Lots of Little Pieces
Just a visual update on Cafe Au Lait and my Cedar Glen Mitts. I think both will be done in a couple of days.
(ravelry, kollabora, flickr, instagram)
I can’t believe I’m this close to finishing Cafe. My concentration was shot. I screwed up on the cables four different times, having to rip back sections each time. Prepare for an image of sheer evil.
Now, multiply it by four. See? At least the lace and use of larger needles made this project grow more quickly than fingering weight projects usually grow. Fingering weight yarn and me have a love/hate relationship. It’s more readily found by hand dyers and can sometimes knit a project with only one skein, which I love. I think that’s why so many knitters make socks and shawls. But it also takes foooorever to knit a sweater up in fingering, which I hate. Another reason knitters love those socks and shawls. BUT, it makes it up to me by drying overnight. So, I can love it again. While my pieces of Cafe au Lait were blocked and drying (I have got to get real blocking pins!), I the lace panels for Cedar Glen Mitts.
My gauge is way off, so I’m reducing the amount of seed stitch stitches that I pick up from the side of the lace portion. I deserve a quickie accessory after back to back lace sweaters, right?
Edit: I’ve now begun seaming Cafe, after putting it off for two days. What a wimp. It’s not that bad, really. I mean you have obvious cables and lace sections to match up as you seam. Seaming is usually more mysterious than this.
It turned cold again here and I realized I have all of these great tights and no skirts suitable for cold weather. So, I’ll probably start New Girl after these are done.
How are your late Winter/early Spring projects coming along? Do, tell.
ouch! did you actually manage to fix that? I usually have to unravel everything, because i get too lost.
Despite the pain, you must've felt like a pro when you got those sections fixed! So impressed, and super pleased to hear the seaming isn't as bad as you'd assume (I'll be honest, I'm terrified of that step). I'm nearly at the sleeve divide for the first front panel, so I'm way behind you now. I'm also encouraged though, because yours is looking fantastic! Can't wait to see it finished. 🙂
What a lovely sweater for Spring (if it ever gets here)…
I gave a little shudder when I saw that picture…I can't believe you managed to fix it four times – props to you!
That cardigan is really beautiful. I usually avoid seaming but I'm sure it's one of those things that sound more terrible than they really are.
Oh my goodness, all that ripping back on cables!?!? I can rip back 4, maybe 5 rows MAX when it comes to cables. How in the hell do you do that? I would have cried my eyes out and buried my sorrows in a bottle of wine. You have my undying admiration for this. I totally agree with you about fingering weight yarn. I much prefer to knit sweaters in a worsted or DK weight. Unfortunately, the mass majority of the vintage sweaters that I want to knit are with fingering weight. So frustrating!! Great job!
She Knits in Pearls
I seem to constantly do stuff like this. So, I make up for my lack of focus, over all, with these intense fixing sessions! If I un-knit a section bordered by garter stitches, or something easily recognized, I can just use dpns to work that little section back and forth until it's back to the top. I did make a mistake that made one cable a bit shorter and one a bit longer, but it's unnoticeable. If my scattered mind can do this- anyone can.
The seaming took an episode or two of Gilmore Girls. It wasn't bad because it's so easy to match the sides up evenly. I did tug a bit too much on a sleeve, moving the sleeves back and forth along the seaming yarn, and it frayed the yarn, making the sleeve pieces come apart. Who knew?! So I redid that section. I think steam pressing the tops of the sleeves will give it a smoother fit, too. Can't wait to see yours, Heather! You got me to do this, you know.
Thanks! It wasn't that bad, Melanie. And it was definitely worth it!
I do think it's necessary for this type of cardigan. And since the two pieces have cable and lace sections that are easy to match up, it's pretty easy.
Oh, man! I bet those vintage patterns require a lot of seaming, too! I made one vintagey sweater, Sothern, and those gathered shoulder caps just about killed me.
When I screw up cables or anything, I just un-knit a section around it that's bordered with something easy to see, like garter sts. I count down the undone strands, go back in my pattern that many rows, then work them back and forth with smaller dpns. But you may not have been that literal when you asked, "How can you do that?!" In a less literal sense, I just suck it up and do it. But i do warn my family. They actually know what ripped back knitting looks like and avoid talking to me when they see it. 🙂
It still sounds very hard, but I guess using a bordering would help. I'll keep that in mind for my next mistakes 😉
I messed up a section of the lattice in my Beatnik (on the front!!) and didn't notice until I was like 6 inches on. At that point I just shrugged and got on with it. It took so long for me to notice that I doubt that anyone else would. That project has been going since SSKAL and still only has half of one sleeve. I'm hoping to be done with it by next sweater season.
A fingering weight sweater is not something I can ever see making myself. I take a size 2x or 3x depending on the designer and desired ease. The last time I made myself a worsted weight sweater there were over 300 stitches around the yoke. I'd hate to think of how many there would be in fingering. I'm also not a monogamous knitter which makes such feats challenging.
Normally I'd agree with you, but I'm also knitting this one and it's more at a worsted weight gauge, since you knit with such large needles for an airy sweater. Still a lot of stitches, but not as much as it would be if you knit it at a tighter gauge. I REALLY don't think I'd ever finish a fingering weight sweater otherwise! lol