Matching Up: Using an Old Pattern (and modifying it)

My roommate recently showed me knitted slippers his mother used to make for him. He spoke of them fondly, but said that all the ones she had made were becoming too fragile to wear. Since she's no longer alive, asking her to knit up another pair wasn't an option.

The pattern didn't appear to be complicated by looking at the slippers. But because they had been washed and worn so much (they were acrylic), it was difficult to see where the pattern began and where it ended. It looked like there may have been sewn up seams, but maybe not. I put the deconstruction and reconstruction on the back shelf of my mind and saved it for a day when I was up for a new challenge.

Recently I was looking through some of his mother's old knitting materials and found a Learn to Knit pamphlet. The publication date was 1963 and it was filled with pictures of how to create basic knit and purl stitches, casting on, binding off, etc. In the back there were several patterns pictured. One of them was his mother's slippers!

It took me a while to find gauge as the yarn in the pattern is no longer produced, and I couldn't find any information on it online. In his mother's example, I was able to determine that it looked like she knitted with two strands of worsted yarn. The pattern asked for a size 11 needle with 3st / in, 6 row/ in in garter stitch for gauge. It got gauge right away and started knitting.

Before long, I realized the pattern was written for a very small foot. In fact, it was written for a toddler's slipper. There was a huge difference in size between my finished slipper and the slippers his mother had knitted for him and his father. The pattern didn't indicate a size for the slipper, but I started to think that the pattern was dated right around when my roommate was born. What probably happened was that his mother knitted the slippers for a small child, and then added stitches a few at a time as he grew.

Using my gauge and measuring his mother's original, I figured out how many stitches needed to be knit across the bottom of the foot and started to knit.

I've just started, so there aren't any results so far, but when he saw what I was doing, he said, "That's exactly what they used to look like when she was working on them!" I think I'm on the right track, but the verdict is still out.

Wish me luck!

Curing Boredom: Back to an Old Friend

In my last post, I discussed how my current project had been becoming a bit too monotonous and I was looking for a challenge. This desire to knit something a bit more challenging has brought me back to an old friend, the cycling aran I ended up frogging back in January.

I had begun that project on US 9 needles, and it was turning out very stiff and much too small for me. Since then, I did an official gauge test. I did a small swatch on US 9 to find I was way off in gauge. I jumped up to a US 10.5 to find I was getting closer, but still off by 2 stitches over my four inches. When I didn't find gauge that time I decided I needed to put my friend the cycling aran to bed for a while. He laid in hibernation until last night.

Last night I took the time to swatch it out and got gauge (dead on gauge) with a US 11. Just to be sure, I blocked it (wet) and checked it this morning. Before I left for work this morning I casted on my 31 stitches and began the ribbing on the front left chest panel. I'll probably get to some cabling tonight, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I realize I'm starting a very cozy, cold-weather sweater right as spring is about to begin, but I needed the challenge and can look forward to wearing it this fall.

Lessons learned? First, I learned the lesson of gauge (again, and again, and again). Second, I learned that sometimes putting something away and then coming back to it later is something you just have to do in order to get your mind clear and feel like you're making a fresh start.

Can't Wait for the Challenge!

I have to say that I am not doing such a bad on my seamless hybrid sweater from Knitting Without Tears. I'm working on it sporadically so I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed by it, but I'm definitely happy with what I've produced so far. I'm just hungry for a challenge.

I'll say that, to date, this is the most time-intensive project I've decided to work on. I've done more complicated projects with color work, but this project is an adult-sized sweater and it's been a challenge for me to just knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit...

As excited to begin this sweater as I was, I'm very eager to get to the part where I attach the two sleeves and the body and get to my decreases for the yoke. Time, however, is moving very slowly. I'm only about 2/3 done with the first sleeve and perhaps about that far with knitting the body. In the back of my mind I keep thinking, "you've heard of second sock syndrome, are you going to come down with second sleeve syndrome?"

In more complicated projects in the past, the love of the project came from the knitting, but also the challenge of cabling, switching colors, shaping, or seaming. In this project, I'm going to have no seaming (I can live without seaming!) and I chose not to incorporate anything in the way of cabling or colors because I wanted it to be a fast knit. What's happened is it's become a very slow knit because it's been sort of boring lately. The start of the sleeve was great (shaping every fifth row), but now it's just straight knitting from here on up. I actually think more complicated pieces have taken me less time.

I've decided to adopt a Harry Potter Book 7 philosophy. I don't know if you're a Harry Potter fan, but in Book 7 there are several chapters in the middle where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in a tent in the woods. They are long, slow chapters. I felt like it took forever for me to read them. But in the end, the book as a whole ended up great. As a reader, I "earned" the ending of that book.

With this sweater, I need to adopt that philosophy. I need to remember that although there are parts of the sweater that are long and slow, the end product is the final reward for making it through the lull. I can't wait for the challenge of attaching the sleeves, knitting the yoke and creating the neck, but I've got to be patient or else the end won't have felt so well-earned.

So for now it'll be knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit. When I get bored, I'll start the other sleeve (increases) or do a small, complex project. In the end, I'll have earned the exciting finish.