Learning design, gauge mishaps and musings.

It seems that the more I type the less I knit, so instead of being all communicative, I picked up needles instead. Better yet, I bought Cheryl Brunette's Sweater 101 and started designing for real. Improvising and altering patterns is fun, but the pattern then lacks scalability. Eventually, that's what I'd like to do so, here's to taking the plunge.

My first project is simple enough - a drop-shoulder sweater in a gorgeous organic 8-ply merino from Treliske Farms. I used to make diaper covers out of it. Kara at Natural Resources where I sold some of them mistook the finished fabric for cotton! It's the perfect yarn, lovely, soft enough for newborns, but super-hardy. It's cream colored, but I figure she'll wear a bib over it when she eats. The second project will be a set-in sleeve sweater in the same yarn designed to be fairly close-fitting to be worn beneath whatever summer thing she demands to wear on cold, foggy San Francisco winter days. I'm also hoping to make matching leggings. I have my eye on a few simple eyelet stitches that will keep the fabric light. She hates being hot, but needs a layer of insulation generally since she hates coats and jackets.

So far, the process has been fun and illuminating. The thing that gets me is always gauge. For the life of me, I can't seem to look at a bunch of stitches and a ruler and have a sense of how much space those stitches are taking up along that four or five inches. Brunette has a great way to figure it out, too - measure at least 3 times along the swatch, preferably towards the top where you've hit your stride.

What's even more confusing is that I seem to have extremely regular stitches. I measured 4 times and each time found exactly 24 stitches in 5". On the other hand, my child could have simply had a huge growth spurt since the time I measured her. Two weeks ago I found that she was a size Child 3 and decided to make it a full 2 sizes larger at the time. Today I stretched that bit of ribbing and one pattern repeat along the top of her hips and found that it was pulled to the limit when it reached from one shirt seam to the other.

Also, Brunette suggests starting off your ribbing with a full 10% fewer stitches than the body. I'm not sure that works in all situations.

At any rate, I'm back to the drawing board.

I'll post photos when I can.

Oh, yeah...also just finished 2 of the cute Gurumi dollies from KnitPicks. I'm happy to say that Little Moo adores both and favors them above all the others so far. They're easy and cute. I'm also making some brainless and enjoyable ribbed socks out of some Cherry Tree Hill multi for Snackboy as a way to decompress after all the math and ripping. :)

Woohoo!

The sweater is finished!

(After one frogging of the shoulders and three attempts at getting the buttonhole band right...)

It's got room to grow, which is good. This morning, DD decided that she wanted to wear the sweater...with nothing else but socks. So she ran around like this for a few hours. It was cute. She really likes it, which I'm glad about after all that work.

All the way up to the button band!

I'll post a pic as soon as I can. The collar band looks nice, although the seed-stitch rib isn't as compressible as regular 1k1p rib. I had to do fewer stitches in the end. I'm up to the button band, which I'm currently casting off and then the buttonhole band. Still don't quite have a plan as to how I'm going to add buttonholes into this pattern stitch, although I'm sure it won't be a huge deal.

Must turn the chicken.

"Yarn Time!"

I'm now on my second, or rather my third tribble. Rain has now adopted the part-way finished second tribble as her own knitting project. At the moment it looks sort of like an all-cotton hairball with other bits of yarn mixed in with it and the circular needles woven through any possible opening. She kept repeating that she was knitting a sweater for her mommy, which was very sweet. Next I'll get one of those kid-safe needles, some yarn and a plastic needlepoint canvas for her so that she can do yarn projects with me.

Tribbles do dishes.

The tribble is a very good dish sponge. Unfortunately, this yarn really holds water and we live in a humid environment. I have a feeling I should make 3 or 4 and rotate them through the wash.

The sweater fits!

Yay! And DD loves it! She actually went to the mirror to see and grinned at herself all dolled up in pink. When I started the sweater, it seemed huge. Now, she's practically grown into it, although it's still long and she has room in the sleeves. I suppose I could knit a bit of extension before the button band if I had to...

Hee hee! Tribbles!

This is a brilliant idea! After struggling with pattern stitches and redesigns and other brainy things at 1 in the morning on no sleep, it feels incredibly good to just knit a tribble in one night. I just stitched the thing up and it looks like...well, a tribble. We need a new dish washing scrubber, so, there it is. Nice yarn, too. Recycled cotton/acrylic. Surprisingly soft.