Saturday, April 29, 2017

It was a tough day, my husband not at all well. We can but hope that the antibiotic kicks in more smartly tomorrow.

I decided – and, oh dear! I fear this is worse than what I did with the sleeves – to sign off the Tannehill un-blocked. It looks very good on him. A pic, perhaps, when we have a more cheerful day.

So I turned to Mary Lou’s Polliwog (“Drop Dead Easy Knits”) and found, to my considerable surprise, that the Sweet Georgia yarn I bought for it at the EYF was too fine, sock-yarn instead of sport. I thought I had all that worked out before I tackled the market.

My first thought was just to cast on the no of stitches specified for the largest size and hope it would fit somebody. But the sight of my husband, however droopy, in his well-fitting (and swatched-for) Tannehill sort of inspired me. So I am nearly finished with a Polliwog swatch.

I have something – I feel I’ve mentioned it before – called a Pony Knitting Calculator. It claims to be able to translate a pattern to a different gauge. Discs revolve, with numbers on them. We will soon see.


I felt, again, in the midst of all this, a great yearning for a yoke sweater. I got Kate Davies’s “Miss Rachel’s Yoke” out but of course found that KD is extremely fierce about swatching so I was no further forward.

11 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your husband. Hope things improve quickly.

    I've got as far as the first sleeve of my first ever topdown sweater (tincan flax). Discovering the downside of having to keep turning body of sweater round and round and round... Bottomup next time-like the lopis I used to knit 30 years ago.

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    1. Kirsten , I used to find that a chore too. Then I hit upon the idea of putting the knitting in a steel mixing bowl/pudding basin, then its much easier to spin it around on your lap. Wish I could remember where I got the idea from...

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    2. =Tamar5:12 PM

      What a neat idea! That would help with anything round-knit.

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  2. KD is not watching you knit. If you don't tell, we won't tell!! Go for Miss Rachel's Yoke.

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  3. That's rough for both you and your husband, Jean. Hopefully those antibiotics start to work quite soon. If they don't, perhaps he needs a different one entirely.

    As for the yoke sweater, I think you should just cast on. There are so many women in your family, it's bound to fit someone. :-)

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  4. RE KD and swatching. I was surprised to find that on the most recent "Inspired by Islay" set of patterns no needle sizes were given at all - you had to work that out by swatching, too. I thought that you were on the brink of casting on the Museum pullover?

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  5. Anonymous1:28 PM

    So sorry your Grumpy Gus isn't out of the woods yet. Tell him not to let us down, get better fast, we long to see him in his beautiful new sweater:)When MY Gus gets sick he likes pop-sickles to sooth his fevered brow. What does your Gus prefer?

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  6. Sending wishes for speedy recovery and swatching!

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  7. Wishing all well. I took a class last weekend from June Hemmons Hiatt on gauge. If you have Principles of Knitting, most of it is in there. However, she kept saying for a baby garment less stringent requirements are fine. If you figure out your desired gauge, let me know, I can help with the recalculation.

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    1. One more thing - if it were me, I'd just do as you originally suggested. Start up a size and run with it.

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  8. =Tamar5:15 PM

    I'm happy to hear the Tannehill fits well! Best wishes to all.

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