Fellow Heliopath knitters! Let’s all take a deep breath in….. and out…..
Well the simple ribbing is done and now it’s time for the big guns. THE CABLED PATTERN.
It’s funny because within the pattern there is very cute comment about how if she were knitting this, Luna would have made mistakes, thus the adorable drop stitches. I seriously know from being a Potter fan and Luna supporter that home girl would not have gotten past the first swatching for this bad-boy – Nargles and this pattern would be ridiculous. I digress. I’m really excited to actually begin the work on the cabled pattern now that I got over my emo-swatching issues. The most important part of this is the set up. I chose to knit the second size vest and therefore have 151 stitches on my needles. Based on the pattern and ‘borders’ on the button front of the vest, I will knit three (3) ‘side by side’ pattern pieces and due to my extra long torso of steel I will knit either 5 or 6 of the 16 row pattern. My gauge was spot-on for the swatching, but depending on how this piece looks and where it rests on my hips I will make that call when I get there.
jr. knit apprentices.my two inch ribbing with markers set for cable pattern.
For the next two weeks we will be knee deep in this pattern – then comes the exciting dropping stitches and decreasing parts!
Ya! Week two already in the Heliopath KAL with @socalmeaghan over at the Unapologetic Knitter and things are finally getting set to start the pattern with prep done! I have to say I had a tough first week on this considering it is something I’ve been looking forward to knitting for a long long time. I had a gnarly cold that made knitting just not happen for several nights (gotta love those 12 hour sleep sessions). Then anytime I did pick up my needles to knit the cable/lace swatch I would just flub it. EVERY DAMN TIME. Without doubt, on the third or fourth rows I would get all confused and biff it. I ended up casting on, restarting, and ripping it out more than half a dozen times easy. Finally I realized that I was just not gonna be able to follow the chart as it was written in the pattern. This happens to me sometimes, I have to work it out before the pattern ‘makes sense.’ Once I get it though, it’s easy as pie. So I just did what I had to do and re-wrote the pattern without a ‘key’ and just in straight “K”, “P”, “K2”, “P2”, “YO” – this made it so I could just go through it. I’m sure watching Bones Brigade and then 80’s Skate Videos the entire time while trying to do this did not help for my concentration, but hey! that’s my style. Now I can look at either chart and knit it with ease, but DANG that knitter’s block and the fumbles really had me shook for a minute.
the swatch finally done. with one drop stitch panel. and one handwritten pattern translation. oy!sometimes my helpers make knitting hard.
I know this craft is hard. It’s easy to forget the days of struggling with the basics, especially for some of us knitters that are more advanced and are able to often work on advanced patterns. This pattern is not difficult, but sometimes you just have to look at it in a different light. I think any knitter can agree with that. Sometimes you really do have to just take a deep breath, put the needles down, step back, and re-evaluate. Especially if you have invested so much in fiber and the pattern itself. The simple mistakes are what ruin a project. The accidental drops, the inverted rows, reading a WS/RS backwards. We all make mistakes and most often our projects are not entirely 100% mistake-free, but understanding to step back and look at it in a different way is what makes us stronger as knitters and crafters. I’m happy I struggled so hard with this swatch, because now the basic pattern is pretty worked in my head. The frustration finally lead to the break through of understanding the idea and the set-up. Don’t ask me why I made it so hard for myself, maybe it was the cold, maybe it was because I’m on a time-line with it, or maybe it was my major lifelong crush on Tony Hawk, but by golly I figured it out.
gonna look sick.
Moving forward this week we will just cast on for the ribbing and knit that. Not too bad and the perfect little mental rest before the cable/lace pattern picks up. Overall, this pattern is great so far. I love that it’s one large piece and knitting all those swatches really put the process and understanding of the drop stitch during the BO/decrease into perspective for me.
Where there struggles for anyone KAL? How did the gauging/swatching go?
ghostfaceknitter.com 