Tag: poll

Cardi Decisions

Originally, I made the title of this post “Cardicisions”, which looked like I was trying to choose a vehicle, and then “Cardecisions”, which looked like I don’t know what.  So in the end I decided to discard all unclever word mushing and be a little more clear.  There!  Aren’t you glad?

The point of all this is, I’m trying to decide on a cardigan to knit – I just lost my favourite one (shop bought, never fear, but still!), and even though it was a very plain v-neck raglan in fine yarn, I’ve decided to knit a replacement rather than buy one.  Needless, I hope, to say, I won’t be knitting a direct replica!  I have:

  1. A kilo of black 100% wool DK. I’m not sure what the yardage is, but I would hope it’ll work out to “plenty”.
  2. Rowan #40. There are also lots of free patterns on Rav, but I’d like to actually make something from a mag I’ve paid out money for!
  3. a size 18-20 upper bod (so don’t want anything that’ll make me look even chunkier!).

Unless anyone knows any free DK-weight patterns that are knit in one piece1 and have some kind of interest to the fabric2, I’ve narrowed my choices to either Lichen3, Sadie4, or Autumn Leaves without the applique leaves, because, wtf?!  Orrr, there’s Celtic, but my Mum thinks it needs the tweedy type yarn and the cables would be lost in plain black.  Opinions?  I also completely adore Juno, but I’m not sure if it’d suit my body shape, and hadn’t been planning on making a fitted cardi this time. Maybe one day!

Anyway, because I’m indecisive as ever, it’s poll time! (Or leave a comment, etc etc).  I’m actually going to crosspost this entry to LJ and DW (I know!  Crossposting twice in as many days!  What is the world coming to?) so if you’re reading this there, you’ll have to come over to my blog to vote in the poll.  Should you want to, of course.  Participation entirely voluntary, refunds cannot be guaranteed.

[poll id=”4″]

All opinions much appreciated.  I’ve got other knitting to finish, so I won’t be casting on straight away (probably).  So I might even see if I can get this into the sidebar so it’s showing up for a few days.

ETA 7/11 – Eeeek! The lovely Noxie has let me know that non Ravelry members can’t see those links.  Sorry about that – I thought the pattern info pages were open to all.  So I’ve added photos of the various cardigans.

1 Because if I’m going to knit something from elsewhere then I want it to be for a really good reason.  Like no seaming!  Mmm, seamless construction…
2 Like I said, not a plain replica. I don’t want to pass out from boredom while knitting. Some kind of cables or texture.
3 All over cables might end up rather bulky, of course. I suppose I could always knit a (dun-dun-duuuuuh) swatch?
4 Maybe a bit lacy for the winter though? On the other hand, bound to be a faster knit…

Insufficient Yarn Error

The main project that I’ve been knitting on recently has been the Ishbel scarf, and I was using some really lovely soft, squishy yarn for it: some BFL sockweight by Nimu.

[thumb:1150:c:t=]

Isn’t it preeeeeeeeeetty?  I know you can’t see it terribly well in that picture because it’s only some of the stocking stitch portion.  But trust me, it’s lovely – the colour of ripe blackberries.  The pattern calls for 300m of yarn, the skein was 365m.  I used the suggested needle size because I liked the drape of the fabric that gave me, although it put my gauge a little bit off.  That’s not important in a scarf, triangular or not, right?  Well, I knitted all of the stocking stitch section, and thought I still had plenty of yarn.  The I started on the lace charts: chart A, then B, then as I started A again I began to get a bit worried.  I kept going though.  Right up until I ran out of yarn with essentially 8 rows to go.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Has my dodgy gauge has eaten more yarn, or something?  I’m not sure that makes sense – I haven’t knitted more stitches, after all.  I’ve got more stitches to the inch than I should have: that means that to get suggested gauge, I’d have to go up a needle size or two, thus making larger stitches, and therefore less per inch.  My stitches are smaller, so they should be using less yarn, right?  The resulting scarf must be a bit smaller than intended, that’s all.

As I see it, I have a couple of choices: rip out the whole thing (noooo!) and start again with different needles or yarn, or knit the remaining few rows in something else.  But what?  I only have this one skein of lovely Nimu ‘Striding Edge’ BFL, and I love the way it’s feeling so much that I do want to use if for this project.  Bah.  My first instinct is to edge it in a black yarn, since it’s such a dark colour to start with.  But the only black yarn I have in what to my naked eye looks like a comparable thickness (I mentioned that it’s a very squishy sockweight, and it’s relatively loose-spun) is acrylic DK.  No.  I also have some similarly squishy sock yarn by the Yarn Yard – their merino ‘Hug’ yarn, in a couple of colours that might do:

[thumb:906:c:t=Mysterion][thumb:612:c:t=Damson][thumb:823:c:t=Damson knit up]

I don’t know which, if either, would be better though.  So I’m posting a poll.   Help meeeeeee!

[poll id=”3″]

You know what’s really annoying, though?  This is the fourth time I’ve run out of yarn on a project recently.  I must be doing something wrong.

Topics for the Blogathon / Q&A

As I said yesterday, one of the things I’m planning to do during the Blogathon is to talk about some of my experiences with being bipolar, and I was hoping that people would ask me any questions they have about the subject so that I could have a go at answering and maybe make some things clearer.  I’ve thought of some possible topics to start with, so here’s a handy poll:

[poll id=”2″]

Or do you have any other questions or related topics you’d like me to expound upon?  Is there anything specific that you’ve heard about bipolar, or gathered from the media, that you want to know about?  Or do you want to know about stupid things I’ve done while manic?  Or what knitting has to do with it?  Feel free to ask absolutely anything (er, about bipolar / being bipolar) even if you think it’s a bit personal – if I feel it’s not something I want to talk about then I’ll say so, but I’m going to try to be as open and thorough as possible with this.  Anyway, leave any other questions in the comments.  Thank you!!

And as well as that whole topic, I’m planning to post about:

  • Knitting: what’s on my needles, recent finished objects, and what I want to do next.
  • Spinning: it’s the last two days of the Tour de Fleece!
  • Books, film, TV… maybe.  Things that I’ve been reading or watching recently, which may include fanfiction.  (Funnily enough I’ve just started reading Harry Potter fanfic again, which is what I did during the first Blogathon I took part in back in 2003.  Oh the synchronicity!)
  • Links to other ‘thon-ers (mostly likely when my brain has shut down in the middle of the night ;-) )

I think that should keep me going!