Put them down and step away from the scissors
Ok, really, I should not be allowed to make any major knitting decisions on 5 hours of sleep and first thing in the morning (I'm not a coffee drinker, so that wouldn't have helped at all!) This is what comes of it:
What's that, you ask? Why, it's my mother's Christmas Soleil, due to go in the mail to Florida by Friday, unraveled at the one shoulder. Why? Well, because I did the crocheted edging, and it came out sooo tight I don't think my 2-year-old daughter could have fit her arm through it. So I took what I thought was a close look, snipped what I thought was the end of the crocheted edge - and it turned out to be a random stitch! So I had to throw a lifeline into the front and back straps, rip them back, and reknit them. I seriously think I'm going to skip the whole crocheted edging, since I don't crochet (I mean, it was the most fiddly, frustrating, tight thing I've done with yarn in, well, EVER - Col, it was tighter than even my usual knitting!) and it came out so tight!
On to other things; there is this.
A tisket, a tasket, is it a little basket? It holds a ball of yarn...
No, it's a swatch for a boob holder! I decided to use short-row shaping in Kepler to give me some more, um, ease for the girls. So I decided to do the smart thing and surf the net looking for a million different mentions of short-row shaping within a pattern, and then I actually swatched! Look out, the sky may fall! I found invaluable help at Purlwise, Knitty, and Savannahchik (which mostly gave me the balls to try this on my own - me, blind follower of patterns since I have NO concept of how something should look when it's done...oh, and also made me want to knit a Somewhat Cowl, too!). But the best advice was from Juno, who not only posted a great entry back in May 2005 about it, but also had the decency to email me back (and quickly!) about my silly questions regarding the shaping. The best thing she said? That "short row shaping exists outside the structure of the sweater." In other words, you just knit to where you need it, knit the short rows, and then pick up in your pattern where you left off before the shaping. Easy peasy! Thanks SO much, Juno!
Wanna see some pics? Of course you do! I did something that made me feel like a teenager in a silly book (believe me, this was something I NEVER had to do growing up!) and stuffed the short-rowed area with socks to bring it out more for the pics...
Here you can sort of see the slope up the front. I added 12 short rows for a D-cup.
And here it is from the side! Mount Kepler!
And I have sleeves, too!
Now, the only issue is that what I read said to start the short rows 2-3 inches before the armhole shaping. So I did, but I didn't do the bust shaping in the Kepler pattern, which calls for an increase of 6 stitches over 17 rows (and since I'm knitting in the round and the front and back is the same, I'm actually increasing 12 stitches over the 17 rows, since I have to increase 2 stitches on the front and 2 on the back at round 1, then again 8 rounds later, and again 8 rounds after that). I don't care if I should have done the increases and then the short rows, I'm NOT frogging back (it took almost an entire 110-yard ball of yarn for just the short rows - not frogging, no way, no how!). Should I just do the increases by increasing 4 stitches on one round, knit a round plain, increase 4 stitches on the third round, knit a round plain, and then increase 4 stitches the fifth round? I worry that will be too sharp an increase and will make the top over my short rows (like, my breastbone area) look too baggy. Or should I just knit the increases like it says in the pattern, over the 17 rounds, since that will give me the 2-3 inches to the armhole shaping? Am I overthinking this? I know what's happening here...I got cocky about going off pattern all on my own (don't ask me about the internal debate raging about making Kepler a V-neck!) and the knitting goddess is slapping me by making me think I royally f-d up! So am I cool to just do my gradual, 17-round increases and then do the armhole shaping? Please say I am!
What's that, you ask? Why, it's my mother's Christmas Soleil, due to go in the mail to Florida by Friday, unraveled at the one shoulder. Why? Well, because I did the crocheted edging, and it came out sooo tight I don't think my 2-year-old daughter could have fit her arm through it. So I took what I thought was a close look, snipped what I thought was the end of the crocheted edge - and it turned out to be a random stitch! So I had to throw a lifeline into the front and back straps, rip them back, and reknit them. I seriously think I'm going to skip the whole crocheted edging, since I don't crochet (I mean, it was the most fiddly, frustrating, tight thing I've done with yarn in, well, EVER - Col, it was tighter than even my usual knitting!) and it came out so tight!
On to other things; there is this.
A tisket, a tasket, is it a little basket? It holds a ball of yarn...
No, it's a swatch for a boob holder! I decided to use short-row shaping in Kepler to give me some more, um, ease for the girls. So I decided to do the smart thing and surf the net looking for a million different mentions of short-row shaping within a pattern, and then I actually swatched! Look out, the sky may fall! I found invaluable help at Purlwise, Knitty, and Savannahchik (which mostly gave me the balls to try this on my own - me, blind follower of patterns since I have NO concept of how something should look when it's done...oh, and also made me want to knit a Somewhat Cowl, too!). But the best advice was from Juno, who not only posted a great entry back in May 2005 about it, but also had the decency to email me back (and quickly!) about my silly questions regarding the shaping. The best thing she said? That "short row shaping exists outside the structure of the sweater." In other words, you just knit to where you need it, knit the short rows, and then pick up in your pattern where you left off before the shaping. Easy peasy! Thanks SO much, Juno!
Wanna see some pics? Of course you do! I did something that made me feel like a teenager in a silly book (believe me, this was something I NEVER had to do growing up!) and stuffed the short-rowed area with socks to bring it out more for the pics...
Here you can sort of see the slope up the front. I added 12 short rows for a D-cup.
And here it is from the side! Mount Kepler!
And I have sleeves, too!
Now, the only issue is that what I read said to start the short rows 2-3 inches before the armhole shaping. So I did, but I didn't do the bust shaping in the Kepler pattern, which calls for an increase of 6 stitches over 17 rows (and since I'm knitting in the round and the front and back is the same, I'm actually increasing 12 stitches over the 17 rows, since I have to increase 2 stitches on the front and 2 on the back at round 1, then again 8 rounds later, and again 8 rounds after that). I don't care if I should have done the increases and then the short rows, I'm NOT frogging back (it took almost an entire 110-yard ball of yarn for just the short rows - not frogging, no way, no how!). Should I just do the increases by increasing 4 stitches on one round, knit a round plain, increase 4 stitches on the third round, knit a round plain, and then increase 4 stitches the fifth round? I worry that will be too sharp an increase and will make the top over my short rows (like, my breastbone area) look too baggy. Or should I just knit the increases like it says in the pattern, over the 17 rounds, since that will give me the 2-3 inches to the armhole shaping? Am I overthinking this? I know what's happening here...I got cocky about going off pattern all on my own (don't ask me about the internal debate raging about making Kepler a V-neck!) and the knitting goddess is slapping me by making me think I royally f-d up! So am I cool to just do my gradual, 17-round increases and then do the armhole shaping? Please say I am!
posted by Tala at 9:05 AM
1 Comments:
you crocheted it TIGHT?! What is your problem? How? How?
shaking head in amazement.......
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