theknittyvritti

glad that's over

We'll start with the art shot. It's snowing, and  I thought maybe taking the pictures outside would be interesting. But it was actually snowing pretty hard, and I was  getting soaked, so we came inside.

Moving inside, here's a full frontal shot of the Ruffled Cardigan. The ruffles are not as full and wide as those in the book, and I might knit them wider were I doing it again, but I am still teasing some length out of them whenever I can bear to do some steam blocking.  I apologize for calling the yarn skanky, or linty, or whatever I called it when I was in a full blown snit over this sweater. It's actually quite lovely.

And here is a shot of the back. Those dots are the melting snow--ignore them.

Moving forward again, here's a close up of the ruffles.

That's it. No more drama. I do think I'll wear it so all's well that end's well.

the kenny rogers school of knitting

You've gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.......

Remember "The Gambler"?

I've been aware for quite a while that I took a gamble on the ruffled cardigan from "Runway Knits". I fell in love with this picture, and the romantic elegance of the sweater. It did cross my mind that it might be difficult to replicate (don't try this at home!!!), but I figured that if it was a success, it would surely be a favorite.

I've documented some of the trials and tribulations of this sweater already, most notably the obviously wrong directions for the ruffles. It continues. The directions for sewing on the ruffles are also inadequate. It is not so obvious which sides of the body and ruffles should be sewn together, and at a certain point, it seems to me that it reverses--around where the ruffled edge transitions from sweater bottom to beginning of collar. And to top it off, although her sweater is nice and closed, even in this position, there are no instructions or even suggestions for closures. It's as though Berta decided that we are all expert seamstresses and will easily figure out all this for ourselves. Not.

Here is my sweater as of this morning. I know from prior experience that I will be able to coax some more length and drape out of the ruffles when I take my iron to them in earnest. At the same time, I don't see them ever assuming the flowing,abundant form of those pictured in the book. And I'm beginning to hate the lint catching, kinda skanky and cheap looking qualities of the mohair yarn (this is the voice of bitterness, I might like the yarn but I can't tell anymore).

So I am sticking an ace up my sleeve. Yesterday, I dashed out of the office and bought this book, which I had noticed without special interest a while ago. It's got lots and lots of ideas for edging, including several pages of interesting ruffles. After all, I have an admirably well tailored black sweater body that is just waiting for the right edging. As Kenny might say, you gotta stay flexible.

i hate ironing!

I've always said that I work so I don't have to do housework. And yet, here I am, all set up to iron. What we do for a finished object. The ruffle-knitting is all done, now I just have to prepare the ruffles for their attachment to the body of the sweater. I've found that a very careful light steaming is giving them just the drape and texture that I want. 

Unfortunately, it's now the beginning of my work week, and I'm traveling again this weekend, so I will probably not be finishing this sweater just yet. Excuses, excuses. I do have a little time to start ironing, but it's one of those tasks, like organizing my closets, that I can usually only do in short bursts. I do really want to see this sweater completed. Aside from the picture in the book, Ive never seen a picture of it. And I just hope there's not a Very Good Reason that no one on ravelry has taken this one on yet.

berta, don't you come around here no more*

Ruth (aka the yarnarian--see link at left--and you may be amused to know that my spell-check suggests "barbarian" instead of "yarnarian" ) kindly shared her hopes that I was not ruffled about ruffles. Thanks, Ruth, actually, I'm not really ruffled about ruffles. I am ruffled about Runway Knits, written by Berta Karapetyan of School Products (great store!) fame. This is the first knitting book I purchased when I got back into knitting. Mainly for the really beautiful and very fashion forward sweaters in it. I had high hopes for the patterns, given the haute couture look of the thing.  Although I am finding my way, I have never had to do so much interpretation and reinvention while knitting before. I no longer assume that anything will turn out right by following the direction.

My first experience with Runway Knits was the Trellis shawl. I got gauge on needles three sizes bigger than recommneded. I also ran out of yarn, like another Trellis shawl knitter from Ravelry. Luckily, my LYS had some left over from the same bag they had ordered for me, and was able to knit the shawl to the recommended size. I love the shawl, but geez.

Now I am a different, but similar dilemma. The body of this sweater knit beautifully-exactly to gauge on the same size needles, shape of sweater identical to that pictured in the pattern drawing. but these riuffles are just taking too damn long, and it's because of the way the pattern is written. It's almost impossible to determine how many repeats of the ruffle they recommend, and I'm finding that the numbers of rows between repeats don't match up at all to what is written. I've taken to knitting tiny pieces of ruffle, blocking, and making my own decisions re: these matters. Thankfully, it looks like I was advised to buy more than I really needed of the expensive mohair lace yarn for the ruffle, so I probably won't run out, even with the waste. I am sorry to be so negative, but I'm glad I started with my two favorites, cuz' I think I'm done with this book for a while. I'm looking forward to the next main project, Thermal by Cosmicpluto. The instructions are very, very specific, and everyone's finished Thermal looks great on Ravelry. 

*Ex-Deadhead/Deadhead in joke

yo heave ho

I am turning into a lean, mean, ruffling machine. Although I had determined that this project was going to be too delicate to be my traveling project, I can no longer put them down. I'm determined to have something to show for myself this weekend, so last night I prepared a ruffle travel pack--carefully wrapped yarn, counter and needles-for the bag I carry to work. That's a scary bag, full of odd objects and potential threats to the integrity of a project. Should probably pack them in Kevlar, but a ziploc will have to do.

i think she's got it

After a very quick blocking, this version of the cuff looks like it may be a keeper. I'm going to give it a more aggressive blocking, and move on to the ruffle for the back of the sweater. That is quite a bit longer than this one and will probably keep me occupied for the rest of the week. I don't think I will have the time, real life intruding as it does, to finish this sweater this weekend. Fortunately, I'm captivated enough by the process on this one that I am starting not to care. It'll be done when it's done, and not a minute before. I  apologize for the less than thrilling storyline, but what do you expect from a knitting blog---it's not exactly the stuff of action-adventure--or is it? 

interim ruffle pic

Here is the ruffle after it was blocked. You can see that it is softer and taking on some nice folds. I'm in the process of knitting another one with one more wrap and turn sequence, which will create a more ruffled look. And since everyone I know understands how to empty out the camera and start filling it up with photos again, I'll be able to post photos. Whoever thought that knitting would bring me a better understanding of my computer and all of its friends?

block and roll

It's great to have a sister in the fashion biz. When High Test and I spoke about ruffles today, she asked me whether I had blocked the ruffles. Of course not. It never even occurred to me. But I just spent ten minutes doing a really quickie block, and it made a huge difference. I think this is only one step on the way towards this sweater achieving it's promised incredibleness, but I'm very encouraged. Unfortunately, my camera just told me that I'm out of memory. Will have to wait until Operations Man has a chance to explain this probably simple problem to me until I can post a photo of the new somewhat improved ruffle.

the perfect morning

Ah, Sunday morning. after yesterday's minor affect storm, things are going relatively swimmingly.

Still, finishing up this project will be a lot more involved than I predicted. There is a lot of knitting to be done, and I have a suspicion that the authors of the book (Runway Knits) may have made their sweater a little differently than they are telling me to make mine. Either that, or it's pretty much pinned into place for the photo shoot. If I have the persistence, I may knit a few versions of the ruffles .

It feels a little bit like when the great chef leaves out one ingredient--just so his dish is always better than yours. I find that this is occasionally the case with knitting--the photo is beautiful, your sweater decidedly less so, and it's hard to tell what has happened.

Not quite the same, eh? Mine is actually rather pretty, but not the "that's incredible" that was my reaction to the picture of the one in the book, which looks like it has way more ruffles knit into it than mine does, or than the instructions tell you it should. I think the thing to do would be to knit one with a whole lot more ruffles than I put into mine and see what happens. Let's see how I feel in about fifty more ruffles, since they go around the entire neck, front, and bottom of this sweater.

the mood stabilizer that is ravelry

I've tried to convey the hairy mess I was in yesterday in this photo. I have been excitedly anticipating the reveal of my next finished project, which I guessed would be finished by the end of this weekend. Let's not even talk about the draft of a paper that I'm also supposed to be writing.

There were some strange sounding instructions for this part of the project, but I figured I'd just sort it out when I got there. Right. When I got down to it, I realized that I did not have the technical knowledge to follow these instructions. My mood began to shift. The happy buzz of exhibitionistic joy in finishing the project and displaying it was changing into an angry and panicky thrum. How in the hell was I going to move forward? Before dejection set in, I remembered that I had seen, but not yet availed myself of, a forum on Ravelry entitled "Techniques". I e-mailed my dilemma, and rather more quickly than I could even walk to the LYS and throw myself on the mercy of the store owner, I had an answer from the sainted Seventykay. She clearly and cogently described the technique, and voila, it worked. A little later, someone e-mailed in a link to a site called nonaknits and more helpful information was obtained. I've been able to move forward, although I won't be posting a finished object this weekend.

I do believe that nature and nurture both play a part in determining what kind of emotional life a person is going to have. A difficult emotional life is not always or completely the result of environmental failure. But I think we would all be a little happier if the world worked more like Ravelry........the knitter's mood stabilizer. Thank you!!!