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Showing posts with label Master Knitters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Master Knitters. Show all posts

Monday, May 12, 2008

Masters Monday - 2.17

This yarn has made me very angry, very angry indeed!

Another attempt at buying yarn for my Master Knitter Level II Vest...
~~~~~Kaploooeeee!~~~~~

I thought this yarn would work. The gauge was right. The colour was right. The price was right. But the feel......~~shudder~~.....how did I overlook the feel of the stuff? In the store I managed to convince myself that the feel was "rustic", perfect for the casual vest I have in mind. After getting the yarn home, washing it, (yup, I washed it....not returnable now!), and knitting up a swatch I realized that knitting with this stuff would be like spending hours and hours (many days actually) scraping my fingernails down a chalkboard. The feel of this "Briggs and Little, Regal" running through my fingers makes me cringe. While I wouldn't say it's actually scratchy, it feels dry and ...... raspy?

I could cringe and bear it and suffer through the knitting if I thought it would otherwise work up nicely for the vest, but look at those stitches! Horrid. They don't nestle into each other nicely or plump up. No "bounce". The knitting has uneven gaps and misshapen stitches. It looks about as lovely as knitted twine. Ugh. Must find something else.

This crud will be set aside for a weaving, most likely something that will be fulled or felted. At least with weaving you don't have to actually touch the stuff as much as you do with knitting!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Side Tracked

Monday evening I set out to begin my Master Knitter Level II vest, but I was side tracked. The yarn I intended to use was a little too thick to get gauge without the fabric becoming too stiff. I then tried a ball of handspun, more on a lark than anything, seeing as handspun with its characteristic unevenness is a poor choice for an item where your knitting will be judged on stitch uniformity, but I just wanted to see if some day I could use it for that vest pattern.

The handspun was thinner than I expected and was not appropriate for the intended vest, BUT.....

....it's a perfect DK weight, and works for a pattern I've been wanting to knit in handspun for quite some time. This first piece is the back of a raglan, cabled hoodie. I will likely dye it a denim colour when I am finished with the knitting.

Sirdar "Jackets 8427"