WIP Wednesday: After a Brief Pseudo-Patriotic Diversion...

Apologies for one more week of showing you all the same thing, but at least this week it comes with some additional content that serves as my excuse for one more week of the same thing.

That's right, the Berocco sweater is still on the needles, although if I can put in some quality time over the next few days you might not see it again until next Friday (possibly this Friday if for some reason I manage to get ahead of myself). The below (admittedly poor quality) photo is of the back, the front, and one sleeve done and another sleeve just about to start the shaping for the sleeve cap. Following that, I have to seam the shoulders then pick up and knit the collar, then finish seaming, then wash and block.

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Regarding sleeve caps--I hope they fit. The fact that my stitch gauge was DRASTICALLY different than the pattern stitch gauge was never a problem at all until it came time to shaping the sleeve caps. The pattern, as it should, calls for some gradual shaping for 36 rows and then more rapid shaping for the rest of the shoulder. However, because I had fewer stitches, I ended up just decreasing 1 stitch on each side of each right side row to end up with the requisite number of stitches after knitting the requisite number of rows. I'm really worried that the shoulders won't fit into the openings right and are going to fit oddly, but there's not much I can do about it right now (well, there is, I can pull it back and try to do even more complicated math, but since math and I are sworn enemies, I'm not sure that's the best strategy). For now, I plan to seam the whole thing together, block, see how it goes, and rip back the sleeves from there if I need to. Might not be the plan with the least knitting, but also it might be, so I'm willing to risk it.

And now for something completely different!

Two years ago I dyed some yarn to match the US Men's National Soccer Team's super cool jerseys, affectionately known as the "Bomb Pop" kit after the novelty Popsicle treats that used to be popular in the 1990s (maybe they still are, I don't know). Fast forward to last summer when I started actually knitting it into socks (which, it turns out were too big). I managed to finish one, but then the magic of the World Cup and the Gold Cup (the big international soccer tournaments the US was in) ended and I put it down, saying I'd re-measure and make the next sock later. So...that brings us to now when the USA was hosting the Copa America Centenario and I decided to cast on the correct number of stitches and knit sock 2 whenever I was watching the tournament. I took measurements (spoiler alert, incorrectly) and used Lara Neel's book "Sock Architecture" to cast on toe up and get working.

Which is where adventures and shenanigans begin.

As we began this weekend (since it was a patriotic holiday here in the US I figured I'd just knit the sock all weekend and see about getting it done since I was already past the heel turn), I got about 13cm into the leg (they're tall socks because (a) I like tall socks, (b) that's how the yarn dyeing worked out the easiest, and (c) that's soccer style socks) and then held it up and thought "the foot looks really short". I'd tried it on before and convinced myself that it fit, but I compared it to the too big sock (which actually fits fairly well in the foot, it's just too wide) and it was about 4cm too short for my foot (because for some reason I'd measured the length of my foot as 20cm instead of 24cm. So, I ripped it all the way back to where I'd started the gusset, re-did the math and blissfully began the foot. Where, instead of remembering that I needed to knit to 78 rows (I was already at 66), I had in my head that I needed to knit to 98 rows and then start the gusset. I realised this at around row 102, counted back to 78, ripped out again, and finished the weekend merrily at 19cm of cuff.

 

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Which is where it will stay until the US Women's National Team's Olympic matches. Maybe I'll get this one done. And then I'll be right back where I started the year with one sock completed.

WIP Wednesday: Miraculous Sweater Recovery

Lots of progress made on my Ada sweater this week, although there should have been even more progress than I managed since I ended up having to rip back about 9" of knitting on the back for seemingly inexplicable reasons. 

Before I started knitting, I faithfully knitted a gauge swatch like the learned knitter that I've become. And I'm not talking about a 1"x1" like some people do or even your standard 4"x4" swatch. No, I cast on enough gauge stitches that the swatch should have been 8"x8". And it was, at least in terms of row gauge. In terms of stitch gauge, instead of 5.5 stitches/inch I got 3.75 stitches/inch. My row gauge, however, was spot on, so instead of dropping down needle sizes (which would have meant I had to use a smaller needle on the seed stitch edging than my kit actually has,  I just decided to recalculate the stitch gauge. Now, this is probably where you're thinking, of course it went wrong, but let me defend myself and say that as far as I can tell, nothing is wrong with the width of the sweater pieces!!!! However, a brief tangent for a small complaint.

I really dislike it when designers have you calculate the gauge in pattern. I understand that this makes it easier on the designer, but sometimes it's really hard to accurately measure your gauge when you have to count k2tog/ssk and yarnovers. I've never written a pattern myself, but it seems to me like you could just figure out your gauge in pattern and then knit a stockinette section onto the end of your pattern gauge swatch, figure out the difference, and report the gauge in stockinette. A LOT of people who publish patterns give stockinette gauge for patterned pieces, so it can't be impossible. This was a book put out by an actual yarn company to showcase this particular yarn and this is THE SECOND SWEATER I've knit from the book where my row gauge was spot on and my stitch gauge was more than a little bit off. The first sweater only sort of fits correctly because of this, and I really hope I don't end up having the same problem with this one. They are also both from the same designer, so I don't know if it's an issue with the pattern company or an issue with the designer, but either way I don't like it and I think they could do better. Tangent over. 

Back to the story. Remember that I said my row gauge was spot on. Also note that I am an almost scarily consistent knitter when it comes to my gauge. So. I followed the instructions and (using my 30 rows/4" gauge AND marking every 30th row so I could be sure to keep track), I knit until the piece measured 17" from cast on edge (128 rows). Now, this is where it becomes my fault for not measuring, but like I said, I knit a really big swatch, my gauge was consistent, and I knew my blocked gauge and my unblocked gauge were very different. So. From there I cast off the (recalculated) number of stitches for the sleeves and then proceeded to knit the 8" from the start of the armhole. Then I held up the sweater and thought "this looks really long". So I measured and it was 2" too long (without being blocked, where it would get even longer). This problem was not with the part above the armhole cast off. It was somehow the part below. I measured my gauge at 4 different points and got the correct gauge on all of them. But it was 2" too long. I still have no idea how or why, but on Monday morning before work I took the back of my sweater from this:
 

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 back to about 2 repeats before where you see the arm decreases (I thought I had a photo of this, but apparently I don't). Which is this much yarn:

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This brings us to today. Where I have somehow managed to make a miraculous recovery in just two days. Now, granted, I'm watching a not insignificant amount of football, but whenever I watch Copa America I knit on my Bomb Pop socks, so I'm not working on the sweater then. And when I have the matches on during the day I am just listening to them while I work. And by the time we're wrapped up with dinner it's 6:30 ish and I've been doing some other crafting so I haven't knit for more than 2 -3 hours a night (which is more than when I was in school, but not really that much overall). So apparently once you get going on this thing, even though it's beginning to feel like a bit of a slog, as all lace/cable patterns seem to for me, it's basically flying off the needles.

Here it is as of now:

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That's right. I've finished the back and gotten 4" into the front. IDK. It's one of those knitting time warp, timey-wimey situations, I think.

Reminders:

Pattern is Ada by Amy Christoffers from the Berocco Fiora Pattern Book

Yarn is Berocco Fiora in the Augusta colourway

I highly doubt that you'll be seeing this on Friday (though I will be taking a 4.5 hour car trip, so I guess anything's possible since this is a wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey sort of sweater) although (if I remember to take photos) you will hopefully see my"done" (more later) Big Damn Heroes shawl. It's been done for a while, I just haven't taken pictures because it has an issue that I think needs fixing and I was holding out for better blocking. But it's certainly done enough that I can make myself take a photo and talk about it. I'll be out of town on Friday, though, so if I don't remember to take the photos before I leave, that post will be delayed yet again (and I might as well just wait until I fix the issue with the shawl at that point).

Hopefully more later!