A Twist in My Plan

I'm working on writing up the pattern for Countess Cathleen, my hooded cabled cloak. But of course I need a project on the needles, so I started on my next design, Cherish the Ladies. This will be a large cable and twisted stitch patterned wrap with knit-as-you-go fringe and bead accents. 

The easiest way to work twisted stitch patterns is in the round. I don't know about you, but I find cabling on wrong side rows a complete PitA. My solution is to add a steek section, which will be unraveled after it's cut to create the fringe (ta da!) allows me all the ease of knitting in the round and still end up with a flat wrap. 

There is one problem with adding a steek section and knitting in the round: the dreaded "join, being careful not to twist" with such a large number of stitches. I won't lie: to get the design just how I wanted it, plus the steek section, resulted in a cast-on of 631 stitches.

That's not a typo. 631 stitches in sport weight wool on a 3.5mm/US 4 circular needle. 

(Did I happen to mention this is my Year of Going For It? 😂 Just wait! I have more to come!)

Anyway, I got it cast-on...

and all was going well... until somewhere along in round 4 when I straightened out a lot of the knitting and discovered The Twist:

Fiber friends, I could've cried. I actually had to walk away from it for a few days, and work on some personal projects instead.

I'm in the midst of casting on again, using a trick I found online somewhere. While casting on, weave a piece of ribbon into the cast-on every so many stitches; I like using 20 but 10 or whatever number fits your pattern repeat is also good.

How does this help? It makes seeing the twist easier because the ribbon contrasts with the stitches, where the stitches against more stitches of the same color is harder to find. Especially for those of us whose eyes are a little older 😉

So that's where things at KDRD headquarters (ie the couch in my living room) are right now. Hopefully I'll have in progress pictures to share with you soon.

What are you working on, fiber friends?

Yours in yarn, and one very long cast-on,

Síle

Hello, June!

Little did I know when I wrote my last post that I had over 3 weeks more to my frozen-up arm. As you can imagine, that's put me waaay more behind on my various projects. Slowly I'm getting caught up while also working with a new strategy of breaks while working to keep my arm from going out again. 

What's going on here at KDRD? I'm currently editing my final tutorial for the Hornpipe Bag and, weather cooperating, photos should be done later in the week. I'm thinking the tutorial should be up on the weekend, with the pattern release next week. We'll see if it gets there!

The Four Hand Reel will be in test/beta knitting around July 5th. This is my log cabin square totebag. I'll be lining my proto soon; I had mislaid the fabric for a bit. The test/beta knit will be run on Yarnpond, which I found excellent to use when I tested the Hornpipe Bag last year. I'm thinking 10 weeks for the test period based on the yardage (5 colors/shades; about 200 yards each of 4 of them and 65-70 yds of the 5th one)

I'm continuing to play with my knotwork motif idea for the Countess Cathleen cloak. And I have a couple double-knitting ideas that I'm playing with too. And at least one other cable rich design. It's been very cold and blah here so I've been bringing more color into my work.

In my personal crafting, I'm well into the first sleeve of my Twist Again sweater. Finally I have the rhythm of the pattern down and the knitting is easy again. (Twist Again by Robynn Weldon on Payhip)

Does that happen to you? Find a pattern a bit of a struggle until you find the proper rhythm and then it just glides along. 

I've decided to change tracks on my bright colors sweater. Instead of crocheting a number of blocks (that truth be told were not lining up right), I've decided to make another Harvest cardigan using the 9 colors (8 bright ones with black) and knitting in alternating bands of the Fibonacci sequence, using ridges instead of rows. If you're not familiar with the Harvest cardigan, the front and neck edgings are knit at the same time as the rest of the top-down sweater, and the edgings are done in garter stitch. Hence using ridges. My plan is to knit 1 ridge in black, 1 ridge in Color 1, 2 ridges of black, 3 ridges of Color 2, 5 ridges of black, 8 ridges of Color 3, etc, keeping the colors in order and cycling through them as needed. That's the plan currently anyway. It could change again! lol (Harvest cardigan by Tin Can Knits on TinCanKnits.com)

 

I'm planning to get a new proto of my Single Jig Mitties on the needles soon. This is both a KDRD project (I want to update the photos when I get the pdf updated) and a personal project (I need something on my poor frozen hands. While the rest of North America is sweltering, we're experiencing Juneuary here on the island. It's 8°C and raining currently (46.4°F). We're living up to our Iceberg Alley nickname this year). I like when things work out that way. Single Jig Mitties on this site

And that's all I have that's fit to print this gloomy Monday! I look forward to getting the final Hornpipe Bag tutorial up this week.

I hope your crafting is going well. What are your plans for summer knitting? A light top perhaps? Or a lacy shawl? Maybe you prefer smaller things like mittens and hats so you're ready when the weather turns back to the cooler side of things. I'd love to hear about your plans :)

Your in yarn and wet weather,

Síle

The Latest from R*velry

I promised I'd be writing a post about Ravelry and it's taken me some time to wrap my head around things enough to write it out.

On September 29th (Oh gee, another Tuesday announcement; I digress), Ravelry announced that March 31, 2021 would the end of "Classic Rav", and in their happy happy joy joy manner told us there's a new settings option in NuRav.

That would be nice except there are plenty of people saying that neither of the options (named for sheep breeds; isn't that precious?) of NuRav works for them. I haven't heard if either of these works with screenreaders. I know that "Herdwick" mode is no less nauseating for me than "Merino". But after March 31 I, and many others, won't have the option of avoiding them both.

At least we have a deadline for getting our information off. I guess that's a blessing. I will be keeping my stripped account in place after the deadline. Hopefully I'll be able to keep entering pattern pages in the database despite everything. My latest goings on will be here and on my Instagram and Twitter accounts (links in the sidebar).

After that bit of bitter medicine, yesterday's Ravelry blog announcement (Not on a Tuesday! Is that allowed?! I digress, again) just solidified that they're moving full steam ahead. Goody goody gosh! You can now imbed Spotify playlists in your profile and forum posts. And it's been being pointed out on twitter that that's a pretty good slap in the face for those podcasters who aren't able to use the frigging site!

I just don't even know what to say anymore. No, that's not quite true. I do know one thing to say: I'm glad I closed my Ravelry shop in July. 

So that's the latest on the Ravelry front.

My next post should be a return to happier things, like a finished project ;) I have 30 rows left to knit on the body of my Harvest cardigan, then I'll return to the pockets. I should have a new sweater to show off in Town when I'm there early next week.

Yours in yarn and (almost) a new sweater,

Síle

How Not to Knit a Sleeve (aka Read the Pattern)

Last evening I settled in to get more done on the sleeve of my Harvest cardigan. I knit for awhile and thought I was nearing the number of stitches where I would stop the decreases and work straight, so I pulled up the pattern (I do everything on my phone. I mean everything: drafting patterns, writing blogposts, all social media, etc). And as my eyes scanned along I realized something. 

I had skipped a very important line. 

After returning the sleeve stitches to the needles (I'm working the sleeves on double-pointed needles), and before starting the sleeve decreases it reads "Knit straight for x inches."

Um... yeah, that's not what I did. I went straight into working decrease rounds interspersed with x plain rounds. *Facepalm*

I measured how long the sleeve was at that point: 7½ inches (19cm). *Facepalm*

After saying a few choice words, I frogged the sleeve. And then I restarted it. I knit 4 inches, without decreases, before turning in.

I haven't done anything quite so silly in quite awhile so I guess the yarn gods decided to keep me from getting too cocky. I will say it's going smoothly and I'm hoping to keep to my original timeline and be able to wear my new sweater when I go to Town later in the month. 

So that's my tale of knitterly woe. I hope this saves you from doing the same thing.

Yours in yarn and sleeve stitches,

Síle

Treble Jig Legwarmers Update

I'm happy to say, I've added a size to the TJL. The pattern, as written, now covers calf measurements of 9-22"/22.5-55 cm. Just in time for autumn weather! You can find the pattern page here.

Of course it's 29°C (84.2°F) with the humidity here today, so not exactly autumnal. Ma Nature, would ya cool it off a bit?!

You may have noticed a difference at the top of the site. I'll wait while you scroll up ;) I've wanted to add a logo for quite awhile and finally came up with a little something. What do you think? 

That's it for today! I'll be writing a post about Ravelry's latest announcement in a day or two. I'm letting everything sit for a bit rather than flying off the handle; I do that a little too easily sometimes.

Yours in yarn and fan-blown air,

Síle

September? Already?

Happy to report all of my current patterns can be found on my pattern tab now. I got the last few set up this morning. I'll be rearranging them a bit (that single column just doesn't use space very well) but they're all ready for browsing. I'm also going to be adding to the yarn information for a few of them; not as consistent as I'd like that information to be, especially with my earlier patterns. 

We're experiencing the lovely sunny warm days of late summer here, mixed in with the cooler and colder nights. Frost warnings made a come back the last few so windows were closed for the first time in quite awhile. Time to start thinking of wool sweaters and possibly hats and mitties. Mmmm, knitting season is on its way! :)

I don't know about you, but fall has become my favourite of seasons. Warm sunny days, cool but not bitter nights. The leaves changing. Fall is a very cozy season. Just cool enough for a shawl or cardigan, usually pretty dry so getting out and enjoying the outdoors is possible. Cooler nights are perfect for curling up with a mug of tea and your knitting, and/or a good book.

This year has seemed to go both too slow and too fast all at the same time. I can be ok with fall lingering a bit. What about you?

Yours in yarn and woolly plans,

Síle