What's on Sandi's Needles?

Sparkly socks and other wonders

KD Sandi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:46:00 GMT

Finished Object Alert! Plus Sparkly Sock In Progress

Quick note: This post is late! I actually wrote it more than a week ago, before my laptop died and took everything with it. Now I'm trying to catch up with all of you! Here's the latest...with more to come soon. –Sandi

Your comments on the last post about wild WIPs were inspiring and sometimes pretty funny. Apparently, attempting to corral and manage our unruly WIPs is an ongoing struggle for all of us, whether we are one-at-a-time knitters (who may just happen to store FUTURE projects in neat ziplock bags, complete with instructions, yarn, and cable needles), or the take-no-prisoners sort of knitter, who is knitting All The Projects At Once (like yours truly).

I'm happy to report that my organizational strategy has been working so far. (OK, two weeks isn't really a good test of the system, but still.) Projects are still in their bins; I've managed to work on several WIPs without having to tear my house apart and check all my linen drawers for circular needles. I've also moved some of my traveling WIPs to my project bags; the bags are stored on hooks in a corner of my TV room, as you can see in the photo at left.

I have even managed to FINISH a couple of things. Remember "finishing," that part where there are no more stitches on your needles and you can actually wear or use what you made? It's AMAZING how something can go from a project that travels with you everywhere, from doctor's office to car to sofa to airport and back again, to something you can actually USE. It goes straight to your head, that finishing stuff does. You feel as though you have actually accomplished something.

For example: Look at these purple beauties! Those are called "socks," and if I put them on my feet, my toes aren't cold anymore. The pattern is based on Ann Budd's formulas in Getting Started Knitting Socks. I wrote down what I did, and this sock pattern is now my go-to fave for quick DK-weight socks. (Yarn: Indigodragonfly's merino/cashmere/nylon DK.)

I also finished weaving the fabric and one of the straps for a woven tote bag I am doing from Sara Lamb's Woven Treasures. (I know, it's not knitting, but it is YARN, so it counts as a finished object.)

To celebrate this shortening of my work-in-progress queue, I naturally cast on for a new project. Sparkly socks! With lace!

The pattern is Bettie's Stockings, by Hana Jason. I've had this pattern on my must-knit list for a while, after seeing several pairs wandering around Rhinebeck last fall. (The stockings had legs in them, of course. They weren't zombie stockings or anything, walking around the booths under some sort of dark magic. Just to be clear, so you don't send the nice folks with white coats to come and get me.)

The lace pattern is really fun, a variation on the dropped-yarnover theme. There is something about intentionally dropping stitches that is very satisfying to my inner ten-year-old. At regular intervals, you scoop your needle under the column of dropped stitches, gather them up with a new stitch, and voila! A little butterfly-wing design appears. Very pretty.

I'm also in love with this yarn, a soft, rich handdyed merino/silk/sterling silver blend from Shameless Twist called Precious. It has real sterling silver in it, but it's not at all scratchy, not even a little bit. I admit to carrying the skein around with me in my handbag (protected in a plastic baggie) for a while, just to take it out and admire it, letting it sparkle in my hands. The combination of the deep colour and the sparklies is pretty much making me this yarn's slave. (I may have to write the dyer and tell her the yarn wishes to be called "Mistress" instead of Precious, as in "Yes, Mistress.")

I loved all your various storage ideas and tips! (And yes, I did read Every Single One of the many comments from last time. Thank you all for your ideas!) I particularly liked seeing how each of you dealt with your own special circumstances, as what works for some folks might not work for other folks, depending on all sorts of factors. For example, although I would dearly love to have those open fabric bins on shelves for my stash and projects, the three cats who own me would also love those open fabric bins to play in, explore, take naps in, and use as scratching posts. Every needle, every scrap of yarn must be completely stowed away, lest one of their furry Majesties decide that it belongs to them, rather than to me.

I think managing a stash and an assortment of projects is in and of itself a work-in-progress. My favourite comment this time came from knitviv1:

"Thank you all for taking the time to write so that I, another disorganized, yarn addict, can find peace and acceptance in my knitting life. Even though there is a grand plan of getting my WIPs and ridiculous yarn stash under control, I can now freely admit that I just don't want to take the time to actually do it. All your ideas using plastic gallon bags and phone apps will help me greatly until the time comes when the grand plan can be accomplished. And if not, so what? Knit on!"

Knit on, indeed!

If you have more ideas or suggestions for how to wrangle all those Works In Progress, let us know!

– Sandi

Sandi Wiseheart is the founding editor of Knitting Daily. You can find her blogging here on Knitting Daily each week. Want more? Visit Sandi's personal blog, wiseheart knits. Or, if you're on Twitter, you can follow her: sandiwiseheart.

Keeping Those Wild WIPs Under Control

KD Sandi — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:55:00 GMT

I don’t know about you, but my life has been Crazy Town lately, and my knitting has suffered. Over the holidays, I pretty much just grabbed whatever project was closest; when I stopped to do something else, I’d leave the project in a corner, or hanging on a chair. By early January, my knitting projects were literally all over the house. (I found half of an Undulating Ribs sock on dpns in my bath towel drawer. Even I can’t explain that one.)

I am not one of those critters who proceeds in an orderly, calm fashion throughout my crafting life. My crafting life is exuberant, full of passionate yarn affairs, patterns stained with chocolate, needles stowed hopefully in coat pockets, and projects full of cables! and lace! and charts! Oh. My. I knit wherever I am sitting, or standing, or leaning; this means that my projects live a rich life full of many adventures long before bind-off day.

Earlier this month, I picked up my sister’s customized Central Park Hoodie, intending to knit another few inches. After searching the sofa cushions, and the bookshelf, and the kitchen table, however, I realized that my chart for the custom cables had gone walkabout.

“No problem,” thought I, “I can just print out another one.” I hop on over to my laptop, and there in the folder are about twenty different versions of a chart named “Heart Cables Liz Hoodie." EEK.

This Is Getting Silly.

I’m not about to try to restrict myself to a certain smallish number of WIPs, because it’s in my nature to like to work on many different things throughout the course of my week. Having multiple projects is an expression of my personality, of the great joy I take in yarn and all the lovely things one can make with it. I love to experiment and be playful with yarn; I love to look at a clever pattern and sit down to watch the designer’s cleverness become three-dimensional on my needles; sometimes, I even love to just sit and get lost in the simple rhythms of garter stitch.

But one does have to preserve one’s sanity somehow.

Thus, 2011 for me is the year of Project Management. I don’t really want to tame my wild ways, because that’s just who I am as a knitter; but I do want to know where my needles are, and which chart row comes next. Here’s my strategy so far:

1. Make a list of all my current WIPs.

This has been harder than it might seem, especially what with finding half-finished projects in my linen drawers. (Apparently, even my WIP list is itself a work-in-progress.)

2. Place all the bits of each project in a separate small box or bin.

Each WIP gets its own bin; the bin has to be large enough for all the parts of the project.

3. Put a printout or copy of the full instructions in the bin with each project.

Include any notes or modifications; if necessary, put a pen in each bin so I know I will have one as I am knitting.

4. Put a LABEL on each bin.

5. Put all the bins in one place (stacked on my project shelf).

6. Add an important piece of info to each entry on the WIP list: The needles I am using for each project.

(Oh, look. There are ALL my size 6 circs. Who knew?)

7. Print out two copies of the WIP list.

One copy goes on the wall by my desk. One copy goes in my purse, as a reference in case I find myself in a yarn shop.

8. Periodically go through each room, collect all the stray project bits, and put them back in the bins where they belong.

9. Make sure needles-without-projects are put back in their proper cases.

Now I know where all my WIPs are; I also know that I have all the charts, pattern notes, and needles for each one. It’s OK if things get strewn about the house because I can easily collect them again. I have lists to remind me of what I am knitting. I also have a list of all my needles-in-use so I know where they are if they are not in their cases.

And I know which version of the chart to sit down with for Liz’s CPH now. WHEW.

Needles at the ready, Cap’n.

Any of you have clever tricks for managing multiple projects? Share your tips with us in the comments!

– Sandi

Are You A Better Knitter Now Than 365 Days Ago?

KD Sandi — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:57:00 GMT

I'm glad you all liked the Leapfrogging Hearts cable (below, in the turquoise yarn) I designed for my sister's Central Park Hoodie. I will definitely share the chart once I get a little further along and am sure that all the kinks in it are worked out. It would be my pleasure! Hang in there for a bit and I'll make sure we post it.

The Leapfrogging Hearts is my own design; it's not part of the Central Park Hoodie pattern in any way, so if you have the pattern for the CPH already, you won't have to purchase it again to get the cable pattern. (And if you'd like to purchase the Central Park Hoodie pattern, including extended plus sizing, it's here in the Interweave Store.)

Endings and Beginnings

I find the end of one year and the beginning of the next to be a challenging time for me personally. It's all too easy to look at my resolutions for last year and feel that I did not live up to my own hopes and dreams; it's also all too easy to look at a list of completed knitting projects and say, "Is that all I did?"

Goals are important, of course; and finishing projects is a lovely, heady feeling. But life isn't just about endings and beginnings, about checking things off on a list; life is what happens every day, in-between the beginning and the ending. So rather than mark my success by what was finished or checked off, I decided to look at my knitting and crafting life from the perspective of what I struggled with throughout the year.

Cables. This was the year of the cable for me. I learned not just how to cable without a cable needle, I also learned how to translate a cable chart into what stitch needs to go where when in the process. This sped up my knitting as though I'd turned on the warp engines! I also spent hours, and hours, and HOURS designing and swatching and playing with cables for a couple of sweater designs, my sister's hoodie being one of them. All that swatching and playing has given me a solid working knowledge of how to design and work with cables as part of my daily knitting vocabulary. (Here's my tutorial on cabling without a cable needle.)

My stash. I think many of us knitters are struggling with our stashes these days: How to store it, how much to keep around, when to add to it, what to add to it, how much to spend on it. At the beginning of the year, I went through my stash and organized it in a new-to-me way: by yarn weight. All the worsted weight went into one bin, all the sock yarn into another, and so on. This was really helpful in terms of project planning, especially if I wanted to make something with two different yarns, or two different colours of the same weight. I made much more efficient use of my stash this year than any other year; I also had a much more organized approach to what was a good idea to buy and what wasn't when it came time to hang out at a yarn shop or fibre festival. I feel that this is the first time I have really used my stash as a proper "tool," one that needs maintaining and upkeep in order to assist me with my knitting.

Yarn knowledge. This was the year I worked on my Spin-Off lace shawlette (in the brown and pink yarn at right), the one where I processed and spun a hunk of raw qiviut for the yarn and designed my own lace shawl. (The pattern is in Spin-Off Winter 2010.) There wasn't a lot of guidance on what to do with raw qiviut, I suppose because it is so rare; thus, I spent a lot of time reading about various fibres and yarns before I did anything to my little pile of fluff. It was like a crash course in Why Yarn Is The Way It Is; I learned so much about the characteristics of yarn and how these affect the final knitted project! I notice I am MUCH more confident with yarn choices than ever before.

There's just three things, just off the top of my head. If I learned all that in 2010, then it seems a bit silly to worry about how many projects I did or did not finish last year, or what boxes got checked on which list. Just thouse three things above have increased my knitting knowledge and skills immensely, making me a better knitter today than I was 365 days ago.

I wonder what next year will bring to my knitting.

How are you a better knitter now than you were at the beginning of 2010? Leave a comment, I'd love to know!

Warm wishes for a wonderful beginning to a year of surprises and great knitting!

– Sandi

And the winning cable is...

KD Sandi — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:31:00 GMT

Leap-frogging hearts! Many thanks to DebiH, who named my wee heart ribbon pattern.

And many, many thanks to the dozens and dozens of you who wrote in with opinions, humble and otherwise, regarding the cable design for my sister’s modified Central Park Hoodie. Most of you suggested that the twisted ropes on either side of the panel were too heavy and detracted from the interlocking hearts. The minute I read those comments, I knew you were right! I tried a few alternatives, and in the end, I decided on Simple Is Best: No framing twists, just a couple of stitches in reverse St. st. on either side of the central cables, and then solid stockinette, all the way. (The sleeve in the photo is unblocked; blocking will make everything, including the framing stitches, spread out a little more.)

The sleeve/swatch on the left is still a work-in-progress, as I am experimenting with the final touch: How to work the stitches for the V that forms the point of one heart and the neck of the one above. You can see in the photo that some of the hearts are worked differently than others; but at this point, I am NOT going to rip it out. This sleeve will just have a bit more...personality and individuality.

This means...I've stopped swatching! WhooHOOO!!

As for sharing the cable pattern with you: What am I, the Grinch? Of course I'll share! Let me get a bit further on with the hoodie, and then I'll make some proper instructions you can download.

Why This Cable and Not Another?

Reading through last week's comments was very helpful, as it gave me some insight into what sorts of criteria you look for in a cabled design. That made me sit back and consider my own taste in twists...so here's a few of my own thoughts on the matter.

We’re in a culture that says More Is Better. More money, more time, more decorations, more gifts, more STUFF. For me, like so many of us, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more is also better when it comes to cables, lace, texture, or colour in my handknits. If a single cable is pretty, then surely a sweater with all-over cables is prettier, right? Wellllll...clearly, it depends on the cable, as you yourselves pointed out over and over.

I was making that very mistake, trying to get all fancy-pants with the cable designs for this hoodie. In fact, one of the joys of the original Central Park Hoodie is its simplicity, its classic style, clean lines, and fuss-free knitting. With its original cables, the CPH is a quick–and addictive!–project; I know more than one knitter who has knitted the hoodie at least three times.

I decided to sit down with a pile of knitting magazines and the Ravelry pattern database to have a look through the various cabled sweater designs. I wanted to see if the designs I liked had anything in common with one another; I also wanted to see if, after looking at that many cables, my eye could start to tell a successful design from one that didn't work out quite so well.

I discovered that the cables I personally tend to like have one major cable “theme” set against a relatively uncluttered background; the cable themes I like are strong, clear, and usually involve some sort of closed ring design, such as a the Cable-Down Raglan at right. These cables are not only fun to study, they are easy for me to wear: These striking elements help to both express and balance my somewhat large personality (!), while the restrained background helps the garment to not overwhelm my short, round body.

As for all-over cables, for me, it’s a case of Look But Be Careful What You Wear. I like to look at them for sheer Knitting Eye Candy value: to learn about scale, pattern combinations, and how differently scaled cables look against plain versus fancy backgrounds. However, I don’t like WEARING all-over designs, as I feel that they just add more bulk to my lovely plump figure. An example of a cardi that has a lot of cables...but not tooo many cables... is Nora's Sweater, the purple one below.

Finding the Right Cable For You

Knitting a cabled sweater can be a really fun experience! If you’re at all hesitant about knitting an entire garment with cables, take some time first to get to know the sorts of cables you like, as well as the sorts of cables that look best on you. And remember: If you absolutely, positively love the look of a particular sweater, but are thinking about switching out the cable pattern, then carefully consider these three aspects: scale, shape, and complexity. Those features of the original cable itself are probably half of what you love about the sweater in the first place.

Thus: My leap-frogging heart ribbon is the exact same width-in-stitches as the original cable; it’s rounded and curvy, like the original; and it's low on actual twistiness, like the original. However, it expresses my sister and her loving, laughing personality perfectly.

What's your favourite cabled sweater or accessory? I want to see! Now that you've got me started thinking about which cables are popular and why, I want to know more about what you think.

- Sandi

Can I stop swatching now?

KD Sandi — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:07:00 GMT

The good news: I have Made Progress on my sister's modified Central Park Hoodie.

The bad news: I've done so many swatches that if all those stitches had been Actual Hoodie Stitches, sister Liz would be wearing her new hoodie by now.

I really have a love-hate relationship with swatching. It has to be done, there is just no way around it, unless one wants to be knitting afghans and gorilla sweaters all one's life. I have nothing against afghans and gorilla sweaters; I believe that some gorillas might even appreciate a handknit now and then, to comfort themselves as they sit and people-watch from within their enclosure at the zoo, or to cozy up next to in their bed of leaves in the wild. But some of us want to be knitting for humans, and humans have a strange preference for clothing they can wear, as opposed to something they just drag alongside themselves as they knuckle-walk through their day.

(Where was I? Oh, yes: Love/hate. Swatches. Gotcha.)

I love swatching for this hoodie. As I tried to work out my ideas on my computer, then on my needles, I learned an enormous amount about cables and how they work (also: how they don't work!). The intense chart-and-swatch, chart-and-swatch process has taught me to read cable diagrams at a glance, rather than laboriously counting squares and trying to remember which stitches cross in back versus which in front. I feel ten times more confident with cables now than I did a few weeks ago.

On the other hand: Swatching, I hate you. You make me frustrated when the stitches do not look like they do in my head, or in the glossy photo in the stitch dictionary. You drive me insane with your endless cycles of knit-and-rip, knit-and-rip. You make me feel as though I've gotten nothing done at the end of the day, let alone the end of another blogging week, because I have nothing to show for all my hard work except yards of bedraggled frog-pond yarn.

The big question now is: Do I have a winner? I was trying for a cabled heart design running up each sleeve. I swatched intertwining hearts; I swatched heart ribbons; I swatched Viking hearts and Celtic hearts. The challenge was to find a cable the fit into the existing hoodie, which meant something that fit into a rather narrow band (fewer than 20 sts).

The cable in the photo is one I cobbled together myself. I took a traditional braid that was the right width and proportions, and carefully tweaked it, removing some crossings and altering others, until it looked like overlapping hearts. Then I framed it with tight, mirror-image ropes on either side.

My internal jury is still out on this one. What do you think? Let me know in the comments if this cable is a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down"! If enough of you give it a thumbs up, then I'll keep going; if it's a thumbs down, then I'll have two choices: more swatching (eep!) or giving up and just knitting the pattern as written. (I don't know if I can do that. I mean. As written? That's…that's just so Not Me.)

And just as a side note: Throughout the composition of this post, my spelling checker insisted that the word I wanted was "swatting" not "swatching." I am beginning to think my spelling checker is wiser than I am.

Stay warm; wear a handknit sweater!

– Sandi

Substituting One Knitted Cable for Another

KD Sandi — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:13:00 GMT

It seemed like a really good idea at the time.

Ever since my sister Liz asked me to make her the Central Park Hoodie, I've been planning on substituting a bit of custom cablework in for the cables in the original design. It's not that I don't like the original design; I do. But the truth is, I never, ever, not even for a weensy, teensy moment considered knitting the design As Is. Right from the very first, I was hunting down stitch dictionaries and sketching out alternate cable ideas.

I've been swatching for a couple of weeks now. Yes, that's what I said, swatching. For two weeks. I've also been ripping out for two weeks, because this didn't work and that didn't look right and the other was too big and another was too complicated.

Swapping out a cable (or any other stitch pattern, for that matter) isn't as easy as a simple cut-and-paste of the charts. Here are a few Things To Keep In Mind when substituting stitch patterns:

1. Scale. The first cable I chose was only a few stitches wider than the original, but the overall pattern repeat was twice as long (first photo). This made for a cable that looked gigantic on the sleeve, completely overpowering the simple style of the hoodie itself. Another pattern I tried was shorter, but too wide. Make sure that the substitute pattern's repeat isn't so big (or so small) that it looks odd on the garment you are making.

2. Does it affect the fit? Consider how your new cable will work with the rest of the fabric. I found that one cable pattern didn't look right against the ribbed background of the original hoodie; it needed to be on a solid reverse stockinette background. This would change the fit of the hoodie, as ribs draw in more than reverse St. st. Cables themselves not only make the fabric draw in more, but can also make the fabric less stretchy. Make a big enough swatch, with ALL the stitch patterns on one swatch, so that you can see how they work (or don't work) together.

3. Stitch & row count. Do you need to add a stitch or two to your cast-on to make the pattern repeats come out evenly? Do you need to adjust the length of the garment for the same reason? Maybe, maybe not. If you do, make sure you know how much adjustment is needed, and how this will affect the final garment.

4. Pattern matching at seams. The Central Park Hoodie is done in pieces and seamed; I like this method of sweater construction because it allows me to more easily adjust for fit along the way. Having seams, however, means I have to plan the edges of each piece carefully: Not only do I need to add an extra seam stitch which will disappear into the seam, but I need to consider how the remaining edge stitches will "match up" once they are sewn together. (Don't forget to match patterns at the underside of your sleeves!)

5. Flow from one section to another. This hoodie has a wide ribbed cuff and border. If I just toss random cables on the main body, the cables might look random, unless I also plan how they flow out of the ribbing. My first swatch, I made sure the branches of the cables were the same width as the ribs, matching them stitch-for-stitch. In a later swatch (third photo), I actually adapted the ribbed pattern so that the cables started in the ribbing. This gives a more polished look to the overall design (although the cable itself is still too wide for the sleeve.)

There's a ton of cabled hoodies out there. The original Central Park Hoodie is popular because it is so classic, so elegant, and so versatile. If you want to customize it with your own stitches, a little swatching and planning ahead will help your hoodie stand out from the crowd.

Which cable pattern have I decided on? None of the above. I'm still swatching, and having fun learning about designing with cables along the way.

What kind of yarn am I using?

Several of you asked what the beautiful blue yarn is. It's the one my sister chose: Cascade 220 Superwash Wool in colour #1910. (The green swatch in the second photo is a different yarn I was using just to test cables with.)

Do you have any interesting cable patterns you love? Let me know! After all, wouldn't it be fun if I ended up using YOUR idea in my sister's sweater?

– Sandi

Knitting A Heritage Gift

KD Sandi — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:51:00 GMT

Dear Liz,

You've been waiting patiently for it to be your turn, and it's waaaaayyy past time. So this one's for you, sweetie.

Love,
Your big sis

There's a tradition in my family that one gift each year, usually presented at Christmas, is what we call a "heritage gift." A heritage gift is always something special: something meant to last, something handmade that took a lot of time, or something of our past from our grandparents' home. One year, my mother made up a gorgeous photo album for my youngest sister, covered in hand-sewn fabric, containing copies of special photos that made up her ancestry, childhood, and family life. Another year, I presented my mother with the Leaf and Nupp Shawl; several years back, I gifted my sister Carol with a hand-loomed beaded bag made for her to carry on her wedding day. It was that year, the year of Carol's wedding, that I realized that since I'd been in college, I'd been slowly but surely making something handmade, something with love and time poured into it, for as many family members as I could: for one niece, a hand-appliqued quilt; for my mom another year, hand-woven placemats; for my dad, a handwoven silk scarf.

But for Liz, the sister closest to me in age, whom I love with all my heart and soul...nothing. Each season, I search through patterns trying to find something that will say what I want to say to her: something beautiful, but not too fussy; something a bit light-hearted, yet useful...an impossible task. My sister is a woman of many talents; she knits, sews, paints, quilts, crochets, and does needlework, in addition to raising a houseful of kids, maintaining a home and a job, and doing charity work for her church. She's funny, she's warm, she's down-to-earth...she's the kind to wear a lace shawl with delight yet make wisecracks about it not having enough holes in it.

Year after year, I come up empty-handed for her; year after year, the handmade gifts go to other folks, because I can't find anything "special enough" to make for her.

I've been doing a lot of knitting from stash this year, and last week, I unpacked a plain brown box that had been sitting in my studio for some time. As the beautiful sea-blue yarn tumbled out, I sat back on my heels, a bit dumbfounded at my brain's ability to forget little things like twenty skeins of yarn. For there it was, yarn for the gift that my sister had specifically requested that I make for her: a customized Central Park Hoodie. I'd ordered the yarn a year ago; the box even includes circular needles and matching buttons.

All this time, I'd been searching for just the right gift for Liz, and the entire time, she'd been asking me to make her a simple cabled sweater. She'd been asking me for exactly what she wanted; I, on the other hand, had been looking for something else, something "more special," as if making her exactly what she wanted, in the colour and yarn she herself picked out, wasn't a sufficient act of love.

Thus, at long last, I'm knitting my sister something special: her heart's desire.

Is there something special you'll be knitting this winter? Share it with us in the comments!

– Sandi

P.S. Of course, my sister knows me. She's already asked what kind of cables I'm knitting instead of the ones in the pattern...Stay tuned to see what I've come up with, and how I rework the pattern to include customizations my sister will love!

Sandi Wiseheart is the founding editor of Knitting Daily. You can find her blogging here on Knitting Daily every Thursday. Want more? Visit Sandi's personal blog, wiseheart knits. Or, if you're on Twitter, you can follow her: sandiwiseheart.

10 Reasons To Go To A Wool Festival

KD Sandi — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:44:00 GMT

It has come to my attention that some of you have not been to a wool festival. Having just come back from the mystical, magical event that is Rhinbeck Sheep & Wool, I feel it is my duty to Spread The Woolly Love and try to convince each and every one of you to run, not walk, to the nearest and soonest festival. (There are a few left this season, and it is never too soon to be planning for the spring season!)

Thus, I present to you my Top Ten Reasons To Attend Your Local Sheep & Wool Gathering:

10. More yarn than you have ever seen in your life. Even a small festival has the equivalent of several shops' worth of yarn, offered by both local shops with a booth and vendors from parts of the country you may never get to visit. The selection, colours, and literal WALLS O' YARN are incredible.

9. Goodies not sold in stores. Some yarnmakers and toolmakers sell their wares exclusively at seasonal shows, which means the only place you are going to be able to see (and touch!) their amazing stuff is at a festival. Those vendors who do sell through shops may have colours and one-of-a-kind items exclusive to fests. (And if you are a shop owner, extra bonus: The opportunity to discover in person more wonderful things to offer to your customers!)

8. Endless parades of inspiration. You don't even really have to walk around a wool show–if you want to see dozens of gorgeous knitted sweaters, shawls, hats, and mittens, have a seat on a bench and watch the crowd, and their knitwear, go by!

7. Learn something new. Many shows have classes you can attend; but if money is tight, you can check the schedule for the free demos offered. Not to mention that everywhere around you will be knitters knitting, spinners spinning, and weavers weaving. I learned a new spinning trick just by standing and watching a group of spinners in the next booth.

6. Buy direct, literally. If it says "sheep & wool festival," then...there will be sheep there! Also: Llamas, alpacas, goats, bunnies, sheep dogs, and their assorted shepherds. Watch a sheep being sheared, then buy a fleece from the shepherd; pet a cria (baby alpaca), then purchase some yarn made from the babymama's fleece. I bought bunny fibre from a bunny owner, and wool yarn from the sheep farmer. (I also bought a fleece from a sheep named Nancy. I feel quite affectionate towards Nancy right now, as I dream of the sweater her fluff will become.)

5. Did I mention more yarn than you have ever seen in your life?

4. All The Knitters. You just never know who you will bump into at a wool gathering. I managed to hug Ravelry's Casey three times this past weekend. (Never saw Jess, though, nor Mary-Heather. Where were you folks hiding at?) I also met dozens of my Ravelry friends in person for the first time, and there were hugs and laughter all 'round. (Plus: You might even bump into me someday. Just sayin'.)

3. Show Your Stuff. It's become a tradition for many knitters to create a special "Rhinebeck Sweater." (It's also traditional to finish your Rhinebeck sweater the morning before you leave for the show.) Whether you make a new shawl/sweater/hat, or wear a past favourite, there's no better place to show off your work than a wool festival...because most of the folks there will truly appreciate every stitch. Be prepared to have complete strangers yell "Beautiful shawl!" at you from across the aisle.

2. Food, food, food. From legendary chicken pot pies to delicious ice cream treats, from spun maple cotton candy to deep-fried artichokes, each fair has its specialties, and long lines are a small price to pay for these once-a-season delights. This year, I ate fresh apples and apple pie from local orchards, and swooned at the rich sweetness of spun maple sugar.

1. Beauty, love, yarn, laughter, fun, play, yarn, fresh air, friends, family, yarn, sheep, colours, fibre, no tv, yarn, being silly, and more yarn. 'Nuff said.

Here's a list of 2010 shows, courtesy of the ever-fabulous Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review. The list includes festivals through the end of the year! Many events happen on the same weekend each year, so check the links to see when the spring shows are. Rhinebeck's 2011 dates are already posted!

See you where the yarn is!

– Sandi

P.S. Yes, I wore my new Rhinebeck Hat. Yes, I wore my lovely Farmer's Market Cardigan. And because the weather was warm, I even had a chance to wear my Bolero. No, I did not get a photo of me, at Rhinebeck, wearing any of this knitted finery. What was I thinking? (Bad blogger, no donut.)

In Which The Frogs & I (finally) Knit A Fine Hat

KD Sandi — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:54:00 GMT

See that hat in the photo at left? This hat is mocking me. (See how it drops down low over my eyes and makes me look like I am five? It mocks me.) It's Connie Chang Chinchio's Blume Hat from Knitscene Fall 2010, and trust me, Connie has nothing to do with what is going on between that hat and myself...I measured. I checked gauge, I knit. First time I put it on my head, it turned out 3 inches too big around (the hat, not my noggin). Turns out I only did a flat gauge swatch, not one in-the-round. ::mumblegrumble::

So here I am with a really cute hat that won't fit, a hat which even refuses to be polite and block itself back into size. The hat is finished, done, finit–so done, in fact, that even the ends are neatly woven in.

But unless I want to begin putting together my portfolio for applying to Clown College, I cannot wear this hat.

I survey my options:

Find a friend with a bigger head than mine.
Pros: I like giving presents.
Cons: If I gave the hat away, I would still need a hat. Plus, the Indigodragonfly merino/cashmere/nylon yarn is to die for, and I want that yarn on my person in some socially acceptable way this winter.

Stitch it till it fits.
Pros: I can sew quite well, and the hat style is funky enough so that I could take little tucks here and there and probably make it look great. Faster than ripping out, too. And, as a couple of the commenters from last week suggested, I could run a bit of elastic thread around through the ribbing to help snug it up.
Cons: I'm allergic to whatever is in elastic, and can't have it near my skin. Besides, I just don't feel like haggling with this hat that much. It would be almost a complete re-design and sometimes, I just want THAT hat.

Make it into something else!
Pros: It would make a really cute little knitted bag if I put a drawstring through the ribbing. Easy to do, and who doesn't need another cute little bag?
Cons: Still need a hat.

Frog it, baby.
Pros: The hat itself is one huge gauge swatch and test hat, combined. I can easily figure out how many stitches to use for a smaller version, just by measuring and counting the present hat. The pattern is easy, and it's a good match for the Pretty Yarn.
Cons: Ripping. Re-Knitting.

In the end, I rip. What tips the balance for me is that if I don't rip it back and have a little do-over, I will always feel funny about the hat–it'll be one of those projects where something inside me will feel compelled to point out the stitching, or the flaws, or whatever every time someone comments on the hat. I will always feel that it is flawed, no matter how much I have "fixed" it.

And to be honest, in the very end, it's the yarn's fault, really. It's such soft, pretty yarn. I want to really show it off, and I don't mind spending another few hours with it re-knitting the hat.

Thus, I carefully picked out the woven-in end at the top of the hat with a tapestry needle, and frogged the hat nearly down to the initial cast-on. Note that I didn't touch the edging, which had been picked up along the cast-on edge and worked in the opposite direction. I just let that be, and frogged back to the joining round where the brim strip is joined into a head-sized circle. I worked the first joining round as instructed, then worked several decreases evenly spaced in order to get the stitch count to where I needed it to be to keep the hat from falling into my eyes. From there, it was just a matter of following the instructions, using mathly proportions to figure out decrease- and row- spacing now that I had fewer stitches than the pattern used.

I love the way it came out the second time (photo at right). I stuck a maple leaf in the brim at about the place where eventually, once I finish the matching gloves and know how much yarn I have leftover, I would like to put either a few small knitted flowers, or a pretty pin.

Now, on to the matching gloves! My hands are very wide, and very short, and so standard glove patterns hardly ever fit if I work them as written. Now that I have the entire hat as a gauge swatch in the round, I think I will just work out my own custom glove pattern in the matching yarn, instead of trying to constantly do the adaptation math to make the ruffled ones in the pattern.

It's good to know when to stop struggling to Make It Work, and when to try again. It's also good to figure out your options, and to be creative and fearless about exploring them.

People are always amazed at how much I rip out when I knit. I don't see ripping out as anything more serious than erasing a stray pencil mark on a sketch, or correcting a typo in an article. If your math is off when you are balancing your accounts, you have to trace your way back through the numbers to see where the correction needs to go. Computer code is never perfect, and it is constantly being updated and upgraded.

Perfection is not the point. Making mistakes is no big deal; it happens all the time. The mark of a good knitter, however, is what she or he does with the mistake: gloss over, patch up, re-purpose, or re-do?

I think this is true in the rest of our lives as well. It's not the mistakes that we make that determine what kind of people we are. It's what we do with those mistakes, how we choose to handle them that is the true mark of character.

So. Be fearless, and look those frogs straight in the eye. Leave a comment and let me know what tells you it's time to frog.

– Sandi

P.S. Next: Gloves. After that: Bettie's Lace Stockings, in a yarn sparkling with silver threads!

I Hear The Frogs Call My Name

KD Sandi — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:19:00 GMT

Up here in Ontario, the leaves are starting to turn, and the temperatures are dropping. This will be my third Canadian winter, and without realizing it, I've started doing actual Winter Preparations for the first time in my life. (Yes, I lived in Colorado for six years, but believe me, those Boulder/Loveland winters were nothing' compared to what goes on up here. Brrrr!) I've been going through our summer clothes, washing them and gradually storing them away–such an odd concept for someone who once lived in San Diego and wore the same "summer clothes" all year 'round!

Currently, I am checking through our supply of winter warmies: socks, hats, mittens, scarves, and sweaters to see what needs mending, what needs washing, and what we need more of. I've needed a new hat ever since I got here, and I just finished the new hat I've been working on: Connie Chang Chinchio's Blume Hat from Knitscene Fall 2010. I wore it the first day I finished it, in the pouring rain...and you can see the result in the photo. My cute well-fitting hat somehow has become a too-large floppy moptop hat. (A gorgeously hand-dyed floppy moptop hat, but floppy nonetheless.)

I Promise: I really had been a Good Girl and done The Whole Gauge Dance: A gauge swatch, washed and blocked, gauge re-checked as I knit, blah blah blah. This yarn, a lovely, firmly spun merino/cashmere/nylon blend from Indigodragonfly, isn't stretchy; it's actually got quite a memory to it. But apparently my cute wee hat remembers belonging to a giant, rather than to wee me.

I went to check the gauge swatch...and realized my mistake. RATS. How many times have I advised knitters to do a gauge swatch in-the-round if their knitting is going to be in-the-round? Over. And. Over. A. Zillion. Times. And yet, here I was, The Princess of Gauge Swatches, looking at a FLAT gauge swatch for a CIRCULAR hat.

I'd plead insanity, except that even the Martians have stopped talking to me these days.

Flat vs. Circular Knitting

I've been thinking about this quite a bit, trying to figure out why there is such a big difference between my flat swatch and my circular-knitted hat. Both were blocked, both knitted on the same needles, same yarn, same knitter, within two weeks of each other. The only difference, to my eye, is flat vs. circular–and it's the circular knitting that got bigger when worn and blocked.

The usual explanation is that flat knitting is half knit and half purl stitches, while circular knitting is all knit stitches. But I've compared my knit and purl gauges many times, and there's not a noticeable difference. Not enough to make my hat grow by an inch or more in circumference, anyway.

I got to wondering about the actual structure of the knitting itself–could that be a factor? Flat knitting, back and forth, has natural "fences" on either side of each row, in that at the end of a row, the yarn makes a tight 180-degree turn to form the first stitch of the next row. In circular knitting, the rounds are actually forming a spiral, with the last stitch of one round flowing right into the first stitch of the next round, with no breaks or turns or stops. Could it be that the tight turns at the end of each row in flat knitting slow down, or even stop, the yarn from endlessly pulling one stitch after another out of shape as the item is stretched? In circular stockinette, the stitches can just keep pulling on each other, round and round and round...which is why making a circular gauge swatch would give you more accurate information about what the knitting will do when worn, washed, and blocked.

I'm not a structural engineer, so I don't really know if the above is The Reason or not. But nevertheless: I know better than to make a flat swatch when what I'm knitting is round.

I've started the matching gloves, but methinks I will mentally convert what is on my needles right now from "a pre-glove" to a Gauge Swatch In The Round. Well...and then there is the hat. The entire HAT is now a lovely, huge Gauge Swatch In The Round, isn't it?

Excuse me, I have to run. I hear the frogs calling...

– Sandi

P.S. The hat and gloves won't take me long, even with an interlude in the frog pond...what should I knit next? Leave a comment with your suggestions!

Time for Toques: Autumn in Canada

KD Sandi — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:41:00 GMT

Just now, just this very minute, I saw the very first Knit Cap of the season walk by.

Well, OK, the cap itself wasn't doing the walking; Stephen King is not (yet) scripting my life's story. There was a human wearing the knit cap, but the point is: Some Canadian thought it was chilly enough today to grab a woollen cap on their way out the door.

And let me assure you, Canadians are not afraid of a little cold around their ears. So if a Canadian whips out a knitted toque, then it's Fall, baby.

Which means that here, in the land of snow, it's time to get ready for winter. (You there, up north in Yellowknife: Stop laughing at me calling Toronto "the land of snow." I'm a California girl. I thought scarves were a FASHION STATEMENT until I moved up here.)

Since Fall is here, and being the good Canadian-in-training that I am, I've just about finished knitting a new winter hat. And so today, being the stalwart Northern that I aspire to be, I went outside in the chilly wind to take a photo under grey Ontario skies. And then, being the wacky sparkly Princess of Weird that I am, I asked our garden fairy to model the hat. The result looks a bit like something Brian Froud might post if he ever decides to become a knitting blogger.

That hat is adorable. It's Connie Chang Chinchio's Blume Hat from Knitscene Fall 2010, and it's just the cutest thing ever. As I say, it's not quite done; it's missing the edging along the brim. I only have twenty inches of yarn left from the first skein, so I happily ordered a second skein of the prettypretty merino-cashmere blend.

I say "happily" because: Connie's pattern includes matching gloves. I want those gloves, but I have to be patient, as there's no other way to be when Post Canada is in charge of the whereabouts of your yarn. The dyer, Kim of Indigodragonfly Designs, sent me another skein days ago. She's just up the road a piece in Haliburton. I could have walked to her dye studio, picked up the yarn, and walked back in the time it is taking our beloved, but rather pokey Moose Mail system to get it here.

That yarn better get here fast, Postmaster Moose. After all, any day now, I might see a scarf walking by.

– Sandi

P.S. If you happen to be up in my neck of the woods this weekend, come to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair on Saturday, Sept. 11! More than 70 Canadian yarn and fibre vendors will be there. If you see me, stop and say hello!

P.P.S. The hat and gloves won't take me long...what should I knit next? The Leitmotif Cardi is getting votes; leave a comment with your suggestions!

Married, With Knitting

KD Sandi — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:09:00 GMT

"You're knitting a hat," Nicholas says pointedly, eyeing the stitches on my needles with the practiced eye of a knitter's husband.

"Why, yes, I am knitting a hat," I reply, as innocently as possible. I continue knitting, humming a tuneless tune just to show how innocent this little knitting project really is.

"I thought you were knitting a sweater–you know, that purple one. Is it done? Can I see?"

"Nope." More humming. "It's not finished yet. One more sleeve, then I have to weave in the ends." I continue knitting on the hat, careful not to look him in the eye. (I've heard people can see guilt written all over you if you look them in the eye.)

"So why did you start a hat? Shouldn't you be working?"

"I am working. This is working. This hat, this is work. It's the Blume Hat, from Knitscene, and I'm writing about it on my Interweave blog. It's one of the patterns my readers suggested last week, actually. So, I am working." Still avoiding his eyes. But now I'm starting to really feel the guilt, and I find I'm having to avoid the dog's eyes, too. Everyone's a critic.

"Where did you get that yarn? I don't remember seeing it before."

Now, I'm getting defensive. I know better than to show any signs of weakness, however. Act as though it's all No Big Thang, that's the way to handle these sorts of conversations.

"Oh," I say after a moment, pretending I had to concentrate on some complicated stitch before I could answer him (I'm working 1x1 ribbing right now, oh, yes, quite complicated), "...this? I've had it for months now. It's Kim's yarn, you know, Indigodragonfly, the dyer up in Haliburton? Yep. I blogged about it last spring. Remember that photo of the gargoyle holding the merino/cashmere? That was this skein." I go back to the humming, trying to look for all the world as though I am working intently on a valuable work project that I didn't just go out and buy an armload of yarn for.

"More hand dyed yarn." He is starting to sound resigned, beaten down. Time to go for his weak spot.

"You know how I love to support the indies. And she's local! She sells her yarn through the local yarn shops in town, so it's good all around. Local dyer, local yarn shop, community support, the whole thing." I sneak a rabbit-fast glance at his face, to see if he's taking the bait. Nicholas is passionate about supporting local businesses.

"Uh... Honey, Toronto's where the yarn shops are, and it's an hour away from here." He's a professor. He's very logical. I pretend not to have heard.

"Are you going to finish the purple top?" Sometimes being a knitter's husband tries a guy's patience a bit, especially if one is a guy who is logical and all smart and stuff.

"Of course I'm going to finish it! I'm nearly done. It'll be finished any day now. I'm just taking a little break, that's all. It's like...like cleansing your palette during a really good meal. You eat something with a different flavour to refresh your tastebuds for more of the super-delicious stuff." He's a cook. Food analogies, score!

I look up, confident now that I have won, to see that he is shaking his head, as though I am one of his students who has missed the point of the course entirely.

"Silly you," says he. "You're never going to change, are you? You're always, always going to be working on a zillion projects at once, so that they all take forever to finish. You could have had six purple tops by now, if you'd just focus a bit more."

"But then I wouldn't have this hat, dear." I am triumphant.

He's in the kitchen by now, abandoning this fruitless discussion. From the other room, I hear a light-hearted roar: "ARRrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh! You are hopeless, woman! Cute, but hopeless."

Smiling, I go back to knitting my hat.

P.S. The hat won't take me long...what should I knit next? The Leitmotif Cardi is getting votes; leave a comment with your suggestions! – Sandi

Almost done...so what should I knit next?

KD Sandi — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:13:00 GMT

I'm getting near the end of my Tattoo Tank! The body is done, and now I'm working on the finishing touches. Most of these finishing touches are structural, meaning I'm doing some extra bits to help keep the slippery cotton/tencel yarn under control! No sagging for me. And hopefully not for you, either; so let me share how I'm showing this yarn who's boss.

First off, I used the three-needle bind-off method to seam up the shoulder seams. Normally, I much prefer grafting or using mattress stitch to sew seams, because I find that those two methods produce less bulky seams. However, both methods also give the yarn the same "path" to follow–in other words, more of the same sort of structure that contributes to the pull of gravity on this slide-y yarn. A three-needle bind-off wraps the yarn around itself "against the grain" if you will, providing the equivalent of a knot, or friction point, in each row across. Increasing the friction points the yarn has to encounter literally slows the yarn down, interfering with gravity, much as a rock in a stream interferes with the flow of water downhill.

Next, I added another set of friction points to the neck edging: As I picked up and knit all around the neckline, I twisted each stitch, and then did the same as I worked the two rounds of the edging itself. Twisting these stitches gave them more friction points, more places where they rub against each other and slow down any yarn movement, so the entire neckline is much less likely to sag and bag now.

Weaving in slippery ends

I've got a lot of ends to weave in, but my first attempts met with failure: the ends quickly slipped out. I then tried my usual trick of piercing the stitches as I wove the ends in, so that the ends were more or less stitched through the rest of the yarn. That didn't work so well, either: The places where the yarn went through itself caused little bumps that you could see from the right side, and oh, yes, the ends still slipped out!

I think what I am going to try next is using a sharp-pointed needle and sewing thread to literally sew the ends in place. (I hope that works, because the only other thing I can think of involves either a hot glue gun or superglue, and that makes me cringe in horror!)

At present, I'm working on adding sleevettes–tiny little cap sleeves–but that will have to wait for next time, as I'm only halfway through the first one and I want to make sure what I am doing works before I go telling y'all how great it is!

What should I make next?

I'm getting very, very close to being done with this cute tank top; I hope to have a Finished Object to show you next week! So it's time to start thinking about The Next Project For Sandi's Needles!

Anyone have any suggestions? The only rule is that the pattern must be in an Interweave publication, because after all, this is an Interweave blog, right?

Is there anything in the Fall 2010 Interweave Knits that you think would look good on me? Or the Fall 2010 Knitscene? There's Rosemary Hill's pretty little hoodie on the cover of Knitscene (the purple one shown above) and the Leitmotif Cardigan from Fall Knits has a really unusual construction (beige cardi at right). Or I could do a hat like Meg's (cream hat also at right). And I do need mittens.

What do you think, amazing readers? What Interweave pattern would you like me to knit next? It can be anything, literally ANYTHING, from any magazine or book... Well. Anything that will fit me and look good on me, of course!

Leave your ideas & suggestions for my next project in the comments! I'll tally them up and we can vote on it next week.

Till then, I hope you have something really fun on your own needles to play with!

– Sandi

Photos, top to bottom: Rosemary Hill's Alexandra Hoodie from Knitscene Fall 2010; Carol Feller's Leitmotif Cardigan from Knits Fall 2010; and Meg Swansen's The Proverbial Cap, from Knits Fall 2010.

The Joy of Modifying Armholes On-the-Fly (not)

KD Sandi — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:40:00 GMT

Let's be honest. When it comes to having to modify armhole shaping on-the-fly, I have a great alternative.

Let's all just go play in the shark tank instead.

Yeah. Because that would be a ton more fun, methinks, than having to do the nifty math involved in tweaking those curves.

No? No shark tank play date? Well, shucks. Guess I'll just have to pull it together and figure this out then...

It all began with some luscious shiny yarn (a 50/50 cotton/tencel blend) and a cute summer tank top pattern: Tattoo Tank by Marlaina Bird, from Knitscene Winter 2010. As I knitted, the yarn started talkin' sass to me, and in order to get my self-respect back get the shaping right, I started modifying things as I went along, right there on the needles.

I don't generally advocate for shaping-on-the-fly, as therein can lie both madness and a UFO-in-the-making. However, sometimes you just gotta ad lib to make the music keep playing, and so that's what I ended up doing with the top: Knitting Ad Lib (if not Ad Loco).

Keep in mind that by the time I had arrived at the armholes, the stitch count had become a thing of wonder and beauty. It had also become something not resembling anything in the published pattern. My careful planning was shot to sulfur and back due to the mischievous yarn, and here I was contemplating some serious geometry around where my arms were supposed to go.

Yikes.

It was then that I suddenly Received A Clue, and realized that I had gotten lucky this time: Armhole math is only complicated when one has to match it to the corresponding sleeve cap math. This was a sleeveless tank! No sleeve caps! All I had to worry about were The Holes. Most of my problem was solved right then and there. Whew!

I now looked at the situation with a fresh eye. First, for some miraculous reason, I found I was actually getting stitch and round gauge for the last few rounds (we shall not question Fate). Second, from measuring other comfy sleeveless tops I own, I knew that I preferred an armhole about 8.5" high from the top of the shoulder to the level of the bottom of the armhole. So I needed a decrease scheme which would match the rate of an armhole shaped for an 8.5" height. I looked at the pattern schematic, and the largest size was written for exactly that height! I also needed a certain width of armhole, side to side, due to my bust size. I measured my favourite top at home, and then compared those measurements to the schematic, and again, the largest size was very close to what I needed.

Thus, even though I was not knitting the largest size, I could use the largest size as a template, just for the armhole. In essence, the pattern had become a puzzle, and I was pulling out just the piece I needed–the armhole shaping from the largest size–and using my own numbers for the rest of it. This isn't the way I like to operate, normally–but we're not in Normal anymore, Dorothy.

To cover up any Unfortunate Shaping Events in the armhole, I intend to eventually pick up stitches around the armhole and knit myself a wee pair of sleevettes. (I am hoping the sleevettes will also help to cover up a few Unfortunate Shaping Events in my upper arms, as well.) So stay tuned for the sleevettes!

I'm sending out thoughts of a cool, breezy spot on the porch for you, complete with icy drink, clicking needles, and the laughter of friends. Knit on!

– Sandi

P.S. Feel free to leave a comment because I love to hear what you have to say... :)

It's A Great Yarn...For Some Other Pattern

KD Sandi — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:41:00 GMT

I finally made it to the armholes on my Tattoo Tank.

Lest you think I am a slacker who sits around all day eating chocolates and watching soap operas: I not only made it to the armholes, I am also done with the armhole shaping on the back, AND I have completed the back all the way past the cute little heart lace motif which gives the tank its name.

I did, however, have a Moment when I finally reached the point where I was ready to work the armhole shaping. You know, a Moment. One of those Moments when you go dig up the pattern, and read through the next section, and then you look at your knitting on the needles and you go...Ohhhhh. Noooooo. Yeah, one of Those.

My particular Oh No moment was in honour of my ever-changing stitch count. This yarn...it vexes me...it vexes me. It causes the fabric to GROW and morph and change, before the knitting is even done! I'm to the point where I'm going by measurement alone, not stitch count, because the yarn is so slidey that its slip-slidin' away from itself and creating havoc with silly conventions such as gauge. I knit...I measure. I knit some more, tweaking stitch counts as needed...I measure some more. In the end, it's the measurements that count, not how many stitches you have.

Lest you think from my words above that I detest this yarn: Not so. I actually think it's a splendid yarn: a 50/50 cotton/Tencel blend, worsted weight, spun with a shine and smoothness that are pretty enough to make my knitter's heart go bunga-bunga. But like every other yarn on the planet, it has its quirks. This yarn's particular quirk is that it is so shiny and smooth that it slips around in its own stitches, making a mess out of my careful gauge math.

Am I going to rip out my project and walk away in disgust, shoving the yarn tangle into the nearest trash can? Nope. I'm a knitter, yarn is my passion...and I am its master. Every now and then, however, I am also its student, and this project is one of those times.

I've learned something important here: This yarn, lovely and shiny as it is, is the wrong sort of yarn for this sort of tank top. This yarn is strong-willed; it wants to wander all over the place, stretching stitches and rows to follow gravity's call. This darling top has wide swaths of unfettered space to show off the lovely smooth texture and glossy shine of the yarn, but it doesn't have one thing this yarn needs in order to become a successful knitted garment: Structure. This yarn needs fences, corrals, gates, walls; it needs lines for it to colour within. It needs to know where it is allowed to go, and it needs to know when to stop wriggling around in its seat. This yarn would be better in a top with seams, with some sort of waistband or other horizontal fencing. It needs places in the fabric where the flow of stitches is purposefully interrupted, so that its natural tendency to move around has a stopping place every now and then, helping the fabric to (more or less) hold its shape.

The Tattoo Tank is seamless, and has nothing in the way of structure. If I had had more experience with this type of yarn, I might have foreseen that this yarn wasn't going to play well with this tank. However, I admit that this is the first time I have knit with anything containing tencel, and despite my Really Big Swatch, I didn't foresee this.

It happens. We are not omniscient, we are not All-Knowing. And that's not the point, to be All-Knowing when it comes to yarn. It IS the point to be Master of your yarn, however. And master craftswomen (and men) see a project such as this, where yarn does not match design, as a challenge to their ingenuity and creativity.

In other words: I'm not going to rip this out, even though I know in my heart this is the wrong yarn for this pattern. I'm going to keep going...and I'm going to use my clever knitter's brain to Think This Through, to come up with adjustments that will turn this yarn/project duo from Fail to Win.

Note that this does not mean that I am saying it is bad to rip things out if they aren't working for you. Rip away if you need to; please, be my guest. Sometimes ripping just feels so good, to undo all the cursed stitches in order to make new ones–maybe not new ones with this pattern, but new ones with this yarn and some other pattern in order to create that happy marriage of yarn and project. If you find your project and your yarn are not right for each other, you can try to come up with a solution, or you can rip, rip, rip. Your choice.

This yarn would make a really soft, really pretty lap blanket for chilly fall evenings. A blanket doesn't really care about gauge. And this yarn is velvety-smooth and soft and would be lovely to take a nap under...

But methinks it might also make a lovely summer top for a certain intrepid knitter. If she is clever enough, that is...

And so it is that I still say: Bring it on, sassy yarn. Bring. It. On.

– Sandi

P.S. Want to know what's up next week? I'll share how I resolved an armhole-shaping dilemma.

P.P.S. Feel free to leave a comment because everyone has something to say... :)