Everything's Coming Up Roses

It may seem as if I’ve taken a break from Sirdal, but I spent many hours over the weekend working with the chart.  I found the chart in the pattern instructions to be very confusing, and because you have to restart it at each side (where a side seam would be on a sweater that was knitted flat), I could just see the potential for mistakes and frustration down the road if I reached the center back and did not have the center stitch there.

Now I know what the side seams will look like and what part of the chart I must start at to get the center stitch in the center back.  The placement of the big motif was anything but intuitive, and my hours with Knit Visualizer should make it easier to focus on the knitting and not gnashing my teeth over chart reading.

In the meantime, I pressed on with Laela, and I’m done with the rose border along the bottom.

There are only five more rows of the stranded pattern before this sweater is in automatic pilot mode—that is, the rest of the body before the yoke that is just plain stockinette.  I had a marker malfunction on the easy one-color brown row separating the roses from the triangles.  Just as I was ending the round, my marker popped off and I just stuck it back on.  Big mistake.  Now that I’ve knit two of the camel triangle rows, I can see that the top triangles will not match the camel triangles on the bottom because I’m one stitch off.  So I’ll take out those two rows tonight, move the marker to its rightful place, and finish the border.

I’m very much enjoying the Valley Yarns Stockbridge, and this project as a whole.  There are some frustrations for me when knitting in the round that aren’t there for sweaters knitted flat, mostly to do with measuring.  I like to check right away to see that the size is good, and I’ve only been able to manage this by taking the sweater off the needles, threading waste yarn through the many stitches, and trying it on.  Laela does fit—and it was worth the trouble of doing that to know for sure—but it was more tedious than just spreading out my knitting and measuring a flat piece.

Now, however, it is time to return to Sirdal, which has had its hem reknit to the XS size and is ready for joining.

I thought all those skilled stranded knitters were nuts when they talked about how addictive stranded knitting was, but I’m falling under the spell.  When it has been time to put my knitting away, I’ve succumbed to the siren call of “one more row” just to see how the motif looks. 

Comments

[Linda M.]

the roses look lovely and I'm very impressed with your prep work on Sirdal. I will learn so much by following along!

[Luni]

Love that white! It's sparkly and looks great with the camel and brown.

[WoolEnough]

Trying on sweaters knit in the round is super easy with adjustable circs (says the enabler). You just exchange one needle tip for a cap and then start knitting onto a new cable. Spread over two 24" or 30" cables, there's plenty of wiggle roon for a try-on.

[Dorothy]

I've started on my stranded knitting project and understand the "one more row" mindset. However, I am looking a little forward to the automatic pilot part. Of course, after miles of stockinette, I'll be more than anxious to hit the patterns again.