Thanks to everybody for the encouraging fistful of comments yesterday. Lene, I knew you had been away for the weekend because I read your blog these days. The description in your Profile of the view from your window, sounds wonderfully like the view from Helen and David’s house on Pelion.
Anne, yes, £33 is a lot for three pairs of socks. Here was I a couple of weeks ago fussing about paying £3.50 for a ball of sock yarn in my new, nearby LYS, thus £7 for a pair. (For gents, I use slightly more than two 50 gram balls, but I now know to knit the toes with something from the oddball bag and save a bit that way.) But the £11 socks will be custom-dyed by hand. I’ll get the first consignment in early February, and will of course report further.
I spend with reckless abandon, sitting here at my computer, but squeeze the pennies a bit harder when I’m out and about.
Franklin, the needles I’m knitting my sleeve on seem to be 18” long. The sleeve is currently 14” in circumference, yet fits comfortably on the needle. I don’t know how that works. Even at 18”, the circular needle is small enough to be slightly uncomfortable to work with; I wouldn’t care to go smaller, although I have heard that it is possible.
Rosesmama, here’s a picture of the inside of the Calcutta Cup sweater for you. At the end, I’ll spend a week or so tugging each end to even up the stitches, then tying them in neat little square knots and cutting off the excess. It’s not as bad as finishing off a KF, look at it that way. In the latter case, I do weave ends in as I go along, just as I’m told to, but that still leaves an end hanging there and I never entirely trust it not to un-weave itself so I usually secure and tie them. That takes a long time.
Moorecat, thank you for the link to your blog, which I shall follow with interest. I have no expertise to contribute on the subject of corrugated ribbing, however. I don’t like doing it, I’ve forgotten why. And I sort of regard the function of ribbing to be its capacity for pulling in, and corrugated rib doesn’t pull in. As you have been discovering. On the other hand, it looks awfully nice. Maybe I should try again. I feel somewhat reconciled towards it since I discovered that it isn’t supposed to pull in.
Tamar, thank you for your encouragement about the collar-and-button-band neckline. And by the way, a friend has found a better picture of that vertically-striped sweater in the Shetland Museum, and agrees with you that it’s knit bottom-up, with intarsia. Most interesting.
Non-knit
We’re planning to go to Strathardle tomorrow. I hope however to make at least a brief appearance here to mark the occasion, since it will be such an important anniversary.
Anne, yes, £33 is a lot for three pairs of socks. Here was I a couple of weeks ago fussing about paying £3.50 for a ball of sock yarn in my new, nearby LYS, thus £7 for a pair. (For gents, I use slightly more than two 50 gram balls, but I now know to knit the toes with something from the oddball bag and save a bit that way.) But the £11 socks will be custom-dyed by hand. I’ll get the first consignment in early February, and will of course report further.
I spend with reckless abandon, sitting here at my computer, but squeeze the pennies a bit harder when I’m out and about.
Franklin, the needles I’m knitting my sleeve on seem to be 18” long. The sleeve is currently 14” in circumference, yet fits comfortably on the needle. I don’t know how that works. Even at 18”, the circular needle is small enough to be slightly uncomfortable to work with; I wouldn’t care to go smaller, although I have heard that it is possible.
Rosesmama, here’s a picture of the inside of the Calcutta Cup sweater for you. At the end, I’ll spend a week or so tugging each end to even up the stitches, then tying them in neat little square knots and cutting off the excess. It’s not as bad as finishing off a KF, look at it that way. In the latter case, I do weave ends in as I go along, just as I’m told to, but that still leaves an end hanging there and I never entirely trust it not to un-weave itself so I usually secure and tie them. That takes a long time.Moorecat, thank you for the link to your blog, which I shall follow with interest. I have no expertise to contribute on the subject of corrugated ribbing, however. I don’t like doing it, I’ve forgotten why. And I sort of regard the function of ribbing to be its capacity for pulling in, and corrugated rib doesn’t pull in. As you have been discovering. On the other hand, it looks awfully nice. Maybe I should try again. I feel somewhat reconciled towards it since I discovered that it isn’t supposed to pull in.
Tamar, thank you for your encouragement about the collar-and-button-band neckline. And by the way, a friend has found a better picture of that vertically-striped sweater in the Shetland Museum, and agrees with you that it’s knit bottom-up, with intarsia. Most interesting.
Non-knit
We’re planning to go to Strathardle tomorrow. I hope however to make at least a brief appearance here to mark the occasion, since it will be such an important anniversary.
11 pounds for a pair of socks? I recently bought some sock yarn from the US that ran between 20 and 25USD for a pair of socks. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteWhen the yarn is handdyed/painted, eventually rewound by hand, labelled etc. it must naturally cost more than a ball of Opal for example (for which I pay 5€ for 100g, seeing as my aunt is a local dealer), that is made by machine in low-cost countries.
I am honoured that you read my blog - there will soon be lace to be seen again, both my Christening Shawl that has been in hiatus for two months, and a self-designed triangular shawl with HK motifs using handspun :-)
I have experienced the big needle - little sleeve thing too, when I used a 80cm needle for a sweater, and, as inexperienced as I was, did not switch until I reached the neck hole (Icelandic yoke sweater). That means I had about 40 cm's worth stretched out on 80 cm needle, but yet it was not terribly uncomfortable. Maybe a little weird to look at, and a lot of pushing, but not all that bad.
Speaking of socks: Texere has cygnet wool rich and sunbeam sock yarn for not-too-much:
ReplyDeleteCygnet
Sunbeam
Just an idea for finishing the ends on your sweater. Instead of tying knots I work each end in about 10 stitches then untwist the plies and drift the ends off (making them jagged and fluffy). First time sweater is washed ends will disappear, sometimes so much that its hard to find them. Only works with real wool.
ReplyDeleteJean, your Calcutta Cup jumper is awesome, in the true sense of the word, I keep logging on to see the progress pics. If knitting effort could make us win, then the other team could go on a training free holiday for the next few months really.
ReplyDeleteI too am fascinated by the blog connections, and I always click on links with great exitement... you should see my bookmarked sites list, it's the size of a small bookshop! It simply isn't possible for us all to list all the sites we visit, but clicking blog links is such good fun, it's like well wrapped gift, and waiting for the page to load is like feeling the lumpiness of the parcel before the paper reveals what's inside.
I am sorry I don't recall where I read it, but someone on the net somewhere wrote that she does corrugated rib over three stitches - 2 of one, 1 of the other - and that method somehow lets it draw in like "real" ribbing, while looking much the same as 1x1.
ReplyDelete