kelp! vs Garter Stitch, in two rounds.

Round 1: In the round.

kelp!: La de da, I will knit garter stitch in the round until my eyes glaze over. An eyelet row or two will be thrown in there for excitement.
Garter Stitch (GS): Go ahead and try.
…
kelp!: Hmm, there’s this ugly seam here where the rounds begin. I was not anticipating that. Ick.
GS: Fool!

Results – GS: 1, kelp!: 0

Round 2: Knit flat.

kelp!: I have learned my lesson from Round 1, but not enough of a lesson to do a test swatch first. I will switch to knitting flat, back and forth 4-ever, and that will cure the ugliness.
GS: Bring it.
…
kelp!: Oh, wow, that looks worse than knitting it in the round. And now I have this big ugly seam, too.
GS: Ha!

Results – GS: 2, kelp!: 0

I’ve never really knit garter stitch on anything until I made the Prairie Blanket. It seems that garter stitch and I just don’t get along.

Oh yeah, the Basalt Tank is done!

Pattern: Basalt Tank, from Knitting Nature
Yarn: Jo Sharp Soho Summer, color Currant. $28/bag at Webs.
Notes: My gauge (especially row gauge) was off from the pattern, so I knit a larger pattern size.

Modifications:

1. I knit half-hexagons on the sides. I think this is a lot more wearable.

2. I doubled-up the garter edging at the top of the sweater, because otherwise it would have been a tad indecent. I also mirrored the garter edging on the bottom for additional length. I probably could have gone with half the garter edging at the bottom, but that would look weird with the top doubled.

3. Waist shaping. Totally and absolutely recommended if you have a waist. Very, very, very easy to do. You basically just have to cast-on less stitches on the side hexagon chunks. I ended up doing 5 inches of waist shaping, so the side hexagon pieces were smaller by 2.5 inches (which means I cast on 14 less stitches for each of them). Then I figured out how to evenly space the decreases so that this hex chunk would have a smooth rate of decrease (I basically did this by writing out which rows the decreases are normally at, then crossing out 14/2=7 of them). Very easy, and worked wonderfully.

I definitely thought that this sweater would be too large. When I first tried it on, the center of the front and back hexagons stuck out in a truly unflattering way. A trip through the dryer shrunk the whole sweater a bit, and it fits pretty well now.

I feel that I was a bit fast-and-loose with the construction of this sweater – I don’t think that I picked up the stitches quite evenly, and the garter seams are already bothering me. However, the thing fits, so I just may wear it out of the house. Yay!

I know, you’re yearning for some more dye-on-yarn action. You will wait! Last week, I swung by Yarntopia to pick up some more Renaissance, and they had Debbie Bliss Pure Silk as their yarn of the week – 25% off! I have no self-control. None. I bought two skeins. I remembered that I had a half-finished Counterpane bag lying around the house, and wouldn’t it look so much nicer in the Pure Silk?

The year-old half-Counterpane bag (the bottom bag in the photo) was knit in DB Alpaca Silk. Nice yarn, pretty color, way too hairy. It will be frogged. The Pure Silk is extremely soft and luxurious, but it’s a bit fuzzy. I couldn’t imagine knitting a sweater out of it – besides the prohibitive cost (I am a cheapo yarn purchaser, usually), it would pill like crazy.

The bag pattern is from Handknit Holidays. Knitting this bag renews my deep-seated love for that book – I bought it for the hot socks with the lace bits in the back, and the fair-isle pillows are also lovely (in non-xmasey colors). Yum!

I’m planning on some killer finishing for my little clutch. I bought a metal clasp from M&J Trim, which will look awesome. Unfortunately, the clasp cost more than the yarn. Ugh. But the bag, it will be so adorable!

Also, Yarntopia has DB Cathay on sale for 35% off tomorrow. I have a feeling that I’ll be stopping by there on my lunch break…

I’m also almost done with the Basalt Tank. I just need to add the garter border around the neckline. I added waist shaping by casting on less stitches in the side hexagons. I think that the sweater may turn out a tad too large – I wish that I had added more waist shaping. I also doubled-up the border on the bottom, because otherwise it would have been way too short. I’m planning on doing the same around the neckline, in the name of decency!

After last week’s mess, I realized that yes, I am capable of knitting. Go me! First, some stash enhancement. I was on a mission to pick up some yarn for the Target Wave mittens, so I stopped by the lys that’s on my way home from work. I was feeling very blah about what was there, but they carry the most lovely selection of Koigu. I so don’t need any sock yarn, but the depth of color in those little skeins was so amazing. Yummy. However, I’m not sure what I’ll make with the yarn – I’m not really a sock person. I like to knit socks, but I am Always Warm, so I very rarely wear them. So we’ll see what happens with this stuff.

On Saturday, I dragged the always-working-must-finish-thesis-revisions Rob out to do some errands with me. Part of the errands involved stopping by Twisted Yarns for a sale they were having – the higher the temps outside, the larger the discount. It was a seriously beautiful (ie, not stiflingly hot) day on Saturday, so I figured it wouldn’t be super hot out. I picked up two skeins of Louet Topaz for the mittens, and ended up with a 25% discount. They said it was 100 degrees outside, which was so not true. I think their thermometer must have been sitting in the sun, but whatever, I’ll take it.

In the whole I Am Capable of Knitting Properly vein, I finished one hexagon of the Basalt Tank and proceeded to sloppily block it. A shiny cutting/blocking board is on my way from a big craft store this week, because the blocking space around these parts is not so good. This hexagon is basically a big gauge swatch – my row gauge was pretty off from the pattern, and I figured it would be best to just knit the hex to see how much it would affect the size. I think things may work out after all. I’m using Jo Sharp Soho Summer in the Currant color, which lived a previous life as a mostly knitted Corset Tank Pullover (which was a cute sweater, but so not me).

Now that I’ve finished a couple of major projects (Green Gable photos to come – my general feeling is: eh.), I’ve started something new – the Basalt Tank from Knitting Nature. Armed with a number of corrections and tips from the knitalong, I’m ready to rock.

Except that I’ve frogged this thing about a million times due to silly kelly mistakes. I’m knitting the hexagons in the round, and the most recent cast-on had a twist in it, so I get to rip again. I’ve never done the join-in-the-round-twisted before, so awesome.

I’m using Jo Sharp Soho Summer in the Currant color. $28 bucks a bag from Webs last year, score! I have another bag in an olive green (that is currently a partially-knit Somewhat Cowl. It’s a bit splitty, but whatever, I’m all about the cheapo yarn!