Rush Jobs

I hate rushing through projects.

Unfortunately, when one starts socks for Hanukkah less than a month before the holiday starts, it will end up being a rush job.  Well, at least for me.  I'm not the fastest knitter out there, so it takes me about a month to complete a pair of socks.  Especially ribbed socks with cables.

The good news is they did get done, even if it was at 2am last Sunday when I cast off the last toe, and I did have to cut out certain things I was planning to do.  Mainly, I'm very lucky the sock top was stretchy enough even with the provisional long-tail cast.  And that the yarn I used for the cast-on matched the sock.  It let me just weave in the ends and call it a day without having to go back and pick up at the top.

It did leave me with left over yarn, though.  Boo.

Since it was a rush job, I didn't get any pictures of the finished socks before I gave them to my mom.  Hell, hey were still damp from the steam blocking job I did when I handed them over.  I just didn't have any more time before I left the house.

(Speaking of blocking, I did re-block Crazy Cable Blanket.  Though it turns out that my iron at my parents' house also had hard water dust in it...however, it wasn't as bad as mine.  Oh well.  Hopefully it stays blocked this time, but most likely I'll never know.) 

Anyway, you would think I'd be smart and let that be the end of it, but no.  I had to decide to knit something for a gift swap. And not only that, I was designing it as well.

Let me go back to the beginning here.  I suck at buying presents, unless it's certain people in my family who I just get what they like. Despite this, I signed up for a gift swap where the recipient of said gifts didn't know who was giving it to them, I had a price limit, and all I had to go by was a set of answers to four questions. Hoo boy.

When thinking about what to get, I started settling on the idea of knitting something cheap and quick.  I had the favorite color of the recipient, and I had other ways of feeling out what they liked, knitting-wise.  What else was I going to do?  So I did a half-prototype where I took yarn out of my stash, found a pattern (which I had no intention using to make as the gift.  I don't know what I was thinking)...and ended up a day later with something else.  I basically went from this to this:

Yeah...my creative side took over there big time.  I was pretty much going on the fly; deciding what to do by row.  Oye.  The only thing that little exercise that took over when I was supposed to be knitting a pair of socks did was prove that I could knit a bulky yarn, small-sized cowl in a day.  Well, that and it gave me something to hand to my mom the first night of Hanukkah. 

After that, I decided that I was going to take a trip to Purl Soho (which I'd never been to) on a day I took off for unrelated reasons and see if I could find a skein of yarn that worked.  I was then going to find a store in the Fashion District and get buttons (which...holy shit why didn't I figure this out earlier?  The first store I walked into had tons and tons of buttons!  They had the perfect buttons for both cowls!  I need to go to the Fashion District more often).  After I got materials, I was going to sit down, change the pattern a bit on the cowl I did on the fly, and have four days to get it done.  Except that I was still working on the socks 'til Sunday, which left me with two days instead.

Not deterred and with a cable pattern I came up with Friday night,  I calculated how many stitches I needed to cast on and started in the car on the way to a relative's house.  I promptly screwed up on said math and had to re-start during the same ride.  No matter; at said relative's house, I was able to get half-way through the cowl while watching the Jets game (yeah, yeah, I know, 'Jets suck' and all of that.  Still a fan, though).  Got close to done on the way back to my apartment, and finished the knitting Sunday night (and managed to write the pattern down, even though I wasn't 100% happy with the design.  Not bad, but not amazing). 

'Yes!' I thought, 'I'll just block it, sew on the buttons Monday night, and it'll be done by Tuesday!'

Except one little thing I didn't do. I never saved and blocked the swatches I had done Friday night...no time and needed the yarn, you see.  So when I wet the yarn, I wasn't expecting it to go all limp and crappy-looking like it did.  It looked horrible.  You could see through the thing, that's how loose the stitches were.  Where I had joined in the initial round looked like it was going to come apart any second.  It had no structure at all.  There was no way I could give that away.

Now, I'm thinking: 'Crap, I screwed.  I have to knit another one!'  So I did.  Except I changed several things, including the cable (which I again designed partly on the fly).  I knit on the subway, on my lunch break, at home Monday night.  At 10pm, I was done (and had documented it as well).  I steamed blocked it this time, created the buttonhole loops and sewed on the buttons , and got this:

Its a small cowl.  A neck warmer, if you will.  But I like it,  and I had my gift and enough notes to write up a new pattern (though said pattern isn't done yet because I managed to get a cold yesterday and didn't feel like it.  I'll do it this weekend).

Oh, and the recipient?  Loved it.  I guess I can get it right sometimes.

As for the crappy cowl...well, that has a happy ending as well.  See, Tuesday night I looked at it again after it had dried a bit and it was now just fine.  It was a tad looser than I planned, but it was not too floppy or crappy looking anymore. So I sewed some snaps in it to shut it (as I didn't have buttons anymore) and here it is:

Another usable cowl.  Which I'll never use, so I have to figure out who to pawn it off on.  This pattern will also be written up and posted this weekend.  I figured that maybe someone else would like it more than I do.

Not bad for series of rush jobs.  I still don't like to do things this way, though.

I Spoke Too Soon

I hate when the stupidly unexpected happens, especially when you think you're done with something and...nope!  You screwed up and now have to fix it!

You see, while I was up at my parent's house for Thanksgiving, I decided to test wash Crazy Cable Blanket.  You know, to make sure it wasn't going to fall apart or anything.  That, and it needed to be washed.

Well, the good news is that it came out of the washer and drier intact.  The bad thing is doing so unblocked the damn thing.  This is acrylic/nylon yarn.  The blocking job I did should have been permanent (and, yes, you CAN block acrylic yarn, you just have to steam block instead of wet block the item.  Oh, and unlike wool, once you block acrylic, it's always blocked.  Which, given that I tend to use acrylic when I need something that can be washed and dried, is nice).

So, this means two things: either the nylon is keeping me from doing the acrylic perma-block, or the whole pillowcase trick I used became my iron has hard water dust all in it (which I rather not get all over my knitting) didn't really block it.  Having done a bit of research after the fact, it seems that it's the latter.  I'm guessing that I was supposed to use the steam setting of the iron with the wet pillowcase  because the pillowcase isn't supposed to generate the steam.  Or I didn't iron it until the pillowcase was dry enough.  Or both.  Probably both.

Of course, I left Crazy Cable Blanket up at my parent's house as planned, which means I have to wait until I go up there again to use their non-hard-water-damaged iron to steam block it again.  This also means it will be done right before I give it to my brother....so if it doesn't stick this time, I failed.

At least the other Hanukkah present I'm making is moving:

...for now, that is.

Crazy Cable Blanket Debrief (With a Bonus Border Pattern)

So, I finished Crazy Cable Blanket:

Yet I cannot make my bed well, or pick up the shoes I haven't worn in months.

It's all done.  Border, blocked, everything.  I can't believe I managed to finish it.  The label I sewed on it says it all:

I ordered them from KnitPicks, but other retailers may have these labels in stock as well

Anyway, since this took about a year and a month of my life (though if I had worked on it consistently, it would have been more around eight months), I figured I go into detailed 'debrief' of the pattern for anyone who's crazy enough to make one.

The Pattern
The pattern I used for the blanket itself was Alice Starmore's St. Ciaran (missing accents; sorry) from the reprinted version of the book Aran Knitting (it may be in the original as well.  I don't know and I can't vouch for that version).  Like all of Alice Starmore's cable work, it is interesting, creative, intricate, and absolutely crazy.  What made this more fascinating is the idea of having cables form Celtic patterns, which involves learning how to make the cable appear like it's making a bend when in fact that's where you started or ended the cable.  As I love cables, and I like Celtic designs, I loved this.  Hell, I bought Aran Knitting because I saw this pattern knitted up in a KnitPicks catalog.

However, the Celtic cabling is also what made the pattern challenging.  Now, honestly, the pattern and the charts that go with it are flawless.  I had no problem learning how to read the chart, setting it up, and following it.  I did have some issues the whole 'start and finish the cable in the middle of it' step in the beginning, though.  The first couple of times I screwed up and had to re-start the blanket.  But after that, all my mistakes were more due to my momentary lapses in paying attention more than anything (can you blame me? Knitting solid cables 200+ stitches across gets a bit tedious, no matter how much you like the pattern).

The other interesting thing about this pattern is that it's actually supposed to be a shawl.  However, it's a really big shawl...what most of us would call a small blanket.

For anyone who wants to attempt the pattern, the advice I'd give to you is:

1. Use a 60" circular needle.  Use a good quality one as well; you will put stress on the joins between the cord and needle with this pattern and you don't want them popping mid blanket.  However, you will not get far with straight needles unless you are so against circulars you insist on using them.  Your sanity and wrists will thank me later.
2.  I know it's a blanket, but for the love of the knitting goddess, SWATCH FIRST.  If you're too lazy to swatch one of the charts (which is recommended to learn how to do the cable from nothing trick before you start the blanket and then have to re-start it), at least swatch in stockinette.  Alice Starmore's patterns are notorious for tight gauge (I think I saw someone call it 'bullet-proof'; it's not too much of an exaggeration).  You may have an issue with it and have to go up a needle size or two, depending on the yarn used.
3. While I used an acrylic/nylon blend successfully, I would still recommend going will some sort of wool, wool blend, or some other flexible, springy yarn for this blanket.  You will enjoy knitting it more with a yarn that doesn't mind going through some gymnastics, because that's all this pattern is.  You may find a different fiber that will work, but tread carefully.  If you need machine washable like I did, you may have to compromise on ease-of-knitting a bit, however you must triple-check that your chosen yarn won't send you to the wrist doctor for pain either (Ravelry reviews of other knitters having done cables with said yarn are a godsend for this).  This is also why you need to swatch, hopefully before you commit yourself to buying all the skeins.
4. On the other hand, the yardage you will get by calculating it out of the pattern is a bit more than you need, unless you're knitting more loosely or putting the fringe on.  I used a little under 2100 yards on the blanket itself as written (minus the fringe), but bought 2730 yards based on the pattern.  With my border, I used about 2520 yards.
5. Put stitch markers where each chart ends/begins.  They don't really get in the way and they help you see where all the charts are.
6. Have separate row counters for each chart, along with one representing the whole blanket. You can use an app for this if you don't want five string-on counters on your needle cord.  The benefit of the app is that most of them will switch all the counters with one button push.  The downside is that you need your phone/tablet around and not dead whenever you knit.
7. It may be easier if you photocopy the charts so you're not flipping back and forth in the book. I insist on it if you're using a library copy or someone else's copy of Aran Knitting. I didn't do this, and  I broke the spine of my book and the pattern pages de-attached. I had to duct tape them back in. Twice.
8. Don't try to memorize the charts.  You may get the A chart down pat all right, as it's just a six-stitch braid (and it's the most common chart in the blanket), but you will make more mistakes than anything if you try to memorize the other three charts.  They are too long and complicated.  Save yourself some hair-ripping and just stick with reading the charts.

The Border
The border isn't part of the pattern.  I made it up on the fly.  The blanket just looked unfinished to me without one, and I had extra yarn anyway.  However, the thought of picking up stitches along it and knitting a border...no.  Just no.  So I crocheted it instead.  I love being bi-craftal.

For anyone who wants to go the extra mile of crazy, the border pattern is below:

Start in a stitch or two in front of a corner of the blanket.  It doesn't really matter which corner, but I started on the end of the blanket.

Use a US G/6 (4.25mm) or whatever is slightly smaller than the knitting needle size you're using (Go with the G if you're knitting with an US 7 (4.5mm)). Always end the round by slip stitching (sl st) into the top chain to end the round.  sc = single crochet, dc = double crochet, FPdc = front post double crochet, i = # of side you're on, loc = stitch you're at (the location).  This is a quick and dirty pattern, be warned.  The chart will be added later, as it will take more time to make (though it will be much clearer than my written instructions for many people, I think.  I said it was a bonus).

Round 1:  for(i=0; i < 4; i++){sl st to loc == corner st.  3 sl st.} sl st to loc = 0

Round 2:  Ch 3. for(i=0; i < 4; i++){dc to loc == corner st. 3 dc.} dc to loc = 0

Round 3: Ch 2.  for(i=0; i < 4; i++){sc to loc == corner st. 3 sc } sc to loc = 0

Round 4: Ch 2. for(i=0; i < 4; i++){while(loc != corner st ){sc. FPdc into below dc.} if(loc == corner st){sc, FPdc into corner dc stitch, sc.}}. do{sc. FPdc into below dc.}while(loc != 0)

Round 5-8:  Round 3

Round 9: Round 2

Round 10:  Round 4

Round11: Round 3

I can't tell you how many stitches I did on each side, because I was lazy and didn't count (and therefore had too many stitches and had to decrease. Then I had to learn how to property decrease in crochet, because I realized I've never had to decrease in a way that didn't involve just skipping the stitch.  The result was that I learned that decreasing in crochet is just a two stitch cluster, but I still had a few too many stitches on the ends).  I will tell you that you need to slip stitch into every knit stitch on the sides of the blanket, but you'll need to only do a percentage of them on the ends.

The Yarn
The yarn...what can I say? I used Berroco Comfort in color 9763 (it's a navy blue color, despite some of the photos I took). I knew everything about it from the reviews I read, and I pretty much had the same experience, minus one.  The good is that it's cushy and provides enough stitch definition for cables.  It's also machine washable and dryable, which is good for a blanket for a 13-year-old.  I haven't run it in the washer machine yet, but it's been in the dryer and it came out fine.  The steam blocking job I did created a bit of fuzzy, but that's because I wasn't being careful (it does say not to iron the yarn and while I was using a pillowcase between the iron and the blanket (wet pillowcase = steam without the steam setting), I was pressing too hard and had the iron up too hot).

The bad is that it does have a tendency to split into tiny threads, especially on the sharp tips of the metal needles I prefer.  I'm pretty used to this by now, as I can split yarns that almost never split when using said needles, but it's a bit of an issue with this yarn in particular. Also, you don't have the desired flexibility with the yarn that you may want with such a cabling job.  Sliding the stitches and twisting them are a bit tougher than one may like or expect with a good flexible yarn like wool.

The one thing I do disagree with from a review I read was that I found it easier to crochet with than to knit with.  Since the crochet hook was blunt, and my knitting needles were sharp, I had less of an issue with splitting when crocheting with it. It still split, don't get me wrong, but not as badly.  But maybe my experience is tainted with the fact that I was crocheting simpler stitches than I was knitting, so it just tolerated the less demanding stitchery better.

Conclusion
This was one of the most trying projects I've worked on, and there were many times I dropped it like a hot potato and let it cool for a couple of months. It got tedious some days, and I can't believe I spent so much time on it.

The next one I do is for me. In a nice wool.  I keep staring at it; I love the cables and I want one now.  Or maybe I'll adopt the cables in St. Brigid into a shawl like I wanted to do before I do another Crazy Cable Blanket.  Or actually get around to making Eala Bhan, which is the other pattern I bought this book for.

Don't worry, it won't happen any time soon.  I have enough yarn for other projects already that it'll be awhile before I get around to buying yarn for another one of these....

Procrastinating and Creating

For once, I should be doing other things such as packing and maybe trying to get some rows of Crazy Cable Blanket done, but instead I'm writing a blog post and making little pumpkin breads:

(I actually don't care for cooking, but I like fresh food and saving money)

But anyway, this weekend my ass is going to be upstate, a trip for which I even took a few days off from work for (yay limited vacation time). I've stopped packing because I'm trying to convince myself that, no, I don't need to bring my whole knitting needle set because I have enough projects going that I don't need to start anything from the yarn I plan to buy at Rhinebeck before I get back home.  I'm also trying to pack for four days in a small suitcase while leaving enough room for more stuff.  Over packing (which I always do, unfortunately) is one thing.  Trying to lug an over packed suitcase on the subway and a bus is a completely different story.  My trip involves at least six staircases, crowded subways, a long distance style bus, and a long hill, and yes, you count when you're lugging bags.

I probably don't need all my projects with me either, but they're going.  Crazy Cable Blanket (of which I have 30 rows left) is going.  The spatterdashers (halfway through the second one!) are going.  Those  Log Cabin squares I make when I can't do anything else are going.  That blue crochet thing from the last post is going:

That will be my fourth posted pattern, and I swear it, because I have the pattern written down already and I'm following it.  It's a long time coming; I haven't tried making my own pattern since the baby sweater, and haven't posted one since the baby hat I did.  I'd admit, for awhile I just wasn't feeling it.  I didn't want to deal with the creative process, and I had enough projects going I didn't need to.  After really gearing up at the beginning of the year I fell flat.  I think I was hoping to get going with the design thing, but got overwhelmed with life, then said screw it and forgot about it for awhile.

Reciently, though, something clicked. It started when I went on a yarn crawl and ended up with this yarn:

I bought the blue-green yarn with the idea of making my mom's Hanukkah present out of it.  It's alpaca, of course, and the plan was another hat.  But I wasn't sure if I would find a good pattern for it.  Then an idea hit me. I knew exactly what that hat's going to look like, and I sat down and charted out the cable I wanted and drew sketches:

Now, I haven't tested the design yet in yarn, nor written the pattern (I need to figure out how I'm doing the top still, and if I want to do a contrasting brim), but I figured after I get done with the Halloween stuff I'd get down to that.  I may need extensive modification, who knows.

Then I realized that the other yarn, which I bought thinking I had three skeins of it in my stash already, was the wrong color.

Oops.  I called the yarn store I bought the three black skeins from and asked if they had any of the charcoal color I actually have in my stash. No such luck; they didn't have it.  Now I'm stuck with three skeins of charcoal and three skeins of black yarn, which killed my first idea of what I was going to do with that yarn.

Then I realized I needed yarn for that class I'm taking at Rhinebeck.  Ok then, I'll try to come up with my first sweater pattern using that yarn.  Which may or may not happen, but that yarn's what I'm bringing to class.

I did sketch out some ideas of sweaters, though.  I'm not sure how far along this class wants you, but they mentioned bringing fashion pictures.  I don't really have any inspirational pictures right now, so I just sketched, and I'm hoping to wear the jacket I want to mimic in a cardigan pattern at some point (since, you know, it's already got a hole in it).

Finally, after setting out all these knitting projects, and knitting stuff like worsted weight yarn on size 0 needles, I decided I really needed a easy, bulky, crochet project. I also decided I needed a wrap because it was cold outside and the heat wasn't on yet in my apartment (because I was totally going to get it done before the landlord got around to turning the heat on.  Didn't happen; the heat kicked in a week ago).

Luckily I have tons of Loops & Threads Charisma in my stash that really needs to stop living there.  Out comes the big crochet hook, and I started crocheting a wrap.  Then I frogged it.  Then I crocheted a square.  Then I frogged it.  Then I searched Ravelry in vein and got sick of all the repetitive crochet blanket patterns. Then I found this stitch in a crochet stitch dictionary and thought, hm, that looks interesting.  So I charted out a repeat from memory (which meant it's different than the actual stitch dictionary version), figured out the arrangement I wanted, actually figured out my gauge for it, calculated the number of chains to do to start, and went at it.  I'm actually shocked it's coming out as nicely as it is in this yarn.  I was thinking that my pattern idea may be more suited for a worsted weight, or maybe even a sport weight, but I was doing bulky first because stash.  You'll see.  When I'm done with the bulky version, I'll post the pattern.  Then maybe I'll figure out a worsted weight one (though I would have to buy yarn for that one, oye).

But I really need to pack now.  It's amazing what you do when you have something else that needs to get done.

First Socks and Too Many Other Projects

I broke my two project rule ages ago, and it's starting to bite me in the ass.

Let's see, I have multiple projects I'm trying to make for my Halloween costume (I originally was thinking of going as Ada Lovelace from this comic, but I decided just to do a generic Victorian/Steampunk thing because I didn't feel like explaining myself all night.  Yes, I'm a geek).  The first was fine, it was a crocheted top hat that took a weekend to make.  However, I then decided to make these spatterdashers (since I own no Victorian style boots), and oh boy.  Size 0 needles and worsted weight yarn.  My hands have never protested so much at a project.

I've just gotten one done, but I still have to do the other.  Not counting buttons (which I don't own yet).

It wasn't helped by the fact that I did 8 extra rows by being completely oblivious as to what row I was on, which resulted in two extra decreases.  In order to hack a fix for that, I first did two increases on the last two rows instead of one, and then made the side bands bigger.  There were a lot of other minor mistakes, but it's for a costume.  I don't care.

I also decided that I really should knit some of the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck last year before Rhinebeck this year, which resulted in this:

My first socks.  Actually, I ended up making three socks, because I messed up on the left (first) sock, but didn't realize it until I blocked it:

I know I was off a stitch on the cable pattern, but I have no clue how I ended up with a bigger ankle part.  Anyway, since I had tons of yarn left, I decided that I wanted to make another left sock so I had two great socks.

The only two things I would do differently is drop down a needle size and make them a little bit longer, because they're slightly tight lenghtwise (I made the right one based on how many repeats I did on the first left one, which was of course, bigger, though I didn't realize that then). But maybe that's because I'm so used to wearing big socks.  Hopefully they stretch a bit.

Honestly, for someone who doesn't care for socks (I'm the person who takes off their socks right after their shoes.  I either leave my shoes on or go barefoot.  I don't like walking around in socks), I really got into knitting them.  It's almost the perfect project to tote around; I can pick it up on the subway, during lunch at work, anytime.  Once I figured out the pattern (which is called Tea Time, and I had to pretty much interpret it since it's a obvious translation and there's information missing and I was Magic Looping while the instructions presume you're using DPNs), it was easy, but still required some thought.

I'm also still in love with this yarn.  Bought it for $21, but damn, worth it.  I'm almost afraid to wear these socks.

On the other hand, all that knitting has gotten me wanting to crochet again:

More on that at another time.

Oh, and yes, I'm still working on Crazy Cable Blanket.  Have 50 rows to go now.

Yarn crafts has started taking over my life.  Oh well.

Deadlines and Stupid Mistakes

Bad things happen when you actually start to think about deadlines.  Sure, we've all had them, for knitting or otherwise.  Sure, they're sometimes a good thing.  But it's nice when you can take your time with a project as well.

The latter was my first approch to Crazy Cable Blanket.  You know, this one:

This was mostly to preserve my sanity.  Imagine setting a deadline on that sucker...at best, it would have been so far into the future it'd been useless.  Anyway, a week or so ago, I sat down and calculated around how much I needed to knit if I wanted to get it done by next Hanukkah (which is in the middle of December this year).  A rough estimate concluded that if I knit 4 rows a day, I can get it done by November (which would maybe give me time to smack a border on it.  Because all this time-sink of a blanket needs is more work done to it).

Four rows a day?  How hard is that?

Well, pretty hard, actually.  For starters, there are some days I'm just not really home until late, and I have to go to work the next morning, so forget about staying up to work on it.  Despite what I did yesterday, it's not really a good project to bring to a bar, nor to travel with in general.  Some days, I just have other crap to do, or I just don't want to sit down for an hour and a half and knit, or I get distracted by other things (like now).  Despite this, I'm sticking to my goal of four rows a day, even if in reality it's more like 14 to 16 rows a week (about 2.29 rows a day)  This is because this is the most I've worked on it, and even if I don't quite make my deadline of Hanukkah, I'm at least making visible progress.  Also, I really don't want to be talking about it a year from now. 

Of course, attempting to speed things up a bit has it drawbacks.  Like noticing almost 75 rows later that you did this:

...and, even worse, this:

It figures.  Not only did I mis-cross the easiest cable in the blanket, I noticed it way after I did it.  Not like I'm going to frog half the blanket to fix it, so I'm pretty much stuck with this visible emblem of my stupidity.  Well...I did search for a way to fix it, and there happens to be another way.  However, I'm not so sure I want to try cutting just the right piece of yarn to re-cross the cables. Knowing me, I'll cut the wrong piece and ruin a year's worth of work.  A pre-teen won't care about a stupid mis-crossed cable and I'm just being anal, right?

P.S.: By the way, there should be no more interruptions in my life of the unplanned, life-taking-over, variety...at least for now.  That doesn't exclude laziness in posting, so I'll ask you to forgive me now for infrequent updates.

Distractions and Old Obsessions

I figured that my next post would be the results of the test.  Didn't happen.  I still got one more swatch to do, and then I got to record everything.  I should be done next week.

And why am I not done?  Couple of reasons.  One, I hate swatching, so I'm procrastinating.  Two, I got distracted by a thousand other things.  This post is about those projects.

First off, I spent my week 1)starting the baby sweater (having done all the math for the body of the sweater, at least), 2)realizing my choice of increase sucked and therefore frogging the sweater, 3)restarting it with a new increase, 4)noticing that it looked a little big, measuring it, realizing that it was in fact an inch too big, re-measuring the gauge, realizing that I had had a gauge accident, and therefore frogging the sweater again.

This was followed by an investigation as to why I had had a gauge accident, which was found to be due to my own stupidity.  My swatch didn't lie, in fact the first swatch I did for the baby sweater was at the same gauge I was getting for the sweater itself.  The problem was that I measured it wrong the first time, and therefore every bit of math and planning I did for this pattern was 100% wrong for the size I wanted.  Yeah.  Ripping out 11 rows and having to re-do all the pattern math was not what I was aiming to do this week.

Anyway, having done that, I did get it started again:

And it is in fact the right size this time.  I checked three times.

As well, as I was knitting a garter stitch square, I was thinking about how I really shouldn't be knitting a square for my Log Cabin Afghan, and should really switch the needles back to the Crazy Cable Blanket so I could get some of that done.  Except then another train of thoughts went through my head.  You see, the baby sweater needs to be done by June (as well as the one that still needs buttons. I haven't had any luck with that).  Also, I want to knit up a small shawl using my other skein of Merino Light, and that will also need to be done by June, as I wish to wear it to my brother's bar mitzvah.  Surfing for patterns for that, I realized that I need to get my brother a present.  But what to get him...hm...what did I get for my sisters...oh, shit, I made them crocheted kippot.

This needs some back story.  You see, I originally got interested in pattern design for one reason.  When I was in high school and actually not only considered myself Jewish but was a constant participant in one of the youth groups, I wanted to make myself a kippah. I tried finding a pattern online, but that didn't net me much back in the early 2000's.  I had a vision, and I wanted that.  So, I spent most of my high school years making and trying to come up with a pattern for the perfect kippah.  Two of my best efforts of this ended up going to my sisters for their bat mitzvahs, one of them actually being very good. Unfortunately, I crocheted it as I was watching the Columbia disaster unfold on TV and therefore didn't write down what I did, and never managed to recreate it.  I, after making a bunch of failed efforts, gave up when I went to college.  This left me with a shit-ton of crochet thread that I've, for some reason, always kept around but have not done anything else with.

So guess what made a reappearance recently:

Yay stash.  Anyway, in my time on Raverly, I've noticed that they had a whole category for kippot, so I went and clicked it.  Lots of free, basic knitted and crochet patterns for kippot.  Only one problem.  None of them are for crochet thread.  So, guess what I've been doing today?

I'm once again trying to create a kippah pattern so I can also make my brother a kippah for his bar mitzvah.  In June. Oye.

Of course you may look at the start of that effort and go, 'wait, doesn't that look a little feminine for a boy?' and you would be right.  That's because after my third time starting (and after buying three different sizes of steel crochet hooks...no wonder I sucked at making kippot last time, I didn't even have the right size hook for the yarn!), I got the ripple effect that I had achieved on my only good effort last time I did this.  So I started writing down what I was doing and went with it.  Not that this little side effort hasn't given me an idea of how to make a more standard kippah, but yeah, this isn't for my brother.  Don't know what I'm going to do with it, assuming I get something out of it.  Maybe give it to my mother, since I've never made her one either (when she had her (adult) bat mitzvah, I bought her a kippah).

Now I've started something else, this leave me with four projects in progress (where did my rules go?  Threw them out when I moved, it looks like), two active which need to be done by June, and one that needs to be done by next December (given this is Crazy Cable Blanket, this isn't a sure thing.  I have to get rows done every week to potentially make that deadline).  I also have another project that isn't started that I would like to be done by June (but honestly, if I don't get my shawl it's not the end of the world).  And yarn I just bought for a hat I was hoping on making before winter ended.  And eight done squares and one in progress for a blanket I don't need, but since it's a mindless project, it gets worked on more often than Crazy Cable Blanket does.  Oh, and that swatch for my test. Do you think I've bit off more than I can chew here?

How Not to Wind a Hank, with Some Reflections on Designing

So, this weekend, I didn't get much knitting stuff done.  Did a couple of rows on Crazy Cable Blanket, worked on a couple of squares (partly while waiting in a waiting room; partly during the Super Bowl, though I didn't get nearly as much done during the Super Bowl as I thought I would.  Something about being at a party and being from NY, that kind of thing).  Oh, and decided I was going to swatch for this baby sweater/shirt/whatever that I can't really decide what I want it to look like, let alone actually sit down and do the math.  But anyway, that little side journey was thrawted by one of the hanks of cotton.  You see, I had these hanks:

And one, once a swift and ball winder were utalized, quickly became this:

However, the second hank quickly became this:

(Yes, that wooden thing is a swift.  It's an Amish-style swift, verses the more common umbrella type)

Yep.  A big, steaming pile of yarn mess.  Why did it become such a mess?  Well, whoever wound the hank up did a shitty job.  Both ends of the hank were tangled up with the other strands of the hank, making winding off a swift impossible.  I tried.  For awhile, I was weaving the ball winder in and out of the hank on the swift when needed.  Then, I got to a point where the space the yarn went through was not and could never be big enough for the ball winder to go through.  So, I took the partial cake of yarn off the winder, tried winding it by hand off the hank, watched the partial cake start to disintegrate while the hank tangles became more numerous, and therefore got frustrated and took the hank off the swift.  Which meant that it disintegrated into the mess in the picture above.  And that's after I spent an hour attempting to untangle it.

Ug, how hard it is to wind a hank, people?  Big circle of yarn.  Really now.  The last time I had this issue was also a hank of cotton, too.  Different company though.

I finally did get it untangled and wound up into a non-disintegrating yarn cake, though it took me at least two hours to do it, split across two days.  Which meant I got no swatching done.  Oye.

Of course, the whole swatching and knitting of this yarn is another issue.  I want to create the pattern for this baby sweater/cardigan/whatever myself and write it down.  I have some ideas, and some constraints (needs to be short-sleeved, gender-neutral, and I only have one hank of each color plus some black cotton from another FO), and no idea how the variegated yarn knits up, which is a problem I need to fix.  But what this also means is that I have to sit down, do the math for whatever I design (which will probably be way too complicated and will therefore have to be toned down), knit it, hack it, fix my math, and then figure out how to size it.  I've never done a sweater pattern before (well, I tried once, but while I did get a FO out of it, I did not get anything I liked or useful to write a pattern up with).  I have 'till June for the FO. 

Which brings me to another mistake of mine that I realized somewhat recently.  You see, when I first started writing my patterns down (back when I just crocheted), I thought that designers usually designed while knitting/crocheting, wrote down what they did, and then released it into the world.  So that's what I did, both successfully and not.  I BS'ed a pattern while I created it, tried to keep track of what I was doing and not do anything too crazy,  made it pretty and posted it.

Well, except that's not how it works in the real world.  Most designers write the whole pattern first, or at least most of it.  And, there are designers out there that never make the patterns they write.  They write the pattern, and then send it off to be tested by other knitters/crocheters.  This blew my mind.  Really?  You can design something before you make it?  How do you know it's going to work, or what it's going to look like?

Then I actually thought about it, and realized that I'm an idiot.  Of course you can write a pattern before you make it.  It's like writing pseudo-code or planning out a program to the function level.  If you know what you're working in and what it's supposed to do, you should know what's possible or not, and therefore write fine code or patterns without ever executing it or making the pattern.  Theory and thought will show you what will work or not.

Of course...I also plan a lot of my programs partly on the fly.  It's just the way I think; I need to see it working to really say 'yeah, this works'.  Now, don't get me wrong, I do plan the logic flow, gather requirements, do mockups of screens, and all the other fun planning steps that come with coding.  But I tend to plan the actual structure and/or some details of the program itself by just coding it and getting it up and running.  So is it really surprising that, knowing no designers or anything about the process, that's how I was designing as well? 

Except that, why I don't mind coding this way (to a point), on-the-fly planning in yarn craft is way more annoying.  See, to change something in code can be very simple (well, I should say in the environments and languages I currently work in).  You go, you figure out what you want, you write it (or copy and paste it), and you run it.  All the rest of the code you've written and tested is still there.  To change something while making it in yarn usually ends up requiring scrapping part of the project.  Or the whole project.  Or even the yarn you bought for the project.  You can't reuse stitches you knitted after the change, at least not usually.  And a different construction?  You can't just copy and paste what you want and piece it back together, you know.

Hence, I'm planning on writing down most of this baby sweater/cardigan/whatever pattern before I attempt to knit it.  I'll swatch to see what color and stitch combinations look good, I'll do the math and write down everything.  Sure, something will change after I start it.  But I won't be doing half-assed math calculations that lead to a too-wide neckline like my last sweater project.  Or a too-loose gauge that just didn't work, that I didn't bother pulling out because that meant losing everything I'd done before.

Famous last words, I know.

In Which I Learn the Importance of Researching Before Pattern Writing, and Get Addicted to Garter Stitch

So, my plans once again get made, and the fall into the dust.  I should be working on either the baby sweater to be made with my new yarn, or the crazy cable blanket, but I'm not.  Actually, I've managed to start another project in the meantime:

This is from a pattern in 60 Quick Baby Knits called "Log Cabin Afghan", except that I'm altering it.  The square is actually supposed to have two more blocks of color going around it, but I decided I didn't want to do that and stopped early (yes, I know that means more squares will have to be done.  But it also balances out color usage).  That, and since I'm using whatever yarn I have right now, which is mainly Caron Simply Soft with some Berocco Vintage for the middle square, the squares aren't all going to be the same color (though I haven't decided what to repeat or not yet, still thinking about it.  Also, I do not kid myself that at some point, more yarn will have to be bought to finish this).  As well, despite the pattern source, I doubt it's going to any baby.  My color scheme of worsted weight yarn in my stash isn't exactly baby friendly.  Thirdly, I really should learn to read patterns carefully before starting them.  You see the pile of center squares?  That's because I didn't realize that you didn't bind off on the first square, but kept knitting, and then turned.  I'm having to undo the bind off and then continue for all those squares because someone didn't follow instructions.

You would think I would have been driven mad by all the garter stitch done in those squares (and hell, I'm not even a big fan of garter stitch as a look), but I'm oddly addicted to it right now.  I guess my mind just needs something not complicated.  I've had better weeks.  At least it'll be a better project to work on during the Super Bowl.

In other news, I was pretty much done with the baby hat pattern I posted just now last week, except that then I actually bothered Googling 'Mistake Rib'.  You see, I learned a 1x1 version of mistake rib that wasn't reversible, leading me to decide to make a 'brim up' and a 'brim down' version of the pattern.  Then I found out that proper mistake rib is a reversible pattern.  Oops.  I could have saved my ass from having to do two hats (though doing the second hat reveled some other math-related mistakes in my pattern, so it still wasn't a waste of time).  However, changing it now would dictate a completely different pattern, as the math doesn't work out with my current stitch count.  So I apologize for that.  I could have made it easier, and I didn't.  I really should do my research before embarking on pattern writing wild goose chases.  It's because of this that I almost didn't post the pattern, thinking that it shows that I'm a bit of an idiot.  But I put a descent amount of work into it, so I decided to post it anyway.

However, between the pattern below, the squares, and some idea sketching for the baby sweater (which I'm most likely not going to use, but anyway), I haven't had time to do much else.  It's odd. I've gotten a lot done, yet it seems like I haven't done anything.  Oye.

Depressing post is depressing.  Will have to post later when I'm in a better mood.