A problem with pants

Nope, this isn't a rant about how I'm still a long way off from fitting into my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans (very true but a bit off-topic for this blog). Instead it's a story of knitted pants. Or rather, not-yet-knitted pants.

This all started when Tadpole received several pairs of adorable little socks and booties as gifts from various family and friends. I put them on her and snapped pictures of cute little baby feet, remembering to take them off before the next diaper change since someone who shall remain unnamed is very good at getting her feet dirty while on the changing table. Then I realized there was a little problem: all of her pants have feet on them. Footed pants are very convenient in terms of getting her dressed quickly. But they're not very good at all at showcasing handknits.

The solution hit me immediately. I knit. And I should knit her some pants.

I spend a fair amount of time on ravelry while nursing so I researched various patterns for longies. None of the patterns was quite what I was looking for so I decided to take the various bits and pieces that I liked and come up with my own design. I'd been swooning over various brooklyntweed patterns at this time, especially the Guernsey Wrap, and I decided to make a pair of Guernsey pants.

I pulled out Beth Brown-Reinsel's fabulous book and picked out some stitch patterns I liked. Then I cast on and knit happily away for several inches. (Note how I didn't say anything about swatching. There wasn't any.) I made it about half-way down the butt when I started thinking the piece was looking a bit big. I dutifully pulled out the tape measure and discovered that I was getting 4 stitches to the inch when I had worked the numbers for 4.5. About that whole swatching thing . . .

So I frogged and started over with numbers crunched for 4 stitches per inch. I also took out the guernsey elements since I thought the combination of stitch patterns looked too busy in the yarn I was using (Dream in Color Classy from the stash). This has been my main project for the last week and a half or so. And every day for the last few days I've said to myself, "tonight I think I'm going to finish it." Inevitably I'd knit 2 rows after each time I said that before life got in the way.

It doesn't help that I've fallen in love with the latest shawl design from Jared Flood. Or that I told myself I couldn't start that project until I'd finished the pants.

But last night I was really making progress. I finished the first leg and was picking up stitches to start the second. And then it hit me: I had split for the legs using the original pattern numbers. The current version was 8 stitches smaller and that meant that the leg I had just finished was too big. Not only that, but my short row shaping along the backside was not centered at all.

So I frogged all the way back to the ribbing and knit a couple of rows before calling it a night (aka sitting up with a certain someone who didn't want to go to sleep until 12:30).

This is what the pants look like now:

I'd really like to start Rock Island soon. Wish me luck!

A great sort of dilemma to have

I'm having a bit of a problem with second sock syndrome. It's ok - I'm powering through it. I think the problem is that I've knit with this yarn and pattern a bit too often in recent months for this one to keep my interest. (Honestly, it's a reading project so it shouldn't take up too much of my interest and attention - just a little bit). I'm knitting another pair of Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine. They look just like this, except dark green:

I'll hit the heel tomorrow and I think that's time to bring sock #2 home and switch to another project since the document I'm reading needs a bit more wakefulness than this sock can provide. That's right: I'm knitting these at work.

The bar exam is over (yay!) and I'm back at work full-time, which means nearly full-time knitting given where I am in my current project - lots and lots of reading.

So what to do? I think it's time to bring back a sweater that I had started a few months ago and then dropped for various reasons. You may recall this

I was hoping to make something along the lines of a sweater that JCrew put out last fall - hip length with a wide ribbed edge and a shawl collar. This project also came along during my fascination with top-down sweater construction so I happily cast on and started off. Then frogged because I had messed up the increases at each side of the neck (I'm pretty sure this picture is the second incarnation). I like the concept but I have some issues with the execution here.

First, I'm not thrilled with the proportions. I don't really know how well the sleeves will fit - it seems like they'll be a bit big, just from looking at this. I followed the proportions suggested in Barbara Walker's book but the more I look at this, the less confident I am. And I don't want to knit an entire sweater only to find out that I was right.

Second, I don't like the angle of the neck increases. It just doesn't feel right and I'm having trouble seeing/estimating how different rates of increase will work. Really, this just goes to show that I'm not truly comfortable with top-down sweater design.

Third, I don't think the fishbone cables look nearly as good top-down as bottom-up. Compare this:

(apologies for the poor cell phone shot)

with this:

Doesn't the bottom-up version look better? Because of how the v-shaped knit stitches are oriented, the center of the cable is thicker and more prominent when worked from the top down, making the cable look less crisp and clean.

Finally, I think the gauge on the irish moss stitch should be looser. What I'm getting on 4s just doesn't have the sort of drape that I would like.

So I'm doing the only logical thing: ripping and restarting with numbers I trust. Bottom-up numbers are pretty straightforward for me now - I know how to make the proportions work. Plus, the beginning of this sweater will be perfect reading-knitting for work. It's all ribbing followed by huge swaths of irish moss stitch. No cables or raglan increases to take my concentration away from what I'm actually getting paid to do.

Mission accomplished. Now I just have to finish ripping and get this giant pile of ramen noodle-like yarn off my lap before the cat discovers it and decides to take a nap there. (And crunch some numbers. After I knit a gauge swatch.)

But what about the bar exam? The exam itself wasn't bad - two days of testing, which felt short compared to the much longer days of studying I'd been putting in beforehand. I'll find out the results in October. The important thing: I pulled out the spinning wheel for the first time in our new apartment and turned this

into this

124 yards of a pretty dense navajo-plied worsted weight (can you tell I was a bit stressed when I drafted?) spun from Grafton Fibers corriedale. The DH was great and quizzed me on bar exam subjects while I did a lot of the spinning so some of this project can even count as studying. Not bad in my book.

More tales from the frog pond

I frogged Forecast on Sunday night. Last week I was all excited about the idea of finishing that sweater. On Friday I knit the button bands and made my first mistake: I ignored the pattern and made 3-stitch button holes instead of 2-stitch ones. The buttons that I had bought were slightly bigger than what the pattern called for so I thought the 3-stitch button hole would work better. Nope.

After sewing on four or five buttons, I realized that not only were the button holes too big (so big that the buttons slipped out all by themselves) but the button bands were too long. As I tried the sweater on, I realized that the button bands were sagging at the bottom in a truly unsightly manner.

As I started thinking about ripping back the button bands and knitting them over again, with 2-stitch button holes and picking up fewer stitches along the lower ribbed section, I took a more critical look at the sweater as a whole. I realized that, as much as I've enjoyed the process of knitting this sweater, I wasn't thrilled with the finished product. The bobbles looked a bit odd on me and the garter section stretched so much around my shoulders that you could see through to the shirt underneath. No light colored tops under this one.

So I did the only logical thing:

I'm so much happier having this yarn back as a possibility of a sweater rather than as a sweater that I would never wear (and perhaps never even finish).

Now I just have to find some way to use these buttons. 

They're great, aren't they?