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.

Recent Discoveries: The Ever Evolving Knitter

It seems like a long time ago that I started knitting, but in reality it's only been a year. I've learned a lot in that year, but it's only recently that I've decided to take a step back and improve on what I've learned. And lately, I've been doing a lot of improving, and a lot of discovering.

It's not that there haven't been discoveries in the last year. I mean, within the first two months of knitting I discovered that I really didn't like to knit in the English style. I had taught myself to do it from a book, but someone in a yarn shop suggested I try Continental. I naturally found speed and haven't turned back.

Probably the three biggest lessons I've learned in the last couple of months have to do with tension, gauge, and blocking.

Tension first came to mind in starting the Master Hand Knitter program from The Knitting Guild Association. I discovered that I had some pretty significant striping in my flat knitting, and vowed to find a solution for it. At first I resisted trying to knit differently, but have since realized that my purling needed some major changes. Although I thought the simple act of pulling my purls a little tighter would do it, I found that I needed to change my purling and attempt to use a combined method of purling. Now, instead of wrapping the yarn over my needle, I wrap it under. This creates a very tight purled stitch, but ends up with a twisted knit stitch on the other side. I have knit differently now because each stitch is twisted. It was tough the first couple of times I tried it, but I have gained speed, and my tension has greatly improved because of it. In the end, a worthwhile discovery and a very worthwhile change.

When it comes to purling, I've become a more flexible knitter because I now know a couple of ways to knit and a couple of ways to purl. I can go just as fast with either method, and can switch when it's necessary for whatever project I'm engaged with.

The second lesson I've learned is the vital importance of swatching for gauge. Despite the ample advice on nearly every pattern and nearly every knitting reference, I was under the misconception that I was somehow immune to gauge. I must have thought my needles and fingers were somehow endowed with a magical ability to attain gauge even without testing it. I found out the hard way that I was wrong, and ended up frogging a project I had put many hours into knitting. I had knitted the project with size nine needles, stopped, swatched on size 10.5, and discovered that even on a 10.5 I will still need to go up a size to complete this project.

Lesson learned? Yes. I'm a tight knitter who may actually need to go up several needle sizes to achieve the gauge in any given pattern. I've since put the cycling aran on hold, but have started an Elizabeth Zimmermann seamless hybrid sweater based on my own gauge with the yarn and needles I selected for the pattern. I know the gauge because I made it, and when I'm done perhaps I'll have gained the confidence to go back to the cycling aran. Before going back to it, I'll be doing another swatch to test my gauge on a size 11 needle (I'm pretty confident an 11 will do it, but I'm not going to risk it without first swatching).

The third recent lesson I've learned is the power of blocking. It's not that I haven't blocked before, it's that I had only been steam blocking and it wasn't getting the results I wanted. I've done plenty of samplers with plenty of yarns on plenty of needles in plenty of patterns. I had always been perplexed as to why I could never get these samplers to stay flat even though they are clearly flat in the pictures I see that come with the pattern directions. Recently (perhaps because my eyes are open to it), I've seen a lot of information on wet blocking. I finally tried it, and no more curling.

I've learned a lot of knitting in the 18 months or so since I began knitting, but these three lessons have been especially important for recent projects. I suspect that I would have eventually learned each of them in time, but believe that my work with the Master Hand Knitter program has pushed the lessons up. I've not had the advantage of knitting classes or a local guild or knitting mentor, so the Master Hand Knitter program has become my tutor. It's pushed me to be more critical of my knitting and to learn some important lessons. I think this is exactly what the program is meant to do, and I'm glad I'm learning these lessons now instead of later.

To Block or to Frog?

I think perhaps I've come against one of the great lessons in the life of a knitter. To block or to frog.

I've been very lucky up to this point when it comes to gauge. That is, without doing swatches, I've just gotten by and just gotten lucky with fit. But now I think I've encountered a piece where I have to let go of my gauge denial.

I began knitting this cycling aran for myself shortly before Christmas. I have to say that the cables turned out beautifully, and looking at it over the Internet with no reference of scale, one could easily assume the panel is knit to the correct dimensions. Unfortunately, it's not.

I've used the right yarn, but contrary to Elizabeth Zimmermann's advice, I trusted the gauge on the yarn package and not trusted my own gauge. I thought I'd squeak by, but I think I'm going to just have to accept that I'm in the wrong gauge.

It really comes down to three options.

One, keep knitting and stay in denial. Two, knit the opposite panel to gauge and see how big the difference is. If the difference is significant, I can frog this panel and knit it again. Three, stay only partially in denial and block this piece (potentially stretching the life out of it) to see if it wasn't a matter of gauge to begin with.

It's a dilemma that I'm ready to confront. I just have to decide on which option works for me. I know I don't want to go with option one. I'm done with snoozing on this project. I've really got to decide on option two or three. I'm going to think on it this weekend and commit to a decision by Sunday.

Fingerless Mitts

It was one of those days where I just needed to knit something quickly. I have a sweater on hold, I wanted to take a step back from the MHK program for a minute, and I wanted to be able to create something someone could use. Now.

I have had a bunch of Manos del Uruguay in my stash and have been looking at fingerless mitt patterns. They all look pretty easy, and I thought it would be fun to just zip some out before going home to Pittsburgh for my nephew's first birthday this weekend. I thought maybe my sister could use them (I would make them for myself, but my fingers are always cold... I would never use them).

I found a great pattern in Ravelry for some mitts that are knit flat. I did a gauge swatch and decided to go up a needle size from the one suggested in the pattern. The patterns calls for a M1 increase, but doesn't really clarify which M1 to use. I opted for an M1 using strand between the stitches. I think because they're mitts I would use a bar increase for future sets of these mitts so the increases would add some texture and be a bit less loose.

At the time of writing this, I've finished one mitt and will be casting on the second mitt today. I'll have time to finish them before I see my sister in Pittsburgh. The first one only took about 2.5 hours to knit, so I have plenty of time to bang out another one.

Hmmmm. It's good to feel productive. I'm hoping she likes them. Even if she doesn't, I'm sure she'll be kind and pretend.

Setting the Tone and the Tension: Dealing with a Knitting Affliction

Because I'm always trying to learn new things, and learn them at a level beyond superficial, I decided to join The Knitting Guild Association's Master Hand Knitters Program. I received the curriculum earlier this month, and have spent some time reading through the Level 1 requirements. I made a trip to a local yarn shop and selected yarns for the various swatches and final knitting project (a hat) that I'll have to complete and submit to the committee. All in all, I was very excited about the program.

There seem to be several schools of thought around why someone would want to go through the Master Hand Knitters Program. The predominant thought by those who are in the program or have completed it seems to be that we're doing it because we want to knit and we want to become better at knitting. By going through the process, a knitter has to do research on various stitches, report out on observations made about his own swatches, and eventually submit all of these for review. Apparently it's common for at least a few revisions to be requested by the committee before final approval.

Another school of thought seems to be from those who have chosen not to go through the program. That sentiment seems to be that knitting is enjoyable, but putting criteria and judgment on one's knitting takes the enjoyment out of it. I see their point.

When I sat down to do my first swatches for the MHK program, I zipped through a couple just to see how they would turn out. I actually did two in the same knight and thought about doing one more. Before I moved forward though, I set the swatches down and looked at them closely the next day. To me, something was wrong.

I went online to the TKGA website and found an article about tension. Upon reading the article my ego was immediately deflated. I had tension problems. For a second a wave swept over me as if I had just been diagnosed with an illness over which I had no control. The enjoyment left. The people who told me knitting wouldn't be fun anymore were right! All that money spent on yarn and needles. All that time spent learning to knit. I was done. My knitting life had ended, killed off by the fatal tension problem.

Then I decided to get over myself. I had to take another step back. I realized the problem I was having with tension had to do with what's known as striping. As a continental knitter I'm apparently prone to striping. The symptoms of this affliction appear in stockinette stitch when knitting flat pieces. The tension of the purl stitches is weaker than the tension of knit stitches thus making the V's on the right side of the work appear larger and smaller in alternate rows (see image above).

Several sources actually give different treatment options for poor tension. One solution is Norwegian Purl. Another is combined knitting. Without getting into the gory details of these methods, they'd either mean I'd have to perform manual backflips or re-teach myself to purl English-style. I have to say I was one of those stubborn patients who rejected both ideas. I really liked the way I purled, and I was in no condition to change (not with all the striping!).

I finally read an article that said, "Sometimes just an awareness of loose purling leads the knitter to improving tension on the purl side." No backflips?! Sold.

I went back to my swatches. I got out a needle one size smaller than what I had knit with before, and resigned myself to tightening up my purls. On my first row of purls I made sure to give an extra tug to each of my purl stitches. I could actually feel each stitch locking into place and holding fast to the stitches below it. I continued for the next ten rows making sure I felt the lock of each purl stitch and set my work down flat to examine it. No striping. The purl side looked tight. The knit side looked even. I was cured.

Looking back on this experience, I realize that this is exactly what I signed up for. I wanted to learn to be a better knitter. As a learner it's healthy to be humbled by not knowing everything. It's good to feel defeated once in a while because sometimes falling down provides the kick in the rear we need to let go of our egos and get down to business.

Joining the MHK program is definitely a personal choice. For those knitters out there who have no desire to be held up to someone else's criteria, I applaud you. But for me, I like being given a set of problems that I have to research, and I like having to use trial and error to get myself to a higher level of whatever it is I'm doing. I also like accessing learning communities like Ravelry, the forum at KnittingHelp, and the TKGA forum. I don't have the luxury of a local knitting guild with experienced knitters to lead me into knitted enlightenment, so the online knitting community is my surrogate guild.

As I look forward into my MHK future, I know I'll encounter more problems. I'll probably even get frustrated and think about throwing in the towel, but I'm confident I'll eventually take a step back and see it as a problem which needs to be researched and another step in the learning process.