think pink

I received an enquiry from the marvellously named Mazel Tough Cocktail about the knit-along details for In the Pink. Click here!

december reading

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris - sex, vampires, sex with vampires. Sadly, this is the most recently published 'Sookie bookie' so I'm joining the legions waiting for the next installment.

Sweater Quest: my year of knitting dangerously by Adrienne Martini - I picked this up on impulse from the library's 'just passing through' shelf (books borrowed from other branches and returned to my library). Well, how could I not pick up a book about knitting, and knitting dangerously at that. This was a great book, I loved it. I really related to the author who records her year-long quest to knit a very complicated Alice Starmore design called Mary Tudor, an absolute feat of stranded colourwork. And why does she do this? Just to test and prove that she can - the ultimate in process knitting

Speaking of process knits, here is the latest incarnation of my In the Pink:

I've doubled my progress, just in the reverse direction. My dissatisfaction with this shawl, which had been slowly growing, took over when I completed two of the 105 edging repeats and realised, 'no, this is not going to happen'. The dissatisfaction was really discomfort with my uncertainty about the stitch counts.

To digress a moment - this is a fabulous design. It's gorgeous, the construction is fascinating and the pattern is generously made freely available by the designer. I think that if made precisely as written, it would be very satisfying.

Still digressing: the issue I sometimes find with independently published patterns is that there is not necessarily any standardisation of the instructions or terminology or explanations. I think that this written pattern (there are no charts) is very much an expression of the designer's thought patterns and as such is somewhat idiosyncratic.

So back to my discomfort - the problem was that in the instructions for the centre swirl there are directions for doing a larger size by adding eight more rounds of knitting. I am tall and broad shouldered and took this option. There are, however, no further instructions in the pattern for the larger size; the knitter is required to figure out the numbers for the side wings and border and edging. Ok, that's not such a big deal except that this requirement is not made explicit at any point in the pattern and I wouldn't have realised that I needed to do various extra rows had I not read a knitalong forum on Ravelry. It's possible that had I thought about it enough (and when you understand the construction it does become clear) or sketched it out that I would have realised but by the time I was deep into it, i didn't really care to.

Anyway, the absence of any stitch counts for the larger variation left me a bit in the dark and uncertain that I was getting it right. And getting it right is important to me. Yes, I could have fudged it but that is not how I knit and once that uncertainty had crept into this project, it was, alas, doomed. And after I had figured out the construction by doing, I decided that I didn't want a frilly pink shawl anyway.

Flatliner
Pattern: In the Pink by IzzyKnits
Size: I tried for the larger size.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn in colourway 'Manzanita'.
Needles: 3.5mm.
Stash/recycle content: I had two skeins of this in the cupboard. I then had to buy two more skeins in order to have enough yarn for the edging. Unfortunately, the two extra skeins were a different dyelot and really didn't match - also part of my decision to frog this project.
Start to finish: 1 March to 21 December 2010 in fits and starts: centre swirl, 1 March to 11 March; left side, 17 to 18 July with extra rows 5 to 6 December; right side, 3 to 5 December.

Verdict: This is a fabulous design and a pattern for experienced knitters who can independently figure out any variations.

spot the difference

Remember those 'activities' from childhood? I always found that the differences were too glaringly obvious or so subtle that I was too impatient to actually search them out.

Anyway, observe:

The offending detail in the left-hand photo (reproduced from the previous post) is that there is a mistake, mostly concealed by the roll of the shawl's edge. It can just be seen on the far left of the fill-in triangle - the pattern in the last few rows doesn't line up.

The difference in the right-hand photo is that this mistake has been fixed and all of the rows now line up nicely. This entailed major shawl surgery because I just couldn't bear to undo it all. I actually just dropped back some 30 stitches for the offending section and re-knit it. Then there were a couple of full rows to deal with which had been knit subsequent to the top photo. The whole process took me the whole day. Absolutely worth it, otherwise I'd be looking at that mistake for the rest of my life.

ahead of myself

Ok, I have gotten a bit ahead of myself. In the order of things, I'm up to showing how I grafted the live stitches of one segment of the left arm to one segment of the central swirl (the bit that was hidden by that bamboo needle last time). Fact is though, I have done that grafting, and the next grafting. I have rejoined the yarn to the corner of the right arm and knit the first fill-in triangle, and the second, and am now up to the four row border before embarking upon the edging.

It's hard to tell because it's all squashed up on a circular needle but here are some details:

The photo on the left shows (with a yellow arrow) where we left off, where the border continues from the left arm across the top of the swirl. One segment of the left arm (on the left) is then grafted to one segment of the swirl (on the right).

The photo on the right shows the next bit of grafting; once you have attached the border across the top of the swirl you then graft those stitches to the live border stitches on the right arm and graft one segment of the swirl to one segment of the right arm. It's not quite a straight line so I have shown the three points with green dots. I did make a mistake (which I conveniently covered with that uppermost green dot) - the first three stitches should, of course, be grafted as garter stitch and the rest as stocking stitch. I grafted them all as stocking stitch - oh well.

The photo on the left here shows the fill-in triangle bewteen one segment of the right arm and one segment of the swirl. The photo on the right shows the fill-in triangle between the swirl and the left arm in a bit more context. Directly above the triangle is the line of grafting shown in the photo on the above left.

I am not sure if any of this is useful to readers or potential In the Pink knitters. This really may be one of those projects where you figure it out by doing. There is actually an excellent photo on the Ravelry page for the In the Pink pattern that shows all of the steps for joining, albeit on a finished shawl.

the next step

Well, that didn't take long. After doing some research (on Ravelry naturally) and getting my head around the construction, I was actually really keen to give this a go. What you can see here is the tip of the shawl's left arm (as shown here) where it joins up with the central swirl.

The two join at the point of that conveniently placed bamboo double-pointed needle which is actually disguising the fact that I got carried away and also did the grafting. So yes, at that point you continue to knit those eight stitches and join them every other row to one of the live stitches from the swirl, in the same manner that you would attach a knitted-on edging. Just the same as the knitted-on edging on the knitted veil. Lucky I got all that practice in there.

And lest it seem that all this In the Pink knitting is just a way of avoiding the knitted veil - not so! The knitted veil is done, finished, complete and there has not been the dreaded anti-climax at the end of a major project but rather a feeling of complete and utter triumph. Having said which, I don't feel quite ready to write anything about it so I'm knitting instead.

putting it together

Action shot! Shawl construction in progress.

I wet blocked my three pieces of the In the Pink shawl, just by soaking them for a bit, pressing out the moisture and then laying them flat to dry (usually for lace I would do vigorous pinning but this was just to flatten them out a bit and make them easier to work with). What you see above, besides being a photograph taken under the brightest light in the house at four in the afternoon without a flash, is the left arm and central swirl in roughly the position in which they will be joined.

Just to note, the arm is a crescent-shaped piece, knit from the centre of the straight edge. All of the stitches on the curved edge are currently being kept live on a piece of blue waste yarn. Along the right-hand half of the edge is an eight stitch-wide border. All of the stitches around the swirl are also live and on waste yarn.

Now here is how the arm and the swirl are going to be joined - those eight edge stitches will continue to be knit back and forth and will attach (every other row) to the live stitches along one of the swirl segments, in much the same fashion as a knitted-on edging would.

What will this look like? Umm, I'll show you when I've actually done it.

puzzle pieces

That mesmerising central swirl and the unique construction were what particularly grabbed me about In the Pink. Still off on my knitting tangent, I completed the second arm/crescent/wing, whatever you like to call it. I also had a look on Ravelry at a knit-along discussion of the joining process and it appears to be as complicated as I had feared! Very good reason to put this aside again.

Pictured here are the two arms and the central swirl, laid out in the formation in which they will be joined together. The pieces have not yet been blocked so are all a bit rumpled but I think that it is going to be wonderful (one day).

diversions

I am easily distracted. While I can sit and knit on something for literally hours on end, if I am not in the right state of mind then any other possible knitting project will grab me and sweep me away. Preferably a new project.

Ways of working fascinate me, particularly my own (forgive the egocentricity but it is my own that I have to deal with most often and get to observe most closely). I often feel as though I am getting nowhere with my projects because I have so many on the go at once. I do a little here, a little there and make no discernible progress, which is both disappointing and frustrating. These past few months I have made the knitted veil my priority and it is going really well. I have completed 71 of the 100 edge repeats and by my (somewhat arbitrary) calculations, I am about 90 per cent of the way there. This is thrilling and I am so excited that completion is in sight. Perhaps it is success nerves that have made me cast on two other lace projects over the past few days?

Admittedly, working on the veil edging is demanding. It's fine gauge, follow the chart, concentrated effort. I do need something else to knit in my down time and besides it's getting cold here and people need hats (more on that next time). But sometimes I just need to knit something different and sometimes there is a project that has grabbed my attention and I have chosen or even bought yarn* for it and really, I just can't wait. That's what this is - the Tibetan Clouds Beaded Stole by Sivia Harding, available for free (but I'm not going to use beads on mine). I have knit the first 17 rounds, you know, just to see what the yarn looks like knitted up, just to get a feel for it. And I think that I'm satisfied for now. It's back to the veil for 29 more repeats.

* Malabrigo Sock in colourway Persia - my first time using Malabrigo and it is lovely.

(The second project is the other arm of the In the Pink Stole.)

sucked in

As soon as I saw this shawl - In the Pink by IzzyKnits - I knew that I had to cast on for it straight away. I love the construction - not a triangle, not a rectangle but this wonderful arcing curving shape. However, I did realise that I was in no position to knit it right now so I decided to just allow myself a portion of it, that wonderful central spiral.

And yes, it's as wonderful as I thought it would be.

Vital Statistics
Pattern: In the Pink by IzzyKnits (available free!) - yes, the same one that I had a go at a couple of weeks ago with a different yarn.
Size: I knit only the central whirl and did the larger 62-row version.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (80 per cent wool, 20 per cent nylon) in colourway Manzanita. It's beautiful to work with and I love every shade of the subtle shifts in the colour (unlike some variegated yarns that I could mention).
Needles: 3.5mm which produced a lovely fabric. Probably looser than I would usually knit but that's a good thing because I often find things coming out too bulky.
Start to finish: 1 March 2010 to 11 March 2010. I tell you, it was mesmerising.
Stash/recycle content: Yes, this yarn came from stash! I have two skeins but that will unfortunately not be enough so I will have to buy more. Later.
Comments: Lovely to knit, lovely yarn to knit with, lovely colours - love love love.

Verdict: I am committed to getting at least one of my other lace pieces done (Faux Prussian Stole, Knitted Veil - I have not forgotten you) but this will be next.