Sunday 9 January 2022

Getting it right

On my new quest to get knitting right, without the mistakes I ignore and put down to my excessive creativity, I have continued to be a serial unpicker. I loved knitting this hat in 4ply leftovers which now has no mistakes. The crown was not working out well with the decreases not matching up with the colourwork but I got there in the end. I feel better for knowing it is right.


but oh the ends... once it was complete, I popped it in my present box for next Christmas. I enjoyed working this pattern and hope to make some more.


After the hat, just before Christmas, I had a run of bad knitting luck. I started my new Avena sweater by Jennifer Steingass but my yarn choices were not a good match. I ordered a chestnut brown for the main body and a ball of king Cole riot to use as a graduated colour section. There were several problems, none of which stopped a capricorn like me from knitting on, the coloured yarn was too hairy and kept dragging on the brown working yarn making the twists for colourwork impossibly hard. I ploughed on. The next problem was that the coloured yarn was a much thinner DK gauge than the Drops Lima producing a very pixelated patterned section. 


It was when I stopped loving the yarn that the mistakes crept in. I knew a few rows were not right and I thought I could fudge the stitch count back to the correct number and use a crochet hook to turn any stitches from brown to the colour as I spotted them. But alas it was not working. It then felt an incredible waste of yarn and time not to make this beautiful jumper properly so I frogged the whole yoke which, by now, was only 4 rows from completion.


I ordered what I think will be a better colourway yarn and this time I will do a test square to check first. Because I knit every evening, I wanted to start a little filler knit while I waited for my new yarn to arrive. Step in this little baby waistcoat but even this was not without its woes. I knit two thirds of the back from a hand rolled ball of dark green yarn from the knitting basket, started a brand new ball of stylecraft to continue and found that the first bit I had used was not the same!!!!! It must have been a spare bit from one of the girls crochet bags that had been picked up off the floor and dropped in the nasket for hoovering purposes.

Frogged it. Swore a bit. Emptied the dishwasher. Went to bed.


Annnnyyway, this is the completed waistcoat which is for a friend of a friend who has paid me to knit it for her little boy. 


I dare not cast on my new Avena until I have a few successful makes under my belt so presently I am knitting another sheep hat because they give me such joy. Friends always offer to buy them from me when they see Andy wearing his so I thought I would get one on the needles. It is not profitable but it pays for my yarn or sometimes my yarn buying mistakes!


Are you knitting at the moment?

Jo xxxxx

11 comments:

  1. Hi! I just found your blog and I sympathize 100%. I also started a Jennifer Steingass pattern (Forsythia) and pulled it all out after 1/2 the yoke was done. The colors were just not right. I ordered more yarn for the body and started over. I too find that if I knit something I am not in love with I make more mistakes. More power to us serial unpickers!

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  2. I do hate it when my knitting gets like that and I just want to shove it in a drawer for a while. Hoping it will be knitting heaven from now on for you.
    I have started both a knitting and crochet project so far this year, a blanket and a jumper. The pattern for the jumper is not difficult but with a cable needle I need to concentrate. The blanket is a temperature one, so wish me luck for the year. Let's hope it makes it to the end of 2022!!

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    1. I have seen a lot of temperature blankets and they always look so great. x

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  3. The sheep hats are indeed absolutely brilliant, I can see why friends want them. Knitting errors drive me insane, particularly in the evening by which time I have zero patience. I only ever knit scarves and blankets these days. Give me an acre of stocking stitch and I am happy as a clam. Current knit is Churchmouse Yarns' Bias 'Before and After' scarf. So easy! I also love the Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf - also easy. Are you sensing a theme..? The baby waistcoat is absolutely brilliant. CJ xx

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    1. I will check those out. Sometimes I just want to knit simply too. x

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  4. Not knitting at the moment, but crocheting. A long, oversize cardigan for my second youngest, and a jumper for her twin for their birthday in March. I also have a jumper I started knitting for myself this past winter which I have had to undo multiple times to correct my mistakes so I can sympathies with you having to frog your projects.

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  5. I'm hacking a knitting pattern from a magazine issued in 2005. I already hacked this pattern to make a jumper, using yarn that was sold at a bargain price on a market stall without the labels, which had somehow been lost, and was so pleased with it that I looked for similar yarn that knitted to the same tension and am hacking the same pattern to make a jacket. Back done, two sleeves done- so far so good- but I have just realised that I have not allowed sufficent number of stitches for the first of the fronts. Luckily I have only done 10 rows and it is being frogged as soon as I finish typing. Best of Knitting Luck for 2022.

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  6. You are all over that Barbara. Sounds like you know what you are doing. x

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  7. The hats are fab! I made a pot holder from a free Garnstudio pattern similar to the sheepy one. Is the Fair Isle one your own design?

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