Either way I love the pattern and have knitted it a couple of times, this one is rayon/cotton/wool mix light weight for the cool summer evenings.At last I can start my Mermaid, I got it from CucumberPatch and the colors are #2 Spring Green/Disty Green/Green Lovat
First off the colors look totally different in person than on my computer or for that matter the color photograph they sent me in the kit. I happen to like green and I'm not that fussy about shades of green so I'm pleased. The second problem I had was trying to figure out which ball was which green, they are very close. I may be a little slow but just a little tiny label telling me which ball is called Dusty Green vs. Green Lovat or Spring Green would have helped. But I guess I managed to figure it out.
Then the iCord! Shish! First I thought I would knit it on my machine which is the easiest way, nope the gauge was just not right, then I tried my hand held gadget "Embellish Knit" which is great but the gauge was just not right on this one either. Then I bit the bullet and knitted it by hand, the pattern tells me to use a half size larger needle, so I did size 3 1/2 but the gauge was just not right on that one either so far this is the third iCord and picking up 181 sts.
I did a gauge each time on a few rows but that just did not give me the true gauge it looked right 20 or so rows but when I did the 181 sts it puckered. Fourth try was the charmer, I used size 5 dp needles and hand knitted all 181 or so rows of iCord and picked up the 181 sts! At last the right gauge no puckering looks nice and straight.
Then I had to make peace with the "wrong side" front. I guess she had to decide where to make the wrong side up by the neck or down at the bottom. I am now at peace with this it took a bit of getting used to but you really can't tell.
So far so good, the pattern seems a bit easier than the first Hanne Falkenberg project the Ballerina I knit a few months ago. The instructions seem to be a little better or maybe I have experience with her style of pattern writing. I will post the progress.
I can tell I will love this sweater......
So I'm knitting along and the piece is getting bigger and bigger, resting in my lap...you guessed it ... it's HOT....wool ...it's the first day of summer and it is warm. I can't knit a wool sweater in this heat! So I decided to make a cottom version, no stripes just the shape..I call it "the Parrot" because of the colors.
All cotton in this lovely rusty multi color. The gauge is about the same as the Hanne wool but it's cotton and light weight. This is a great knit! I love knitting it especially skipping the stripes. I think I'm only going to make a vest, no sleeves, I'll post pictures as I progress....
9 comments:
the jacket looks great! I got that twisted sisters book and am making Isolde out of it, want to do that jacket also. congrats on starting mermaid. I have the same colorway :-)
Love that color way. Beautiful!! I'll have to check out the Twisted Sisters. I agree looks like a HF pattern. Have you done either of these on your machine?
The "Pythagorean" or as Hanne calls hers Dacapo or the Twisted Sisters revised name, Electra.....is knit starting with 3 sts and putting a marker on the center stitch. Then you M1 on either side of the marker and the following row inc 1 at each end, till it grows and grows... but this is impossible to do on the machine. The Ballerina are too many stitches for my machine, however once I finish the Mermaid I think that pattern can be done on the machine. When I try it I'll post it on my blog.
I love knitting the Mermaid, it seems so much easier than the Ballerina. All those small garter stitches are addicting I can hardly put it down.
I like the colors you have for the Mermaid. Looks great so far. My husband got me a Ballerina kit for my birthday which I will take up when I finish my Mermaid, but I must admit it makes me a bit nervous to read that the Mermaid may be her easy pattern.
Maybe once you've knitted the Mermaid you get used to Hanne's style of writing patterns and the Ballerina might be easier. I knit the Ballerina first and did have some problems.
I've seen the spreadsheet that Amy did for the Mermaid and in my opinion the ridges are actually easier to count than row by row. But for the Ballerina well that is a different story there a spreadsheet would be useful. I basically rewrote the pattern row by row.
I've had my eye on the Pythagorean/Electra/Dacapo jacket, too. How'd you figure out how much yarn you'd need?
I used my chart from www.patternworks.com which gives generic approximate yarndage for different size and yarn projects.
About 1,400 yards, I just eyeball the size of the project and guess. Luckily I had plenty and even have some yarn left over and I'll make a little sleeveless shell to go underneath this sweater.
Too many projects not enough time....
Happy Knitting,
ana
Love the idea of it in cotton. What yarn did you choose? I am always afraid the cotton won't hold it's shape and s-t-r-e-c-h too far. The weight of the garment, and wear, seem to pull cotton garments out of shape for me. Let me know how this works out for you. I'd love to try it in cotton.
Nice Dacapo! I made that jacket too, have a picture on my blog if you scroll down. I think the main difference is that the Twisted sister one uses much thicker yarn and is a faster knit.
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