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Is there such a thing? Checked on the
‘net. Briggs & Little doesn’t have a website that you can order from and it’s a
Canadian brand not carried by my usual US mail order source and I couldn’t find any
stockist links. My LYS, where I had originally purchased the yarn, like five
years ago, retired and closed shop a few years back. Look in the phone book –
nada! Again, checking on-line, there are supposed to be two new local yarn
shops that aren’t in the phone book, but have facebook pages…I hate that! Obviously,
I haven’t kept up on local hand knitting stuff. Called the first, closer one.
She told me she had an order in, currently had none in stock and didn’t expect
it to be in for a month at least.
The second one does stock it and has all the
colours! OK, back in business! I rushed over and picked up one skein of each of
the four colours so now have 1250g total. Not worried about dye-lots – the new ones look
surprisingly close, other than the denim but since I’m doing this double-stranded
and with stripes, it shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll mix one of the old with a new and that should take care of any slight variances. My plan is to start
with oatmeal (which I have the most of - the front pockets will be all that
colour) at the bottom and move into navy, with a bit of the ivory and then top
it off with the smoke – oatmeal and smoke don’t really ‘go together' but separating
them with the navy and ivory should make it work… will see what happens. I
figure I can knit the Back up so far, do the Fronts and Sleeves in the first
colour and see where I’m at – guess that’s not really stripes – we used to call
it colour-blocking, I think. Should have a better idea of how far the yarn is
going by that time and adjust as needed…and whatsername has more if I hurry! Ha! Jumping in now!
that I had a plan! Knit up a quick
swatch of the ‘Briggs and Little’ Durasport – it is their sock yarn but is
slightly heavier that the high-priced, balled sock yarn. It’s a one ply, 80%
wool, 20% nylon, 4 oz/113g/430yds skein and although it’s been around for
years, there’s only like 8 colours for some reason. I had made myself a hoodie
with fairisle stripes https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2015/12/random-thoughts-confessions-rest-of-plan.html
, wore it a few times and then abandoned it, not sure exactly why but I chalked
it up to the yarn not being as nice as the Forsell 4 ply I was used to. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-final-of-that-4f-thing.html
Could have been no pockets, though - got fed up with it by then…
So now, looking at the leftover
skeins, I initially thought I’d have more than enough for a jacket for a man.
400 yds times about 8 skeins means 3200 yds and on the standard gauge, you’d
have plenty. I had made the swatch on the LK150, double stranded, T9, washed
and dried it, liked the look and feel but something held me back. I had also
wound all the skeins into machine-useable cones and somehow it didn’t look like
quite so much. I was excited to have a plan and wanted to get going – on the
bottom of the swatch, I had made a small, quick hem – starting off single
strand, every-other-needle, just for the cast-on, then all needles and at T4, still single, knit about 12 rows. I
could see it was not the weight I wanted and that’s when the idea to go double-strand
came to mind. So, hung the EON row to make a hem, added the second strand,
dialed up to T9 and made the swatch. After laundering, I loved the little
single-strand hem, it did the job of making a nice bottom, didn’t pull in too
much and was totally easy. The other option I was considering was making 1X1
ribs on the standard gauge machine and transferring them to the LK. Thought
that would be less bulky that going with the doubled stockinette bands of the
original garment but wasn’t looking forward to the extra work of moving
everything from machine to machine if you know what I mean.
Tempted to throw caution to the wind,
I could just start knitting and see how far the first two cones would take me
but the thought of having to unravel double-stranded knitting stopped me.
Decided to be scientific about it. Weighed the swatch. It’s 30g. Took the
swatch and laid it out on the tweedy pullover, counting how many swatches would
make up the entire area of the sweater – 6 for each sleeve and 10 for each
back/front, total of 32 swatches times 30g means 960g total – more than a
little shy – considering pockets and hood and a cardigan should be slightly larger than the pullover!
Back to the drawing board?
On the plus side, got both pieces made,
successfully, for the Rib’nShrug and the pattern well underway! ;)
a
commitment! Hemming and hawing a bit more…looking at my yarns from
all angles…I have come up with a plan! and am putting it in writing – that way
I have a witness! Can’t go back on that!
Remembering a promise from last year, I’m going to
write up the pattern for Rib’nShrug. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2013/04/notes-for-flared-body.html Have made it several times and wrote lots of notes
but I do like to re-knit as I’m doing the pattern to make sure I don’t miss
anything.
The hardest part? deciding on the colour to use! I narrowed it down by sorting out the single cones - no sense breaking up a 2 or 3 cone dye-lot for a project that should come in under one 500g cone, so I've settled on cinnamon - this is a 4-ply pure new wool. The garment is a sideways sleeve/yoke/sleeve, knit all in one piece in stockinette. The body, also sideways, also one piece, is a random rib needle arrangement with shortrowed gores in the bottom side to widen out the basic rectangle, adding in hip width and creating a curved hemline. Very little finishing, a fairly quick project.
Decided to go whole hog and get another thing going
on the LK150 at the same time. I was always much more productive when pushing
myself.
Have a bunch of ‘Briggs & Little’ Durasport https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2014/12/ideas-and-inspiration.html
that has been well aged. I think I bought it when I
was on a sock-tear back in 2014. Really stocked up and then I didn’t really
love it. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2015/12/random-thoughts-confessions-rest-of-plan.html But
maybe enough time has passed, so, I dug it out again. I know MF would like
another hoodie, heavier than the Man Friend Hoodie that was standard gauge so here goes! I’m
using it double stranded on the LK/6.5mm mid gauge machine. I have some
oatmeal, denim, ivory and smoke that I plan to mix into strategic stripes in the top/chest/upper body area. The
swatch washed up nicely, looks and feels good – I can think on it a bit more
while I work on the top part of the standard gauge project.
Yup! We are well into the new year and the new decade!
If you’re like me and not really been too committed to machine knitting lately,
how do you get back to it?
I started by working out – I treated myself to a new
set of videos and some cheap, at-home equipment (3X3 fit) and I like it, kind
of a Pilates/yoga/stretching thing. Then I made some crackers – my new baking
passion lately; Netflix-ed the 3rd season of ‘The Crown’ and all ‘The Kominsky
Method’ and started on ‘Designated Survivor’. All classic procrastination
techniques.
While doing those things, thought about my reasons to
knit. They have changed somewhat from a few years ago [https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/03/i-had-lump-in-my-throat.html]
Now, I’m more about doing something to keep busy and
using up my stash. Asking myself, do I want something where I’m working on autopilot
or is it the need to create something useful? It’s probably better to ease into
it in stages.
So far, I searched out a couple of UFOs that I had
abandoned and almost forgotten – not sure if I even told you about but one was
a remake of that striped hoodie from last year (red wine stain that wouldn’t
budge) – it just needed a zipper and I couldn’t settle on the right one and the
other was that EFisher Knockoff https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2019/05/even-i-had-my-doubts.html
that I was making in recycled light grey WCD. It was all
done except for fixing in all the ends and I still hate the colour – yeah,
there’s a dye job coming up! I’ll tell you about this later.
Worked on both of those and thought some more… do I need
a project? a commitment? Advice to myself: remake something you’re familiar
with, and, it is MF’s birthday in February... Come up with a plan, MA!
Reading socks
- that’s what the millennials told me they are really called! And they were
thrilled to get them! I know I love mine! Even made myself a second pair, using
red, gray and black, sort of to match my ‘Lipstick and Smoke’ because I wear
that a lot, just hanging around in the evenings. Someone had mentioned using
lycra added to the ribbing and I thought, ‘oh I could try that’…DO NOT! What
happens is the lycra shortens up the rows instead of the width and you end up with
falling-down-socks. Even after washing, it was worse. Wore them a few times,
still loved them and decided they needed a fix up.
Heh, heh, heh! I can graft
with the best of them! I knit the new cuffs and took them off on waste yarn. Removed
the non-working cuffs from the circular socks, rehung half and put on waste and
then the second half. Grafted the cuff in place and seamed the cuff – good as
new but better – I made the new cuff 30 rows instead of the original 25. They
stay up beautifully! Here’s a tip – don’t throw away mistakes – save the
evidence to remind yourself! Actually, after seeing the cuffs go wide like
that, I remembered using the lycra for something like this before and it
happened then too. I have now thrown away the remaining cone of lycra so I won’t
be tempted to use it again next time I forget!
That
pullover I was making for manfriend – on Boxing Day, I carefully rehung the
neckline, was able to salvage it without having to re-knit anything except the
neckband. Finished it off and gave it to him. Held my breath as he jammed his arms into it and yanked it over his head, just like a man who doesn't realize that maybe being a little careful might be a good thing... ah! it worked so smoothly, didn't even need an additional tug! He's happy, I'm happy, it looks good and fits exactly like I wanted and all is well!
Note to
self, quit being such a drama queen!
Happy
New Year to all! Talk to you next year!
P.S.
Been watching ‘Project Runway’ – just love that Chrisitian Siriano – not
necessarily his designs, just love his attitude and advice and he`s so cute! Apparently
he has a line of ready-to-wear coming out in J. Jill in the New Year. I’m excited
to see it!
P.S.S.
Hope to see you in Pigeon Forge! They’ve (Tennessee Valley Machine Knitters –
google them) asked me back – I promised a whole new/different two-day program
from last year! It’s March 21, 22, 2020!
the
behind-er I get!
There I
was, on Christmas Eve early afternoon, trying to get a few minutes in,
finishing up the manfriend pullover…what’s the hold-up you ask? Yeah, I know, eh?
like from swatching to now, it’s been over two months! Thinking back, that ‘p’
word has become my middle name! Procrastinator of the first degree! I think
because it never was my idea – he asked for it and said what HE wanted...
Anyway,
I have a list of to-dos running through my head – gifts to wrap, dessert to
make, thinking about the turkey-brining, wondering if I can NOT have to go to
the grocery store one last time, does the kitchen floor really need mopping?
while waiting for my d-i-l (who is chronically time-challenged and almost always
at least an hour late, which I’ve already planned for!) to come by and worrying, 'is this neck opening going to be big enough? I'm sure he has a freakishly big head! I’m
stupidly trying to get the neckband knit and on and needles to say (ha! ha!), as
sure as the lord made little green apples, you know what happened! A stitch
dropped in the middle of the front – it would never be in the back! and there’s
a hole!
The doorbell rings and it's A (with the kids! their unwrapped presents
are all over!)! Calmy, I set the thing down, hole and all, carefully, and go down.
I make
us Christmas coffees, ban the kids from going upstairs and repeat to myself
something I learned many years ago – it doesn’t matter what doesn’t get done
because no one else knew you were going to do it! There is always another day
and promissory notes to give!
Here’s some
of the best advice I ever gave:
http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-two-cents.html
P.S. been Netflixing `The Crown`, season 3, really liking it with the new
cast and I have this barely controllable urge to get myself a string of pearls! Just one strand, not three...
Seasons Greetings!
It’s not
like I haven’t been knitting, just that I didn’t feel I had anything new to
say. Knit a ton of socks, five pairs of knee socks and still had a few bits so
switched to hats. Made several hats and finally, here it is December! I didn’t
mean to leave manfriend’s pullover to the last minute, but with just two weeks
to go, I’m starting to feel the pressure!
I had
made a couple of swatches back in November and I’d been thinking of the details
like hems and bands - this is going to be pretty plain but still!
I was
going to use my ‘hem with chain stitch’ (page 98, The Handbook for Manual
Machine Knitters) - it looks like a
nice, plain hem that you can start off with – well, actually you start off with
every other needle which reduces the bulk of the backside of the hem and there’s
a chain across the bottom edge to give a even, straight line because a guy
really wouldn’t want a picot hem, would he?
Thinking I knew what I was doing, cast
on every other needle, knit several rows, pulled the needles out and chained in
behind and then thought, what the hay? that chain needs to be pulled through
the row. Still figuring I was on the right track, I pulled the every-other-stitch
through the chain, saying to myself, why didn’t I do this before?
Well,
probably because it doesn’t work!!
At this point, I went and got the book to
read up on how it was really supposed to be done. Got that accomplished and then
decided this would look so much better if the ‘ribbed-look’ from the purl side
was on the front which just means an RTR (remove, turn, rehang) and it would
give the opportunity to have a few less stitches in the hem…oh gosh, another
day gone!
