Back to Laboring
It’s a “Monday-Tuesday”–a weird amalgam of the first day of the work week and a normal Tuesday, and so everything has seemed just a little off today. Chappy wasn’t happy about it, either–after three days of perfect weather with his Mom home, seeing me off to work this morning was not the way he wanted to start his day.
At least I had something nice (other than Chappy) to come home today. “Knitting Classic Style” by Veronik Avery. I pre-ordered this ages ago, which is always a bit of a risk, but at first glance, it’s got some great patterns. I love the Mohair Portrait Scarf, and in general, the styles are classy and clever, with great construction . . . exactly what you’d expect from Veronik Avery. I admit, I’m not altogether certain why there’s a pattern for a knitted tie which is basically just one, long rectangle that could be made without any pattern whatsoever, but I suppose that’s quibbling, huh?
Otherwise? Not much else to say. I’ve knitted the first few rows of my Autumn Rose (beyond the ribbing, that is) and am going to have to put in some stitch markers. The chart shows only a quarter of the sweater . . . you knit to the center point and then turn around and go back . . . except I keep getting lost, reading the chart left to right. At least with stitch markers I’d be able to figure out where I am a little faster! (And yes, I’m well aware that I could take my excel sheet of the 1/4 and duplicate the other half . . . that, apparently, is too sensible.)
Oh, and the “seam stitches” . . . Eunny’s design has a faux seam stitch at the sides, which I think is a lovely touch, except they’re made in the background color, which I carry in my right hand, and marked by stitch markers on either side . . . having to slip the stitch marker, pull my right-hand yarn into the front to be able to do a single purl stitch, wrangle the yarn to the back again and then slip the second stitch marker . . . this is driving me a bit crazy. I’m not sure what I want to do about it. I don’t think it would look right in the foreground color. I don’t want to just knit the stitch. I could certainly ditch one of the stitch markers, but . . . still, for me at least–a Continental-style knitter–two-handed color work with purl stitches from the right hand just does not work! I certainly do know how to purl with my right hand, but the juggling of both colors is frustrating. Not to mention throwing off my gauge and making the “seams” look sloppy. Clearly, I need to come up with a solution fast…. Suggestions? Commiserations?
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I can sympathize with you my right hand purls are yuck! Big yuck – I can’t imagine throwing color work into the mix. I’m doing her tangled yoke cardigan right now and it also has faux seams – so simple yet so cool.
One idea is just to knit the stitches – then drop them all and bring them up with a crochet hook on the wrong side. It seems like it would work in theory at least.
I got the same book in the mail today also. I didn’t pre-order, shoot I never even heard of it until ravelry and she put up pictures of some of the patterns. I really love the ski cardigan – it’s what got me to get the book – but I doubt it will be done in Lopi
Oh, I can barely do a purl stitch right handed nowadays and not a prayer could I add colorwork into it.
A new knitting book! Awesome.
Right-handed purls in colorwork do suck, big-time. No real suggestions, except to say Michelle’s suggestion, above, might be difficult in shetland wool. The stuff sticks to itself so nicely that getting it to run down would probably be a pain in the you-know-what.
I’d knit them and then fix them to be purls with a crochet hook later. You could try it with three rows to see how much work it was to make them run before you committed to doing the whole seam or even carry on like that and do the seam at the end of each knitting session. I would have thought that any sloppyness that you’re currently getting in the seams is going to block out and let’s be honest – no-one but you is going to be looking at them.
I would do the stitch dropping thing too. That is what EZ does in her books and I think it would be a lot faster and neater than to do all the juggling you’re doing now
Cheers Eva
I carry both colors in my left hand, so don’t have an answer for you. Anne had an interesting suggestion about placing the stitch marker on the KAL. I don’t bother with stitch markers–I had no problem noticing the purl column (though haven’t hit the pattern on the body yet, so it was pretty obvious given that I was using magic loop and had to change needles).
Thanks for clarifying where the fold was in the pattern. My brain was apparently not quite functioning, and I was putting my decreases at the end of every row. It’s perfectly fine, I think, but for some reason that didn’t hit my brain. So thanks for that…
It is a pretty good book, isn’t it? I just got to flip through it yesterday and was quite impressed. Overall it tended to have a pretty decent size range as well. I think it is going on my wishlist.
My only suggestion – since I’d never dare attempt the sweater – is “hang in there”! Nice eh?
Ahhhhh!!!!
I think I’ll just commiserate on that faux seam stitch, because if I think too hard about it, I’ll have nightmares of the contortions!
I just bought that book yesterday! I looked through it in the store, put it back, left, had lunch, and then went back in because I regretted leaving it on the shelf.
I really want to make the Latvian Fingerless Mitts. So pretty! And the Lopi ski sweater, though I’d have to change the collar.