Does gauge matter?

Answer: It depends on what one is knitting!

I have not knitted a garment for myself in a very long time. I know I knit to a loose tension (gauge) but this might be a little too loose!

I got 18.5 stitches to 10cm, the pattern calls for 24 stitches.

If I had just gone ahead and knitted this cardigan, the first time I washed it I would have a cardigan for a silverback gorilla! The yarn is 50% cotton/acrylic blend so the actual yarn shouldn't stretch too much (don't worry, I'll do a test wash before committing to a whole cardigan) but a difference of 5.5 stitches over 10cm will be a massive difference on my XL frame!

Obviously my retirement from paid work and being an empty-nester combined with a renewing of my commitment to my God (resulting in a revived spiritual life) has made me very relaxed indeed!

Posted from the Blogger app on my iPad using a photo taken with the iPad

identified finished object

Some garter stitch, a set of 5mm (US 8) circulars and 200g of Moda Vera Noemi, colourway “red” plus nine days of knitting have produced this:

An easy knit and a satisfactory finish.

And that’s two more skeins of acrylic yarn gone from my stash! Hurrah!

Ravelry tells me I have 60+ skeins of acrylic to go – but some of them are being used in the acrylic intarsia blanket – Ravelry just doesn’t know it yet!

Now back to the intarsia blanket before the weather gets too warm for knitting afghans!

a note to the Cruise Director

ETA: progress on my to do list is at the bottom of the post!

One of the followers of this blog has self-styled herself as the "Cruise Director" (hi, C!)

In the interests of keeping the ship afloat (so to speak), I bring my latest report on the progress of the Pinwheel Blanket.

The finished blanket will have 112 units (5" x 5") joined together to make 28 blocks (10" x 10").

So far I have joined 80 of those units into 20 blocks.

I then joined those 20 blocks into 10 pairs of blocks.

Four pairs are joined together to make a group of eight (seen on the left of the photo below) and six pairs are joined to make a group of twelve but the twenty blocks (8 + 12) have not yet been united.


Before I ran out of yarn, this was the pile of units I had knitted.


Because there is a mistake in the joining of two blocks in the photo above, and because I would have to rip out 200cm (80 inches) of grafting to fix the mistake, I have decided to let sleeping dogs lie. (Are sleeping dogs allowed to lie around on this ship, Cruise Director?)

The good news is that having made that mistake, I can now make a deliberate mistake and fudge one more block for the yarn I couldn't get!

So now I have to do the following to be finished by next Sunday:

• finish knitting two units which were started but couldn't be completed because of the absence of purple yarn (done - Sunday 24th July)
• join 28 units into seven blocks (done - Sunday 24th July)
• layout the units to see which two colours will work best for my fudge block (done - Sunday 24th July)
• knit four units for the fudge block (done - Sunday 24th July)
• join those four units to make one more block (done - Sunday 24th July)
• join the last eight units into four pairs (done - Sunday 24th July)
• join the four pairs into one large group of eight (done - Sunday 24th July)
• join the group of eight to the other group of eight to make a group of sixteen (done - Monday 25th July)
• join the group of sixteen to the group of twelve (done - Monday 25th July)
• sew in all the remaining ends (started - Monday 25th July; finished Wednesday 27th July)
• crochet a border around the blanket to finish the edges neatly (started - Tuesday 26th July; finished Wednesday 27th July)

Do you think I can do it?

Can acrylic be blocked? (a tutorial of sorts)

The short answer is "yes" but not in the same way as natural fibres.

Natural fibres are generally "wet" blocked. For some people, this means spraying their finished knitting and gently stretching easing it to the correct size. For others, blocking means thoroughly wetting the item, removing some of the excess water and then pinning it and easing it to the desired size and shape.

Acrylic is designed to be washed in the machine and (sometimes) tumble dried and still retain its shape! Therefore wetting it to block it and expecting it to retain its new shape is futile. It will just think it's getting a bath and retain its original shape when dry.

Acrylic is a form of plastic. It is created and moulded into various shapes under heat. Have you ever accidentally put a plastic container near a heat source and have it melt on you? Heat will change the shape of acrylic and after it cools it will forever hold that shape.

Acrylic yarn is simply plastic fibres spun together. Heated, they can be moulded to take on new shapes (Ooo, this sentence gives me an idea). But if you bring acrylic yarn into contact with a heat source, the yarn will melt.

So, what heat source do most of us have that will not melt acrylic fibres?

Steam!

There are, of course, several ways to create steam but for me the easiest way to block acrylic is with my steam iron.

Here is my process:

1. Fill the iron with as much water as it can contain and put it on maximum heat and steam.

2. Pin your item to the size and shape you want. In my case, it was a 25cm (10 inch) square. Pin the corners first


...then the centres of each of the sides. Make sure the centre is in the middle - in this case 12.5cm (5 inches).

Press it gently with your hands to get the shape you want and ensure that it is flat.

3. Hold the iron about 2 centimetres (approximately three quarters of an inch) from the item for about 10 seconds then move the iron to another part of the item and steam there for ten seconds, etc. I hold the iron at an angle because I have discovered that a) steam is hot and it hurts and b) steam goes straight up so if I hold the iron at an angle my hand is protected!

 I go all over the item again a second time, just to be sure. For my 10 inch square that meant 10 seconds at the top (horizontally), 10 seconds across the centre (horizontally) and 10 seconds at the bottom (horizontall) followed by 10 seconds on the left then 10 second down the centre then 10 seconds on the right (one minute of steaming) - then repeat all that again (two minutes of steaming).

Do not let the iron touch the knitting - the acrylic will melt on your iron and, besides making an awful mess on your iron and ironing board cover, it smells terrible! (no, I haven't tried it but I did once burn acrylic while dyeing in the microwave - I left a metal paper clip attached!!)

4. Let the item cool before removing it from your blocking surface (I pin straight into my ironing board).

So, here is one of my pinwheel blocks - unblocked.

And here it is after blocking (notice there are no pins holding it in shape).

Does it retain its shape after blocking? Well, let's find out.

Here is the square scrunched up after blocking.
Here is the square un-scrunched.
Neat, huh?

Come back tomorrow to see what happened to these blocks next!

ennui - over and out Part 1

I've found a way to get over my boredom with my current projects...

Finish them!

There is nothing deep and meaningful about this - simply a decision to "just do it"!

On Saturday night I put some of my favourite music on my iPod, put the iPod in the docking station and bit the bullet by sewing in the last 100 or so ends of my Fibonacci Strip blanket.


While doing so, I noticed that one of the patches had a dropped stitch. On closer inspection the stitch had somehow been broken or cut (it's acrylic so I doubt it was insect damage). I unravelled a row, picking up stitches top and bottom as I went, then tightened some stitches so that I had an end long enough to weave in, and sewed that end in.

With the long end that I had unravelled, I grafted the two rows back together again. Thankfully, it was a variegated yarn (one of my hand-dyes) so my wonky garter stitch grafting doesn't show up too badly!

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the entire Fibonacci strip blanket.


The blanket was knitted in strips 20 stitches wide, with the length of each patch determined by the Fibonacci series of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. For this blanket, 1 was equivalent to four rows.

When the strip was the correct length, I picked up stitches (with the purple yarn) along the side of the strip and cast on an extra twenty stitches (in a different colour) to begin the second strip. As I knitted each right side row, I knitted the last of the twenty stitches together with one of the picked up stitches along the edge of the previous strip (a technique from entrelac) - no sewing for this knitter!

After all eight strips were completed, I picked up stitches along both long sides and knitted borders, then picked up stitches from the top and bottom and knitted borders. If I hadn't told you, you might think I knitted the border in the round but I didn't, it only looks like it!

The only downside to my favourite theme in knitting - colour, colour, and more colour - is all the ends to be sewn in! Yes, I could weave them in as I go but ... well, you know how it is! Sometimes sewing ends in can be therapeutic!

Come back tomorrow for my other "boredom breaking" secret!

Entrelac style blanket finished

I knitted this blanket from my hand-dyed acrylic to my own design. It is so pretty I can scarcely think of giving it away! LOL

The two outside panels are done in entrelac, the pale aqua border was added to one side of each and then the centre panel was stitched to join the two outside panels together. From a distance the colours don't show up very well so here are two close ups from the centre panel.

To finish, a six row border was added to the long sides of the blanket, then six rows to the top and bottom. Finally I knitted all the way around (using my KnitPicks 150cm, 120cm, 80cm and 60cm cables) using the ends of various yarns. I could have done two more rounds but I was so sick of purling 1000+ stitches that I stopped!

eta: Details
size: 175cm (70inches) x 100cm (40 inches)
yarn: hand-painted and hand-dyed acrylic 8ply (DK) in 14 colourways (see each entrelac square) and 100g of pale aqua acrylic (thanks Leonie)
design: my own
stitches: garter stitch throughout
time taken: February 26-April 17 (approx. 7 weeks)
destination: Wrap with Love (TAFE challenge)

in which I speak of URTI and family and iTunes and not too much of knitting

I had been knitting projects for Grandson #1 but stopped abruptly after a visit to the doctor on Thursday 25th February. I had a respiratory tract infection for the second time in a month (why do I only get sick when I am on leave from work?) and the doc told me to stay away from DD, SIL and GS#1. *pout*

I figured that it probably wasn't a good idea to knit cute little goodies while I was coughing and spluttering germs everywhere so I had to start a new project which I’ll be able to wash in hot water! I began another blanket for Wrap with Love knitted in my own hand-dyed acrylic. I completed one strip 70 inches (1.75m) long and 8 inches (20cm) wide and began a second but grew weary of the whole garter stitch thing, even though I wasn't knitting just plain rows! The blanket is in an entrelac style, each larger square is made up of four smaller squares knitted in opposing directions.

Last Monday, 1st March, mum arrived to spend a few days with us. Really she was here to meet her first Great-Grandchild so, of course, the first place we went after meeting her train was DD's unit (apartment) where plenty of photos were taken.

During mum's stay there was shopping in the local mall (twice) and a look around the local markets, a visit to my in-laws (with DD, SIL and GS#1) and a visit to my DB and very pregnant DSIL (once again with DD, SIL and GS#1). DSIL is booked in for a Caesarean on 18th March but mum thinks she won't last that long!

On the two days that we didn't leave the house, mum sewed in hundreds of ends on the blanket I knitted late last year (also for Wrap with Love). Thanks mum! When she left yesterday morning I think she was glad to leave the blanket behind (with some ends still not sewn in!).

Most of yesterday, I spent studying iTunes – what’s available and how it works. Of course, I already had a library of knitting podcasts but I had to figure out how to download them to my iPod and how to remove the ones I have already listened to! It's amazing what's out there!! I’ve delved deeply into other types of podcasts (particularly those from Librivox) and what’s available in audio-book form. I had been considering signing up with audible.com (after listening to several podcasts of Sticks and String which they have been sponsoring) but I’m not sure – books on iTunes seem to be cheaper! Has anyone any experience in purchasing audio-books that they want to share?

Big W really is rolling back prices!

I know acrylic yarn isn't everybody's cup of tea but credit where credit's due:

Big W (in Penrith at least) has rolled back the price of Carnival Acrylic 100g balls. Earlier this year they rose from $2.97 to $3.19 (an increase of approx 7%) - yesterday they were rolled back to $2.68! That's 16% - or 29 cents less than this time last year!

The Carnival Effects range - Fair Isle, Stripes and Camouflage - continues to be $2.97 per 100g.

As far as acrylic yarn goes, the Carnival range is quite nice to knit with - some colours knit up very softly.

So let me explain - this is not this week's special - this is the new, lower price! Big W really does roll back the prices! Thanks Big W, you've made me one happy customer!