Mama Stop Knitting!

Fingers Cross'd

This convoluted mass of fibre wants to grow into a Star-Cross'd Love cardigan. Will the knitting gods let it?

It all began with a discussion thread on Ravelry listing recommendations of patterns for "edgier cardigans". Lurker that I am, I clicked through the many magic links and found myself enchanted by Star-Cross'd Love, contributed by the Raveler Cajunbatchick. From the description it seems like a reverse engineering effort based on an Anthropologie sweater. (I can't get enough of these make-your-own knock-off patterns, by the way. Yay for the online knitting community!)

The main challenge is that the pattern is written out for only one size, an XS/S. I'm not a tight sweater kinda gal, and from what I could see, it is constructed in such a way that re-sizing would be a bit tricky. One option is to simply use thicker yarn at a larger gauge. But, thanks to my relentless destashing effort, the only yarn even close to bulky that I've got left in my Shanghai stash is some Lang Silk Dream in a colour that I believe upscale boutiques like to call "orchid". Silk Dream is usually positioned as "heavy worsted" yarn and the recommended needle size is a 5.5mm, but after swatching with 6.5mms I think it will just make gauge. Any larger needles and I'd be making lace!

Apart from my fear that the cardi will come out too tight, I'm also conscious that a shiny wool-silk single-ply yarn is not the best thing for cables. If only I had more Superyak with me! Still, Silk Dream does have its advantages, the main one being that its grabby fibres produce top-notch splice-ability.  For the same reason though, it doesn't frog well, creating another hurdle as I rip back constantly to make little adjustments in the pattern. Here you can see me experimenting with short rows to re-shape the collar.  

I will show you one thing that this yarn is very good for though, and that is a simple crochet scarf. This is the One Skein Scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker, which can be started and completed in a matter of a few hours. I made this a couple of days ago using 2 balls of aqua-coloured Silk Dream left over from last year's Flair project. I must be a tight crocheter because I needed an 8mm hook to create the width I wanted. I made only 168 chain sts for the foundation chain, and the scarf still came out quite a bit longer than what I wanted, at 88" x 3". After blocking, the yarn bloomed nicely to form well-defined, lustrous crochet stitches. There's not much to say about this very simple and effective pattern, except that you need to make triple sure that the foundation chain is super loose. If not, your finished product will curve ever so gently to one side, like mine. On account of this niggling imperfection I think I will keep it for my own use, but now I know I've got a sure-fire pattern for last-minute gifts! 

Finally, Alexa

I am all done with Alexa and it's a pleasing product! Left to my own devices the photos would have been dubious at best, but happily I was saved from the self-timer by DH, who was in town for a long weekend. To extract some decent shots while he's around, I powered ruthlessly through the blocking and seaming - just how ruthless you will soon see.

Fortunately Shanghai's weather smiled upon us and we managed to get some well-lit, summery outdoor shots. I am particularly glad that the cables are shown up so beautifully because they weren't all that obvious from the PDF pattern photos. It really is a most wearable design, especially for warm weather. You can wear it with the lapels hanging free or close it with a brooch (see last pic). The collar area looks different depending on where you pin the lapels together, and you can flip the corners of the lapels outwards if you wanted. How's that for versatility!  

Pattern: Alexa, or Cap-sleeve Cardi by Debbie Bliss. Yay for free patterns!

Yarn: Recommended yarn was Debbie Bliss Stella. I subbed with some stashed Gedifra Cotton Merino, a 52% extra fine merino, 48% cotton blend. It runs 109 yards to 50g, compared to Stella's 96 yards. The pattern suggests a whopping 10 balls of Stella for the smallest size (completed bust measurement 85cm), which I have always suspected was an overstatement. If a short-sleeved summer garment is going to weigh half a kilo, I wasn't going to wear it! True enough, I knitted to gauge and used only about 7 and a quarter balls of Cotton Merino.  

Needles: 4.5mm and 5mm

Mods: None. Pattern was well-written and clear.

Overall experience: Because of the intense amount of cabling action, doing without a cable needle is highly recommended. However, the pattern itself is intuitive and easily memorised after the first repeat. This makes it a good commute project - especially if you don't need a cable needle.    

A few words about the Cotton Merino: You don't hear a lot about this yarn, but it's good stuff. It's very soft in the skein, knits up like bamboo, appears beautifully plush when fully blocked and feels a bit cool next to the skin. It can be splitty, like bamboo, so blunt needles are best. It's positioned as a heavy worsted yarn and according to the ball band you can get 17 sts to 10cm on 5.5mm needles, but I think 5mm produces a more coherent fabric. 

Once the yarn gets wet it can stay damp for ages, but the wool content prevents the garment from stretching out of shape upon drying. On the other hand, the cotton means it can also tolerate some amount of rough treatment.My wet-blocking technique has never been delicate to begin with - I swirl the garment around in a bubbly bath, squeeze out the water as much as I can without actually wringing, and I'm not too careful about weight distribution when hauling the damp mass about the room. This time, in an effort to make the FO dry in time for photos, I threw caution to the wind and inflicted upon it a powerful hairdryer on the highest heat setting. It was a good thorough toasting, and the garment responded so well that even though the ball band claims otherwise, I suspect it can actually be tumble-dried. It's great for all-season wear, and I would recommend it for children's garments too.

This started off as a stashbusting project where I was more interested in using up yarn than in actually using the FO. But now that it's all done, I'm very intrigued by its wearability. I'd gladly make another one!

(Oh, and I've been picking up some knitting-related bargains around town. More on those - as well as The World's Worst Knitting Book - soon.)

The grim knitter

One can only do so much dedicated stashbusting before it starts getting a bit tedious. Progress has been dubious on Bridget - only the back is done and blocked. Alexa, too, is creeping along, although I have plans to make a big push in finishing up most of it this weekend. I don't really want to start any more new projects until I dispose of them both, but I have to admit, the yawn factor does grow.

When you're bored, you go a little crazy. How not to, with Norah Gaughan Vol 3 out in the shops? For a while I lusted after the preview photos, and then I've gone and broken my self-imposed pattern/book-fast after stumbling on the most excellent Yarn and Fiber (free shipping worldwide available on most orders - what took me so long?). And, while I was at it, I got some Kauni rainbow-coloured Effektgarn too, putting an end to my 6-month long yarn-fast.

As if all that wasn't enough, I have made an even more remarkable purchase - a volume that could just possibly be the world's worst knitting book. More in the next post!

The pre-emptive post

Repeatedly criss-crossing the Yangtze River Delta is the current plot of my life. This week is a good example; I'll be doing a mad dash through 4 cities in 5 days. Since there won't be much blogging time available, here's a pre-emptive post.

As you can see, I've made a bit more progress on dear Bridget, the polo shirt from Jaeger with a garter- stitch-and-eyelet lace pattern. It's a free pattern and looks to be a fun, wearable summer knit, and I can't believe I'm the only person on Ravelry making it! It is in four queues, though, so hopefully I'll have some company soon.

Partly because I find it hard to focus when working with Cotton Glace, and partly because stashbusting is weighing heavily on my mind, I've gone and started knitting yet another free pattern, Debbie Bliss's Alexa cap-sleeve cardi. Here's the back all done and being blocked. The pattern calls for Debbie Bliss's Stella, a worsted-weight silk blend which I had in the stash once upon a time. It didn't feel like it would be particularly easy to work with, though, so I gave it away to a co-worker who appreciated it more than I did. Not having any Stella was not much of a problem as I have loads of worsted-weight stash to burn - in this case, I chose some Gedifra Cotton Merino, a 50% cotton 50% extra fine merino blend. The yarn feels cool and silky both on the skein and on the needles, but can be somewhat splitty. So far it's behaving more like plant than animal, and in fact knits up pretty much like bamboo. I'm waiting to to see if the merino content will assert itself and improve the overall look after a good wet-blocking. If not, I foresee some tedium neatening the ends of my cables with a crochet hook. Still, I'm quite happy with the pattern - there is cabling on just about every other row, so hardly a dull moment. Plus, it eats up yarn at quite a fast rate, which can't hurt the stashbusting.

Let's hope Bridget would have inched a little closer to the finishing line by the time of the next post! 

That's a lot of cables!

Nah, I didn't count the actual number of cable crosses in this garment. But you know and I know that it's a lot!

I'm finally done with the Cabled Cardigan from Berta Karapetyan's Runway Knits. And boy am I glad it's off the needles and more or less wardrobe-ready, because I'd say it was a near-miss.

This pattern became a must-knit for me the moment I bought the book, simply for what appeared at first glance to be its eminent wearability. In particular, I loved the short-row shaping that creates the two swathes of curling cables in the fronts of the cardigan and the long, lean silhouette it created on the model. In the process of knitting it and researching others' experience with it, however, I found that the pattern is not the most customisable in terms of fit. Still, I think the results are worth the work. If you're thinking of making this, my advice is to proceed with a some caution!

Pattern: Cabled Cardigan from Runway Knits, by Berta Karapetyan, the boss of Karabella Yarns. This is my second project from this book.

Size and gauge: Unless your yarn behaves very differently (completely different fibre content, say), I'd suggest going for negative ease if you can get gauge. I made size 32". Washing your swatch and blocking is highly recommended - I have included a photo of the 2 sleeves, one post-blocking and one pre-blocking to show the difference.

Yarn: Karabella Superyak, 50% Merino 50% Yak, in shade 10207 (a muddy grey which will hopefully go with everything in my work wardrobe), a little over 8x50g. I'll save you the raves on this yarn, which are in my previous posts. Suffice to say I am deeply impressed. This is definitely runway yarn!

Needles: 6.5mm

You also need: cabling-without-a-cable-needle skills are strongly advisable!

Overall experience:

First, the issues of fit. I benefited from the advice of a fellow Raveler to go for negative ease. I wouldn't have figured this out on my own, simply because the garment is designed to be overlapping at the front, and the intuitive thing to do seems to be to stay with positive ease, just to ensure that the fronts can overlap easily when worn.

As it turned out, the size 32", which theoretically gives me 2" of negative ease, was fine everywhere else but almost a little too large at the shoulders. This is not obvious from the schematics, but the shoulder sizing is actually very generous, and coupled with a slightly unconventional method of sleeve cap shaping, what this means is that some knitters could end up with the "shoulder pad" look, as another Raveler put it. I studied the photos in the book again and realised that the garment, on the model, slightly hangs off her shoulders too! That's cold comfort though, if you really want the fit to be perfect. I decided to be Type B about this and let it be. If you really wanted to, I think the issue could be solved by taking width out of the back as well as the cardigan fronts (I could probably lose the width of an entire 4-stitch cable on each side of the shoulder with no ill effect), but that would have to be planned well in advance. If you choose to do that, do bear in mind that the armscye is not particularly deep, and if you narrow the shoulders the snugness at the upper arms will become extra obvious. So you may want to add some depth there if necessary.

One more thing that I suspect would affect most knitters - do check the given underarm lengths against your favourite garments! In this respect I'd agree the pattern is best suited for long-limbed, runway models - in my case I had to take about 2.5" off the stated sleeve length. As you can see, even after shortening they are not at all short on me, so if I had knit them to prescribed lengths I would definitely have ended up with folded cuffs.

As with the A-line cardigan, this pattern is written out line by line so you need to pay close attention at places. If you, like me, don't like to make pen marks in your book, some photocopying may be inevitable because believe me you will need to mark off those rows! The stitch pattern and the short-row shaping are easy enough to commit to memory, but it's the shaping of the cardigan fronts that gets a little complicated. I should add that instructions for 2 rows are missing from the sleeve cap shaping section which I believe should read:

Row 3 (RS): SSK (or whichever decrease you prefer), work in established pattern to last 2 sts, K2tog [Row 4 on the WS would be the same as the other WS rows i.e. work as established]

The finishing instructions in the pattern says to sew sides, shoulders, sleeve and collar seams. If it's sequential, it didn't quite make sense to me. So I adapted it to my usual sequence: Sew the collar ends of the 2 fronts together, then the shoulder seams. Set in the sleeves, followed by side/sleeve seams in no particular order.

This brings me to seaming: I usually go for three-needle bind-offs at the shoulders when knitting cardigans, but since I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the pattern already I bound off all pieces, as written. With hindsight, given the bulky yarn and the amount of cabling, three-needle bind offs would have been ideal at the shoulders, as well as the central seam at the back of the collar. Of course, if you're feeling particularly patient, you could graft that too - then your FO would look even more polished from the back!  

Parting shot: Although it looks like a lot of work, this baby is actually not a long slog. The shoulders are not perfect, in my opinion, but I'm happy enough. Definitely good enough for heavy rotation come the fall!  

My little acrobat

I came home today to a very acrobatic greeting by the Eh. He held up his right palm and lifted his right foot. With his left hand, he was flipping his lower lip outwards. "Mama," he announced while holding this very odd pose, "I have Hand Foot Mouth Disease."

Sadly, the diagnosis appears correct. This is the second time he has got it though, so the symptoms are not as bad as the first time round and we are not quite as frazzled as we were then. It's not exactly a big surprise either, since the entire household has been hit by a wave of viral fever.   

Which explains the slower-than-expected progress on the Cabled Cardigan. You can see most of the blocked pieces pre-assembly here. The final sleeve is still being worked upon, now at a glacial pace.

In making this pattern I've followed most of the row-by-row instructions, with the only significant mod being shortening the sleeves by about 2.5 inches. Since I've been knitting to gauge on prescribed needles, I think it's safe to say that the original yarn allotment of 10 skeins of Superyak for size S was probably a bit on the generous side to begin with - 9 skeins is probably more like it. With shorter sleeves I think I will need probably just a tiny bit over 8 skeins to complete the project. It's kind of like being given an unexpected 20% discount off the project cost! And it leaves me with the rather pleasant problem of figuring out what to do with just under 2 remaining skeins of the very excellent Superyak. Given the great yardage and the loftiness, a bulky openwork scarf might be just the ticket. What do you think?

Pre-viral fever wave, I've also started on another stashbusting project - Jaeger's Bridget in some mustardy-limey Cotton Glace. I've already swatched the yarn for the cheongsam top in Interweave Crochet, but it was a doomed experiment. The yarn weight is not quite the same, and I suspect the viscose content in the recommended yarn is absolutely essential for maintaining an acceptable degree of softness in the fabric. As committed stashbuster, instead of buying new yarn I decided to look for another pattern. I did think of making that polo shirt from Greetings from Knit Cafe, but Bridget caught my eye. I do love free patterns!

From my experience with making Meimei's tank top, I know that Cotton Glace wears very well, and does get softer over time. This is the thought that is propelling me (slowly) forward, because while it serves well as a fabric, it is not much fun to knit, especially when you have the alternative of working on bulky merino-yak! 

I also want to thank friends who have assured me that the photos in my last post came out ok! Anna and Ingrid, I can read your blogs via Bloglines (cos the Great Firewall hasn't cottoned on to that yet) but can't visit to leave comments. Anna - the Girl is a beauty! You must be so proud. Ingrid - love that Easter-egg sock and your Shanghai/Guangzhou adventures. Don't you wonder how I can de-stash while living in this city LOL. Taking5 - I can read snippets of your blog but can't see the pics... guess that will have to wait till I visit somewhere that is a bit more blog-friendly! Hopefully that means Singapore, where we will get to meet up too!

Yet more yak

  Can you stand to see yet more yak yarn being turned into a garment? According to the photo I've finished the back, the left front and am about half-way through the right front of the Cabled Cardigan, but in reality I've only got one sleeve left to go. Looks like I'm on track to finish it by the next weekend, when it would in all likelihood be much too hot and muggy for modelled photos. Perfect timing.

I should add that my level of admiration for the Karabella Superyak keeps climbing new highs. First, it is very soft, and grows softer still after a couple of froggings. Second, it frogs smoothly. Third, it wet-blocks beautifully, with cables retaining their definition clearly. Fourth, and somewhat in contradiction to all the above points put together, it heat-splices together like a dream - no spit necessary! If yarn could have brains, this would be it. And in the 8 hanks that I've wound so far, there's not been a single knot or other knitter-unfriendly irregularity. I'm a fan!

And now, a few photos from my recent trips around the region:

Above are images from Hong Cun, a picturesque village near Huangshan, where most of the buildings date from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

 

Above from left: an ornate stone archway guarding the entrance to Xidi, another ancient village; a heart-stopping cable car ride to visit the peaks of Huangshan; a typical view of oddly shaped crags found in the Huangshan range.

I do hope these photos show up! Most of the time I'm blogging "blind" from China as I'm not able to see the photos that I upload. While I can write blog posts, I can't visit my own blog site (or many other blogs), so apart from crossing my fingers I have no other means of ensuring that my posts look the way I want them to. I suspect this has something to do with the "Great Firewall of China". If anyone knows how to overcome this problem, please drop me a line!  

Look Ma, no cable needle

The past week has been grim, although not without some knitting output.

My stashbusting endeavour has slowed down considerably in the last few weeks due to lingering bouts of springtime ailments. In a word: mononucleosis. I've got that stripey cardigan for the Eh still on the needles, minus sleeves and pockets, and I've lost all willpower to continue. Instead, I've embarked (quite unseasonably) on a long-planned cold weather project - the Cabled Cardigan from Berta Karapetyan's Runway Knits. This is the second pattern that I'm knitting from the book and, in my view, it's one of the book's best designs.

Uncharacteristically, I'm using the called-for yarn, Karabella Superyak. I would substitute if I could, for this yarn is painful on the budget, but the loft and yardage of this 50% extrafine merino- 50% yak blend is incomparable. 125 yards for 50g, and for a bulky yarn! I couldn't find an alternative yarn that would not make the finished garment significantly heavier, and possibly change the drape.

Thus far, I have to say that the yarn's performance has justified its price tag. It knits up smoothly and quickly, with very little splitting - which is important when you're making a bazillion cables and doing the highly acrobatic "cabling without a cable needle" moves. I looked up this technique for the first time just to make this pattern, and I think it is absolutely essential for cutting the production timeline by lightyears. I was a bit reckless and didn't make a swatch, but fortunately I've been getting gauge on the prescribed 6.5mm needles.

The back is all done, and it's lying a-blocking at home (I'm posting while on yet another business trip). Despite all the cabling this pattern is a fast knit. The next couple of weeks are going to be hectic so I'm going to have to steal an hour here and there to work on the other pieces. I can't wait to finish it! 

For my next post: photos from my recent trips around the region!

Requiem

A little more than a week ago I was sitting in my office in downtown Shanghai when my shoulders and arms started to shake, gently yet involuntarily. I wondered briefly if this could be the beginning of a fit. My colleagues said they felt dizzy. In a matter of minutes we were outside, thronging the streets with hundreds of office workers, waiting for someone to tell us it was safe to go back inside. Within the hour word had spread that an earthquake had happened out in Sichuan. How serious? No one knew. Most of us went back to work. For the rest of the afternoon, news on the internet told us that there had been no reports of deaths and major casualties yet. For some reason, for those few hours, it did not occur to me that the operative word was yet.

The trickle of bad news from quake-hit cities soon turned into an avalanche. At the time of this post the official death toll has climbed past 40,000 and is still rising. The injured, homeless and bereaved number in the hundreds of thousands. Pain and grief, however, cannot be expressed by numbers.

May those who have lost their lives rest in peace. And may those who were spared find the strength to live on, and live well. And may the rest of us draw courage from the many extraordinary acts of sacrifice performed by ordinary folks in this massive disaster. I know you will join me in doing what you can to help, even if it's just to care, and to remember.

A happy problem

Religious adherence to de-stashing brings tangible rewards. I'm well into my 4th month of yarn abstinence, and have as a result amassed so much savings that I can now treat myself to an It Bag.

Ok, so I exaggerate.

It is true, though, that I have talked myself into the need for some new handbags of the fabulous kind. Quite unintentionally, I've spent the last few months with my nose to the grindstone, earning my keep and pretty much failing to do my bit for the retail economy. In the meantime, heavy rotation and hectic travel is taking a toll on my beloved incumbent handbags. While I readily admit to requiring little in the way of persuasion when it comes to shopping, I have to say that my taste has been emboldened by the theoretical savings accrued from my non-purchase of yarn. Return to the world of spending I shall, and I resolve not to emerge from my foray without one or two exemplars of "arm candy".

The problem is, what bag(s) to buy? Apart from the good ol' Italian and French brands, so many intriguing players have stormed the market since the last time I looked (a long time ago, believe me), with names I can barely pronounce, like this and this. And where have I been while about a thousand online discount bag merchants other than Bluefly have been mushrooming on the internet? Don't even get me started on the bag blogs. The information explosion, the presence of an actual community, the obsessive documentation of details and design... I felt like I stumbled on a parallel universe.

While not contemplating the charms of of silver lambskin hobos versus straw-and-python totes, I'm making a stripey top-down raglan cardigan for the Eh, in a combination of odd balls of Filatura di Crosa's Zara and Jaeger's Extra Fine Merino DK. I'm winging it without a pattern again, and I've tried to use a stripe sequence that looks like a lot of work and yet involves a minimal number of ends to be weaved in. Sleeves and pockets are the only bits left to do.