I’d be better off with a stitch dictionary, anyway.

In keeping with a theme of “bad knitting habits” (see recent post about Not Swatching), I think it’s time for me to acknowledge Bad Knitting Habit number 2: not following patterns (does it count as a theme if it’s only been brought up in two posts? Even if they’re successive ones? Perhaps I’ll write my next post about stashing, and then I will be thoroughly justified in calling it a them. But, I digress). I realized while I was working on my Chinook Caress socks that, unless they’re relatively complicated patterns by a relatively small number of designers whose work and patterns I really love, I should probably stop spending money on sock patterns. So far, I’ve modified the pattern by going up a needle size, decreasing the stitch count, swapping out the intended cuff (which was either twisted rib or normal rib… at this point I’m really not sure which) with a picot hem, and trying to figure out the best way to give the socks short row heels. I may decide that eye of partridge really is the way to go, but there’s something really delightful about a good short row heel. This is not the first time I’ve done this. In fact, I may have swapped out pattern parts enough times to suggest that I “generally” swap out the cuff and heel for picot hems or twisted rib and only vaguely glance over the instructions about insteps and gussets and toes and such.

When I realized that the stitch pattern was basically a feather and fan motif, I felt a bit silly for feeling like I needed a pattern to knit it.

I’m pretty sure I’d be better off investing in stitch dictionaries. I’d like a to use a wider variety of cuff patterns, and maybe this would facilitate that. I might also spend a lot more time frogging, but, after the last two projects, I might be more okay with frogging than I used to be.

Then again, maybe this is all a great big sign that it’s either time for me to start knitting sweaters and shawls and other large projects that aren’t all approximately the same, at heart, or to start designing at least some of my own projects. (As a side note, it’s possible that my inability to follow patterns might have a great deal to do with my inability to complete a sweater.  I’ve started at least two; one’s been hibernating for a while because I got annoyed with a beginner’s mistake of not alternating skeins of hand-dyed yarn and the second has been hibernating because I just haven’t felt like working on it.  Plus spring/summer isn’t so inspiring for knitting an alpaca sweater anyway, even if it’s small).

It’s funny, now, to think that a year ago I was afraid of knitting socks (though strangely not sweaters…). I had doubts about double-pointed needles and turning heels all the rest. And now? Well, now I find myself loving things like the first half of Cookie A’s Sock Innovation specifically for all the good advice it gives about various kinds of heels and toes and cuffs and so on and how they relate to sock design and construction. I really hope I get to take her class at the Sock Summit. I think it’s a good match for where my head is with sock knitting right now.

In non-sock (or patterns still worth buying) news, I think it’s time to choose a pattern to start in on for another lace stole. My Hanami came off the needles yesterday. It’s beautiful, and generally, I like how quickly the pattern went. Also fun to be knitting in the same spring where I went to Washington D.C. and saw all of the beautiful cherry blossoms at their peak. The only question left is what to get…

In which I appreciate the value of swatching (and proceed not to bother)

They say bad habits are bound to catch up with you, eventually.

Well, whoever “they” are, they’re right.  I wish I didn’t have to admit that, but, there it is.

So, here’s where I admit that I am a Bad Knitter.  I never swatch.  I hate swatching.  It takes time and it takes yarn and it basically just adds that much more distance between excited cast-ons and a finished project.  Since I mostly knit socks, mostly on size 1 needles, that mostly fit, I thought, for some reason, that I was above swatches.  And pattern recommendations about needle sizes, come to think of it.

This folly has resulted in not one, but two recent trips to the frog pond (Okay, one trip and one long lazy afternoon on the edge, spent mostly in denial that yes, the offending project really does have to be pulled apart and begun again).  The first was a pair of socks based on Chinook Winds from Pink Lemon Twist designs.  72 stitches for a size 6 woman’s foot?  Bad idea.  Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been knitting on size 0 needles as the pattern suggested, but, of course, since size 1s had been working so well, I had to know better than the pattern, right?

Wrong.

The sock was huge.  So huge that, had it not been light blue and lacy, I think it would have been a perfect fit for my dear fiance’ and I could have just kept going.  (On the plus side, since he tried on the early stage and it did in fact fit, I knew just how big to make his Binary Birthday Socks… more on those later).  This could have easily been solved by swatching, even if my “trusty” swatch had lied a little bit.  But, I forged ahead until even Adrienne said the sock looked huge and I was forced to acknowledge that yup, it was time to start over.

I started over, still on size 1s, with 63 stitches instead of 72.  5 repeats later, the socks look beautiful.  And they now have a picot hem which I like even better than the twisted rib cuff I’d done before.  It’s spring and spring is time for the cute and whimsical and that’s what a picot hem is all about.  being cute.  I love them, now… and have almost forgotten the lost hours from the beginning of the first sock

My Marlene’s, on the other hand, are waiting on the needles for their turn to be broken down and rebuilt.  They’re just a hair too small, meaning that they get over my heels with some considerable tugging… but I know that if I keep going, I won’t be happy with the fit.  It’s a pity, because they’re really beautiful.  I hate to lose the work.  A swatch might have reminded me that 64 stitches on size 1 needles in twisted rib (with traveling stitches to boot) might have just a bit too much “suckage factor” to really be a good fit.  On to the size 2s… and possibly a fluffier yarn.

I’ve been consoling myself, in the mean time with a couple of projects that are  a bit more cooperative and a bit less dependent on swatching.  One of them is a pair of very geeky birthday socks for Sam.  72 stitches in stockinette on size 1 needles made of Wollmeise 100% superwash sock in Schwarz and Forster’s Glueck.  They’ll be sort of long in the leg, because the striping pattern is determined by the binary code for “Phone Phreak” (his former job title and  a favorite self-identifier).  Binary code, I think, is a lovely way of determining striping patterns since it’s easy to assign one color to be “0” and another to be “1” and just knit a row in whatever color the code demands.

The only downside is that the cuff will be a bit long at 8 rows per character.   I guess this method isn’t a good way to go if you have messages longer than 10 or 12 characters, including spaces.  Longer notes would have to be weaters or scarves.

The second is a lace stole.  I think my favorite thing about knitting lace is that all that changes with changes in needle size is how dense the lace pattern is.  Bigger needles = less dense knitting.  No swatching.  (Unless, of course, one really really needs one’s lace to block to a particular size.  Then it might require multiple swatches.  But for scarves and stoles and shawls and things, they’re not so necessary.  So, 13 out of 15 charts into the Hanami pattern and I’m delighted with the results (if a bit “over” the pattern).  And Sea Silk?  Amazing to work with.  I love living in a world full of beautiful yarns.