Archive Entries for June 2007
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Sunday June 24, 2007
Alison: Houston we have patterning
I've been making good progress on the gurnsey and reached the chest patterns.
I've made a few mistakes so far, I hope not too noticable as I made the same mistake on both the front and the back. In fact, I think this photo is of the error section.
I think the reason that Ive made mistakes, and these are really stupid errors of counting, is that the pattern is terribly confusing. It's really quite unnecessarily confusing as its a pretty basic 16 row repeat, with only 4 actual pattern rows. It would be an ideal pattern for a chart, however the way the pattern is written does not point out the repeat, and each row is written out, with comments like Rows 16-24 repeat rows 12-16, but the instructions for row 15 say repeat row 13...you get the idea.
Finally, I got out my notebook and calculator, worked out where I had made the mistakes, and re-wrote the pattern in a row repeat format. I would have charted it but my squared paper was too small for the 175 stitch pattern (!) I know I could have charted the repeats, but the exercise of rewriting the pattern has reinforced the pattern in my mind and it's really much easier now. I also added the markers to aid knitting without counting (essential for knitting while watching television).
Ive got a while before the arm split, but I'm waiting for measurement details from my mother before committing to the length!
Posted by Alison at 7:12 PM. Category: Ganseys
Wednesday June 20, 2007
Alison: Caister Gansey gets interesting
After what seems like an eternity I am finally at the beginning of the patterned section of the guernsey. Playmobile pirate again for scale - but actually its now 34cm long.
The patterned section starts below the arm split, so I guess this is just over half of the body completed. Ive made a concerted effort to knit on this as every opportunity, and despite feeling like I'm making no progress, clearly there has been progress. I usually complete 1-2cm each evening so my slowness in reaching this point is entirely my own lack of effort on this project.
I'm hoping that the cable pattern is more interesting to knit - but actually expect that progress will be even slower from now on. I'm also hoping that I can do something to stop the welt rolling so much - maybe blocking will help.
Posted by Alison at 8:51 PM. Category: Ganseys
