Knitting Disasters
I finished Pumpkin Girl’s poncho, sort of. I happily finished the body and started the hood. I grafted the hood together with the Kitchener stitch which is way harder than it looks! I pulled that thing out 3 times because I kept losing my place and had no clue how to figure out where I was. I finally resorted to counting out loud, "Purl, purl, off, knit, knit off, purl, purl, DON’T TALK TO ME!, off, knit…" It was worth it though, because it looks beautiful! I kept turning it over and over, marveling at how the seam just disappears. Then I worked on the fringe. The whole time I was working on the hood, I kept looking at the bottom edge that was curling up. I figured the weight of the fringe would pull it straight. Well, no. Hmm. Maybe blocking it would could it from curling. Anyway, I tried it on Pumpkin Girl. The darn thing is too small! In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: ARGH! It barely fits her right now and I made it for next fall. She wears a size 5, so I made a size 6-8, hoping to get a year or two of wear out of it. I checked my gauge and I’m right on, if not a little bit bigger. I am positive I made the correct size. So there I was, with the disaster of a poncho, looking closely at the picture on the pattern for any signs of the end curling when I noticed something. The last four rounds were supposed to be knit in garter stitch, which is simply knitting every row. Unless you are knitting in the round, which I was, in which case you knit one row, then purl the next. This would have prevented the curling. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, I did the wrong one. Now I’ve got to pull out the fringe, pull out the offending rows and reknit them. Which brings us to the next problem. I had bought an extra skein of yarn, but I now had barely enough to allow for the new rows, let alone the casing for the hood and the drawstring. The only mercy was that I had not yet trimmed the fringe which will make it easier to pull out and reattach.
My friend and knitting guru recommended giving the poncho a time out and letting it think about the errors of its ways. She was also pretty sure I could block it out to a better size. So into the yarn basket it went until I was ready to deal with it.
And on to Bip’s sweater. You may recall that I just need to do the sleeves. I found a quiet moment to get the ribbing done ("knit, knit, purl, purl, knit, knit, purl, DON’T TALK TO ME!) and then blissfully began knitting up the length of the sleeve, increasing every third row, just like the instructions said. The sleeve was getting pretty long and I was only about half way to the amount of stitches I needed on the needle. Hmmm. I checked the instructions again. And I quote, "increase one stitch at EACH end of every third row." That would be twice as many increases as I was making. Out came the sleeve, right down to the ribbing.
You know the saying, "Measure twice, cut once"? Well, my lesson here was read twice, knit once.
I figured I better move on to something where I was less likely to get hurt.
Washcloths! That I could do! And rather successfully, I might add! I have decided I love washcloths. You can use inexpensive cotton yarn, there are a ton of free patterns to be found on the internet and they are quick and easy. See:
The blue one is for Boo, the purple one is Pumpkin Girl’s. They are thrilled with them! They think I’m a genius.
Flush from my victory with the washcloths I set my sights on socks. I’ve always wanted to make socks. And look, I did it!
Yes, it’s a funny shape, but it’s the practice sock from the book Sensational Knitted Socks. I’ve heard that socks are actually pretty easy, and they are, even if they often involve that pesky Kitchener stitch.
And perhaps even more exciting, I found another skein of the poncho yarn at the bottom of the basket! I will have more than enough for what I need.
Now I have moved on to a very easy baby blanket. I think I can handle that.