in which i win a contest and finish an object

I apologize for my week-long absence from this blog; I was indisposed. Now I am baaaaaack. And I've won a contest. Over at one of my favorite blogs, Ruthless Knitting, the proprietor Ruth posted the photo of a bizarre ceramic object as a clue to her secret knitting project. If you guessed correctly you could win a prize of some yarn. Well, dear reader, my guess ("piggie, cowie, bunny toy") came closest and I won this.

It is 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the color Amish. It came with a nice card and certainly cheered my week. After winding and photographing this yarn, I see why it is called Amish. It has the glowing against dark colors of an Amish quilt. Striking and perfect for socks to wear with jeans. Thank you Ruth.

Now previous to my good fortune I had actually been thinking about making this the year of the sock. Now I have to do it. My next project will be to make the first pair of socks I have knit in thirty years. Thirty years ago I took up a set of double pointed aluminium needles (wood and bamboo were rare then) and made a pair of red and blue striped woolen socks. I wanted to make something special for a friend. I had no trouble knitting them. Years later though, I am all thumbs. I want to try them on two circulars (which is a variation of Shetland knitting according to Principles of Knitting), but I am determined to re-master double pointeds first.

And pictured below is my latest finished object, completed yesterday, the Darcy Jacket from Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt collection.

I am disappointed. I made the size XL (40" chest) and it fits pretty well. The length is perfect (because I have a long torso), it's a little big in the shoulders (because I am shrinking), and a little tight in the waist (because that's where all the fat collects now), but not so you'd notice. But, as I seem to do so often, I made the wrong yarn choice.

When I first swatched the Knit Picks Merino Style DK I bitched and moaned about it because I thought it was too chunky for a dk weight. But it fit the guage for this sweater perfectly, same needle size (US #6) and everything. Now I see that I just don't like this yarn. There is something tawdry about it. It is too soft for this jacket style. (I often find myself wishing for a crisper yarn.) The pattern called for a Rowan cotton yarn, but it would have been too heavy in 100% cotton. Due to the constant k/p stitch alteration, it sucked up yarn - 1,700 yards for this size. At least I used up all the Merino Style. I will never buy that yarn again. With all that, the sweater is wearable; maybe I'll like it better in the wearing.

Now for my embarrassing confession: I made the sleeves 4" too long. Further confession: I don't know my exact sleeve length. I just make the length given for 2 sizes smaller than the one I'm knitting, and it usually works. This time, there was an error in the pattern printing. The length was given in inches and centimeters, and the lengths didn't match. The inch measurements seemed too short (ie: 13") and the centimeter measurements seemed too long (47cm, which is 18", not 13"). So I followed the centimeters. Thanks to TECHknitter on Ravelry (blog bookmarked on the right) I was able to (somewhat) calmly snip a stitch where I wanted the sleeve to end, separate off the excess length, catch the live stitches, re-knit one row and bind off. It worked!

dk? what is dk?

Next Project: The last post ended with me thinking about what to do with 14 balls of Knit Picks Merino Style dk yarn, color vanilla. I thought about the Minimalist Cardigan from Interweave Knits Fall 07 issue. This, in my judgment, is the best design from that issue. I love moss stitch (or in this case, double moss stitch called moss stitch).

But I am not sure that I would like this as much in white, and I would need to think in order to make the shape more swingy-- or should it stay straight? Too much to think about. I just want to cast on and do it. Plus, in looking at other knitter's results in Ravelry, I can see that fit is absolutely crucial in this design. Again, too much to think about, especially since the fit is kind of unconventional ; that is, should it meet comfortably in front or not? I will knit this eventually, but not in Merino Style. I think I would like it better in Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

Meanwhile, while I am waiting for my shipment of RYC yarn from Angel Yarn in the UK, I got this book in the mail: This is a new (and expensive) book of patterns from the world's best knitting designer, Kim Hargreaves, shipped to me very speedily from Yarnzilla in Minnesota. And guess what? While watching the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on PBS, what should jump out at me but Mrs. Darcy:

Hard to see from this photo, but this is a squarish moss stitch jacket with a simple fold back collar, waist shaping, and a flounce at the bottom which goes longer at the back. Below the jacket is a scan of my tension square which gets the stitch gauge perfectly. So I cast on for this last night, while watching Colin Firth.

In the interest of completeness and full disclosure, I should note that I have substituted a wool yarn for cotton. Normally I don't like to do this, but I can't see how this jacket could not work out in wool. The elastiticy of the stitch work would probably make the cotton behave more like wool anyway (I hope).

Wraps Per Inch: Now I come to the main subject of this post, What is DK? I was flummoxed by the difference in size between Merino Style DK and RYC Cashsoft DK. They were so different knitted up that I wondered why both were called DK. I have a special wraps per inch (wpi) measuring stick, so I measured both yarns and found that the Knit Picks yarn measured 11 wpi and the RYC 12 wpi. Does this difference mean that one is DK and one is not?

Ravelry thinks so. According to their chart, the RYC at 12 wpi is sport weight and the Knit Picks at 11 is DK. But the chart that comes with my measuring device says different. According to this chart (which is from Nancy's Knit Knacks), the RYC is DK (12-14 wpi), and the Knit Picks is worsted (9-11 wpi). To further compound the confusion, three online sites all agree that the RYC (at 12 wpi remember) is worsted and the Knit Picks would be between worsted and bulky. According to them, there is no DK. (Wool Festival, Spinderella, Elizabeth's Fiber and Yarn Store)

Now I thought that wraps per inch was the most accurate way to measure yarn thickness. But I guess not. In measuring for myself, I also saw that the results could be skewed by wrapping a little looser or a little tighter, although I tried to do it perfectly. I am, however, willing to call the Knit Picks DK because it knits up at the right gauge for Mrs. Darcy, which calls for a DK weight Rowan yarn. In stockinette, the Knit Picks also comes to a DK weight, 5.5 stitches per inch on # 6 (rather than #5) needles. I just think that Knit Picks Merino Style is a little horsey. As such it does have the substance needed for this design.

In conclusion, I would say that yarn measurement cannot be exact. I know that the important thing is getting the correct gauge, but I would still like a way to measure. Actually, I like the Nancy's Knit Knacks chart best because it gives a range of measurements for each weight, giving you an idea of the yarn size, but not exactitude. And that seems to reflect the reality.

A Book and a Tip: The audiobook I am currently listening to while I knit is The All True Travels and Adventures of Liddy Newton by Jane Smiley. This is set in the Kansas Territory in the 1850s, before the Civil War, where abolitionists and Southerners came to battle over whether or not the new State of Kansas would be a slave state. The narrator is a 20-year-old woman from Quincy, Illinois who met her Northeasterner husband as he came through Quincy on his way to Kansas with a load of contraband rifles to aid the abolitionist cause.

I do not normally read historical fiction (although I don't hate it at all), but I like Jane Smiley, who is an amazingly eclectic novelist, taking up all kinds of subjects. She is a wonderful and versatile prose stylist, but she is weak on plotting. I have liked her novels, but haven't been able to quite finish some of them. This one is weakly plotted as well, but the action is interesting in itself. I hope to finish it.

Here is a little tip for knitting lace by Cheryl Oberle. I like lace patterns in words rather than charts, which are hard for me to read. To make a bunch of words easy to follow, the author suggests writing each line of knitting on a separate card and flipping the cards to follow the pattern. It works great for me. I am using it with the Kimono Shawl, which I am still working on.

odds, ends, and a plan

Not much to report from Bev's world of knitting today, but as always, I have some ideas rattling around in my head. Since finishing the Klara Bird sweater this past weekend, my sole knitting project has been the Kimono Shawl pictured above. The photo shows my progress, which is poor, but I haven't been working on it that much. It should grow faster now that I don't have another project to compete. I think it will be almost as beautiful a shawl as I pictured it to be. The mostly silk yarn is soft and cottony feeling with some heft.

In seeking a second project to start, I got to thinking that, while I read and collect knitting magazines almost as obsessively as I knit, I rarely knit items from their pages. So I got the idea to pick up a magazine at random, pick my favorite item from its pages, and go ahead and cast on. My first pick was this from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005:

It is a flame-stitched cardigan from Shirley Paden, whose designs I always admire. I have been thinking about a design with tall ribbing at the bottom, and I have yarn that would work for this, some dry, crunchy silk from Colourmart Cashmere:

This is undoubtedly a good plan. But then I started to swatch the lace motif and Whoa Nelly! It is really hard, not simple and serene like the Kimono Shawl. The lace patterning occurs on both the knit and purl sides, and it features purls through the back loop, my most hated stitch. So maybe another time. I really do want to knit this sweater and will tackle it before the summer, but not yet.

It occurs that what I really want to make is a design for a tailored cardigan that I have had in my mind for about a year. It is not worked out yet, but I had swatched a sample ball of RYC Cashsoft DK and found it perfect. Here is the swatch:

Perfect. Perfect color, perfect weight, perfect stitch definition, perfect everything. So what do I do? I am seduced by the price and I buy 14 balls of Knit Picks Merino Syle DK. So I eagerly swatch the Knit Picks DK yarn and What do I get? This:

The Knit Picks swatch is on the bottom. Each has about the same number of stitches. I think the Knit Picks one might have 2 more. The Knit Picks swatch measures about 6 inches, the RYC about 4. Knit Picks DK is horsey and coarse. My parents generation had a saying, "penny wise and pound foolish." So this week, I ordered the RYC Cashsoft DK with the plan to work up that cardigan design.

Meanwhile, what to do with the Knit Picks DK.? I am thinking about it.