Tag Archives: blocking

Fair Isle elves

Whale sweater progress

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Whale sweater progress

Whale sweater progress
ravelry page // pattern: Sweet and Seamless Sweater // yarn: LB fisherman’s wool & Knit Picks WotA 

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I started knitting bigger projects was that if I catch a mistake, even if it’s on row 3 and I’m all the way at row 57, I should always rip and fix it. Unless you can fix without ripping, of course. Some people can tell themselves that they love it for its imperfections, or that they won’t notice the error. I can’t do that; I always notice.

The thing with fair isle knitting is that even if you’re doing it totally right, it looks absolutely awful. The entire time I’ve worked on this sweater, I’ve had this ongoing argument with myself over whether or not I need to rip and start over. Maybe I’m pulling too hard. This part’s uneven. Why are these stitches leaning that way? It’s not even comforting to watch Youtube videos of the experts or to look at other people’s progress photos because I always seem to be able to convince myself that they’re knitting gods and I suck.

And yet inevitably I bind off, toss it in some warm water for a soak, and when it dries it’s lovely and even and I feel silly for ever doubting myself.

The moral of the story is that I need to photograph all my fair isle projects while they’re in progress so that when I start a new one, I can look back and see that the gorgeous sweater I finished and blocked used to look like crap too.

Or that wet yarn attracts small magical fair isle elves that unravel and re-knit the whole thing evenly whilst I sleep.

4 Comments knitting - - - - -

I hate waiting

Every time I finish a knitted project and bind off the last stitch, I always get super excited to put it on and parade it around. It’s not usually until five minutes later that I remember that it still needs to be blocked and possibly have some ends woven in and maybe a few buttons sewn on. In short, I won’t be able to wear it for at least two to three days.

Anyway, the reason I’m whining is because this lovely pile of cuddliness is laid out flat in the corner of my apartment and shows no signs of being dry before the end of the weekend. And yes, I have been checking almost hourly.

CIMG2271

On the bright side, look at these gorgeous buttons I found! Everything they had was either too plasticky or too manufactured-looking or they only had one left, and then the guy at the store whipped out these ones and they were perfect!

CIMG2264

On a completely unrelated note, I was making corn chowder for the first time yesterday and for some reason decided to add chopped celery.

Absolutely terrible idea. The flavor didn’t go with the rest of the soup at all.

So I spent twenty minutes plucking out every single bit of celery from the soup.

CIMG2269

Yes, I’m weird. But the soup was infinitely better afterwards.

I hate waiting

Every time I finish a knitted project and bind off the last stitch, I always get super excited to put it on and parade it around. It’s not usually until five minutes later that I remember that it still needs to be blocked and possibly have some ends woven in and maybe a few buttons sewn on. In short, I won’t be able to wear it for at least two to three days.

Anyway, the reason I’m whining is because this lovely pile of cuddliness is laid out flat in the corner of my apartment and shows no signs of being dry before the end of the weekend. And yes, I have been checking almost hourly.

CIMG2271

On the bright side, look at these gorgeous buttons I found! Everything they had was either too plasticky or too manufactured-looking or they only had one left, and then the guy at the store whipped out these ones and they were perfect!

CIMG2264

On a completely unrelated note, I was making corn chowder for the first time yesterday and for some reason decided to add chopped celery.

Absolutely terrible idea. The flavor didn’t go with the rest of the soup at all.

So I spent twenty minutes plucking out every single bit of celery from the soup.

CIMG2269

Yes, I’m weird. But the soup was infinitely better afterwards.

4 Comments knitting - - -

Blocking

CIMG2241

So remember a few months ago when I was squeeing my pants about that giant pile of Madelinetosh yarn I bought?

Well, that project is finally off the needles!

Actually technically I finished it last week back home but there was no floor space to block it and then I decided to just wait for my blocking mats to get here.

So today it had a bath and now it’s pinned to the mats waiting to be dry so I can wears it.

CIMG2242

Apologies for the gimpy pinning job. I’m still a noob at this. I will say, though, the knitpicks blocking mats I bought are fantastic! I love that they’re detachable and can conform to the shape of whatever you’re blocking.

And lastly, these are the buttons I bought.

CIMG2238

I’m still torn about whether or not they’re right for this sweater. I used the same button for a headband/ear warmer I made a few months ago and I really like the simplicity of it but I feel like they might be too small. Maybe a toggle instead? Hrmmm.

*taps foot impatiently*

5 Comments knitting - - -

Blocking

CIMG2241

So remember a few months ago when I was squeeing my pants about that giant pile of Madelinetosh yarn I bought?

Well, that project is finally off the needles!

Actually technically I finished it last week back home but there was no floor space to block it and then I decided to just wait for my blocking mats to get here.

So today it had a bath and now it’s pinned to the mats waiting to be dry so I can wears it.

CIMG2242

Apologies for the gimpy pinning job. I’m still a noob at this. I will say, though, the knitpicks blocking mats I bought are fantastic! I love that they’re detachable and can conform to the shape of whatever you’re blocking.

And lastly, these are the buttons I bought.

CIMG2238

I’m still torn about whether or not they’re right for this sweater. I used the same button for a headband/ear warmer I made a few months ago and I really like the simplicity of it but I feel like they might be too small. Maybe a toggle instead? Hrmmm.

*taps foot impatiently*

1 Comment knitting - - -