After sitting on the floor on Sunday with three different yarns and three different patterns in front of me, I decided that my next knitting cast-on would be the replication of the jumper I made in Germany last summer:
Modelled in the Stellplatz in Bad Durkheim whilst Bertie sat incapable of movement due to a faulty battery.
I love how this jumper looks, but I made it out of cheap yarn (the whole thing came in at under £4.25!) and know that with wear it will look tatty quickly. I’ve therefore only worn it a couple of times, although I do sometimes take it out of the wardrobe just to lay it out and admire it for a while (yep, really, I do).
On Sunday I cast on with some pure wool, and I rattled through the ribbing for the body. Last night’s attempt on the subsequent stitch-increase round, then the first pattern round, didn’t go entirely smoothly. The key here is the word ‘round’ as this pattern is written for flat knitting. I must be getting too cocky in my ability to translate patterns from flat to circular, because I decided I could achieve this without spending time writing out the translation in advance. As a result, I found myself unknitting a couple of half-rounds when it turned out I hadn’t thought things through properly.
The real issue, however, came at the ‘now change to larger needles’ bit. Except for socks, which I generally knit on mini fixed circular needles…
tiny fixed circulars – these are 25cm long from tip to tip
My interchangeable set – various tip diameters get screwed onto various cable lengths, giving a very compact way of carrying around enough needles to cover most things I’d ever want to knit
…I use interchangeable circular needles, so at this point I needed to unscrew the 4mm tips with which I’d completed the rib and screw in the 5mm tips. The latter are bright pink. And that’s where I had a wobble. I have no recollection of having knitted that jumper with pink tips. I would have sworn I knitted it with the blue ones, which would suggest I used 4.5mm.
I feel like I take so many photos of my life that the definitive answer must lie on my camera roll. A fun time was had reliving last years trip, but to no avail. I dug out Mick's old phone in case the evidence was on there, but the conclusion reached was that not a single shot was taken of that jumper in progress.
That led to the question: Why, oh why, oh why do I not write these things down?!
If I proceed with 5mm incorrectly then I may not have enough wool to finish. If I proceed with 4.5mm incorrectly, the jumper may not fit.
I think I’ll be belatedly knitting a couple of tension swatches to work out which way to go.
And, in future, I really ought* to write down such key information!
(*Unfortunately this is not a new revelation. I clearly remember when I started v1 of this jumper last year I revisited previous knits before deciding what needle size to use and kicked myself on the very same point.)
I love how this jumper looks, but I made it out of cheap yarn (the whole thing came in at under £4.25!) and know that with wear it will look tatty quickly. I’ve therefore only worn it a couple of times, although I do sometimes take it out of the wardrobe just to lay it out and admire it for a while (yep, really, I do).
On Sunday I cast on with some pure wool, and I rattled through the ribbing for the body. Last night’s attempt on the subsequent stitch-increase round, then the first pattern round, didn’t go entirely smoothly. The key here is the word ‘round’ as this pattern is written for flat knitting. I must be getting too cocky in my ability to translate patterns from flat to circular, because I decided I could achieve this without spending time writing out the translation in advance. As a result, I found myself unknitting a couple of half-rounds when it turned out I hadn’t thought things through properly.
The real issue, however, came at the ‘now change to larger needles’ bit. Except for socks, which I generally knit on mini fixed circular needles…
…I use interchangeable circular needles, so at this point I needed to unscrew the 4mm tips with which I’d completed the rib and screw in the 5mm tips. The latter are bright pink. And that’s where I had a wobble. I have no recollection of having knitted that jumper with pink tips. I would have sworn I knitted it with the blue ones, which would suggest I used 4.5mm.
I feel like I take so many photos of my life that the definitive answer must lie on my camera roll. A fun time was had reliving last years trip, but to no avail. I dug out Mick's old phone in case the evidence was on there, but the conclusion reached was that not a single shot was taken of that jumper in progress.
That led to the question: Why, oh why, oh why do I not write these things down?!
If I proceed with 5mm incorrectly then I may not have enough wool to finish. If I proceed with 4.5mm incorrectly, the jumper may not fit.
I think I’ll be belatedly knitting a couple of tension swatches to work out which way to go.
And, in future, I really ought* to write down such key information!
(*Unfortunately this is not a new revelation. I clearly remember when I started v1 of this jumper last year I revisited previous knits before deciding what needle size to use and kicked myself on the very same point.)
Very smart - I like the way it is tailored. Perhaps you could get a contract to supply the Royal Navy exclusive officer's club with that one - they would pay mega money I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteAt a rate of one jumper every three months, I fear my speed would proclude the venture!
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