The Joy of Wearing a Finished Object

I had hoped to have finished my Knit Swirl Coat over the MLK 3-day weekend, but the best laid plans of cats and women always seem to go awry. The seaming of the coat has taken over several evenings over the past week alone. One sleeve took 1.5 evenings to complete.  Plus, there were times I had to redo the seaming in certain places so that I was happy with the results.

Also, unfortunately, the sleeves on the coat were a bit too long. I missed her Technique Tutorial on creating the perfect sleeve length on her website. However, apparently, this problem is common enough that Sandra McIvers has a tutorial for cutting down the sleeves. I had to cut nearly 8.5 inches of sleeve!

I read the instructions and decided to make a few modifications:

1. I used Eunny Jang's tutorial on crocheted steeks. This process allowed for a much cleaner and enclosed edge, which made picking up stitches a lot easier. Plus, it gave the cut-off sleeve portion a finished edge as well.
2. I decided I wanted a slight bell-shaped sleeve, so I picked up more stitches than necessary.

The whole process took a bit more time, but I liked the end result a lot. Now the sleeves are the correct length.(Of course, I repurposed these sleeves, which will be the topic of another post.)

I LOVE this coat. I love the colors and the fit (mostly), and just how it hangs. There are several small problems with it, but it was of my own making. I think picking this project up multiple times over the year changed my gauge or somesuch, but it's not highly noticeable.

I wore it today to work, as the morning was cold. The sweater was cozy warm and I had already received a few compliments on it. My colleague at work mentioned that it looked very Peruvian and was very surprised that I had made it myself.

Also, I know I think I said I would never make another one, but I love this coat so much that I just might be tempted -- maybe not now, but I think sometime in the near future, I might have to cast on for another Knit Swirl Coat. Maybe....just maybe...

Blocking Blues

I finally finished my Knit Swirl coat just before the three day holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr day). It was relatively warm for this time of the year, so I wanted to wash and block it over the weekend. I had hoped to have this seamed by the end of the weekend. (Yeah, best laid plans and all that.....)

I re-read Sandra McIver's instructions (the designer) on blocking this coat. I'm glad I did, because there was some pre-work in finding the center back and center edge points and marking them with a locking stitch marker.

I rinsed it several times in Soak, as there was some dye in the water. It took 2-3 soaks to get the water clear. Afterwards, I laid out my giant blocking boards that I had bought previously. I'm glad for them because it took ALL of my boards, which are 24" x 24" to block this coat.

Here's the coat laid out.

I used blocking wires (which are AWESOME) to stretch out parts of it. Otherwise, I would have had to use a bajillion t-pins. I laid it out around 10:30 am. It took about 45 minutes to block it out correctly --- matching all of the center points and pinning to the schematic measurements. My metal yard stick came in extremely handy.

 

I had hoped it would be dry by that evening, but I guess I didn't towel it dry enough, plus my itty bitty back patio doesn't get as much sun during the winter months. During the summer months, this area turns into one giant oven, which is suited to drying anything within an hour.

It was still damp by 6pm and the sun was no longer up. I didn't want to leave this outside for a number of reasons. Because this thing was so big, I didn't have adequate space inside the house where there would be no kittens helping.

Unlike previously when I laid it out on the floor:

I solicited advice from my fibery friends on Facebook -- should I find room or use the no-heat option of my dryer to dry this sucker. The verdict? Let it air dry. One person suggested using the bed, locking the kittens out of the bedroom, and sleeping on the floor or couch. I was not about to do that, nor did I think the Viking would agree to such a thing.

I had an AHA! moment when I realized that the roof of my car (a MINI Cooper) is relatively flat, and the kittens are not allowed in the garage. With a bit of help from the Viking, we got the whole thing inside and on top of the roof of my car. (The sweater is slightly bigger than the width of my car hood. It amuses me.)

Between the interlocking boards and the blocking wires, we could turn it almost sideways and nothing really came loose, save the sleeves, which weren't really tacked down.

By the time morning came, it was only slightly damp. We took it outside again, where it dried completely. Now, just to finish the sewing portion of it!

How to Keep Your Project from Turning into a Gremlin.

In one of our previous podcasts, Sandy & I discussed mogwai projects. Mogwai projects are seemingly harmless projects that can wreck havoc with your crafting life, if you don't follow some basic safety precautions. (Of course, there are always projects that will wreck havoc no matter what!)

In this particular case, I've been working on the Knit Swirl Coat of Many Colors for quite a number of months (nearly the year), and I've been wanting to finish it. I'm about 80% done, and I've already had some gremlin moments with this project whereby I had to rip back many many rows  -- and with a mohair blend yarn no less!

I've taken to handling this project carefully, reading through sections of the pattern thoroughly, writing down detailed notes, and checking off completed rows.

In this particular case, I finally finished one section, and was reading through another part of the pattern before I started knitting. I was confused by the pattern's written instructions, so I started counting the number of decreases & bind-off, which did not add up to the final stated stitch count for that section.

I redid the calculations. It didn't match.
I re-read the instructions. It still confused me.
I looked on Ravelry for helpful tips from other users. There was nothing that matched my problem.
I searched through the Ravelry forums for Knit Swirl fans. NADA. So, I made a NEED HELP post on one of the Knit Swirl forums (and even took a photo of the coat as a visual aid).
I looked at the errata. I had all the changes for my pattern.

I was becoming very frustrated.
Then, I looked at the clock. It was slightly past midnight, and I realized how TIRED I was, and that maybe, just maybe, rest would be more fruitful. So I put down my project, and went to bed. Nothing could come any good out of continuing to bang my head in frustration. My lovely coat would have become a gnarled mess of a gremlin quickly.

Eighteen hours later, I started re-reading the pattern and calculating stitch counts. And the pattern instructions STILL confused me and my calculations were STILL off.

After taking a deep breath, I remembered that this part of the pattern had a chart. It is a complicated chart, but after 5 minutes, I finally realized what the written instructions weren't as clear as they could have been, and the chart provided a much more succinct summary of the bind offs & decreases that weren't wholly apparent in the written version.

So, now I'm back on track with the Knit Swirl coat. I might even get this finished before a year has passed. Here are some of the things I learned: * I'm very glad that I was trying to figure this out logistically and wasn't knitting on this project, because it would have been easily have turned into a gremlin very quickly. So, reading a complicated section of the pattern and making sure the numbers added up adequately * Taking a step away from a project can really help bring clarity to the project * Always look at the schematic/chart alongside the written pattern. One can give you additional insight into a problem.

Progress!!

I've made progress on my Knit Swirl coat. See that? That's 3 INCHES, baby! Okay, in fairness the welts, kinda scrunch up. If I stretch out the welts, it's more like 6 inches.

I'm currently on the 8th welt right now. (And, yes, that's my Knitmore measuring tape. :-P)

Compare the progress to earlier this month. And at one point, I had to frog nearly an entire welt because I forgot to decrease --- that was painful.

And, in fairness, I did take a sock break, and finished one out of a pair of socks....

Oy, this is gonna take forever!

Broken Arrow

Last night, I had a broken arrow...errm...needle incident that nearly resulted in lost stitches. I was trying to finish up one last round before I had to run out the door.

And, wouldn't you know it? I had a catastrophic failure on my Knit Picks interchangeable needles. Essentially, the cable came out of the actual connector attached to my interchangeable circular needles, and it dropped 1/3 of the stitches (out of 500+) when the cable pulled back!!!

I had to do some really quick patch-up of the problem, by grabbing another circular needle and picking up what had dropped. Luckily, this was wool & mohair so the stitches stayed put rather well, all things considering. But it was a RIGHT PAIN IN THE ARSE! (And made me run late, because I couldn't just leave the stitches hanging!)

After stabilizing the patient...er...my knitting...to the point where I was reasonably satisfied that I no longer had a broken arrow situation, I set it aside carefully so I could fix it when I got home. (There was also some dire warnings to DH to not touch it or let anyone --- cough the cats cough get near it.)

When I finally got home, it was surgery time, and I carefully moved all of the stitches onto a new cable, and all was right and happy again. (And yes, I haven't gotten very far. I'm only on Welt 4.)

Then took the broken cable needle, connector, and some superglue to see if I could repair the damage. I'm not sure WHY it broke like that, but it's been a fair number of years since I bought the set and these cables have seen a fair amount of use. Plus, I know there must have been a heavy strain on these particular ones as it's holding a fair number of stitches and I've been constantly re-arranging the distribution of fabric as I knit. So, I'm going to put this down to just general "wear-and-tear" versus any manufacturer error.

Keeping My Eye on the Prize

This past Sunday, I started in one of the Knit, Swirl patterns, by Sandra McIvers, specifically, the Coat of Many Colors. Luckily, I "know" that for worsted weight yarn, I will get gauge at US 6. But I made a gauge swatch anyways, and I was pretty darn close to both row & stitch gauge.

Before I started, I read through the first few chapters of the book that goes over sizing, gauge, construction, etc, THEN read through all of the helpful notes on Ravelry and hit up the Knit, Swirl website, where Sandra actually more helpful techniques and tricks. With such a big project, it's good to have all of the information before even starting!

And, I did something I tend not to do on most patterns --- I read and re-read the cast on and section on the body...then re-read them again to ensure I understood what was happening. Usually, I tend to just jump right in and only look for those key words "AT THE SAME TIME" whenever possible. But this time around, this required a bit more forethought than normal.

I cast on the needed 500+ stitches (yes, 500+ stitches), and oh, boy was that painful. Sandra breaks the stitch counts down to manageable chunks as there are "sections" for this pattern. So it was easy to cast on the required number of stitches per section, double & triple count, and know that I had the right number at the end.

The joining in the round was another tricky bit -- trying to ensure you're not twisting it as you join is hard enough on hat or cuff-down-sock, but for 500+ stitches?! Oofda. (And here, luckily, Sandra gives you some tips to get through it.)

So, far, so good, but this project is going to take a LONG time to finish. It's been 4 days thus far since I started, and I'm in the middle of Welt # 3, which translates to about 14 roundst thus far. It takes me 40 minutes to get through almost 2 rounds (if I'm lucky). And I believe that there are about 50+ Welts?

Hoh...Boy.

However, I'm keeping my eye on the prize --- the final coat. Because after trying it on, I was really hooked on the styling, fit, and flair. And Sandra said that the hard part is at the beginning with so many stitches, but as you go forward, you end up decreasing so it gets easier and easier.

Right now, I'm holding that idea close, because it's getting a bit tedious to go through all rounds  (and all of those stitches) of just purling or just knitting each welt. However, on the flip side, this type of knitting allows me to catch up on some of my podcasts that I had been missing because I was working on those fair isle Dire Wolf mittens and thus couldn't pay attention except to the charts.

Some Ravelers mentioned that they snuck in small projects while working on this jacket. I just might have to do the same.

However, I'm committed to doing this!