Burridge Lake Aran Afghan

I decided last year sometime that I really wanted to knit an afghan.  “It will be fun,” I said.  “It won’t take that long at all!” I said.  Uggh, I really need to quit listening to myself, because so far this process has been more like me-curled-up-in-the-corner-gross-sobbing while I try to knit.  It’s not pretty.

When I went trolling through Ravelry for project inspiration I found this: Burridge Lake Aran Afghan.  I will warn you now, the chart for the middle panel is incredibly wrong.  The pattern maker claims there is an updated chart somewhere, but I have yet to find it.  Lesson learned, read the comments before you start.  I think I started this project at the beginning of August 2013 and I finished the first part sometime mid-December.  One repeat of the Saxon Braid could easily take me 4 hours.  I am going to try to finish the whole thing by the end of the year.  (Kill me now).  I kid.  I actually love cabling.  I don’t know why.  I think it’s because it makes everything look fancy and complicated but again it is a technique that I don’t find hard to do.

And the end result so far has been worth it:

Cat conveniently sitting on it for size reference.

I had to take that picture in my hallway it’s so long.  I plan on using it as a bedspread when it’s done.

Some sexy (albeit terrible) close ups (seriously we have the worst lighting in my house):

This is the Saxon Braid and you must do it 24 times.  It takes forever, however, it’s pretty amazing when it’s done.

This is the best picture I have of the Trinity Stitch.  It’s a bobble technique and because it involves  a lot of K3Tog, M3, I somehow managed to drop about 4 stitches one one side of the panel for a solid 20 rows.  I had to have a small conversation with myself:

“Well….we screwed up”

“Yes we did.”

“How much of a perfectionist are we?”

“Not enough to rip out a week’s worth of work for 4 stitches.”

“I’ll allow it.”

I’m so agreeable with myself.  I’m also pretty sure that I can probably block the weirdness out of the small section of panel as well.

And finally:

Woven Braid cabling on the edges of the panel.  So simple and yet I think it has the nicest overall effect.

For this project I have been using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky Yarn in the color Cadet.

Image from knitpicks.com. This image belongs to them.

I’m such a huge fan of vintage palettes.  Or what I think of as vintage palettes, you know, sort of muted washed out colors–this kind of blue, mustardy colors, etc.  The best part about using wool for this kind of project is that I can Felt Join, which may be the single greatest thing that has happened to me in my life.  Tutorial here.  (I just use regular water and I don’t really bother tapering, but this is a good starting point for the technique).  I am so happy that I will have no ends to weave in at the end of such a large project.

The only other hang up is that when I was ordering yarn and trying to convert from the yarn the pattern maker used to the yarn I am using I ended up not buying enough yarn.  But since I know how many skeins it takes to knit this panel (you make a second one just like it for the other side of the middle panel) I will be able to better estimate how much yarn I need once I finish up as much of the middle panel as I can.  I will hopefully have an update on the middle panel soon.

XOXO

Checks + Balances

There it is in all of its over-sized glory!

Alternatively this should be titled Why Gauge Sometimes Really Matters.

…But you know, nobody has time for that.  (Also, in my case, why checking your needle size also super matters. )

When I first saw this pattern floating around Tumblr I was compelled to knit it.  My knitting sense was tingling.

By this point in my knitting career I had grown pretty tired of working on basics–scarves, fingerless gloves, hats–I was desperate for a new challenge.  Earlier in the year I tackled the Endpaper mitts (also with the wrong size needles, can we sense a pattern yet?) and I realized that even though fair isle knitting looks ridiculously complicated, it’s actually not that hard to do.  I had been playing it safe with my knitting.  It was time to do something adventurous, exciting, and maybe just a little bit crazy.  Okay maybe not that dramatic.  But it was time to achieve the crowning glory of my knitting endeavors–my very own hand knit sweater.  And I chose this glorious pullover to be my introduction to sweater crafting.  *cue gross sobbing*

Pro tip:  For the love of all that is good in the universe knit a gauge swatch…or at least have a really good idea of your measurements before you start.  I did neither, and then proceeded to knit the sweater with needles a size larger than the pattern calls for because I actually thought I had the correct size needles resulting in a garment that is almost 2 sizes too big for me and fits strangely in my shoulders.  But as I frequently say with a lot of my projects, live and learn.

So being new to this whole sweater making business, and now with two sweaters under my belt, I have to say that I really dislike raglan construction.  I know that it exists so that you can knit everything on circular needles with minimal seaming, but I find that it does not lend itself to garment shaping very well.  Either that or I am doing it wrong.  It’s possible it is a combination of both.

This sweater was made more complicated by the fact that on top of the raglan decreases you had to maintain the check pattern, and there aren’t really any notes in the pattern as to how you are best supposed to do this.  So I just made the call to knit all of my decreases with my gray color.  The only other bit that I was frustrated with about the pattern is that the pattern maker chose to knit both of her sleeves at the same time and then steek them. (More on steeking at a later date).  This form of construction is fine, but since I didn’t have a second set of circular needles I was stuck knitting each sleeve one at a time on double pointed needles (DPNs).  I don’t mind DPNs but it left me unsure how to do the sleeve increases properly.  I wish there had been some notes included about that.

Overall, I enjoyed working this pattern despite the snafus I encountered throughout the knitting process.  You will come to find that I consider the best patterns are the ones that result in what looks like a complex pattern, but is actually quite simple to achieve.

In this case, the blocks of alternating colors adjacent to the solid blocks of colors easily result in a plaid-like effect throughout the entire garment.

So simple and yet so brilliant.  If you are new to colorwork/stranded/fair isle knitting, the floats (or the working yarn you carry across several stitches) may seem long, but wrapping or easing up on your typical knitting tension should alleviate your worries.  I don’t usually wrap when I do color work because I am lazy, and luckily I knit loosely enough that I have yet to experience puckering in my finished projects.

Needless to say I’m proud that my first sweater, while not perfect, was a bit more complicated than just straight stockinette (god I hate endless rows of stockinette).  I have several patterns for sweaters queued that utilize different types of construction so I am curious to see which one I end up liking the best.

XOXO

Notes:  Yarn used for this project is from Knit Picks Palette Line in Finley Heather and Indigo Heather.