purlsandmurmers

Phildar Shell Finished

It's Done!!! And it looks wonderful. I love the way the ribbed shaping works as well as the sewn-on armbands, although more about that later. 

Matilda is modeling here, so you can get a better view of the side and arm shaping, she is far less modest about pointing cameras at her underarms.

The overall ribbing of the back holds the body nicely (of course it may also show off any asymmetricalities, but it is not as bad as a feared):

Just ignore the sun over my shoulder, you actually get a better view of that shoulder below:

The join at the arm band is not perfect, but I am not going to be that fanatic about the whole thing.  I love the fit of this sweater.  The fit around the arms did not work out as well, for me at least as I had hoped from the pattern.  The two ends of the arm bands were definitely shaped and when they were joined together at the underarm and the shoulder seam the arm band had a definite longer side, to be attached to the sweater, and a shorter side.  Unfortunately on me, it was not quite short enough on the short side and the the arm openings gaped a little lot.  Since most of the gaping was at the bottom and the back I disconnected the bands and reknit the bottom bits using short rows to make the outer edge even shorter than in the original pattern.  I really didn't measure this, I just kind of knit it on Matilda. 

The right shoulder, the one shown above came out very well.  The left actually needs more work, there is still a good bit of gaping at the lower back and upper front of that shoulder, but I was having trouble putting in even more shaping without distorting the lines of the ribbing.  This would need to be completely reknitted.  I have made a note in the pattern for future reference, but it really isn't that bad now.  I am going to see how it goes, wear it a couple of times and see if it bothers me.  My inclination at this point is that it fits pretty well and I am just fretting over details that no one else will notice.

If you take a look at the front and back photos you can see a bit of wobbling in the left armhole edge that indicates where it doesn't lie quite right.

Anchoring the Rambling Mind

Bard Music Festival began this past weekend and I was up there every day, most of every day, from 10 AM to after 11 PM on Saturday, listening to panel discussions and lectures and attending 5 very interesting, musically intense, long concerts.  I really don't know how people do this.  I love it, but I was completely wiped out.  By Sunday morning I was exhausted, Sunday night was another story altogether.  My brain was fried, I had too many pieces of music and ideas floating around in my head, swirling and whirring like my brain had turned in to some giant blender.   I did not have time or energy to write my reflections on all this stimulation so it all got muddled together.

I knitted; not enough granted, but I did knit in lectures and concerts, at least some of the time, I definitely knit at lunch and dinner breaks under a shady tree (it was VERY hot this weekend). I should have knitted more, the concerts I knitted through are more clear in my head than the ones I tried to just sit and listen.  My poor brain can only absorb so much.  Each piece is so intense, one listens, one tries to remember and absorb the music.  One piece ends, another begins.  The concert is 3 hours long, the mind is becoming confused.  One hour to eat, drink, relax and clear the brain before the next concert and onslaught of music.  OH MY.

I don't know how people keep it straight.  Of course, some don't.  I knitted and took notes at the Sunday morning talk.  Four pages of notes.  Finished the Phildar armbands.

They look a little scrunched up and worse for wear.  What can I say?  They spent the weekend in the bottom of my knitting bag under books, and programs and water bottles galore.  They will recover.

AT the above lecture, the woman next to me started off knitting, which made me feel better since we were in the fourth row dead center in front of the speakers.  But then she started doing crossword puzzles.  I am convinced she didn't hear a word after the crosswords began, but perhaps she is just better able to multitask than I.   I always feel guilty knitting in concerts and lectures, as if I would be a better person if I didn't knit and could just sit there and absorb everything like a sponge.  Instead I have to turn the wandering part of my brain off and I do that by letting my fingers do some methodical work like knitting.  I remember much more.  Why do I feel guilty about it?

I had not gotten around to a guage swatch for  a new project and did not want to start guages in the concerts so I brought a simple mindless project, a scarf from a novelty yarn.  The beauty of this project was that I just had to start knitting and knit until I ran out of yarn.  It will be a very quick project on size 15 needles.

Tubular Cast-Off

I had hoped to finish the Phildar shell before the weekend, so I could start a new project for Bard Music.  This is not likely to happen.

It took me a long time to knit the neckband.  Actually, that is not exactly true.  I picked up and knit the neck band one evening and then it took me several hours out of the next evening to cast it off.    Chain bind-off, in all three variations that I know, left the ribbing floppy around the neck edge and was definitely NOT attractive.  Rip, Rip. Two-Row bind-off was better but still not flexible enough and not attractive.  It just did not lie properly around the collarbone.  Finally, balancing both The Principles of Knitting and Knitters Handbook by Montse Stanley on my lap with my knitting, I determine to learn something new.  I decided that since I started with a tubular cast-on, I might as well go whole-hog as it were, and end with a tubular cast-off for double rib. 

Man, did that take time, but I absolutely love it.  Who knows there may even be more ribbing in my future.

Both authors claimed that invisible cast-off for double-rib was only for those who had mastered basic invisible cast-off (not me in other words) but that did not deter me.  It's only knitting after all and had I not already casted off this edge 3 times?  Good thing I have extra yarn as the cotton tends to unply with the unknitting.

In the first book, June Hiatt, wrote that the technique for double-rib was awfully complicated on the needles and she recommended doing this cast-off off the needles on a table using a darning needle.  I was game, so I dutifully went to the table and pulled the needle out of my edge.  I felt very daring, actually only partly daring as I only pulled the needle part way out.   Even with the instructions and the diagrams, I found this technique impossibly complicated and the results were not enchanting.  After about 5 inches the process was not getting any easier, when I pulled the yarn through I would drop the next stitches and lose my place and if I waited too long to pull the yarn, horrible tangles and mess would ensue. 

Hiatt was shoved aside, the edge was unbound and all the stitches were put back on the needle.  I thought there was no hope.  However Montse Stanley, also discussed the Tubular bind-off for double-rib (called invisible) and gave directions for doing it on the needle (hurray!).  Why was this technique too difficult for Hiatt but not for Stanley?  Stanley had clear written directions and, to me at least, less clear pictures, so Hyatt was right it would not have worked easily from pictures alone.

Following Stanley's technique I was able to finish the neckline edge, after a few repetitions I got the hang of the technique and I really like it.  I can't do it without looking at the directions yet, and it may be a very long time before I ever reach that stage, but that's OK.   The neckline lies flat, it is actually kind of stretchy, the way a nice ribbed neckline should be (think of the possibilities) although it does kind of slant to the left.  Well a left-ward slanting view of the world is probably not so bad either.

Friday brought an unexpected stretch of knitting time when George suggested that we take a spur-of-the-moment trip into NYC to the Cooper Hewitt (National Design Museum) to see the extreme textiles exhibit.  I was more than willing, even though I had hoped to finish sewing a pair of pants that day, and we took off.

I managed to knit the entire trip, coming and going, four hours of knitting and daydreaming as I watched the Hudson River go by.  It was pure heaven.  I finished the last shoulder just 5 minutes before we pulled into the Poughkeepsie Station.

Unfortunately my sparse knitting time over the remainder of the weekend consisted of  frogging and reknitting – not what I knit on the train but earlier problems.  This project is not that complicated, it is rather simple really, but still it has been plagued by simple errors. The good news is that I have now gotten quite comfortable dropping a stitch or even a section of stitches down multiple rows and reknitting just one section, even if decreases and patterns are involved in the section in question.  I always knew it could be done but I approached dropping a stitch INTENTIONALLY with trepidation.  I would rather just unknit the whole part of the sweater back to the mistake and start over.  I really can’t say why this bothered me so much.  I have no problem cutting knitting and putting in a steek, or cutting a sleeve and lengthening it above a cuff lets say and grafting the pieces together.  Why this fear of dropping stitches?  Am I afraid that once the dropped the stitch will run on and on and I will never catch up? Rather neanderthal of me don’t you think.  No more! 

The sweater did not automatically take the shape shown above.  When I finished the front I proudly brought it into the house and looked at it next to the back and I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW THEY WENT TOGETHER!  The pattern clearly said to sew  the front to the back at the shoulders but I certainly couldn’t match them up.  It was late and I was tired so I opted for one of my favorite problem-solving techniques: going to bed.

When I looked at the back the next morning it was clear I had made a mistake when finishing the shoulders of the back.  You can easily see the mistake in this photo:

As you can see, I cast off for the shoulders from the armscye edge not the neck edge.  Hmmm..  Now I was probably tired when I read the instructions because they really weren’t that obtuse.  In fact the English translation of the French pattern is pretty good.  The problem is the pictures and diagrams aren’t included in the translation and I wasn’t looking a the actual pattern book, just the translation.  And I was tired too remember.

So I reknit the back neck opening and shoulders.  No problem really.  I ended up with what you see here:

Now technically I should not need to block a ribbed sweater, and in fact most of the sweater does not need blocking, but that neck edge was rolling all over the place, and those narrow shoulders, well they were rolling up like jelly rolls and twisting like mad.  I could see myself doing something stupid.  So I blocked them, and sewed the shoulders together with the pieces on the blocking board.

Normally I enjoy sewing shoulder seams.  You would think a two stitch shoulder would be easy – yeah! It’s short! But that is precisely the problem.  Your first stitch is your penultimate stitch and it is hard to keep that little seam looking neat and finished. Remember, that when seaming, you usually lose the outer two half stitches in the edge, but here that is half the seam.  It took me a little bit of effort to make it look pretty. Of course it may have been a waste of time because once I pick up stitches for the neck and the armband there will be precious little to see – just a little point at the center of the shoulder.  Well, at least it will lay flat and smooth while I pick up those stitches.

Ribbing Continued

I started the front of the Phildar ribbed shell last night at knitting group.  I had wanted to cast on at group because I had promised to show the technique I used for the 2x2 ribbed cast-on, not that I am all that competent since this was only the second time I did it.

It took me a while to do the cast on, it is not the fastest method but I still really like the way it looks, and then managed to knit 13 rows of ribbing.  I only have to 20 rows on the front before I can start the front pattern and the knitting will get more interesting.

Even so, it went fast.  Even after just knitting neck and armhole bands for Antea, the roughly 5 stitches I am getting per inch (in stockinette) on the Phildar Shell seems VERY FAST compared to the 8.5 stitches per inch of Antea.

Meanwhile the little bit of poison ivy I got digging up iris bulbs on Monday has turned into a full blown oozy burning red and inflammed mess that keeps soaking through my clothes and contaminating any other part of my body that gets touched.  I really haven't been scratching, believe me it is the last thing on my mind!  I want to be wrapped up like a mummy and put in deep freeze somewhere. What a mess! Using my hands hurts but I could put up with that.  I desperately do not want to ooze contagion onto my beautiful sweater though -- how horrible would that be?

I have been sorting through the projects-in-waiting, deciding what to do next even though I know I still have all those ends to weave in on Wine&Roses.  Knitting monogamy is really not my strong suit.  I am thinking of finally starting that pair of socks and so I pulled the double points out of their storage box.  I am not sure how small I will need, I usually go down a couple of sizes as I am a loosey-goosey knitter.  Perhaps I can wind the yarn up today, although I have to be careful not to ooze on it either.

I finally get into a knitting rhythm with the ribbed back on the Phildar shell and it got much easier.  Fighting with my knitting is not a task I look forward to for relaxation.  Once I reached this state of ribbing zen, there was far less action required of the crochet hook for dropping down and correcting miscast stitches.

The back is finished.   I mostly finished last night, or early this morning actually, completing the last row of ribbing while we sat for an hour in the parking garage at Yankee Stadium attempting to begin our return journey home following the ball game. I did not cast off and do the shoulder shaping in the dark on the ride home up the Taconic Parkway in the rain, figuring that this was a sure-fire invitation for errors.

The experience only served to further remind me that I would much rather take a train into NYC than drive for any reason.  I don't mind driving on the streets of New York; I hate it when traffic just stops, as it does all too often.  I don't usually mind driving at night but a trip on the train at 1 AM, with perhaps a little snooze, is far preferable to a windy wet dark road with deer lurking along the fringes.

Since I have developed a tendency to sleep for almost exactly 6 hours most nights (about once ever 10 days to 2 weeks I crash for 10) I have gotten in the habit of using those few hours in the mornings when no one else is up to wake up gradually with a little knitting or sewing or reading or other relaxing activities that I enjoy in peace and quiet. I assumed that the morning hours would be the perfect time to finish the shoulder shaping.

I Was Wrong.   I got as far as casting off for the back neck when others started to arise.  They quickly began to bombard me with questions and discussions of how the day should be organized, what should be done, and in what order and by whom.  As the other combatants were not used to 6 hours of sleep (sometimes I wish that I wasn't) they were tired and crotchety. I don't really deal strife early in the morning well, part of the reason I treasure my early morning reverie, and especially not before I have had coffee.  I don't need coffee to wake up, just deal to with other people who have just woken up.  Still, instead of putting my knitting aside and starting the coffee, I insisted in finishing the task at hand and doggedly sat there and finished knitting and casting-off the Phildar cotton shell.  I am nothing if not stubborn.

When I went back put my knitting away I discovered that I had cast off so tightly that there was no hope that any human head would ever fit through any neckline formed by this sweater edge.  In fact, the ribbing was tightly bound into its  narrow, unstretched width.  Once I got everyone out of the house I was able to pour another cup of coffee, treat myself to a lovely handmade chocolate truffle, sit, relax,  and re-knit the shoulder area of the Phildar shell.

Driving v. Knitting

We are back from Boston.   We had a lovely time; it was a wonderful day for a party and a wonderful day for a drive. 

I had eagerly anticipated the drive to Boston even though my darling spouse wanted to do it all in one day and not stay over.  I don't mind, 4 hours each way is very drivable, and I looked forward to 8 hours of knitting time and the possibility that I would finish the back of the Phildar shell.

Unfortunately I did most of the driving and there was only about 2 hours of knitting time.

When we were first married George would always assume he would drive, I suppose it is the manly thing to do, and I would always ask  if he would like me to drive and get turned down.  Well, I love driving and this used to chafe, besides I am not the most scintillating of passengers, the motion of the car lulls me to sleep. 

Then I took up knitting, and as I became more and more addicted to this pastime, I became less and less eager to drive.  I still love to drive, but I love knitting more.  Selfish of me I know.

As George gets older he does not always want to do all the driving, and there are times when I don't want him to do all the driving either, although knitting distracts me sufficiently to keep me from harping on things best left unsaid.  And I find myself in a bind because I really would rather have knitting time, but at the same time I think I should drive more.

So I had a wonderful drive on a perfect driving day.  I got a little knitting done as well.

As I am sure you will notice there are a couple of mistakes, further down, made a couple of nights ago, late, when I should not have been knitting.  The crochet hook will get its exercise today.

New Project

I started a new project even though I still have Wine&Roses to finish plus two other UFO's.  I need a project to knit when we drive to and from Boston this coming weekend and I didn't want to get started too late.  I also wanted to work on it at knitting group on Tuesday evening; since we sit outside I felt it was much too hot to be working on Wine&Roses there.

This is what I chose:
I am actually using the Phildar cotton called for in the pattern, which I have never used before.  It is knitting up very nicely.

I really like the shape of this tank and I am looking forward to wearing it.  However I hate knitting even rib.  I don't mind an odd rib for some perverse reason, such as a 3x2 or some other thing, but 2x2 rib just drives me up the wall with its tediousness.  Once, long ago I forced myself to knit a ribbed shell just because I hated ribbing and always messed up.  I no longer mess up but it is still my least favorite thing to knit.  The problem is that I like wearing ribbed shells.  Perverse huh?

The front is not bad and I am looking forward to knitting it.  The back however is all ribbed.  I will like wearing that because sweaters tend to be too baggy in the back and the ribbing will solve that problem. 

I thought of starting another project as well, just to spell myself when I get sick of ribbing, but the unfortunate truth is that I would just knit the other project and avoid the ribbing.  Besides, I really want to wear this shell this summer.

Here is my progress so far:

It is really turning out nicely.

It has been a long time since I tried new cast on techniques and I decided to learn how to do a 2x2 tubular cast on with this project.  I have at other times, been taught how to do a knitted/purled on cast on for rib and how to do a long-tail cast on in ribbing but have never been completely satisfied with either.   I used the technique described in Knitters Handbook by Montse Stanley and am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Yes, it does slant, but overall I think it is much more attractive than most other methods I have used for casting on at a ribbed edge.

I will try to post a close-up, I am not sure how much detail will be visible: