Rogue Hoodie update 1
I am a lace girl really. Most of my favourite knitting success (especially socks) have been in lace knitting. Although I am not up to the standard of wedding ring shawls quite yet. However when visiting Triskellian (who has a well known obsession with cables) last year I fell in love with the Rogue Hoodie. This is a rather gorgeous jumper with a hood and cables that look like Celtic Knotwork. It was gorgeous and when asked by my parents what I wanted for christmas I asked for the pattern and some of the wool to go with it. I ended up with a flash key with a pdf on it and many many balls of debbie bliss cashmerino aran in a sort of wine colour. It is lovely wool, very soft and I have already rubbed my face in it many times.
So then I open the pattern up and download it. IT IS 19 PAGES LONG! Once I picked myself up from the floor I decided the best way to approach this monster was to take it one small stage at a time and blog the progress so that I can learn from the many mistakes I anticipate making. So in honour of this pledge I begin.
I am in a sort of swatch hell. I have knitted two practice cable swatches in leftover wool to understand the engineering of cabling and now I am knitting two gauge swatch one flat and one in the round because my new knitting guru - the DomiKnitrix - really cracks the whip about gauge swatches.
I am aiming for a gauge of 4.5 stitches and 6 rows to the inch.
Flat Gauge swatch 0.1 comes in at 5.5 stitches and 7 rows on 5mm needles so I clearly need to drop a needle size.
Round Gauge swatch 0.1 come in at the same on 5mm so they both need to go up one.
Of course I forget that knitting a round swatch involves using the magic loop techinique which I learnt a couple of years ago but don't like because it hurts my hands. All the fiddling around moving stitches from one end of the knitting needle to the other is just annoying the joins don't look right and I am reminded why I really really prefer using double pointed needles to knit tubes. I find the joins are easier to tighten up and you need less (or no) stitch markers because the 3-4 different needles make it easier to check you haven't lost/gained any stitches.
I am trying to get more organised about swatches in general though and have taken to attaching the ball band of the wool used to the swatch and writing the needle size on the ball band. The DomiKnitrix recommends making a number of purl stitches on the right side of the swatch equal to the needle size but I guess she works in US sizing and I work in mm which it doesn't really work for as the mm are often decimalized and I can't do 2.25 purl stitches.
Ok - slightly later update as I have been writing this over the course of 2 hours. 2 hours of gauge swatching and 2 psychology course podcasts later and I STILL don't have a definitive needle size although after the last swatch it is looking like I probably need 6mm (which I don't own) AND my hands are hurting from wrestling with metal needles. I will give up in disgust and return to this when the postman delivers me some 6mm (in Wood). May as well go and cast on another sock in the meantime.
So then I open the pattern up and download it. IT IS 19 PAGES LONG! Once I picked myself up from the floor I decided the best way to approach this monster was to take it one small stage at a time and blog the progress so that I can learn from the many mistakes I anticipate making. So in honour of this pledge I begin.
I am in a sort of swatch hell. I have knitted two practice cable swatches in leftover wool to understand the engineering of cabling and now I am knitting two gauge swatch one flat and one in the round because my new knitting guru - the DomiKnitrix - really cracks the whip about gauge swatches.
I am aiming for a gauge of 4.5 stitches and 6 rows to the inch.
Flat Gauge swatch 0.1 comes in at 5.5 stitches and 7 rows on 5mm needles so I clearly need to drop a needle size.
Round Gauge swatch 0.1 come in at the same on 5mm so they both need to go up one.
Of course I forget that knitting a round swatch involves using the magic loop techinique which I learnt a couple of years ago but don't like because it hurts my hands. All the fiddling around moving stitches from one end of the knitting needle to the other is just annoying the joins don't look right and I am reminded why I really really prefer using double pointed needles to knit tubes. I find the joins are easier to tighten up and you need less (or no) stitch markers because the 3-4 different needles make it easier to check you haven't lost/gained any stitches.
I am trying to get more organised about swatches in general though and have taken to attaching the ball band of the wool used to the swatch and writing the needle size on the ball band. The DomiKnitrix recommends making a number of purl stitches on the right side of the swatch equal to the needle size but I guess she works in US sizing and I work in mm which it doesn't really work for as the mm are often decimalized and I can't do 2.25 purl stitches.
Ok - slightly later update as I have been writing this over the course of 2 hours. 2 hours of gauge swatching and 2 psychology course podcasts later and I STILL don't have a definitive needle size although after the last swatch it is looking like I probably need 6mm (which I don't own) AND my hands are hurting from wrestling with metal needles. I will give up in disgust and return to this when the postman delivers me some 6mm (in Wood). May as well go and cast on another sock in the meantime.