Training
After a complete and total disaster with the slipper, which I don’t want to discuss, and I certainly don’t want to show you pictures of the disfigured, mangled, horrific thing that I pulled out of the washing machine…I decided that it was time to start training for the Olympics.
Holy crap! Look! Fair Isle! By me! *faint*
And you know, it doesn’t look half bad. No, my tension isn’t perfect, and for some reason the decreases at the top were unbearably difficult (Decrease at the beginning and end of each pattern repeat! How hard can that be? Pretty damn hard, apparently.) but I am, on the whole, pleased.
Things the swatch has taught me:
1) Knitting Fair Isle on dpns is a PAIN IN THE ARSE. I must go get myself some circulars.
2) But circs in what size? The pattern gives a gauge of 6 stitches and 7 rows per inch. I measured my swatch, and I – the queen tight-ass knitter – got a gauge of 5 stitches per inch. Figures. Do you think going from a US3 to a US2 will add a stitch per inch?
3) Despite loving knitting, and despite the fact that I’ve been knitting nearly continuously for a year, if a pattern has me decreasing every row, I WILL FORGET. I don’t know what the problem is. It’s a sickness.
4) I still don’t know if this will be an appropriate challenge for me. The swatch was two sections, shortened, and it took me about 10 hours on a Saturday (and that 10 hours included time out for dinner, conversation, staring in horror at the slipper-abomination, looking up at the good parts of movies, etc.) On one hand, I feel like it went really quickly (I think Harlot’s “Fair Isle is Faster” experiment was right on the money), and I begin to worry that I won’t be able to stretch the hat over 16 days without you kids noticing that I’m dawdling. And then I think about all those little, fiddly stitches; and having to knit the lining; and how much crap I have going on during those 16 days; and the stupid fucking decreases that I can’t seem to remember, and I think I’ll be lucky if I finish in the month of February.
So, it’s still a crap shoot.
But, as a bonus, the swatch makes an adorable cat hat.
And Isadora was promptly named the CatPope.
Also on Saturday, Bradon and I ran down to Einstein Bros to drop of the red scarves. We barely made it before they closed, and I was hoping that I’d have the opportunity to take a picture of a big box full of red scarf love…alas, they apparently keep it in the back, so no pictures. Ho hum.
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1La
wrote on 30 January 2006 at 18:47
Teehee…snicker snicker…I’m glad I’m not the only one who forces their beloved furries to model for them.
2Pam
wrote on 30 January 2006 at 19:26
Fair isle is on my list of things to try. I love the way it looks, but I keep putting it off. I’m gutless!
3ellie
wrote on 30 January 2006 at 20:50
Your swatch looks great! Great colors too. I won’t notice any dawdling. I promise. I’m astonishingly unobservant. Plus you know life, it messes with you. New technique=totally appropriate challenge in my book.
4Em
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 5:50
Heh! How long did those loose ends last around the CatPope?
5Wendy
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 6:12
Okay, Lucy saw that last photo and now she is perstering me to make her a catpope hat too!
6Grace
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 7:11
The swatch looks great! I’ve never knit fair isle on dpns, always circulars. Hopefully that will go better for you. Isadora makes a wonderful catpope! Too cute!
7katie
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 8:27
Wow, that looks gorgeous! You make fair-isle look easy enough for even me to try.
As for the Olympics, if you finish the first hat in record time you can always cast-on for a second in order to challenge yourself.
8Norma
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 10:40
ROFL. Catpope. At least it’s not catpoop. That would not be good. But bravo to you for doing fair isle! I’m not there yet. I did buy a hat kit, so one of these days…..
9margene
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 11:01
Fair Isle takes some practice. It looks like you did a perfect job. You could make matching mittens if you finish early.
10Chris
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 20:55
Piratical Cat Pope! I love it.
If you get the hat done too quickly, you will just have to make the matching mittens and scarf.
11Laura
wrote on 31 January 2006 at 22:18
hehe Cat Pope. LOVE that. If a pattern says that you should decrease every other row, I forget and start decreasing EVERY row. And I’ve been knitting way longer than a year. I’ve just got way too many distractions… that’s it….. distractions! And look there, you’ve got Cat Pope keeping you from giving the knitting your full attention. There ya go. You can blame it all on Cat Pope.
12Carrie K
wrote on 1 February 2006 at 13:30
The Cat Pope indeed. Appropriate fair isle pattern too, for it, eh?
13jess
wrote on 1 February 2006 at 16:01
LIES!!!! I am the cat pope! dirty usurper
damn dirty cute usurper, am i the only one who thinks its awsme that the kitty pope hat has skulls on it??
14Bonnie
wrote on 1 February 2006 at 18:09
Uh, am I seeing things or is that FairIsle swatch design a pair of “skulls”???
15jenifleur
wrote on 1 February 2006 at 23:57
1. I agree-all that yarn hand needle switching confusy stuff is, well, confusing.
2. No, I think it will add a partial stitch.
3. Um. I dunno. I think it IS a disease or something. Try drinking more.
4. I had a dream I finished my Olympic Fair Isle in 4 days. Now, I’ll be lucky to finish it in 44 days, but I’m worried about dreaming of KALs. If I start dreaming about knit blog memes I’m gonna start taking no doze and smoking craque. However, maybe you should do what Chris said and IF you finish you knit something else in the set. Like wristwarmers or something. Or a kitty pope hat in more appropriate colors like red and black. Maybe a tail cozy with fair isle. Or maybe you shouldn’t get those circs after all so it’ll slow your prodigy ass down a little and stop making the rest of us look like tards.
16vanessa
wrote on 24 February 2009 at 19:45
wow thats cool, where can i get a pattern like that!!!