If by “knitting” you mean knitting and re-knitting the same section of sweater over and over again. I am now officially a working stiff (of the hellish-commuting/lots-of-overtime variety), which means on a good day I’ll get to sneak maybe 20 minutes of knitting before I pass out on the couch. Anything more complicated than stockinette is now completely beyond me.

I reached the yoke part of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, attached the sleeves, and continued working merrily along in stockinette. Until I discovered that I’d missed the decreases on the row where I attached the sleeves. Frog. Re-knit.

Missed the first round of yoke decreases. Frog. Re-knit.

Got to the cable pattern and miscounted the number of stitches between the 5-in-1 increases. Frog. Re-knit.

Missed the second set of 5-in-1 increases. Frog. Re-knit. Re-knit wrong, frog and re-knit again. It’s still wrong, so I frog and re-knit again, this time successfully.

I finish the cable pattern, and the next round of yoke decreases, and feel all proud of myself that I finally finished the hard part and can go back to zoning out on stockinette.

And then I looked more carefully. Check out the picture above again. Notice something?

Here’s a hint:

There were four dots on the chart that I thought were purl stitches. Turns out they were bobbles.

Continue reading Tangled Up in Bobbles (142 words) »

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And then I brought it to knit night. And then I continued to work on it while attempting to watch soccer coverage in Spanish, which I barely understand but am trying to learn. This is what happened:

I was tempted to leave it. If the mistake can’t be spotted from the back of a galloping horse, who cares, right? But you know who could spot a mistake from the back of a galloping horse? An eagle.

Time to tink.

I believe firmly in tinking over frogging for virtually any kind of mistake, no matter how far back it is. Frogging is reserved for whole-project errors, or if I have less than two rows completed. They say in programming that you introduce a new bug for every ten lines of code you write. I believe there’s a similar rule for knitting, that you make a new mistake about every X stitches. Tinking means re-knitting fewer stitches and that means you’re less likely to make a new mistake in the course of your repair.

Of course, proper set-up for tinking makes all the difference. Clear your workspace. Get good light. Banish children, pets, husbands, and liquor to another room. Failure to do so is like being a surgeon at Seattle Grace.

Continued after the jump.

Continue reading Tink, Tink, Tink (322 words) »

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Back of Head

In the diagram below, the light blue arrows indicate the direction of knitting.

Note that the back of the head is constructed in much the same way as the arms and the body. You make conjoined octagons and then sew the seams indicated by the black double-pointed arrows. After you are done with this bit, you will have a small bowl-shaped piece.

Front of Head

The front of the head is a little trickier. First, line up the pieces as pictured, with the right sides facing you—if you’ve done this correctly, the two bound-off stitches at the side of each piece should meet in the middle. The blue dots represent the row markers you placed while knitting.

The first thing you should do is sew the right side and the left side together where indicated by the double-pointed arrows—this is the side of each piece from the cast-on edge to the first marker. This seam runs from the center chin to the nose. Do not sew the cast-on edges together! This will be the neck opening you use to stuff the head.

Next, sew the head gusset in. Line up the tip of the triangle with the center of the V where the bound-off stitches meet. Then seam each side of the triangle to each side of the head, lining up the head gusset’s cast-on edge with the second marker. Note that the cast-on edge for the gusset is the top of the bear’s head.

You should now have another bowl-shaped piece (this one has a little point at the center) for the front of the head. Sew the back and front of the head together at the sides and at the top, leaving the neck open for stuffing.

Instructions for leg assembly after the jump.

Continue reading Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit: Diagrams and Assembly (192 words) »

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