Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Pocket Part 1

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Pocket Part 1

Prior to adding any pockets I need to double check measurements.

Full Background Pre Pocket

  

This is how the knitted Daytime looks at present.

Full Fox Pictorial Chart

This shows the third Written Chart and one complete Pictorial Chart.

Needle Standing in for Mobile 6cm High

What I intend to put into the pocket I am adding is my mobile phone. However since I use the mobile for taking these photographs I cannot have it in the picture. Therefore I am using a needle to stand in for the mobile.

Needle Standing in for Mobile 13cm Across

 

The measurements high and across might seem a little strange. There is a reason for this. I have decided to store my phone lengthwise to distribute the weight. This should hopefully stop the pocket sagging.

Needle Standing in for Mobile on Background

This shows the rough size of the pocket width on the knitted piece indicated on the chart in the photograph below.

Pocket Dimensions Chart vs Picture

So before starting to knit I have to get my Charts ready. The Written Chart and the Pictorial Chart

Hedgehog Pictorial Chart

This time I would be knitting upwards. I spent quite a great deal of time trying to work out where to start and pick up the stitches for the pocket.

To make sure I had plenty of space I decided that I would knit the pattern (which was about 30 stitches) over 40 stitches. I also picked up the 40 stitches slightly further down the Front Piece so I could adjust as necessary.

Hedgehog Pocket Written Chart

I kept a record as usual of the stitches and colours though you can see they are far less complex than previous charts. What you might not be able to see in the photograph is I am recording both Knit and Purl rows in case I need to make changes on the Purl.

Unusually I started knitting on a Purl row. This is because the picked up stitches count as the Knit. This did not really matter on the trial pocket as it was knitted in just one colour and no pattern.

However so not to muck up my Pictorial Chart I designated this initial row as Purl Row 0. So the proper pattern does actually start on the first Knit Row. I hope you can understand that. It is a lot easier to do than explain.

Start of Hedgehog Pattern

After doing several rows of stocking stitch using the Orange Yarn on 5 mm needles I began to start inputting the Pattern. This was the placement of the two Hedgehog legs. – Yes I know Hedgehogs have 4 legs but bear with me.

Tweaking the Hedgehog

As I was knitting and could see the shape taking place I began tweaking the Pattern I made it shorter on the face section as I felt that it was too long. I also altered the shape of the spines slightly to compensate.

Hedgehog Pattern Continued.

After tweaking, this was the Hedgehog Image prior to embellishments. Next I had to add the embroidery.

Hedgehog Pocket Post Embellishments

I think you can see that is quite a difference. I have also added the two missing legs. I wasn’t quite sure on the dimensions so that is why they were not incorporated in the original designs.

The pocket is not sewn at this point and I shall leave that to another blog.

Happy Solstice 2016

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Part 4

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 4

I have definitely decided to add a pocket to the Cape. This will be depicting a Hedgehog. I have had some problems drawing the Hedgehog. I tried having one face forwards. This turned out alright on the first attempt.

Rough Free Drawn Hedgehog

As you can see it is a cartoony type of Hedgehog. However to make it suitable for knitting I have to put it on Chart Paper. Unfortunately when I tried I found I couldn’t work out how to do the spikes.

So I had to start again. The next one didn’t turn out too brilliantly either. This time I was using some images for inspiration.

Angry Hamster

I think that it more resembles an Angry Hamster though somebody thought it was like a Chinchilla. However this drawing will not go to waste as I am filing it for later use. Perhaps I will use it as a Cross-stitch Pattern.

So since I was having problems drawing it face on I thought I would try a different tack. This time I did a rough drawing in profile.

Rough Profile Hedgehog

Then I tried it on Chart Paper

Rough Hedgehog on Chart Paper

As you can see I have made the Hedgehog smaller. The first one on Chart Paper was far too big and therefore was disproportionate in regards to the Fox. So happy with the size and image it was time to put it into the Real Profile Chart

Initial Input of Hedgehog

This photograph is a bit blurry but you can see where I have placed the Hedgehog Image.

Initial Hedgehog Part Coloured

Now the above picture of the Hedgehog might look a bit peculiar but there is a good reason for why it is orange and yellow.

The area I am knitting is where the pocket will be placed not the pocket itself. Since I have more yellow and orange than other coloured wool I am using that for the background.

Knitted Hedgehog Background

I need to make the background longer before I can add the pocket.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 3

Last time I left talking about the adjusting the Fox’s spindly legs. Did you spot the - ahem ‘deliberate mistake’?

Fox Spindly Legs Mistake

When altering the chart I accidentally put one of the lines on the far hind leg the wrong way around so the shape was far too full. Compare that leg shape with the other hind leg and you should spot the difference.

Fortunately this was spotted and corrected before the knitting was done.

Fox Pre-tidying Spindly Leg

 

The legs are now fuller and more proportional the body. I only now need to do some tweaking to redefine some of the shaping. I will say one thing my Fox is certainly well fed by the looks of it.

I have come to a little bit of an impasse. I have been toying with whether to add a pocket or not to the cape. I would like to but I have had a word of caution about dragging the rest of the work down.

Since I have never tried to put a pocket on anything my first reaction was to do a test piece. I decided to do this on my old summer cape to see what it would look like.

Summer Cape Pre-Pocket

 

I intend to kill two birds with one stone here. There is a slight fault in the knitting so if I place the pocket here it should disguise it.

  

Summer Cape Pre Pocket Marker

 

I have placed a marker just under the spot I want to cover up. This will be where the bottom of the pocket will be. I am going to attempt to do a pocket using the cast on method.

Summer Cape Pocket

 

As you can see I have added the pocket. It is slightly wonky due to the fact that I forgot which row I was picking up on. The pocket itself looks a bit untidy but that is purely because I had to add more yarn and pulled it a bit. However it is a pocket and it works as I have carrying my mobile phone in it.

In an unrelated item I have finally managed to ply some wool. I have had it absolutely ages but never seemed to have the time to do it. Let’s face it trying to spin yarn with a cat around it just asking for trouble. There are so many knots in it bumpy isn’t the word.  See what you think

First Ever Balls Of Hand Spun and Plied Wool

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Part 2

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 2

As I indicated in the previous blog the pattern on the Pictorial Chart will have to be more organic. Rather than inputting the design first on the Pictorial Chart as on the back it will be constantly adjusted whilst knitted.

As I have been going along there have been minor tweaks however I have arrived at a point where there needs to be not only tweaking but I will have to go back and embroider corrections.

Fox Spindly legs 

As you can see in the photograph above the legs are disproportional to the body. This means they will have to be enlarged width ways.  Now this can be done on the Pictorial Chart but it is far more difficult on the actual work itself.

Unfortunately there is very little room in between the Fox’s legs. Therefore I will have to be extremely careful or the legs will end up merging.

Fox Spindly Legs Pictorial Chart Adjustment

This is a rough adjustment. In order to increase the width of the legs without merging I have done the following. I have increased the Fox’s far front and hind legs to the left. I have increased the Fox’s near front and hind legs to the right. This should maintain the distance between as before.

Incidentally have you spotted the mistake I have made in the adjustment?

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Part 1

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 1

Finally I am going to start on the front pieces of the Cape. I still am using the term ‘Cape’ but in truth it has evolved more into a Cardigan than actually a Cape. However I shall continue using the Cape for ease.

The Front will be divided into two parts. One side will depict a ‘Daytime scene’ and the other side will be a ‘Night time’ scene. These two pieces will overlap each other thereby giving a choice between which scenes will be on top.

Before I can start knitting I need to make a design. I have decided that the daytime scene will have a ‘Fox’ on it. Therefore I needed to draw some rough Fox designs.

Rough Fox Design 1

As with the other animals I have drawn then it needs to be inputted onto chart paper.

Rough Fox Design on Chart Paper

That was the easy part. Unfortunately it has been so long since I had to cast on working downwards that I had forgotten how to put the stitches in the right order.

After several goes I was still getting it wrong and therefore did what I really should have done in the first place – make a test piece.

Test Front Daytime Piece

Now I had worked out the correct order of stitches I thought I could get on with some knitting. Needless to say it wasn’t that easy. One of the problems was I that I had to try and match up the top of the Front piece with the bottom of the Hood.

I tried this a few times but when I came to putting the knitting against the Hood it looked unwieldly. I came to the decision that I had too many stitches on.

Too Many Stitches

I had originally cast on 130 stitches on 5mm needles. This included the Selvedge. However I decided to reduce this to 120 stitches including the edges. My theory being that if I found it to be a little shorter it was easier to add another edging than it would be trying to somehow shorten it.

Matching the Hood Daytime 

The above photograph shows the process of matching at both ends. The middle part doesn’t matter so much as it will not be attached to the Hood.

The Front Daytime scene will be attached to the Right hand side of the Cape. This is on the Left hand side of the photograph.

In addition to matching the bottom of the Hood I also need to try and match the side pieces. The simplest way of doing this was to knit a few rows then pin it at the end.

Matching at Far End

The next blog will be building up the design