Reentry

reentry,  noun

1. an act of reentering.

2. the return from outer space into the earth's atmosphere of an earth-orbiting satellite, spacecraft, rocket, or the like.

Also, re-entry, reentrance, re-entrance
From dictionary.com. See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reentry

Two Dye Lots

 

Let us look at this and begin again.

Can you see the line?  It starts near the "y" in the caption and runs at a slight angle up and to the right in the photo.  The color to the right of the line is a bit darker and richer -- the color to the left it is a bit pinker.  These color differences came about because the yarn I used was from two different dye lots.

You know about dye lots, right?  Yarn manufacturers dye their yarns in batches and give each batch a lot number, so that knitters can be sure that the color will be the same (or as close as possible to the same) when they knit anything requiring more than one skein of the same color.  They just need to remember to check the dye lot numbers.

I have know about dye lots since I was a little knitter.

(But this project was different, or so I thought.)

I began this vest more than one year ago.  I wrote a blog post nearly two years ago where I talked about my plan to use this yarn for the vest.

Two Reds (or was it Four?)

The colors are Crimson Red (left) and Garnet Red (right).  Two skeins are Reynolds Lite Lopi (which has been discontinued), and the other two are Ístex Létt-Lopi.  The Lite Lopi (one of each red) was leftover from a sweater that I had made for my daughter.  I purchased the Létt-Lopi (one of each red) because I liked the two reds together and wanted to make myself a vest with them.  I planned to use the Garnet Red on the lower part of the vest and the Crimson red on the top.

From that blog post more than one year ago:

"They are all different dye lots, and in the case of the crimson, they are even two different color numbers.

I don't think that will matter."

(Well, I was wrong.  It did matter.)

Some of my original plan was edited.  At some point, I decided to use a few rows of colorwork at the actual change of color from the Garnet to the Crimson.  They were completed and are on the left in the first photo. 

The dye lot line is a problem for me.  I can see it.  I do not like it.  And something different must replace it.

(I need to decide what to do with this project because I do not have enough "knitting on the needles" right now.  I am as lost as I could be if I were in outer space for a while.*)

(I need to decide how much of this to rip out and what to do next.)

      

(If you have any ideas, please let me know.)

* True disclosure:  I have NOT been in outer space.  But I have had been lost at times because my day job recently became more demanding.  More than anything else, I need to knit.

A New Year Meditation

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”   

                                                                ~ Neil Gaiman, British author

Knitter's Denial

"You did what you could until you knew better, and when you knew better you did better."    ~  Maya Angelou

Knitter's Denial is a documented disorder that has been found, at least occasionally, in the behavior of almost all who knit.  Typically, a knitter knows that something wrong with whatever they're knitting. They sense it. They feel it. They can actually see it!  And yet, they keep on knitting!

My latest knitter's denial began over a year ago.  It was April 2011 when I purchased several skeins of a new yarn, Tahki Yarns "Ripple", in black.  It was new...  I kind of like Tahki Yarns...  It was there at Gosh Yarn It!...  I bought four skeins, after deciding that I would like to make a shell.  It is 100% cotton and is a thick and thin "tape" or "ribbon" yarn.  I decided on a shell, "Simple and Sleeveless" from The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch by Sally Melville.  The book has a photo of the shell made in a black ribbon yarn and it does look elegant.

I made swatches with size 6 and size 7 needles.  Both were close to gauge, I decided I liked the feel of the swatch made with the 6's.  I began making a size M.  The front and back of the shell are made the same.  I found that the yarn is not the most pleasant to knit with... on occasion the yarn must be pulled more tightly to get a thick part through a loop.  But it had such a neat texture to it.  I kept on knitting.

I found it difficult to make gauge/measurement checks as I knit... beyond curling, the piece seemed to want to scrunch in on itself.  Maybe the size 7 needles would have been better.  But maybe it would be fine after blocking.  I kept on knitting.  Perhaps it was because of the "pulling in" or scrunching, I bought a fifth skein of yarn.  I was afraid I would not have enough.  I kept on knitting.  I left out one set of decreases in the waist shaping hoping that might help a little.  I had most of the first piece done when fall came last year and I put this project away for the winter.

In April of this year I finished the first piece and blocked it.  I mentioned it with a photo in this blog post.  Of course I did not mention in the blog post that even after blocking, the piece was much narrower than anything that I normally wear.  I began the second piece thinking maybe I should make it wider with more stitches.  But I did not.  I kept telling myself that with all of its tendency to scrunch, the knitted fabric really had a lot of give in it.  And it did.  But would I really want to wear something with that much negative ease?  Probably not.  But I kept on knitting.

Then something happened to that finished first piece after being neatly folded in the bottom of my knitting bag for a couple of months.  It shrank!  At least, I think it shrank.  The chest measurement was not as wide as I had thought it to be after blocking.  (I suspected that it got shorter, as well.)  Was it the yarn?  I kept knitting some more.  It dawned on me that I had never made a project page for this garment on Ravelry.  I began to take that as an omen.  I began to think that this project was doomed with gauge issues from its start.  I kept on knitting.

Then I recognized that this particular shell pattern has a stand up collar.  Not something I would normally wear.  But you could make the stand up collar as short or tall as you like.  I kept on knitting.  I was thinking about making the second piece be the front and changing the neckline.  I kept on knitting.

I was more than two thirds of the way finished knitting the second piece, and still thinking about that neckline, when I began imagining the seaming.  I planned to use a fine, smooth black cotton yarn for seaming, but everything being black and textured and shaped, I did wonder how well that would work out.  I kept right on knitting. 

You would have to agree.  It was knitter's denial.  And it had got me good.

I came to my senses this week.  I went from this.

To this.

To this.

Yes, I am starting all over again with a new pattern.  It is "Trace", by Kristin Spurkland, from the heichi book by Shibui.  It is knit in the round.  I will be using size 7 needles.  I believe that I must make a project page on Ravelry very soon...

I guess you could say, I am turning over a new leaf.  Or an old shell.  I guess you could say, I really got my money's worth buying this yarn and getting to knit with it twice.  I know that I can say, I truly do love knitting.

Midweek Meditation

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.                     ~ Scott Adams, US cartoonist

On Saving Sweaters with Whatever it Takes

For days now, the Yarn Harlot has been doing whatever she can to save her sweater.  She has even performed sweater surgery.

You must be very brave, or very desperate -- or both -- to attempt sweater surgery.  A couple of years ago, I performed sleeve surgery on my Ariann cardigan knit with Brooks Farm Yarns Mas-Acero.  The sleeves were started at the wrist and then joined to the body and knit up to the neck.  It was hard to know exactly how long the sleeves should be before joining, and the yarn was especially soft and drapey.

The finished sleeves were easily two inches too long.  Do you know that you cannot rip knitting from the cast on edge?  In order to shorten the sleeves, I had to decide on a row where the ribbing should start if worked downward. Then I snipped the yarn in that row, and pulled out the row, one stitch at a time, detaching the extra length.  (Sorry I do not have photos of the actual surgery.  This was over two years ago -- long before I was blogging.)  I did save the detached sleeve pieces.  They are like my red badge of courage.

 After carefully pulling out the row of knitting, the live stitches were put on needles, knit down and bound-off.  Sweater surgery is quite nerve-wracking, but it was well worth it to have a sweater with the right length sleeves.

I have good news on my latest sweater fiasco -- the fuzz ball Cerisara.  I used ALL of these de-fuzzers.

It took a lot of time, but the stitch pattern shows again.  And my "Evergreen" Cerisara, in Handwerks So-Soft DK, is now a finished object!

I hope that all of your knitting (or whatever is your work or passion) goes well, and that your mistakes will be few and far between!

I Had Trouble, Too

The Yarn Harlot did not finish the sweater that she wanted to wear to Rhinebeck.  She almost made it, but then she "had a little trouble."

I have to admit that when I first read what she said about speeding up the blocking process by putting her knitting in a warm oven, I thought she was crazy.

But then I found myself in a similar position on the night before my trip to Rhinebeck.  I had finished my Cerisara two nights earlier, and I could not stop myself from washing/blocking it.  After two days of air drying, it was still too damp to wear.  I re-read Stephanie's post about the oven.  But she did not provide enough details, not even a temperature.  I was afraid to try it.

My sweater yarn is 80% super-wash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon.  This is similar to (cashmere) sock yarn, and I have often washed hand-knit socks in the washer and dried them in the dryer.  I decided that if I put the dryer on the lowest heat setting and used the delicate cycle (mistake #1) the sweater would be fine.  I also threw the damp beach towel that the sweater had been drying on into the dryer, thinking it would help to absorb and distribute the heat (mistake #2).

The trouble was, being the night before a trip, I was busy getting ready for the next day, and I did not check the dryer for about a half an hour (mistake #3).  My sweater was ruined.

It did not shrink.  It did not burn.  But it is a mass of fuzz balls.  I blame friction...the friction from choosing a longish dryer cycle with all that "cool down" time...and the friction from the terry towel.

Can it be saved?  I am not sure.  I spent some time removing fuzz with a sweater "d-fuzz-it" comb.  It helped, but it might take a couple of hours to get it all.  Will it ever look like new?  I don't think so, but I will work on it.

I had trouble, too.

Midweek Meditation

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." 

~ George Bernard Shaw