August » 2010 » Untangling Knots

The Laptop Returns

I got my laptop back today with my touch pad fixed (yay), but the screen was damaged so I have to send in back tomorrow (boo). It’s a really tiny blip, but I shouldn’t have to suffer it if my laptop is still under warranty. The nice thing is that since it is just a little spot on the screen, I can set up a few posts to publish themselves while my laptop is being repaired (for the third time).

I finally made a decision about the pattern from my last post. I decided that my iffy feelings about how the pattern was priced might taint the project and I was better off knitting something that I didn’t feel weird about. I am knitting Audrey in Unst instead. It was lurking in my queue because I had been planning on knitting it in yellow, but I never found the right yellow in the right yarn. As you can see in the picture above, I just cast on. I’m going to add a few inches of length to the sweater and have less ribbing at the bottom. As is, the pattern has the sweater hitting me at a really awkward spot that will just make my hips look wide. This is why it is good to know your measurements. If/when I find the perfect yellow DK yarn, I will make the sweater a few inches shorter. This time I’m going to make it a few inches longer so it is more like my old grey sweater that needs replacing.

Pattern Purchasing Dilemma

When I first ran across Delancey, I was really excited to make it. I went and ordered grey yarn with some black yarn to be the accent color. I was going to replace my beat up pilly old grey cardigan that I’ve been wearing for years.

While waiting for my yarn to come in the mail, I found this. That really pissed me off. The pattern page on Ravelry has the pattern for sale for twice as much and there is no mention that it is available on Knit Picks. The yarn used in the pattern isn’t even linked to Knit Picks Capra’s yarn page on Ravelry. I went to the designer’s website because I was curious what price the pattern was o there and whether or not it mentions that the pattern is available on Knit Picks for half the price. The designer’s website doesn’t even identify the yarn as being Knit Picks yarn! The combination of factors makes me feel like the designer is intentionally trying to trick their customers and that pisses me off. I realize that Ravelry has perks to download from (being able to access the pattern online all the time) and that there are a service charges for each sale from Rav and PayPal that might justify the increased price, but the way it appears that the designer tried to hide the availability of the pattern on Knit Picks for a lower price makes me feel like they’re not just trying to give their customers more purchasing options and is making up for those extra costs. I should probably note that there legally is nothing wrong with what the designer did. The Knit Picks IDP contract allows for it. I just find it kind of insulting.

Now I don’t know what to do. I’m annoyed about the way the designer presented things, but I sort of still want to knit the sweater. I can’t think of anything else to do with this yarn that wouldn’t take a lot of math on my part and I wanted this to be a math free project. The designer being a jerk doesn’t make the pattern any less rad, but I also don’t like giving money to people who try to trick me. What would you do? Buy the pattern or just stash the yarn until inspiration strikes?

In other news, the reason why this post contains no pictures of lovely yarn and that I haven’t updated more recently is that my laptop was sent in for repairs. I’m using my sister’s craptop. It sucks. Hopefully my laptop will be back soon and regular content will resume.

ETA: I took Vivianne’s advice and sent the designer a message. She told me that the yarn wasn’t named because she self published the pattern on Ravelry and her website before Knit Picks’ release of the pattern and the new yarn line the pattern uses. She said the difference in price is because that is what she feels the pattern is worth which leaves me wondering why she published through Knit Picks in the first place. I’m still feeling iffy about the whole thing.

Spiral Hat

Do you ever imagine things as being completely awesome and then once you have a tangible version, it just is kind of bleh? That is how I feel about this hat. It was so great in my head and my sketches, but my FO is sort of ugly.

The ruffle coming down from the top is just weird. Why did I think that would be a cool touch? The yarn I used is thick enough so that the rosette/spiral/lumpy thing holds its shape, but it is too thick for a nice ruffle. It looks pretty strange.

I made the hat for my sister and she says that she will wear it. I was feeling like it wasn’t great but it also wasn’t horrible until I looked at these pictures. This hat is a serious flop. I might take it apart and knit my sister something better.

I got the idea for the hat from this photo shoot. I decided it would look cool with a rosette shaped thing instead of that free form gather. Mostly I liked the look of the big decoration next to the cheek. I might try something else with that look.

Making Progress

I’m on my second ball of my multicolored scarf so I guess I’ve committed to it. I like the way it is turning out.

The project is delightfully mindless and people think it is impressive looking. It’s quite deceptive. I was hoping to whip it out and shout “Bam! Look how fast I knit this scarf!” but, erm, I’ve only really worked on this for two days and scarves take longer than that when you are working on sekret knitting at the same time.

I love how the colors are working up, but I can’t quite figure out what is going on with the stripes. There are two different stripe patterns in each ball like the balls are made from two different dyelots but all of my balls are like this. There are knots where it changes and I can’t wrap my head around what is going on with this dyelot. It doesn’t bug me too much. I’ve been taking out the knots and adjusting things so that it isn’t a super dramatic change, but it still is odd.

In other news, that would be my passport. I just got it back with my UK visa inside!!! Yay!! That means I will definitely for sure be attending Lancaster University in October. I’m super excited and I’m glad to not have to worry about my visa anymore.

A New Home!

Untangling Knots has moved here and gotten a bit of a make over. Please update your RSS feeds/readers!

The only real change to the blog is that I’ve merged my more personal blog with my crafty blog so there will be a little more about my life on here. I wasn’t updating it enough for those posts to clutter up this blog so I imported them along with Untangling Knots.

Sooo… Enjoy!

Multicolor Yarn

I’m pretty terrible with multicolored yarn. It looks so enticing in the skein/hank/ball, but I just don’t know what to do with it! I needed a new mindless project to work on while watching telly so I decided to try making a scarf with the balls of Crystal Palace Taos yarn that I had taunting me in my stash.

I tried some crocheted shells. They weren’t horrible. The colors show up nicely but it looks so messy to me! It also isn’t the best stitch pattern for TV watching. I have to keep checking where my hook goes and I need too much light for that.

Before that I tried a weird variety of short rows. This was also messy looking but it didn’t even show off the colors well. I did notice a little gem in the middle, though. See the top bit where there is a rectangle of diagonal garter stitch? That is what I decided to go with. I’m knitting the scarf from corner to corner. This makes tidy stripes and does a decent job of showing off the colors. It also isn’t too boring.

Header Practice

This has nothing to do with crafty stuff but I want to make myself a new header so I’ve been trying to teach myself how to use Illustrator. Some day I will beat Illustrator in a fight but for the moment it is kicking my ass. I made my old header in Photoshop. I kind of enjoy the softness of rasterized stuff but the resizability of vectors also has its appeal. My lack of skill with Illustrator is driving me crazy because I’m quite good with Photoshop, never mind the fact that I’ve had Illustrator for two months and I’ve been using some version of Photoshop for almost a decade. Minor details.

Anyways, the test round (the above doodle) was a success and I have developed enough skillz to create a new header so expect shiny new changes in the future!

And if you haven’t voted in the poll in my previous post, go do that! Thanks

How Do You Prefer to Decrease On Hats?

I admit this is a weird thing to wonder about, but I’m working on two hats at the moment and using both methods of decreasing and I keep wondering which people prefer. If you make hats from the top down, ignore this.

Option 1 is very tidy looking but it creates obvious angles. To me, it looks more skillful. Option 2 is a little less tidy looking and tends to look swirled. It makes a very round shape. I usually am knitting a beret or a slouchier hat so I typically go with #2 because #1 needs a head filling it out to hide the angles.

They both have their problems and their perks. I was wondering if other people have a preference?

How do you prefer to decrease on the crown of a hat?online survey

ETA: Please ignore that superfluous period in my little graphic. And while you’re at it, ignore how crappy that graphic is.

Britta’s Cowl

When my sister saw my cowl, she asked me if I would knit her a cowl like mine if she bought the yarn. I love knitting with baby alpaca so I was all over that offer, but the more we talked about what she wanted, the more I realized that drapey alpaca lace was not it. I showed her lots of pictures of cowls and what did she want?

Plain seed stitch in chunky not-so-drapey yarn. I made a variety of interesting sketches but I finally just decided that if she just wants seed stitch, that is what I should knit.

I cast on 140 stitches on 10 mm needles. I used two skeins of Lion Brand Thick and Quick and worked in seed stitch until I was out of yarn.

It was a nice mindless knit. It was good to work on while watching Sherlock. By the way, did anyone else yell at their TV at the end of the last episode? Who ends a show like that when it hasn’t been renewed yet?!?!?!

Anyways, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, even if it was a bit plain. I think I might make myself a gigantor cowl like this, but mine will be more interesting.

Stitchionaries

I’m always surprised by the number of knitters that I run into who don’t have stitch treasuries. I use mine more than any of my other knitting books. I have A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker.

They’re quite inspiring. My book is loaded with sticky notes that have ideas jotted down for projects, notes on modifications, or rows converted to in the round. I love playing around with stitch patterns when I don’t know what to knit.

A stitch treasury is handy even if you aren’t doing design work. Sometimes I use mine to make simple things like cowls in an all over stitch pattern. You could also use them to replace a panel or stitch pattern in a pattern with something that is more to your taste. Like wise, you can use a stitch treasury to find a stitch to jazz up a plain pattern like a basic beret. It’s an easy way to spice up your knitting.