Friday, April 06, 2007

Off to a very enjoyable start

Here is my progress, as it sits this morning, not too far, but none-the-less, I'm fairly pleased. I'm finding this sweater relaxing and enjoyable to knit. Almost soothing I dare say! This is a very nice change from anything else that I've done lately. The quilt stressed me out a little. I don't like it when things don't turn out the way they looked in my head. The quilt I'm happy with now, but I had to borrow Harold's mom's sewing machine, because mine does not like thick fabrics, and it chooses to destroy them rather than sew....not relaxing...not in the least..
Oh, how I love this pattern!


I started out using my little stitch marker rings, but they're too thick, and the yarn has to wrap out around them and can't pull very tight, so it leaves a loose part, and I ended up with a hole on all my increase points. See the holes?I really DON'T like those holes, I considered ripping it out and starting again, but, it's only for the first 6 rows or so, plus, I'm supposed to be working on relaxing my craziness, and I think leaving the holes and letting them even out on their own is one of the first steps :-) Now I'm using plain old snippits of yarn tied in loops for my stitch markers, and it works just fine. That'll teach me to try and be fancy!Now there's my pretty nice, but hole inducing stitch markers.....you can't see the holes in this picture but they're there,...oh yes....they're there!
I'm using knit into the front and back of the stitch for all my increases, I wasn't sure if this was the right one to use for this, or if it would make things look all funny and unsymmetrical, but it's definitely my favourite increase, so, I'm trying it...if it looks really crappy, I WILL rip it all out.....but...hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm curious to know what other people use for increases like this. I know how to pair my decreases (kind of...but I usually do it the opposite way accidentally, so I get little feather looking things...does that make sense)...but not my increases I really always use this one...I find it so much easier than anything else. Any suggestions?

1 comment:

Tracy Batchelder said...

I always increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch unless the pattern specifies a different increase. It's what I did on this exact cardigan. Don't worry too much about the holes unless you can tell a big difference between where you used the plastic markers and the yarn markers. A little gap is normal. It is better to go with a more narrow marker though...using the yarn is perfect.

Yes, I haven't been spinning that long. The first yarn I made was very primitive looking. The next was a little better. And this is pretty good. It is far from perfect, but I like it. A lot of people start spinning on a spindle, because it is relatively inexpensive to get started on. If you search the Web, you will find helpful sites, even some with videos tutorials.