New to blog
It turns out, when you’re working on trying to finish 6 things at once, nothing really gets done. So here are a couple of projects that have been in the works for a while, but haven’t seen any blog time.
This is the start of a second Sock for Veronik, from the Interweave Knits Holiday issue. I received the first sock from Erin in a swap last fall, and I’m finally getting around to knitting the other one now. This is a photo from last week - I’ve turned the heel and I’m at the final foot stretch right now. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces in the Firefly colorway.
This is my first fully continentally-knit project. I’ve been meaning to switch to continental knitting because of it’s speed for a while now, but this swap has given me the motivation to finally do so. Erin knit the sock on size 1 needles, and my english-knitting gauge would have been way too tight for that needle size. Since my continental knitting is looser, I figured that I could get away with the size 1’s without swatching. So far, that’s working well.
I’m actually knitting this sock combined, which means that the purls are wrapped the opposite way. This is a much more (to me) fluid movement than normal continental purling, and it supposedly improves your tension. However, the combined knitting is causing me to have the most awful knitting tension, ever. I never had issues with rowing-out when I knit english-style, but the difference between my knit and purl rows were glaringly obvious when I worked the stockinette heel of this sock. It turns out that my combined purling technique brings forward so little yarn that the loops are much tighter than my continental knit stitches. I have to purl extremely loosely, while knitting very tightly, to get even tension. It’s actually pretty difficult for me to remember to purl that loosely when knitting mindless stockinette.
So! The plan is to do some major swatching with regular old continental purling and see how that works out.
This was supposed to be a Christmas gift for Rob’s dad. Cancelling our trip gave me such a relief for this one - there was no way that it would have been done in time. Rob’s family has a house in a rural area, and everyone dons hunter’s orange when the hunters are a hunting. I’ve been meaning to knit Rob’s dad an orange, reindeer hat for a couple of years, and the second I saw Norah Gaughan’s Intricate Stag Bag pattern, I knew I wanted to hat-ify it.
I was on the prowl for the perfect searing orange yarn, and Jet pointed out the perfect skein when she was in town in October. Literally - we were in a yarn store and I was telling her about my plight for the perfect yarn, and she pointed out the perfect skein! The orange is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Tangerine, and the grey is Dale of Norway Baby Ull. I’m knitting this on US 2 needles, and the hat is two pattern repeats of the 92 stitch pattern. I fiddled with the chart to make it fit my gauge by moving the trees away from the deer by a few stitches and adding a third tree.
The hat looks pretty much the same right now. I finished knitting the crown, but frogged it all back to this point. My floats were very large in the crown, above the deer’s horns and top of the middle tree. I’m not weaving the black behind the orange because it’s a bit thicker and it shows, and the black stitches were extremely loose. I might duplicate stitch the tops of the two taller trees. Is that totally cheating? Will I be kicked out of the Fair Isle club?
RSS
The projects are gorgeous! No way will you be kicked out - you’re stranding looks awesome to me.
I like those socks a lot- very cute! I started out knitting Eastern (twisted stitches and all) and then finally figured out how to untwist my stitches to knit combined a couple of years ago. Now I try to knit just normal continental so as not to confuse myself, but on any given row my stitches will be oriented multiple directions.
Don’t tell anyone now, but I actually prefer duplicating stitches if there are only small amounts of fair-isle somewhere. I find it much less stressfull. :)
Gorgeous knits! Once again.
The bag is great colours and I am sure is going to look fab. i have such tension issue with continental knitting that I have given up trying!
I hear you! I used to be a one WIP girl, but something happened last fall and I have so many things on the needles that I can’t finish anything! So I enjoyed seeing all your WIPs on Flickr and knowing that I’m not alone ;) All your WIPs look lovely and I look forward to seeing them grow!
Hey, I just cast on my second sock from that same swap yesterday. I’ve been feeling terribly guitly about not having done it. I do love the sock. Glad I’m not alone!
Your Sock for Veronik is going to be a beauty!
Duplicate stitch is totally my new BFF after all the colorwork I’ve been doing lately. I’ve done it to fix mistakes, to avoid long floats, and because I couldn’t decide on a motif beforehand. I totally recommend it for the top of that awesome, awesome hat.
I knit combined it is how I learned 15 years ago from my MIL in Argentina. I still remember coming back to the States, at a time when knitting was not so in vogue or so thought about, and having a knitter in a shop tell me I knit “wrong.” I didn’t find out it had a name until a few years ago!
i’ll have to look into combined knitting. it sounds interesting! i’ve tried to switch from english to continental, but to no avail.
my gauge is so different continental - much looser. I’m an overly tight knitter English style, so it’s good with me! Doesn’t CTH have the BEST solids! Love that orange! Their purple and pink are just as searing!
What a neat gift! It’s so cool to see how knitters personalize patterns like that :) I think duplicate stitch is the perfect solution for the top of the hat. You’ve already proven your stranding skills in the bottom, so not worries!
Thanks for all the details on the stag hat - I don’t have any advice to offer on the colourwork but I totally want to use your idea to make my BIL a hat for his birthday!
It’s not cheating, it’s *clever*. :)
I can’t bring myself to be interested in switching to continental even for the speed increases… the (incredibly inefficient) way that I knit results in an extremely even tension and I’m so afraid of screwing it up! Good for you.
I agree with everyone about the merits of duplicate stitching, it is a life saver for this sloppy knitter…
I love the ‘Firefly’ colorway, so lovely!
I don’t think anyone will care if you duplicate stitch a bit! I know what you mean about NO PROGRESS! The thing with switching knitting styles for speed is that until you get the hang of the new style, your old style will be far faster! Patience!
What a perfectly lovely little sock cuff! And continental knitting is where it’s at. It was a bit frustrating to teach myself, but I was very glad I did!
The socks are great! I can’t wait to see them when they are complete.
The hattified stag is looking fab. My eye for orange never fails :) Duplicate stitching is totally not cheating - it’s “problem solving”.
The stag hat looks awesome. I love the searing orange selection. I need to adopt a low ONT needle rotation policy because clearly having 10 projects waiting in the wings is accomplishing nothing.
Your stag hat looks awesome! Can’t wait to see it in person. I definitely don’t think that duplicate stitch is cheating.
(Aside: I HAVE MY WHEEL! Whee! I’ll try to bring it this Thursday!)
That hat is frigging amazing. No way you’ll be kicked out of the fair isle club.
wow love the hat. Can’t wait to see it. Oh and I see some Amy Butler peeking out too. Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm good
It took me a while to become comfortable with continental purling, because it does seem kind of strange. I tried combined for a while, but that’s just too confusing for me. With a lot of practice, continental purling will become much easier! Now I can’t even remember how to knit english style.
I love the hat, and know many a man who would wear it proudly. It is awesome!! What a great idea!
Karen
That pattern is going to be perfect ‘hatified’. Clever girl!
Awesome hat…and I don’t see why duplicate stitch would be anything other than okay.
Now, I haven’t thought about this…and don’t do a lot of circular knitting so there may be an obvious reason not to…but could you put a little of the black on bobbins and just work it sort of bastardized intarsia fashion. I realize that the black would be on the wrong side of the motif when you came back around but is the gap small enough that you could swing the bobbin back to the right section?
Oh, never mind…I’ll bet duplicate stitch would be much easier and better looking….