Raspberry Beret

Ok, so my hat is actually black. Not Raspberry.
I just finished it 5 minutes ago. It is literally the first thing I have knit for myself in a year.

I used the pattern over at knitty Fern Glade and I learned several things while knitting it. Things I should record for my own sake, when I knit in the future.

1) Look, Prag. When you knit lace, I know you feel like a badass. I'm aware that you're convinced you can knit anything. But for the love of all things sacred. USE EFFING STITCH MARKERS.

I literally knit the first four inches of this hat not once, not twice, not thrice, but FOUR times before I found my brain and used it to think the following thought:
"Gee, this is a really simple 18 stitch repeat. If I mark off each set of 18, I will know when I'm screwing up before it is three inches later, so then I won't have to rip it all out."

Once I used some stitch markers to demarcate the repeats, I knit the hell out of this hat. I feel dumb, because I wasted two snow days knitting a) poorly, and b) stupidly.

2) Stop with the fuzz, Prag.
I don't know why I do this. I don't. I always choose super fuzzy yarn and decide that lace would be a great idea. This is possibly the Dumbest Idea Ever for a novice lace knitter. It makes it hard to see mistakes, it's ridiculous to rip out and frog back, and, as I learned, when you try to K3tog, sometimes you will miss catching all three stitches, and because the yarn is grabby, you won't notice until there's a weird little loop sticking out of the middle of your hat, chilling there asking why it has been left out.


This particular adventure in lace knitting was done in Sublime angora merino (given to me by the Gardener and the Gardeness for Yule). It is amazing. It is lovely, soft, and fuzzy and I want to pet it all the time. It took a ball and a half to knit the hat, and I sacrificed probably a quarter of one ball to failed attempts that was frogged and ripped past its ability to do anything but felt together into a lump that makes me weep.

I haven't figured out what to do about the loose loop from my missed stitch in a K3tog. In fact, I just remembered its existence while writing this just now, and this is after I put that sucker around a dinner plate to block. Hm. Should probably fix that, don't you think?

In any event, it is soft, it is wearable, and it was an excellent learning experience.

This is what it looks like, blocking.

One day, I will learn to take proper photographs of my finished objects and works in progress. I will. Today is not that day.

Bring me wild plums, wild plums and agrimony!

While knitting the new Malabrigo sweater (based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern in Knitting without Tears, of course!) last night, I made a startling discovery.

You see, the thing is that I generally prefer to knit sweaters on a pair of twenty four inch circulars. However, I was low on cash for needle buying, and simply bought one thirty-two inch circular, thinking, "Oh, the sweater will only be thirty-six inches in diameter, what difference could it possibly make?"

Cast On #1, Lesson #1: Measure and count accurately. Twice. Thrice if you're as Dense as Spilary.

Malabrigo is lovely. With a US7, I get a very even, very consistent five stitches per inch. The fabric that this gauge produces is loose enough to drape, but tight enough to have that fat, squooshy "I'm made of Malabrigo" sort of vibe. Good times!
Note that I just said five stitches per inch. Not seven, eight, or nine. So. Casting on two hundred sixty stitches (don't ask me where I got that number --- I have yet to figure it out), yields a sweater that is a whopping fifty-two inches in diameter. This is in fact, almost double the diameter I wanted, and I knit approximately fifteen rounds before realizing that something had gone dreadfully awry. That is about 3900 stitches, for the record.

Cast On #2, Lesson #2: PAY ATTENTION!! And use the correct tools for the job!

Remember how I mentioned that I had opted to save some cash and use a single thirty-two inch circular? Well! I cast on the correct number of stitches in the alternating color (Sealing Wax, in case you are of the curious persuasion) because after 3900 black stitches, I was "blacked out", as it were. Yes, yes, I know. The pun gods will smite me shortly. It's fine. Lovely. The reddish Sealing Wax was a welcome contrast and I knit happily for 23 rounds, switched to black for 12, and switched back to Sealing Wax for 3 and then once again, realized: Something is Wrong.

I had twisted the stitches on the needle before joining them in the round. I usually avoid this by using two circulars, because they give you more shift room for your stitches, and you can simply line them up into little rows that face each other, and voila! No Twisted Stitches!
But no. Not this time. THIS time, I had put a full 360 degree twist in the middle of my sweater, and failed to realize it because the knitting was bunched onto a single circular needle until I had knit a total of 37 rows. At 180 stitches per round (yay math!) that's somewhere in the ball park of almost six thousand more wasted stitches.

Plus!
Frogging out knitting in the round with a full twist in it = nightmare tangles.

By the time I was finished frogging it out and muttering profanities under my breath, an entire episode of House had begun and ended, and I had to rewind it at watch it again.

Upside?
I'm now thinking checkerboard in Sealing Wax and Black.
Never done that before.

Remind me that I thought this was a great idea when I'm weaving in all the ends.