Pictures and Progress

I realized I could post photos of my knitting, so here you go. This fine photo above is the yarn, in its store-bought form, sitting on the community table at A Stitchers Haven. This photo is most like the actual color. I originally bought two skeins and put the rest on a bag with the name of my firstborn that is being kept at the store until I return to retrieve more. These three skeins are the first of my reinforcements. 

This is the sweater in progress. I hadn't taken any yet, and thought you all might want to see what all the excitement is about. I'm LOVING how this is turning out. I don't feel the cables are too cramped, and the seed stitch side panels add an additional texture without making the design too busy. 

Durrow Cardigan Updates

Update:

I frogged and re-knitted a skein adding the ribbing-to-cable twists. I then considered changing the ribbing so that it naturally matched up with the cables (k3, p2, k2, p2, k2, p3, k2, p4, k2, p1...). I decided that I wanted to keep the ribbing consistent so the ribbing on the sleeves and the ribbing on the collar don't look all crazy. 

I then decided that since I'm cutting it really close on yarn, perhaps it would be best to knit it from the top down. I knitted a 5" collar, including an additional 8 sts on each side worked in seed stitch to make the facing and button holes I got all the way down to where I was working short rows to make the front neck lower than the back neck when I realized that I've never in life worked anything from the top down, and I've never made raglan sleeves. 

I don't want to get half way through a project before deciding that it isn't working. I get serious second sock syndrome, so if that happened, I'd put it down, and never pick it up again. I decided this project is one that I really care about. I WANT to finish this cardigan.

I frogged everything. 

I've now knitted up a skein, starting from the bottom. I did learn a few things, so its not like my experimenting went to waste, and it turns out that cashmerino aran holds up amazingly well to being frogged repeatedly. 

Things I've Learned:

1. I need to surround my pattern with two purl stitches, not just one.
2. Since I'm knitting the facing along with the pattern, I only need to begin the pattern by knitting 2, not 3. 
3. My changing the two above things means I'm going to need to change my pattern to allow for more side panneling. Its easier to shape in seed stitch, than it is to shape in a cable. 

Things I'm still considering:

Raglan sleeves - I still think this is a good idea. I like the look and fit of raglan sleeves, I've just never tried them before. I have a while before I have to make my final decision, so I can do some research in between knitting. When I get to where the body parts for the sleeves, I can already have that much worked on the sleeves, so its ready to just keep going. 

Sleeve Cable - I've not decided which cable to use on the sleeve. I am thinking that since the body has the durrow cable, with the celtic knot cable as an accent, that maybe it would be nice to have the celtic knot cable on the sleeves. On the other hand, this IS called the Durrow Cardigan, so maybe that cable should be on the sleeves. However, if I am going to be making raglan sleeves, it would be easier to use the celtic knot cable since my decreases won't get near the cable, thus keeping them as uncomplicated as possible. Alas, reasearch I must do. 

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

So, my daughter slammed her finger in the door at school, which required a 5 hour ER visit. It turns out that she slammed the door hard enough to fracture her distal phalanx on her right index finger, and cut a gash through her fingernail. It quite literally took peeling back the fingernail, and adding 6 stitches to sew the end of her finger back on. She has to wear a brace for the next couple weeks to let the bone heal.

The worsed part was she did it at school, and when it happened, the teacher sent her to the office where they gave her a bandaid and sent her back to class to finish out the day! She outbled the bandaid and needed to stop for paper towels on the way back to class. They didn't even call to tell us she got hurt! We found out when she got home, turned green, and asked to go to the hospital. 

Stitching her finger together 4 hours later was the only thing that stopped the bleeding. How could a school send an 8-year-old child with a gaping, bleeding wound and a broken finger back to class to finish the day without even calling?

Someone is GOING to hear about this.

Barbara Walker's method for Increasing 2 sts

So, I tried Barbara Walker's method last night on the second to last row of the skein and it worked beautifully. I'll be able to better judge how it really turned out after I grab me another skein and work the cables that exacerbated the problem in the first row. 

Since I frogged a skein to add the appropriate twists to align itself with the pattern, I wanted to say a few things about how it turned out. In a nutshell, sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it.   

Why I love it: It is always nice when it looks like the cables grew out of the ribbing.

Why I hate it: Sometimes it grows out of the ribbing, turns right for a single stitch, then turns left for a cable, or worse, knits straight on and just looks akward; kinda like the knitted rib tripped over a stitch and didn't so gracefully recover.

Why I love it:  It adds a cool effect when two knit sections of rib split like a Y and a new knit grows out of the dead center. It looks awesome, and makes me proud to be a geeky knitter. 

Why I hate it: It never fails that the above mentioned awesomeness is surrounded by the above mentioned 'fake right, go left' unawesomeness. 

This makes me wonder if I should have just formatted the ribbing to line right up with the pattern (why does ribbing have to be even anyway?), and left in the awesome parts while doing away with the unawesome parts. 

Hmm.... to frog, or not to frog?

Durrow Cardigan - How To...

After frogging, and refrogging, I finally decided to look up instructions on how to do those damned "make 2 (right side)" increases! I couldn't for the life of me get them right.  I can understand a little pulling, but not a gaping hole. It turns out it might have just been that the instructions were written inaccurately. 

I did find a link, however, that not only explains, but also includes the ever so precious collection of step-by-step pictures!

http://www.string-or-nothing.com/2005/02/18/ROGUEANDCENTRALDOUBLEINCREASE.aspx

I love the internet!

Durrow Cardigan - First Row Reworked Revised

I frogged the skein. I reworked the first row. There were mistakes, but I edited and fixed the post below, so they should be correct. Again, if you find they are not, please let me know! In the mean time, I'm going back to working row 2 even, then perhaps eating an ice cream cone as a reward for my good behavior.

Durrow Cardigan - First Row Reworking

Now that I'm a good dozen rows into the body, I took notice of how the ribbing did and/or did not align with the pattern and wondered if I should have added a few cables to better align them. When evaluating the work of others, this is always an added detail that I feel sets the good designers apart from the ones that didn't want to take the extra effort to polish their design. 

Looking at my pattern, it can be done, and perhaps it should be done. I think I just really don't want to frog an entire skein to change it on my sweater, but that doesn't mean I should avoid polishing my own design for future renditions. Who knows! I may get so desperate between now and when I pick up my next skein that I give in and fix it on my own work. 

I will use the same cables used in the durrow and double knot patterns, so the instructions and naming conventions will stay the same. 

Row 1: 

Right Front: 

K3, P5, k2, P1, twist 3 right, twist 4 right, P5, Twist 3 Right, twist 4 right, P1, twist 3 right, twist 4 right, P2, twist 3 left, P1, K2, P1, add stitch marker.

Work K1 P1 Seed Stitch for 11 stitches. 

Back: 

Continue Seed stitch for 12 sts, add stitch marker, 

P1, twist 3 right, twist 4 right, P2, K2, twist 4 right, P5, twist 3 right, twist 4 right, P2, twist, twist 3 right, K2, P1, twist 3 right, P7, K2, P2, twist 3 left, P1, K2, P2 tog, K2, P5, twist 3 right, K2, twist 3 left, P1, twist 4 left, twist 3 left, P5, twist 4 left, twist 3 left, P1, add stitch marker. Work Seed stitch for 12 sts.

Right Front:

Work K1 P1 Seed Stitch for 11 stitches. Add Stitch Marker.

P1, K2, P1, P4, twist 3 right,  K2, twist 3 left, P1, twist 4 left, twist 3 left, P5, twist 4 left, twist 3 left, P5, K2, P1, K3.

Keep in mind that these instructions are not tested, and may be flawed. If you find they are, please leave a comment or email me so that I may fix them. Like I said, I may yet frog the skein to test it myself, but I'd always rather have someone else double check my work.