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| Phantomwise Tarot |
So I am feeling especially triumphant, having finally beaten into submission conquered the Blue Dahlia Shawl that provoked my temper tantrum a while back, resulting in it being flung into a Serious Time-Out on the naughty step while I regained the normal, natural sweet temper for which I am renowned.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
So anyway. I am stubborn and unwilling to admit defeat, so I picked it up again, determined to complete it. I ran into the same problem, and even on the same rows as before - in spite of having made the charts larger, trimmed and taped them together so there were no gaps.
I emailed the designer, Andrea Jurgrau - who was very approachable, friendly and helpful: she worked out that one of the problems was the placement of my stitch markers, so that was easily resolved. Later I had a query, and wrote out the chart to demonstrate my problem - she immediately identified that the stitch I'd seen and been working as ktbl (knit through the back of the loop) was actually a K2tog (knit 2 together) ..... proof that if you add bad eyesight to badly formatted, small charts which are smudgy when enlarged you get simple errors that drive one to insanity.
This was in no way the fault of the designer, but rather of the publisher who chose to format large charts in Portrait instead of Landscape, miniaturizing them in the process, and placing them across the middle of the book creating a break in the middle of the chart. I would have had even more trouble if a kind friend hadn't sent me large versions of just the charts.
There are beads involved, but not as many a there should have been. If I were to escape the strait jacket and make this ever again, I would add loads more - there are lots of opportunities in the pattern for placement.
All in all, it was a rather miserable experience which has put me off trying any of the rest of the quite beautiful shawl patterns in the book. But I know you know that its little voice is seeping through the mental locked dark room in which I have bunged it ....
Here is the evidence of success:
The yarn was West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in 'Bubblegum'; it was a slightly scratchy bouncy, springy yarn that was quite splitty during the crocheted bind-off; a lovely intense color, fortunatel the yarn was softer after a good soak in fabric conditioner.
So while I sit here and gloat, you can pop 'FO Friday' into Google to see lots more pretties .....
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| Druidcraft Tarot |
The soundtrack for today's post is martial and triumphant, and in no way a reflection of my personality:
Since the James C.Brett ball of Moonlight Sonata yarn is 500m long, not only has it enabled me to knit The Hat, but also a Neckwarmer, and 3 fingerless gloves for Mini Diva, who was enamored with the idea of a matching winter set of accessories.
No, she does not have 3 arms or hands. I made 3 because this was the first one:
It is not a sad and pathetic unloved mistake, it is a character-building Learning Experience we fondly call The Misbegotten Glove.
Using the pattern 'Raging Fingerless Gloves' because the gloves are knitted flat and then seamed (anything to avoid the dread DPNs of Doom or the Magic Loop of Lunacy), I found it to be somewhat slipshod; I am no Virgo perfectionist, but even I raise an eyebrow at instructions that say ''Don't worry if there's a little 'hole' where the thumb attaches to the body - it will blend in nicely with the lace pattern''.
Umm .....
No, it doesn't.
And if you don't purl through the back of the loop on the thumb gusset yarn over increases ie. ptbl each YO, then you get a whole bunch of other extra holes that do not look like purposeful lace holes. You don't have to ask me how I know, as the Misbegotten Glove above is the proof.
Things I also learned from Misbegotten Glove was that it needs a really stretchy cast on and a really stretchy bind off, unless you want said gloves to also act as a tourniquet resulting in the loss of a limb from blood starvation. The bind off was a cinch, as I'm now an old hand at the Yarn Over Bind Off. But one of the new things I learned how to do (needs must when the Devil rides) was a Long Tail Cast On:
I watched Steph do this when she started The Hat for me; in fact, I watched her do it several times including in Super Slow Mo. It made me feel like Mr.T, and looked like a Cat's Cradle game gone terribly, tragically wrong and the Cat was strangled. But me and You Tube persisted, and in the end I managed it, but not without lots of gleeful crowing.
Since I had carefully picked the pattern because it is seamed, I neglected to anticipate that a thumb gusset might not be part of that whole Flat Earth ideology as it's pretty much a 3 dimensional item:
I Magic Looped the thumb gusset. I know ! I can hardly believe it myself ! Hence the photographic proof.
That means I have slain two whole demons in as many days: go me !
Brimming with irritated confidence, I embarked on the two Pretty Sisters of the Misbegotten Glove; with which Mini Diva was so chuffed, they didn't even get washed and blocked before wearing them to school.
Hop on over to Tami's Amis for more tales of conquest ...
