Sil's Fab Knitblog

Yoke Untangled

The Tangled Yoke is complete!

I like the cardigan, but it's a tad big.  Not the pattern's fault since it's the size it's supposed to be, but I fell between two sizes and didn't adjust.  No matter, at least it's not too tight.

Specs:

Pattern:  Tangled Yoke Cardigan, Interweave Knits, Fall 2007 designed by Eunny Jang

Yarn:  Rowan Felted Tweed, color #156 wheat, 8 skeins (only used a bit of the 8th) from Cumberpatch

Mods:  Made the sleeves 1" longer

I worked on this exclusively since August and it went very quickly despite not knitting on it for days at a time.  The pattern was well written and the yarn is fantastic.  Give it a try...you'll drive the doggies crazy!

Well and truly collared

I know an important part of the creative process is to be able to rip out and toss away what you've done if it's not up to par.  Understanding and doing are very different things.

I knit this simple garter rib neckband three times in an attempt to get it looking right.  You knit twice the length you want and then turn it inside, pick up the inside stitches, knit them together and cast off.  Nice and neat.  Except...

First, I knit a turning ridge since it seemed like it needed a harder edge to make a nice crease.  Too bad it looked like ass.  I ripped that out.

Second, I followed the instructions as written (gasp) and picked up the inside stitches then three needle bound off.  It got all twisted and biased and looked like ass.  Buh bye.

Third, I picked up the stitches as I went to make sure they were aligned with the live stitches and that worked great.  It did take about 1.5 hours to do this last method.  Luckily I was able to watch my 49ers get beaten at the same time.  Oh the torment.  At least the collar looks good, though it's begging for a blocking.

Lazy slacker is me

My sister called me (politely of course) a lazy sod for not posting anything.  She's right.  Also, I worked out with a friend and her trainer the other day for 60 scant minutes and today I've got a hitch in my giddyup something fierce.  Now I workout regularly, but clearly I'm much too soft on myself.  OK, new hardline approach.

At left please enjoy the view of the first 9 rows of the Tangled Yoke yoke.  That yoke chart is giving me fits because I don't pay close enough attention and end up having to rip back.  Several times.  Don't get me wrong, the chart is correct and cables aren't difficult, I'm just a  dingdong.

In addition to madly knitting upon my yoke, I've been making pizza.  Not just any old pepperoni thing, but my favorite fig, gorgonzola, carmelized onion and heirloom tomato pizza.  The ingredients are all from Trader Joe's.  Let me state right here, I would starve to death without TJ's.  How did I eat before them?  The premade pizza dough is in the fridge section and the rest of ingredients are close by.  The recipe I use is here.  I love it so much I made it TWO days in a row.  I never do that.  It's delicous and beautiful and easy.  A perfect meal.  Enjoy kids!

Flashbacks

In honor of OJ being arrested for something or other (I can't be arsed to tune into these things at the gym t.v.s) I'm going to compare today's shot of Tangled Yoke to the Versace dress Miss Elizabeth Hurley wore around the same time of the OJ mess.  You know the dress I mean, safety pins holding it together, but in a good way.  That dress launched her career.  Who knew who that bitch was before that dress?  No one.

That tangled segue leads to these fine shots of TY lounging on the floor and a closeup of a gaping armhole seam waiting to be grafted lovingly and expertly.  Well lovingly anyhow.  Notice the giant Versace-esque safety pins

I also attempted the setup row of the chart cause I'M THERE!  Very exciting.  I did, however, mess up the counting of the repeats and will have to rip back and redo that row.  I knew I was way too tired but was too excited not to give it a try.  I shall rip and redo.  Promise.

Casual Sleeve Day

Oh so casually drape the completed sleeves of Tangled Yoke upon the side table and lazily put my feet up.

That's not what I did in actuality.  I did finish the second sleeve last night during The Colbert Report (oh how I love my Jon and Stephen) and slept soundly in my beddy bye.  So I guess my feet were up - as was the rest of my sorry self.

Today's fun will include attaching these sleeves to the body.  I can hardly wait for this glory moment.  By the way, I used size 2 double points to knit these sleeves in the round and size 3's for flat knitting the body.  The gauges are the same.  Almost exact really.  I guess this is proof that my purl rows are TIGHT and my knit rows are loosey goosey.

Who cares, it's joining up to be a real potential sweater today!  Yeah!

Sleeving on a jetplane

In an effort to make sleeve progress more interesting I took several crappy photos and make a collage for you.

See how much more fun that is?  As you can see, the sleeve of the Tangled Yoke is progressing nicely.  It's much like knitting a sock at this point.  Stockinette and lots of it.  That's ok.  Mindless is good sometimes.

If I had more braincells to rub together, I'd have made the wrist smaller and refigured the increases.  The sleeve fits fine now, but the wrist is a bit large for my delicate arm bones.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll wear a shirt under this wool, so it'll be fine.

In new pattern news that has my eye wandering, I added Tree Jacket and Juliet to my Ravelry pattern queue.  Both patterns are from Zephyr Style so you know they're good and not too demanding for the few braincells firing through the allergy haze.

Body double

A long weekend here in the US has made for rapid progress on the Tangled Yoke sweater.

The body of the cardie is done up to the armpits.  Yummy word, that.  It makes for a pretty dull picture as it's a big wodge of stockinette.

I did start the first sleeve last night, but the cuff was coming out huge.  I was using the same needle size as the body.  The only difference is that the body is knit flat and the sleeve is in the round.  I went down to a size 2 needle on the sleeve and it still looks a little big, but I don't want to knit up some kevlar like fabric.  If it looks crappy with a few more inches done I'll rip and use a 1.  I won't be happy, but I'll do it.

I can't wait to get to the fun yoke part and knitting up sleeves on size 2 needles means that I'll be looking forward to it that much longer.  I need more long weekends.