plodding onward with the sweater

Well the body is now about 9 inches long from the waistband up. That's a bit over half way to where the arms join. The arms still need to be re-knit as well. I hope to get a bunch done on the train tomorrow.v

It's weird. Three people in the last two weeks have mentioned to me that they want to learn to speed read. I can't remember learning to read. I can remember learning to speed read though. I don't know if that's what they were really trying to teach us but it's what I learned. They pulled a handfull of kids out of my class who could already read in the first grade and sent us to the media center, where we would sit around this machine rather like a filmstrip machine (not the whole projector but the little workgroup projector that displayed things on a vertical screen about the size of a 15" monitor), except it made no sound and flipped the images (which were always just text fairly fast. THey got faster as time went on. Then we took multiple choice tests about the content. It was more fun than listening to my classmates sound out words, so we went every few days.

I have to say I never realized I read faster than other people. I guess I still don't think of myself as a fast reader I suspect my dad is half again as fast at least, certainly while reading fiction anyhow. Well since everyone or three people anyhow have mentioned speed reading, I went and took some of those free online reading speed tests. Depending on the test and how much attention I can pay to reading (vs people talking to me at the same time etc)I read between 700 and 1000 words a minute on screen with 90% or better accuracy. Apparently this puts me where the software is trying to lure people into getting.

Dad apparently reads just like me, or so Mom says, she was telling me about when we were little and dad would read to us, instead of her. it would go like this "Peter Rabbit. Mr. McGreggor. Under the fence. Carrots. Yell. Run." Then as a second grader my teacher decided I couldn't read ... note that as a first grader I was off in the library playing speed reading games. Well I can't read out loud... and they made my folks record me reading out loud and play it back to me. That's when Mom realized I sounded like Dad.

Speed reading isn't something I do intentionally. It's apparently just the way I read. Certain things slow me down a lot. Old English, Icelandic Sagas, German (but not as much as the other two) and Poetry just makes no sense...which is why the icelandic sagas take me forever. Because it's work to read slowly enough to know what's going on.

I wonder what would happen if I took a speed reading class now. Or got some of that software. I wonder if I could double my speed and up my comprehension, and would it take all the fun out of reading?

Ripped and restarted

I couldn't bear the thought of reknitting the sweater right away, plus I wanted new white and new purple, becuase they showd markings of the darker fibers on them... and I figured it's only a few bucks..do it right. So I ripped late Tuesday night. Tuesday I cast on a new mitten of yet a different type and worked it instead for a while. .Actually I finished it yesterday.

Last night I restarted the sweater, it's into the chart 1 color work on the body. You know that bit I have memorized. Hopefully it will go fairly fast. I figured I'd work the body now because sleeves were easier to work on the train.

why I'm ripping: the gorey details

I just thought I would make it perfectly clear the results of being off a needle size.
the pattern calls for 13sts to 4 inches. I knit about 18sts to 4 inches. Well so what you say..
that means that a sleeve which has say 60 stitches and a body which has 155 (plus 2 in the steek) come up all wrong . The sleeves are 13" in diameter instead of 18" not hte end of hte world..they still go around arms and fit people and stuff, but they woudn't go over a big blouse or turtle neck as comfortably. The body turns up 34" in diameter instead of 48". This is a bigger problem as a 34" chest on a cardigan is about what your average 10 -12 year old girl would wear. This won't work so well on my mother.

This sweater is a cursed item. I knit my gauge swatch correctly, on size 10.5 needles. Everything was perfect. I cast on and knit the ribbing it looked lovely on the size 8s as requested. I then busily went on knitting the sleeves and the body. (the body which I have ripped 4 times already right?) well... Now...Now I notice that unlike the sweater I was planning to knit before this one I shouldn't be using size 10 needles for the body and sleeve I should be using 10.5s. Well that is how I knit my swatch.. wasn't it lovely... but for some reason.. I used size 10s for the project thereafter. GRR! I could just about scream. I'm going to try blocking a sleeve tonight and see if I can stretch it to gague ...but I sort of doubt it.. since were talking the difference between 18sts over 4inches vs 13sts over 4inches. As many times as I have ripped this you would think I would have noticed at least somewhere along the way I was on the wrong size needles. I did notice that it didn't look to be 2 feet across (half the 48" cirumfrence) when layed out flat.. that's what made me question it in the first place.... it's just a bit big for the 32" circular it's on.

I could just scream. Really. On the up side I have chart 1 memorized and I am getting really good at two handed color work.. however my right hand long floats are still a bit tight.

another two back

I cast on a pair of mittens because I couldn't face the thought of re-knitting chart A on the sweater again.. it would be time number 4. I only had tiny little 5 inch long size 3 DPN... this didn't work out so well because the stitches were so croweded that my floats were all to short even though none of them was over 3 stitches long. GRR.. so that's coming out eventually.

Faced with the thought of ripping the mitten, I went back to the sweater, re-knit chart A again.. much better looking the tension was great the floats were lovely... then I noticed I was on the smaller needle I'd used to pick up the stitches before the last frogfest. Rip-it Rip-it... It's now on the correct sized needle waiting for my 5th attempt at chart A. Fortunately I have it memorized now. Not that it was that hard, but this is getting old. Hopefully it'll be done right tonight and I can move on.

Two steps forward one step back.

That appears to be the theme of this sweater. I have finished both sleeves and they look good. I also got the ribbing done, and the first part of the colorwork done on the body.

Sadly this does not look good. This will be the third time I've ripped, the first time I was working with the wrong color (using navy where it should have been periwinkle) This time.. my long floats are long enough but my short floats aren't. One row I knit (3 navy 3 purple repeat) the floats are too short...so the whole thing puckers and if I pull it flat the stitches will disappear. It all makes me very unhappy. I could possibly block it out but we're talking 2-3 hours of knitting versus hating the sweater for the remainder of it's life. So... out it comes.
I did learn one other interesting thing though...from the land of desparate computer geek knitters come innovative stitch holders. I'm using cable ties...I finished the parts I that needed to go on holders while at work Tuesday I wanted to move on but had no yarn needle and no stich holders...I did have a handfull of tiny cable ties. THey're light, they lock. The seem to work pretty well... see the photo below

Secret Santa Day!

It just occurred to me that today is the 10th. That means at some point today I'll get an email telling me who I'm buying a gift for, and someone will get my name, and a link to my blog. (Hello, whovever you are!) I don't quite understand why but for some reason the thinkblank secret Santa has been the highlight of my holiday season for the past few years. I think it is that my blind faith in the goodness of people always manages to pay off. Not to mention I get to poke around a total stranger's Amazon highlight and try and guess which of the listed items would make them happiest. It's my favorite day of the year, or pretty close anyhow.

I made more progress on mom's cardigan last night... I'm in the round on the body, and done with the first band of colorwork. I'm into the fast part of just knitting solid navy til i get to joining the yoke. Pictures tonight hopefully.

Pictures...as promised

I'm only sticking the one picture in inline.. the others are only for knitting geeks or those who really like to humor me.


progress on the christmas sweater

Picture 1 of the steek experiment

Picture 2 of the steek experiment

Picture 3 of the steek experiment

I recomend the pracitce steek for anybody who's afraid of them.. after all what do you have to lose a partial bit of a ball of leftover yarn, and the time it takes to knit a little tube.. it doesn't even have to be color work. The photos show the curling of the stockinette pretty bad... the one right side photo (#1 I think) is under a book so that it will mostly lay flat.

It's been a big knitting few days around here. I decided I'd knit my mom a sweater for Christmas...But not really deliver until her birthday in April. Mind you I've never knit anything bigger than a hat. She picked one on the Sunday after thanksgiving, it didn't look too hard except for the use of several techniques I'd never tried.... When she said "Do you know how to do this?" So being a rip the bandaid off or jump in the deep end of the cold pool sort of person, it didn't deter me in planning a Christmas gift that I would need to learn new things that many people wait years to try. I answered sure...and if not I know the instructions are on the internet I'll be fine.

That said.. Monday I bought the yarn and cast. In a bit over a day I knit my first sweater sleeve, complete with color work...and started the next one. But the whole time I had been filled with terror about steeking the front of the sweater...aka taking that nice pullover you just finished and cutting the front with scissors! For an explanation of this terror see knits article. The pattern I'm using is knit in the round and has you purl two stitches at the front center all the way up...So you never lose track of where the center is, and you know how/where to cut it.

A bit reckless you say? Well yes..However I'm also sort of a plan for the worst hope for the best type... and rather than ruin a sweater I'd just pushed for weeks to finish in time for Christmas(note I'd already forgone the idea of taking until April to finish) I went and knit a little tube out of a scrap of leftover lopi from some old project... 24 stitches or so.. (K22p2 in the round for those who care) and about that many tall.... Basically it looked like a wrist band. I purled two of the stitches (because that's what I'm supposed to do on the sweater and I took it to the sewing machine and did what the pictures looked like I should... and low and behold!!! I had sewn four little lines of stitching in two rows of purling.

Then I took the scissors to it... and it stayed knitted.

So... now that's one less terror. If you're scared of steeking may I recommend the make a little thing and try it method....after all it took maybe half an hour to knit the tube. And it isn't your precious sweater you might mess up. I would knit a tube much larger in diameter than the one I used though, especially if you aren't really comfortable with your sewing machine... and try high contrast sewing machine thread so it's easy to see what you did....so long as you're just screwing around. It wasn't half as scary as I thought it would be...but then again it was half an hour's worth of knitting not a sweater I was about to ruin. I'll now push forward once again rendered fearless through experimentation

Pictures of all of this to follow eventually.