#74 Grrrr – SSK

Thank goodness my Amrum sweater is for me!! I beginning to think it’s cursed. Had to rip out 7 rows (at 270 stitches per row) because I dropped a stitch last weekend. Then as I was knitting this week for the first time ever I somehow hooked a needle through a stitch from the front body of the sweater (risk of circular knitting). Thus caused a huge “pull” on the front of the sweater. I got most of the yarn back in place but had to do some hand sewing with a ply of the yarn to patch the hole the “pull” made.

Finally I noticed that my SSK side of the pattern does not have nice neat lines. I know I’m bad at remembering when to use SSK vs K2T. I have cute stitch markers to help me remember when I’m working the sleeve sections of a sweater. But the pattern of the Amrum requires many more SSKs and K2Ts than I have stitch markers. And before you ask, yes I highlighted my chart to remind me to do SSKs. Sadly I can see that I didn’t always remember. Thus the K2T side of the pattern has very nice straight lines running from the center of the sweater toward the hip. Sadly the SSK side lines wobble as I’ve obviously forgot sometimes and knitted K2Ts. I now have big red SSK written all over my chart on the SSK side. And I’ve put red stitch markers at every SSK. We will see if that helps for the remaining ~30 rows I have left. I do like this pattern and may knit it again so hopefully I can prove to myself that I can knit it correctly. My local knitting friends have also informed me that SSK does not lay as well as K2T but there is an excellent video by Patty Lyons on how to make a better SSK. I’ll be looking that up. 🙂

Also trying to chalk up as a learning experience as I realize that instead of my armholes being just right after trying it on repeatedly that the weight of the sweater body completely changes how big the armholes will be on the finished garment. Thankfully I like loosy goosy sweaters but I had planned for the sleeves to be more fitted on this sweater. NOT. No wonder I needed a lot less rows on my sleeve than I originally calculated. A Zoom I joined this week with Marie Greene reiterated this point as she said you have to take your measurements and trust your gauge.

Good news for me is that I need to focus more on making sweaters/tops for me so that I learn more about managing fit before making any more tops for my daughter. She can be the recipient of my sock knitting for a while. 🙂

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#73 Project Update

This has been a pretty simple week. I continue to work on my Christmas socks and my Amrum sweater body. I have only made myself 2 sweaters and both are tunic style as I like to wear them with leggings. I was kinda thinking about making this one the more traditional hip length but it’s clear that all my worrying about not having enough yarn was misplaced. I will easily have well over a cone of yarn left. Thus I think I will go ahead and make it the tunic length since I have so much yarn. I’m going to have to do some research on the bind-off. I do not want to do a ribbed bindoff as I don’t want it to curl. I need a straight hanging edging. So I’m thinking I-cord or maybe just a simple garter edging. ARGGGG – I dropped a stitch last night and can’t fix it!!! Ripping out about 8 rows. 😦

The Christmas socks are coming along nicely. They are my “brain dead” knitting for social knitting or watching football and futball.

My lavendar yarn arrived this week for my A Trip to the Pacific sweater I want to make. I hate buying unseen yarn online but I took a chance since the cost was so low. And it’s perfect!! Exactly that “dark” lavendar I wanted with just a hint of “tweediness”. So many sweaters to knit!!!

LESSON LEARNED

Wow and well, guess I’m glad for the yarn maker. One self stripping yarn maker I like sells out her sock yarn almost as fast as she posts it. So I emailed her to compliment her on her success as well as ask when the next time yarn would be posted so I could put it on my calendar. She responded quickly and even gave me a tip on how to get “early” access. I am glad she is doing well as the local young lady that makes vibrant self striping socks apparently isn’t making yarn any more. No idea if this is temporary or permanent. I’m looking forward to getting some “brain dead” self striping sock projects in my stash.

#72 In Person Knitting!!

Well my knitting group finally bit the bullet and met in person after not seeing each other physically for the past 6 months! A LYS offered reserving their very large table area that normally seats 16+ knitters to be reserved for no more than 6 people. So the 5 of us were able to reserve it for our group. While we didn’t hug or even squish each others projects, it was nice to be able to see how beautiful everyone’s project is. The colors and details just don’t come through accurately on the computer.

We showed our appreciation by buying yarn and I bought the Cocoknits Sweater Workshop book and worksheets. I’m a visual learner so creating stitch charts is best for me. The LYS offered 20% off on books so is it my fault I couldn’t resist?? I’m looking forward to reading about the method and then applying it to the various sweater projects in my queue. Of course this week I’ve added 2 more sweaters to my queue for 2021. One will use yarn from my stash but after not finding summer weight yarn I wanted at the LYS, I ordered closeout yarn from WEBS when I came home. I mean really, no one is expected to resist a sweater quantity of yarn for $60 right!?

We capped off the afternoon with a two block walk down the town’s main street to visit a coffee shop for a latte treat. While not sunny, it was warm enough to sit outside so we could maintain safe socializing. Here in Cincinnati it is just about peak autumn leaves color. So a beautiful day both visually and emotionally.

PROJECT UPDATE

Finally!!! I finished the third pair of socks and mailed them off to Boston Friday. I included a note encouraging the recipients to let me know how then fit if they hope to receive a second pair. 🙂

I got a little knitting done on my daughter’s Christmas socks and I finished the sleeves on my Amrum sleeves. I even modified the sleeve a little by adding some of the front pattern to the end of the sleeve. I’m much happier with the sleeves since I tried it on repeatedly to confirm the fit. The sleeves on my sweater I made last winter are WAY too baggy as well as too long. I really should rip them out and reknit them. Being SHORT, I need to accept that patterns are going to have sleeves that are too long and I must plan on fewer rows and quicker decreases than the pattern calls for. I’m confident I can get both the Christmas socks and the sweater done by Thanksgiving. I only need a few more inches on the body of the sweater!! I’m already looking forward to casting on the next sweater!

#71 Numbered Stitch Markers

As I’ve said in the past, I’m a stitch marker queen. I frequently use more than one stitch marker (like hanging a red pin on my “pretty” stitch marker) to try to make me “wake up” and notice what that I’m supposed to do something!! I also like to use stitch markers to count my stitches. I need to constantly reassure myself that yes, I have the right number of stitches for this row in my pattern. Or yes, I still have the right number of stitches on the heel side of my sock.

So in addition to using green stitch markers for the right sleeve, white stitch markers for the back, etc. I was seeking some numbered stitch markers so I could more quickly count that yes, I have 88 stitches on the front. Since I mainly knit even sweaters with fingering weight yarn, I have a pretty high stitch count for fronts and backs. I looked on etsy but most numbered stitch markers that I could find were pretty big gaps (25, 50, 75) and were expensive in my opinion. I really like to have mine every 10 stitches so it’s easy to find a dropped or added stitch.

I tried making my own by using jewelry wire to attach numbered beads to my o-ring stitch markers. Unfortunately the wire ends never stay tight and instead catch on the yarn. So I finally admitted defeat and bought numbered stitch markers from Twice Sheared Sheep. This is the same young lady that makes my absolutely favorite knitting tool, her row counter. https://twiceshearedsheep.com/product-category/row-counter/ They arrived this week and I can’t wait to change out my handmade ones on my Amrum sweater with these. (I have NO association with Twice Sheared Sheep. I just like sharing knitting tools I’ve found.)

PROJECT UPDATE

Not too surprising, I didn’t get much knitting done on my long weekend away last week. I ended up being the driver for all but 2 hours of the 14 hours of driving and we indeed talked with our hosts for most of the 2 1/2 day visit catching up on the past year. But I’ve turned the heel and am heading up the leg of the Fixation socks I want done ASAP. The Christmas socks for my daughter at least have a few stripes on them making it a fun and festive knit. No progress on my Amrum sweater these past 2 weeks but I am motivated to get those sleeves finished so I can stop juggling the cones of yarn as I knit them 2 at a time.

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 10th year, but this is my 1st year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry.