Even though we're a spinning guild we have a lot of members who knit. It kind of goes with the territory. Either you're a knitter who decides you must make yarn or you're a spinner who concludes that you need a way to use up the vast stash of handspun that's accumulated. A KnitALong is a fine way for everyone (who wants to) to participate in a group effort that's fun, maybe educational in that you have a new stitch or two to learn, inspirational (in that we all make the same thing but all are different and hopefully wonderful), and it has the added benefit of providing material for a display at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival. This year the chosen item is the Noro Woven Stitch Shawl.
I've never used two colors in knitting before but grasp the concept that they should contrast while still looking nice together. Uh-huh. OK, head to the vast stash of sample skeins left from batches and batches of roving that is long gone. Find a bunch of colors that look like they would play well together and get started. The skeins are each small and my plan is to switch to a similar color whenever I run out of Color #1 or Color #2. I have various shades of red, purple, blue and they should work together.
KAL 1.0 - All is going along reasonably well until about the twentieth row when I realize the two yarns I'm using really don't contrast much at all. They look different in balls but knitted together they just kind of blur together. OK, it's early - rip it out and start over.
KAL 2.0 - Choose a much different color for Color #2 and start again. About twenty rows in come to the realization that the two colors hate each other. They don't just clash, there was spitting and hair pulling. Off the needles and rip it out. This is a learning experience, right?
KAL 3.0 - I decide to stop trying to make the reds and blues work together and go with a yellow/orange shade for Color #2 that looks nice but it seems thinner than Color #1. Grab another ball of an almost identical shade yellow/orange and make the brilliant decision to knit the two strands together as one. That lasts about ten rows until I can't ignore the fact that now Color #2 is way too bulky and it looks like crap. Rip it all out.
KAL 4.0 - Start again. Stick with the yellow/orange for Color #2 and see that it isn't really that much thinner than Color #1 and seems to be looking OK. Everything goes reasonably well although I have to look at the YouTube video of M1R and M1L each and every time I get to that stitch. Oh well, I'll remember it someday. In the meantime I'm making progress. Time to change colors again...... why are the strands on two different ends of the knitting?? Somewhere I read the pattern wrong and either skipped a row or purled two rows..... $*&%!!
KAL 5.0 - Start over. It can't be this hard. Concentrate. No distractions. Read each and every row and tick it off when done. (And still watch the videos over and over and over....)
The progress thus far.....
It's due in June and I *may* have it done by then. :-/
Have you heard of Ginny's Yarn Along? Knitting and reading are two pursuits that so many of us enjoy and linking up through her weekly post is a way we can share what we're currently doing, gain some inspiration and perhaps find the next project or title to look forward to. While this shawl is apparently pushing my brain cells to the max, I am enjoying listening to audio books while I work in the wool shop skirting and dyeing. I discovered I can download books from the library for free! Woot! Right now I'm on a Nicholas Sparks kick. As usual, I'm riding the backside of anything popular and he's written a bunch of books but I've only just found him. I finished The Longest Ride and am now deep into The Lucky One. The first one especially had some lovely moments, I'm not sure yet about the second one, but so far they are a satisfying accompaniment to work - popcorn for the mind, so to speak.
To join in with Ginny.....
I hope to have made progress by next week. FORWARD progress...... (mumble, mumble)
I like those colors together. Not familiar with the stitch, but I like how it's looking. I need to look into the library thing here.
ReplyDeleteVery good suggestion on the audio downloads from the library, I am always good for a while on returning things and then I'll forget a disc in the machine and end up finding it weeks later with a terrible fine! The shawl looks great. And I love the idea of a guild-wide KAL I am going to suggest it next week!
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad. I think I frog or at least tink every thing I knit at least three times:
ReplyDeleteOnce because the gauge swatch LIES
The second time because when I knit to gauge, I decide I hate the fabric - too loose or too tight
The third time because I decide the yarn and the pattern HATE each other
Oh, and then there's the fourth time:
I don't like the way it fits - a heck of a lot baggier/tighter than I envisioned (I have a cardigan done except for half of the sleeves that's fixin' to be frogged...)
I tapped the shawl name to peek at what it looked like and the pattern downloaded! (Was it supposed to do that?)
ReplyDeleteSorry! I did NOT know it would do that! I linked to the downloaded pattern I have and thought you'd just go there rather than it coming to you! Hope it wasn't a problem :-0
Delete