're good at reading floats, you may already know.

Swatch

I spent Sunday alternately rereading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and knitting on a Norwegian Stocking from Folk Socks. Perhaps because my attention was so divided, I had knitted several inches on the recommended size 3s before I noticed that my product was both huge and sloppy. When I showed my husband what I had done so far and he said, "That's not a sock! ... Is it?" I knew I needed to begin again.

I had read something about yarn dominance somewhere, but the lesson I took away from it was to be consistent, because it's apparent if you switch which hand holds which color. In my enthusiasm, I wasn't bothered to look it up again before starting this project. So when I started over on size 2s I made the pattern color dominant by carrying it in my left hand, which, by the way, is a right pain in the you-know-what, since I'm most comfortably a Continental knitter and most of these stitches are in the background color. The result, however, is worth a few hours of my exaggerated and awkward throwing. If I could only figure a comfortable way to wrap the yarn around my fingers, I might become a decent 'flicker.' Until then, it should be easy for me to remember that the more difficult way is the better way.

For now, though, let's just call that first one a swatch.