Category: Frogged!

Knitting projects gone wrong.

To Frog or Not to Frog

Marie Haigh4 Comments

It was to be an heirloom baby shawl for Elly.

Elly will turn 3 next month.

According to Ravelry, I have been working on and off this shawl for 3 1/2 years. True, 2 of those years I didn’t touch it at all, but that still leaves a lot of time invested in this shawl.

Long time readers will remember that I ran out of the kid mohair yarn eons ago. A dear friend and reader of this blog hunted down a new skein. Although it didn’t match perfectly, it was really close.

The problem is that I feel hatred toward the shawl every time I look at it. The mountains of endless stockingnette stitch is terribly boring to knit. The spot at which I switch from the old mohair skein to the new mohair skein is striking, but perhaps not in a good way.

To top it off, the main color of the shawl is red, which doesn’t complement Elly’s gorgeous red hair. As a redhead myself, I avoid wearing red close to my face. Less so now that my hair has darkened so much and is slowly turning grey, but in my youth I wouldn’t touch the color. My red hair was my best asset; I didn’t want anything I wore to steal the show. So why did I knit a red shawl for Elly? Well, I was certain she would have her father’s hair color, since red hair is a recessive gene. Happy was the day she was born with red hair like mine and like my mother before me.

So, do I persevere with knitting and finishing Elly’s baby heirloom shawl?

Do I toss it in a basket and pile more yarn overtop in the hopes that out of sight is out of mind?

Do I frog it (for non-knitters to frog means to rip it, rip it, rip it (see, it sounds like a frog, no?) all out)?

Do I stop knitting the endless stockingnette stitch and just add a lace border in red and let Elly use it to wrap her babydolls up?

I have to admit that I really want to go knit something that I will enjoy knitting. I am currently dreaming of a warm wool rug in our bedroom. Yet, adding a lace border is something that I have never done before so that would be interesting if nothing else.

Design scrapped and Chili coasters

Marie Haigh3 Comments

Just to prove that not all of my crazy ideas come out smelling like flowers, behold my latest design.

My idea was to create cutouts shaped like diamonds in an otherwise simple scarf. It seemed like a great idea until I started knitting it and had to maneuver 3 balls of yarn.

Perhaps blocking would correct the distortion of the diamonds, but it would take some major redesigning in order to make it fun to knit. So, I’m moving on.

Last night, I realized I hadn’t bought a Christmas present for my brother-in-law. So, I whipped these coasters up.

They were so easy to make. It only took two pieces of fabric and one piece of low loft batting per coaster. All pieces were cut into 5-inch squares. Then, the fabrics were placed together with right sides facing and the batting was laid on top of the fabric. I stitched around the squares with a 1/2-inch seam, leaving a 2-inch opening on one side. Next, I cut the corners and trimmed the seams. Then, I turned the squares right side out and hand-stitched the opening closed. Voila. Coasters.

I wish all gift giving was so simple.

Sweater Blanket completed

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I finished it last night while watching the Home Run Derby! I was rooting for Philly’s Own, Ryan Howard. Alas, he was eliminated in the first round.

It is a nice length. For reference, I am 5 feet tall when I’m not holding my hands over my head.

It’s been brutal to work on these past few days. It is so warm, which will be nice come winter, but is unbearable now with the temperature not dipping to the mid-seventies at night. I can’t wait for the rains this afternoon to break the heat. Plus, I am feeling lazy and don’t want to water my garden. The rains will do my job for me.

My 1st Sweater Design completed

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Well, truth be told, I have designed other sweaters before, but this is the 1st one that is wholly my own. The stitch pattern is mine, although the vertical striping technique I learned from Barbara Walkers. All my other designs used stitch patterns from various stitch libraries, such as Barbara Walker’s books. The shaping design is mine. The measurements are all mine. I’m a little giddy over the fact that it is completed and it came out the exact size I designed it to come out. Woo!

In my giddiness, I’ve even hammered away to get it uploaded to my Flickr and my Etsy store.

Now, I just need to convince my model she can still fit into it. Then, I can get some decent pictures. I would model it myself, but I’m a bit too petite (**short**). It is designed for a taller woman or, as the industry might say, the standard woman.

Doing the Sweater Dance!

And can I say how fulfilling design work actually is? OK, OK, it’s frustrating at times and annoying at times and it wakes me up in the middle of the night at times with little corrections to my pattern, but oh, at the end of the day, it is worth it! I never got this much satisfaction from my day-to-day job.

So, what do you think of it?

The whole idea behind it was to design a sweater that had vertical stripes, but didn’t require changing the color every 2-4 stitches. I HATE Fair Isle. This sweater (when I wasn’t ripping it out for the umpteenth time) was actually quick to knit. Basically, you slip the stitches in the color you’re not using out of the way and only knit the stitches in the color you are carrying at the time.

BTW – More pictures of this sweater can be found on my Flickr site.

No More Knitting my Striped Sweater

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It’s so close to being done. The collar, which has been my nemesis these past 2 weeks, is done.

All that is left is a mountain of loose strands to weave in.

Better pictures to come Friday.

Right now, I’m off to celebrate with Jake. A translation: I am off to toss him a few well-worn sticks around the yarn.

Happy Day to you too!

Sweater Progress

Marie Haigh1 Comment
Well, I decided to stop fighting with my sewing machine over the double bias tape on the sweater afghan. Every night during the Phillies baseball game, I have been handstiching the tape down using a slipstitch. Amazingly, it is going quicker than I had hoped for. My estimate was 1 month. If I keep up my current pace, it will be completed within 2 weeks. Here it is laid out on my couch. It is a perfect afghan size … even if it wasn’t actually designed for it.

The striped sweater I have been working on took 2 steps backward yesterday. The stitches I picked up for the collar and swore I would not rip out … have been ripped out. Well, I learned something here. Never measure a v-neck collar on the diagonal and use this measurement to figure out how many stitches to pick up. Who knew? With this problem realized and easily solved, I am almost ready to reattempt picking up the stitches for the collar. However, I still need to figure out how many stitches should be picked up on the length from the top of the v-neck to the shoulder. It measures 5 inches. I had assumed that I would need to pick up 7 stitches per inch (as that is my gauge), but the most I could locate during my last attempt was 6 stitches per inch. Yet, if my calculations are correct, I’ll be missing 10 stitches. I could just roll with the puches. The very next row has me decreasing 1/3 of the stitches anyway. Then, I’ll only be out 3 stitches. Right? 3 stitches won’t make or break the collar (at least I hope not).

So, here is my sweater again. To make up for the lack of the collar, I snuck Jake into the picture. He always makes my knitted garments look better!

A Little Frustration

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Well, I have tried to complete my sweater afghan several times now, but to no avail. I finished hand basting the tape around the edges, which I might add did a lovely job of hiding the not-so-stellar cutting job and zigzag stitching. I am now at the point where I should topstitch the tape in place. I’ve tried twice to do this step with my trusty straight stitch foot. Twice now I’ve ripped the stitching out. The 3 layers of fabric kept shifting so my stitching line was anything but straight.

Certain that an edging foot would be the answer to my problem, I biked over to my favorite sewing store (Pottstown Sewing and Craft). I bought the only edging foot they had available that looked like it would fit my not-so-fancy sewing machine. It didn’t fit. So, I am back where I started with just a straight stitch foot. I’ve considered hand stitching the tape in place using a slipstitch. The only thing stopping me for jumping in and testing the water is that I would have to hand stitch the tape to both sides of the afghan. I might get it done in a month. To stitch by machine, I could have a finished afghan in 10 minutes. One month vs. 10 minutes. Call me lazy, but I won’t give up on the 10-minute option until I’ve exhausted all avenues.

To add to my frustration, I decided to tackle the collar on my striped sweater yesterday. The collar measures ten inches on each side. Based on my gauge, I needed to pick up 70 stitches on each side. I sat and struggled with the sweater for at least two hours yesterday. I only managed to pick up 6 stitches per inch. Thus, I am 20 stitches short. Do I just ignore my shortfall and carry on in normal fashion? Or do I K2P2 ribbing for one row, increasing 20 stitches along the way. This latter option seems slightly silly to me for the next row requires me to decrease one-third of the stitches in order to achieve a K2P1 ribbing. Maybe what I’ll do is just decrease fewer stitches. Hmmm, I’ll have to ponder on this problem. But just to state the obvious, dropping all the stitches and retrying to pick up 7 stitches per inch is NOT an option. I think I would cry if I had to do that.

Now for some good news, I am further along with my Angled Nesting Squares block.


I just have the triangles left to join.

Unfortunately, I am not sure when this block will be posted. The viewing is tonight and I still have much to do, such as finish cooking the fried stuffed mushrooms. (My own recipe! If they taste as good as I hope, I’ll post the recipe along with the block). The funeral is tomorrow and I imagine we’ll be busy all day with family. Thankfully, our dear friends have volunteered to watch Jake. They love to spoil him. I’m sure he will get plenty of treats and pets.

A special thank you to everybody who left their comments to “A Memorium”. I was very touched by each one.

Because I couldn’t kill him

Marie Haigh5 Comments

It’s wrong to kill your husband.

It doesn’t matter that you spent months knitting him a sweater he’ll never wear. Time you could have spent knitting yourself a sweater. A sweater that you would wear everyday.
The only thing saving him right now is that he swears he would love to wear the sweater, but every time he puts it on he starts with the sneezing and the watery eyes.
So, I can’t kill him. And I can’t wear the sweater I made him. He’s 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. I’m 5 feet tall and well, …. slightly smaller. And I refuse to let the sweater sit in the cedar closet another year unused.
What to do?
I came up with this idea.

A sweater afghan!

I cut the sleeves off. (It felt so good to do harm to the sweater!) Next, I cut straight up the seams on the sides of the sweater, leaving it only bound together at the shoulder seams. Next, I hand-stitched the neck hole closed using a slipstitch. Afterwards, I machine-stitched along the edges of the sweater using a zigzag stitch. This step was to ensure no unraveling occurred.

Finally, to hide the ratty edges, I started to hand-baste a double fold bias tape around the entire length of it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish this step while watching the Phillies game tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll be able to topstitch the tape in place. I’ll probably use a zigzag stitch. All that will be left to do is to remove my hand-basting. You’ll note that I am using a white thread now to aid me in locating the basting thread later.

I will be the proud owner of a wool afghan that only I can use. Plus, I get to live the rest of my life on the right side of prison bars.
******************

I was reminded of something these past two days: how much I hate to seam sweaters closed. I had become spoiled by my Ode to Quilting afghan blocks. Those pieces are so simple to seam together. All the seams are straight … and very small. The seams of a sweater have to contend with increases and decreases. I can’t remember how many times I had to back up, rip out my seams, and start over because the diagonal of the increases didn’t match up.

Despite my struggles, I managed to get half of the sweater seamed together. I’m pretty pleased with the way it looks.

Oh, and better news, I slipped the sweater over my head and it fits …. perfectly! I’m so excited. **Dancing**

I just need to hurry. My model is gaining weight every week. (She’s pregnant with their first child.)

Right Sleeve is Finished

Marie Haigh2 Comments
I really should be seaming the sweater together right now, but I just had to show somebody ….

My right sleeve is finished!

You’ll note that not only did I run out of brown yarn, but I also ran out of turquoise yarn. I am of the group that only buys “enough” yarn. I really must convert to the group that always buys “more than enough” yarn. You think I would learn. For truth be told, this isn’t the first time I have encountered this problem. Of course, I think my real problem is that I buy yarn on an impulse, having no idea what I will use the yarn for. Only after I get home, and after it has sat in my cedar closet for who knows how long, do I finally decide what it is going to be. It’s anybody’s guess as to whether or not I’ll have enough yarn. This time I lost the bet.

Internet trouble equals longer sleeves

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Finally, I can get on the Internet today. Comcast has a monopoly on the area (unless you’re willing to sacrifice speed, which I’m not) and I have been suffering for it these past few days. Today is the first day, I am able to get on the Internet, check my e-mail, and update my blog. Even earlier today, Comcast was having problems, i.e. Internet outage. **mutter**

There is a silver lining in everything. Thanks to Comcast, my right sleeve is 75% done. I have started on the cap.

Plus, I finished both of the gauges on the project I can’t show you. It should be ready for submission by Friday.

Then, when my hands hurt from knitting so much, I went outside to my garden. I pruned the Easter Redbud tree (well, it looks more like an overgrown bush), the Forsythia, and some of the Fire Thorn. (I can only take so much of the Fire Thorn bush at one time. It’s painful!).

My thanks to J3W3 for his/her advice on the mint seeds. S/he stated that mint can be very invasive. After spending all of last summer combatting against the Lily of the Valley, I have no desire to battle it out with another invasive plant. I should mention, that I only managed to thin out the Lily of the Valley, despite pulling out the roots. It came back this year in the same spot. I am worried because it has started to encroach upon the grass, which Jake loves to nibble on. Sometimes, I think he missed his calling; he should have been a goat.